Our 5th cruising season is about to begin, as we rush to get things finished up here at home, the van packed up and leave in a few days. The 2013 cruising season will be a little different for us. To start out we will be driving back to the boat rather than flying. That in itself may be our first challenge since we will be leaving in January from the Pacific Northwest and going from one corner of the country to another. We figure we will have to take a southern route by heading down to California and then crossing through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana and finally Florida. Our goal of course is to stay in the warmer weather and out of the snowy passes.

We will be going to a small town in the southern part of the state hopefully where the weather will be warm. Wanderlust is sitting in a dry storage lot in Indiantown, Florida on the eastern side of Lake Okeechobe. We will have the usual hard work of getting her recommissioned after 7 months of sitting idle. There is always lots of clean up, reorganizing equipment and provisioning work to do. Once, ready to go it will be time to put the van in storage and head up the Intracostal Waterway. We are looking forward to following this slow meandering waterway in protected water all the way up to the Chesapeake. We look forward to seeing the coastal area of northern Florida, Georgia, South & North Carolina, and West Virginia and into the Cheseapeake where I'm sure there will be more to see than we have time for.

This is a transition year for us as we will be putting Wanderlust on the market and hopefully find a buyer on the east coast who wants to carry on cruising in her to points unknown. Our original plan was to take 5 years on this trip around North and Central America, and that is pretty much what we did. In each of those 5 years we spent 4 to 5 months on the boat and managed to move the boat along its way back to where it came from on the East Coast. Except for the fact that we have been boatless when in the Pacific Northwest in the summer, it has been a pretty good plan. Next year we hope to move towards a little more boating comfort, and get a power trawler. We will still be poking along at 6-7 knots but in a little more comfort, which will be appreciated in the Northwest where the cruising area is endless, but it can be a little cool and wet even in the summer.

So, it you have an interest in this part of the country follow along with us this year on our ICW trip. I will try to post more often than I did last year depending on internet availabiltiy. Since I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards this year we just want to wish eveyone a Happy & Healthy New Year!