After 6+ years of outboard motor problems we bit the bullet and bought a new Mercury outboard at the boat show. Not as big as Bill wanted, bought a 5 hp and he wanted an 8 hp. I had 3 factors for my needs in an outboard: 1. One that I can start 2. One that is reliable and 3. Price. The 5 hp won out since: I tried starting the bigger motors and my arm strength just couldn't do it and the price. There is an $800 difference between the 5 and the 8. Now we need to get rid of our 2 old motors. Bill is putting them on Craig's List and hope they sell since we don't want to take them with us when we leave.

We toured lots of boats, both monohull, multihull and power boats. There was a catamaran that we both liked a lot but definitely not in our future, maybe if we had it to do all over again it would be a possibility. One of the power boats we looked at was $4.5 million; don't think that one is in our future either. We love Walk A-Bout but those brand new boats sure were nice.

It is really cold here with an expected low tonight of 36 degrees. I realize it is not as cold as Minnesota but still this is florida.......lots of sunshine but I want warm temperatures to go with it!!!