Brendan completed his diploma, had a few weeks off, spending time in Louisville with family and in Maryland with friends. Ken and I drove him to New York where he reported to the United States Merchant Marine Academy on July 2nd. This has been very difficult for Ken and me - especially after spending so much time with him aboard Quest these last 3 years! Brendan will be going through "Indoctrination" at USMMA for the next 20 days. We received one 5-minute phone call from him last Sunday and look forward to another one this Sunday. He is doing very well!

Ken is another story. We drove back to Jacksonville, but he had pain in his shoulder and neck. We planned on provisioning the boat and heading up to New York on Quest. There is a Parent's Weekend at USMMA in September, and we wanted to be up there on our boat, but Ken's pain escalated. After a week of little sleep and worsening pain, (even after meds and other doctors) we decided that we could not sail; so we left the boat in Jacksonville and drove back to Maryland, so Ken could be treated by his trusted doctor.

After a few days of treatment, Ken is improving, thanks to Dr. Cesari! However, our summer/fall plans have drastically changed. We are going to stay up here, as we have some opportunities to see Brendan in August and September. We will return to Quest in October, just in time to do some major work, including new bottom paint, new stripping on the hull, and new rigging. There is never a dull moment!

Give us a call or email us - we'd love to hear from you!

We are finally safe in Jacksonville. I have not been able to keep up the blog and have just decided to post one last entry until after July 2nd. The last 3 weeks have been a blur; we left Vero Beach and traveled the ICW, hoping to get to St. Augustine for Easter. We were anchored out in New Smyrna Beach, FL, on Good Friday, when we received a shocking call from home about a death in our family. We went into reaction mode and found a wonderful marina close by, New Smyrna Beach City Marina, rented a car and drove 14 hours home. We arrived in time for Easter mass and spent the week with family. We came back to Quest and took one last offshore leg from Ponce de Leon Inlet to St. Augustine. We then travelled the ICW to St. John's River and made our last leg to the Florida Yacht Club. We are leaving Quest here for a couple of months while we tend to shore activities . . .

Brendan has 3 AP exams scheduled for the next 2 weeks in Jacksonville. He is finishing up his 6 classes this month, while Ken and I keep busy doing spring cleaning, washing, waxing, and maintenance on Quest. We will be going home to Destin for about a month, then we will be heading to Louisville, and on to Baltimore, before reporting to the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, NY on July 2nd.

I will start blogging again when Ken and I start our northward cruising in July. Have a great spring! Pictured is our Easter bunny, Maverick, eating his favorite treat - carrots!

We turned on our navigation lights last night and noticed that our bow lights (red and green) were not lit up! Hopefully it is just a blown bulb, but with the rolling seas and darkness, replacing the bulb underway would have been very difficult, and we could have lost the bulb or fixture housing overboard in the attempt. We have a set of battery powered portable lights that we use on our dinghy. These act as our emergency, back-up lights for Quest. The only problem in using the portable light is affixing it to the bow of our boat - in the dark, with 4-8 foot rolling seas! Ken custom-designed and crafted the back-up bow light mounting bracket while underway, using duct tape. (See photo above.) The moon was so bright that we could not tell from the cockpit if the bow lights were on, so one of us would walk up to the bow every hour or so, just to make sure the light was still lit.

We made great time, sailing 7-8 knots all night, and arrived at the Ft. Pierce entrance before sunrise. We transited the inlet in the dark, and made it to Vero Beach early. We took a mooring ball in the municipal marina and Ken and I took a much needed nap!

We finally pulled up anchor and headed out of South Beach. We stopped at a marina to fill up on fuel and pump our head tank, before heading off shore. We plan to sail overnight to Ft. Pierce. It is about 105 miles from sea buoy to sea buoy at the inlets. We have great wind, so we hoisted sails right after leaving the pass. We had 15 - 20 knot winds and sailed above 7 knots for most of the way, on a beam reach. We passed an anchorage of ocean-going vessels outside Port Everglades. The bow of the boat in the picture is much closer than we usually like to get to these ships, but thankfully, it is anchored! We continued sailing north through the night.

The weather has been gorgeous! We are enjoying temperatures in the 80's and beautiful weather. It is a little humid today, but we are supposed to get a cold front passage tonight, which should drop the temps in the 60's at night, which will be perfect for sleeping. We watch cruise ships come in and out of Miami almost daily. Pictured is one on its way out of Miami. We have seem as many as five docked at one time. We expect to leave here by the end of the week, once the winds clock back to the south.

We took advantage of the free trolley service on the Alton and West Street Loop and went to church this morning. The usual 30 minute walk to church only took about 10 minutes with the bus ride. On the way back to the boat, we stopped by a large municipal stadium and watched a soccer game between guys who looked to be in their twenties. Even though we did not know who they were, it was fun to watch them play.