Happy New Year!!!

We want to wish everyone a very good 2011!!!!! Here's to more miles of smiles....... good friends and family!!!!!!!! Once again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!

When was the last time.........

You wrote a check to pay for dinner??

Tied to a dock!?!

Yes, we're tied up at Everglades Rod & Gun Club. It's old Florida at it's best! The "Club" has been here since the late 1800's and has been host to alot of VIP's over the years. We had a great dinner there.........it's just a special place!!

New Year's Eve Day

Not much wind but still sailing en route to Everglades City..........

43nm

Such a nice sail and then to a quiet anchorage just outside of Goodland for a gourmet dinner of Cajun Pizza.......... that's a home made concoction of sauce sweet & spicy with shrimp and andouille sausage. Mighty tasty..........

The Direction Indicater

Thanks to Kevin on Delphinea we now know that the thing on the top of the mast (windex) is not really a wind indicater but a direction indicater.............. hmmmm!!!

When we have a downwind sail or reach we'll let you know ;-)

Oh yeah, yes we are sailing not motoring........ boatspeed 6-7 knts

'bye Ft Myers

We're heading south. We left Ft Myers Beach around 10:30am Thurs morning (yeah, 10:30 and that's pretty good for us!). The wind was supposed to be E 12-15kn but it ended up being more south 5-10kn but who's complaining. The sky was overcast but we had flat seas and GH gave us a great sail averaging 6-7 kn down the coast.

A veiw from the Mantanzas Bridge

Yea, Yea Yea.......

Once again Casanova is hanging out with all the women.......this time, not only with Anne but with an Austrian named Ulla......I guess he hasn't lost the touch.

Brrrrr.......Christmas in Ft Myers Beach

The Chief & Millie came down to visit with us for a few days and fun was had by all!! The north winds continue to blow and yep....MR HEATER IS BACK!! And once again last night was a record low for the city......it's getting old now, this record setting stuff.

No sailing was on the agenda but we fun in the hotel, kept the heat on and all sorts of goodies arrived by the white Toyota. In the evening we headed out to restaurants and had a great time!

The dinghy ride back to GH was plenty cold but we had a little antifreeze going for us!

Merry Christmas!!!!

and to all a good night!! More excellent adventures to follow!!!

Ft Myers Beach

Wednesday we sailed to Ft Myers Beach. It was a nice sail down the coast in very light wind (SW 7knts) of course the forecast was for west/northwest lending still more credence to the term "weather guessers" We arrived after sunset and picked up a mooring ball just in time to see the moonrise. And yes a full moon this time of year brings very low tides!!!!!

Never see this girl again.........

A winter solstice sunset..........beautiful! Now bring on longer days and warmer weather!

Aahhhh!!

This more like it!

Cayo Costa

We spent 4 nights in Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa Island. It was a bit chilly but we had a great spot to anchor and we didn't have to pull out Mr Heater but seriously does this look like a Florida sky??

So it was....

Out the canal and through the lock to Charlotte Harbor we went........ Grey Hound knew the way but the wind gods never showed. So we had flat seas, no wind and fog other than that it was beautiful!.......

We promised......

no pictures of GH on the trailer!! It took about a week to launch (nothing to do with the boat just us being "chicken" of the cold!). The temperatures have been record setting in the wrong direction ........ the days high temps are actually lower than average lows for this time of year. Oh well, it's still better than being up north! So here's proof, GHP (Grey Hound Puller, the Tundra) and GLT (the trailer) in their spot until sometime this spring!!!

At All American Boat Storage

We made a nice easy trip south from Annapolis and we are now just about ready to put GH in the water. We've done most of the cleaning to get the road grime off and Anne has the inside spotless. We will most likely wait out the next cold snap and then get into the water and begin our trek south. A couple of nights at one our favorite anchorages at Cayo Costa and then we will have a good run to Ft Myers Beach to meet up with the Chief & Millie for a Christmas.

The next pictures will not be of Grey Hound on the trailer, we promise!!!!

T-minus one day and we are heading south!

Grey Hound is ready.......

Anne is back in Annapolis after spending time in Syracuse and Honeoye Falls visiting family

Dick is back in Annapolis after helping Kismet (Yep, 500+ miles on a monohull) get south to warmer weather ......

So....tomorrow we will hook up GH and head down the road. Destination is All American Boat Storage, just like last year.

GIVE US SOME SUN AND PALM TREES WITH CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!

Then...........

We folded one float on the mooring ball, slipped the ball and motored toward the launch but still we were too wide for the opening. Sooooo, in came the other float and to the trailer we went. We were even able to give GH a fresh water bath at the launch.

Oh yeah, thought you'd get a chuckle from the sign at the launch. Holiday Hill's web page states they are "multihull friendly" and "boats must have mufflers"!! We will definitely be looking up this marina for 2011!

A couple more weeks and we'll be headed for Florida!!

Systems that work!!

In the last six years we've prepared to de-rig Grey Hound in many different ways......... this weekend however we used everyone of the amazing abilities of a Farrier folding tri!! Now remember she is 33ft long, with a bow sprit and a big mast!!

We started by: Taking the mast down on the mooring ball. Notice the sails and boom etc are still on board.

A new twist to retrieval.........

Over the weekend it was time to get GH on the trailer. We've been keeping the truck and trailer at Holiday Hill Marina in Edgewater, Md. It's a very nice facilty with a boat launch, mooring balls, and some end docks for us multihull kind of guys. The location worked out perfectly while we were busy with all the fun stuff that centered around Evan, Amy & Jason!

A harbinger to a very chilly night

Unfortunately,

We had to leave the regatta around 3 o'clock for a very slow sail back to where our truck and trailer are. Man, this Daylight Savings Time sure cramps our style! Here's a shot of Thomas Point Lighthouse with the sun on it's way down.

Go Crimson!!!

We sailed to Annapolis yesterday to the Atlantic Coast Intercollegiate Sailing Championship. Our niece Marie is on the Harvard sailing team and they were competing! There were 18 collegiate teams there and Harvard was holding their own in 4th or 5th place when we were there. Unfortunately it was very light wind and the "light air" teams were sailing so Marie was cheering her teammates on from shore. Marie's forte is big wind!!! ....... just like the rest of her family!! As I like to say "THAT'S MY GIRL"!!!!!!! Oh yeah, one more brag from a very proud aunt and uncle........ she's on track for straight A's this semester as a junior!! Way to go, Rie!

The dynamic duo..........

One of these days we're going to go into segment of what Really works but for now here are a real go-to pair for staying warm on cool fall mornings and evenings. It's Mr Heater and O2Cool. Mr Heater brings on the warmth and O2Cool does the circulating!! Oh yeah, O2Cool also works very well in hot weather.......... when we have heat again ;-)

Rut-Row!!

It's getting colder!!!! Up until now we've been pretty lucky with the temperatures during the day but it's definitely getting colder at night. We're waking up to frost on the deck now and the water is a balmy 48F degrees. Now there are plusses and minuses to this..............on the plus side we've set a new record for keeping a block of ice..( 9 days, Aussies really know how to insulate an "eskie"). On the minus side our lowest temperature in the morning has been 37F degrees and a very slippery deck!! Yes, that's frost on the bow! How's that for being "Glass half full" kind of folks???

Evan James Pinter!!!!

At 3:15 this afternoon Evan James was born! He weighed in at 7 pounds even and is 19 3/4 inches long. Mama and Evan are doing just fine and he is a beautiful, healthy boy! They make a very happy picture!

more Elf.......

She's just too nice not to appreciate!!! Here are some pix of her tiller and bow sprit/ figurehead. Rick carved them himself and even added a little "bite" to her figurehead. Yup, those are teeth she has and she has the bite to back it up!!! Thank you Rick & Cali for welcoming us aboard!

The oldest known small yacht in America!

After visiting with Amy & Jason we decided to check out the Annapolis side of Spa Creek and happened upon ELF. The sailing yacht was designed for William Wilkinson and built by George Lawley of George Lawley & Son, from Boston in 1888.

During the 60's she fell on hard times but in 1971 was purchased by Rick Carrion. He then founded the Classic Yacht Restoration Guild and donated ELF to the nonprofit organization hoping to preserve and restore the vessel. In 1991 the restoration of ELF began and without any line drawings but with surviving photographs from glass plates negative she slowly dismantled and the brought back to her original condition.

In 2008 ELF she came out of the shed fully restored to her original condition and she can be found sailing around the Chesapeake all year long. We hope she will continue to carry the tradition of American yachting for another 100 years!

A real beauty you think??!!

Annapolis versus MRE Tug 'O War

Yesterday was the traditional Tug 'o War across Spa Creek between the people of Annapolis and the people of "the Maritime Republic of Eastport". It's a yearly event that involves a "pull" across Spa Creek. The ingredients are a 1700 foot line at a cost of $25,000 and alot of effort from the competing teams. What a great time it is!! The weather was chilly but that didn't seem to bother anyone. There were bands playing, foods being served, teams pulling, people cheering and the crowd was into it! We went with Amy, Jason & Tyler (J's nephew) Yup, Amy's still hanging in there even though she is just a few days from her due date! But we were having such a good time we didn't get any pix. We'll try to do better next year!

Heading west....

We woke to a very cool morning and decided that because of the forecast for the next few days it was time to move to the west shore of the Bay. In order to have the facilities of Annapolis during the end of the week we grabbed a mooring in Spa Creek. We plan on heading down to Holiday Hill soon.

Today was the day of lighthouses. One is right as you enter the Wye River and the other is for "Bloody Point"........and it's even red!