Aspen, my mother, and I have returned from our trip, and are back in Marathon. The day before we flew in, our friends Eddie and Stephanie, and their daughter Katie, drove down. They stayed for a few days, and we all went out to Sombrero Reef.
The reef is only a couple mile drive from our marina, and we spent two days out snorkeling, swimming, and tanning. It was our first time to try snorkeling, and we all loved it.
Things are back to the regular style of keys living now, and all is well. My dad is still working at Kmart, and likes it; My mom has applied to the same store, and so have I. School is almost over for Aspen and I. Everything is going well with all of us, and I hope all is well with all of you.
Love,
Annakah on Kama Hele

So we've had quite a lot of excitement here lately.
1- My dad got a job in the fishing department at Kmart.
2- I got hit by a car.
3- Me, Aspen, and my mom have plans to fly to TN on March 7th.

My dad enjoys his job, and has been working there for a couple of weeks now. After church two sundays ago, Aspen, me, and Shane (S/V Moonshine) were biking to go get lunch at Wendy's. Now, I don't remember any of this, so this is what I've been told: I made it to the entry to a gas station, and there was a stopped car sitting there waiting for a break in traffic. Because the car was stopped, I decided to press on and drove in front of her on my bike. Just as I got directly in front of her, she pulled out and hit me. I've been told that she was watching only one direction of traffic, and I was going the opposite way. She didn't see me at all.

She wasn't going very fast. However, one half of me is pretty banged up. My left cheek and left shoulder were burned and bruised; My shoulder didn't lift as high as it should have for a long time and my legs are still all bruised. The worst part, though, is the memory loss. I lost quite a lot of my memories, both short and long term. They were supposed to be back within two weeks, but in two days, it will have been exactly two weeks. Things are still slowly coming back. All in all, I am doing great.

All of us girls are going to fly to TN on March 7th, and then driving down to SC with my oldest sister Becca to be in SC in time for my other sister Kali to have her baby. We'll be flying back to Marathon on April 6th. I'm not excited to fly (unfortunately, I remembered that I hated flying.) but I am so ridiculously thrilled to be seeing my family again. I'm also excited to meet my sister's new baby! I hope all is well with yall out there.

Annakah.

Aspen was filling the water tanks this morning, and noticed that there was something splashing in the water. She kept looking at it and saw that it was a baby bird! She hopped into the dingy with a broom as a paddle (the dink does have paddles, but she didn't want to un-velcro them from the inside of the dinghy, and she needed to hurry, so she grabbed a broom from the boat.) She rowed over to the bird, scooped him up, and the brought it back to the boat; Then she wrapped it up in a T-shirt to warm him up, and my mom called the nearby bird rescue place. (marathonians: The bird rescue is behind Crane Point Nature Center, along with a museum) A man drove out in a van to come pick the bird up, and Aspen about had a fit because he put the bird on a holey shirt into a cardboard box, then folded the lid closed on itself. She was just sure that Savannah (that's the name aspen gave her) was going to get hurt.

The bird was what looked like, to me, a baby sandpiper; He was only big enough to fit in Aspen's palm. He has the long goofy legs and beak that sandpipers have. The bird-man agreed and said that it probably was some kind of piper.

Our dinghy has a new seam separating; We'll have to get it shipped in, again, to get it fixed, again. Whoopee. Aspen and I have begun attending Calvary Baptist church here, and we love it. We took part in a charity sale last Saturday morning, the proceeds of which went to help a sister church in Haiti. I love it. Hope all is going well with all of you out there!
Love,
Annakah on Kama Hele

After about two and a half months, 1668 miles, 450 gallons of diesel, and 35 days of actually moving... we have made it... We have reached Marathon!!!
It's a well-welcomed relief. We've had some troubles with our generator: The fuel pump mounting flange is broken. We noticed that there was a lot of oil. Everywhere. We started using our miniature Honda generator two nights ago, back in Marco Island, and it's managed to hold up well for us. We spent two days using virtually no power though: Enough to charge the batteries a little each night and each morning, and then we ran the fridge and freezer alternately with the baby generator. (We have a waist-high deep freeze, seperate from the fridge.)
The generator was a huge help. If we hadn't had it, we'd have been in deep trouble. We are truly blessed.
Aspen and I went down to Boot Key Harbour this afternon; Nothings changed but a new coat of paint. I'm not shocked.
This marina (Marathon Marina and Boat Yard) is really nice. Showers, laundry, book exchange, tons of boaters, a small gym with treadmills and the likes. It's nice. The view is a clear shot of the trademark Keys sunset, which I realised tonight I have missed. I suppose it truly is good to be back.
I'll write more as things begin to happen and as we fall back into the groove that is the keys.
Love,
Annakah on Kama Hele

We'd planned on leaving Fort Myers today, and sure enough, we actually did. We had a bit of excitement last night though. Okay, story time. So a few years ago, we bought two dinghy davits. They did not reach far enough out away from the boat to hold our dinghy up while we were moving; We bought a new pair last summer. These did not fit either, but for a different reason. The bottom part of the davit, the part that is affixed to the deck of the boat, could not reach over the toe rail. My dad had to build a crafty pair of boxes that stood about six inches taller than the boat deck; He bolted those into the deck of the boat, and bolted the davits onto the wooden boxes, giving the davits a high enough perch to hold on to and still clear the toe rail. Last night, we pulled the dinghy up on board with the davits, and tied it off. I was being dumb and didn't tie the extra line to the boat, I just looped it. About ten minutes after we got everything all secured, the davits broke off of the boat and the dinghy fell to the water. I managed to catch the spare line before it slid off the boat, so thankfully no one had to go swim after it, and we pulled the dinghy back up on board with the use of our mast and boom.
(See, sailboaters? It DOES have a purpose!)
Today we're somewhere near Marco Island, though I couldn't tell you where. We are officially 115 miles from our destination. This trip has certainly been longer than was expected, but it will be nice to get to where we're going. Our friends on S/V Moonshine are going to be there in February, and S/V Kittywake sometime in February, too. I'm already trying to find a church to attend, and I have applied for jobs in the area.
My third-oldest sister just had her baby yesterday; It's a girl. My second-oldest sister is due to have her baby in mid-March, so we're flying out to South Carolina to visit her and my oldest sister. (Yes, a lot of sisters- There are five of us, and one brother!) Anyway, we're all set to be somewhere. Lilo is too.
Love,
Annakah on Kama Hele

Tonight we’re anchored in Englewood. We were here once before, but apparently, all I remember about the place is its name. It’s a small channel, covered with houses on one side, with tons and tons of boats anchored and/or moored all through the channel. We had to travel way back into the channel to even get a clear spot to anchor.
Today we had to go through quite a few bridges; at one, a very lovely man in a car up on the bridge began cursing a blue streak at us, screaming that we were making him late for his job interview. Apparently, there were a lot of not-so-pretty words and a lot of shouting. My mom laughed. I’ll admit, I’d have felt sorry for the guy if he hadn’t been yelling; As it were, since he decided to get his panties in a bunch over it, I’ll look at it a little more like, he should have left a little early for his interview.
Either way, it was another sort of short day. We left at 0830 this morning, and arrived at about 1450; only forty miles. Not so bad. A lot of boat wakes. It was sunny, though, and very warm. I’ve begun reading the first Left Behind book; I love it. And that’s about it, for today.
Love,
Annakah on Kama Hele.