Lets face it, a blog filled with good news is boring. No one wants to read about the great weather we are having, the fresh seafood we are eating, or the wonderful time that we are having with our friends here. If that is all I ever put down, no one would be anxious to log on and check out our blog!I In fact you may decide that you don't even like us much anymore.

I finally have something exciting to tell you about....... We survived our first direct hit by a waterspout/tornado! When you are on a dock and don't plan on travelling any time soon, you really don't pay much attention to weather forecasts or listen to any marine weather on the VHF. We had just finished quite a few days of record breaking temperatures and did know that we would have our first real rainfall since we have been here on Wednesday and then a cold front was suppose to move through on Thursday (American Thanksgiving) which would bring us cooler temperatures by Friday. Since we were having such nice weather, Bruce and I had put up the sails on Tuesday and the bimini and dodger on Wednesday. We luckily decided not to put any of the side panels on as the weather had not turned cold enough to want shelter from the cooler breezes. As is the case most nights, we went to bed with the companion way wide open and the deck covered with various boating paraphernalia. We had the air conditioning on so all of our other hatches were closed and thankfully locked shut. This is not always the case but for some reason, Bruce had checked them all before he went to bed. I woke up about 2 in the morning and there was lightning everywhere. I love a good storm so decided that I would sit in the cockpit and watch the storm for a while. The lightning was so intense, I quickly changed my mind, unplugged the computer and went back to bed. Because our mast is so high, I am always worried about a lightning strike. About an hour later Bruce and I were both up as the rain had started pounding and the thunder and lightning were much closer together. We closed the companionway door as the rain was now blowing in the entrance way, checked for any leaks and once again went back to bed. We hadn't been back in bed very long when we both head a very loud crash. Bruce thought that we had been hit by another boat. We both sprang out of bed. Bruce was just getting his foul weather jacket on to go out on deck when we felt this incredible gust of wind. It felt like the wind was trying to suck Con El Viento right out of the water. We were watching out our windows trying to see if any of our lines have come loose or the poles that we were tied to were strong enough to hold a 18 ton boat, in hurricane force winds, without breaking. What seemed an eternity, but was probably only a couple of minutes, and then the worst was over. Bruce went out on deck and I turned on the VHF and tuned into the local Boot key Harbor station to see what else was happening in the harbor. The chatter was unbelievable. Boats had been knocked over on their sides, losing everything off their counters and out of their cupboards. One boat had come off their mooring ball and was heading toward a cement seawall, bouncing off numerous boats along the way, dinghies were overturned, gas cans. cockpit cushions, kayaks and hatch covers blown off boats. One trimaran in the mooring field flipped completely upside down and still sits that way in the harbor. Luckily no one was on it. On shore, trees were uprooted, lawn furniture tossed into neighboring yards, our shed was completely destroyed and our neighbor's window blew out. The local drinking establishment, Dockside, was completely destroyed except for the bar and many of the pilings that had boats tied to them snapped. This must have been very scary for the people living on boats there. Our boat did not sustain any damage, even the canvas that we had just put up the day before came through it without a tear. The only thing we lost but later recovered was the cushion off of our back bench. Chuck, the owner of the boat beside us, plucked it out of the water for us. We lost all power for a couple of hours but by daybreak it was back on again. The rains lasted all through Wednesday and there are areas still flooded 3 days after the storm. The next morning there were dinghies everywhere picking up debris from the water to return to their owners. We also found out that the winds had hit 102 knots which is about 117 mph, and there were 2 reported waterspouts that hit the area.

Wednesday's weather was really not great for cleanup but everyone pitched in and by Thursday, Dockside was open for it's annual Turkey dinner for cruisers. We had planned a dinner party in the backyard on Wednesday evening as our friend's daughter and boyfriend, who had been visiting for the previous week, were leaving the next morning to go back home. We had ordered a big bag of fresh stone crab, shrimp and steak so instead of having it in the backyard, we moved it onto the boat. It was a bit crowded but we're boaters so we are used to doing things in small spaces! By Thursday we had a lot to be thankful for and we celebrated the American Thanksgiving with 2 of our Canadian friends from Penetang who we met last year around this time. We went to the Island Restaurant where they served us a whole turkey, carved at our table with all the trimmings and then bagged all the leftovers to take home with us for Turkey sandwiches the next day.

Now for all the boring stuff! I can't believe that we have been gone for almost a month. Soon we will be thinking of flying home for Christmas. We still have lots of work to do but it is slowly getting done and we are really not that interested in working everyday, all day. We have a new water heater on order and it should be here by next week so have removed the old one in the meantime so we are back to heating water on the stove for dishes. We are lucky to have the small apartment where we can have hot showers so we are really not roughing it while we wait. Bruce has golfed a couple of times and gone out fishing once. We are walking or riding our bikes everyday and enjoying the warm weather and reconnecting with friends. In the next week or so we will head to Ft. Lauderdale to visit with another friend who is here from New Zealand and hopefully get some Christmas shopping done. It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit here but will still have time to shop when we come home. That's all for now, will blog again when I have more bad news!!

On the water again

We arrived back in Marathon on Monday evening, November the 2nd. We had a long day as we stopped in Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our bottom paint from a friend of Bruce's who drove it down, stopped for dinner and then did a bit of shopping at the Outlet Mall! Our friends Pat and Addison from Three Penny Opera where here to meet us so they came up to the apartment for a visit and we did a lot of catching up!

The boat looked good when we did a quick check on it the next day and after a good washing and a coat of bottom paint, it was ready to splash once again for another year. I wish I could say that the launch was uneventful but as luck would have it, that was not the case! Actually the launch went well but the trip back to our slip did not. Pat and Addison were waiting for us to arrive to catch some lines and help us in, thank goodness, as we usually are on our own! On the trip over, Bruce noticed that the engine was not running well, not a good thing when you do not have any sails on yet! As we were limping along, we called Addison and Pat to come out in their dinghy to assist us if needed. It wasn't long after that, that the engine conked out completely and Bruce was unable to restart it! Now the wind had picked up considerably and we immediately began to drift towards some other pilings close to shore. Just our luck that there is a late hurricane approaching and that was giving us very windy conditions. Pat and Addison managed to make it in just in time before we were on top of them and grabbed our bow line to pull us away. Now imagine this, they are in a little dinghy with a 9.9 engine and we are in a 22 ton sailing vessel, not an easy task for them! Needless to say after a lot of scrambling and much discussion and yelling of directions, we managed to pick up a mooring ball, just in time we were fast approaching a navigational marker! This also attracted the attention of another small boat who also came to our assistance!
Once we were safely secured on the ball, Bruce went to investigate and realized that the bleed screw to the engine was loose. This was allowing too much air to get into the engine. He tight ed the screw, ran the engine for 5 minutes and we continued on to our dock, whew, definitely tooo much excitement for one day!

We are now safely on our dock and have stopped all work for the day. Tomorrow we will get an early start as Bruce did try to start the air conditioners and the pump had seized once again! We thought we had this problem solved this year. We will spend another night in the apartment and hopefully will be on the boat tomorrow night. Never a dull moment in the land of Bruce and Esther's sailabout! Oh yeah forgot to mention between all of this, Lindsay called to say that our new furnace that we had installed right before we left, had stopped working! She managed to handle that one and the house is warm once again. Apparently it was a loose wire!