Ho! Ho! Ho! Christmas in the Keys. We arrived in Marathon after a beautiful two day sail with an almost full moon anchorage in Rodriquez Key off of Key Largo. We have settled into our marina and we were immediately greeted by friends and dock mates from last winter. We were also greeted and entertained by a very large manatee that spent about an hour swimming and feeding next to our boat.

We have been busy washing and scrubbing the salt and grime that had accumulated on the boat from our travels south along the eastern seaboard. We now have a beautiful, shiny and clean boat. One of our former dock mates took us to the local Publix market for provisioning, another loaned us their car to pick up Christmas decorations and we have already riden our bikes a good 30 miles or more to get our boat license renewed, attend church, go to the beach, mail Christmas cards and presents, pick up boat parts and buy groceries. Tonight we are going to attend a Christmas concert. We have certainly been busy the first four days back in the Keys.

Since we left Galveston on February 25th we have traveled approximately 2583 nautical miles and we have used 420 gallons of diesel fuel. We have been in and out of 6 different states multiple times and 17 different ports or anchorages. We have attended wonderful churches, met new and interesting friends and dock mates, explored interesting historical sites and have been blessed to see some of the most fascinating communities of this great country. We have seen some of the most interesting wild life and have been blessed with experiencing some fabulous sunrises and sunsets along with memorable all night sails under gorgeous full moons and skies full of millions of stars.

2011 has certainly brought us some great memories, reunited us with old friends and blessed us with meeting so many new and interesting friends and dock mates.

We will miss our family and friends during the holidays. However, you will all be in our hearts, our thoughts and our prayers at this special time of the year.