Monday Dick and his crew arrived early to begin completing things that needed to be fixed on the boat.

We went to Hamilton's, a marine store, and bought incredible amounts of stuff needed for the boat. We had lunch at another great restaurant Ralph knew about. We are certain we will get along well with Ralph and Arlene. It's all about food.

After lunch we went to Walmart for an amazing amount of stuff we still needed for the boat. We also found a music store where Stephen bought a ukelele and I bought a drum and several fun rhythm toys. We were inspired after Arlene showed up with a ukelele. We hope to find time for musical fun somewhere along the journey. By the way, Arlene can cackle and snort as good as Franci. We are going to have some great times on this journey. Laughter and food……we know how to live!

By this time our sleigh, a VW passat, was full and we headed back to the boat to find more places to store stuff.

That night we had our first meal on the boat…..leftovers in a pot from the previous night's dinner. It was the best meal of leftovers we had ever had….haddock, scallops, seafood stew, lobster risotto and spinach all combined together. YUM!

Tuesday the work on the boat continued. It was fascinating to watch these guys work. Rqlph went up the mast to install the radar reflector.

Arlene did the hard work. She hoists him up.

Later that afternoon we finally got time to go grocery shopping. It took three grocery carts to hold all the goodies we had bought. Once again our sleigh was full and we returned to the boat to find space for all our new goodies. Arlene is very good at organizing and stowing things. She and Ralph lived and raised four children on a boat. They also have delivered approximately 30 of this particular brand of boat. They have known and worked with Dick for many years.