It has been over 2 months since my last update. So here is a short synopsis:

Left Walk A-Bout on a mooring ball at Dinner Key and flew to Australia. We stayed at my sister and brother-in-laws home in Berkeley Vale (north of Sydney on the Central Coast) for 5 days. Did a walk down memory lane at Bondi Beach where I lived as a teenager. We then left Berkeley Vale for a road trip north to Queensland. We went outback on the way up and stayed at some great pubs in small towns. We then cut over to the coast and stayed a couple of nights in a town called 1776. Unfortunately, that is where our trip came to an end. Received a call that my 87 year old mother had some health issues and I needed to fly back to California. Sharron and Ray drove us to Brisbane and Bill and I flew back. I stayed with my mother for 3 weeks and Bill headed back to the boat. Even though it was a much shorter trip than we planned we had a great time while it lasted.

We left Dinner Key a couple of days after I returned and headed back up the ICW. We stayed a couple of nights at the Hall of Fame Marina in Ft. Lauderdale while Bill flew to Atlanta for a job interview. We met up with friends Paul and Gaynor on Meridian and stayed one night in Stuart and again in St. Augustine with them. They are headed back to New Jersey, their home port.

We are currently at the Marina At Ortega Landing in Jacksonville. It is a very beautiful marina with a pool and club house, wonderful showers and free laundry. Publix grocery store, West Marina and several other stores and restaurants are only 4 blocks away.

Out friends Mike and Francis on Anam Cara were here for almost a week getting all new rigging on their boat after almost getting de-masted on their ordeal leaving the Bahamas. We had a wonderful time with them. They plan on spending the summer in New Bern.

My daughter Laura was here for a week then headed to San Antonio Texas where her new home will be.

Had our first named Tropical Storm last week – Beryl. We feel very safe here since it is about 25 miles from the coast on the Ortega River. We had more rocking and rolling during thunderstorms we have been through than Beryl.

Still have not decided what our plans will be in the coming months. We don’t know if we still stay here for a while or ??