From The trip North

Just a quick note here. After a wonderful time in Miami visiting my sister Ann and all of our old stomping grounds for a week, we felt we had to get moving North toward work for the summer. Problem is, there is unsettled weather here producing severe thunderstorms each day. Morning dawns fine, afternoon and into the night is downright dangerous- if you're on a boat that is. We've tried the past 2 days to start our offshore passage North and have turned around after getting the crap scared out of us and putting ourselves and our boat at risk in the midst of it. We've had hail, wind gusts to 61 kts, North wind in the Gulf Stream, tons of rain and frightening lightening bolts all around us. Last night was a late night after heading 25 miles offshore well into the gulf stream, only to turn West again when we realized we might have a terrible time if the storms got worse over night in that kind of current and wave pattern. We pulled in to Lake Worth inlet late last night. NOAA says, "don't be a statistic" and I keep thinking we're going to end up one if these stupid storms keep catching up with us.

Today we did an intracoastal waterway day and it was actually quite nice until the afternoon when we got another hum-dinger of a thunderstorm. Except this time we were in a narrow channel with shoals on each side. We got in to Vero Beach and cut things short after only a 10 hour day instead of the 12 hour day we'd planned.

So, its been out with the foul weather gear, pants, a polar fleece for me, Jon is asking me for hot broth as he steers in the rain and a cold north wind blows after the storms die off. Yes, THIS is the East coast I remember! But who's complaining? We're in Florida! The best is yet to come! Uhh!

Otherwise, we're enjoying the good food here in the US and the beautiful scenery. It is beautiful here. It'll get even better once we get back to family and friends.