We are super fortunate that Aventis can get the upgrades she needs so we can sail her anywhere. In addition, we load every available space with food, drink, and paper products.

Lots of boat projects this month… One of the first was the AC unit in the master bedroom had to be replaced with a new unit. Shannon, Patrick and Joffre took on the job.

Another project? The heating element for the hot water heater needed to be replaced. These marine heating elements only last about a year…

All filters on the water maker got replaced.

The wind instrument on the top of the mast was replaced with a new instrument and the broken B & G Chart Plotter was replaced with a new one. Love the new Zeus 3 plotter!

We replaced our 6 house batteries (which were basically all dead) with 4 new lithium batteries. We upgraded our inverter to a 5000 watt inverter which has been amazing! And, we got solar panels!! We can now sail almost completely “off the grid”!

It might not seem like a big project, but we gave the dogs haircuts. It is a bigger and messier project than you’d think!

Ashley spent a lot of time figuring out what we needed for provisions for the next 6-9 months and how to store them all safely. Addie worked hard on her “boat school” curriculum.

For Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to the NC mountains. During the drive we got the call we had been hoping for the past 18 months, a good offer on our house!! They wanted to close in just 2 weeks. Time to really move out! But first, our last Thanksgiving in our home of 17 years.

We had a great visit with family and friends. The family enjoyed one last holiday meal together in our Blowing Rock home.

We spent the rest of our time back in NC moving our personal items into storage, eating one last time at our favorite restaurants, and spending as much time as possible with family and friends.

Coming up next month: Selling the house and Sailing away…