Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

We have just learned that we definitely closing on our investment property next Tuesday.  Boy are things going to get busy from then on.  We have also arranged to take our boat gear to the shipping company on Friday.  On the same day we’ll also take our stuff that we’ve had in storage and place it in our new property.  Eventually it will go in the basement but it may have to go elsewhere for a bit until the basement is sorted out as it has termite and damp problems to address.

So right now we feel like we’re in the eye of the storm.  We’re currently in a motel in the Poconos going out for walks in the afternoons when the weather is favourable.  We continue to catch up on paperwork in the mornings and I’ve made huge progress ripping all the old tapes.  I am now down to just those tapes recorded on our current camera which means we’re no longer dependant on all the old gear.

We’ve been watching the presidental debates quite a lot.  This will be the first election in which we can vote so everything has a lot more meaning.  With the credit crisis happening around us this is a very interesting election.

Sadly we’ll be giving the Annapolis Boat Show a miss this year.  We just don’t have the time.  I can image worse but it’s disappointing all the same.

The lawyers are telling us we should be closing on our investment property on Monday or Tuesday next week.  We have mapped out our project plan for the work we need to do ourselves once we take ownership.  We have a lot to do.  We will probably have to work solid for two weeks.

Somewhere in between we’ll have to move our stuff for the boat to the shipping depot.  We’ve filled out the online forms for this and are awaiting contact from the shipping company so we can arrange finer details.

In the meantime we’ve somehow kept ourselves incredibly busy.  I’ve managed to burn 40-50 DVDs from our old tapes and am still working my way through the remainder.  I started with the oldest equipment and will end with our current camera.  The thinking being that if I run out of time I won’t need my conversion equipment aboard the boat to finish off the tapes for the camera we’re currently using.

I’ve also learned to enjoy looking for offers in the supermarkets.  Not only are we learning to live on a budget, the recent market turmoil is causing us to look even closer at our spending.  It’s amazing the difference in cost of a meal if one pays attention to what’s currently being discounted by the supermarkets.

We’re also lining up our private boat insurance for when we leave the CatCo fleet in November.  Thanks to my recent trip across the Atlantic I now qualify for the Jackline insurance which is very well recommended.  Unfortunately it seems we can’t get covered for theft in Colombia at the moment.  Maybe it will change before we get there as we hear the Colombian Coast Guard has made their waters very safe.  However, we may have to adjust our plans.  One option would be to stay in Trinidad for five months during the next hurricane season and see if we can earn some remote income to make up for recent losses.  No decisions on this needed just yet.

We’ve decided to get away from the current motel for a couple of days and visit the Poconos.  The motels there are very cheap mid-week.  The weather looks fairly nice so we’ll be able to get out and decompress a little.  We may well be back in this motel for the weekend in preparation for closing.

It’s now 4am and I’ve been awake for an hour. That means we’re back in the USA and I’m struggling to deal with the timezone change.

The UK trip was great. Big thanks to all those who put us up and gave us a bed to sleep in and for all your hospitality. Thanks also to the weather gods who finally gave the Brits some decent weather after a miserable summer.

Back here it’s now down to getting our investment property sorted out. Matters progressed while we were in the Uk but we’ve still not closed. Looks like our October timetable may have to be shaken out and reexamined as we want to put some sweat equity into the place before we leave. Over the next few days we should know more.

Helen and I are going to book into a motel for the next week. We’ve now spent nearly two months (since we sold our home) living with others and we really need to get some personal space. We have an oft delayed job of transcribing all our old videos onto DVD so they can be preserved. We will collect all our equipment and get on with this between now and closing.

In the meantime, I have revamped the main page of this site a little. The new google maps of our intended route that I recently showed now sit on there own page and will be revised as we refine our plans. The google maps web page makes this about as simple as it can be so I have no excuse.