I’ve got some pretty cool readers.

First, thanks to everyone who provided comments and email feedback. That post got far more of a response than any yet to date. This whole blog thing is a lot more fun when I hear back from you so keep it up. The feedback was intelligent and valuable to me, so thanks. I’ve really got to give Steven Malm, my web designer, some credit. I really like both designs. He came up with two templates that match the basic requirements we discussed.

Having said that, my personal taste seems to run against the grain. I really like design #1 with the white background. One reader called it, “simple and smart” which is kind of the look I was leaning towards. However, based on the overwhelming support by you, the readers of these blogs, I am going with design #2. Steven and I will work to tweak it a bit, but we’ll probably keep with the basic three image format with a slightly modified header, and textual excerpts from the daily blog and children’s blog to help draw readers deeper into the site.

I got a lot of comments on the eagle and I couldn’t help but laugh a little every time. I don’t know if we’ll actually use any of the three pictures that are on the template now. Steven just grabbed three pictures to plug in while he was working on the layout. Most likely it will be some version of a pic of me with my blog text below, a SOS child from the next site visit I am going to make and a letter from that child telling about themselves, and finally a boat pic project details. The end result will be a hybrid somewhere between the two styles. Maybe a white background version of the three image layout? We’ll see. Steven’s got a much better eye for design than I do so I take most of my cues from him on this one.

In a random twist, I am now legally ordained. Yep, you can call me skipper, captain, or even Reverend! Two of my good friends are getting married a year from now in April. They wanted a non religious ceremony and a way to keep it on the lighter side. So, yours truly will be consummating, no wait, I mean solemnizing the wedding. This is going to be fun. I should just be ready to cross, or just finished crossing the Panama Canal so it will be a good time to come home before I head into the Pacific.
I went to my second photography class last night to learn more about photographic composition. It wasn’t much better than what I got off of google, but still helped a little. I am supposed to snap a bunch of pictures highlighting the various aspects of composition and we’ll review them in class next week. I think that will be more helpful than anything. Hopefully I’ll be able to start posting some more interesting pictures in the next few weeks.

And now, having already removed the old Furuno 1621 radar dome from the mizzen mast, I’ve got to climb back up it with the new one and get this project crossed off my list. I almost had a heart attack when I looked at the little counter in the top left last night. It slipped below 200 days and I didn’t even notice. The Race to Veracruz is June 6th and I’ve got a lot to do to get this boat offshore ready again.