Southwest Air to Florida

As I read my Facebook feed, I am grateful that, once again, we were able to fly into Florida where Independence waits, thus avoiding the long, sometimes arduous, sometimes boring, trip down the East Coast at bicycle speed. Our cruising buddies have been checking in on their own meandering voyages down the ICW, and we are all beginning to converge down here in our sunny, retirement state of Florida.

The boat launch was uneventful (this is a good thing), and Independence is in good shape. The main upgrade this year (other than the repair of the cracked keel), has been to the interior. After the application of 15 coats of "AllBright" to our teak parquet sole, we feel as though we are stepping onto a mirror when entering the cabin. Shoes will not be allowed to step on this floor! We are still waiting for it to cure completely (2 weeks), before we can even place a chair or the area rugs down on it.

The fumes kept us from sleeping aboard the first few nights, so we became guests at the Gustavson's in Palm Beach, then aboard Wagner's "Kiwi" (still in the yard at Stuart, undergoing renovations)

The first night on Indy, Paul & I camped out on the bridge, as the smell was still noticeable, until just before dawn raindrops woke us up & sent us scurrying to close up the hatches!

We had a wonderful lunch reunion with Kathleen & Jim Ruffino, & yesterday re-united with Kristina & Matt, who are moored at Vero Beach.

We managed to unpack the 13 (!) boxes we shipped ourselves from home, and slowly we will begin the provisioning process. Mostly, we will still be checking out systems, replacing filters, etc.

There is a pot-luck, chili bake-off, halloween party at our marina on Saturday. Too hokey? Should we go? What a bunch of characters seem to be congregated here... lots of folks seemingly here for the season. There is a river walk that begins at the marina restaurant and ends in the heart of historic downtown Stuart-- kinda nice.

Send in your halloween costume ideas, and keep us posted on your own seasonal progress!

Remember, the Trick is to remember life is the Treat!!

With a smile,

yours truly, once again on Independence

October; Harvest, Change & Reflection

Up north in our paradise on the East End of Long Island, we are starting to feel the chill. Summer is over, the air is clean and crisp, and colors are deep and true. A beautiful cheese pumpkin sits on my front stoop waiting to be cooked into a pie & other assorted goodies. Farm stands are overflowing with bounty of the harvest-- the new additions are the many varieties of apples, seckel pears, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and of course, the colorful winter squashes.

The summer has been grand! Paul & I immersed ourselves in our non-profit organization, the East End Student Film Project, till the end of August. We saw over 50 young kids pass through the animation & filmmaking classes we offered in a great studio space downtown. The EESFP season culminated in the 5th annual student film fest, which played to an overflow crowd and was followed by a great wrap party at our favorite cafe--Aldo's.

After a brief break, the family tumbled headlong into the Great Wedding Event. Lisa and Lance organized the most spectacular, beautiful, (all right, I'll even say "story-book") wedding at a local vineyard--overlooking the bay and Shelter Island. The food, dancing and company were unsurpassed. The event went by so quickly, Lisa & I both agree we would love to be invited back to experience it all over again! For two weeks, family from across the globe came and went, & many pleasant meals were shared by huge gatherings.

As we pack up the outdoor furniture, and replace screens with storm windows, our thoughts begin to focus on the boxes to be packed and sent to Florida in order to shift our lives onto our floating winter home. It's a very different process, now that we have decided to leave Independence in Stuart, stored indoors, over the summer months. The long and eventful, and sometimes not so eventful (read boring) trip down the east coast and mostly in the ICW is for now, a thing of the past. There are certain stops we will miss, but we have gained extra weeks of beautiful fall weather in our northern backyard.

On the 20th of October (less than 2 weeks!) we will fly down to Florida & begin the process of launching Independence, finishing up work/maintenance, heading down to Ft. Lauderdale for complete provisioning, fueling, etc and then we aim to look for our crossing weather window some time in mid-November.

Can't wait to see all our cruising pals, and shift our gears into the small living space we call home on Independence! Hope you all had a great summer...