Winter in Florida can be rough. In saying that, I hope that all of our Northern friends and relatives will remember that 1) we live on water and 2) we don't have 75 feet of insulation and a monster furnace that could double as the Bat Computer. That said, this winter has definitely not been rough. It's been just about perfect. Warm, sunny days and cool nights.
Have I sufficiently pissed off you northerners yet?
Hetty was going to move to a new home the first weekend in February. At the last minute we decided to stay at where we were. We have alot of friends here and we like the quiet location. We are, however, changing slips. Our 6' draft is too deep for our slip so we are moving to one on a different dock that further out and in deeper water. We decided against taking the open slip that's next to "the screamer". I won't elaborate on that one...
We disconnected the telephone line last week and went completely cellular. Unfortunately we can only make free air time calls after 10:00pm and on the weekends. Last night I tried to call Tom - who is going to be our Best Man in the upcoming wedding - to wish him a happy birthday. I hear this weak, sleepy voice say "hello?" and mercifully the battery on my cell phone died. Hopefully he didn't know that it was me - don't tell him, OK? Anyway it was only 10:05 - and his birthday, for crying out loud. How should I have known that he'd be asleep?
Michelle and I are getting married on April 5th. We planned a small, simple wedding with family and friends that soon exploded into something larger than we wanted. I spent a day making Hawaiian noises hoping that Michelle would want to elope to Hawaii - but we settled on the next best thing. We ARE eloping but we're taking our family and friends and even our minister with us. We're getting married on the beach at Captiva Island. The whole gang will be staying at the 'Tween Waters Resort on Captiva. This should be fun - a nice casual wedding and everyone gets a nice tropical vacation. We were really surprised that our minister not only agreed but also thought it was a great idea. It's going to be interesting watching a bunch of pasty white northern people get attacked by the tropical sun.
The Brad Chronicles I've decided to start a new section of this virtual log called the Brad Chronicles. Brad is a good friend of ours that lives in our marina. I've always said that if I ever write a book, I'd have to have a chapter simply entitled "Brad". Brad has a reputation for not acknowledging certain things in life - mostly things pertaining to physical reality such as weather and depth of the water beneath his keel. Before I continue, I should say that Brad is a very good captain (although I'd never sail with him again). He's already made several blue water passages and hasn't even killed anyone (that he's admitted to). Well, Brad decided to take a few friends out sailing last weekend - most of the friends have never been sailing before. Even though his VHF radio was blaring out warnings of coming severe weather, Brad and his happy crew carried on and headed out. Well, 40 minutes after he left we all sat on the dock and watched as clouds attempted to form waterspouts and 40 knot gusts began in earnest. After several hours Brad returned to the marina - his first comment was "well, looks like I'll need to find a new crew again".
Trust me, it's not the first time.
Please send us an e-mail - we'd love to hear from you. Do you have advice? Are you a wannabe? Are you related and feel compelled? Regardless....we've created a page called the Mail Boat just for the purpose... Send us some mail!