It begins

Once upon a time, Erik and Amy lived in a  comfortable house in a nice town with their two lovely daughters.  One day, Erik turned to Amy and said, "Let's give all of this up to go live on a small boat in the searing heat, with no money and no escape from each other on the high seas."  Amy nodded sagely, as this was clearly an excellent idea.  So our heroes bought a boat, sold their house, car and other possessions, and took to the water.

Perhaps I am getting a little ahead of myself.  The boat is bought and the house is sold, but the rest is forthcoming.  Right now, we are in the preparation stages of our adventure.

Now.  I am a practical soul.  I know this adventure could go one of two ways.  We're all hoping it looks like this:

...but let's face it.  Sometimes it will look like this:

Is this the greatest thing we've ever done, or a disaster waiting to happen?  You, dear reader, can join us here to find out.  Burn with envy as we drink daiquiris and play on the beach!  Lounge smugly on your couch as we battle the elements and repair the diesel engine with bent wire and glue!  Oh, the fun we are going to have!

Tomorrow, the adventure begins in earnest: we are going to visit Papillon.  Erik knows the boat, but the girls and I are new to her.  Let's see if we can keep anyone from going overboard on our first visit, shall we?