It’s been way too long since I’ve written and my apologies to all. I need to bring you up to date. The first thing is the most important, and perhaps the reason I’ve not sat down to write. Just before we left Texarkana Bud went back to the eye doctor. He has macular degeneration, the dry type, and has to take special vitamins and see an eye doctor every six months. For 95% of those with this condition, that is all they have to do and although their vision deteriorates, it does so slowly. The other 5% can progress to wet macular degeneration, and for that I have heard conflicting reports, but the most common is that these people need eye injections monthly for a long period of time, maybe the rest of their lives. We were dismayed when Bud’s eye doctor told him his condition had deteriorated and he needed to go to a retinologist right away to “establish a base-line” and determine future treatment. On learning we were leaving Texarkana he advised Bud to see the doctor as soon as he got to Florida. And that is the cloud under which we operated the whole way over. We both struggled with this, and we both came to terms with the thought of not being able to continue cruising; a month isn’t long enough to go much of anywhere on a boat and be sure you could make it back. Ten days ago Bud had his appointment with a specialist in St. Petersburg. He doesn’t have wet macular degeneration. He has hills and valleys in his retina and fluid has accumulated in at least one of these bumps, but a dye test showed this was not blood. So although his chances of developing wet macular degeneration have increased (still below 20%) he just needs to continue the vitamins and come back for a check-up in six months. Cruising the Bahamas is back on the agenda.

In addition to preparing for the holidays, we now had to change our mindset and prepare for the Bahamas. There is, of course, a list of things that need to be done and we are gearing up and tackling that list.

Meanwhile, I must say thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday. It was a nice day. We traveled to Matlacha and visited with a group of our old friends from Tuscarora Yacht Club in Wilson. They surprised me by singing Happy Birthday to me, and then again for our host, Pat O’Keefe, whose birthday was the 23rd. We look forward to seeing those people again when we move the boat further south.

Christmas was a nice day. We spent the morning on the boat and then went to my brother and sister-in-law’s for dinner. Goody prepared a feast of scallops and jasmine rice. Bud contributed a corn casserole we first ate in Texarkana. I think it was Lynn or Elaine that made it for Thanksgiving that year. I made pumpkin and cherry pies. We had a nice time together, but they were wishing they were back in New York with their son, his family and their new great-granddaughter, and we were wishing we were in Texarkana, with Jamie and Adler. But all of us had a good day and it was nice to be together.

I did decorate the outside of the boat, but the sting of lights you see in the photo came down today. We blew fuses Christmas morning. We replaced those with the extras in the package but almost immediately the third of the three strands that were hooked together went out. I pulled them down today and the fuses in that string were actually fused inside the plug. I decided to take them all down. Besides, in putting them up we discovered chafing in the spinnaker halyard I used to raise them. This is the main spinnaker halyard, and the one Bud uses to haul me up the mast. We’re getting it replaced, and I’m happy we discovered the chafe hauling up lights, and not me!

Hope all of you have a happy new year, and in the words of John Lennon, “Let’s hope it’s a good one, without any fear.”