Fffffreeezing in FFFFlorida

January 7, 2010.
This is the beginning of our new winter season's blog for 2010.
We arrived in Florida late on Sunday night after an 18 hour cross-country trek from Vancouver Island through the wilds of Seattle and Chicago. We survived intrusive 'body checks',and frozen water pipes on the Chicago flight (which meant no coffee or tea). Our luggage even arrived at the same time as we did. We did well.
We had a very good Christmas and New Year visiting Charlotte, Pierre, Lily and Isabelle in Victoria, B.C. We walked on the beach, and were entertained by the two little girls....and the latest editions to Charlotte and Pierre's family - two kittens called Fonzie and Figaro! Great fun.
After our long flight we needed a day to recover, so chose to have 'Southern Vectis' launched on Tuesday. She has spent the summer at Harbour Town Marina in Fort Pierce, and she looks sleek and gleaming due to the ministrations of the great team at the Marina.
The launch went well, and the weather, though only a cool 56F, was bearable. This has changed over the past two days, with temperatures not rising above 46F (7C, and big windchill, and night frosts. But this has given us a chance to get things sorted out on the boat, even though we did cleaning and sorting wearing our thick socks and coats.(We also bought some gloves yesterday!!) In fact, I have to admit we've been wearing the same clothes for the past few days, as we have brought so few warm clothes with us! When I look at our flimsy shorts and T-shirts I shudder and wonder if we'll ever be able to wear them!
We have cheated in one respect though - we've been staying in a hotel. It's such a relief to return to our warm room at the end of a busy day and snuggle into a cozy bed!
This will all change today though - Thursday - as now that our new mattress for the aft berth had been delivered, we have decided to test it tonight! We are not sure when we'll move off - it's all weather dependent, and no one is moving around on the water at the moment!