Regrouped and Underway Again

After the storm we spent several days in the Coconut Grove area of Miami at the Dinner Key Marina. (Thank you web master Jim for the good map of the Marathon to Miami storm trip.) In Coconut Grove we made the obligatory visits to West Marine and the hardware store and almost daily visits to the Gelato (Italian Ice Cream) store. Susan Tonon returned to work in Chicago. We visited with Vern and Ruth Vanderzee at their home and church. The climate and the people and the Latin American cuisine are delightful. The weather didn't give us an opening to the Bahamas and we finally decided to change our plans this season. It was a difficult decision to put off the Bahamas trip but by doing so we will have time to explore now and more time for the Bahamas next year! We are exploring Northward up the East Coast and will leave our boat in the Cape Fear River of North Carolina during hurricane season. We'll return home for a good part of Aug, Sept, and Oct and resume our trip in November returning to Florida and the Bahamas next winter.

We spent three lovely days on anchor in No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. A tour of the Cape Florida lighthouse which was first built in 1825 gave us some fascinating history of the early days of settlement and trade in Florida. We will be returning to this beautiful anchorage next season. We turned North and sailed the Atlantic to Ft. Lauderdale and the Las Olas Marina. This is a place of canals and beautiful mega homes and mega yachts. It is called the Venice of America with good reason. Our son Carl's good friend Dirk Van Kempema took us on an evening tour of the city with dockside dinner at Shirttail Charlies. He joined us for an overnight on Sandpiper and a dingy trip up the New River for lunch and a street fair with Salsa dance lessons.

We are planning to resume our travels North this week. We are continuing to learn to enjoy life with the changes in schedule and plans. Over and over again we discover wonderful new food, art, music and people. We'll let you know about our discoveries as we go up the East Coast.