Yes, I hear you David, John and everyone else on this list. Actually, I was afraid this would happen and I had to write about the duck and our travel. It could be a long story, so I will try to keep it short and not to venture off the subject. I will write it in two parts. Part one about the duck and part two the travel. Our duck is the traditional 41 duck of George Buehler's duck line. A picture can be seen at George Buehler's website at http://www.dieselducks.com/ roll down the page to "STOCK DUCK PLANS & Plan Prices" click this and the new upcoming page begins with a photo of our duck cruising the waterway in Ft. Lauderdale. While at it, you could roll down that page and click at "Diesel Duck 41" and read the letter of our travel in Venezuela from 2006. The yard that built our duck in the winter 98/99 in Canada, built two more ducks after ours and one of them is the duck in the photo with the sign: "Please don't feed the birds, thank you." It's the original 48 duck on George Buehler's front page. When we got our duck in the summer of 99, it was not finished. Only the metal work was done. We became our own contractors and a six year journey of finishing the boat began. If someone says you save money by doing your own boat, he is not telling you the truth. It still does cost a bundle and might not look right. To have a professional looking boat you have to spend money and might resort to professional help. We spent a good deal onUS $400,000 or Cdn $600,000 in 2005. Well, by being your own contractor, you get what you want. DD holds 3 tons of diesel in four tanks, has a fuel polishing system which permits interchange of fuel in any way from tank to tank. The main engine is a 80 Hp Perkins with a Preluber. The engine drives a 20 inch Hundested related controllable pitch propeller system, which works with a Bosch hydraulic power pack and is controlled by a joystick on the dash. There is a 4.2 KW Norpro diesel generator and a 2.5 KW Trace inverter with built-in 150 Amp charger. Four Trojan L16H deep cycle batteries and an additional smaller Trojan battery close to the electronics gives us 900 Amps. To feed this, the main engine has a 100 Amp Balmar alternator piggyback mounted and 300 Watt of solar panels on the wheelhouse roof, complimented by an Airmarine wind generator help to keep up the voltage for use. --This is going to be technical for a while, so don't get tired. On the plumbing side we have 120 gal. water in three polyethylene tanks, filled by deck inlet or shore pressure water inlet. An 800 gal. water maker helps us to keep up the water level, when cruising. A 4 gal/min. electronic Shurflo water pressure pump provides enough water pressure for hot and cold water to galley, shower and toilet(cold only:-). A washing machine/dryer is on board. having the big water maker permits us to wash the boat down after an offshore passage. Inside the boat we have airconditioning for the aft cabin where we sleep and with spillover into the wheelhouse. For heating we have two Webasto forced air heaters(each 2000W) to keep the salon and aft cabin up to temperature up in Canada or down here in southern Chile. The galley has a 3 burner gas range, an under the counter fridge and an 8 cubic foot freezer. In the wheelhouse the steering is hydraulic, connected to a Simrad AP11 autopilot which is interfaced to a Furuno GPS 37. The radar/chart plotter unit is Furuno Navnet, 4 KW and C-map with 10" screen. A JRC Navtex NCR330 receiver w. paper is one of the sources for weather. Both the SSB M802 and the VHF M602 are from ICOM.. I don't want to drive it in, so I will stop now with this technical stuff. Our Diesel Duck 41 is called "Diesel Duck" and is very well equipped. But, it only sleeps two and this is my wife and me. Guests have to sleep on the salon table, which can be electrically raised and lowered. We are extremely happy with the boat. It is very economical and an easy driven boat. In 2008 DD logged 6250 miles including a 1400 plus miles offshore voyage in 10 days from Ecuador to Chile. I will cover this in the next part. Best regards, Benno Klopfer