Thanksgiving in MI with Vicki's mom and dad

Thanksgiving 2008 was a wonderful time for us at home in MI. Vicki's mom and dad come for a visit and we were able to obtain a special hunting permit for Vicki's dad allowing him to hunt from a standing vehicle. Although they didn't see anything for him to shoot, just being in the woods with her dad once again meant everything to her. Vicki was fortunate the have been able to shoot her first buck with her bow in October and there is a picture of that here. Other pictures include Vicki and her mom going for a ride, Vicki and her dad while hunting and Vicki's dad hunting.

South to Baltimore, MD

At the end of summer 2008, Mark took a job in Baltimore, MD and we had the boat hauled and transported by truck to a marina in the town of Northeast, MD where we had it put back together. While Mark was working up in Oswego, NY still, I got the privilege (a little scary) of moving the boat to her new home in Baltimore Inner Harbor Marine Center at the beginning of November 2008. I took one of the riggers with me as he knew the waters around Northeast and we sailed down the Chesapeake to Baltimore. It was a great sail and I was very proud of doing this "all by myself" (meaning without Mark on board).

Summer in Fair Haven, NY

The summer in Fair Haven, NY was really wonderful. We met so many nice people at the marina and were blessed to be able to share many great meals and conversations with them both at the marina (which has the coolest parties, complete with bands) and in towm at our favorite eatery, Pleasant Beach (owned by "H" and Bonnie who are sailboat owners from GA).
The fourth of July was really cool! The bay does this neat thing called the "Ring of Fire" which is when everyoe around the bay puts out flares by the water and lights them at dark. The result is a actual ring of fire around the bay and is quite the sight to see. The fireworks were really exceptional also.
The picture is of one of the fireworks and also shows the lights along the bottom of the picture (which is part of the ring of fire).

Pictures of Aubrey

Aubrey is such a wonderful littl girl. We are truly blessed with her as our grandaughter. Nicole is a great mommy and Mark and I are becoming acustomed to being Grandma and Grandpa. These a just a few the pictures that we have taken during the first month of her life.
Pictured are Aubrey, Aubrey with Grandma, Aubrey with Great, Great Aunt Bonnie, Aubrey with Great Uncle Brian, Aubrey with Nicole (Mom) and Grandpa, and Grandpa and Aubrey.

April 10, 2008 - Here's Aubrey Victoria our grandaughter

April 10, 2008 was a very important date for our family as Aubrey Victoria our grandaughter was born. Her mother, Nicole, did very well with the labor and delivery and is a great mother! We are extremely proud of them both!
Grandma and Grandpa were on their way to NY to our new home at Fair Point Marina when Nicole called to say that she was in labor and would be heading to the hospital. We stopped at a motel for a couple of hours of sleep and then got back on the road. Vicki drove as quickly and safely as possible to try to get to Nicole for the birth but missed Aubrey's arrival by only an hour and a half!
Vicki stayed with Nicole and Aubrey for four wonderful weeks after the birth! It was absolutely a once in a lifetime experience for her.
Mark headed to NY to take delivery of the boat and get it into he water. He then headed for MI to visit Jenel (our youngest) and then headed to TN to visit Halsey (our third) before heading to VA to see his grandaughter for the first time. He started work in NY after a whirlwind trip across country to see the family.

Time to move to New York

April 2008 and with the end of Mark's consulting job in sight, a decision was made for Mark to take another consulting job as our insurance claim has still not been settled yet. Tom, Mark's very good friend from the Navy and current training manager at Nine Mile in Oswego, NY called to see if Mark was interested in coming back to NY and helping him. We talked it over and started looking for a place to live in NY on the boat and a way to get the boat up there. We decided to ship the boat by truck and found Fair Point Marina in Little Sodus Bay right off of Lake Ontario to keep the boat over the summer. For a better look you can go to their website at http://www.fairpointmarina.com/ and see where we are for the summer. Come the fall, we will need to look for an apartment that is furnished for the winter (YUCK). We have met a lot of very nice people here and our good friends from Key Largo, Annette and Gary live about 45 minutes away.

Sea Trial

At the end of February 2008, Roger from Nance & Underwood came down with one of his riggers to go sailing with us and do our sea trial. We had a great day of sailing and ended up having to anchor out because we didn't get through the channel before the tide got too low. The tide was especially low since it was a full moon and we had not taken that into consideration when we left in the morning. While out at anchor, the rigger helped Vicki take apart the windless and clean and lube it. He also helped her take apart one of the big self tailing winches in the cockpit and clean and lube that. After sitting around for awhile, Mark decided to take them to the dock by the dinghy while Joy (our friend from the marina) and Vicki waited for the tide to rise enough to get the boat back to the marina.

John and Nora come to visit February 2008

One of the best friends that I have finally came to visit us in Florida even though she is terrified of flying. My high school buddy Nora and her husband John (whom we just love and Mark has so much in common with) came to visit us in Key Largo in February. We were able to visit with them for an entire week and just loved having them.

We went to dinner at Bayside Grill on Valentine's Day (Mark and my anniversary) and had a great meal while watching the sun set. We tried to get out fishing but the weather just wouldn't cooperate with us.. We did make it down to Key West though and had a good time while there. Nora, Joy (one of our friends from the marina) and I shopped while the guys sat and had a couple of drinks at one of the many bars. Nora and John also went to swim with the dolphins and had a fabulous time with two dolphins that normally work with learning disabled and really get excited to work with normal people. They swam so fast that they actually made a wake pulling John and Nora back to the dock! Both of them said that it was wonderful and that it was "a once in a lifetime" opportunity. We are so glad that they visited us and hope to see them again soon.

A new mast at last!!! Jan 2008

Off to Ft. Lauderdale for a new mast (finally!!) On January 15, 2008 we left Key Largo on our way to Playboy Marina for our new mast. On board were Mark and I and our very good friend Gary (who came along to help us and take a rode trip so to speak). We took two days to motor up to Ft. Lauderdale, anchoring the first night and staying in the marina across from Playboy the second night.
On January 17, 2008 we went into the hole over in Playboy and watched as the riggers from Nance & Underwood set about standing our new mast. WOW what a great feeling to finally see our girl with a new mast after being without one for so long!
We had a very long, bumpy ride back to Key Largo on Saturday the 19th and ended up anchoring just outside of the channel to our home at Marina Del Mar due to the tides. The wind was of course right in our face leaving Ft. Lauderdale and we ended up tacking back and forth away from and back towards the shore trying to make headway. We took a lot of waves over the bow and we were reminded what a great boat we picked as she just kept right on going strong even though we didn't have great weather for our first trip with the new mast up.

January 2008

January 2008 found us in Branson, MO being treated like a king and queen. We were invited to attend a VIP event for Park West Gallery were they picked up the tab for everything! Our suite was wonderful and the view of the lake from our balcony was beautiful! We met several couples from all over the lower southeastern United States. They were all very nice and we thoroughly enjoyed their company and our time at the event. Vicki even got a chance to wear a poodle skirt at one dinner event (they even gave it to her to keep).

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving was a great time in Key Largo and once again we were invited by Patty to her orphans dinner. This is a dinner that she cooks for all the people at the marina that don't have family to have dinner with. This was our second Thanksgiving orphan dinner that she made and it was just wonderful!!! She is a great cook and always cooks so much (turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, beans, pearl onions, pies of all kinds, cranberries, dinner rolls, etc, etc, etc.) My stomach gets full just thinking about it. We are very blessed with the friends that we have in Key Largo and miss them greatly.Candi the dock mistress always dresses up for the holidays and Thanksgiving was no different. As you can see, she dressed up as a turkey and looked great! Every holiday she does something different, you'll have to drop by the marina on a holiday to see what she's got on.

Pam and Randy come to MI for a visit-Nov 20007

Surprise, surprise, surprise!!! Pam (Mark's younger sister) and her husband Randy made it up to the house in MI while we were there. Randy wanted to go hunting and Pam wanted him to see our house and property. It was really nice having them visit our home and be able to spend some time getting to know Randy and visit with Pam.

One day we took them over to Ludington to see Lake Michigan. Randy had never seen it and it was in quite a state when we got there as you can see. We had lunch, drove around the area and even stopped by an Elk ranch where we watched from the car as a couple of the bulls play fought. It was amazing to see them play fight. One can only imagine what it looks like in the wild where they are serious.

Home to MI for a visit and hunting in Oct. 2007

At the end of the month during deer hunting season, we went to MI to visit with Mike, Dana, Emily, Erin and little Jack (our god son). We were able to go out sailing with Mike on his sailboat on a blustery day and had a great time! The visit with Dana, the girls and little Jack was really great too!

We stayed up at the house in Evart and unpacked a few more boxes to get settled and drank a couple bottled of wine from the wine cellar (ha, ha). There was a small amount of snow and the property was beautiful although the temperature was chilly. The stove kept the house cozy for us and we enjoyed the quiet of the woods and each others company.

Ralph came up to see us, do some hunting and stayed for a couple of days. It is always so good to see him. he is such a good friend, mentor and a very important part of our family.
We just loved being up at the house in Evart for hunting. We purchased new bows on the way up there and sighted them in without any problems. Both of us saw several deer but unfortunately neither one of us was able to shoot one.

The old mast goes for scrap

In October 2007, the Key Largo boatyard where we were keeping the old mast changed ownership and the new owner decided to close the boatyard and we were told that we needed to get our mast out of there.
We striped the old hardware off of it and took pictures and measurements for placement of the parts on the new mast when it came in. The picture attached shows how the mast was bent and also the furler laying on the ground next to it showing how that was bent also.
We decided that we would try to get a little money for it and went to cut it up. It took several hours and more than a couple saw blades and a lot of muscle to get the job done. We took the pieces to a Miami scrap yard to sell it and got $300 for it. Not much for all that work but we didn't want to leave it to the new owners to scrap.

Liz returns August 2007

In August 2007 our niece Liz came back to visit us again. We took her out fishing in our skiff past the reef just outside Key Largo. We were trolling just trying to catch something and hooked up with a Bonito (something that we had never caught before). Liz had never caught a fish in the ocean so we had her haul it in.

While Mark and I were trying to find out what kind of fish it was in the book we had, Liz sat and watched it flipping around on the back deck of the skiff. All of a sudden, she let loose a scream and we thought that she must have been bitten by the fish. What really had happened was that the fish was bleeding all over the deck and she was freaked out by the sight. We got her calmed down and threw that one back and went back to trolling.

We did catch several others and kept one to try. We were proud of Liz when she held it for pictures. We had a great time with Liz once again and told her to come back anytime that she wanted.

Summer 2007

During the summer of 2007, Mark and I had a great time with our neighbors Mikie and Charlene who own a power cat. We went snorkeling with them a couple times out at Carey's Fort Reef and had a great time. We had the priviledge of their company almost all summer and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and have adopted them into our family. We hope to catch back up with them this summer (2008) in New York sometime.

During the summer Mark continued to work at Turkey Point power plant and we got the opportunity to get to know several of his co-workers during a weekly poker game on Thursday night which was a lot of fun and sometimes rewarding.

We were able to do some fishing over the summer as well and got to go home to MI for a short visit.

Vicki visits Nicole and Brandon in VA - June 2007

At the beginning of June 2007, Vicki went to VA to visit Nicole and Brandon where they were living in Newport News. While there, she met their current love interests and caught up on what had been happening in their lives since she had seen them last which had been quite awhile. We went to the beach, ate lunch and walked on the boardwalk where there is a giant statue of Poseidon one day.

Our neice Liz comes for a visit in May 2007

In early April my niece Elizabeth (Liz) called to see how we were doing and we invited her to come for a visit. She arrived and started to relax. We took her snorkeling (which she had never done), to Robbie's to feed the Tarpon and to Key West to check it out. We had a really good time with her and invited her to come back again. The picture of the Christ statue is at one of the reefs off Key Largo and the picture of Mark and Liz feeding the Tarpon is down at Robbie's on the way to Key West.

Our spontaneous cruise April 20007

On Friday Mark came home and asked me if I wanted to take a cruise, I said "Sure, where to and when?" His reply was the Western Caribbean and that the cruise left on Sunday. With a phone call to American Express, we had tickets and were on our way. We visited Costa Rica, Grand Cayman and had 2 stops in Mexico. This was our first cruise and although we enjoyed it, neither one of us felt relaxed totally. We both came to the same conclusion that we would rather either visit those places in our boat or just go on a cruise that goes out to sea and then back to shore allowing us to do whatever we wanted on our schedule and not theirs.

What's been happening????

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote of our journey south. After leaving Solomon's Island, we moved our boat up the Potomac River to the Pirate's Den Marina in Oct. 2006 and headed home to Michigan after visiting with Mark's sister Christine and her family (Mike and Taylor) for a few days. While home in Michigan, we hunted for deer and unpacked a few more boxes.
Mark received a phone call asking him if he wanted to work a short term consulting job (until March 2007) at Turkey Point Nuclear Plant in FL and after some consideration (and investigating) we decided to do it. We ended up hiring a captain to move the boat the remainder of the way to FL from the Potomac River and the crew had an accident just north of the Cape Canaveral Barge entrance. They ran between an 85 foot tall cement pillar and the guide wire that holds it in place for high winds and effectively clothes lined the boat doing around $60,000 in damages. We have yet to settle the claim with our insurance company and only just got our new mast and rigging in about 4 weeks ago.
Good news is that Mark was able to continue on in a new contract at the power plant and that has helped pay for our repairs, Bad news is that Mark is still working....
We ended up filing a law suit against our insurance company and that has yet to be settled. We are hopeful that it will be settled in the next 6 months though.?.?.?
I have looked for a job in the banking business (my career for the last 20+ years) but I haven't been able to find anything due to the fact that I am not bi-lingual in Spanish. Disheartening to say the least...
Well, that about brings you to date although there has been a lot happening at the dock here at Marina Del Mar where we have been since Oct 2006. The picture that I have included is of the live aboards from the winter of 2006 - 2007. We enjoyed every minute spent with them and did quite a few community dinners with them. We have enjoyed a continued relationship with most of them and all but one couple are back this year. I will write more about all the in between times and add pictures of all of our friends from along that way. More later....