Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Grandchildren in Paradise


Sam with Ryan at the beach


Another month has gone by, and we're still here in the Keys enjoying life. A highlight of our winter was the arrival of our daughter Samantha and her family which included three boys – Nathan 5 years old, Christopher 2 and a half and Ryan who is now 8 months. They rented a place on one of the canals in Key Colony Beach that provided access for our boat. We were able to tie up to the dock in front of their house. What a great week! The boys went fishing and caught several fish; they all spent time at the beach in the water and building sand castles, in a pool and enjoying one of the local parks. We took them to the Dolphin Research Center to see the dolphins at play. It's one of the best places we know of to get up close to dolphins and look them in the eye while they look back at you. The two older boys especially enjoyed sleeping on the boat each night. Times like this remind us how great it is to be on a permanent sabbatical ( in simple terms – retired) so that we can be here to share this paradise with our children and grandchildren.

People Watchers
They stayed a full week, so we had lots of good times with them and have since taken a couple of days to recover. Now we are preparing for our other daughter Jennifer to come down. .

Now that we're into spring officially, a number of the boaters who spent the winter here have left already. Many are heading east to the Bahamas while others are heading up the coast of Florida to where ever they call home during the summer months. We'll be here another three weeks before heading out. Our exact route is still under discussion, but I'll report on that as the plans become firm.

As an added note, a bit of a crisis has delayed a few boats from leaving. A communications wire crosses the harbor entrance at about 68 feet above the water. Apparently a boat with a 75 foot mast tried to go through causing damage to the boat and also resulting in the wire dropping down more than 10 feet. This happened a few days ago and is finally getting repaired today. A few boats had planned to leave but must wait for the repair, since their mast height is in the 65 foot range. Such things one only worries about when on a sailboat.