I woke before the dawn, blurry eyed and wanting more sleep.  The last thing I remember before falling asleep is how loud the frogs were.  They woke a few days ago signaling the coming spring but last night the sounds of those little cold blooded croakers was deafening.  The official end of winter is in ten days o, we are well on our way to 18 hours of daylight.

I have never been anywhere in the world as beautiful as the San Juan’s.  We have every type of wildlife imaginable from wild little bunnies to Sasquatch.  Last spring I was standing in the woods early one morning when a mountain Lion trotted 15 feet in front of me with a rabbit dangling from its mouth.  Killer whales, dolphin, eagles and Blue Heron, nature is everywhere.  Its beautiful indeed but it all comes at a cost, summers are short winters seem to last forever.

Poor little The` is showing the ravages of winter, so am I.  When I tucked her in last October she was as beautiful as she has ever been, paint and varnish looking like a million bucks, a fresh coat of wax on everything.  She doesn’t leak a drop top or bottom.  Now she looks like she has just returned from battle and in a sense she has.  Cracked freeze burned varnish, little bits of moss growing from here and  there, her glass is stained and looks like shit.  I feel just as brutalized as she looks, winters aboard are hard on both of us.

Its so easy to be optimistic when the sun is shining and the warm winds blow but summer wont unofficially start here for four more months.  Condensation is my constant companion and this winter was the worst ever for moisture, warped ceiling boards,  mold everywhere, it seems like all I have been doing is cleaning up after winter.  Somewhere during those long dark and rainy nights I felt my dreams begin to die.  Can one person do it all alone?  Why would one want to?  I am ninety percent though my basic refit and the budget busted.

Every day I want to cut the lines and sail away.  Everyday I wonder will it ever warm up, will I ever add my reef lines, a small kicker, a stove, maybe a portable alcohol heater?

The problem with ageing is makes us soft, with every passing winter we become just a bit less adventuresome.  The two biggest priorities are new pintles and gudgeons, and self steering without those I cant make it safely down the coast.

For now I have let the blue water dream fade into the night, the islands are as far as I can see.  One thing I know for sure, the next ten days will be the last winter I will endure in the Pacific Northwest for some time.  One way or another warmer climates will find their way into my life.  My dream for March 10, 2014 is to be bitching about the heat.  That’s our nature right, the grass is always greener, if I only had this or that my life would be perfect, if only…

“You can have it all. Just not all at once.” 
 ~Oprah Winfrey