Wow...How did that happen? All of a sudden its been weeks since I've done a log update. Of course, Anne and Evelyn have been recording the important stuff (I'm still teasing them about hitting a bridge but, in truth, they handled a nasty situation pretty well) while I sat in a hotel waiting for the UK to recover from the "unprecedented extreme weather event" of having received six inches of snow...As someone who has always lived in snowy places, I still find this amazing...and learning about the UK healthcare system to take care of an infection.

So I did make it back for Christmas and found a well-decorated boat with a happy cruising family aboard and we had a very nice few days. We also discovered the world's greatest hardware store there in Cocoa and decided to do a day of boat projects while in the vicinity. Sure enough, when I needed a bit of stainless steel to fabricate a mounting bracket, I went to the hardware store, explained what i needed, the guy said "through that door, on the left, down low" and there it was: exactly what I needed!

We have finally started to move again, getting pumped out, refueled, and underway about midday and then heading to one of our favorite anchorages from our 2005 visit: a quiet place behind a spoil island just south of Melborne. It doesn't sound like much, but the island has a lovely sand bar off its south end and actually manages to look like a tropical atoll of sorts. Of course its not as much fun without our friends from Tahu Lea anchored with us, but Evelyn and Leslie had fun revisiting it nonetheless.

It's still pretty brisk here, but today was warmer than yesterday despite the reoccurence of ice on the docks overnight. But it is warming slowly, and tomorrow is supposed to be much warmer.