After nearly five months on the hard we are so very happy to be afloat again. Like most classic women, she looks better with a little paint, a little powder, and a nicely cut-in waterline. (That is the boat of course, not Lilly.) As we begin the next chapter of our lives together as a cruising couple, we look back at our time in St. Augustine with many fond memories, and new-found friends.

The Oldest City was an enjoyable history lesson for us both. Unfortunately, Lilly had spent most of her college history classes doing laps in a swimming pool, so we do have a bit of catching up in this area. (Tom-Tom, tell me again was Ponce de Leon an astronaut, or did he invent the Internet with Steve Jobs?) Lilly explored the streets and alleyways of the town on a beach cruiser bike, making friends all over town. Since she loves horses, she made several contacts in the carriage tour business. In fact, some of the horses (most of which Lilly knew by name) were stabled in an open paddock adjacent to our boat yard on the outskirts of town. One evening, as we returned to the boat well after dark, we noticed three very large draft horses grazing in the public park across from the boat yard; they had escaped! Well, we quickly found ourselves transformed from sailors to horsemen, and there we were on a very dark night with apples, carrots, and a dinghy painter in hand helping to round up these gentle giants. Our reward, besides helping to ensure the safety of these absolutely beautiful animals, was a complimentary pass on a carriage tour with Ken (an ex-professional jockey) and his horse Big Mike. If you ever get a chance to tour St. Augustine with these guys, by all means do it - we guarantee you will have a memorable and enjoyable experience. We found a temporary church home at Destiny International Church out on US Highway One, pastored by a Harley riding preacher by the name of Donovan, and his spirited wife Nellie. Donovan is truly a great preacher, but he yells like a sailor, and spits like a camel when he gets on a roll - so don't sit too near the front :-) We connected most evenings with the AA folks at the Serenity House, and the air conditioning and camaraderie were most welcome respites from the rigors of the hot and dusty boat yard. We made a huge change in our lives by shifting from Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts - for way better coffee, and nutritious treats on the way to our AA meetings. Another transformation in our lifestyle came when we sold Lilly's pick-em-up truck; cruisers don't have such things, they would only tie us down. But it was nice to have a transition period to wean ourselves off the luxury of a private vehicle, when our Jacksonville friends Dennis and his daughter Karen insisted we drive their SUV for the last two weeks we were in the St. Augustine Marine Center.

In early November we headed south down the ICW to Melbourne, FL for the annual SSCA GAM. It was great to be on the move again. We had a very rewarding time at the GAM seeing old sailing friends, making some new ones, and learning about such diverse topics as SSB radio, cruising the South Pacific, and watching a life raft inflation up close and personal - something we never want to do for real! (FYI, a GAM is a meeting of ships at sea, and an exchange of information between the crews.) Our friends Rick (S/V Nautilus in the Florida Panhandle) and Robert (S/V Circe in Jacksonville) stayed aboard our boat and bunked in the aft cabin, and we had a grand time introducing them to the Seven Seas Cruising Association. After the GAM we crossed over to the east side of the Indian River to Dragon Point and the Banana River, anchoring at Indian Harbor Beach. This is our staging anchorage to work the Project List to prepare Tiger Lilly for her upcoming offshore passage south to the West Indies. Rick stayed after the GAM and helped Tom install our new wind generator, and convert many of our high energy incandescent lights to efficient LED's. The weekend before Thanksgiving we rented a car and drove over to St. Pete to visit with Tom's 90 year-old mom Grace - our dinghy's namesake - before we set out on our extended voyage. Lilly has been saying goodbye to her friends and family for the past several weeks, and now it was Tom's turn. This is one of those difficult moments in the life of a sailor. Do we stay close to our elderly parents, adult children, and young grandchildren, or do we venture forth and explore the world? We simply cannot do both. For us the answer lies with what we want our children to do, and we certainly do not want to hold them back from the joys of life while they wait for us to die. The logic is sound, but the goodbyes are difficult, and as Johnny Depp would say, "It's a pirate's life for me!" Speaking of which, we had a great Thanksgiving back aboard Tiger Lilly in Indian Harbor Beach with Lilly's 21 year-old son Ryan. He showed up sporting a brand new tattoo of a buxom pirate lady with Angelina Jolie like lips, eye patch with embossed skull and cross bones, and the name "TIGER LILLY" inscribed below. Lilly looked at the tattoo, turned to Tom and declared that there was no turning back now, her boy had blessed it and we HAD to go sailing!

Over the next couple of weeks we will continue to work the never-ending Project List until the must-do items for offshore sailing are complete. In early December when the Atlantic Hurricane Season is over, we will shift anchorage to Cape Canaveral to wait for the first good weather-window to head out the Canaveral Inlet and out across the Gulf Stream. We plan to sail offshore some 1600 miles to Antigua in the West Indies; hopefully arriving before Christmas.

One of the projects on the To Do List is to get our new computer working with the HAM radio so that we can update this Blog remotely from sea. If we are successful, you will be able to track our progress and events while on passage - stay tuned, this is not a sure thing. As we transition to the active cruising mode our new Communications Plan will not include cell phones, but we will have other ways to stay in touch: we have just started an account on Facebook, and we will try to learn the art and science of social networking (a natural talent for Lilly, and a forced endeavor for Mr. Personality), our Facebook name is of course Tiger Lilly; we have Skype installed, and with a lot of pre-planning it is theoretically possible to see and talk to you (Tom sez: if I wanted to see or talk to these people I wouldn't go sailing - this is making my hair hurt already!); of course we will still have email at svtigerlilly@yahoo.com, however our access to the Internet to down load your email will be periodic at best, usually quite brief, and will cost us money each time (so PLEASE DO NOT send us any forwards, jokes, or political rants - which is about 90% of the content of most email in-boxes), but we do want to hear from YOU; and finally, our children will be in direct contact with us via HAM radio email, so if you have a time-sensitive message you can ask one of them to forward it to us.

Well that is about it for this edition of our Blog. We have posted some photos of our time at the St. Augustine Marine Center in our photo albums. To view them click on our PHOTO GALLERY at the top right side of this page and navigate to PORTS OF CALL / USA / SHE SWIMS. SEE YOU THERE!