We didn't stop cruising. We stopped blogging. The past two years since Aiden's birth we continued to cruise but felt we weren't doing too much new or blog worthy. We've spent a lot of time in George Town for various reason...volleyball, ease of flying in/out of, volleyball, friends already In place, vball, friends joining us, VB. Get the picture? George Town isn't everyone's cup of tea or their idea of cruising, but we like it there and George Town makes it easy to stay put.

6 weeks after our adorable Aiden was born.... I know this is a sailing blog, not a grandbaby blog. I'll save my Grammy bragging for facebook. .... As I was saying, we flew back to George Town to retrieve Hello Texas. It was mid May, hot and we had a couple of months to kill. We headed up north. We decided it was the perfect time to sail to the Abacos. On the way we sailed to Eleuthera, making our way through the Devil's Backbone, which on Hello Texas, it was a cake walk. We stopped in Harbor Island to visit our friend, Bob. Bob has decided to stay anchored, plant roots, and build a homestead in the area. We stayed a few weeks and while there, we met a special young woman, Patti on her vessel named Lutra. She solo sails and we quickly became friends and travel buddies. We sailed in tandem with Patti through out the Abacos, revisiting many places and discovering a few new ones. We reunited and socialized with some old friends from our days of living in Florida. We partied at the famous, or rather infamous, Stranded Naked Party. What happens at Stranded Naked, stays at Stranded Naked.

Last season we escaped from George Town for a few weeks and sailed to the Jamento/Ragged Islands and visiting Duncan Town at the southern most end of the island chain. What a beautiful set of islands! Solitude, fish, lobsters, empty beaches and sea beans galore.

Another thing we have stopped doing the last two years is taking Hello Texas all the way back to Galveston TX. We have been leaving her on the east coast of Florida. Once in Jacksonville, another time in Titusville. Both new places for us to visit, we also included an extended visit in St Augustine.

Leaving the boat in Florida forced us to make a few changes. Richard was not able to make multiple maintenance trips and I had to change how I gathered and collected provisions. A single maintenance trip had to do. Projects and parts were brought home to be worked on. Most of the provisions were obtained in Florida. Obtaining stuff in Florida is not a big deal as long as you have a car...we did not always a have a car!

As we begin to get adventurous again and leave HT further from home, we will readjust our way of doing things again. For one, we do more maintenance and projects while we cruise, taking away from our lazy and fun time. For example, our cockpit needed to be repainted. We began the project in Miami, worked on it George Town, completed it in the Acklins. By the way, if anyone is interested in Kiwi Grip deck/sole paint, we like it, recommend it. It is not the absolute perfect paint, but so far it has satisfied us and keeps clean.

Hopefully, we will enjoy writing the blog again and hopefully the few readers we get will enjoy reading it. We'll keep it going for as long as it remains fun....just like cruising. Pictures will come soon.