have figured out what's essential and what's just nice to have along. I did a similar three year trip from Calif to Venezuela and back up through the Bahamas 20 years ago in a 30 foot Cape Dory. It was a defining trip for all three of us. My son was 14 when we left and now he's a Tug Boat Captain with a degree in Oceanography starting his own shipping company ( http://Humboldtlogistics.com ) I stayed in Boating and just finished another three year cruise in Mexico. We plan on taking a year off to get some things fixed up on the boat. Actually, we have a few things to get fixed up on us as well. We plan to take off again the following year. We would like to get to your side of the country again so post some pictures. We would all love to hear about your travels. How about starting a blog? We did one and had it changed into a coffee table book for about 100 dollars. It's 250 pages of photos and naritive. We plan on doing another one when we take off again. You should look into it. "Blogspot.com" Good luck and stay off the bricks.