Gone are the days of updates describing Caribbean adventures. As they say in the islands, "dat finish."

Temporarily. We hauled the boat in Antigua at Jolly Harbour at the end of April, which involved a heavy week of scrubbing, lugging, packing, etc. Rather than staying aboard after we hauled (a special purgatory when the closest ladies room is a quarter-mile away with a locked gate in between) we stayed at the Cappucino Lounge and Guesthouse in St. John's. Cheap, clean, relatively quiet for any Caribbean location during the lead-up to Carnival. (We didn't get the room overlooking the neighbour's henhouse and resident rooster, so if you go, decline the room at the top of the stairs.) The ladies there were friendly and made us feel at home. Great coffee.

Hauling went pretty much without incident. Randy and I did all the disconnecting of the rigging (no riggers available), but we got it all sorted and both masts hauled in an hour and a half. We have skills. I also had to go up the mast while we were on the mooring to free the jib halyard, which was stuck in the roller thingy at the top. (I've decided that I can cope okay with going up the mast now, but that in lieu of danger pay, I want a voucher good for one new pair of shoes. Per trip.)

The guys at the yard, Mario, Danny and Lindsay, were great. Professional and careful. Nancy came out of the water looking pretty good after her pressure wash. The Romantic Rasberry bottom paint did a good job, but an hour after she was out, the paint started to shrivel up, crack, and flake. Go figure.

We've been back in Halifax since the beginning of the month, and I'm loving being this close to my kids again. I got to go on a class trip to the museum with Anna's afterschool group. How much fun was that?

We've been spending most of our time getting the house ready to sell. Our tenants left the house in great shape, so we just had to do a bunch of painting, find some furniture to scatter around, and Clean The Basement. Randy spent three days down in the hellhole, packing tools and cleaning up all the crap we'd left behind. How bad was it? He burned out the shop vac. But it's done, we had an open house on Sunday, and we're waiting for calls. Have a look at the house blog, and please send it to anyone who wants to live in a wonderful house in Halifax: http://6279DuncanStreet.blogspot.com

We had 15 really good years here, and I'm having pangs, if not qualms, about leaving it. But then, I don't want to go back to work, do I?, so I'm over it. And we're cold. There was a few nice days last week -- low 20s C or low 70s F -- and it's been chilly (bloody cold) since then. Now that we're home and cold, we've been haunting everyone else's blogs, looking for news from warmer climes. Now I know how annoying it is when people don't update their damn blogs. I apologize.

For those of you who read the ND blog for the sailing thrills, check back in October when we'll be back on board. For those of you who care about our ongoing trials and tribulations ashore, I'll try find something funny to say about fog and water that's so cold your ankles are numb and throbbing with pain before you even get to your sensitive bits. I might buy a full wet suit just for paddling about at the beach in August. I can also promise pictures of a vegetable garden, small-town Nova Scotia, and our relatives. Whoo-hoo!