We know the story is always about perspective... so we'll offer up both perspectives- it's rather obvious even without the he said- she said!

He said: a week of working on seeker with tons of help from Pierre from Troika, left her in the best shape she's been in for years. Several major tasks like sanding and painting the bottom, compounding and waxing, left us wiped out but happy to get so much done. The "surprise" project was having a delaminated rudder repaired. All you need to know is 1 1/2 boat units later it was beautifully done and with help from Dean from Autumn Borne and Tom from Dalmation, we got the rudder back in and steering serviced. We launched with lots of gratitude to Rocky and crew at St Marys boatyard.

Launching success was short lived as seeker overheated with 20 minutes caused by an air lock in the cooling system which I had drained for servicing. Kathy dropped the hook while I dealt with it and we continued to Cumberland island where we stayed 2 nites. We rejoined Autumn Borne and Dalmation as we all headed south. The ICW awaited with treacherous shoals, life threatening passes by motor craft and mind numbing boredom punctuated by vhf chatter and coastie pronouncements. But we survived again. Passed all the usual places - pine island, st Augustine, Daytona , and finally Vero. We had 2 or 3 days of great luck with tides and wind helping us along and averaged over 7 knots. While we didn't experience any space/time warping at those speeds, we did get to our destinations earlier which of course means more time for other things. Windy anchorages and mooring fields (bouncy sleeping, Arggghhhh) and some rainy days were the main issues which seem insignificant when compared to Dalmation's constant worry about bridge births and water depths (65' & 7').

So here we sit in Vero beach harbor reveling in the great weather, enjoying a cruiser's thanksgiving with a couple hundred like minded souls, and settling into the cruising routine.

She said: So much to be thankful for! We’re sitting in a protected mooring in Vero Beach. It’s warm and sunny, even though a bit blustery. Seeker has performed flawlessly- after her initial engine overheat immediately after launching. That was due to a vapor lock in the hose to the hot water heater. Earl did a quick fix of taking the hot water heater out of the circuit. Now that we’ll be on a mooring for a bit, he will readdress that issue.
We left St. Mary’s and headed just a few miles to Cumberland Island to meet up with Autumn Borne and Dalmation. While preparing to launch, we inflated Red Rover (the dinghy) only to find a mouse bite from it sitting in our garage. We were so disappointed because our friend Shayne had just done a professional patching job on her. A new dink is NOT in our budget, especially after the rudder re-build, so more patching was done. Unfortunately, it wasn’t holding air for more than a day, but we put the motor on her to test it out at Cumberland. After much adjusting, but not a smooth running motor, we realized- it’s the fuel. It’s ALWAYS the fuel. Even though it was fresh gas, it wasn’t marine grade and it was already full of water.
We left Cumberland, pulled into Fernandina for fuel and a much needed pump out, continued through a shoaled spot south of Fernandina using the excellent way points provided on Active Captain. Dalmation draws quite a bit more than Seeker or Autumn Borne, so they’re always a bit nervous when water depths are questionable. But we all made it through with no problems. On to Pine Island for a quiet nights anchor. Then St. Augustine, where there was a big weekend of festivities and no room at the inn. We were on a waiting list for a mooring, but didn’t get a call till late, so we continued on through the next bridge and anchored. It was a short day so Earl took the patch off of the dinghy and started over, this time clamping the patch between 2 small pieces of wood.
The next morning, we headed out with Dalmation, while Dean and Susan enjoyed St. Augustine. We hit Mantanzas at dead low tide. Not a big problem for us, but we did see 6’ for a second and that’s all it took to stop Dalmation. The tide was coming in and they only had to wait an hour before she floated off. Next stop Daytona. We were going through the bridges first and letting Dalmation know what the tide boards were reading. All fixed bridges on the ICW are SUPPOSED to be a minimum of 65’. Depending on tides, wind, rain that can all change. So when we got to Seabreeze and it read 62, we pulled in to anchor on the north side. Unfortunately there’s only a 9” change here. Dalmation watched the bridge numbers all night I’m sure. Not much change and since they’d already had a close encounter in another incident, they were hesitant to go through. So we spent a windy rainy day anchored at the bridge reading and knitting and cooking- well that’s what I did anyway. That evening, Autumn Borne caught up with us and shared some news that the bridge numbers were not accurate and 63 was really 65. So, Dalmation sneaked through the next morning, only to be stopped in a few miles by the next bridge! We left them there in the company of a catamaran with a tall mast to wait for the tide to drop a bit more and headed on to Titusville. The Mosquito Lagoon was rocking with big rollers that Seeker was surfing down. Seeker was flawless but her crew was a bit out of practice! Trying to pick up a mooring in Titusvville in big winds, I didn’t let go of the boat hook until I was almost over the railing. One less boat hook and a few bruises later, we finally picked up the mooring and spent a rocky night. Dalmation came in at dark and Autumn Borne was already at the dock. They’ll both be spending the next few weeks here for the holidays, while we’ll continue on down to Vero for Thanksgiving. The mooring field was so rolly we didn’t even get off the boat, so we left the next morning and headed towards Melbourne. We passed our usual anchorage early in the day and decided to try a new one at Bluefish Point, hoping for some protection from the NE winds that were kicking up. As we followed the directions into the anchorage, we saw a large ketch and 2 (yep 2!) TowBoat US boats pulling it off the bottom. As we approached shore, they hailed us and said to watch out – the bottom dropped to 2 ft and it took them 4 hours to get off. We were still showing 10 feet of water but didn’t go much further before dropping the hook. The winds howled most of the night, but we did have some protection and the Manson did it’s job. It was still pretty rolly and the snubber line squeeked all night as it strained against the wind so sleep was pretty sporadic. I dreamed that the anchor was so set that we couldn’t get it up the next day and we missed Thanksgiving at dinner. It turns out my fears were unfounded (as is usually the case) and the anchor came up easily and we headed south again. Once we got in a narrower channel behind the islands near Sebastian, we were much more protected. It was a short trip to Vero and by 11 we were tying up next to Okemah Rose. We went to shore quickly, stopping only to say hi to Elle and I, then some groceries and a much needed shower, topped off by an early dinner at Riverside. Yum!!
Thanksgiving was spent with a couple hundred other cruisers, some old friends, some new friends and an incredible spread put on by boaters , CLODs (Cruisers living on dirt) and the city marina. We missed being with our families, but we’ll head back for the Christmas holidays and spend time with them then. We are so thankful that we have such wonderful friends and family- we are truly grateful for all that we have!