La Florida

It's been several weeks, five states, nearly one thousand nautical miles and one broken thumb since our last update.   And in the steeped tannic water (fancy way of saying 'murky') of the ICW just south of Norfolk VA,  Baila floats poised to re-enter the Chesapeake Bay.  Surreal.  It's as if we just passed through here traveling the opposite direction!   Mixed emotions about returning for sure,  but we are comforted knowing that we'll do this again in the future.

With so much ground (water) to cover in this update, I had hoped to spare you all the usual verbiage and lengthy post by sticking with pictures and associated blurbs.  How long could that be?  Answer: so very long.  Heeding Lynn's wise advice we've split the 4,328 pictures (joke) into a few more manageable sections.

Starting from the first stop back in the US and working our way north:

Vero Beach, Florida

Back in the US, Avery treats other boats in the mooring field to her interpretation of "Frozen."    When it comes to six year old girls and the Frozen soundtrack, we have found earbuds useful.  

Vero Beach Art Musuem:  Deborah Butterfield.  I feel it would be so lifelike to have a few small twigs artistically piled in a clump on the floor behind it.  I wonder if Deborah Butterfield has ever considered this.   It's probably because she's more than five years old that she hasn't.  

Larry Kagen (Vero Beach Art Musuem).  Simply amazing how he bends the metal to achieve the desired shadow image.  

After a few hours of learning the basics of jewelry making with our friend "Miss Lisa" (from s/v Rhiannon), our artistic and extremely entrepreneurial Anna made these pieces and proceeded to advertise (and sell her entire stock) at the marina.  She made $47!  Convincing her to do school after that was tough, you know, being that she's a working artist and has her own income and all.

Anna calls her business "Wired to the Sea."  If she worked just a little harder maybe we could swing another year on the boat.  Entirely up to her.  

In an alternate reality where gold is replaced with found sea-glass, this could be Mr. T's arm for sure.  

Returning to Baila one day, while getting off the dinghy the girls found this little guy sitting on our swim platform!  No idea how he got out there.  We returned him to shore.  

St. Augustine, Florida

So wonderful to see the Chaconas family again!  They define hospitality and generosity.  Eric arranged for us to use his friend's dock, where we tied up the dinghy and used the jeep that he lent us for the week.  There was no way Cindy was going to accompany Lynn to the grocery again though we explained that we are not in the stockup mode any longer.  We are back in the US where food is plentiful, inexpensive and relatively easy to find.  Speaking of food, the Chaconas' insisted on feeding us not once, but three times while we visited: Taco night followed by a whole neighborhood crab feast and another coconut shrimp fest for Eric's birthday with most of their friendly neighbors again.  We really did feel like we were visiting with old friends or relatives that you only get to see a few times a year, so you have to make the most of your time together.  Recall that we were set up on a blind family date back in December.

Eric and Cindy are both physical therapists and I was lucky enough to have a great evaluation of my aching lower back by Eric.  He came up with a good stretch/exercise regimen for me to do on the boat (and home) and I'm already feeling the benefits.   Thanks Eric!  I'm really trying to remember to engage my abs.

Eric took me and my abs out on his boat for a fun day of fishing with his friends.   Lynn took the girls to the Castillo de San Marcos where Avery was psyched to earn another Junior Ranger badge.  She insisted on not only completing the Junior Ranger activities, but wanted to do all the activities including writing (dictating to Lynn) the following letter to a relative from the perspective of a soldier in the Castillo:  This helped her earn a Senior Ranger patch.  

"Dear Nana:  I am in St. Augustine and there is a battle happening.  I am taking care of my family.  Cannons are firing all over.  I am afraid.  People will die.  I love you Nana.  Love, Avery"

Sobering.  

Anyway, huge thanks to the Chaconas family and we're looking forward to seeing them up in Annapolis again come July.  

Avery and Kalia sampling the water from the Fountain of Youth.  It had a pungent sulphur taste to it, and if by 'youth' they mean flatulence, it's the real thing-- seriously.  

Rare to see two different species living in such proximity

Great group of folks in St. Augustine.  Everyone so welcoming and friendly.  It's so cute how Avery and Kalia walk around holding hands!  

This is the beautiful home of the Chaconas's friends Stanley and Catherine.   They were very generous to allow us use of their dock (and driveway to keep the car).  Stanley was away sailing their new boat back from Europe (check this guy out- he's eighty and about to set the world record for oldest/fastest solo circumnavigation http://www.stanleyparis.com/).   Catherine became a fast friend.  Such a friend that she didn't kill us when we broke her washing machine (that's how dirty our clothes were).  It was really fun to spend time with her and the girls were thrilled to hang out at their pool playing fetch with Lucy the border collie, who is nearly identical in looks and personality to our deceased dog,  our beloved Fugly!

We went to a festival in town that, amongst many things, offered a dog agility course.  It didn't take much convincing for Catherine to enter Lucy, a complete novice, who then when on to win!  We were all quite proud.  Stanley and Catherine are very accomplished folks with lots of awards and metals.  And now Lucy has her metal corner too.  

Remember Vicky and Eric from many posts ago?  We met them several times on our trip down the East Coast last Fall.  Great folks and we really loved reuniting with them and their dog Simba in St. Augustine!  Simba also did quite well in the agility contest.  Here Vicky tries to coax him into eating hotdogs in the "hotdog eating contest."  He did poorly in this event, though he made up for it in agility.  Our Walter back home would have dominated this.  Like, in one bite.

Back at El Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine.  We repeat:  go to St. Augustine.  Amazing place. 

The subtle blue lights that we had above the swim platform died.  Actually, they didn't totally die.  More of an annoying flickering limbo.  So, I replaced them.  And, in typical fashion I went up a few notches.  So now we have an intensely illuminated blue transom, not unlike those cars that are all low to the ground kicking out rumbling bass with the bright undercarriage lights.  Some might call us a pimp boat.  I call us visible.  Semantics and labels.  I like the lights.  It's a real blue light, perhaps the exact wavelength used in rave clubs  (because I'm so rave savvy), so that peoples' teeth are ridiculously white, and orange and yellow things look super bright.  This is really useful in in identifying our boat at night (helps when returning to boat in a busy anchorage), being as visible as possible at anchor (to avoid some drunk person motoring into us) and, well, for annoying people that anchor too close to us.  Now I can just grin at them with my creepy white teeth and they just pick up the anchor and leave.    

We hope everyone is well and we'll try to get another post out soon! 

-Baila