Luperon!

So much has happened! Mom passed away in her sleep on May 9th, so I'm very grateful that I got to say goodbye! Her Pastor Bruce has been on a mission trip, so tomorrow, July 1st, is her celebration of life service in Denver. I thought Daren would be gone back to work, so I'd decided to stay here In Marathon with Libby, but he was just given time off for Independence Day until July 23rd! Of course, Libby and I are thrilled to have him home for so long, and we have plenty of projects to do. We're having the boat hauled out and painted August 9th and Daren's going to replace the wheel in the cockpit with a tiller, so we'll have more room outside. We found a great little Yeti cooler that fits the gaps in the cockpit seats perfectly to make a bed on each side. We love the new fridge, which is very efficient and runs very well on the solar panels. I made a water-catching awning for the forward hatch, but Daren's going to get a water maker as well. He's also putting in new chain plates on the outside of the hull and new davits so the dinghy will be higher off the water when we're underway. We're planning to spend next hurricane season (summer) in the Dominican Republic. I met Griselda, a lovely Christian lady from Puerto Plata, who's been helping me with my Spanish. She's married to Roger, an American on a sailboat here and they just left for a family visit to Domincan Republic last Thursday. They kindly loaned us their car while they're away, and we've been exploring the area, finding more dog-friendly places to eat! Libby enjoyed the Coco Plum dog beach Friday AND Saturday, but today we took the day off to give her a rest! Luperon sounds like a wonderful place to live and a perfect hurricane hole, since the mountains block them! They grow most everything there, and none of it's sprayed or GMO! It's a Christian country with little violent crime and no drug trafficking! Most of you boaters have read Bruce Van Sant's great book, The Gentleman's Guide to Passages South (the Thornless Path to Windward). We just bought his 12th and final edition. He's made dozens of trips from Florida to Venezuela, and lives in Luperon, so that's quite a recommendation! The Dominican Republic's not very far from the Bahamas and airfare's cheap, in case Daren's still working for MVE by then! We're looking forward to it, but are enjoying the preparations and living here in beautiful Marathon. I recently discovered frozen conch at our Publix fish counter, so we've been eating a lot of it...sauteed in butter with Tiger Sauce. I think I'll make some right now!!