Happy New Year everyone. Dirk and I decided to spend the week at Tybee Island with our good friends Mac & Margie. We headed into Savannah early evening to spend some time with friends then headed back out to Island to bring the New Year in. At midnight there were fireworks off the pier which was cool but it was very chilly, well downright cold out by the beach. 
A very good time was had by all and it will be a memorable time for us. The next day at noon they had a Polar Bear plunge. Our host and several friends do it every year and tried talking us into giving it a go. I think the only people giving it a go were the die-hards and the people who lost that 2 am drunken bet with a friend. As you can see from the photo below there were quiet a few participants who were willing to plunge their perfectly warm bodies into the 40 something degree water.
They were off and running after the conch was blown, but it didn't take long for them to start heading out. Reminded me of a penguin getting out of the water the way they fly straight up and out. I guess that's one way to begin the new year.....Well life here at the ole home front hasn't been too terribly exciting. Christmas and New Years are past and we find ourselves still counting down the days till true retirement. One hundred and 69 more to go and I feel like they will continue to gain steam and barrel down upon us quicker then we realize. When I think of what we have to accomplish its a scary task but one I think we can endure. We have started ordering and receiving our cruising charts which is making us that much more anxious to get out there. So many places we want to visit in the Bahamas we are beginning to wonder if we can get it all done before having to move south for hurricane season.
Tybee Time is getting a few late Christmas gifts this week. We have ordered the Engel 40qt freezer/refrigerator. It can run on 110v A/C or 12v D/C and will be mounted on a bracket in the "garage", aka the vee berth. I have heard many good things about the Engels and looking forward to having a freezer on board for keeping meats and more importantly ice cubes. 
We also purchased the Magic Bullet for the galley. I have heard good things about it from other cruisers and figured I would give it a try. I do love cooking and this thing, well it seems to do it all and on top of that It comes with four drinking mugs that have colored lips that you can make the all important frozen sun downer in. It seems like it will take the place of the chopper, coffee bean grinder, and blender that I was planning on bringing on board and yet it is very compact. Its not 12v but we do have the generator to run it.
We are also still reading up on and trying to decide which wind generator and solar panel were gonna put on the boat. We will let you know what we come up with when we decide. We are also looking at getting a new dinghy and outboard, uuuuggghhh, money, money, money. But the way we look at it, that's our marine car. We need to have one that we are comfortable with knowing it will get us from point A to B, we shall see what the captain says. Getting anxious for warmer drier weather to get here as I want to begin doing those small unfinished projects that I left hanging this fall. Figure that by the end of January our visits to the boat will become more frequent again. Can't wait....
