I am sorry I have been away for a while. I ended up with a little cold and then we have had a lot of boats arrive in town so the internet has slowed way down. Sometimes we can't even get on line! The delivery went well. Sam, Kevin and Tim arrived with good stories and some goodies from the states. We are getting ready to take a boat-load of school supplies up inside the Sea of Cortez. We have been doing this for years but with the new boat we can bring a lot more things and get farther. We will be adding the school at Aqua Verde to our list of two so that should be exciting. It is amazing how the community here has taken up the challenge to "fill" the boat with supplies. I think they actually took me seriously and I am getting bags everyday!!! It really is amazing the generosity of the people here! we will be leaving on the second of December and hoping to make it as far north as Aqua Verde. that is about 70-80 miles and will take about 5 days to reach, with a stop at San Evaristo. We are hoping to offer schooner cruises to all the people in town. many of these people have lived here their whole lives and have never left their harbor. it will be fun to get them to help out on the schooner. Nothing is done by one person so it is a real act of teamwork. I will have lots of pictures after our trip, we should be back in town on the 18th, so I will share them on the blog. We are trying to get everything ready to leave. we need to find a permanent place for the new generator and do some work on deck. We will be a crew of 7 so that, at least, will be good. We had our third potluck last Sunday. Kevin offered a chart briefing of the area and Tim showed a movie. We ended up with 70 people on the boat for dinner and there was still room left! Amazing!!!! Kevin's chart briefing was the hit of the night with about 30 people crammed down below hanging on his every word! It was really fun and we met a lot of great new friends. I will try to get back here before we leave to update everyone one our progress. I want to photograph the supplies because they are a lot and it may blow your mind. More later, Allison

I have decided to give everyone a tour of the schooner while we are waiting for the guys to return from their delivery. There is very little work going on as more than half the crew is delivering a 36' sailboat to the LA area. These first pictures are of the outside of Vltava. The picture of the helm shows the wheel and cockpit. The steering gear for the boat was stolen in Mazatlan, before we got the boat. Tim and Will had to rebuild the steering system, basically using the stuff left from the thieves. The wheel had to be moved to the side to accomodate forward and reverse. It works great, just looks a little wierd. The old wheel was a big, beautiful bronze wheel that was original to the boat. We have most of the parts to replace the original system and could then place the wheel back where it belongs. The deck pictures show the windlass(that is the machine that raises the anchor) and the bowsprit. The motor for the windlass had been removed and then stolen, before we got the boat. Right now there needs to be about 3-4 to manually raise the anchor. Check out our older post to see pictures of the kids raising the anchor for the first time, here in La Paz. Kevin has spent many hours varnishing the bowsprit so now it shines! The other deck shot is from the end of the bowsprit looking back on the boat. The bowsprit is 14' long and a great place to hang out. i am going to do interior shots tomorrow so you guys will really feel you know the boat a little bit. Allison