Feb 20
Hi All,
Yes, we are BACK onboard Mystic Moon….whoa….what a whirlwind of activity back in USA!!!!
Let’s see…..what all did we do in USA…..well, we got there the 1st week in Dec……had a horrible time dealing with jet lag for 3-4 days but we did see Baby Kennedy the day we got back……oh my, 3 months when we got there and 5 months when we left…..oh how she has captured our hearts!!!!! We then spent the next 3 weeks prepping for Christmas, seeing every doc and dentist we know, having a few lunches with friends, and even made it to wine country!!! Then it was time to enjoy Christmas with Kathy’s parents and Dave, Dana and Miss Kennedy (MK)…..what a treat!!!!
Then it was party time…….4 days over New Year’s with the Selene crowd in Temecula Ca (just north of San Diego)……oh wow, good times for sure……5 couples renting a large house……we ate, drank and had lots of jocularity……we even made it past midnight on NYE…….this group continues to amaze us and are some of the biggest supporters of our cruising lifestyle!!! Thank you, guys!!!
From there we had a quick 2 day changeover and flew to Colorado for a reunion with our life long friends…..Craig and Jeanette, Darrell and Claudia…….2 days in Fort Collins and 4 days at Winter Park…..got 3 days of great skiing with my buds…..of course, kept it mainly to the groomers…….I was under a threat from the Admiral…..if I got hurt she was going to “kick my arse”……as if……actually she said she would kick Craig’s arse:))))) So…..we call ourselves the 3 Amigos. Did I tell you we have known each other since 7th grade? Anyway, the 3 of us are on a 6-pack lift…….We get to talking to some 20-somethings from CU……Darrell, says, yep, we are celebrating knowing each other for 50 years…..wow, dude, my parents weren’t even born then……holy old geezers…….we were a bit flummoxed on that one until we said screw it…consider the alternative……let’s go get a whiskey:)))))
Ok…survived that one, then it was off to LA to see Josh and Courtney and our precious 3 year old Sadie…..oh my, what a personality….I wish I could show the picture of her eyes rolling and saying “oh Papa” after I cracked something silly!!!! It was Sadie’s 3 year birthday….or should I say week…….it was a lot of fun catching up with J&C as well as the other grandparent, Sharon!!!
Then a 2 week breather to wrap up all the parts ordering and one last hurrah with Dave, Dana and Kennedy……4 days in Lake Tahoe….got in another 3 days of injury free skiing…..yep, the threat was still alive so just groomers for John-boy!!!!
Ok…so another 25 hour door to door travel and we are back on Mystic…..been here a little over a week…..so what are we doing……working on another marathon of travel:))))) First up, about 3 weeks to Nepal and Bhutan in March……then Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand in April…….then a month cruise on Mystic in Thailand……Phang Nga Bay, Krabi, Phi Phi Islands and maybe some of the west coast islands. Then back to Phuket for provisions and to check out of Thailand. then it is off to Malaysia for the month of June ending up around Singapore the 1st of July.
Well…..you say…what about Mystic. She is doing just fine and we have finally booked some work/haulout for March. The Selene dealer here in Phuket has been great and is helping us find contractors et al. We have decided to not paint Mystic, although she is starting to show some thin gelcoat……the price and time was just not right. It does seem the BOAT (bring on anther thousand) pricing has found Thailand…..we are probably 2-3 years too late on some great pricing……the contractor we would have used for the 4 month paint job quoted prices at USA prices….ouch. So, we are going to wait until we are back in the Seattle area sometime the fall of 2019!!
Yep, it is official……our time back in the USA with family and friends and the time off the boat has convinced us we are ready for a change and be done with full-time cruising. We have no intentions to sell Mystic, but we do look forward to cruising closer to home and doing other travel listed on our ever-expanding bucket list! So the plan…….end up in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia (northern Borneo) in early October 2017, fly back to USA late Oct and come back to Mystic 1st of January 2018. Then it is basically bringing Mystic back to Sitka, Alaska by September 2018, where we will fulfill one of Kathy’s bucket list items with a winter in Sitka….yikes!!!! I say basically…..it’s about 6500nm from Borneo to Sitka!!!! We will first go to Philippines in Jan, then hopefully with a good weather window to Japan in Mid-April, then leave Japan sometime in June and travel via the Aleutians to Dutch Harbor, Kodiak, Prince William and then Sitka……or something like that!!!!
So 2017 is really our last year of full time cruising and 2018 is a lot of miles/ocean time!!! But we are ready and super excited about both years!!!!
Except….not excited about the boat work……how in the heck can I get out of boat shape in 2 months……each day I’ve done 1-3 projects…..and every night I’m on the advil whiskey/wine and whine therapy…..oweeeee…….so what did I get done……replaced the gas valves on the BBQ,…..hey that’s critical:)))), replaced the Todd Chairs cushions, replaced the glass tube/UV light in the Waterfixer (our filter system for bringing in dock water), reinstalled the Clark pump on the Spectra watermaker and replaced the UV light, replaced the leaking ball valve on the Kabola heater……we will need this unit a year from now……only I broke the pressure gauge while getting the stuck valve off…….yep, a boat project…..spent countless hours trying to find said small gauge in Phuket with no joy…….looks like an import from USA!!
And the list continues……replaced the oil, oil filter and fuel filter on Yanmar, reinstalled redundant fresh water pump (Headhunter XCaliber)….I’ve done this before but always the pump primed itself…..this one did not…..took me some muttering and head scratching to figure that one out!!!!! And the list goes on……change coolant in GEN, clean air filters in GEN & Cummins……blah, blah, blah!!!!
And Kathy, besides storing a gazillion spare parts and working together on all the travel logistics, has been doing the research on our future travels and countries, finding a guy to reupholster the settees and chairs, updating the inventories, and in general, dealing with a captain frustrated by boat work! :)…….hmmmm, I asked Kathy to fill in what she had been doing…….yikes…..:)))))
More later……
Hope all is well!!
Need a new back John
Mystic Moon
Phuket Thailand
