I managed to connect to a weak Wi-Fi signal at the marina and hope to be able to use it to post this to our blog site. If you’re reading this, it must have worked! We have now been in Demopolis twelve days and are waiting for our replacement transmission to arrive from New York. We are hoping it will be here by mid-week and installed by next weekend, but that remains to be seen.

Todd has been fishing some each morning in the dinghy, doing all kinds of Mr. Fix-It projects around the boat and reading to pass the time. I have been doing some cooking and reading and helping out with boat projects on occasion. However, the record-breaking heat we have experienced since we got here keeps us inside much of the time.

We have borrowed the courtesy car several times to make trips to Wal-Mart, run errands and go by the library to check out and return movies for our nightly entertainment. The selection is limited, but the only television channel available in Demopolis without cable is Alabama Public Television and I just can’t handle that! In fact, about every other day we go over to the marina restaurant at 5:00 p.m. to watch "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" with some of the locals. It’s one of the most entertaining things we’ve found to do here!

Fred, the manager of the Demopolis Yacht Basin, encouraged us to get off the boat and go use the swimming pool at his house, so we took him up on the offer last Tuesday and enjoyed a few hours poolside. He even let us take his truck since the courtesy car has a two-hour limit. Fred has a nice home a few miles out of town with a really neat Japanese garden in his backyard complete with a bamboo forest, huge boulders and lots of other flowers and greenery that he has obviously invested a lot of time and money into. It was nice to get away, and the water in the pool felt great in the heat of the day.

The people who work at the marina and restaurant have all been really great. We have also met some nice people at the dock. Some are just passing through and some are staying here for a while. A few days ago, a 34-foot Chris Craft pulled in next to us with four men on it. One of the men (Ray) had just bought the boat in Columbus, MS (about 100 miles north of Demopolis) and they were taking the boat back home to Gulfport, MS (about 250 miles south of Demopolis).

Ray was accompanied by his brother-in-law, Dave, Captain John who was captaining the boat for Ray, and another gentlemen, Jack, who was just along for the ride. We started chatting with Ray and Dave Friday afternoon (John and Jack were otherwise occupied), and Ray very generously treated us to dinner that evening at the marina’s restaurant. We stayed there until they closed - Todd even vacuumed the floors! - and then one of the waitresses at the restaurant (Amanda) was kind enough to give us a ride to a local establishment where Amanda, Ray, Dave and Todd played pool and I entertained myself with a trivia video game.

They ran us out at closing time (around 2:15 a.m.), so we came back to the boat to get some sleep. Unfortunately, Ray and Dave were scheduled to leave with John and Jack at 4:00 a.m., so I doubt they got much sleep at all.  We tried to call Ray yesterday to see how he survived what must have been the longest day of his life, but the call went to voice mail and we haven’t heard back from him yet. They were planning to make the entire 250-mile trip to Gulfport in one day, which is quite an undertaking - especially under the circumstances!

There were storms in the vicinity Friday evening that finally cooled things down a bit, and then it stormed here early yesterday afternoon. We got a decent amount of rain and lots of wind, and I was glad we were safely tied up in a slip. It would not have been fun being out on the water during the storm, but they desperately need the rain and we welcomed some relief from the 100-degree heat.

It is warming up again today, but it’s not as hot as it has been. Buddy has had his ups and downs over the past few weeks, but he seems to be doing okay at the moment. He still won’t hardly touch his food but we’re afraid to feed him anything else after the diarrhea episode, so we have been forcing softened pieces of it down his throat to keep his energy up and keep him from starving. Occasionally he will eat a few pieces on his own, but that is the exception rather than the rule. It will be hard when we lose him, but I’m afraid his time is limited.

We met Chuck Bigelow, the owner of the Columbus, MS marina, earlier this week as he was passing through Demopolis on a boat headed to Columbus. He told us they have a great 4th of July fireworks show at his marina, so we hope to make it there by then. Our original plan was to be at Grand Harbor on Pickwick Lake for the 4th of July, but now that is not going to be possible. We’ve heard good things about the Columbus marina, though, and are looking forward to visiting it. Of course, at this point we’re just looking forward to leaving Demopolis (no offense to the great people we’ve met here)!

June 10, 2006
We left Dog River Marina at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 10th, after pumping out our holding tanks and topping off our water tank. It took us about an hour-and-a-half to get to the north side of Mobile and then we were pretty much back in river territory. We traveled approximately nine hours and covered 75 miles. We only encountered a couple of barges and a few pleasure boaters along the way, but we saw lots of bass fishermen apparently participating in a tournament. As you can imagine, Todd was itching to join them!

Our first anchorage was at Three Rivers Lake which was not very scenic and had "sink-up-to-your-knees" mud along the shore line. Nonetheless, after a long, hot day we were ready to relax and have dinner. Shortly after dinner, we were approached by a couple of "gentlemen" in a small fishing boat. They were running on their trolling motor and said they were out of gas; they wanted to know if we had any we could spare. Todd, being the "never met a stranger" kind of guy he is, immediately went down to help them. I, on the other hand, was keeping a low profile on the sundeck, rehearsing in my mind where the gun was and what I would need to do to prepare it to fire.

I watched anxiously as they chatted with Todd and put gas in their tank, waiting for one of them to pull out a gun or weapon of some kind to "off" Todd so they could board, rob and pillage the boat. My concerns were obviously unwarranted, but I didn’t sleep very well after that for fear of being "revisited" in the night.

There are many beautiful sandbars along the Tombigbee River and we can’t help but think how wonderful it would have been to have boated along here in our twin 250 Sea Rays with Duane and Sue.  Duane loved finding a sandy beach and letting his beloved Brandy (Golden Retriever) run and play. We’re hoping we can find a nice beach to anchor near so that we can enjoy some time on the beach along this stretch of the river.

June 11, 2006
We had a relatively short day today, leaving around 9:30 a.m. and anchoring at 2:30 p.m. Our anchorage once again had "sink-up-to-your-knees" mud but it was nice having a shorter day of cruising as it was very hot and there was little or no breeze. Buddy (our Pomeranian) hasn’t been eating well, partially due to the heat, I’m sure, so we mixed his regular food with some gourmet dog food (similar to Fancy Feast for cats) and he promptly devoured it, picking out the "good" stuff and leaving his regular food. Much to our dismay, he woke up in the middle of the night with a bad case of diarrhea to deal with. Not a pretty site on a boat In addition to that, Todd and I spent most of the night fending off multitudes of mosquitos. Needless to say, it was a restless night!

June 12, 2006
After being awakened again at 6:30 a.m. by Buddy, who was continuing to have diarrhea issues, Todd swam him to shore while I cleaned up the mess from his earlier episode. Thankfully, most of it was on the outside of the boat on the side rails and a little water and scrubbing took care of it. Since we had a long day of cruising and our first lock ahead of us, we pulled up anchor and headed out about 7:30. We encountered three barges in our first five miles and another one a few more miles upriver. After that, there was virtually no boat traffic, pleasure or otherwise.  Buddy, however, was not quite over his bout with diarrhea so I had another mess to clean up in the salon shortly after we departed.

We made it to the Coffeyville lock about 10:00 a.m. and were the only boat locking through. It went relatively well, but we got yelled at by the lockmaster for trying to hold the boat off the sides of the lock rather than letting the fenders protect the boat. However, the way we had boat tied off wasn’t doing a very good job of keeping it off the lock wall, and we didn’t want to lose any fiberglass (or a swim deck) in the process so we continued to do what we could to keep the boat from hitting the wall. We are going to try something different for our next lock, which should be tomorrow, just south of Demopolis, AL.

About noon, we heard a noise and thought maybe we had hit something in the water, even though neither of us saw anything either in front of the boat (before the "thump") or in the wake behind the boat afterward. At any rate, we stopped the engines and Todd went down to have a look. He didn’t see anything amiss, but when we tried to put the starboard engine into gear, the transmission wouldn’t engage - it just made a whining noise in both forward and reverse. So, we continued limping down the river on just the port engine, going about seven miles per hour and making for a very long, hot day, even though we at least had a breeze.

We finally got to our anchorage about 5:00 p.m. and just got situated when a strong but (thankfully) brief thunderstorm passed through. We had an anchor off the bow and were tied to a tree on the shoreline off the stern. When the wind hit us on the starboard side, it pushed our stern into the shore where the boat lodged in the soft mud/sand bottom. Had we been on Table Rock, we would have done some serious damage to the boat; however, after the storm passed, Todd (much to his relief) was able to push the stern around and dislodge it with a little help from the windlass. By this time, we were worn out, so we decided to make an early evening of it and go to bed, hoping for a better day tomorrow.

June 13, 2006
We were up this morning shortly after 6:00 and back on the water by 7:00. We continued limping along on one engine at seven miles per hour toward Demopolis where it appears our savings will be further depleted if our repair bill from Mobile is any indication. Our only remaining engine has a periodic shudder in it - cause unknown - so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it will at least get us to Demopolis. Todd thinks maybe the secondary fuel filters just need to be changed, so that is on his "to do" list while we’re in Demopolis.

We arrived at the Demopolis lock around 12:30 p.m. and tied up where the lockmaster recommended for the least amount of turbulence. We tried a different rope setup than the one we used at our first lock and it worked much better. We got through without incident and arrived at the Demopolis Yacht Basin about 2:00 p.m. where we tied up to the fuel dock and waited for the service people to come talk to us about our transmission problem.

Fred, the owner, came by a short time later and determined that the transmission would have to be pulled and sent to Maryville, TN (near Knoxville) for servicing as they don’t work on transmissions here. Since there wasn’t anything more we could do, and since we hadn’t eaten anything other than a light breakfast while on the move, Todd and I walked up to the restaurant and had an early dinner. We then came back to the boat and went to bed early - again. It had been a long, stressful and hot few days and we were both worn out. Are we having fun yet?

June 14, 2006
Buddy woke us up around 5:30 this morning, still having "poop" issues, so Todd took him out while I unsuccessfully tried to go back to sleep. The mechanics arrived shortly after 8:00, moved our boat off the fuel dock and into a slip and then began the process of removing the transmission. It is possible that the problem may be a relatively minor fix, but we won’t know that until they get it pulled and are able to take a closer look. If anyone would like to make a donation in support of this little endeavor we’ve embarked upon, now might be a good time to do so. Based on our experience thus far, our journey aboard "Life’s2Short" may be short indeed!

June 15, 2006
They got the transmission pulled yesterday and it does not appear that a minor fix is in order, so it is on its way to Maryville. We learned yesterday that the transmissions in this boat are obsolete (go figure!), so if they aren’t able to fix whatever is wrong with it in Maryville, our options are (1) to buy a rebuilt transmission like the one we currently have from a place in Florida for somewhere between $4,000 and $7,000 or (2) to buy a newer type of transmission for around $3,500 plus the parts and labor necessary to adapt it to our engine, which is apparently quite a process.

We were also disappointed to learn that we may have an oil leak in the main seal of the newly rebuilt engine that was done in Florida prior to us taking ownership. After tightening a number of loose bolts on the oil pan that the mechanics (?) seem to have forgotten, we are hoping that the oil leak issue will be fixed; however, we will have to take the boat out for a test run to find out... after we get the transmission back in the other engine!

At any rate, we are likely stuck in Demopolis for at least two weeks with no Internet access at the marina, so our postings will be limited. We are downloading this from the public library and will try to visit again before we leave. Are we having fun yet? According to the Captain: NADA, NOT, NO WAY!

It is now Friday, June 9th, and we are still in Mobile, but it looks like we will head north in the morning. We took the boat out for a brief trial run this afternoon and are back at the fuel dock this afternoon for our final evening at Dog River Marina. The people here really are great, and we sincerely appreciate all they have done for us.

After several days' delay, we got our Cingular AirCard on Wednesday, but when I tried to install it I discovered (with the assistance of Cingular's Customer Support) that it won't work in our new laptop because our card slot (Dell's "latest and greatest" technology) is not compatible with what Cingular offers. So, we returned the card and will now be without Internet access unless we're in an area where we can access free Wi-Fi or at a marina that offers Wi-Fi as part of it's dockage fee.

At any rate, our posting opportunities will be limited, at best, afer we leave here until we can resolve the problem with the AirCard. Looks like we'll have to purchase another laptop that has the type of card slot we need before we'll have any kind of regular access, and I have no idea how soon that may be.

We denamed and christened (renamed) the boat this evening in accordance with a ceremony on the "Commander Bob" web site, so the Gods of the wind and the sea should be with us as we begin our journey north. We plan to leave early in the morning and hope to make some good progress up the Tenn-Tom before spending our first night on the hook since we brought the boat to Mobile more than a month ago.

Since we won't have Internet access, please don't expect a prompt response to any e-mails you send, but rest assured that we will respond as soon as we are able to do so. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers are we begin our journey aboard "Life's2Short."

Todd and I are now officially unemployed and homeless, so to speak! We arrived in Mobile on May 31st after spending a few days with Todd's family at Prizer Point on Kentucky's Lake Barkley. We left Springfield the afternoon of May 25th and went to my parents house (about 80 miles east) to spend the night. We made it to Prizer Point Friday evening and spent a few days relaxing before making the 10-hour drive to Mobile to begin our new lives. It was great meeting and getting to know Kim & Mark Dewey and spending some time with Roger & Dixie Olsen, all long-time Lanning family friends.

Since arriving, we have been working diligently unloading, unpacking, organizing and cleaning - what an ordeal! - but we're getting close. Todd changed the oil in the engines yesterday and we are waiting on a voltage regulator for the generator which is due to arrive later this morning; however, there are still a few loose ends that will likely keep us at the marina until Wednesday morning, which is okay since we both still have plenty to do while we're tied up here.

Speaking of the marina, the people at Dog River Marina are great! They have all been very friendly and helpful and we certainly appreciate their assistance and hospitality. The realization that this is now our life, that we have no jobs (and no income!), no house, no permanent home base and that we are living on a boat, has not quite registered with us yet. It still seems as though we are on vacation and will be going back to our "normal" lives soon. I suspect it will take several weeks, possibly even months, before we accept this as the norm.

This has been a whirlwind process that began with making an offer on the boat in mid-February, announcing our resignations and beginning the liquidation process in mid-March, and leaving our "home" in the rear view mirror on May 25th with a 4' x 8' U-Haul trailer in tow. It's been a hectic 3-1/2 months for us, but we are ready to begin the 400+ mile journey north on the Tennessee River/Tombigbee Waterway to Bay Springs Lake where we plan to spend some quality time enjoying the beautiful water and sandy shoreline. With any luck, Todd will catch some fresh fish to eat while we're there!

Before we begin our journey aboard "Life's2Short", we would like to express our sincere gratitude to several special people who have helped make this dream a reality for us:

Bill & Marilyn Lanning - Todd's parents who are almost as excited as we are and who have been incredibly generous in their support of our endeavor;

Wade & Viola Shelton - My parents who have helped us immensely throughout the liquidation process even though, as Todd says, they think we are "one taco short of a combination plate;"

Mike & Mary Hall - current live-aboards who have been a tremendous resource, infinitely patient, and wonderful friends - a truly remarkable duo;

Chuck & Linda Snavely - the previous owners of our beautiful new home and a stellar couple - along with Don Martin, their broker, all of whom worked diligently to finalize the sale and make this transition as easy as possible for us;

Fred Winkler - a sweetheart of a man who has been consistently helpful even after we decided not to pursue the purchase of a boat he was brokering;

Cathy Davis - a terrific lady who was gracious enough to allow us to dock the boat behind her house in St. Petersburg;

Jennifer Booton and Mark Stanley - Todd's sister and friend who pointed us in the right direction when we were boat shopping and who have gone out of their way to assist in any way possible throughout this entire process;

Bob & Linda Eckels - Good friends who contributed their artisitic abilities and woodworking skills to create our calling cards and new name boards for "Life's2Short;" and

Kurt & LaDonna Hansen - Also good friends without whom we would still be trying to determine what computer configuration to purchase and how to make our navigation software function with our GPS.

We so appreciate everything everyone has done for us and feel very fortunate to have had the support of such wonderful people. We couldn't have done it without you!!!

Our initial journey to move the "new" boat from St. Petersburg to Mobile officially began on April 24, 2006. We had a safe, relatively uneventful journey, but we were extremely grateful to have Mike & Mary Hall (the experienced live-aboards) as escorts until we got into the Panhandle.

There is so much to do and so much to learn about the boat and their insight, knowledge and suggestions were invaluable – I don’t know what we would have done without them! We are still far from being pros but we certainly feel better about handling the boat than we did initially and hope to be much more comfortable with it by the end of the summer.

As for the trip, I am already a little “fuzzy” about where we went on what day and what all happened (because so much was happening all the time!), but we went to a city dock at Caladesia Island after we left the dock at St. Petersburg on Monday. We stayed one evening there (the gnats were really bad) and then we went to Anclote Key on Tuesday where we anchored out for the first time. Mary and I went over to the beach in their dinghy on Wednesday morning while the guys got our dinghy down and got the outboard running. We found several nice seashells, and I learned not to go shell-hunting without first applying sunscreen!

We left Anclote Key that afternoon and went to the city marina at Tarpon Springs to stay Wednesday and Thursday nights. The wind was blowing hard when we got there, and Mike was kind enough to “park” our boat in the slip for us after getting their boat secured. We ate dinner Wednesday evening at a great restaurant that Mike & Mary discovered when they were there earlier this year (Hella’s) and enjoyed a little window-shopping along the main drag.

Thursday was spent doing odds & ends around the boat and then Todd and I decided to take a break and go for a walk around town that afternoon. We needed the break and really enjoyed being “tourists” in Tarpon Springs.

We left Tarpon Springs Friday morning, hoping that the winds would be relatively calm for the 8-hour trip to Cedar Key, and they were. We arrived at Cedar Key that evening and by the next morning, the winds had picked up again and we were pretty much isolated in our respective boats for the next two days. The wind finally calmed Sunday evening and the four of us took the dinghies to Cedar Key, walked around for a little while and got a few provisions at the local grocery store.

The plan was to get up at 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning and be ready to pull up anchor by 3:00 a.m. to begin the Gulf crossing. Needless to say, we didn’t stay up too late that evening! As per the plan, Mike radioed us at 2:00 a.m. and he and Todd took the dogs to shore. We began the day as scheduled and, after a moment of confusion trying to navigate out of Cedar Key in the dark, were on our way.

As we got out into open water, the seas began to get a little rough. We experienced 3- to 5-foot seas pretty much all day, and what a long day it was! We finally arrived at St. George Island late that afternoon, without incident, and immediately brought the dinghies down to take the dogs to shore. Had we not been so exhausted, we would have spent more time on the beautiful beach there, but we were all pretty much done-in for the day.

We took our time leaving Tuesday morning and made it to Apalachicola around noon where we purchased 222 gallons of fuel at the bargain price of $2.94 per gallon. This is where Mike & Mary cut the umbilical cord and we continued the journey solo while they went back to the St. George Island area to explore a new anchorage before heading up the river north of Apalachicola the next day.

We traveled west for another 5 hours or so that afternoon and found a suitable (if not great) anchorage for the evening on the east side of East Bay. We put in a long day on Wednesday and anchored at Mary Ester, west of Destin, in a great little spot Mike & Mary had recommended. There were two fairly large cruisers and a sailboat in the anchorage with us but everyone pretty much kept to themselves. We took Buddy over to shore in the dinghy that evening (Todd had to row because the outboard didn’t want to start) and decided we would walk over to the Gulf Shore the next morning, which was about a half-mile from where we were anchored.

After a relatively leisurely Thursday morning, Todd got the dinghy outboard started and we made our way to the beach and then walked over to the Gulf Shore where we found several nice seashells and enjoyed some quiet time on the beach.

Thursday evening found us in Ingram Bayou – another nice anchorage recommended by Mike & Mary – where we ran into a sailboater who, oddly enough, turned out to be a long-time boating acquaintance of Mike & Mary’s! He invited us over to his boat for a drink and we then invited him to join us for dinner, so we spent a few hours chatting and making a new friend. Seems like an odd coincidence, but according to John (the sailboater), Mike & Mary Hall are well known in the boating world, especially in areas around Mobile!

We left early Friday morning so we could get across Mobile Bay before the wind picked up and the forecasted rain moved in. The water was calm and the trip was (thankfully) uneventful. We arrived at Dog River Marina around noon, tied up to the fuel dock and were just finishing pumping out our holding tanks when the rain began. It didn’t last long, but there was some pretty good thunder and lightning and we were glad to be at the marina rather than in the middle of Mobile Bay when it came through!

Todd and I were both relieved to have completed the journey to Mobile but we were also disappointed to be leaving the boat the next day to come back to Springfield. If all goes well, we hope to be back in Mobile by early June and ready to head north about a week later.

Todd and I will soon begin a new chapter in our lives. The following explains what caused us to make this decision and provides some information about our future tentative plans:

In September 2005, we lost our best friend, Duane Teale, in a boating accident while we were vacationing together with he and his wife on Pickwick Lake in Tennessee. As a result of this untimely tragedy, we have reevaluated our lives and priorities and have decided that it is time to make a change. Therefore, Todd and I have resigned our jobs, effective May 19, 2006, and will be leaving Missouri State University and Springfield, Missouri, to begin a new chapter in our lives.

Both Todd and I are avid boaters and Todd has had a desire to take some time off when he reaches age 50 to become a full time live-aboard. I, on the other hand, was new to boating when I met Todd in 1996, but I have since developed a passion for being on the water. With the sudden passing of Duane, we both realize that life can take unexpected turns at any time, so even though Todd is still a few years shy of the 50-year benchmark, we have decided to spend the next few years doing what we love most as full time live-aboards on our new (to us) 40-foot Oceania Sundeck Trawler which we are going to name “Life’s2Short” in honor of Duane Teale.

Over the past few months, we have been liquidating virtually all of our worldly possessions and hope to begin our new lifestyle in early June. We just returned from a two-week jaunt to move our "new" boat from the Tampa/St. Petersburg area to Mobile, Alabama, and the events of this journey are the subject of another post! Fortunately, we were accompanied by an experienced live-aboard couple and we are very grateful to have had their assistance.

We are now in the process of wrapping up all the loose ends in Springfield and preparing to travel one-way back to Mobile to begin our new lives as live-aboards. Once we get the boat loaded with whatever remains of our worldly possessions, we will begin the trip north into the Tennessee Tombigbee (Tenn-Tom) Waterway and on into the Tennessee River system, traveling through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. We will spend the summer months in the Tennessee River system familiarizing ourselves with the boat and its many electronics and operating systems and, depending on our level of comfort with the boat, may embark on a journey in the fall of 2006 to complete what is known as the Great Loop or Great Circle, a circumnavigational cruise of Eastern North America.

For those who don't know, the Great Loop would take us south to Mobile, across the Gulf of Mexico and back to the west coast of Florida. We would then travel south to the Keys and north up the Atlantic coast, through Chesapeake Bay to New York City where we would follow the Hudson River to Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence Seaway to Lake Ontario, the Trent-Severn Waterway, Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay and other waterways of the North Channel of Lake Huron. We would then enter northern Lake Michigan at Mackinac Island and travel southwest to Chicago where we would enter the headwaters of the Illinois River. The Illinois River joins the Mississippi River at St. Louis and we would follow the Mississippi south along the eastern border of Missouri, head east into the Ohio River south of Cape Girardeau, and then into the Cumberland River which would take us back into the Tennessee River system at Kentucky Lake, south of Paducah, Kentucky. The Great Loop encompasses over 6,000 statute miles and well over 100 locks and may be a bit more of a challenge than we are ready for our first year, but it is definitely a journey we want to experience during our time as live-aboards.

We also want to spend some time exploring the Bahamas and the Dry Tortugas, but we don't want to bite off more than we can chew and choke on it, so our only plan at this point is to do as much as we feel comfortable doing whenever we feel comfortable doing it! Both Todd and I realize that it is going to be difficult to untie the lines to the dock, so to speak; to leave the security of good jobs and our land-based family and friends behind, but we were made painfully aware of how suddenly life can change and how very short life can be and neither of us wants to look back and have regrets about what we could/should have done when we had the opportunity.

We recently ran across an apropos quote: “You can always make more money, you can not make more time.” The other quote that Todd has earmarked for several years has been attributed to Mark Twain and is something of a mantra for us as we begin this new chapter in our lives: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Todd also has a t-shirt hanging in his office, which some of you have undoubtedly seen, that says: “Sell the house, keep the dog, live on a boat.” And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we take the plunge to explore, dream and discover.