We had a wonderful week in Miami. (Feb 6th-11th) Lunch with good friends Anne Sheldon and Randy and Judi McKean was delightful. Then on Saturday, good friends, Teresa and Ed Dormer from Kingwood, (vacationing up in Del Ray Beach) spent the day with us exploring Coconut Grove. Good times!! Scott and Adam's flight was indeed cancelled on Friday but they made it in Saturday night. So, we spent 4 nights at the marina then took off to Key Biscayne. A very short sail (we motored) across the bay. The wonderful little harbor-called No Name Harbor- that we wanted to anchor in was packed - I mean really packed with powerboats, sailboats, kayaks, and all manner of water toys. (Scenes from Caddyshack). We dropped anchor only to have it drag and come seriously close to some pretty big yachts. Up went the anchor and we got out of there! Anchored in the bay that night (Sunday) and spent most of the night up as we rocked and rolled in the current. Monday morning we moved into No Name - note: stay away during the week-ends but during the week it is great. The guys went to South Beach and we rested. Weather was blustery but we took off Tuesday morning for Rodriquez Key. You may remember that the plan was to sail to Bimini with Scott and Adam. Even before our plans changed, this plan only works if the weather cooperates. This particular week - no one was going to Bimini. North winds prevailed and with the monster storm that hit NY moving out (Yes, I know that was a thousand miles away from Miami) our weather was also affected. As the weather person and navigator on board, I call this "looking over your shoulder". I can guarantee you that when a huge storm (and February has had its share this year!) is threating the Southern states and moving up the East Coast, it affects us here in Florida. Back to our trip, from Rodgriquez Key, we sailed back to Marathon. Adam had to leave to fly back to NY on Wednesday, so we had to get him to terra firma to get to the Miami airport. This is always hard for a sailor - you hate to be on a schedule and you feel very responsible for delivering your guest. We made it, but there were some anxious moments. Scott did not leave until Friday so we rented a car and drove to Key West and took in some of the sights. A cruise ship was in port and the place was packed - I really missed the quiet place we had visited before. We loved having the guys on board and were thankful they could spend as much time as they did. We spent this last week-end re-provisioning, doing laundry and basically getting ready for a 4 day trip up the Western coast of Florida.
(Overlooking the Dinner Key Marina and Mooring Field)
Sometimes a number of things happen and you know it is time to re-evaluate your plans. That is what happened and it happened even before we left Punta Gorda.
Without going into too much detail we had a very hectic December and January-Colorado for Christmas, a major move from our condo with all of our furniture going into storage, trip to Florida, move onto the boat and a cruise. Now I know most of this sounds absolutely delightful but it was a logistical and organizational nightmare for me. I started having some serious memory problems, compounded by the fact that we found that I had missed checks, both paying and receiving, for November and December. I knew by the time we left Houston for the boat that something was wrong. We discussed it and assumed that with our cruise (mindless) that we would have a chance to settle down and focus. To some extent that happened and by the time we returned from the cruise we were ready to go. Two days, however, before we left Dave had a conference call from his insurance clients. The docket that we call our "pension plan" was being pulled and sent to an Austin law firm. Not good. We had to make some major decisions and basically we were all over the map. Each day we had a different plan - the plan du jour - as we called it. Since our son was coming half way around the world to sail out of Miami that was an easy decision. Our next goal is to get this boat back to Punta Gorda and for both of us to go to Houston for me to seek some medical attention. (A side note on this - my sister, she's pretty well versed on this, has pointed me in the direction of stress and memory loss. I have finally looked this up and there is tons of literature on this. I choose to hold onto this but do want some definitive answers). So, the next 4 days will be spent going up the western coast of Florida with hopefully, medical visits the week of the 25th or the first week of March. We will be joined in Marco Island by my brother, John, for the trip back to Punta Gorda We will keep you posted.
Dave here---Yes--another "Perfect Storm". The insurance client decided to consolidate the cases with a firm that already represents a number of their insureds in this litigation--a good business decision---but a bummer for me. Oh well, maybe I'll fully retire from the practice of law this time--eh-----probably not. But our first concern is to get Diane's head "right". I truly believe that the problem is a general sense of unsettledness (which I, too, share), along with the added stress of everything that we've had to do over the last month or so. We feel currently (but things seem to change so fast) that we need to get back to Houston and get Diane checked out and also concentrate on finding a new "land based" home in the Houston area. Their's another factor as well---While we've had a marvelous trip so far--really good sailing and 95% great weather, the boat doing well (with minor issues) we miss our family and friends. There couldn't be two people more in love and compatible than us but we now know that we would realy like to do the rest of our cruising with some additional company--teaching the grandkids to snorkle, sharing the sunsets with good friends, etc--we just don't have the room to do it on this boat, so we're even thinking of selling her and concentrating on doing more frequent charters on bigger boats in all of the beautiful sailing areas we've visited over the years. Right now, though, we've got to get back to Houston and get settled and get the good diagnosis that I know we'll get once back.
Soooo---please wish us well with fair winds and we'll see you soon.
Life is still good----while it ain't perfect, we still feel so thankful for the opportunities that we've had and the promises of our future.
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