We left our home in Punta Gorda Friday afternoon. With the north winds, the water is sucked out of our canal so we had wait for the tide to rise around 2 PM. Arrived Pelican Bay at sunset, after a nice sail down Charlotte harbor. We hope to make it to the Bahamas this season. We need to be back in Florida by early April, so if the weather doesn't cooperate, we'll just hang out in Florida. Heck, we're on the boat, and that's what matters. Worst case we will be stuck in the Florida Keys, well there are worse place to hang out. At least we will not need our fleeces and try to stay warm.

We anchored at St James City, at the tip of Pine Island, on Saturday night. A beautiful spot and calm, peaceful anchorage after the recreational and fishing boats stopped for the day. Two other boats were nearby, both of whom we've heard on the Cruiseheimers Net - C Language and Cat Tales. Fun to be so close and connect on VHF after years of hearing on single sideband. This is one of the things I love about this cruising life!

Three sailing days of great sailing (following wind and clam seas) in a row! Unusual for us, we usually motor everywhere. We made it to Marco Island at 4:00p Sunday, anchored in Smokehouse Bay for a few nights. On our way in, a seam in the dodger ripped, so it needed to be repaired. Fortunately, we were in a good place for that. We will be here for a couple of days so I can do a conference call Tuesday before we enter an area with no cell signals. We will keep watching the weather and get in a position to cross to the Bahamas, hopefully moving to Shark river on Wednesday and then Islamorada on Thursday. Then it is up to Chris Parker to tell us when to cross.