Still tied tightly to our dock at Harbortown Marina

    I am writing this while sitting in our cozy cabin on Southern Vectis, with all the cabin lights blazing, and our little electric heater puffing out much-needed hot air.  The next cold front (from Canada, of course, say all our neighbours!) has arrived, and we are resigned to waiting out a couple of rough days.  While I listen to the rain beating on our deck, I am thinking of where we were this time yesterday. We had taken a picnic to our favourite beach at Outlet Park, and were sun-bathing and watching surfers catch the few waves that disturbed the glassy surface of the Atlantic Ocean. The temperature was a balmy 25C. Later in the day we sat on our deck as the sun set, swapping tall boating tales with fellow sailors we have met up with over the past few years - Ross and Valerie from Toronto and Dick and Margaret from Cleveland.  What a difference a day makes!  Luckily the warm weather is due to return by Friday.

     Most of the jobs that needed doing on the boat have been done. The decks are polished, the new bilge pump is installed, the woodwork in the cabin is gleaming with teak oil, and the outboard motor and dinghy are in place on the stern. We'll sign ourselves up to receive our weather guru, Chris Parker's, e-mail weather service this weekend and then make some plans.

    We've had two very enjoyable get-togethers with Eileen and John, friends from the RCYC who travelled with us on our first trip over to the Abacos in January 2009.  Their lovely boat, a Nordic Tug, has spent time back in Toronto, and also on the east coast, since then. Now it is nearby, in Hinckley's boatyard in Stuart, undergoing some repairs prior to being sold.  We drove to have lunch with Eileen and John at one of our favourite restaurants, 'The Sailors' Return' at the 'Sunset Bay Marina' in Stuart.  The following day they dropped by to see us at Harbortown, en route for a visit (by car) with family on the west coast of Florida.  We hope the boat repairs go smoothly, and that a buyer will soon appear for the lovely 'Somewhere in Time'.