We are now on Warderick Wells Cay which is home to the headquarters of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. The Park is 22 miles long and 8 miles wide. It includes 15 large islands and many more tiny ones and its purpose is to provide a safe haven and replenishment area for the wildlife native to the Bahamas and to educate the public in saving this beautiful environment. The water here is pristine and has numerous reefs to explore and snorkel or dive on. Fishing is not permitted in the park and if you hike anywhere, you must remain on the trails. Yesterday we hiked up to the infamous Boo Boo Hill where boaters go and leave mementos from their boats. We placed our homemade boat plaque amongst the hundreds of others that were there. There is also a spectacular blow hole nearby which provided much entertainment to the children hiking with us as well as the adults. We have been following the same route of many other same boats, thus we have gotten to know quite a few of them. We have been busy snorkelling, hiking, visiting during potluck dinners at the Park Headquarters and enjoying happy hours on different boats. We will probably leave tomorrow and head to Staniel Cay where our friends Brad and Anita Taylor will join us for a few days on the boat.

We left Frazer Hog Cay for our last really deep water crossing of the Tongue of the Ocean. After that we would be in the relatively shallow waters of the Bahamas Banks. We headed for Nassau where we would visit with Bruce's cousin Heather, her husband Mark and their 3 children. We stayed at the Nassau Harbor Club as we needed to get fuel, refill our water, do some laundry and re provision the boat. Heather and Mark helped us with all of this as well as having us for dinner one night at their place. Thanks for all the chauffeuring around and all your help! We hope to see them again on the way back and have them all on the boat for a sail and a night on the water. Nassau was certainly a change of pace from the quiet nearly deserted islands that we have visited in the Bahamas so far. We couldn't get over how busy it was. The Bahamas has really suffered the effects of the slowing economy as everywhere we go we have noticed resorts that have closed their doors and the ones that are open, have very little visitors which is a shame as they are so beautiful.

We finally got a weather forecast that gave us at least 3 days of warm weather and light winds so we left Nassau on a beautiful day to cross the Great Bahamas Banks and start our exploration of the Exuma Island Chain. Our first stop would be Allan Cay. We had to pass over the Yellow Banks which is a shallow bit of water with numerous coral heads. When we got there, I went to the bow and watched for coral heads so that I could direct Bruce around them. Before we left Marathon, Addison and Pat Chan on Three Penny Opera had given us a pair of headsets to use to communicate to each other when we were anchoring or needed to communicate with each other when one of us was on the bow and the other driving. This has been the best gift ever as we have used them many times and don't know how we ever managed without them! Thank you, thank you Pat and Addison!

When we dropped the anchor in front of Allan's Cay, we really felt we had arrived. This was our first experience of the inviting clear waters of the Exumas. People have told us how beautiful it is and we have seen pictures of it but nothing compares to actually seeing it. Allans Cay is also home to intriguing prehistoric iguanas. They are protected here and you can go to shore and feed them. As soon as you approach with your dinghy, they come out to meet you. Once or twice each day a fast boat arrives from Nassau filled with tourists who want to come and see the iguanas. You can put food on a stick and they will eat it right off the stick. We spent 3 nights on Allan's Cay before heading to Normans Cay where we would meet up with friends that we had crossed the Gulf Stream with and spent time in Bimini with.

Norman's Cay was very interesting as it had once been under the control of a drug lord by the name of Carlos (Joe) Lehder. Now most of the island is privately owned and it has its own airstrip. It has one restaurant and bar by the name of MacDuffs and to get there you must cross the airstrip making sure to look both ways for landing or departing airplanes! We took a long walk to the top of a hill where there is an abandoned houseboat. Legend has it that this boat used to come and anchor off Norman's Cay and had been warned by the drug lord not to do so. The owner ignored this advice and upon returning to his boat one day discovered it to be gone from its anchorage.

It was later found on the top of a hill!

After 10 days of waiting and hanging out in Bimini, we finally got what we thought was a small weather window to leave. We left Bimini around 11 a.m. with 3 other boats with a plan to stop half way to Chub Key and anchor on the Bahama Banks. We knew that the first 6 miles would be rough but then we would be in much smoother water once we turned onto the Banks. We had one of our best sails ever on Con El Viento as we sailed for about 9 hours straight without ever having to turn on the engine! The winds were behind us which helped to push us towards our destination. The only disappointment was that we never did see the bottom of the ocean. The depth of the water over the banks is only between 14 and 20 feet and because of the clear blue water, people have told us how spectacular it is to be sailing over the banks and be able to spot starfish and other marine life on the ocean floor. Since we were all having such a great sail, we decided to keep going after dark and anchor further than we had planned when we left Bimini, this way we would have a shorter sail the next day to our destination. The winds were also expected to pick up the next day so we figured we could get to our protected anchorage before that happened. Because the banks are so shallow, you can pretty much drop the hook anywhere you choose. You are out in the middle of nowhere and cannot see any land no matter which direction you look. It is a very strange feeling and I was glad that we were with the other boats. The only mistake we made was anchoring on the banks as the waves never settled down and it was quite rough for sleeping. Next time we would probably plan to leave later and sail all night without stopping. This was an option for us but because I hate nighters and had heard how great it was to sail during the daylight hours over the banks, we decided to anchor halfway and sail during the day. We won't do that again as we didn't really get any sleep at night anyway as we were rocking and rolling all night. One of the boats with us broke their anchor chain at 0300 and had to circle around until 0600 when we planned to leave again. Our chain also broke shortly after we went to bed and we had to get up and throw out our secondary anchor. Thank goodness we had a trip line on the anchor and were able to retrieve our brand new anchor once the sun came up the next day and we could see it. Bruce had a heck of a time trying to bring up both anchors.

Our trip from our anchorage on the shallow banks took us through a narrow channel called the Northwest Passage and into the Tongue of the Ocean. The Tongue of the Ocean is a very very deep body of water and we went from clear blue water that was around 30 feet deep to water that was over 1000 feet deep in a matter of seconds. You could actually see the line where the water changes colour to a deep blue and the depth drops off like falling over a cliff. Some areas in the Tongue are over 10,000 feet deep!

By the time we were turning up to where we were going to anchor, the winds had really picked up so we were glad that we had pushed and went further than we planned the first day. We picked up a mooring ball in Frazer Hog Key which is part of the Berry Island Marina. The Marina is about the only thing there is on Frazer Hog. It is run by a young lad named Herbie and a cook by the name of Hilda. On the other side of the Island is Chub Island Resort. A very exclusive, expensive resort and marina. It is too far to walk over to the resort and have not been able to bum a ride over but did talk to one man who got a ride over to get fuel and he told us that it was very dead with very few boats. I have yet to see one boat at the dock in this marina even though we were told when we came in that they had a special on for $1.00 a foot. After a couple of days, we knew why. There is a very strong current running up this channel which makes things a bit uncomfortable at times as the boat doesn't always point into the wind and waves because of the current. The waves hit you from the side causing an annoying rocking from side to side. At night the mooring ball hits the side of the boat for a couple of hours which keeps us awake. I have gotten into the habit of going to bed early, reading for a couple of hours in the night when this happen and then going back to bed again. The first night we were here, on of the boats was anchored and realized in the middle of the night that his rode was wrapped all around the boat and that he was dragging his anchor. He was afraid to start his engine as he wasn't sure if the rode would wrap around his prop. He tried everything to wake the boat beside him as he was slowly drifting his way. By the time they woke us, he was dangerously close to hitting them. He decided to tie a fender on the anchor, cut the anchor loose and pick it up the next day. Luckily this worked and he was able to start his engine without the rode getting caught on his prop. By this time his floodlight had died and he had to try to find the only empty mooring ball in the dark without hitting our boat which he couldn't see too well as our anchor light had burnt out. He has only a 30 foot boat and his girlfriend has only been sailing for 2 months. She had to try to pick up this ball and hold on for dear life as the boat was rocking back and forth. They managed to pick it up only to realize that with all the rocking and rolling, the gas tank had somehow gotten under the plug for their dingy and pulled it out. The dingy was full of water and their engine was almost under water! Joel had to now deal with this emergency! What a night they had, I think Jackie was ready to take the next flight out!

We decided to head into the marina and have lunch. When we got there we were told that there wasn't any power and if we wanted lunch, we had to order it the day before! We ordered lunch for the next day and it was great. The marina has a washer and dryer but we found out that the power is out everyday until 5 p.m. when they start the generator and the place is lit up like a Christmas tree all night. This can't be good for business as most people we see come over during the day and are back at their boats at night. This also means that we have no power for our computers so have to make sure that the battery is fully charged before we bring the computer up to get the Internet. The Internet is not great but we have managed to get our e-mail, check weather and make a couple of calls on Skype. The rest of the day is quite relaxing as it is too rough for fishing and too cold for swimming or snorkeling. I have been reading lots of books and will soon run out of reading material so hopefully we will get out of here soon.

It looks like a nice window is opening up to leave on Thursday and then it should be nice right thru the weekend. We will try to leave then and head to Nassau. We are both looking forward to being in a bigger city, visiting with relatives and other friends we know are there and restocking our fresh food. We have not had bread for a week! Hopefully the next blog will be from Nassau.

Hello everyone, we are now in the Bahamas! Bimini actually and it is as beautiful as everyone said it is. The water colour is an amazing shade of turquoise in the shallower water to a navy blue as the water gets deeper. We left Marathon on Thursday, January 22nd for Rodriques Key. We were not sure when we left if we would cross from there or go further North to a place called Angelfish Creek. It just felt great to be off the dock and moving once again. Once on the hook again, we decided that we would in fact cross from Rodriques, thus taking full advantage of the Gulf Stream and had a very pleasant relaxing day on anchor. Two other boats came in and after talking to them decided that we would all cross together early the next day. We started out at 04:30 happy to have the company of someone else to cross with. We hadn't got very far before we realized that it was going to be an uncomfortable crossing if we continued forward. We decided to turn around and head to No Name Harbor outside of Miami along with one of the other boats instead and wait for better weather. We knew that Rick and Carla from Euphoria were in No Name and we could cross with them when the weather improved. The forecast was indeed better the next day with a lighter NE wind changing to a light East wind. We decided to try it once more with the option again of turning around. The next window would not be until Wednesday of that week so plan B was to head into South Beach and spend a few days there. I quite liked that idea also. We left at 0600 this time which was a bit of a mistake as every fishing boat in Miami also goes out at that time and the wake they create is much worse than anything we could experience in the Gulf Stream!
The first 2 hours were a bit rough but as the winds clocked around to the East, the seas actually became quite flat with waves only about 1 to 2 feet. All in all it was a very uneventful enjoyable crossing except for a small mechanical problem we had about 6 miles out of Bimini. We have always had trouble getting a fan belt for our engine that fits properly and all of a sudden an engine overheat alarm went off. Our fan belt had come off, thus causing the engine to overheat. Bruce changed the belt, let the engine cool down again and we were on our way. We did hear one boat turning around as they were taking on water so we felt lucky that our problem was one that could be easily fixed and that it happened when it did instead of in the small channel coming into Bimini!
We pulled into a dock at Blue Water Resort and Marina, cleared customs without a hitch and now we have begun our Bahamas adventure! There are as many Canadian boats here as there are American boats and we have been busy meeting lots of new friends and catching up with some old friends! Last night we had a big potluck dinner that boaters are famous for having. One of the boats had caught a Mahi Mahi coming over and gave us some to eat and some other boats bought some fresh lobster from a local who also stayed and prepared it for them!
We will probably leave here tomorrow as the weather is suppose to improve for the next couple of days and then another cold front is coming on Friday. We hope to make it to the Berry Islands before that and hide out there before heading to Nassau. We really don't want to be in Nassau over a weekend anyway. We hope to visit with Bruce's cousin Heather, her husband Mark and their 3 children for a couple of days before heading on to the Exuma chain of islands. Not sure when we will have the Internet again, probably not before Nassau. It is better in the Bahamas Dave, and we are having a great time. Talk to you all soon.

Happy New Year everyone! It has been over a month since I have updated this blog but what can I say, time sure flies when you are in the Keys! Hope everyone had a great time over the Christmas holidays. We had a very quiet Christmas and although we had Christmas dinner with friends, Pat and Dave, we missed not being at home (even the snow) and swore that we would never do that again. New Years was a different story as all of the kids drove down to spend a week with us. The gang arrived at 0130 on the 29th of December and we didn't stop until they left on the 4th of January! We had a lot to cram in in a weeks time and wanted to make sure we did as much as we could possibly do! Trevor celebrated his 30th birthday on December 20th and since we missed it at home, we decided to celebrate it one more time in the Keys. We all went to a great restaurant and had a fun night on the 29th of December. The next night we celebrated our Christmas on the boat and then the next night was New Years Eve! We are definitely getting too old for this many celebrations in a row! In between the night celebrations, we managed to fit in snorkeling trips, dive trips, golf games, beach volleyball games, pool time and a day in Key West. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time they left but happy to have all the great memories of a wonderful time!





After the kids left, we had a visit from Dave and Judy Burns. They have a place rented in Ft. Lauderdale for 3 months but couldn't get it until the 7th of January so they came the 5th and stayed 2 nights. It is always great to see friends from home and we took the opportunity to have Dave and Pat over for dinner so we could all catch up on the news from home and the happenings at PCYC .





We are now planning our trip to the Bahamas and hope to leave in the next couple of days. We had hoped to leave last week after a short trip back to Mississauga, but the weather window was too short and we were not comfortable with it, so we signed up for another week at the resort. It has turned unseasonably cold here with temperatures at night dipping into the low 40's . Very unusual for Florida and the folks around here really don't like it much! The weather is suppose to improve as the week goes by and the winds are suppose to turn around and be from the South on Sunday and Monday. We will probably leave here on Friday to head North for a couple of days to position ourselves for an easy crossing to Bimini. We stopped at Costco on our way back from Mississauga and now have a well stocked pantry. Bruce has been busy getting the boat ready for the Bahamas. There is a lot to think about as it will not be as easy to get thinks fixed or to get spare parts once we leave Florida for the Bahamas. Once we start travelling again, I hope to post blogs move often to keep all of our friends and family up to date especially since we will not be able to call home as often as we have. We are also getting really spoiled but being on a dock for so long. We will have to get used to conserving water, fuel and power once we are in the Bahamas. Things are about to change but we look forward to the next adventure and hope to have lots of pictures and stories to share with all of you in the near future. We will miss all of our new friends here in Marathon but know that we will hopefully see them all again in the Spring or next Fall.

Blair and Lorie's new Morgan, they will be heading to Cuba next weekend.

Friends around the dock!

After being away from the boat for 6 months, there is always a transition period where you have to readjust to once again living aboard a boat and spending most of the day with your spouse. This is not always easy but eventually you do and you get used to the bad habits (and sometimes annoying habits) you have picked up by being a landlubber for the last 6 months. I am happy to report that I think we have finally done so (although I still haven't gotten Bruce to hang up his wet towel yet!) He is not writing this or I am sure he would be adding his two cents also, but I am not going to let him!
When we first arrived, most of the other boaters were live-a-boards that either worked in town or spent most of their day at the local pub with their dog and a cigarette in their hands. We really didn't have much in common and had a difficult time meeting new boaters. One day while listening to the Cruiser's Net, Bruce heard a gentleman by the name of Tom looking for other people to join him and go diving. He thought this sounded like a good idea as our boat was not ready to take out yet and he was anxious to get diving again. We tried to meet up with him before going out, but that didn't work out (big mistake), Tom said he didn't mind picking us up as we also had not got our dinghy in the water yet. We hadn't gotten very far in the dinghy when he started to tell us that he was short on cash and had to find a way of making some money as he had lost his check book (we found out later that his check book was his last girlfriend). He then told us that he would like to charter his boat but was having a hard time getting the appropriate licences as he was bipolar and on medication. This was looking more and more like a bad idea! As we were getting out of the dinghy and onto his boat, he told us that we would have to take our shoes off, which we didn't mind until we got on to the boat and saw that the boat was filthy! At this time I was glad that I told him we would bring lunch instead of taking him up on the offer of pea soup that he had made the day before and was still sitting on the stove and remained there all day. He started the engines and told Bruce to throw off the bow line. When he put the boat in gear, I heard him say "that doesn't sound good" and when he tried to put move forward, we didn't move at all except to drift toward another boat. We fended off the other boat and picked up another mooring ball. Tom jumped into the water to check out the problem only to return to say that he would have to put on his scuba gear as the prop was covered in barnacles. We finally got off again and decided to go out Sister's Creek as it would save us some time and it was high tide so we wouldn't have a problem getting out that way. Both Bruce and I told Tom at different times that he could not head straight to the entrance of the Creek as there was a very shallow shoal that we would have to go around first but he assured us he had the depth sounder on and he was in lots of water. I guess you already know what happened as our day just kept getting better and better. We were now hard aground and could not get off by ourselves, we had to call Boat U.S. to come and tow us off. Our day did manage to get better and Bruce did get out diving but we will certainly think twice again before we commit to a day on the water with a stranger!
By the end of November many of the Snowbirds started to arrive along with some friends that we had met last year. It was nice to meet other sailors that were on their boats because they wanted to be, were anxious to meet other sailors and were interested in travelling to other areas. Soon all the docks will be full here with the arrival of our friends Kent and Linda from Ottawa and Pat and Addison from PCYC. The meet and greets have started over at the city marina and we have met other Canadians from Penetanguishene and Manitoba. We have finally got the boat ready to sail and will probably go out for the first time this week as the weather is supposed to hit 80 degrees again by midweek but then turn cooler again by Thursday. We have again been having trouble with our dinghy engine and Bruce has spent many hours working on it with lots of advice from the local inflatable boat dealer. The salt air along with the ethanol in the fuel causes the carburetor to gum up and then the engine will not run. The latest piece of advice from the mechanic at inflatable boats was to boil our carburetor for 20 minutes every three months (seriously). We tried this and it has been running better than it ever has!
The fisherman next door is back finally so we now have a constant supply of freshly cleaned Mangrove Snapper anytime we want. This makes Bruce really happy! Many of the restaurants here are feeling the effects of the poor economy and are offering $5.00 lunches which are just great as you can't even eat at McDonalds for that! This really makes me happy as it means less cooking yeah!
There is less than 3 weeks left before Christmas and we are really having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. It just doesn't seem right to have warm weather and palm trees at Christmas. We have not even started to decorate our boat and have not gotten a tree yet. We did go to see Four Christmases this weekend so that helped get me motivated a bit . One thing that I am not missing however is the crowded shopping malls. We move over to Sombrero Resort next week so am looking forward to using the pool and tennis courts. All of the kids are coming down for a week over New Years and we are really excited about having everyone together for a whole week. Not sure what our plans are over Christmas yet but this will probably be the last blog until after New Years. We are anxious to get on the move again and it is looking more and more like the Bahamas in January but like all of our plans this is subject to change at any time!
Bruce and I would like to wish all of our family. friends and anyone else that follows our blog a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

On the boat again

As most of you already know, we are once again continuing our voyage on Con El Viento. We left home on November 3rd for a much easier and quicker trip by plane to Ft. Lauderdale. After a brief stop in Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our bottom paint which arrived by car courtesy of a friend of Bruce's who drives down each year and spends the winter there, we were once again on our way to Marathon. As we headed South to the Keys, we both felt that it seemed like only yesterday that we had put the boat away for the summer. We were never more acutely aware of how quickly time really does pass by!



We spent the first 4 nights staying with Gale and Mary, friends that we rent our dock from in Marathon, and after spending so much time in their spacious brand new house, I wasn't sure how I was going to adjust to the confines of the boat again!



When we summerized the boat in April, we left it thinking that we would probably return once or twice during the summer to check on it but those plans never materialized therefore we were very anxious to get on board and to see how it had summered! There were a few surprises but all in all the boat did not look too worse for wear. We have already started a list of things to do differently when we put the boat away for next summer. The real test would be done once it was put in the water and we could check all of the systems that couldn't be started until then. Since we were not allowed to do any work on our boat in the yard, we had a fairly easy first few days as the bottom was painted and then dropped in the water by Marathon Boat Yard. We were happy with their service but found their prices a bit high so will probably check out a couple of other yards next year, especially those that let you do your own work on your boat. Once the boat was in the water, our work began and we had a very busy week ahead of us.



Once the batteries were charged, the engine started the first time and we left for our dock at Gale and Mary's. The first order of business was to start up the air conditioning as it was stinking hot and anyone that knows us, knows how much we love our air conditioning! Without it, we would be miserable . Unfortunately, it didn't work. The pump had seized and had to be taken out and fixed. As it was an old style pump, it weighed a ton. Bruce was not doing any heavy lifting as he had hernia surgery before coming down, so it was up to me to help him get it out and fixed. We lubricated the pump and got it working again but had to put it in twice as the first time we reinstalled it, we screwed up the electrical. This job took all day to fix but we now have air conditioning, yeah!



The first few days flew by as we plugged away at all the chores that had to be done, the boat had to be cleaned, inside and out, the new enclosure put on, the sails brought in for repair, everything had to be unpacked again and put away, beds had to be make up, suitcases unpacked, food had to be purchased, barbecue and instruments had to be reinstalled, systems had to be checked and the list goes on and on! We were so overwhelmed at first we didn't know where to start but eventually you get through it. Each task seemed to take longer than planned, not one thing seemed to go off without a hitch and everything cost more than we planned. Some would say "that's boating", but it can be very frustrating at times. There is still work to be done but we are not feeling so overwhelmed anymore and we are now working at a slower pace.



Talk about costing more than we planned, since we had to have our sails checked over and a few minor repairs done, we called around to a couple of different places. Most had gone out of business and there was only one place that would do work on sails. After telling us that she charges $100.00 an hour and if we didn't like that we would have to take them to Ft. Lauderdale, we had no other choice but to leave them with her. The bill was $500.00 dollars for work that would have cost us at the most $200.00 at home! I also decided to have our comforter dry cleaned as according to the tag, it could not be washed. I sent it with Bruce when he was out doing some errands and asked him to drop it off at the cleaners on his way. He returned with the comforter as apparently they wanted $95.00 to clean it! Even to him that seemed a bit steep! I threw it in the washing machine as I didn't really have anything to loose and it came out beautifully! We also had to purchase a new starting battery, ours was 8 years old so it was due, and the pump to our forward head had to be replaced. We were glad to have the car for a week with all the running around that had to be done.



We are now settling back into our routine of coffee and a bike ride in the morning. It feels good to be back and hope to start up our social life again after a week or so of solid work! We still haven't put the sails on as Bruce should not be doing any heavy lifting for another week or so, but once they are up, we look forward to getting out on the water for the first time. We are just about ready for company, any takers?? our plans are to stay here until around the 15th of January and then who knows...

We are now in our final week of our 11 month adventure and it is hard to believe that it is coming to an end. It seems really strange to be preparing the boat for summer storage instead of winter storage. We are newbies at this so we have been trying to gather as much information that we can on the best things to do to prepare your boat for the summer sun, high heat, and hurricane season! The last thing we want is to come back in the fall to a real mess. The sails are now down, the dinghy is out of the water and we continue each day doing a few things towards getting the boat ready for Monday's haul out. This will also be my final blog entry for this season. I have never been a journal keeper or enjoyed writing much so I have to say that I am glad to stop for the next few months! I am proud of myself to have kept it up all year and hope that you all have enjoyed sharing the adventure with us.

We have really enjoyed our time in Marathon and have made some great new friends with whom we have shared some wonderful times with. We had been out to Sombrero Reef 3 different times snorkeling and diving. Once on Euphoria with Rick and Carla and twice on our boat when Leanne came to visit. We had quite the exciting day with Rick and Carla. We had decided to go diving early so that we would be sure to get a mooring ball and also because Rick rented his equipment so we wanted to make sure we had lots of time as the equipment had to be returned by 6 p.m. Rob and Susan from Mandate were also joining us so the boat was very full with 6 people, 3 who had all of their diving equipment and the rest of us with all of our snorkel gear and food etc. We managed to get it all loaded by shortly after 9 a.m. and quickly got off our mooring ball. As we were motoring very slowly out of the harbor and picking our way around all of the other boats, we somehow got into shallow water and you guessed it, grounded ourselves. This was really quite funny as we had often joked about the first time we had talked to Rick and Carla was when they were hard aground along the ICW. After that first day, it seemed everyday that we talked to them or saw them, they were once again on the bottom or had been on the bottom at some point in that day. It got to be a daily ritual and we often joked about it with them so it only seemed right that the first time we went out with them that we were stuck in the muck so to speak. They knew just what to do and there were lots of other boats around to help us out, but no matter what we did or how hard we tried, we just couldn't get free. We had resigned ourselves into thinking that we would have to wait for the next high tide which was about 4 hours away and started to get the cards out when all of a sudden we looked like we were moving and sure enough, we were free at last. Our diving day was not ruined after all and we had a fantastic day even though it was shorter than we hoped for!

Here we all are trying everything we possibly could to get the boat off the bottom!

Bruce (the heaviest) on the boom!

Susan hanging off the side

Highlights of the last month have been a visit for a long weekend by Bruce's daughter Leanne, lunch with some old friends from Naples Stefanie and Jim Curland (Bruce and I worked with Stefanie at Nordair and Canadian and they are now living in Naples Florida), a visit from Bob and Mardi (Salty Lady) who drove down from Nettles Island for a visit and stayed overnight, many potluck dinners with our friends Rob and Susan (Mandate), Norm and Paula (Madame) and Rick and Carla (Euphoria), bocce ball tournaments, baseball games (apparently I was the best 2nd base player they ever had, maybe the years of playing catch with my now brother-in-law finally paid off, who would have guessed!) and last but not least eating lots and lots of fresh fish caught by the owners of the boat beside us, Chuck and Barbara.

As much as we have enjoyed the last year, I am really looking forward to becoming a landlubber again for a few months. Bruce is looking forward to improving his golf game in the coming months and I am looking forward to long, hot showers, a toilet that never has to be pumped out, doing laundry whenever I want and only one load at a time, a dishwasher and spending time with my friends and family again. I am not looking forward however to driving again in traffic, yard work, having to wear makeup and do my hair every day and just generally the rat race of city life again! I am sure that when November comes around, we will be ready to continue our life as cruisers once again.

Out for a day of diving with Leanne and Bruce

Visit with Bob and Marty (Salty Lady)

A great catch of Tuna

Chuck and Barbara (boat next to ours)

Dolphin

Bruce was washing the boat one day and left the hose over the side while scrubbing off some dirt, you can image his surprise when he went to pick it up and a manatee was beside the boat having a drink of fresh water!

Big smile for the camera! I think he was pretty happy to have gotten some fresh water.

Some pictures of our last week in Marathon, lots of get togethers to say goodbye to all of our new friends!!

Mary and Gale's new house on Sister's Creek. Picture is of Mary and Dave though, don't know where Gale was at the time.

A very fun evening of dinner and dancing at a great Italian Restaurant! Ken and Angela won the prize for being the best dancers. Bruce and I realized after seeing all of the great dancers that we should probably take some dance lessons before next year. This place was like dancing with the stars there were so many great dance couples.