Uncle Harry and I will be flying to Tampa tomorrow and driving a rental car to Sarasota. We will stay in a hotel and then visit with Aunt Eileen and Uncle Sam Wednesday around lunchtime. We will then drive to Islamorada, provision, fix the forward head (always something to fix, clogged outlet hose this time), and shove off Friday morning headed for the Chesapeake. I only have Uncle Harry until the 30th, hoping to get to around Charleston, SC, and then fly home but we will stop wherever we are in order to get him home. I'll come back with Brian (my son who is just finishing his freshman year at Berklee College of Music) around May 11, we will visit his friend in Myrtle Beach, SC, and get to Castle Harbour Marina in Chester, MD in another two weeks or so, depending on weather and whim.

This blog is an effort to keep a few people in the loop concerning where we are and our loose plans in hope that they may join us somewhere. I may try to add some interesting tidbits but I may not, depends on my mood and how much the boat is bouncing around, and whether or not we have cell phone coverage or WiFi.

I'm very excited about this trip. We mostly stayed inside the ICW on the way down last November and it was enjoyable but the wear and tear on the engine worries me and it's just not fun much of the time. There are several places I want to visit and we will spend more time visiting this time around but we will go outside much of the time and only come in for a rest or to see what we want to see. I have been reading everything I can and even have a book describing all of the inlets from Miami to the Chesapeake. Oh yeah, and we will stay inside for as long as it takes to miss any bad weather or even unfavorable wind. I thoroughly believe that schedules are the enemy of cruising (if not life itself)!