Monday, February 28, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

The weather is still cold and dry, but starting to cloud up. Roy is still busy making endless improvements to the boat. I'm still working at the Virginian-Pilot and hoping to soon be through.
It's hard to believe May is only two months away. We have a million and one things to do to get the boat ready.

Sunday, February 27, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Another clear, crisp day, but not quite as windy as yesterday. In the morning, I enjoyed a brisk walk to the grocery store. In the afternoon, Roy treated me to lupper (combination lunch and supper) at an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant he had found on his bicycle travels. First time we'd eaten out in quite a while.

Saturday, February 26, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Clear, crisp, and very windy today. Gale warnings on the bay and the ocean. There are even whitecaps here on the Elizabeth River, but we're snug and safe in this well-protected marina.
In the morning, I did the laundry and ran off two more copies of the log. That makes five so far. Got impatient and rode the bus out to Kinko's, where I ran off the other six copies in almost no time. Just swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, and they were done. Now they're ready to mail Monday morning.

Friday, February 25, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Another week has gone by. It's almost March! In two months we'll be leaving for Bermuda and England, and we have a zillion things to do. Next weekend, we're taking Jofian to Cobb's Marina and Boatyard to be hauled out, so Roy can inspect the damage to the hull. Then we'll decide what to do next.
We've pretty much decided to go directly to England from Bermuda, instead of going by way of the Azores. We'll have more favorable wind and currents that way. On the other hand, we're also more likely to encounter storms, so I'm not sure it's such a great idea.

Thursday, February 24, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Somewhat cooler today and light showers, but not really cold.
A terrific, full-sized replica of the Susan Constance, the ship that brought the early settlers from England to Jamestown, has tied up at the outer wall of this marina. She's usually moored in Jamestown, but the boat basin there is being dredged, so they had to bring her over here.

Wednesday, February 23, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

West Marine has opened a new store in Hampton. Roy went over there today. He rode Greyhound to Hampton and then took a cab to West Marine. Exchanged the inverter (again) and bought a bunch of stuff. He even got a "Latitude 38"! We haven't seen one of those since Roy returned from California. The new store is very large and nice. Has just about everything.

Tuesday, February 22, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Slightly cooler today, but not cold. Very light sprinkles in the afternoon.
Nothing interesting happened today, other than Roy dropping a lot of tools in the bilge, but there's nothing unusual about that. I'm still working at the Virginian-Pilot and wishing it would end. This was supposed to be my last week, but Heide keeps piling more work on me. I'm not going to work past next week, however.

Monday, February 21, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Still warm, but foggy in the morning and light sprinkles in the afternoon.
Roy rode his bicycle to Cobb's Marina and talked with the Assistant Manager. They charge $2 a foot to haul out, $1.50 a foot for the pressure wash, and another $2 a foot to put the boat back in the water. The daily rate while we're on the hard is $7.50 a day, which isn't bad at all. Everyone there seems very nice.
Roy also went by a lumber yard and found out he can get Honduras mahogany for $4.50 a board-foot or teak for $10 a board-foot. Next, he has to find someone who can steam-bend the boards.
In the evening, we turned the boat around so she's facing out. We couldn't do it last night, because the dockmaster's boat was in the way.

Sunday, February 20, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

While I was at the store, a writer for "Horizons" magazine came by and interviewed Roy, mainly about the Royaks. He took pictures of the Royaks and the Jofian. Boy, will that be great publicity! We don't know when the article will be published. I hope they send us a copy.
After lunch, we took the boat out for a trial run to be sure the engine runs okay under load. Everything worked perfectly.

Saturday, February 19, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

This started out to be a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the temperature in the 70's. I did the laundry and walked over to the post office to get my mail. There was a card from Rita and a big stack of forwarded mail from Kathy, so now I can pay my bills. There was also a note from Kathy asking me to phone her. When I did so, I learned the bad news. My daughter Barbra had another seizure a couple of weeks ago. She'd had one about ten years ago. The doctors couldn't figure out what had caused it, but they thought she'd never have another. Now she's had another, and they still don't know what caused it. They ran all kinds of tests, including an MRI, but couldn't find anything. In addition to the seizure itself, she suffered a terrible memory loss. She doesn't remember driving home from work that Friday, or anything that happened that night or Saturday. Her neighbor, Sharon, found her Saturday and rushed her to a hospital. Her tongue was half bitten off and all swollen. She couldn't even remember her own sisters! Since then she's improved a great deal. Now she remembers everything prior to last October, but the period between October and her seizure is a blank. She does remember, however, (or maybe Sharon told her) that she had just quit her job Friday and was scheduled to start a new job Monday. Of course, she wasn't able to do so, so now she's going to see if she can get her old job back.
Barbra's sister, Nancy, is going to fly to San Antonio the end of March to visit Barbra. Jeanette might be able to go, too. That will be nice. I wish Barbra weren't so far away from everyone.

Friday, February 18, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

The Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus is coming to Norfolk the first week of March, so I went by Scope Arena on my way home and bought two tickets for the Sunday matinee.
Nothing else exciting happened today. Roy continued making improvements to the boat, and I finished the first big stack of pages at work.

Thursday, February 17, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Roy thinks the electrical problem is in a switch he bought in San Diego a few years ago and never used until now. It was made by a reputable company but isn't rated. Anyway, he's going around buying parts and trying to fix the problem.
I had a surprise this morning. Two women from Manpower came to see me at work. Actually, they came to see my boss, Heide Diener, but she's out of town Thursdays and Fridays. One of the women was the Regional Manager for this area, and the other services the Virginian Pilot account. I had mentioned on the phone last week that the work I'm doing requires far more knowledge and judgment than it was rated at, so today I showed them exactly what I'm doing. Whether or not it will result in a raise in pay remains to be seen.
On my way home, I went by the library to look up some places, so I was 40 minutes late getting to the boat, and Roy had already eaten supper. Of course, I have no way of contacting him to let him know I'll be late. My supper was waiting for me, and it was super delicious.

Wednesday, February 16, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Poor Roy had a bad day today. He carefully checked all his rewiring, and then he tried to test it. Something went wrong, and the inverter fried again. Whoever designed those things did a crummy job. They should immediately shut themselves off whenever there's an overload.

Tuesday, February 15, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Found another box of candy under my pillow this morning! Wow, is Roy ever spoiling me!
The weather was really balmy today--up around sixty. But I didn't get to enjoy much of it. Can't even see out a window where I am.
Roy has been busy rewiring the galley. Now we can go from shore power to inverter with the flick of a switch.
He also rode his bike around in the lovely spring air. Went to several stores.
When I get home from work, he always has a delicious supper ready for me. After supper, he washes the dishes, while I relax and read the free newspaper I got at work.

Monday, February 14, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Back to work. The weather has warmed up considerably. The worst of winter is over for this part of the world; it should be relatively pleasant from now on.
Roy sure fooled me, and it isn't even April 1st. At supper, I gave him a Valentine's card. He indicated that he'd forgotten to get one for me, but when I got into bed and rolled over, something scrunched. I turned on the light and found a box of my favorite candy and a card. What a nice surprise!

Sunday, February 13, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Did the laundry in the morning while Roy worked on the boat. After lunch, we rode the bus to Dunning Road to take a look at Cobb's Marina and Boatyard. We were surprised by the number of sailboats there. We had the good fortune to meet a man by the name of Tim Hund who had just had his sailboat worked on there. He raved about the place. Said they were very good people and would let us live aboard and work on our own boat. Sounds like the right place for us.
Tim even insisted on driving us back to Waterside. His young son, Jonathan, was with him. He showed us his house and a used marine parts store, where we can get just about anything at a good price. Of course, we invited Tim and Jonathan on board the Jofian. They were very much interested. Tim dreams of the day when he and his family can go cruising.

Saturday, February 12, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Hooray, it's the weekend! After breakfast, I walked over to the Post Office and got the mail. There were two paychecks for me, and a big batch of mail for Roy from Steve. Then I went to the library and looked up the places I hadn't found in the gazetteer I'd taken to work with me. The hardest to find was the Porcupine Mountains, but I finally found them. To my surprise, they're in Michigan. I hadn't known there were any mountains in Michigan.
In the afternoon, I made the mistake of going to a movie just because the critics raved about it and it had an Oscar nomination. It turned out to be one of the dumbest, stupidest movies I've ever seen. What a waste of time. But at least the theater was close to the grocery store, so I picked up some groceries on the way home.

Friday, February 11, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

The owner of the shop and his best mechanic came to the boat and worked on the engine for a couple of hours. They said it was ok and left, but when Roy tested it, the leak was still there, so he called them back. This time, just the mechanic came. Roy told him exactly what to do, and he did it. Presto! No more leak. So now Roy is satisfied that the engine runs perfectly, but he's not at all satisfied with the huge bill, so that discussion goes on.
Some warmer today. The ice has melted, so no one had a problem getting to work. My boss, Heide Diener, has been out of town for a couple of days and won't be back until Monday. Debbie is entering data similar to mine but to a different file. She has a lot of other work, too, so she hadn't been working on the travel guides project all week. Today, she had time to work on it, but then she realized her file was on the same diskette that mine was on, so we couldn't both enter data at the same time. I said if she'd bring me a blank diskette, I'd copy her file to it. She did, and I did, so now we both can enter data.
Roy met a guy from another boat and had a long talk with him. His name is Bob Calves, and he's lived and sailed in this area for many years, so he's familiar with all the shops and yards around here. He told Roy there aren't any yards in Norfolk that work on wooden boats, and there aren't any south of here until you get to Florida. He gave Roy a list of boatyards north of us where we can haul out and get the boat worked on. I hate the thought of having to go back in that direction. Of course, we wouldn't go until warm weather, and we have to do whatever we have to do to get the boat in shape for a trans-
Atlantic crossing.

Thursday, February 10, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

BRRR! What a change in the weather! Freezing cold today and icy rain. Cars were skidding all over the place. Sure glad I walk back and forth to work. Everyone else was complaining that it took them two or three times as long to get to work this morning as it usually does. Most of them left at three, so they could beat the heavy traffic. They tried to get me to leave at three, but there was no need for me to do that. It was just as easy to walk back to the marina at five as it would have been at three, so why lose a couple of hours' pay and get in Roy's hair? It's only a 20-minute walk.
Roy found an oil leak from the injector pump. Fortunately, the shop that did the work guarantees it, so they'll fix it without further charge.

Wednesday, February 9, 1994 - Norfolk. VA

An unusually warm day today. The temperature went all the way up to 71! But tomorrow it's supposed to get cold again, with freezing rain and maybe snow. In fact, around 10 p.m., the temperature dropped 20 degrees in 10 minutes! When I left work at five, it wasn't raining, but a couple of blocks later, it started sprinkling, and when I was within a block or two of the marina, the rain started really coming down and the wind blowing.
Roy is still trying to get the bill for the engine overhaul reduced but not having much success. He took his bike on the ferry to Portsmouth and rode to WAVY for a phone number, but when he called the number, he just got voicemail. Then it started raining, so he returned to the boat.

Tuesday, February 8, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Another interesting day learning Geography and FoxPro. I caught a major booboo the boss had made when she set up the codes. It would have been a real mess. When I called it to her attention, she corrected it immediately.
The weather is warm and balmy, but overcast and windy.

Monday, February 7, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Started my two-week job at the Virginian-Pilot. What a learning experience this is going to be! It's a good thing I know more geography than the average person. I'm going to learn a lot more geography before this job is over. I'm entering a bibliography of travel guides into the computer, and I have to code each destination, so I have to know where the destinations are, be they Borneo, Bali, or Ixtapa. So far, I've gotten just about all of them correct, but tomorrow I'm going to bring my gazetteer just to be on the safe side.
In addition to geography, I'm learning WINDOWS. I had used WINDOWS very briefly when I worked at Chevron. At the time I thought it was the pits. After using it today, I am convinced it is the absolute pits. I can't understand why it's so popular. It's far too complicated and cluttered. It takes about five minutes just to get to the application you want, and then, if you accidentally hit the wrong key or move the mouse in the wrong direction, you get kicked out of it and have a struggle to find your way back. I'll take a plain, old-
fashioned menu any day.
Roy's confrontation with the mechanic's boss didn't go too well. The boss only knocked $100 off the bill, which was a pittance, everything considered. But at least the engine is now running flawlessly. That's what counts.

Sunday, February 6, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

What a fun job this one turned out to be! I should have been paying them instead of them paying me. The first thing the boss said was to play games on the computer! There were two of us from Manpower. The other one was a friendly, outgoing, bubbly young woman named Lynn Valdez. She had spent four years in the Navy but is now a civilian, married to a Navy man and expecting her second child in about three months. We spent maybe half an hour playing a card game on the computer, which was a super-deluxe IBM with WINDOWS and everything under the sun. When the boss finally gave us some work to do, it wasn't data entry; it was checking the entries he and another person had made. It was a cinch. We were through by 4:10, but the boss told us to put down 4:30. So we'll be paid for three hours' work and probably actually worked one of those three hours, and it was easy and fun besides.
Lynn was very much interested when I told her I lived on a boat, so I invited her over. Roy had just gotten back from a bike ride (it's a lovely, warm, sunny spring day). The three of us chatted for an hour or so. Lynn invited us over to her place, which is near the Navy base. She said she might be able to take us on a tour of a sub.

Saturday, February 5, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

A gray, cold, rainy day. Other than a quick trip to the grocery store, I spent the day indoors, working at the computer. Roy continued finding things wrong with the engine and repairing them. The mechanic's boss is coming here Monday with the bill. Then the fun begins.

Friday, February 4, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Roy spent most of the day checking the engine bit by bit and redoing a lot of the work the mechanic did.
I did the laundry in the morning. After lunch, I walked over to the Virginian-Pilot with my ad copy. The lady was very nice. She spent a lot of time making my ad as small as possible so it wouldn't cost so much. Ended up at $25, which was fine with me. My ad will appear in next Thursday's paper.
So now it's done. I'm in business. I'm not sure which I'm more afraid of--that I won't get any customers, or that I will get customers. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Thursday, February 3, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Took the bus to Virginia Beach and signed up with the Thalia Answering Service for $50 a month. While I was sitting there, my pager beeped. It was Manpower. They had a 4-hour job for me this Sunday afternoon. I took it.
On the way back I stopped at Pembroke Mall to see "Schindler's List". Outstanding. I'm sure it will sweep the Oscar's.
While I was watching the movie, my pager went off again, but I waited until the movie ended before phoning back. It was Manpower again. They had a 2-week job for me at the local newspaper, the Virginian-Pilot. Sounded interesting, so I took it. Wouldn't you know, now that I'm ready to start my business, I'm getting calls for jobs.
Even though the engine is now running, Roy is very unhappy with the mechanic's work. Roy is having to check everything he did and keeps finding goofups. Some fittings just fall apart. Roy wants to negotiate the price with the boss.

Wednesday, February 2, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Lovely snow falling again this morning! I've always enjoyed walking in the snow, but didn't have many opportunities to do so in California, so this is great, even if it is windy and cold.
The young mechanic finally got the engine to run. Roy was out walking around to cool off and keep out of his hair. I was in the main cabin, writing letters and hoping the Dockmaster would show up, which he finally did. Had no problem getting him to sign the letter I needed.
After the mechanic left, I went over to the Zoning Department with the letter. They gave me some forms to take down to the Business License Office. The Business License Office gave me some forms to take up to the Zoning Department. The Zoning Department collected $15 and gave me some forms to take over to the Circuit Court. The Clerk of the Circuit Court collected $10 and gave me some forms to take to the Business License Office. The Business License Office asked a bunch of questions, entered some stuff in the computer, collected $30, and gave me my license. Whew!
So now I'm officially in business. My company's name is "Software for You".

Tuesday, February 1, 1994 - Norfolk, VA

Rather hectic around here today. A movie crew is shooting a video with the marina in the background. They had about fifteen trucks full of equipment and maybe 75 people standing around, supposedly working.
My Quick Basic compiler arrived today, and it's exactly what I wanted! It's even better than I expected! I'm tickled pink with it. Now all I have to do is get the Dockmaster's permission, and I'm in business. Unfortunately, he's rarely around.
The kid who's working on the engine is supposed to be a Perkins expert, but it turned out he doesn't know beans about the 4-108. In fact, he's only worked on one Perkins engine in his life and that was a different model. Roy is growling and trying to be patient, but he resents having to train the person he's paying premium money to. The engine still won't start.