Written May 1 – 3, 2026

Jim and I left Santa Fe for the boat on April Fools Day, fools that we are! We have been away from the boat since June 11 of 2025; nearly a year! This is what happens when you move from winter boating (in the Caribbean, outside hurricane season) to Summer boating (in the Great Lakes, without ice and snow).

It was a bittersweet departure as we had grown accustomed to the big house (the kittens are happier there) , we had gotten into the groove of socializing with friends and the garden was just coming into it’s Spring flowers. New planting from last Summer and Fall to revitalize some garden spaces were coming up, and ready to face New Mexico. I don’t get to nurse the new garden plants through their first year.

But, the Great Lakes are calling, Rincon is lonely, and a road trip was in order. A one way rental was ordered and as usual, we took an alternate route to Virginia to reunite with our beloved second home.

We also stopped and visit some friend in Scranton, Kansas. We knew Jim and Mary Anne from Albuquerque. When they retired from Sandia, they moved back to the family farm in Kansas. We learned lots about rural farming, silos and big farm tractors. All rather fascinating!

Meeting A Cousin

My mother’s first cousin Carl Repper was always someone she kept in touch with. He came to New Mexico from Missouri for business from time to time and he would come visit us while here. We learned when Jim and I married that Carl was coming to visit Jim’s Dad at Sandia National Labs. It is in fact a small world.

Our family did not visit Missouri much where my Mom’s family was and thus, Carl was a special connection into her family for me. After my Mom died, I arranged a phone call with Carl through his daughter Patty to chat about family history. I figured he was closer to many of the siblings and might have more insights, which he did. Carl passed away in December 2024.

I had wanted to visit Missouri again, I don’t know why we did not look up my cousins when Jim and I went through several years earlier. Now was the time. I let Patty know we were coming through and would like to meet her. She seemed excited to meet. Although I had been to a family reunion at about age 8, we had never met. I only knew her father. We arrived in Kansas City and Patty and her partner Cheryl were incredibly welcoming. If felt like I’d known her all along. We did some Kansas City touring and eating, visited her parents graves which had been an important stop for me, and went though the family pics, discussed history and family relationships. There are a couple other “interesting” stories I was unaware of! It was such a great visit. We plan to stop by again when we head back to New Mexico in the Fall.

It was so fun that Patty and Cheryl took us here. Neither Jim or I had any knowledge this ship existed, or the number of sunkin ships all along the Missouri River; there are hundreds!

From Kansas City, we mostly hightailed it to Virginia. It was now time to get to work.

More Boat Work

Jim always has a list of projects he wants to do on the boat. It is his happy place. Of course, a boat that has been on the hard for 8 months will need some love when re-commissioning. Jim’s big project was to remove our 5 year old AGM batteries and replace them with lithium. This is the rage in boating now and is actually quite safe. Not likely our boat will burn to the ground.

There are lots of reasons to make the change. Our batteries were getting old, likely a year or two of life left. Lithium is “happy” to let you use the entire charge of the battery while the AGM’s really don’t like to go below about 50% charge. Thus, with our 1200 Amp hours, we really only got to use 600 Amp hours. Our new lithium batteries are 1350 Amp hours, and we get to use almost all of that before charging!

Our solar panels help a lot but not enough to keep us from having to run the generator (or motor to a new anchorage) every 3 days. The theory is we can now go for 5 or 6 days on the hook.

The new batteries are about half has heavy, really mostly important when installing and de-installing. We use the muscles of others for this so not a big deal as Rincon does not even feel this.

Probably the biggest reason for doing this is…. Jim wanted to! One cannot stop someone when they want to do a project!

There were lots of new cables to make, lots of wire to de-install and several new chargers and parts to add to allow for remote monitoring.

What’s Next?

We still have “a few” more boat projects:

A new life raft to install; we drove 6 hours round trip yesterday to pick it up in Annapolis. Our current one is “original equipment” and cannot be re-certified again.

A bit more “house cleaning”. Every time we come back to the boat, especially after a longer absence, as we stow things we clean out cabinets, do a bit of rearranging and ditch a few items. This also happens now when we return to the big house. So nice!

A boat wash. The boat was under a big maple tree and is dirtier than we’ve ever seen it. This is being hired out as even a light wash takes us half a day and Jim hates doing it.

A new vent to install for the diesel heat. We have to cut a hole in our salon settee! Yikes!

A small DC fan for the entertainment electronics cabinet that runs a bit too hot.

And a dozen more small (and large) tasks. We are waiting around for packages to arrive so will be here until early next week. Thus, time for projects.

Where ARE We Going?

We always want new territory. We have been contemplating the Mediterranean and the Gulf of California, but both are on hold as ideas while we explore the Great Lakes. We touched Lake Ontario when we did the Down East Loop in 2023, but this is essentially unexplored territory for us. We figure we can easily spend a couple seasons there. These lakes are the largest freshwater system with Lake Superior being the largest freshwater lake in the world. So, lots to explore here. This year the plan is to circumnavigate Lake Ontario, traverse the Trent Severn Waterway and explore Gregorian Bay at the tippy-top of Lake Huron. Georgian Bay is rather isolated with lots of small hideaways to explore. Not sure if we’ll make it much into Lake Huron otherwise or Lake Erie this year and no plans for Superior. Rincon will stay in Michigan (on Lake Michigan) in heated, indoor storage on land for the winter south of Muskegon, MI; she does not like it THAT cold.

We put the boat in the water last Monday and moved aboard on Wednesday so are living the (dock) boat life now.

Pulling or putting the boat in the water is always a scary venture, it just hanging there in the slings, sometimes rocking a bit. I’ve only heard of one boat that was dropped, not anywhere we’ve been, but of course it could happen. We did have our first “crisis” on launching however.

They lowered Rincon into the water, and on the video near the end you hear me say “she is floating.” Ha! Turns out she was not! She was quickly taking on water and the engine room bilge pump was pumping out LOTS of water. Just what we want to happen when the bilge is beginning to fill, the pump working, so that part is good. But the dry bilge was filling with water! We had them lift Rincon as she was of course still in the straps.

A through hull (a hole in the bottom of the boat with a valve for a specific purpose), one we NEVER open, was open. The yard had done the winterizing when we took Rincon out of the water as we were back in New Mexico. The yard followed Jim’s instructions and opened all the through hulls. As we would not have typically opened this one and it is hidden under a floor panel in the engine room, Jim did not check it before we launched. Jim closed it and all was well. No fault, no error, no damage. Just a bit of momentary excitement.

All of the systems have come up without a hitch (yea, the winterizing was good during this cold winter in Virginia) except for our diesel heat (how we provide heat and hot water for the house). A pump (that may have been fine in the end) and a breaker carrier replaced and all is good to go.

The kittens are adjusting. Chicha is fine with the boat as we’ve not yet gone anywhere. Tori seems a bit calmer and then crazier. When she gets on a tear on the boat, it is quite wild for all of us. Time outs may become more frequent. It is time to get back to projects.

I will endevor to get on track for posting. I had a “little snafu” where my photo drive began acting up. I managed to get all my images off it before it failed (I do have backups, but did not have one at the boat) and was able to fudge around to recreate my catalog settings. It only took me a week of pain and grump to get this resolved. This slowed me down considerably in doing a post. But, it is true, I have been negligent. Mea Culpa.

I leave you with one of the plaques from the inner harbor in Annapolis ( stopped here to get parts for Jim’s battery project). If you remember the book and TV movie Roots, the inner harbor at Annapolis is where Alex Haley’s enslaved ancestors set foot in the American Colonies. There is a bronze of Haley talking to childern and bronze plaques around the harbor with wording from the book. There were several I liked including this one.