Stuart, FL  We have two more locks to go before we head into Stuart to pick up fuel.  I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about locks.  Some would raise us 12 feet and others lower us.  Having your lines and fenders ready are paramount.  Turn off the radar….shut down the engines….life jackets on and constant communique with your captain…..that is the life of the deck hand aka Admiral! Next stop is Stuart.  We have a dolphin escort into town as we wait for the fuel dock to open up.  As Jackson Browne would sing…..We were “running on empty” as we guzzled a few gallons of fuel.  After fueling we head under the last of our bridges which we would need to wait for an opening….the Saint Lucie Roosevelt Bascule Bridge.  With Cooper at the helm it could be an interesting pass. Our night would be spent at anchor awaiting an early morning rising for another offshore passage that would take us straight home to Urbanna. Having checked in with Chris Parker we felt we would beat Elsa aroun

Moore Haven, FL  We will leave St. James and begin our trek along the Caloosahatchee River to Lake Okeechobee.  We begin the morning with Cooper and Jaxon having a moment with Barry.  Seems Cooper really needed Barry to listen to him.  Meanwhile I am at the helm while Greg takes the bridle off the anchor and we begin our long day.  This is Greg’s happy spot……enjoying being behind the wheel and being on the water.  Navigation on the rivers and lakes is quite different than ocean cruising with bridges, locks and shallow waters. The next 60 plus miles would be spent watching height boards at each bridge. Through our last lock of the day, we decided to tie up for the night in Moore Haven and take the boys for a stroll.  The storms have been hit or miss all day and it is good to settle in for a night of sleep before heading offshore in Stuart. Jaxon has been waiting all day for his birthday celebration.  We all sang as he looked at us like we had lost our minds.  With a package from Miss Ro

  Saint James City, FL A day off and we have a few items to attend to in town.  Our first item was to clean up a bit from the days out on the ocean.  As luck would have it I found that even though I had no fishing tackle on board, the fish were flying in.  Now if I only could bring myself to really fish aboard….somehow Jaxon and Cooper are enough to handle…..fishing will be off the dock of the bay or waiting as we did here for one to jump aboard.   Next we would work on our dinghy deployment.  Our dinghy is a Rigid boat with a 30 HP outboard.  Needless to say we need a crane to lift it off the upper deck and lower it to the water.  With Greg at the controls and three of us supervising it is bound to be flawless.  We had two on the upper deck and two on the lower deck making sure this went off without incident.  A thing of beauty.  Splash it went and with the turn of the key Greg had fun giving it a test drive.  With the dinghy splashed we could head into Parker and Liz’s and get our pa

  Kemah, TX to Saint James City, FL We pushed away from Robert and Carolyn’s dock Thursday at approximately 10:40 am. All systems were working perfectly and our plan was to pick up fuel and anchor at the Teacup anchorage in Galveston.  Picking up fuel was an easy maneuver and settled my concerns about how to handle this vessel in tight quarters. Our first attempt at anchoring proved to be just as easy and we were soon enjoying a few moments contemplating the past month and everything that had transpired to make this happen.  It was a great start. We were off by 9 am to head out the mouth of Galveston Bay and begin our trek of 750 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. With paperwork awaiting some notarizing of our signatures in Florida, we aim for Saint James City and the Coconut Cabana. Our dear friends Parker and Liz would be arranging a notary for us and we could anchor in San Carlos Bay right outside their front door. The seas were confused quite a bit.  We had several moments of uneasy