Fulton Harbor boating friends Bert & Dixie treated us, our "boat buddies" Daren & Nancy, and another couple who have recently arrived in their boat, Kelly & Darline (who plan on sailing to Australia next year) to a farewell dinner tonight. How nice! Thanks, Bert & Dixie! We'll miss you. (We would show you their pictures but we haven't quite figured out how to operate our new camera just yet. Patience. We'll get there.) We're leaving tomorrow morning, headed for Key West initially, then on to The Bahamas and eventually, hopefully, to our old stomping grounds, the Virgin Islands. The plan is to then return to Fulton Harbor in May or June 2012.
Saturday, November 12
And off we go! We motor sailed up the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) to Costa Grande, a drop-dead gorgeous little community just south of Port O'Connor with beautiful facilities and floating docks. (We actually have pictures now of both Fulton Harbor and Costa Grande; Al resorted to using his phone to take the pics but at least we have them! Now we just need to figure out how to post them on our blog. Ugh.) Joining us in their boat for the trip from Fulton Harbor to Costa Grande were friends Larry & Sue and Frankie & Sherry. Daren & Nancy came from Fulton by land yacht (car) to join us for dinner, as did Lee & Kate (who drove down from Austin). All of us have boats at Fulton Harbor and have built treasured friendships over the last year. It was great fun to have everyone together. Daren & Nancy, along with their two German Shorthaired Pointers, Pete & Libby, will be joining us in their boat, Flying Dogs, later this week. (They've been held up a little, waiting on their dinghy to arrive, fixing the dinghy motor [that was cracked during shipment)], selling their truck, etc.) In any case, the four of us plan on "buddy boating" together to the Florida Keys. After hanging out there for a little while, we will continue on to The Bahamas while Daren & Nancy head south to Costa Rica. The current plan is for us to take the boats (Wind Dancer and Flying Dogs) offshore from here in "baby steps" rather than head directly across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida. The Gulf can be treacherous and we're just not up for the possibility of running into some strong storms this early in our voyaging, so....instead, we will be sailing offshore from port to port, hugging the coastline and anchoring out each night, so that should bad weather come along, we can duck into a port and hang out until we get a favorable "weather window" to continue sailing. The trip will take a little longer this way but, hey, we're sailing! No complaints!
Sophie & Chelsea are having a ball, barking at dolphins who swim alongside us when we're sailing. Dolphin watching is exhausting work and the dogs are sacked out by early evening.
Actually, we're all pooped. More later. Good night.
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