And by that I mean the bottom of the ocean under the boat. Mike finished installing the electronic navigation stuff, part of which is a sonar sounder that tells us what is underneath us. It us different from the depth sounder, which lets us know how deep it is beneath the keel. This actually makes a picture (a blobby one) of the bottom. The same sort of thing is on fishing boats to find out whether there are any fish below. So - fish beware, we have rods and licenses! And we can find you!
Things are looking up, as well - my friend Rachel is going to take Tempest and I believe she will be not only fine, but probably better off than she ever was with us. I don't think this would have worked out for her very well at all. I am so happy and grateful about all of this. I may not deserve this much good fortune, but Tempest certainly does. So now in a couple weeks we will be heading to Oregon. By car.
It does not look like we will be ready to leave with the rally to Cabo, but that is not the end of the world. We will just go ourselves a little later. I am not that unhappy, because I was always a little torn about whether or not I wanted to go with the group. We have never been fond of doing things in groups. Truth be told, we don't even like making reservations. We once went to Humboldt county over the 4th of July without any reservations. Everyone told us we were crazy. I was not too worried because we had a tent, and I figured there is always going to be somewhere to pitch a tent, even if you really aren't supposed to be there. And at our age, we just keep smiling and act a little fuddled, and thereby avoid getting in trouble for things like trespassing. (Sorry, I digress.) Anyway, when we got there, we found this beautiful county park in the redwoods on the Van Duesen river. It was supposed to be only for group camping, but because it seemed to be empty, we went to the ranger station. We discovered that a group had canceled, and we got to camp there. We had the entire park to ourselves, and slept on the riverbank. Another time, I think it was in Germany or Belgium, we were told at one hotel we found in the Rick Steves guide book that not only was her hotel totally full, so was everything in town. I did not believe her (I didn't like her anyway) so we just drove until we found one we liked the looks of, which was not only available, it turned out to be an old abbey that had been converted. Again, a wonderful no reservations experience.
The rally would likely be fun. Everyone leaves from San Diego, proceeds to Bahia Tortuga, then Bahia Santa Maria,and ends in Cabo. There are parties at all the stops, and a big one when the rally reaches Cabo. I like a party as much as the next person, but (I know you were waiting for that "but") as I look down the cruising guide to Mexico, I see all kinds of places I would like to investigate that the rally would bypass. But after having said all of this, we are still signed up to go, and who knows? If everything is ready, we will likely go.
Tomorrow I begin a week of Scuba lessons. Mike can hardly wait. I am not so excited. We actually started lessons last December, but dropped out because it was not going well for me. First, it was COLD!!!! Record cold (for San Diego) and the pool, although heated, was outside. Then I kept thinking about how cold it was going to be in the ocean when we had to do our ocean dives. Another thing, and actually the real big problem, was I could not clear my ears. I have since been practicing and hopefully I can do it now. And the third reason, and I am ashamed to admit it (hopefully Mike won't read this post), is that I just got freaked out and had a hard time calming down. I don't know why. I am an excellent swimmer and I love the water. I cannot remember ever not being perfectly comfortable in the water. I was not afraid of drowning, and for heavens sake, we were in a swimming pool! I have even been scuba diving before and liked it - I did it once in Hawaii. So I do not get where my fear is coming from. But I am determined that it will work this time. Before, I was working, and had to rush home from work early to get to the class by 5 pm. Now I am not working, and have all day to do the book part, and it is nice weather. So - no excuses.
I am actually embarrassed about the weather part. I pride myself on not being a weather wimp, so I wonder if that was an excuse for something deeper that I don't want to face. (That sounds lame even to me. As my father would have said "Stop me before I kill more!)
This will wind things up for today. Wish me luck - I am going to need all the good wishes I can get.
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