Another week has flown by

It's hard to believe that another week has come and gone and we are down to our last week here in Marathon. Sometime next weekend or early next week we plan to head up the coast back to the mainland and visit Naples and Charlotte Harbor.

Our Chicago friends, Sunny and Ralph Hernandez headed back to the frigid north a day or so ago but we've connected with some friends we met while back in Herrington who just got here. Dave and Lisa Cooper in their Halberg Rassy "Virginia Dare" arrived in Marathon just a few days ago and we hosted them for happy hour on our boat and then shared dinner. It was great catching up and hearing about their trip down the ICW. They actually left after we did and stayed at some of the same places we did. Catching up is fun.

Saturday night the Club had a Valentine's Day dinner that was sort of pot luck but managed and it turned out great! I know we thought that we ate too much but I don't really think that happened. Today I ran to and out the old 7 mile bridge and then we biked around Boot Key Harbor and stopped at the Tropical Dockside Cafe for refreshments before returning home for happy hour with the Club. The Dockside is a real boater's bar. One comment on Active Captain said about the place, if drunken sailors offend you go someplace else. But we enjoyed it and had fun with other patrons.

Tomorrow begins a work week to finish boat chores in preparation for our continuing journey. There are additional repairs to make. Today I pumped some oil from the engine because I overfilled it when I changed it a couple weeks ago. Sometimes overfilling is not evident until the engine sits a while and the oil all drains down into the sump. Overfilling oil in a diesel is a risk because it could cause the engine to take off and run from the oil. We also need to begin to stock up with supplies for our trip to the Bahamas. Tonight I bought our customs permit so we can reenter the US. The permit allows us to bring our boat back into the US by showing all documents and taxes have been paid.

We're also beginning to make our longer range plans for the Fall and next winter. While we expect to be headed way south we're not sure where we will be for Thanksgiving. So we may or may not travel back because we really need to buy tickets now but don't know where we'll be. One of the challenges of cruising is not to make long range commitments because they may become hard or impossible to keep.  For folks wanting to come visit we can either resort to last minute plans or try to make a long distance rendezvous just as we did for our trip here.

We've now been cruising less than 3 months but it seems like we've been doing this for a long time and I mean that in a good way. We are still working through the transition from the land-based routines and the ship-board routines. We will need to improve on them as we head to the Bahamas where we will be on anchor or moorings and less in slips. But we are looking forward to getting over there and enjoying the things the Bahamas have to offer. More travel details to confirm.

So while this past week was a big one with events - especially our big anniversary - next week will be even bigger as we work on our plans for moving forward.

Hopefully we'll have some more pictures we can post to help anyone digging out from under snow that we've heard has pummeled the Northeast again. In a few more weeks spring will be here and things should warm up all around.Well at least let's hope.