Steve and Laura's Excellent Adventure

  Our crossing from Florida to the Berry Islands, Bahamas was exactly as predicted:  relatively large waves and no possibility to sail. It wasn’t too uncomfortable though and we were happy with our decision to go. We arrived on January 30 and anchored at Cistern Cay, which has a nice beach for Jake and is next to Great Harbour Cay., where we cleared in. Cistern Cay Anchorage, Berry Islands The same weather that would have prevented a safe crossing in the week after we left Florida was also going to impact the Bahamas so we decided to move into the Great Harbour Cay anchorage which offers protection from wind in all directions. Since it’s a small anchorage, we moved there a couple of days earlier than we needed to so that we were guaranteed to have a spot. The downside of the anchorage is that there isn’t a beach or dock nearby for Jake so we had to dinghy a couple of miles each morning and afternoon to get him off the boat. In fair weather a couple of miles in the dinghy is not an issu

Park Adjacent to Titusville Marina With Christmas over, it was time to get to work! There were a few things that needed to be taken care of before leaving Florida. The most maddening of those things were fixing a persistent oil leak in our truck (Steve's task) and fixing a persistent toilet leak in one of the heads on the boat (Laura's task). It seemed we were on parallel paths identifying and fixing the source of the leak, ordering spare parts, replacing the parts, and then finding leaks in another location. After many iterations by each of us, we finally resolved both of the leaks.  I won't go into details about the additional routine maintenance projects we worked on, but we had plenty to keep us busy for a couple of weeks.  I will mention the nice gentlemen that helped me out with a repair to the doggie drawbridge, while Steve was in Satellite Beach and it was just Jake and I on the boat. As I mentioned, without the drawbridge Jake must be lifted to get off the boat, an

Home for the Holidays After our arrival in Titusville on November 9th, we settled into our "home port" routine of seeing doctors, visiting family and preparing for the holidays. Bridgette and her boyfriend, Griff, came from Charleston to attend a wedding in Tampa, and added a whirlwind tour from Titusville to Palm Beach Gardens and Satellite Beach to visit grandparents while they were here. Wedding Guests, Bridgette and Griffin  Bridgette's childhood friend, Naomi, on her Wedding Day  Bridgette and Naomi on Another Special Day, Long Ago Within a week we would be joining Bridgette again in Charleston for Thanksgiving, and to help her out during recovery from knee surgery. Before that, though, Steve and I celebrated an early Thanksgiving with both sets of parents in Satellite Beach, with Steve preparing the first of two traditional turkey dinners. Bridgette's surgery and subsequent post-op recuperation went very well, but I stayed two weeks to help out with cooking, err