| s/y Nine of Cups East Coast USA to Florida October - Dec 2007 |
| Jack and Anne came to meet us and escort us up the river. |
| A Sidetrip up the Chesapeake |
| Our new daughter-in-law's parents own a river house on one of the tributaries off the Rappahannock River and invited us to stop there with Cups. "We draw 7 feet", we told them. "Not a problem" said Jack. "There's 11 feet at the end of Anna Lou's dock." And there was. We were treated to a wonderful weekend with the Connors, their dear friend Anna Lou Harney and Hannah. Alas, Brennan never made it from North Carolina where he was unexpectedly captive at a customer site for the weekend. |
| Hannah relaxes in the autumn sun. |
| Cups at the end of Anna Lou's dock. |
| Autumn is catching up with us. |
| Back in the Warmth...except for the hurricane, that is. We ducked into the Winyah River (SC) to avoid the winds of Hurricane Noel as he blasted the east coast. Once clear, we headed directly for Melbourne, Florida in time for the SSCA Annual Gam. We ducked into the ICW (Intercostal Waterway) at Cape Canaveral and meandered down the waterway until we reached Melbourne. We anchored at Dragon Point on the Banana River just in time for the Gam. Back in Florida...back in the warmth. Now where? |
| Vultures line the sides of the Canaveral Canal. |
| They're common, but I still love watching them...brown pelicans. |
| Ospreys perched in trees waiting for a luncheon opportunity. |
| We had a fine time at the SSCA Gam and stayed a few days at the anchorage to catch our breaths. We moved on down the ICW by day and anchored in the evenings. We took the opportunity to stop at Lake Worth for a couple of days so Marcie could reacquaint herself with two old high school classmates whom she hadn't seen in 20+ years. A short, but fun-filled reunion. It was nearing Thanksgiving and though we had offers to share feasts from several folks, we were looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving together. We purchased a turkey breast and all the fixin's in Lake Worth, then headed "outside" for Bahia Honda, our Thanksgiving anchorage. |
| Barbara Chauvkin and Janet Fryman joined us aboard Cups for a mini high school reunion. |
| Thanksgiving was lovely then we headed to Key West for a few days. Our friend, Kent Davis from Colorado, flew there to meet us for a long weekend and we decided to return to Bahia and share it with him rather than deal with the hustle and bustle of Key West. From Key West, we decided to head up the West Coast of Florida to the Sarasota area to visit David's brother, Paul. We stopped at Captiva Island for a couple of days to beachcomb. It appeared that the Sarasota area was either too shallow for our 7' draft or too expensive for our sailor's pockets, so we headed further north and up the Manatee River where we anchored for nearly a month. Our son, Brennan, found the time from a busy work schedule to spend a few days with us prior to Xmas...his first time staying overnight on the boat and he didn't turn green at all, but he did lose his Blackberry overboard (ouch!). We spent time with Paul and Kathy including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We had the opportunity to meet several SSCA members while there and even attend a monthly SSCA breakfast in St. Pete. Now what to do...where to go? We had been in contact with a British friend whom we had met in Tierra del Fuego. He was ill and back in the UK, but his boat was still on a mooring in Ushuaia, Argentina and needed to be moved to a more suitable location. We offered to move it from Ushuaia to Uruguay and he took us up on our offer. With the intent of crossing the Pacific in 2008, we decided to head back to Panama and put "Cups" on the hard until we returned from rescuing Sadko. So Panama was the next stop! |
| The entrance to Bahia Honda is somewhat daunting...a narrow gap between pilings of an old railroad bridge. |
Majestic frigate birds fly overhead.
| An idyllic anchorage...except for the bridge and traffic noise. |
| Beautiful beach peas in blossom. |
| Sanderlings scavenging on the beach. |
A great egret posed for a photo.
| Back in the warmth... |
| Marcie is elected to the Board of Directors of SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Assn) and works harder than she has in the last decade! |
| We negotiated the locks at the Cape Canaveral entrance...a new experience for us, handled less than gracefully...but no harm, no foul. The narrow canal which connects the Atlantic to the ICW was interesting and pleasant. Although the ICW, also know as "the ditch" is not our cup of tea, it was a pleasure to be able to anchor in the evenings and not stand night watch. |
