Hey there everyone, It sure has been a while. We have been in Key West Florida for the last three weeks. During this time we have replaced our transmission with the newest latest. We did all the work while at anchor and it was kinda shaky at times! Now we can take-on the florida power boaters! We spent our boiling hot afternoons in the public library, homeschooling and harassing the librarians! Key West has been a fun experience, we can really feel that we are back in the states again. "Wow what happened to those gas prices?!" It was $2.00 a gallon back in Mexico! The kids and I took our dog Henna to a small deserted island near the anchorage, right when we arrived here. She really needed to relive herself after being at sea for three days. I spotted a post to tie up our dinghy, and there it was....A sign that read NO TRESPASSING! We haven't seen a sign like that in four years! Welcome to the land of the free!! Oh ,Yeah then we see alot of people wearing t-shirts that read "freedom isn"t free" oh boy, I guess we gotta get used to this big island again!
Enough politics! We are happy to be mobile again and are planning to take the gulf stream to Miami on Tuesday. Then we will slowly head North to the Chesapeake bay area, and find a nice little spot to tuck-in for the hurricane season. This season has been most exciting one, cause so many different things happened to us! From seeing whales to meeting my parents on their boat in Panama. Being chased by monkey's cause we ran out of bananas! we also met some wonderful families living their lives on the blue. The kids were able to share their experiences with others, and get in plenty of play-time. When we were in Portobello, Panama, they would play soccer with the local children, the soccer field was situated in the courtyard of an old fortress! Lisa and Jana have been working hard with Nadine to stay in tune with their home-schooling duties as well. Henna (our dog) has sniffed more exotic bushes and is probably ready to move on to land for a while!
Well just wanted to check-in and say that we are safe and sound. Thank you for your replies, it's always nice to hear from you.
cheers
kurt and the gang