January 7th........ah, we are off the dock!

It sure takes a lot more time getting this boat ready when it is cold. But we are off and running, yesterday we left the dock and headed out. It is an 8 mile motor to get out of the canal and we held our breath getting out of the lock but by sunset we pulled up to Cayo Costa for a night on the outside and our best sunset of this winter (ok, our first). The next morning we went inside for a secure anchorage for the upcoming northerly that is coming in this weekend. Of course our 24 inch draft helped out nicely and we are sitting in 4 feet of water with sand under our bottom.

Forecast tomorrow..........more cold!! Guess we'll stay put for a day or so.

PS: those are White Pelicans and they are HUGE!!

Unbelieveable, but true!

Talk about wild and crazy. Here we are working away and a couple goes by dinghy after slowing down and keeps looking at us and GH......what????

Anne says "that looks like Elliott and Linda". Guess what??!! It is them!!!!

So.....after 6 years and many miles of who knows what, those guys are still in Charlotte working away on their steel mono-hull!! For many of you, these guys were at the marina when we helped Tom and Linda put Bahama Hunter, F-33, hull #4 (now EPIC, residing in Hawaii) together back in 2004. Elliot and Linda (not their first rodeo) recognized GH as an F-33......they truly were a big part of the ex-Bahama Hunter / EPIC build process. Ian Farrier mentions them in his web site.

It was really great to see them again and they finally have their boat almost ready to go!!

2010 is here and we're on our way!

Ok, we are in Florida and arrived in All American Boat Yard after a night in Annapolis with Amy and Jason and a night in Largo, Fl with Millie & the Chief (kinda sounds like Bennie and the Jets!!??). Does anybody know where the heat is??????

We have sun, we have plenty of work to do with Grey Hound and we have a good place to work; now all we need is something resembling warm weather. The boat yard and the launch are fine and the dock wall have power but no drinkable water. Yes, the attached picture is correct, in that we had frost on GH for two nights in a row!! Yes, we now have a propane and an electric heater on board!! And for the rest of you........we have our socks, hats and jackets on pretty much all the time.

We thought we left this stuff up north.....!

Happy New Year!

Noon today should find us heading down I-81 bound for Annapolis, MD. It will be the first leg of our road trip down to Port Charlotte in order to get Grey Hound into the water to begin our 2010 sailing season in the warm confines of the west coast of Florida.

We are looking forward to getting out of the snow and cold!!!

On the road again..............

Nap'town

We spent this weekend in Annapolis with Amy and Jason before heading back to CNY.......a nice low key weekend.......... It was also great catching up with Mark and Vicky of "Living the Dream".

Here's a picture of the fireplace at Amy and Jason's..........just what the holidays should be!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

A look down the road

Charleston, SC

Another beautiful city with amazing architecture and history. We're wrapping up our northern bound "walk-about". We've had a great time taking in the sites of so many locales that in the past we've just past by as we've traveled north and south on 95....... in Charleston we stayed at the Inn on Meeting Street. A beautiful Inn were the setting exemplifies real "southern hospitality".

Now this is what Christmas decor should be like

Savann-aaah!!!!!

We are once again heading north this morning after spending two nights in this great town. The place is fun to walk around, restaurants are all over the place and the people are friendly to all of us tourists. A few pictures can really tell it all.

and Night Life!!

A visit to this town is not complete without a visit to Seagle's Saloon for cocktails and some tender loving "trash talk" with Miss Cindy Dean. Man, did we peg the fun-meter!!

Night lights....

Remember these?

A walk down the dock and.............

St. Mary's, Ga.

We are now making our way northward and yesterday's stop was St. Mary's. What a great little town! It's out of the way by road but right on the Intercoastal Waterway. It's a little after-season but we stayed at the Riverview Hotel and had a fantastic dinner at the Silver Star Steak House. This is the same town that does Thanksgiving dinner for the cruisers heading south for the winter...........over 56 boats were anchored out just a few weeks ago for the dinner sponsored by the people of S. Mary's and held at the Riverview.

The "White Tornado" at work!

After we left Grey Hound at All American Boat Yard we headed north to Largo to visit Dick's parents the Chief and Millie and had a great time!! We enjoyed lots of laughs and some really good grub!! Here's Millie hard at work poaching some really good eggs!

We are in Florida....at least for a moment!

Grey Hound is now in All American Boat Yard. We have her clean inside and out and she is ready for a winter in warm water. All we have to do is just launch her and hit the road. The yard has been very friendly and we'll post some information on the F-boat chat line. It's nice to feel warm air......

ps....Jeff........here is your next trailer boat!!