In February of last year Randy and I took an American Sailing Association class to learn to sail. It was a week long class in St. Petersburg, FL and included a coastal sail of 3 days and nights from Miami around through the Keyes to St. Petersburg. We really enjoyed it and decided we'd buy a sailboat. This was not as easy as we expected. We did a lot of computer searching and trips to see boats from Atlanta, GA to Green Turtle Bay, KY and on the east coast from northern NC to FL. We finally found the boat for us in Oriental, NC. She's a 32 foot Beneteau Oceanis 321.

Up on stands to get the bottom cleaned and repainted

   
    After the official inspection, we had her hauled out of the water and the bottom cleaned and repainted. Sailcraft Boatyard got us in quickly and did a great job. Alan and his crew were all welcoming to these "novices" and easy to work with.

She goes back into the water

 
    We've owned several power boats, but a sailboat is a different animal. The previous owner, Roger Quillan, was nice enough to drive 2 1/2 hours to help us bring the boat back around to the slip that we're renting from him and give us a lot of history on the boat.We renamed the boat, and the "Aleta Jewel" now is docked at the Sea Harbour Yacht Club just outside of Oriental, NC. The name is both of our mothers' first names.

    In the last 8 months we have driven from our home in eastern TN to Oriental just about every month to stay a week or two and make improvements and repairs on Aleta Jewel, and to just start making it our home. Some of those trips were not so much fun since we had such a cold winter. We bought a Portland Pudgy dinghy (actually we found it before we found the sailboat) and Randy installed the hardware to mount it on the back of the sailboat. We had new navigation electronics installed and numerous other jobs that we're finding is just part of having a sailboat.

The galley

Aft berth (our bedroom) and closed door is the head

Our "dining/living room"

    Our plan now is to leave the end of May to follow the Great Loop route. We'll head north and continue up the Intercoastal Waterway to the Erie Canal then through the Great Lakes. At Chicago we'll head down the Illinois River to the mighty Mississippi River then to the Ohio River. From there we'll travel down the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile, AL. Then across the gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Florida and around through the Keyes to the east coast again. We plan on wintering in Florida next year! We will probably be gone for a year to a year and a half with trips home every now and then. Thankfully we have good housesitters.

    We're really looking forward to setting sail! Our good friends, Stanley and Juanita Swartzel, are going with us on our final trip to Oriental and they will bring our car back home. Once we're on our way, I'll start trying to post every week.