SPLASH!!!!

FINALLY - all the standing rigging replaced and we splashed the boat. Captain Mike expertly steered Ka'imi through very narrow channels to the FKG riggers where we had the new roller furling installed and then spent the night on their docks. It was great to finally be in the water, and our biggest joy was being able to use our own bathrooms and not walk through dirt and fiberglass city to relieve yourself and take a cold shower in muratic acid rinsed showers.......they don't know what Drano is here they use Muratic acid to clear the drains - however - that doesn't work so you end up with really white feet.


The next day we left FKG's dock and Captain Mike took us back through the narrow channels and we finally anchored in the lagoon at the Witches tit. We got the Main Sail and shade cover on then spent a very relaxing evening enjoying our new home, playing backgammon and realizing what a great life we have!!!!!! The only problem we had at FKG was when they asked for the sheets to finish installing the Genoa Sail....Mike looked at Kim very puzzled - that was a big mistake, cause Kim had the deer in the headlights look. Finally after a couple of uhs - Mike finally asked what a sheet was, just before Kim was about to grab the bedsheets. Their lines - the ones you use on the sails - need to read up on our terminology I guess....
Captain Mike in the dinghy checked out the snubber line and took a couple of pictures of Ka'imi finally settled in. The last pic is a view from our cockpit. We are doing very well, taking a couple of days off to relax, though we still have to run errands. Then we'll start working on things above the water line, and in a couple weeks take off for our first shakedown cruise, most likely Anguilla. We're looking forward to New Years and maybe we can even stay up till midnight this year on New Years Eve - since were sooo relaxed. Till the next time - Happy New Year to you, cheers from Ka'imi

Christmas Day

We had an excellant Christmas. We took the day off and went to the beach. It was a beautiful day!!This was Captain Mike enjoying the plunge, he needed a day off. All boat projects were finished so the day really was relaxing.

Kim took her wine and stayed in the water most of the day, and the Captain looked on.


If anybody was wondering where Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was this year, she was here in St. Maarten - we found her. After spotting Rudolph Kim had to find a phone to make her Christmas phone calls. The only problem was we forgot our new zip code so we couldn't charge them to our card. Kim had to call her mom collect and relay messages to everybody. Sorry Kris and Linda that I couldn't call and Happy Belated Birthday to Linda, Kim's sis.

Merry Christmas from the Caribbean

Merry Christmas
Well, were still in the boat yard, but at least the Captain has had a cup of coffee. The good news is we are set to go in the water this Thursday, the 22nd, so by Christmas we should be anchored off in the lagoon. We have made friends in the boat yard, and have a wide variety of animals here. This is our neighbor cat. There are many other cats and dogs wandering around, so we have lots of company. We've completed alot of projects and are waiting on the completion of the rest. The dinghy davits are repaired, we've bleeded the fuel from our new tanks to the engine, we've sanded the bottom and will put the first coat of bottom paint on Tuesday, we will get the rest of rigging to the riggers on Monday so the new rigging and new roller furler will be ready to go on Friday morning. They are putting us in the water on Thursday, and will leave us in the bay overnight so we can get the motor going alright. We have been working from dawn to dusk, so we decided to pay a local kid to polish the hull, wish we'd thought of this before :) he's only charging $100 to do the whole thing. We could of saved some achy muscles on the boat bottom sanding if we'd known it would be this cheap.We are still waiting on the guy who manufactured our fuel tanks to finish some stuff for us. He also has to come out and fix the batteries. When we load tested the batteries we found out that when they replaced the tank and put the batteries back in they did it all backwards, this explains why our battery voltage wasn't reading right.Happy Birthday to Kristopher (he's the one on the left), Kim's son, he turned 27 on December 14th!!! He's still living in Hawaii, and Kim misses him alot. Happy Birthday Baby!!!
All our love to our family and friends and we wish you a very Merry Christmas. The next time we write, we will probably, officially be boat people :)

What can we say, still here

Good morning all, don't mind the Captain he hasn't had his coffee yet. Still have some work to do to get out of the boatyard but we've accomplished a few more projects. The fuel gauges got installed, we painted and changed out the chain in our steering pedestal. We've polished the chain plates to get ready for the new rigging .



And of course then there is the end of a long day when we can see all the work that we've done and know we are one day closer to getting in the water!!!! Cheers Mike and Kim

Still Working

Hello all we're doing fine and moving right along. Mike is back on his feet, his foot infection has completely healed and he is doing great. We've had a diesel mechanic out here working on the engine to make sure she is in good condition when we take off. The mechanic is an old salt named Ray Longbottom and he is the greatest guy, he's been at sea since he was young and has stories to tell. He also knows everything there is to know about diesel engines and been quite willing to share the info with us. He is one of the good people that we have enjoyed meeting. His assistant Soie was also very kind, on the day our shipment was to arrive, he left us his cell phone so we could keep in contact with the port and the guy who was to deliver. We didn't even have to ask, he heard Kim having trouble using her cell phone and just offered. He left it overnight too......speaking of our shipment everything has arrived.
We spent a couple days sorting through it and putting it away. What didn't fit we figured we didn't need. We traded all the stuff we were going to toss to Willie, a local guy who works in the boatyard, for helping us with a few projects. One of which was taking down the rigging. The surveryor had told us we needed new rigging for the mizzen mast, but we've also decided to do it for the main mast since it is already 6 years old and we want to be safe rather than sorry.
We're still in the boat yard working on various projects. We've accomplished quite a bit but won't go into all of them. Mike has updated our propane tank system and we have gas to the barbeque and the new stove inside (by the way the new stove works awesome). We've also installed a new faucet on the sink, which makes doing the dishes a lot easier. We haven't had much time for play as were trying to get out of the boat yard as soon as possible. But we look forward to sharing the more exciting parts of living in the Caribbean soon, until then we wish everyone well, and we must get back to work!
Cheers Mike and Kim on Ka'imi :)