Different....everything

 

In December, JP suggested we might spend a few weeks of our Florida winter on a long(er) excursion with Third Flight, the Mainship 30 Pilot II that's a motorboat cousin to Raconteur (same designer). We found her in Stuart in February of 2022, and have done a few day trips and some overnights.  She's smaller - one cabin, one head - but there's a generous and fully enclosed cockpit and we acquired a luxury air mattress and featherbed combo for added sleeping space.

JP and Susan headed south from our dock at the apartment in Lauderdale, where we keep Third Flight in winter, on Monday the 22nd of January.  Leigh followed in the car and we met up at Safe Harbor Marina in Marathon, in the Middle Keys, on Wednesday the 24th.  We did a couple of excursions from the marina, but it's an El Nino year so Florida weather has been cooler and rainier than usual, so we've had a lot of marina time and a chance to explore the Keys by car while staying on the boat.  It's a fun change of pace.  We came home to the apartment for the first few days of February and then headed back down on the 7th; we've hatched a plan to do what is jokingly called the "FLoop" - to continue it really - which will take us from here up to the Shark River, Marco Island and Naples on the Southwest coast of Florida, then across via rivers, canals and Lake Okeechobee to Stuart, before we head back to the apartment.  We will take ten or twelve days for it, starting tomorrow - Super Bowl Sunday, the 11th of February, with a goal to be home around the 20th or so.

I took the sunset photo at the marina on the 8th - our 20th wedding anniversary - before our excellent fish dinner at Castaways.  We can get there on foot, by car, or in the newly-christened "Passepartout", a Takacat dinghy with an electric engine.

I will try to report back from the trip, Internet access permitting.

PS Raconteur, after a much-shortened sailing season brought on by the installation of a new engine (!) last summer, is on the hard in Branford, Connecticut for the winter.  We will hope to splash her in May, and return her to Guilford Yacht Club, controlling depth problems notwithstanding.