Sailboat Bay condo living is working well for us with one exception. But that is no longer a problem. We found a perfect boat for us. Island Packet 27 in St Augustine Florida. She was renewed inside & out with no frills. We have spent the last few weeks adding a few things - windlass to aid with retrieving anchor, dinghy with small motor, davit system to carry dinghy (our car) & safety equipment plus spare boat parts. We left St Augustine March 9, 2014 to start our journey home to Alabama. Our trip will primarily be via intercoastal waterway around Florida & across the panhandle or about 1200 miles.

With our boating days behind us, we searched for a small town that we could walk to stores & restaurants. Bentonville fit that to a tee. We bought a home near active town square. Being the home of Walmart meant there was good support for arts & entertainment. However, we missed the water so much, we moved to Gulf Shores Alabama on the intercoastal waterway & Mobile Bay in June of 2013. Empty boat slip had to be filled. Our search began.

We loved all of the Bahama Cays. Every island had something to offer. It was truly an education in people, happiness & life in general. We left out of Powell Cay Abaco, Bahamas for direct sail to Brunswick. I believe 36 hours at sea. We took four hour shifts on watch with auto pilot doing the work. In the night it was so dark but the stars were spectacular. They reflected in the black water until you felt like you were in outer space with many shooting stars. After arriving in Brunswick we started routine maintenance and struggled with the idea of selling the boat. It was a great summer at St Simmons Island. WWe sold the Boat in November and moved to land.

We met Pastor Kevin in Cat Island a few years earlier at an orphanage. He had returned to his family island to start a new orphanage. When we were leaving Nassau we called to see what he needed most that we could bring to him. He said bathroom sinks would be nice. We road the city bus to Nassau hardware plumbing store. After we explained what we needed the owner agreed to match our items so we got four sinks & four commodes. They put them on a pallet and sent them as freight on the mail boat to Andros. Yesterday we received a call from Pastor Kevin saying they are just about ready to open the orphanage. Four years is normal for project like this in the Bahamas. We did go there and stayed five days visiting his family and going to church with them. They were celebrating Easter two weeks late because so many people were off island during holiday. Loved it.

Our last post was while we were making our way back north to Georgia from the Exuma Cays. About that time we started the thoughts of selling Lady Hawk as we had really had a great ride. Everyday was great. We had been blessed with good health and no big equipment problems. Even as good as it was, it was very expensive to maintain & operate yacht that size year after year. It was a hard decision so blogging fell by the wayside. But following will fill in the gap til today.

We left Nassau in late January after transferring the orphanage supplies to the mail boat. Most of the islands get a mail/freight boat in once a week. Islanders fax their grocery lists to stores in Nassau who pack it up and deliver to the appropriate boat for shipment. We spent several days in Allens Cay which is an Iguana habitate island. Scooter could not go ashore even. It has been nice to go back to some of the anchorages we were in last season. This year we spent a lot of time in Farmers Cay and attended the All Age School Fair one Saturday. We met new friends, Vicki & Ed on sv "BOTO". Vicki and I spent one day getting conch and fishing the reefs. Even found a local who cleaned them for us. We went on to George Town for some of the 51st annual Boaters Regatta-harbor boat racing, softball playoff between islander team (some were pros) and boater team, Texas Holdem, cookouts and Beach Church on Sunday. We went on to Long Island then Rum Cay. It is inhabited with a nice marina; some construction going on but mostly fishing for income. We are now heading back north toward Nassau. This week we are in Wardwick Wells Exuma Sea Park waiting out weather with high winds; wait I thought we liked wind.