It's time to leave Paradise and head north

Well in spite of my best intentions, it's been now a whole month since my last entry onto this blog. We have been busy, so I'll use that as the excuse.

Shortly after the last entry was posted, Samantha, Jeremy and family arrived for a two week stay. They had rented a house on a canal within view of our mooring. We went to Ft. Lauderdale to meet them and help transport the family back. They'd have needed a van because the boys each are young enough for a car seat, and three just don't fit in one seat. So we took the two oldest boys with us. First stop was Robert Is Here. It's a popular fruit and vegetable market with lots of tropical options to choose from. They also have lots of animals to see and a splash park for the kids. (Go to: http://www.robertishere.com/xcart/home.php to see all that is offered there.

From there we took the short drive to the Everglades National Park and a walk on a trail to lots of alligators. It was rather warm for our northern guests, so we didn't linger and continued south the Keys and their home for this vacation. During the next two weeks we managed to fill each day, and the older boys slept in the boat each night. We went to the beach on four occasions, went to a pool on four days, got down to Key West where we stopped at the Butterfly Conservatory and the aquarium. The kids got to the Turtle Hospital and the Dolphin Research Center twice. They managed to get in a handshake and up close meeting with dolphins while there. They also enjoyed another splash park. All in all, everyone seemed to have a great time. The two weeks ended all too quickly and it was time for another trip to Ft. Lauderdale and a plane flight for them.

Sam, Ryan, Chris and Nathan were busy at the beach.

The boys taking a break at the Butterfly Conservatory.

It's good luck if a butterfly lands on you. Sandra was having a really lucky day!

Chris was about to shake with a dolphin.

Mother and daughter were happy to be together.

We headed back for a few days before we too headed north – in the car to return it to Virginia. During the two day trip north, we managed to stop at a marina in Brunswick, Georgia to check it out. We expect the day will arrive when we won't want to make the trip all the way up to VA again, so we're looking for some place acceptable that is closer to the Keys. Brunswick is about the halfway point. People we've met here use that marina as summer base, hence our interest in checking it out.

We arrived in Virginia in time to take the car to the marina we plan use this summer for the boat – Salt Ponds. We hadn't been there for 17 years, so we wanted to check it out and leave the car. Jenn met us there and then took us back to her house for the night. After an all-too-short visit, she drove us to the airport in Richmond the next morning for our flight back to Florida where we rented a car for the final leg of the journey back to Marathon.

Since our return, we've prepared the boat and done the provisioning. Of course, since we are about to leave, problems arose. Our fresh water pump died; our outboard was running poorly, our toilet was backing up a bit and Sandra's bike got a flat tire. All this in addition to taking the dinghy to shore to clean the growth off the bottom and taking the big boat out to Coconut Key to clean its bottom. Boot Key Harbor is a fertile spot for algae and barnacle growth. I must hold my breath and dive down to either scrape or use a stiff brush. The result of this is that we'll travel a bit faster and use less fuel.With diesel fuel costing between four and five dollars a gallon, the fuel cost for the trip will be near $450 if we do well. It could end up costing an additional $200 with a dirty boat bottom, so I spend some time working on it. ( I know, you think this is a sailboat, so why all the fuel? Even for sailboats, most of this trip is done with the engine running, contrary to popular thinking.) We've also enjoyed some final social connections with cruisers and permanent residents who have become friends. One couple just arrived (Larry and Terri Howard). Another couple, Nicki and Franz on Skybird III were hoping to travel with us. (They have the identical boat to our Carpe Diem.) But time pressures forced them to leave before us.

All the above issues got resolved, and we are now anchored outside Boot Key Harbor ready to head up the Keys in the morning. We couldn't leave before now, because we had offered to help our local Tai Chi group put on an open house for new recruits. It went quite well today, with a number of new trainees ready to begin next week. We will miss our instructors Jeff and Susie along with Beth, Jack and a number of other participants, but we look forward to seeing them again upon our return.

So here we sit watching the sun get lower in a clear blue sky. The temperature is about 80 degrees, the breeze is light and the water is near the same temperature as the air. There are moments like this when we ask ourselves, why are we leaving this paradise? But we know we have things to do and people to visit north of here, and we also know that we plan to return in the fall. New adventures lie ahead for us, and we'll keep you abreast of most of them.