Goodness...two months have flown by since we left Miami. We've been very busy, but I'll start at the beginning...

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Left Miami this afternoon about 1:00. The seas were a bit rough to begin with, but in a few hours we were in 2-3 foot seas with not much wind.

With short sails like this, and an overnight, we needed to make sure we would reach the Port Lucie Inlet in daylight. So our plan is to average 5 knots If we can do that, we'll be there just after dawn with enough light to see our way. However, the Gulf Stream has other ideas. We are going with the current this time. The engines are at 1600 rpm' and we are still bumping over 5...! There is always something out here that messes with one's best laid plans!

I love to sail at night when the sky is clear and the moon is up. It's beautiful the way the moonlight sparkles on the water. And it's not dark! Tonight the seas are relatively calm and the moon is just past half. The one thing that is missing on this trip are the stars! We are only 2 or 3 miles off the coast, but the sky in the west is only a dark shade of gray tinged with orange. Due to that light pollution, the stars are blocked out. No soaring galaxies above us, only a few of the brightest stars can pierce that light shadow. Nonetheless, it is still beautiful. I am going to miss this most of all when we no longer have the boat!

Thursday, March 9, 2017

I just got up for my midnight to 3:00 a.m. shift. In order to keep our speed under 5 knots, the engines are now at 1000 rpm's. Can't go lower or they'll stall...and we're still going 4.8 knots! The motion of the boat is a bit strange, but that's because we are sort of just drifting along. We're not moving through the water as much as sitting on it and letting it move us. Good grief!

Monday, May 8, 207

We made I to the Port St. Lucie inlet just as the sun peeked over the horizon. Perfect! We made our way up the river and took a mooring ball at the Sunset Bay marina and anchorages. Nice place.

A week or so later we moved to a slip where we expect to stay until the boat is sold or November, 1, 2017, whichever comes first. Needless to say I hope we sell the boat before we have to move it!!

Once we got settled, we packed up most of our stuff from the boat, rented a space and packed it with our boxes of stuff. Now the boat can be shown with very little clutter. We're making a very small footprint! Then we worked on a few projects that had to be done. Now we are biding our time.

Gary's mom died in April. We were glad to be back in the states so we could attend the memorials. Gary was able to visit with her for a few days before her death. We'll miss her.

We also took a trip to the northeast corner of Georgia, Hiawassee, to visit Lake Chatuge. As Georgia is one of the states we are interested in for our retirement home, we thought we'd check this area out first. Lovely! Beautiful lake and mountain community. We can probably find a property just to our liking within our budget. Next up, a visit to Tennessee in June.

So...not much action on the selling front...no lookie-loos on a boat like this. Hope we don't have to be here during the main hurricane months of August, September! Stay tuned!