On April 30, Gene and I arrived at Sunnyside Marina in Stillwater, Minnesota. The WE BE BLEST III was already waiting for us. On April 7, it was trucked from Trawler’s Midwest in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and set up on cribbing blocks and jack stands at the marina. We climbed aboard, checked her out, and toasted our new boat, her captain and first mate, and her upcoming adventures.

The first week in May we began outfitting the WE BE BLEST III while we waited for Jan’s sister-in-law, Candy, to return home from the hospital after surgery. While the first mate worked on the galley, v-berth, and salon, the captain installed the inverter and a wash down system for the anchor and chain. He spent a lot of time just learning the boat’s systems, chasing wires and hoses.

We camped in our travel trailer, the WE BE BLEST on Land. And each morning and night, on our way back and forth between the marina and campground, we made our stops at Wal-Mart and Menard’s --- purchasing and returning supplies.

Jan’s cousins, Rose and Ed, were the vessel’s first guests. Ed is a deacon and led us in a boat blessing. We prayed for the WE BE BLEST III, her captain and crew, all her guests, and for safe passages. May she ever be a reminder of how much God has blessed all of us.

Friday, May 7 we learned from our broker in Florida that the WE BE BLEST II was sold. That evening, our last night in the travel trailer before we gave it to her new owner, we toasted and recalled the adventures, the places and time spent on the water in the Sea Ray and on the road with the WE BE BLEST on Land. Truly God has blessed us!

We left Stillwater on Saturday, May 8, heading to Washington, D.C. Candy was home and we’ll stay the week to help out where needed. The generator will be installed and the bottom painted while we are out east. The WE BE BLEST III awaits our return.

We spent five days at Jan’s brother and sister-in-law’s home in the Washington D.C. area. Candy was improving each day following her surgery, so on Saturday, May 15, we headed back to the boat.

We seem to have taken the circuitous route to our boat: from our home in Florida to Houston, Texas; to Janesville, Wisconsin; to Sunnyside Marina in Stillwater, Minnesota; over to Falls Church, Virginia, stopping again at Janesville, both coming and going to the D.C. area; and finally back to Minnesota on Monday, May 17. The Houston and Janesville stops provided good Grandma and Gramps time! Monday afternoon as we drove up to the WE BE BLEST III, we were pleased to see a fresh coat of black bottom paint on the hull. However, nothing had been done on the generator last week and Richard had only started the installation today. So much for getting some semblance of order on the boat early this week.

Wednesday, May 19, the marina’s huge travel lift carefully picked up the WE BE BLEST III from her jack stands and cribbing blocks, cradled her in the two slings, and slowly moved to the water’s edge. Gently lowering her the 20 feet to the St.Croix River, at 11:30 am CT, the WE BE BLEST III was splashed. Hooray! And -- she still floats! Even with all the gear we’ve been piling onboard!

Captain Gene did not want to run the engine until a Volvo serviceman was present in order to protect the new boat warranty, so she was towed to a covered slip where we continued the cleaning, outfitting, and generator installation.

Friday, May 21, the Volvo rep spent several hours with Gene completing the new engine certification and giving him instructions on operation and maintenance. It was now time to see if she’ll run. Anticipating a hard first start after a long winter storage, we were all pleasantly surprised to hear the engine fire up with the first turn of the key.

In spite of the cold rainy weather, our maiden voyage was a good one, checking temperatures, pressures, and rpms. She handled fairly well, even though a bit heavy on the starboard side. With the bow thruster, going in and out of the slip was quite easy. Of course the slip was almost big enough to come in sideways. Hooray! Another hurdle down! Now we need the generator installed.

That afternoon we made yet another trip to Boat US and picked up electronics, dink motor, endless fittings and other good stuff. Credit card meltdown has begun. As we heard several times

at a Camano owner’s gathering last April, "That’s OK, honey, it’s for the boat!" That certainly was our line today.

We thought we were going to shove off early this afternoon after the generator was finished. We had prepared the day before: emptying the van of all the gear we would need and hauling it down to the boat; then hauling stuff back to the van that we would not need, and finally stowing all our provisions and gear. A big task was finding the right size bins for spare parts, tools, fasteners, plumbing, electrical, cleaning supplies, bungees, adhesives, aerosols, charts, laundry, shoes, plus innumerable other items. Most of the bins had to fit in specific areas of the roomy, yet partitioned engine compartment and the lazarette (a storage area under the back cockpit -- our "basement"). The Captain says we must have just about every conceivable size and shape bin ever made! Well, almost!

The Mate’s goal as we were storing all the gear was to "find" the dinette table and other counters which had been buried under piles of "stuff" for the last couple weeks. The cabin had been in absolute disarray. Since the generator installation was taking so long, nothing could be stored either in the engine compartment or the lazarette. Finally by midnight, goal accomplished! We do have a table -- complete with place mats, and even a decorator candle! The side counters were clear as well, displaying a bowl of fruit, the cell phone charger and two framed nautical cards. One reads: "Near the sea we forget to count the days." We’re ready to begin.

We awoke today, anticipating the river journey finally starting. After breakfast, the Captain went up on the fly bridge to check out the upper helm controls. It was a rainy day when

Gery Wagner (Wags), the Volvo technician ran the motor through its paces, so we did not test the upper station. Opps! Something is wrong here. The oil pressure, voltage and temperature gauges were not reading properly at all, (in fact one was an incorrect gauge) and even after adding fluid, the steering wheel also had problems. Yet another delay. With the generator installation taking much longer than expected and now this, we wondered why.

As we spoke with fellow boaters at the marina, we learned of all the rain and flooding that was occurring south of us. The Mississippi River was high and lots of debris, logs, and trees were washing downstream. Could that be the reason for our delays? God was protecting us and the

WE BE BLEST from any unwanted encounters. Had our generator been installed on schedule, we would have been in that area in the midst of the storms and tornados. We be blest. Accepting the delay, we now needed time for the river to clear. Yet our window of opportunity to comfortably cruise the 1000 river miles to our family reunion in Nashville by mid-June was rapidly closing. Every day’s delay meant we needed to motor even more hours each day.

As the day unfolded and the generator installation still continued on and on, a rather unusual set of circumstances occurred. The Captain called our Camano dealer in Wisconsin, the owner of Camano Marine in British Columbia, and Wags, the local Volvo technician in an attempt to trouble shoot the upper helm gauges. Early afternoon, the marina service manager stopped by to check on the generator progress and learned of the problems with the gauges. Within ten minutes he returned with two Volvo reps (one from Sweden) who "just happened" to be making a courtesy call at the marina. They looked at the panel and realized it was an incorrect one, made a call to Volvo, and began the process for obtaining a new panel. The actual order had to come from Wags, so Gene called him again and explained what had transpired. It was very unusual, yet Wags ordered the panel around 3:30 and by 9 am the next day the part had come in from Georgia. He was still waiting for parts he ordered four days earlier. The new panel, with 12 and not 24 volt gauges, corrected the problems. Once again, we be blest! It must be a "God-thing" Wags indicated his wife would have said.

Around seven that evening a rain began on the water, yet the sun was still shining behind us. Looking out the aft windows of the WE BE BLEST, we found the rainbow ending in the middle of the river directly in front of our slip. We’ve never been so close to a rainbow before. The colors were vivid -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. I walked up to the parking area above our dock and snapped pictures of the vibrant colors painted across the sky. They ended right above the WE BE BLEST. We were the pot of gold under a double rainbow! It was a sign, a message from God, reminding us of His ever-present love and protection. He would be with us on this trip, and always. We’re on His time schedule and not ours. We were content, even amidst all the delays. We smiled, basking in God’s blessings.

With yet another day’s delay, we still waited for the generator completion, but expected to be able to leave on Friday. After supper on Thursday, the Captain invited the Mate to take a ride in our dinghy, MINI BLEST. This is a small, three person, 7.5’ fiberglass boat with a 3.3 hp Mercury engine. I had previously packed a "dink bag" with the required life jackets, a whistle, sunscreen, and towel. After tossing the bag into the boat, I sat in the bow, facing the stern. The Captain started the engine and we began to leave the dock. Suddenly I remembered and called out, "We forgot the oars!" The Captain grabbed the dock and then hesitated, pondering, "Do we really need the oars? We’re not going far, just around in the river channel by the marina." Reluctantly he finally did retrieve them. If he hadn’t, the mate would have. The Captain secured the oars into the oarlocks, restarted the engine and away we sped.

Surprised at the "oomph" of our little 3.3 hp motor, we tooled around past a marina dock "graveyard," row upon row of old, beat up, broken docks, all lashed together. A salvage operation had begun dismantling them and removing any cleats, electrical boxes, and other good "stuff." Sunnyside Marina tore out all their old docks and replaced them with brand new ones and state of the art electrical pedestals complete with cable TV and phone jacks. Passing the graveyard, we headed toward the five paddle wheelers moored in downtown Stillwater. This town has wonderful tourism opportunities, with the river cruises, two trolley cars, an excursion train and lots of quaint shops.

On our way back, out of the blue, I spied a log heading toward the motor. "Log! Log!" I instinctively shouted. But before the Captain could stop the engine, the log had collided with the motor and broken the sheer pin. The engine would run, but not propel us. We were dead in the water. ... ... ... Ah ha! We have oars! Grasping the handles, the Captain began to row back to the marina.

What a maiden voyage, easily zipping out and about, and now rowing back so slowly. It brought to mind a photograph taken of my parents before they were married. It was a lovely afternoon, my mom and dad were in a boat and dad was rowing around a small lake. In his suit and tie, he looked so much like Don Ameche. How romantic. Now here we were rowing and rowing our way back to the dock. Fortunately we headed upstream and now had the current to aid our return. Oh well, we both needed some exercise anyway!

First dink lesson learned: Always take oars with you ... Always. And carry an extra sheer pin as well.

Dink lesson two: Take a raincoat. Anyone riding in the bow will surely get splashed.

It was Friday afternoon, there were still some punch list items to complete on the generator installation, and the holiday weekend was upon us. We realized our window of opportunity to comfortably make it to Nashville by boat had closed. Unfortunately, we would drive instead. Our plans now were to remain around Stillwater until Wednesday or Thursday of next week, head down river toward La Crosse, leave the WE BE BLEST at a marina, retrieve our van and then drive to the reunion.

We called Jan’s cousins who live in St. Paul, told them of our change in plans again, and invited them for a boat ride. Cindy and Bernie, two of their four kids plus one friend, joined us for our first sunset cruise. The day had been just lovely -- sunny and warm -- a refreshing change from all the cold, windy, rainy days we’ve been having. One fellow Camano owner from Florida who is in Northern Minnesota for the summer e-mailed us: "Where is that large yellow thing that comes up every day in Florida!?! We seem to have one day of spring a week, with the rest cold and winds from the North. You need to head South soon."

The cruise was relaxing. The evening wonderful. The sunset beautiful. The company and conversation great. Truly we be blest!

After seemingly endless days of rain, cool winds and more rain, the sun finally did shine on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. What a pleasant treat -- three days of sun in a row! Something we almost take for granted back home in Florida was a seemingly rare commodity here in Minnesota. What a change occurred with the sunshine. The marina seemed to come alive as boaters walked the docks hauling provisions and gear. Houseboats, sailboats, cruisers, "go-fast-boats," jet skis, fishing boats, the paddle wheelers, and even a gondola shared the waters of the St. Croix with us Thursday as we took the MINI BLEST out for another spin.

This time our dink bag now included two shear pins, just in case. Actually this was a good precaution since the river level was 6 or more feet above normal and lots of trash, branches, logs and trees were floating downstream. It seemed our slip attracted and filled with lots of debris. A couple large branches, about 12 feet across, drifted into our slip; so using the dink, we dragged them out to the main channel of the river. All this debris however, didn’t seem to stop the boaters. When the sun comes out, so do the Minnesotans. Their season up here is so short, they must take advantage of any boating opportunity. Our ride was fun -- past Stillwater’s busy waterfront, restaurants, boat docks, parks and under the lift bridge (maximum clearance 5’ -- we’re about 4’) . Still breaking in the new motor, Captain Gene varied the speed often as he was learning the best way to approach the wakes from other boats without drenching the mate sitting in the bow. Our "find" on the cruise was a fender floating down river which we retrieved and the mate cleaned up. We can use it for the dink. That was about a $40 gift from the river.

Thursday morning we chatted with the former marina manager who now is retired and has a 70’ houseboat docked here. He told us if the water level rises just two more feet, all boat traffic will be restricted to "idle speed only" until the river drops again below the 683’ level. This is not an uncommon occurrence on the St. Croix, although usually it’s earlier in spring. Today, the water continued to rise and I heard we were only 6" away from "idle speed only."

Spending this week organizing, cleaning, installing electronics and still waiting for the punch list items on the generator to be completed, we decided to call Mark Brown, known as the best canvas maker in the valley. Last April we contacted him about making our biminis for the fly bridge, a helm cover and window covers for the boat. At that time, his schedule would not fit us in with our original departure date. Still wanting the bimini and helm cover for sun and rain protection on the trip south, we decided to leave the boat here until our return from Nashville, and thus allow time for Mark to do the canvas work. A definition of boat: B-O-A-T ... Break Out Another Thousand. That’s OK, honey. It’s for the boat!

FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2004

It’s been raining again. So what’s new?! We spent the week watching the river level drop and then come back up again while we waited for the punch list generator items to be addressed. Finally they were taken care of on Wednesday. Hooray! We can now call the generator completely installed! This Westerbeke 3.8 has a little vibration and is noisier than we would like, but it carries 100% of its rated load and barely lugs down.

We decided to give the boat a second coat of REJEX, a polymer treatment which should help resist dirt and stains. We used this on our travel trailer and thought it better than traditional wax and much easier to apply. It’s often used on airplanes.

Gene installed marine speakers on the fly bridge, so we now have "tunes" on the top deck as we relax during happy hour, enjoy meals, and take in the view all around us. Downriver we’ll be able to listen to our traditional "locking through" music. We’ll pop in a Yanni CD, crank up the volume, and fend the boat off the walls as we go up or down in the locks.

Thursday we played Musical Stuff, emptying everything we had hauled up to the van several weeks ago and carrying it down to the boat. Making several trips back and forth, we toted our travel bags, clothes, computers and electronic gadgetry up from the boat and into the van. We were getting ready to leave for our family get-together in Nashville and wanted to make some room for passengers. Now that’s a novel use for a vehicle! Once again the boat is loaded and the v-berth piled with stuff.

We are now tied off in our third covered slip while at Sunnyside Marina, each a little smaller than the previous one. The first was the 70’ very wide slip seen in the rainbow pictures -- a nice roomy size for practicing first attempt dockings by the Captain and Mate. The second was a 60’ slip that belonged to Chuck Hooley, who started CUB Foods with his brother some years back. In conversation, he offered us his slip for a short time until he put his boat back in the water. Wednesday we moved to our third one, a 40’ slip (more our size) where the WE BE BLEST is secured while we do our land travel. Be patient, oh mighty Mississippi, our voyage is still yet to come. Hopefully the river level and debris will have receded by the time we return.

What started as a gathering of our three sons and their families, now includes Jan’s two brothers and their wives, plus two nieces, spouses and a toddler. A wonderful 12 days await us filled with family, fun, feasting and frolicking. First Mate Jan has now switched hats and can’t wait to be Grandma hugging her four granddaughters!

We’ve spent the last two weeks basking in the love, joy, companionship, relaxation, noise, bedlam, disarray and antics of a family reunion. Our days were filled with hugs and kisses, toasting and feasting, stories and songs, shopping, sleeping and soaking in the hot tub. We celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, Father’s Day, passing radiology board exams and life itself.

Only our immediate family gathered for the first five days. Nishta and Naleah, our two newest grandbabies (6 months and 8 months old), met for the first time, jabbering and smiling. At a cookout with Kayla’s immediate family, the older girls (3, 7 and 8) smacked and whacked a swinging Barbie Piñata until she finally released her treats and treasures for the little and "big" kids alike. While they scrambled for the goodies and passed out treats, little Naleah was discovered gumming a Peppermint Patty, wrapper and all!

Squirt gun battles broke out often ... No one was exempt from the wars. Soggy shirts and shorts were common attire. Harry Potter on the IMAX screen was awesome, especially to 7 year old Brianna, but scary for 3 year old Naija. Leaving early in the show, rain check in hand, her folks days later had an afternoon out alone while Grandma and Gramps had hours of snuggle, cuddle and play time with the two little girls. Earlier one of Grandma’s special treats was a shopping spree with Brianna. SALE was the word of the day.

Later Jan’s two brothers and sisters-in-law and her niece and family arrived to join in on the celebrations. No family get together is complete without the cooking and feasting -- burgers and chicken, smoked loin and roast turkey, Mexican enchiladas and pesto meatballs. Pumpkin bread, cheesecake, and ice cream -- Opps, are those pants getting a little snug?

We roasted and toasted Jan’s brother Bob as he continues his battle with cancer. Stories and antics were shared about this "kid" brother who never grew up. While our boys and Kayla would awaken before the crack of dawn to run, kayak or head to the Y for a swim or spin class, the young moms would nurse and love their babies, and us "old geezers" would stay up late reminiscing, then sleep in and get together for a leisurely breakfast. Snuggling together on the floor at bedtime, Naija and Brianna would laugh and giggle enjoying their own cousin sleep-over.

Since we gathered in Nashville, it was a chance for Kayla, Daron’s special gal, to see if she could survive all the Boys’ and the Warner’s. Evidently we’re not "deal-breakers!" And the unanimous vote was: "She’s a keeper!"

During our family picture "shoot" at the Opry Mills Convention Center, amidst all the rushing waterfalls, lush flowers and fountains, the two little babies were posed in front of an ivy covered fence studded with flowers. Sitting on the brick edge, held from behind through the fence and vines, just as the picture was about to be snapped, Naleah and Nishta grabbed each other’s hand. What a special moment!

We were grandparents and parents, sons and daughters, in-laws and outlaws, uncles and aunts, nieces and cousins, grandson and granddaughters -- a blending of our family and Kayla’s. Days were filled with laughter and occasionally tears. Our common bond? Love for family. Care and concern draws us together. That’s what life’s about. We hear it in the spirited discussions of the adults, see it in the playful antics of the little ones, and enjoy it in the delightful babble of baby talk. These are special moments and we savor them.

Time with family is priceless.

We are blest to love and be loved.