Happy New Year!

Early Morning Underway

We're on the move again-- finally-- and heading south towards our next destination of Miami where my sister will meet us for a week's visit. It was hard to tear ourselves away from our dock in Jacksonville, as we had such a good time there, but after a round of hugs, our friends untied our lines and we set off this past Tuesday.

We also got a lot done while in JAX, most importantly, making progress toward a diagnosis and appropriate therapy for Paul's chest discomfort. He's wearing a cell phone activated heart monitor for three weeks, with only about a week left now. So hopefully we can close this round of tests and consultations successfully.

Waiting our turn at the Bridge of Lions, St Augustine

But it is good to be underway again, despite the long days that we've been pushing to do. There is the joy of seeing the sun come up when we've been motoring in the dark and the pleasure of making the first bridge opening of the day, along with the shrimpers!

We're planning a couple of stopovers-- one to see an old friend from my first job in Boston and her husband in Palm Beach Gardens and the other to see Scotty for a few odds and ends that need looking after.

We just anchored off the ICW at Fort Pierce and still need to put the dinghy in the water before we clean up for the evening. We're planning to arrive at the Farmers Market opening at 8 am tomorrow morning (breakfast anyone?) and I'm expecting it to be a chilly ride across the ICW. But we're almost in South Florida-- we've been seeing the signs the last few days. More palm trees and mangrove swamps, White Pelicans (as opposed to the usual Brown), a lone Roseate Spoonbill two days ago hanging out with a group of Pelicans, the lone harbinger of the flock of bright pink birds I would see the next day in the same place I saw them two years ago in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve near NASA. Unfortunately, once again they were too far away to catch a photo.

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration 13 days ago, but the new year still feels new to me, so I'll wish you all a happy, healthy and peaceful year and hope we see you sometime in 2012!