Dirty jobs

Well, we have officially moved into our new house in Florida and it is so amazing. I finally have my own room, which is fantastic...no more sharing it with 3 other guys! We have a pool now which comes in handy on these scortching hot days and even better...our boat is in our backyard!

Everymorning we wake up around 7 and have breakfast together and then get straight to work on the boat. This week has been crazy with ammount of progress we have made. We lost nick and andrew afew days ago but nick will be back soon, he had to take care of some stuff at home, but we sure miss his goofy presence on the boat!

This week I have done a lot of painting! I feel as though I am permentatly covered in paint.. it's in my hair and all over my hands, legs and shoulders! I have been painting down in the back cabins, as well as storage boxes (called lazarettes) and finishing up afew walls in the salon. Today was a big day for me, as I got to demo an entire wall (much harder than it looks), put up insulation in the ceiling, paint the pole that holes up our wind generator, finished building an AC insulator box and painted more of the hull of the boat. We started carpeting and putting the matress padding on the bunks today as well! It's so great that we are starting to get to do asthetic work now instead of heavy duty construction.

Sometimes I feel that the time when we sail off this harbor will never happen, but I know that it will and how exciting that day will be!

Speaking of the harbor, in the last few days we have seen more manatees and an alligator! this is definately not swimming water! but its so wonderful to get to see so many creatures in their natural element!

We have had quite a few big storms this week, but luckily it has shown us that our beauty of a boat holds up in the rain! The storms here are incredible. Huge beams of lightning light up the sky and thunder booms, almost shaking the house. Im starting to really enjoy the storms though. We have also had a heatwave this week, with the temperature climbing to 105 with 80-90% humidity. Its like working in a wet sauna... and mixed with paint fumes makes it quite a challange, but i'm surviving.

Everyone is falling in love with Floating Doctors and Bens dream. We have had afew different reporters come out to interview us and I have had the two newspapers in Sonoma both interview me. They even want to follow us the entire year. We also got wind of a contest for amatuer film makers and we are entering it! I am doing the animation for the film, in addition to helping put our real shots in it and its going to be a great piece about making our dream become a reality. If we win, the prize is $10,000 which we direly need. We also have made a commercial for Home Depot and are trying to sell it to them. And we have had an outpouring support from the Florida community here, with people we have met in the hardware store or the grocery market, coming by daily to drop of supplies or see our progress on the boat. Its so great to be a part of something that is touching everyones lives.

Progress is being made on the health survey, which is what I am in charge of, and soon, once the boat is finished, we will all be studying our spanish, diagnosis cards and practicing sutures and minor surgery procedures. I can't believe that I will be practicing medicine soon!

The opportunities continue each day, and I am constanly humbled and inspired by the work that I do here. I love being able to be a part of something so great and I know that my time here is the adventure of a lifetime!