It's difficult to believe that another year has already come to an end. It went by so fast but, when you look at the numbers, that isn't surprising. From June to November, we spent 143 days at anchor and travelled 1430 nautical miles using 381.93 US gallons of diesel to run the engine 320.9 hours (97 of which were to charge the batteries) and the heater 427.8 hours. The savings in fuel and engine hours were thanks to the new solar panel array which put out 10,603 amp hours to recharge the batteries (142 kWh).
The miles on the water weren't the only ones we travelled this year. We left Poulsbo shortly after November's blizzard and drove to Wichita, Kansas by way of Ventura,California where we spent a couple of days with our friends, Mike and Lisa Dobson, whom we met while coming up the Pacific West Coast in 2008.
After a great time catching up with the Dobsons, we carried on to San Diego to spend a few days with John. While we were there, we received some exciting news – our great nephew, Jaxon Thomas Smith, was born at 11:30 pm CST on December the 8th weighing in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and measuring 20.25 inches long. But more importantly, the family name lives on (because there just aren't enough Smiths in the world)!
After enjoying several days of fine Southern Californian weather, it was time to move east for a weekend in Las Vegas with Chris, Stacia and the girls to celebrate an early Christmas before driving on to Wichita to surprise my mom, who thought we were staying in Washington for the holidays. But the surprise was on us...she wasn't home.
It was a quiet Christmas this year with the bulk of the family out of town, but a really nice one that lacked all the stress that can accompany large get-togethers. New Year's was quiet as well, an evening out with my sisters and their husbands, but we all managed to stay up late enough to watch the clock strike midnight and wish each other a Happy New Year before running off to bed.
Now it's time to look forward to next year which, as always, will be busy for us. Before we're able to drop our lines in May, Cambria will need to be hauled out for an insurance survey and bottom paint along with a couple of other odd jobs. After that, we'll be free to head north with, at this point, no real destination in mind. We can hardly wait....
