The past week has been insanely busy.

Of course, Robert was out of town for a couple of days on business.

When he returned, we did our Christmas shopping on line. I picked up a few things for the grandchildren at local stores.  I got my first taste of being out of state at Christmas. It costs more to ship some of the packages than the actual gift!!! Next year, we are gonna have to plan a little better.

Thursday morning I did our last minute grocery shopping. When I returned from shopping, Robert informs me that we had a fire in the engine compartment while I was out.  He was working on the saildrive and something sparked, and a fire started. He had a great deal of difficulty  getting  it to stop, but was able to stop it without too much damage. It burned  several feet of wire, and smoked up the entire port side of the boat. Poor Robert inhaled quite a bit of smoke, so now his cough has resumed.

So it's once again, off to West Marine for parts. We stopped at the West Marine in Merritt Island, in route to drop our car in Stuart. Robert is in the rental car, I'm driving our poor old Altima. I know our old car will be glad to stay in one city for a bit.  Four hours later, we're back in Titusville aboard SeaQuell. We slept well, despite a little residual "smoky" smell in our cabin.

Friday, Robert works on repairing/replacing wires in between his regular office work. He gets everything repaired , and we return the rental car.guess we're all set to depart tomorrow am-- headin' for Stuart, FL.  Our destination for the winter.

We pulled away from the dock around 4:50 am on Saturday. It's a calm, clear morning (or so we thought).  Just before sunrise, the fog socked in all around us. This damn fog has followed us all the way down the Florida coast!!!!!

Around 11 am, the fog finally lifted, and the rest of the day was uneventful. We motor sailed to Fort Pierce and anchored for the night .  It was well past sunset when we anchored, and we finally sat down for dinner around 8:30 pm. The wind we had searched for all day now decides to show!!  AND it begins to rain!!! We can't seem to catch a break with the weather.  Bedtime came shortly after dinner and a stiff drink for us both.

Sunday morning at 5:00 am, we're up and at 'em again. Underway before 6:00. The fog is very light this morning, but it is raining--- not a downpour, but not a drizzle either. 

Around 10:00 am, the sun came out, the rains subsided, and the fog is gone!!! Hallelujah!!!! 

We motored ( the wind is dead on the nose)  down to the St Lucie River---- almost home!!!! 

We pulled into the Loggerhead Marina around 1:00 pm, and headed straight for the fuel dock--- all this motoring requires lotsa fuel!!  Of course, as we enter the marina channel, the wind picks up to 20 knots. We managed to safely slide in--- Whew!!!!!  

We finally got into our slip around 2:30 pm, safely tied up SeaQuell, and headed straight to the bar---- after a couple of  cold ones and some wings, we take Maggie for a nice walk, and head out to fill up the gas tank in our car. We do this tonight, because Robert has an early flight in the morning. Once againhe is traveling for business all this week. When we return to the boat, Robert detects an issue with the inverter not charging. Nothing we can do about that tonight.

Today, we were up at 5:00 am again--- this time we're headin' to West Palm Beach airport. I drop Robert off and head back to Stuart . Maggie is sleeping in the backseat. I think she's kinda tired of all this travel.

The inverter is still not charging. Thank God for lots of solar  and wind power!!!!!  Robert called-- he made it safely to Richmond after a delay in Newark,NJ.  It's been a helluva day for us both!!!

Looks like an early bedtime for this old gal and her sidekick, Maggie. Actually, Maggie has been asleep for a couple of hours, so I have some catching up to do!

Looking forward to some exploring tomorrow.  Can't wait to learn more about our new home ( well, temporary new home).  I'll fill Robert in when he gets home---right after he gets the inverter fixed!!