Admiral or Chief Navigator

So I said to the Admiral, the other day, "Honey, I'm really going to need some help on this cruise. Do you think you would like to be our chief navigator--you know, learn a little bit more about how to use all our wonderful electronic instruments, GPS, chartplotter, radar--beyond the basic stuff we already know??" She replied that she felt like she might want to do that, so we decided she would go online to the various sailing web-sites and see if she could find some kind of navigation course she could fit in between now and when we leave. Well, the next day and $????????.00's later she is signed up for an extensive course leading to her certification by the American Sailing Association (ASA). She is out on the water right now and will be for the next three days. BUT---I'm going to let her tell you all about it.
What is truly great is that I love the excitement she is experiencing with this. When she called to tell me about it she was absolutely giddy. I won't see her until Friday night and really don't expect her to call me in the middle of all this, but I can't wait to share her excitement when she gets in Friday. If I can finish my work on time Friday I plan to sail out to meet them as they come in from Galveston.
This whole thing just gets more exciting all the time.
I've been anxious for Diane to meet and talk with some boat neighbors who did what we are planning to do last year and who are getting ready to leave again for the Exumas around the time that we depart. Rusty and Linda Sitton (www.sittononthebeach.com) have a 30 plus foot Catamaran--Sea Yawl Later-- down the pier from us. We were able to talk with them at length last week-end and went into a lot of the particulars of cruising in an effort to benefit from their experience. We talked about everything from batteries to dinghies to routes to food storage and learned quite a bit---all helping to buttress our confidence level as the big day approaches. I have to say that every time I talk with them I gain in confidence in our ability to pull this off. They are very nice and fun people and we truly look forward to meeting up with them in the Bahamas (We ran into another couple while we were at the Marina Saturday who left today on the same trip--exchanged boat cards and will see them over there as well, we hope.)
Then, to top it all off we heard from our son, Scott, today who reported that he landed a job with a law firm in Bejing that he has been pursuing but also will be coming home (from Taiwan) to be with us for a month in October--Just really great news on all fronts. ( For those who don't know Scott--he graduated from Boston U. with a degree in International Relations and a minor in Chinese (and Business) and has been studying Chinese and has lived over there for several years. He did return to the states long enough to attend and graduate from U of Texas law school, landed a job with a huge firm in New York but then lost it several months later when the firm laid off a couple hundred of their lawyers including all the rookies--they specialized in mergers and acquisitions and got positively killed with the downturn in the economy in early '09. He then returned to Asia to further refine his language skills at the U of Taipai where he recently concluded those studies. He digs Asia!!)
Enough for now---I'm going to get Diane to post when she finishes her training this week---till then---Live and love