" You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."
~C.S. Lewis
Practice Kindness,
Enjoy Life,
Live Your Adventure
Oh so many to choose from and each beach has it's own character...
How lucky are we, that we can hop in the mighty Prius and experience some of the world's most beautiful beaches about an hour in either direction....It never gets old
Whether from the deck of Miss Grace
or
strolling along the beach...
....the sunsets are Amazing !!
Truly Inspiring, the Botanical Gardens down here are a delight...
Marie Selby, The Edison Ford Estates
Bok Gardens
Naples Botanical Gardens
&
so may more hidden gems to search out!
Life is Good!!
Home is just around this corner....
2 months and 5 days....of natural beauty, amazing people and adventure...
We made it!!
With Michael going back to work.. we recruited our friends Brad and Woody to
help keep Miss Grace moving...
Thank You Guys !!
Poor Michael, just about 65 miles from Nettles Island across lake Okeechobee, picking our way through the Channel in the dark with the help of our 1100 lumen spotlight to Roland Martin Marina....Boy, did he deserve a drink and a good nights sleep!!
You know, it is funny how much you appreciate a nice laundry, bathroom and shower when you are traveling...
Some were first rate, others not so much..
but, they worked....
Ahh....simple pleasures!!
After a week away at work... Nice to have the Captain home.... this was our final stretch..
We put in a lot of long days trying to make it to our winter home!!
Can we do this???
You look at Bridges from a totally different prospective when you are traveling by water.
Timing openings of bascule and swing bridges ...making sure fixed bridges are high enough for your mast and then there are the locks...The AICW is an amazing water highway... We Made it... these are all the reasons we chose Miss Grace... and she did everything we asked of her!!
After sitting in Annapolis for about 12 days..
Miss Grace needed a fill up before we headed down the Chesapeake...She may not go very fast, but, she sips diesel.. we have averaged her out to about a .50-.66 gallons per hour depending in how strong of a current we are bucking.... Not Bad for an Old Girl
This is an amazing trip, great History
Lessons at every stop...
We are heading in the right direction, but, leaving before the sun rises ...
is mighty cold.....Brrrr....
I have started to measure the daily temperature by the number of pairs of socks
I need to wear to keep my toes warm...
the day of this photo was a 3 sock day
We have now had our 1st official Coast Guard boarding....Boy, were we nervous..but, the boarding crew was very nice, and apparently we had everything we were required to....
Check that experience off the list !!
We have been very lucky to find some wonderful Marinas along the way...
Everyone has been very welcoming ...
Great hospitality!!
Maybe we can visit on the return trip
We have learned not to stick our nose out if the wind and weather are not in our favor.
It makes for a slower transit, but, we are not beating up Miss Grace or ourselves...
We'll get there...
Not sure how many times I have past by the exit sign for Mystic CT... and have never been here. What a lovely town.. and safe haven from our 1st Nor'easter of this trip south...
We even had lunch at Mystic Pizza...how cool
So inspiring, anchoring behind the Statue of Liberty
Sitting out another storm in Atlantic Highlands...nice to have the Launch bring us back home Miss Grace
Sitting out a week of foul weather...
icing on the cake was gale force winds with a tornado watch...
but, it was a safe harbor
All is well
Beautiful Fall Morning, leaving Summit North Marina in the C&D Canal..... heading to Annapolis
I have been to Baltimore many times for work.. but never to Annapolis..
Beautiful... so steeped in history...
So glad we have taken this route....lots more adventures to come
Down to the wire... Our Generator has been reinstalled... a little hiccup with a cracked strainer...,but, that was replaced and we are up and running.
Last minute return of our dinghy and engine....just in the nick of time
Boy, do we spend a lot of time in West Marine and Defender...
One last trek to Defender in Connecticut... hope we are all set
The weather has not been cooperating.... ,but, we did manage to squeeze in one day of good weather to get Miss Grace out on a mooring, raise her sails and take her outside the hurricane barrier for a little spin.... everything looks good
Water, Gas & Diesel, what more can a woman want....Jerry cans are full and secured for the trip
Filling water jugs in the rain..oh what fun.... Michael is quite the sport..
Hope we have enough to keep the tea pot full
We are now fully provisioned and ready to go.....
With my trusty memo list in hand....we need a few things to head south... jerry cans, a new anchor....and hmmm, what else can we spend our money on??
....and it fits !!!
Old anchor, NEW anchor....
Test run to see if our 44lb Rocna anchor will work with our anchor roller and windlass....
yippee... it all works !!
Guess we can take the wrapping off now!!
Defender unfortunately, didn't have Diesel jerry cans in stock so....off to West Marine.....anything else we can't live without??
I'm sure there will many more trips here before we go..
We are lucky to have a WM right down the street in Fairhaven
After having our good friend, Extreme Diver Mike clean our hulls.. we realized we need to take our props off to replace the zincs...
Nice clean bottom, even after 6 weeks in the Port of New Bedford
Ugh.... looks really bad....Zinc was completely gone on the port side and almost on the Starboard..
good thing we took Miss Grace for a ride to Zecco's in Wareham
Wow.... These guys are great !!
Our Sail drives look as good as new..
Within a couple of days we are splashed and tied up ready to ride out the remnants of Hurricane Dorian
Ok, so we have sold the motorcycle...
we now have to be out of our 10ft x 20ft storage unit...and into a 5ftx5ft by the end of August.. there is stuff in here that I didn't even know we had...
Hmmmm....We found a home for the bike....and all the gear.... now we just have to figure out what to do with the rest of this stuff....
I have taken 4 days off from work to sort everything out...... It has taken all 4 full days and nights to walk through memory lane, organize & pack the things we wanted to keep ..
I found the best storage containers for this project at Staples..."Really Useful Boxes" they have vertical supports on all sides, are extremely strong and stackable ...I think I got this !!
Just a few things left and they all have homes.....
Yahooo!!
Our Lives , 30 years together...and the last of out winter wardrobe....condensed into
25 sq. feet
with room to spare...
Well, we have survived our first winter living aboard Miss Grace.
We have learned some valuable lessons and are even more determined to sail south next fall.
Spring in New England has been soggy and gray so far, we are trying to tend to spring cleaning and maintenance, slow going at this point. She definitely needs a good scrubbing.
Michael and I are both working, so, we do what we can, as we can.
3 of our 4 grandsons spending the weekend...Grilled Cheese sandwiches and video games...
Went to bed, the harbor was smooth as glass .. around 2 am, 40 mph gusts rocked Miss Grace... Michael and I got up to check the lines and tighten the halyards..
The boys slept right through the night, we asked them about it the morning....they felt nothing, but said they had a great nights sleep, ahhh, youth.
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