This morning was supposed to be our last chance to go out kayaking with Kayt but unfortunately, in spite of last minute laundry and packing into the wee small hours of the morning yesterday and last night, there was still a lot to do to get ready for her departure this morning at 11 o'clock. Personally, I wish there was some way of getting her to stay longer, but I have already gone through that in yesterday's post, so there is nothing for it but to drive her to the airport, wish her Bon Voyage, Smooth Skies and Good Connections, and to maintain our relationship electronically. We drove her to the Tampa airport and with no small amount of tears, some of them, I am not ashamed to admit, were mine, we left her to await her flight and drove back to Gulfport. I really don't feel like doing too much today. Too much unwinding required and getting over Kayt's departure. Later, much later, at 10 o'clock at night we got a text message from her that she was safely on the ground in Halifax. Chris's girl friend Taunya will be waiting for her to drive her home. Funny, I have been doing a lot more traveling during my career in the military, but I am always worried about them when they travel.

When we got back to the boat there was a fellow diving on the boat next to us cleaning off the bottom. He was using the sort of equipment that I have ordered from Alaska Mining and Diving - a 100' intermediate pressure hose that you hook to the first stage of your regulator and use you tank as surface supplied air. This is one means that we will use to dive for lobster once we are farther south and perhaps even to earn some extra money under the table as it were.

We are starting to make plans for departure after number one (and only) son Chris and his girl friend come down to visit us. Nothing like being prepared, is there? We will probably head out the day before we actually set off to spend the afternoon and night at an anchorage somewhere so we can pick our tides and be outside the barrier islands for our start. I have asked the marina manager for a recommendation and he is asking around for us for some recommendations. With any luck we will be able to persuade our friends Cliff and Lee to come out in their boat to join us for that first anchorage.

Chris and his girl friend, Taunya, will be arriving to visit us on the 23rd of January and staying until the 7th of February so we are not done our family visits yet. I have never met Taunya but Barb and Kayt have and they both like her a lot so I have no doubt but that I'll feel the same way. I am looking forward to meeting her, but even more so I am looking forward to seeing Chris again. We haven't seen him for about six months or so. We will be revisiting some of the places that we went with Kayt, especially the beaches, but in addition Chris has mentioned several other places that he would like to visit including Busch Gardens which I wouldn't have thought but we have heard from several sources that they are one of the not to be missed places in Florida.

Tomorrow we start to do all of the remaining work on the boat and some of the new ones that cropped up on the trip down here. Busy hands are happy hands I suppose.