Happy Valentines day! My honey showed up after a day of last minute duties on shore, arms full of things we had to have (probably not, hehe) and a dozen of the most beautiful red roses! We've been living on Altair at the mooring now for 16 days! (You're really not allowed to live on board at the mooring, but everyone is so living vicariously thru us and wanting us TO LEAVE...they overlook it). It's official...the cat is on board, the laptop is with us and some provisions! Can't tell you how how modern we are feeling! We have all the amenities, fridge, enclosed lanai, warm showers and LOVE. Yes, love can be modern too, with each and every day our love evolving and morphing into a new shape! As if that weren't enough, we have our new solar panel, the wind generator and new davits! We are styling. We are having a hard time adapting, with so much new equipment and no time to check it out! But we are mentally ready, I think! Are you ever ready to drop your life as you've known it and take off!

OK, I knew it! We've been stalling and now I know why! We're going to the boat show! Jim and Jimmie gave us boat show tickets so we have to spend more money on boat toys, so bummed. Not! This is an annual event that Dudley would never miss, just like the Coconut Grove Art Festival for me. We blew thru that boat show, covered lots of territory and wished and dreamed of all the goodies we still would like to have. I think we were just plain finished with projects and there wasn't too much that was calling our names. The only things we bought were some really nice inflatable pfds. Very important for peace of mind and easy to store too.

We seriously needed to stop working on the boat. We needed to call it quits and get away from the dock and the clubhouse to SAIL. We've been talking about a shakedown trip and we finally did it! We were a bit crusty this morning, but we're old salts and we just needed to go to the dock and fill our water tanks! We have been very frivolous and crazy with water usage! We have gone thru 90 gallons in approx 2 weeks or 7.5 gallons a day! That's too much for real....we've gotta cut back! We are theoretically still attached at the umbilical cord to the water supply, but bad habits are bad habits!

The club is tented, whine....so we couldn't shower before we leave, but we didn't let that stop us! We topped off the water tanks and actually sailed away from the Grove and the Club that holds us like an octopus! . It was a grand day, WE REALLY, REALLY SAILED! I'm so in awe, I forgot how great this boat is to sail! I know we have a lot of stuff onboard that weighs us down now, Dudley's biggest concern, but you couldn't tell with the wind off her quarter today! AWESOME! It was cold and blustery, a little bit squally, just the way we like it! Thank you wind Gods!

We got to Pumpkin key, expecting a n'easter tonight, just in time for a shower, body one that is, before it get's dark! We are so in love with the screened in LANAI...our shower was delightful and we got everything put away and cleaned up before dark! Yippeee, it feels so good to be clean! Dinner was pretty wonderful too! Isn't it funny when you're in the sun and wind all day how the food just tastes better? I whipped up a couple of delicous turkey burgers, ala some leftover corn relish turkey from last night's tacos, mixed baby greens, large sliced tomatoes and doncha know, smashed taters! Gotta cut down on the food intake too, or we'll need a bigger boat!

We are tired, but cannot tell you how great this feels to be at anchor! I'm being nervous nelly, guess I'll get over that, but I wanted to set the anchor, reverse the engine, put out more scope, oh well! My honey is feeling tested and he doesn't need me challenging him! Gotta work on that! That's it for tonight! We are going to set the alarm for early am to catch Chris' weather report at 6:30a so we can practice with that SSB. I must also throw a line out for a fish for Bagera....good night sweet cruising world! Not yet, but VERY soon!!

Yeiks, a storm blew thru in the middle of the night and we really got to test our 'get up in the middle of the night and jump into action" skills. We are seriously rusty. Those beautiful curtains that I made outta Phifertex, which entirely enclose the cockpit, keeps out rain, sun and gawkers, are going to have to come down before we go to bed! What a nightmare trying to see where you're dragging, need to look where you are going and have a connector and traslucent curtains in the way hindering the view and access to the deck and anchor! We are in Biscayne Bay, after all, so no great biggy, but we have to remember that for the future busy anchorages.

Just one more stumbling block....we practiced installing waypoints, setting routes and tracks on our chartplotter and it worked all day but now it's decided to quit! We were setting the anchor alarm and damn, damn, damn! We haven't even left Miami for the Gulf Stream! Dudley is going to call for tech support with Ray Marine in the am...Sheisa, shit, darn!

How fabulous to finally be ready! We are so pumped up! The big question is..."Are you ever really READY?