Back in the Good Ol'e US of A

State side

We are back in the States. Land of noisy anchorages and big wakes.  It took me a couple of days to get used to the noise of it all, the sirens on land, the loud music from some of the boats in the anchorage. Civilization sucks, except for the shopping. Getting groceries is not as painful as it was in the Bahamas and we are enjoying the “luxury” of plenty fresh fruit and vegetables that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Our last few weeks back in the Berry islands after the Exumas , were pure bliss. 

The crews from SV Casita, MV Esperanza, SV Vita and Kim from the marina joined us for cocktails at the Rock Pool Bar  in Great Harbour Cay

I catch them , he cleans them....ok he caught some too :)

Even with a wrecked dinghy.  

The wrecked dinghy, which by the way we have since been able to replace once we got back to the States. of course we are still waiting on the insurance people to come through! 

We are still talking to the insurance about getting it replaced, something they couldn’t do in the Bahamas, of course and now that we are back in the States we can take care of that too. 

Our crossing from the Berrys was long and trying but I am glad we kept going or else we would still be there waiting for a window to cross. The winds have been out of the north since we got back to the mainland and it has been kind of cool, all though Gary reminds me that it is still in the high 70s and not cold, it must mean I am used to the warm weather but even Gary is wearing his warm slippers in the cool mornings.

Checking in with customs was surprisingly painless and that is how we like it. We spent a night in a marina in West Palm for easy access to groceries and immigration. Well the idiot on the sailboat next to us had left his boat with lines clanging against the mast and his Sirius radio (outside speakers) blaring.  We couldn't get out there fast enough, we anchored one night in Manatee pocket and then head further north to the moorings at Vero. Here we pumped up our deflated dinghy, headed to shore and to Wal-Mart to replace our dead microwave.

We also had a lovely visit with Jill and Parker (SV Tootsie) before heading out early the next day to anchor in Dragon point.

We were focused on getting to Green Cove so we put pedal to the metal and had full days of travelling stopping at Titusville, Fort Matanzas, 3 Sisters Creek, Jacksonville Landing and till finally we arrived at Green Cove Springs.

After removing things from the boat that we will need for the trailer and putting things that are staying behind on the boat, in storage we got lifted out and put on the hard.

Time& Tide covered for the summer.

All in all it was quite the eventful year on the boat. After a cold summer in the north we were hit with extremely high temperatures while on the inland rivers south of Chicago. 

We spent a lot of time in Kentucky Lake and loved the peace and quiet of it all.

Back on the Gulf coast we started to plan our Gulf crossing which was one for the books, with flat calm water and a starry night it more than made up for the previous year’s nightmare.

Back in the USA panic set in as we realised we were running out of time on our stay and had to get to the Bahamas, of course that is when all our engine issues started. The frustration of fixing one thing, then another and then another just to find out that the engine was still not working well is bad enough, but finding out this out in the middle of the Gulf stream , in the middle of nowhere is even worse.

New friends

But with bad comes good and if we didn't have the engine issues we wouldn't have made the detour to Great Harbour Cay, which was without a doubt the highlight of our trip this year. Exploring the island and making new friends was the best part of this trip.

Old friends

We said we were going to spread our wings this year and we did, we went to the Exumas and even though it was beautiful, it was crowed and we longed for the unspoiled beauty of Great Harbour. So we turned around and went back to spend our last few weeks in the Bahamas in our favourite spot.

The beautiful Great Harbour Cay

Back to reality in the USA we got ready to put Time& Tide away for a well-deserved rest. This year she is staying behind as we head back north, in the truck and camper, to work for the summer. We need to top up our cruising kitty and we found a nice job running a campground on the County in Ontario. Gary and I will be taking care of maintenance and the running of the campground but the best thing is that it is near the grand-kids.

 So for a while there will be no blog updates. If I can I might post one just to update you all on camping life and how it feels to be working again, but I doubt that will interest many.

So even though we had to weather some scary times when all I could do was pray and pray and pray, we made it through another year with so many great memories. We look back on the year and realised how blessed we are with all our new friends and how wonderful it was getting reacquainted with old friends. Knowing you all have enriched our lives.

So till we meet again faithful readers of this humble blog, I bid you fare winds and calm seas. God Bless.>