The Adventure Will Continue

Loy and Linda returned to Geneva, IL in early July by rental car and then in mid July returned to Wilmington in our mini van to bring supplies to Sandpiper. We spent a week in Wilmington, SC getting Sandpiper prepared for hurricane season. We took supplies off, removed sails, stored the dinghy, generator, and other supplies in a storage locker. It was very hot in Wilmington. We found that we could work from 6 am until 10:30 or 11:00 am and then we retreated to air conditioning and toured this historic area. We returned to Geneva and began to pick up our life in our home community again - reconnect the phone, attended Rotary Club of Geneva, engaged in the activities of Fox Valley Presbyterian Church, and caught up with old friends. Linda did training for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and Loy is seeing a few clients in his former counseling practice, now successfully operated by Nancy Kuhn, LCPC.

Hurricane Ophelia passed over Wilmington with a glancing blow and "Sandpiper" rode it out safely at a floating dock. The staff of Bennett Brothers Yard and local sailors Paul and Denise Schornorak kept a watch for us and insured her safety.

We accepted an invitation to prepare a brief piece for "Boat Works" magazine on preparing a "gently used" sailboat for cruising. Also Belmont Yacht Club of Chicago wrote their annual report as parallel stories of the challenges and successes of "Sandpiper's" year of travel and the yacht club's acquisition of a new club ship.

Linda learned in mid September that she had developed a lumbar spinal cyst that was compressing spinal nerves to her legs. This required immediate surgery. The procedure went well and she is recovering at home. If all continues to go well we plan to return to Wilmington in late October or early November and resume the adventure exploring South down the coast and from Florida making another attempt to reach the Bahamas. We hope to spend several months in the Bahamas in early 2006.