Sailing Last Mango

2-2-17    I woke up shortly before the alarm sounded this morning, Karen was already awake lying in bed next to me reading her iPad. Today we leave quiet and beautiful Peck Lake for West Palm Beach, we hope the town puts on a Super Bowl party like we attended here last year. Karen and I loved West Palm. The anchor came up without problems other than stinky clumps of mud which landed on Mango’s bow pulpit and deck. Wait, there was something else. Mango’s anchor brought with it another anchor and rode. I heaved it aboard, I’m sure I can find a use for it. Treasures form the deep. This year the our plans to use the West Palm anchorage comes with some caveats. Karen and I had to do a bit of research and make sure that the anchorage we usually stay at wasn’t off limits now that our new President is coming to Palm Beach. We found that our anchorage is about 3/4 of a mile north of the exclusion zone. We’ll see if the Coasties give us any issues. It w...

1-28-17     Last night was a cool night, not sure how cool it was but I’m sure it was somewhere in the mid to upper 40’s. I woke up to find Karen had snagged the extra blanket we had covering us up and pulled over to her side. It was 1:30 AM and the cool wind blowing outside sent a bit of a chill over me. I got up, used the head, took a look around to make sure we were still where we should be and grabbed another blanket and returned to bed and quickly fell back to sleep. The next thing I remembered was hearing the noise of the solar panels moving to catch more of the morning sunlight to convert to amperes to charge our batteries. I thought to myself “Karen’s settling in nicely”. You see Karen was up and she took it upon herself to adjust the panels to the angle of the sun to maximize the output. Quite a woman, I know. One of my nice finds.   I made a morning tea, grabbed the dinghy and went to shore to hop on the bicycles with Greg from Fracas to hea...

1-24-17     Karen and I watched another beautiful orange and blue sunset with the great company of Greg and MaryLynn from Fracas. I cannot explain how fortunate I feel to be here living the life I’m living with a wonderful wife and great friends. Maybe it’s the wine we had with dinner but I really don’t think so since I’ve held this feeling for the last week or so. Yes, some days are better than others. Sometimes the air is some heavy with moisture it makes it hard to grasp a zipper to close canvas. Other times I find I have bruises on my ribs with no explanation and then remember reaching deep into a locker for the boat hook that dropped down to the bottom while removing a bicycle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve muttered “Son of a bitch” under my breath while trying to perform what should be a simple tasks.  I think I enjoyed the better part of this bottle. My hula girls in her Happy Place. Thanks Chris, she looks and fits great. ...

Would’ve posted sooner if I had decent internet. 1-10-16     We got a bit of a late start after being up late watching the Clemson - Alabama game. I watched the game with my parents and didn’t get home until sometime after 1:30 AM. Karen’s been battling cold like symptoms for the past week so she stayed home and was fast asleep when I arrived. I took a quick shower and hopped into bed, Karen awoke but was quickly back sleeping so I didn’t feel too bad. It took me some time to wind down after the drive. A rainy, windy 9:00 AM greeted us and we were soon packing the Prius for its second trip to Florida in as many years. The temperature was warm but the wind was howling out of the south. Of course we’re traveling south and our normal 50 mpg was not happening. Just north of Champaign Illinois we witnessed a trailer of semi blown sideways while traveling at 70 mph down the road, made it interesting passing. I would like to say we were through Illinois in no time bu...