Bahamas Bound

2006 - 2007

More specifically, Another Adventure has taken up residence in Boot Key, Marathon FL. It's a great area for fishing and has a strong community of cruising sailors. The facilities and location of stores makes it very easy to provision and do maintenance.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 01/28/2011

12/16/06 - Another rainy night and day. Went to a flea market this AM and found a couple of parts I'd figured on spending a day each trying to track down - cool! I think I'll burrow in and read this afternoon. Rained all afternoon and night. We motored in to see Rocket Man perform and have dinner. Rocket Man is a 77 year old performer of Buffet and a wide variety of other songs. He puts on a nice show - plays his crowd well. We returned to the boats in a downpour. When it rains here it does it very well. 12/17/06 - Another rainy Sunday morning - song title? 10-15 knot winds last night kept the batteries from discharging as much as normal - though wind alone won't recharge with the demands of the refrigerator/ freezer, anchor light and reading lights. It takes both solar and wind to put a charge back on the batteries. No surprises here - we knew it when we designed the system. 12/18/06 - Beautiful day! No rain, sunny and in the high 70's. Visited marinas and found a boatyard that would rent 45' of wall during their holiday slow period. Now it's down to transportation. Three hours, 3 buses and a train get me to the airport. Ruth's working on planes. Right now the plane is not looking good. Everyone wants to get home for the Holidays and the frequent flyer seats are filled. 12/19/06 - Poured last night but the sunrise was great... almost a perfect scenario... the boat gets a good fresh water rinse after I go to bed and the day is bright and sunny. Talked to Amazon today and they are baffled. They've had two other reports of the problem over 3 years but haven't been able to duplicate it in tests. The are sending a sealer for me to try over the acrylic... film at 11. My brother, Karl, learned of my ticket search and called with an early Christmas gift. He has amassed enough FF miles to buy and airliner during his North American and World travels... so he was able to find me flights and a ticket for a visit home for the holidays. Thank you Bro! Buddy will stay in Boot Key with Bradd & Maeve while I'm gone (22nd to 28th). They'll also be baby sitting AA. 12/20/06 - Rained again late last night - sound familiar? Woke to a sunny morning with 12-15 knots of wind. After lunch Bradd & Maeve helped me move AA to the Marina seawall where she'll sit until I return the 28th. The photo to the right shows the dinghy in the arch/hoist, solar panels and wind generator. AA has become a cruiser. Buddy is enjoying the dock... getting to know anyone that walks by - what a ham! 12/21/06 - Rainy morning with 15-20 knot winds. Showers sweeping through periodically. Not an issue with the temperatures in the high 70's. Today will be a do the wash and clean the boat day in preparation for heading home at 4am Friday. Ruth called last night wishing I were home already. I know the feeling... we don't do being apart well at all. Right now we are in limbo between two lives. The winds and showers were with us all day. It's not bad actually, the mist/rain is warm as the the North winds. Got a lot of small tasks done in preparation for my 4am shuttle to Miami. Happy Holidays All! The Log of Another Adventure is closed until 12/28/06. 12/28/06 - All in all a good Holiday though parts of it could be classified gut-wrenching and best left at that. It was great to be with Ruth and to visit with family members from the area. We got to see Nikki & Tim's new home - beautiful - and play with Walker. He is an amazing 2 1/2 year old. Amy. Tom & Lofton had us over Christmas Day Eve for an enjoyable time. It snowed about 2" on my arrival so I got to see all the decorated homes against a white background - now that's Christmas! The trip back was uneventful - some flight delays but not enough to cause problems. Got lucky in Miami and caught an early shuttle bus to Marathon, arriving just in time for dinner on Sampatecho where I got to see their son Crawford again and meet his lovely girlfriend Yasmine. Made it an early night as travel had worn me out (that an the impromptu party friends Jill, Bill, Sue & Tom had at our house the night before).

Liquid sunshine viewed from AA AA on the wall at Marathon City Marina Venting? "Tis the season... Flying home reminded me of all the reasons I'm glad I did my business travel in the "good old days". Up at 3am for a 6:30am arrival at the airport. As I walked into the Miami terminal I got a call from an automated system warning me my Chicago-Appleton flight was cancelled by United Express - Denver had the aircraft. Having no luggage to worry about I hopefully settled for a standby seat on an overbooked evening ORD-ATW connection. The Ted flight to Chicago was on time. I arrived to find my connecting flight data was changing constantly. Gave up on Appleton and tried to get to Milwaukee on standby while Ruth headed for MKW with the car. I got a seat! Two hours after the flight was to depart they still couldn't find the pilot. Official story? "We know... he's here somewhere... he came in on an American flight 2 hours ago."  Ruth diverted and picked me up at O'Hara. (Operations was still telling the counter the pilot was around somewhere.) While I understand the havoc weather can play on the airlines,  the misinformation the airlines feed their counter staff (to keep people from changing their plans?) is frustrating. Do I miss flying? We traveled by the axiom "Time to spare? Go by air." Ruth went thru a similar routine when she flew home, renting a car in Chicago and driving home. She later tried to get a refund on that leg of her trip - gave up after 45 minutes trying to talk to a living body in United... hmmmm, I wonder why the airlines are struggling? Friends sent this photo of Wisconsin snorkeling AA nestled along the Marathon City Marina wall

Visit earlier portions of the Bahamas Bound trip log...