Five reasons we're not sailing.

1. Through people we've met in our travels, we got a free slip at a dock in downtown Wilmington. It's ours until May 1 if we want it, though the facility is decidedly lacking in facilities. Which is to say that I poured a pot of nearly boiled water over my head yesterday in an attempt to shower. But did I mention it's free?!

2. Having found ourselves with no need to rush onward (see #1) and with some cheap labor (my brother, who's visiting from Massachusetts), we decided to strip all the brightwork on the boat and refinish it. We've been making excuses not to do this for the past year, and the boat has looked increasingly shabby for it. Thankfully, the rewards of our efforts are easy to see:

Before....After

3. The busman needs a holiday. Jeremy has been captaining boats essentially nonstop since February 2003. For those of you working desk jobs, an analogy would be something like slapping some wheels or skateboards underneath your desk and your chair and using it as transportation to tour the country's most scenic office buildings. So maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but when something as great as sailing is starting to feel like a drudgerous task, it's time for a break. Summarily, we returned to Wilmington with the help of our trusty Honda Civic, which will take us on a road trip across the American South for the next two months. Feel free to offer suggestions for good stops along the way!

4. If tomorrow's temperature in Wilmington gets as low as 28 degrees, a new record will be set in this town for longest stretch of lowest temperatures, because it's been that cold or colder since January 2. Eleven days of below freezing temperatures does not a happy sailor make. And as those of us with friends and family in Florida know full well, they have had similar stretch of time during which there's no good weather to gloat about. Hah! But seriously, it has been so cold here since we returned last Monday that I resorted to warming the toilet seat with a heat gun last night. And it didn't even help.

5. We were recently offered lodging at a friend's house in downtown New Orleans for the weekend of Mardi Gras. Need I say more?