From Chris:
Part of our preparations for leaving has been to inform everyone about our plans and to say goodbye so we arranged a 3 day long open "house" for family and friends. It was a chance to show off our new home including all the improvements we have made. What a great time we had, but the Labor day weekend was as variable as my emotions. Saturday was so screamingly hot that I was afraid our guests would just melt away. By evening we had little storm bursts, off and on and by Monday, it was really chilly! Sunday evening my sister threw us an incredible going away party at her house, complete with pirate eye patches, Hawaiian leis, beachcomber hats, fish nets and even a live green parrot. Very emotional, lots of fun and with the assistance of gift cards we splurged and purchased a spot messenger so that our loved ones could feel better about our sailing away into the unknown.

So here we sit, scrambling to finish projects. We've sold our final land-based items and are waiting for a weather window to begin our trip. Tropical Storm Lee sat on top of us for several days; rained buckets and winds howled. Lee seemed like he was in no hurry to leave. Right now, it looks like Monday is the day, but this is subject to change.

It is rather amazing how things fell into place. We sold our house at almost the last possible moment to leave this year. Our vehicle sales went very smoothly and happened at the very last moment. We were even able to trade some large house sized Persian rugs this week for new boat sized ones.