The Halloween Party Oct 25th 2009

Let me add as an after thought to the previous post that it seems that there was hardly a second we did not seem busy in addition to the boat projects and trips out of town:

1) there were accounts to close
2) addresses to change
3) affairs to get in order
4) online accounts to set up
5) automatic payments to set up (retirement and others)
6) cars to sell
7) research on papers for foreign ports of call
8) Mexican fishing licenses to get
9) research on what we can and cannot get in Mexico and corresponding purchases to stock up on what we cannot get (endless mail orders and trips to stores)
10) shots to get for kitty (I also researched bringing the cat back into the states)
11) cruising insurance for the boat & Mexican liability insurance to get (which included a typed hurricane plan, photos, and info on our sailing resumes).

Also it seems for every project there were a couple of trips to West Marine or other stores to get supplies to do the project or to exchange parts previously bought that were not the right ones or because plans had changed for the project.




Okay now for the FUN stuff! The next day was the West Marine Party that is always the day before the start of the rally. (Note the cool jellyfish costume).

We went with a 50's theme.

Jesse and I danced and generally made asses of ourselves for the couples costume contest! We saw that the prize was a Spot Locator so we pulled out all the stops. Jesse did the cheesy sexy dance and I did the ever popular Elaine from Seinfeld. Apparently we are good at playing the ass because we won!

Yay, it was great to see Ardy and Marv from Alameda's famous Gate 11, where we lived for over 2 years, again! They showed up in time to see our performance.

Stephen and Arleen from Ubuntu are new friends we met when we crashed a Pier 32 Pre-Ha-Ha party. They are now famous among the Ha Ha-ers for winning the prestigious nude sailing award! :)
Robert (left to right), Kathy, and crew are aboard Blue Dolphin, an impressive 58' ferro-cement boat. I can't wait to see the video of Jesse and I dancing at Squid Roe that Kathy shot, but I get ahead of myself. Get down Mama!







I was lucky to see many of the people I used to work with both from Northern ans southern California alike. Mick (left) is the General Manager of the San Diego West Marine Superstore.

Jesse and I saw a lot of dock neighbors from Marina Village in Alameda. Also as were so busy leading up to this point friends showed up as well to see us off. Jessica, who not only has the same shoes as I do but owns and lives aboard the same make and model boat as we do, walked us back to Jesse's Girl from the party.

Goodbye for now Jessica and Rocket, also Adam, Jessica's husband, who was out of town at the time.
The rest of the evening was spent stowing and prepping for the parade and start of the race the next day.