Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was definitely different than we have ever experienced before. We did miss family and turkey dinner but did not miss the freezing temps and snow back in Minnesota. We purchased bikes at the local Walmart soon after arriving so we rode our bikes to the beach, 80 degrees ;) here! and then came back to the boat and grilled chicken for our Thanksgiving dinner. Did Skype with our kids and spoke to parents on the phone.

We are progressing in our boat projects. New head and a new hose from the holding tank is installed, mustache and marks on the hull are gone and about half of the sanding of the toe rail is done. Today is an unplanned day off due to it being overcaste and short showers off and on all day.

Paul, Gaynor and Pepper from 'Meridian' were anchored nearby yesterday. It was great seeing them again, we had cocktails on our boat then walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

Bill and I have started researching the next 300 miles - basically from here to Key West. We will probably do several off shore days but don't plan on doing any overnight passages. From what we can tell there is an area down the ICW for about 80 miles with 15+ bridges so that is one area we are thinking of avoiding and going offshore. From Miami south there are two routes: 1. Continue down the ICW, which is basically the westerly (Gulf side) of the Keys or 2. Follow the Hawk Channel (mostly a natural trench that runs along the ocean with the Keys on one side and a reef on the other side). There are pluses and minuses for each option. The ICW route has a lot more anchoring options but some very shallow water. The Hawk Channel would be faster with more depth but few good places to anchor for the night but several good spots for us to stop and do some scuba diving. Still have some time to figure it out.