Photos plus London, day 1

Well, I can't seem to get in the mood for writing up a complete trip report, so I'll just post what I wrote after our first day in London. But first, here are some pictures (hover over pictures to see descriptions, or click the photos to see larger versions):

London

Mad cows of Ufford

Summerhill

Lowestoft on the North Sea

Saturday in London

Greetings from Lower Ufford!

Well, the cottage is everything it appears to be in the listing. It's very cozy and private, nicely appointed and clean and pretty. The 800-year-old Ufford Church is just behind us, the 18th-century Dower House is in front, a pink thatched-roof place is to the left, and a rabbit-inhabited shrub-and-grass area and the large Dower House daffodil garden are to the right. Dower House is a family home; there's a swingset and trampoline in their other yard, and their dog Molly greeted us when we arrived. She's very sweet and was thrilled to see us, but she stopped short of coming into the Granary's yard. We found out later that that's training; they don't want her bothering the guests.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our day today didn't begin at the Dower House Granary, it began in London. Or in Slough, to be exact. As I said before, the hotel there was fine. We had a nap after arriving from the airport, then went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The food was unexceptional, the prices something of a jolt (and I thought I'd prepared myself for London prices). We ate, then went back to our room for Laffy Taffy and Snickers bars (courtesy of Papa Tom) and an early bedtime.

This morning, Chloe popped awake at 6 a.m., so we decided to get on our way. We were packed and checked out and on the road by 7, then I had my first go at driving on England's "motorways" -- aka "freeways" or "expressways" to my American compatriots. Well, motorways are a piece of cake! No roundabouts!!!! And at 7 a.m. on a Saturday, virtually empty. The only trick was remembering that here, it's "Keep *left* except to pass." Washington state drivers would fit right in.

Chloe and I had settled on parking the car at Epping, the end of of the Central Tube (subway) line. Turns out Epping is a quaint little village well outside of town, so navigating and parking were easy. Well, there was one exception: I forgot momentarily that right turns are the turns that require caution and cut right in front of some poor guy. Fortunately, he was alert and quick on the brake pedal, so we escaped mishap. I'm hopeful that the big scare I received has drilled a lesson deep into my tiny little brain.

With that excitement over, we popped into a Shell station to buy something, anything, in order to break a 20-pound note and have change for the Tube carpark (parking lot). We settled on some fabulous "biscuits" -- Jaffa cakes, they're called -- dark-chocolate-frosted cake cookies with orange jelly filling -- and a bottle of chocolate milk. Just the sort of breakfast a growing (in the wrong direction) girl needs.
So, we parked, figured out the Tube ticket dispenser, and got right on a waiting train. The trip to town took about 40 minutes, which we spent reading and being happy, then we climbed up to street level and got our first look at London.

We started off on Oxford Street and on down Regent Street. This is an upscale shopping and business area, with lots of snazzy shop windows to look in. Of course nothing was open yet -- it was about 8:30, I think -- but we had a lovely stroll, watching all the double-decker buses go by, down to Picadilly Circus. That, too, was fairly quiet, relatively speaking, but it's still a bustling area with lots of traffic noise. We took obligatory photos in front of Helios' horses and the central monument (I'm drawing a blank on who that was dedicated to), then continued walking.
Next stop was Trafalgar Square, where we saw some more impressive statues (George IV comes to mind) and took pictures of the National Gallery. One kind of funny thing: One of the lesser statues is of George Washington, donated to Great Britain by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It seems a bit strange for Virginia to have donated a statue of a man that Brits must consider a traitor, but that's us cheeky Americans for ya.

From Trafalgar, we headed up Charing Cross Road. This was one of the highpoints of Chloe's day, because we think we found the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. It's described in one of the Harry Potter books as being between a book store and a music store, and we found just such a place, in a rather unprepossessing little cubbyhole on the otherwise trendy street. Just the sort of spot those wily wizards would choose to throw us Muggles off.

After a stop for lunch (at 10 a.m.!) at a nice little cafe -- we both had toasted sandwiches, mine cheese and tomato, Chloe's sausage -- we went over to the Piazza at Covent Garden. Loved it! Once upon a time, this series of halls -- huge glass-roofed bays that are mostly open air but lined with enclosed shops -- was home to bustling, crowded fruit and vegetable markets. Nowadays, it's trendy shops and arts and crafts booths, but it's still bustling and crowded. The architecture of the shops is a real treat. We went into one that had archways between rooms that weren't much taller than Chloe.

I imagine Brits take it all in stride, but the age of everything here is really impressive to me. There's a pub still in operation in Covent Garden that was founded in 1623, and the famous Punch and Judy Pub was established in 1787 or so. I remarked at one point that the brick streets off the Piazza are probably older than the USA.

From Covent, we followed my sense of direction (usually a pretty risky thing) and actually ended up right where we wanted to be: on the banks of the Thames. We passed through Victoria Embankment Gardens to come out right at Cleopatra's Needle. Chloe got very excited to see that, too, because it features prominently in the second Bartimaeus book. I got very excited to discover that it's a real Egyptian obelisk, from Alexandria, a treasure that was actually a gift from Egypt, bestowed by Viceroy Mohamed Ali, no less.

We then strolled along the Thames, watching the ferry boats and the big Eye of London mega-ferris wheel while eating soft-serve ice cream cones with yummy chocolate sticks as garnish. We saw a nice monument -- dedicated to those so few who did so much for so many in the Battle of Britain -- the Old War Office and Ministry of Defence (gorgeous, huge old buildings), and arrived at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament just in time for the noon chimes. We couldn't have timed that better had we planned it!

Westminster Bridge and Great George Street were PACKED. Can't imagine what it must be like during peak tourist season. But we shuffled our way along and went around the other side of the HoP, where we got a nice bobby to pose for a photo with Chloe in front of a triumphant (and yes, Frank, probably misrepresentative) statue of a triumphant Richard the Lion Heart. They incidentally were also posed in front of several gorgeous 30's-era cars that were all parked at the HoP for some reason.

From there, we crossed over to Westminster Abbey. Neither of us was interested enough to stand in line to go inside, so we ducked into adjacent St. Margaret's Church instead. It was lovely and grand, and the organist was practicing, and we got to SIT DOWN for a while. A very pleasant stop. Oh, and our pew was labeled "Members of Parliament" so we got to have delusions of grandeur (?) for a moment.

After our rest and some discussion, we headed up Victoria Street to Buckingham Gate and across to Buckingham Palace to visit the queen. She wasn't "at home" for us unfortunately, so we had to settle for pictures in front of the gates like everybody else. The guards with the big furry hats were too far away to appreciate the way I wanted to, though. :-(

There was one moment of drama at the Queen Victoria Memorial fountain in front of the palace. Some tourist had left his big duffle bag unattended. By the time he came back for it, the cops had cleared the immediate area and gotten on their radios for a bomb squad (I'm guessing). Silly tourist was scolded roundly then sent on his way.

Chloe and I left the palace plaza by walking around the corner along the wall of the palace gardens. It's secure enough, with spikes and barbed wire and on-high motion detectors supplementing 12 or 15 feet of brick wall, but Chloe thought the big trees next to the wall looked climb-able (with some sort of spiked assistance), and from there, she figured she could do the squirrel thing to the trees inside the garden. I think if she were queen, she'd give it a try, except she'd do it to get out of the palace without anyone knowing.

Rounding out our first day in London was a stroll under Wellington Monument (a big arch), then we returned to the Tube and rode back out to Epping and the car.

And then we found our way back to the M11 and out a couple of secondary highways to Lower Ufford. I successfully negotiated about a dozen roundabouts and made only one wrong turn (easily rectified at another roundabout), so I didn't do too badly.

The market in this teensy little village closes at 1 on Saturdays, so we haven't yet stocked up on "self-catering" supplies. That being the case, we walked down to the White Lion pub for dinner. We both had fish and chips, and it was really terrific. We learned some things:
1) Carlsburg beer is really nasty, and Stella (or is it Stellar?) is pretty good.
2) Orange pop is called "Fanta" even when it's not Fanta.
3) The fish in English fish and chips (or White Lion fish and chips, anyway) has skin on it under the batter, but we love it anyway.
4) Ketchup is ketchup. Heinz and everything.

Oh! And the other thing I learned today that I just have to share: Crocs are the best shoes ever in the whole history of shoes. I walked for, what, 7 or 8 hours today, and my feet do NOT hurt. In fact, I took an evening constitutional tonight. Pretty impressive, eh? My bright yellow feet sure do get a lot of funny looks though! That might have something to do with Chloe's bright green feet being right next to them. :-)

Note to Schuyler: Thank you for the Highway Code link! That really helped!

Arrivals

I am home safe and sound, and Chloe is happily tucked up at Summerhill. I just got mail from her, and she says she is doing great. Not many details offered yet, but she's having fun and not doing any of the panicked sobbing I was imagining as I boarded the jet at Heathrow. :-)

Right now, I'm trying to convince my body that it's time to be awake for breakfast, so I'll write more later, about our siteseeing and driving adventures, Summerhill, and England. And I'll try to pick a couple of photos to post, out of my 300 or so choices.

Cheers!

London!

We made it! We saw a red double-decker bus! Funny how it didn't really sink in til that bus rolled by.

Our flight was fun. Started a bit late but was completely smooth. We didn't sleep much, but we enjoyed watching "Pride and Prejudice" (the one with Kiera from Pirates). Chloe and I kept cracking up laughing. Fortunately, most of our fellow passengers were also ensconced in headphones.

Customs and Heathrow were a breeze. We found an ATM and got a wad of pounds, then took the shuttle over to the rental car lot. After some pointers from the clerk there, we went out to the lot to pick out our car (really!). Then we hit the roads. I am proud to say that I survived my first driving lesson (as in "learning by doing"). The sitting on the right while driving on the left isn't so bad, but roundabouts are a terror. I'm sure there are rules that these people are following, but I've only got them partially figured out. One thing I do know: Once you get in the roundabout, you have the right-of-way and can stay in there, going 'round and 'round, for as long as you want. So when I'm in doubt, I'll just go in circles. :-)

Our car is a Ford something or other (not an American model). It's cute. Why aren't Fords cute at home???

The hotel we're in tonight is fine, if a bit, um, challenging. It took us several minutes to figure out how to turn on the lights! (Turns out you have to insert your room key card into a little slot by the door before anything will power up.) Now Chloe is zonked. I'm trying to resist sleeping, because I want to get onto London time fast. But it feels more like 4 in the morning than 4 in the afternoon. We'll see how I do.

Happy 80th Birthday to Queen Elizabeth today!!

Chloe's blog

It won't have any activity for a week or so, but Chloe's blog is here: www.summerhillchloe.blogspot.com

In other news, Mezza the rat had surgery on Monday to remove a tumor (benign, fortunately). She is one unhappy little rat now, because she has to wear one of those post-op cones around her head. It was so big at first, she couldn't walk, and even with it trimmed down some, she can't get her hands to her face, so we have to help her eat. She also can't bunk in with Snowball until her stitches come out, because Snowball would groom her incision for her. They're both pretty confused. But it's only til next Monday, when Frank and MJ will take Mezza in to get her stitches out.

And Chloe and I are off. I'll write when I get home to tell you all about our time with the Queen. Oh, here is our home base while we're there: http://www.suffolkcottageholidays.com/cottage.php?id=000005
Cute, huh?

A tale of taxes, vball, and trip prep

Just a quick update--

Trip prep is coming along, although I haven't had any time for packing yet. Lots of work, last-minute taxes, Emma's birthday party (Happy Birthday, Emma!!), and egg-related activities have to come first!

Oh, yes, and Coach Frank and player MJ's volleyball team had their first games today at the Boys and Girls Club. Everybody's skills are coming along great -- there were several volleys that had the audience on the edges of their seats. This is a 7th-8th grade division, so they play with the regulation (big) net, but the rules are still weird to force the games to go fast. The as-yet-unnamed team won one and lost two.

Chloe and I leave Thursday evening. We have to find some time to write her name on all her clothes, although we hear that there's not much chance she'll come home with the same clothes she takes. Evidently the communal laundry gets distributed to whoever needs something to wear. We're also going to figure out how to dump pictures from Chloe's camera to her computer so she can post to her as-yet-unpublished blog. (I'll share the address of that when she gives the okay.)

Grandma has flown south to have some bonding time, so she and Chloe have said their good-byes already. They had a shopping outing together. Chloe got a cute orange spring dress that she has been wearing almost nonstop.

Oh, and we are a Crocs family. I'll try to post a picture before we leave.

"Ta" til I get back from GB. Happy Easter!!

Ronnie

P.S. Baby pictures have been removed due to parental privacy concerns.

Going out like a lion

Well, March is about done. Here's what we've been up to:

Networking
The girls and I have been getting together with a bunch of fellow unschoolers, kids ranging in age from 2 to 17. It's been fun, educational, and fascinating, and we've met some terrific kids (and their terrific moms). It's very cool to see the wide range of interests -- not to mention clothing and hair styles -- unschoolers have. They all seem to have one thing in common, though: their openness to new people of all ages, new topics of conversation, and getting out and doing new things. A couple of the girls are going to the unschooler summer camp that MJ (Marjie) is planning to attend; they might all ride down to Oregon on the train together.

Other social outings
We've had some great times lately with friends from the past. Patti, an old indexing buddy of mine, had us over last weekend for dinner, conversation, and video games. Her 12yo son, Noah, and their rather large kitty kept us company. The weekend before that, we got together with Frank's former boat partner, Jerry, his wife, and their four grown sons. One of the guys is into drawing, and when he found out MJ has written a fantasy novel, he had her write out descriptions of some of her characters so he can draw them up for her. We can't wait to see what he comes up with. He was also intrigued by the green vampire cats Chloe dreamed up.

Miscellany
The MR2 had to go in for repairs (cracked exhaust manifold). Frank got our home network set up (the other kind of networking), plus ran cable TV to the girls' rooms, so we are totally wired now. I've been procrastinating doing the taxes. (It takes a lot of time to do procrastinating right, you know!) The neighbor kids practically live at our house. And, of course, we've been getting Chloe ready for Summerhill. We've filed all her paperwork, paid her bill (gulp), and made all of our travel arrangements. This weekend, we'll try to get fired up about doing her packing. Less than 3 weeks til we leave.

Family notes
Chiara is coming to England to see Chloe and me!!!!
Jerry should be back in NC in May, gets leave in June!!!!
Colin is 11 days old!!!!

Book recommendation
If you're curious about unschooling and want to read a lovely little book that shows what it's all about, try Parenting a Free Child by Rue Kream. It's set up in question-and-answer style, so it's easy to read in short bursts. I think Rue really captured the way unschooling can transform your family relationships and lifestyle for the very much better.

Acknowledgement

From an essay by Richard B. Anderson, who lectures in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Barbara:

"At the heart of the modern age is a core of grief.

"At some level, we’re aware that something terrible is happening, that we humans are laying waste to our natural inheritance. A great sorrow arises as we witness the changes in the atmosphere, the waste of resources and the consequent pollution, the ongoing deforestation and destruction of fisheries, the rapidly spreading deserts and the mass extinction of species."

Read the rest of it here:
http://www.grizzlegritz.com/worldisdyingbr.html

Jerry update

For those of you who can't monitor the comments as easily as I can, here's what Judy had to say today about Jerry:

The ship is on its way home with stops in Italy & Greece! Jerry should be back in NC around May 7. Yeah!

Needless to say, there is much happiness in the Maier and Lewis clans today.

We're going to see if he ends up any place in Italy where he and Chiara could get together for a visit.

On free time and frivolity

A friend told me recently that she has learned a lot from me about having a life outside of work. This surprised me somewhat, since when I am working I get quite involved in work. But I am aware that, by and large, my life is focused on the Right Things: family, friends, fun. The three F's.

Still, perhaps because I am back at work, with so many hours and brain cells occupied with databases and servers and Help topics, this has led me to some thinking about how I want to spend my precious hours away from work.

It's hard to resist the vaguely Puritanical attitude that every minute of my free time must be “spent” well. Those minutes are in such short supply, after all! They should be filled with the right activities, meaningful activities that nurture my soul or stimulate my brain or give me a few checkmarks to put on my to-do list.

Blech. I’m becoming convinced that the only thing I “should” do is resist that attitude. Free time is only free if -– like Audrey’s princess in Roman Holiday -– I do “just whatever I want” for a while.

A recent entry in How to Save the World lamented the disappearance of playtime. In it, Dave Pollard maintains that one key difference between play and work is the absence of an objective. Under that definition, many activities of today’s kids -– video games in particular -– don’t qualify, because the kids are trying to win or achieve some other concrete goal.

I see it differently. To me, the key difference between play and work is the absence of requirement. If I allow requirements to infect my free time, the cost is extremely high: the loss of spontaneity, frivolity, indulgence. A life lacking those qualities ... well, is it life at all?

As we've had our adventures over the years, many people -– from coworkers to family members to the guy at the SCUBA store -– have said admiring/envious things but in tones that made it clear that they can’t imagine doing anything similar. If pressed, any one of them might have mentioned financial concerns, job security, house payments, and so on (just before heading out to their new Lexus). But I think what really stops people from taking off the way we do is the frivolity of it all. It is hard for them to understand, let alone contemplate personally, that we can choose –- quite deliberately -– frivolity over convention, spontaneity over security, and indulgence over service.

The really interesting thing is, these apparently foolish choices of ours have led us to a life of complete dedication to our kids, an understanding that the moment is what matters, and the realization that our family bonds represent the only security that is possible. Even without the lessons we learned from Katrina and Rita and Wilma -– that jobs and possessions and daily routines can disappear from one day to the next, and that even our shaky faith that our government will provide for us in times of crisis may be misplaced -– we know this to be true when we talk to friends and neighbors who’ve been RIF’d or reorg’d or outsourced out of their jobs, when we attend the funeral of a woman younger than Frank, and especially when we look at a picture of our infant daughters -– taken only yesterday, I swear! -– and compare it to the young women who live with us now.

Life must be lived NOW, not someday. And the joyous, playful exploration of not only our free time but our relationships and the world is the only objective that matters.

Jerry is aboard ship again!

Wahooo! Jerry has left Vietnam -- er, I mean Iraq. No word yet on where he's headed next, but at least it ain't there.

Catching up

Well, I've certainly let this thing get out of date!

All right. As I'm sure you all heard, the Seahawks were not the declared winners of the SuperBowl. We all hold them as the winners in our hearts, though! (A friend of mine here at work is a Pittsburgh fan and feels pretty outnumbered, so we'll leave it at that.)

Big gigantic news: Chloe has been accepted at Summerhill School, an alternative private school in -- get this! -- England. Oy! She leaves us at the end of April and will be gone for THREE MONTHS. Her "mum" is just a bit distressed, but also happy that Chloe will have this wonderful experience. If you want to check out the school, you can look at their website, but I'll warn you that it is not a very good site. (Read A.S. Neill's book _Summerhill_ instead!) The site is http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk.

So, we've been busily filling out forms and filing for visas and trying to adjust to the idea of losing her.

This past weekend, we had a little spur-of-the-moment baby shower for my sister, whose baby is due in March. It was very fun to buy boy clothes for a change! ;-)

Marjie is pursuing life as an extreme sports enthusiast. She bought herself a snazzy Tony Hawk skateboard and signed up for a Spring Break week of field trips to rock climbing, paintballing, skateboarding locales. (A combination of those three sports would make quite a triathlon, wouldn't it? But they're separate in this case.) She is also campaigning for a dirt bike but finding her parents a bit too Summerhill-strapped for cash at the moment.

No movement yet on the sale of the ZP, but spring is coming.

Anyway, we're all happy, healthy, and living life. Hope you all can say the same. Drop us a line!

SEAHAWKS!!!!

We never thought we'd see the day.

The Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl.

Grown men cried. Fans took hours to leave Qwest field. Pioneer Square rocked through the night. And in the Maier household, voices were lost, rats were frightened by all the noise, and sleep was hard to come by.

Our favorite sign in the crowd: "East Coast Media -- How do you like us now?"

Hats off to the whole team (but especially the defense)!!

See you in Detroit!!

Manhandling Rampage
Detroit Ticket Packages

Percolations 2

Here are some more previously unreported (I think) moments from our almost-cruise, in rough chronological order:

** Girls swimming alongside the dinghy at Cat Island. On one of our trips to shore, Marjie and Chloe decided to swim back to the boat ('though Chloe felt a bit nervous about being in the water with all the dolphins that had been around that day). It was a pretty long way, so Frank and I put-putted alongside them in the dinghy. When they got tired or we got bored (which came first, I can't remember), the girls grabbed on to the sides of the Tender, and we towed them. It was thrilling for all -- for them because they liked the speed and face-splashing, and for us because we felt like we were trolling for sharks with our daughters as bait. ;-)

** Getting turned away from Gulfport by the police boat. We stopped in there hoping to top off the diesel before the passage, but they met us at the harbor entrance and told us to go away. The harbor was completely closed due to Katrina damage.

** How good food tasted during the passage (once we quit barfing). For instance, we had one fabulous lunch – truly, one of the most delicious meals of our lives – consisting of crushed tortilla chips, Ritz crackers, salsa, and refried beans directly from the can. YUM!!

** Naples is a really pretty city. At the time, coming as we were from hurricane-ravaged Slidell, we were mostly aware of it being whole and undamaged. But now that we look back on it, having seen quite a bit more of Florida than we ever expected, we can “see” better how nice it was. It’s what people think of when they fantasize about winters in Florida, with pretty homes and quaint businesses; clean, palm-lined streets; a feeling that the whole world is on vacation; and an unmatched level of civic pride. I assume all that will soon be true again as they recover from Wilma.

** Walking to the Naples West Marine. When we pulled into the guest dock in Naples, they gave us a little city map. It says right on it, "Map is not to scale," but we figured it couldn't be *that* much off. It was. We set out one day to walk to West Marine, a distance of maybe 10 city blocks by the map and about 100 miles in reality. Okay, not 100, but it was a LONG way, and it was REALLY HOT. When we hit our moment of worst discouragement, lo and behold, there was a Joe's Crab Shack. We went in and had gigantic lemonades and a shrimp platter. You should have seen the waiter's eyes pop when he came back three minutes after serving our drinks to find that Chloe had emptied her lemonade glass already. Much refreshed and armed with the knowledge that we were actually close to West Marine now, we made the rest of the walk in good time and good spirits. A taxicab later returned us to the marina.

** Talking to Chiara. We miss our Italian daughter tremendously, every minute of the day!! But our phone conversations with her made for some of our best moments of the trip. The most memorable was that one lovely day at the Dry Tortugas. Totally fed up with being out of contact with her, I said, "I don't care what it costs!" and fired up the satellite phone one morning. We all took turns talking to her, and it was a happy, festive time. Afterwards, I was a little weepy but felt actual physical relief for having spoken to her. Then Frank and I got in the dinghy to go ashore and check the Wilma predictions. The forecast that morning said that the storm wasn’t coming to the Keys. It was erroneous but nicely timed to give us one lovely, relaxed day at Fort Jefferson.

** We aren’t the only clumsy sailors around. I had some moments on the passage of feeling like a pretty inept sailor, so it was kind of nice to sail to Key West with Delfina and see somebody else make some sailing errors. It was nothing major -- they made a couple of inadvertent tacks -- but it was reassuring.

** Visiting the Key West Municipal Library. My best friend, Stephanie -- who used to live in KW -- had a dream that we went to the Key West library. Not ones to ignore psychic vibrations, and since we had plans to go there anyway :-), we soon became regular patrons. They gave us a library card in exchange for $15, which seems pretty cheap now considering all the books, movies, and Internet time we got for it.

** Rain drills. Rain is always a major event on a sailboat in the tropics, because you typically have every port and hatch open in order to get some much needed ventilation. On the Zombie Princess (and a good percentage of the rest of the sailboats down there), this is compounded by a few leaky ports. So, every time it started to rain (once a day, on average), we had a mad scramble, "all hands" effort to close everything up and set out absorbent materials (diapers) under the leaky spots. We've been home for a month, in our nice waterproof house, and I still tense up and get ready for action when I hear it start to rain (17 times a day, on average). (Did I mention that we are currently enjoying a rain streak in Western Washington? It's rained at least once every day for something like 30 consecutive days, and rain is predicted for every day this week.)

** The Zombie Princess is one tough little boat. But I suppose you had all managed to figure that out, reading between the lines of this blog.

KQR

P.S. This may be the first time in my life I actually managed to follow through on a New Year's resolution!

Jerry

Our nephew-son (Jerry is Frank's sister Judy's son who lived with us for his junior and senior years in high school) is in the Marines, currently stationed west of Baghdad. We spoke to him yesterday. He says he's doing all right, except that they're all freezing right now. Seems the nice warm clothes the military provides don't fit real well under body armor. Fortunately, Jerry usually gets to stay in the warm truck with the radio.

Their base has been rocketed a couple of times since his arrival there in December, but the attacks went somewhat wide. He did send us a photo of a blasted toilet seat. The guy using the head at the time the rocket hit was unhurt.

There is some hope that Jerry's unit will be rotated out in the spring. Keep your fingers crossed for us. We really, *really*, REALLY want him out of there.

Photo of Chiara (because we really miss her!)

Here's a photo from Chiara's graduation party, not long before she went home to Italy.

We miss you, K-Dogg!!!!

Photo from New Year's Eve (by request!)

I was woefully neglectful of the camera at our New Year's Eve party, but I did get this one of Marjie and Ella asleep together on their pallet in the basement.

Still here?

Just in case anybody is reading this now that our lives are ever so much less fraught with danger, here's what we've been up to.

With the holidays done, we have stepped up our efforts to complete our big bedroom swap. Marjie is essentially moved into Chiara's old room, and as of two days ago, Chloe is essentially moved into our old room. Now comes the hard part: cleaning out 13 years of kid stuff from the upstairs bedroom. We've got the main room emptied, but that still leaves two closets, the toy shelves, the little alcoves that were Marjie's and Chloe's private spaces, and the 3/4 bath. It's all my fault for being a packrat and passing on the tendency to my kids!

Frank has moved up our bedframe and boxspring, and he cleaned the carpet up there. He accomplished these things on his own because I managed to slip on the stairs while moving Chloe's mattress down to the basement. My ankle is well sprained and quite colorful, but there's definite improvement already, and I'm being careful not to re-injure it. Frank's fancy Mardi Gras walking stick has come in handy and provides a much more dignified form of transportation than the crawling I was doing initially (much to the girls' amusement).

We held our annual New Year's Eve sleepover with all the cousins (eight girls this year, ranging in age from 2 to 13). It was the usual madhouse festivities, complete with musical chairs, ice cream sundaes, movies, and sparklers and shouting at midnight, even though we had to hold the party on Dec. 30th because some of the girls had a wedding to go to on the real New Year's Eve (our congrats to Tony and Jennifer!). Our neighbors thought we were nuts when we all went outside to count down to Dec. 31st. :-) Two-year-old Ella was the star of the show and probably the one who had the most fun, even if she did burst into tears when her mom came to pick her up the next morning, giving every impression that we'd spent the night torturing her.

Our actual New Year's Eve was a quiet one, 'though we had to struggle to stay awake that long. At midnight, we went out front to count down again and ended up receiving an impromptu invitation from our favorite neighbors to go hang around their backyard firepit. I was really dragging and left after only a short visit, only to get caught up watching Kate & Leopold on late-night TV with Chloe.

After two short nights, it was exceedingly difficult to get up and watch the Seahawks lose in the morning game on Jan. 1st, but we did. I wish Sean Alexander had been in Seattle when he broke the single-season touchdown record. As it was, the announcers barely commented on his performance, choosing instead to speculate endlessly and pointlessly about Brett Favre's likely (and one-season-too-late) retirement. East Coast bias rears its ugly head.

I return to work at Microsoft on the 17th, and Marjie and Chloe (and Frank) are preparing for a stint dogsitting Angelo for Grandma and Papa, who are traveling to Mexico. Frank is also preparing for some Ty Pennington time, since both girls have big plans for platforms and things for their new bedrooms.

I still have more Percolations to write up, quite a few of them, actually. Posting some of them before my return to work is one of my New Year's resolutions. ;-)

Partial update from New Orleans

The sale of Marty's house should go through in January. Having stayed dry and intact through the storms, it sold for about 18% more than they had expected pre-Katrina, with the new owners no doubt still feeling they got an excellent bargain. The place is really fresh and pretty after all the hard work put in by Garry, Judy, Chris, and, to a lesser extent, Frank and Marjie.

Judy and Garry have phone service at their place in Slidell again. It only took four months!

Cori came home from North Carolina for Christmas, to visit with our family and hers.

And Jerry is in Iraq. :-( Please keep a good thought for his safety and for a better set of orders for his unit.

Merry Christmas!

Top: Megan (10), Chloe (11), Marjie (13), Chelsea (13)
Middle: Emma Lou (6), Madison (7)
Bottom: Ella Bella (2)

Marjie and Frank

Finally! A listing!

It has taken SO long to get the Zombie Princess' listing on the Internet! Wilma has things marine and electronic in a tailspin down there, I guess, although it was amazing how fast the listing appeared once I'd discovered that our broker's parent company hadn't paid their YachtWorld bill. Anyway, it is up now, and it has several pictures of our boat, for those who are curious about our living space these past months. They left off the galley photo for some reason; I'm working on getting that added.

To view the listing, click here, and then click the Full Specs button.

KQR

Ratty holidays to you

Road notes and some belated photos

Florida
We chose the Lake Okeechobee route from Miami to Orlando. A lot of it was scenic/interesting, with the occasional gator and wings-hung-out-to-dry cormorant sighting, but our view of the lake itself was obscured by a levee. And then traffic through the greater Orlando metropolitan area was awful. All in all, we might have preferred the turnpike. ;-)

We spent Night 2 in Gainesville, where the temperatures dropped down into the @*#(! range. We actually had to run the heater and put on coats!

About the time we hit I-10, the van's engine malfunction light came on. The ol' tighten-the-gas-cap trick didn't help, so we drove into the Honda dealership in Ft. Walton Beach. They diagnosed some clogging in the emissions system, strangely reminiscent of our exhaust-elbow problem on the boat back in September. $200 and a few hours later, we were able to backtrack to Destin.

Many of you will recall that the four of us lived in Destin the winter of '96/'97 and have been back there for a couple of vacations since. The Florida panhandle has the best beaches Frank and I have ever visited, and that includes the Caribbean and Hawaii. I called the sand there sugar sand, as people are wont to do, but the texture is really closer to flour. It is very soft, very fine, and very white. Gorgeous. The girls and I spent a lovely couple of hours beachcombing (yes, some hurricane debris and damage here), digging, and scribbling movie quotes in the sand. The temperatures in Destin were a bit milder, too, although we did have the mother of all rainstorms our second morning there. (Seduced by the microwave and refrigerator in our hotel room, we just had to stay two nights!)

Alabama and Mississippi
Zoom zoom zoom.

Louisiana
Louisiana is still a very sad place. The scene in Florida is one of recovery; in Louisiana, destruction. East New Orleans made me cry, because it's a very battered ghost town still, more than three months after Katrina. Despite the claims of certain radio 'personalities' I could mention, things in Louisiana are NOT getting back to normal. Well, they are, but the pace of the return is beyond slow, and there are whole cities there that may never recover.

We drove over the Twin Spans. They have all traffic moved onto one side of the freeway there, to get past the section of I-10 that fell into Lake Pontchartrain. We were impressed at the amount of repair. Interstate commerce is a powerful motivator.

Farther west, where Chris and Marty live, the situation is somewhat better. Not normal, but livable. About a third of businesses are open, with limited, variable hours. Most houses still have heaps of debris in their front yards; Frank has taken to calling it "house puke." Make no mistake, residents here are aware every minute of every day that they are in a disaster area. Nevertheless, Christmas decorations are up, and life goes on.

We had a nice visit with Marty at his retirement villa. The staff there is working hard to reestablish their pre-Katrina routines, and Marty was looking forward to watching the Seahawks during that night's Monday Night Football party in the common room. He says not all of the staff and residents have returned, but he is obviously happy to be home, and he looked good.

We missed Chris but were able to visit briefly with her son, Paul, and his frisky dog, Sancho. Paul is working for a clean-up company. He is able to work at home mostly, working up bid and invoice spreadsheets. Having been in on some large-scale cleanup operations, he is more optimistic than I am about the amount of recovery that can happen. I hope he's right!

Monday night, we had dinner with Bob and Anita. Finding an open restaurant was a bit challenging, and we were on Veterans Blvd., one of the main drags in Metairie. Chevy's came through, though, and we had a nice visit. After we said our good-byes, we made our shivering way to the van and resumed our trek west, listening to our Seahawks kick butt on the radio. About half-time, we pulled into a motel in Lafayette, where we were able to watch the less exciting but still triumphant second half. Our first Seahawks game all year!!!

Lest we forget
Western Louisiana and eastern Texas were hit very hard by Rita. The damage there is being overlooked by the media (mostly), probably because no major metropolitan or tourist areas are involved, but it is as bad as anything we saw in New Orleans and Florida. Along one short stretch of Texas freeway, we saw three separate churches whose north faces were ripped off. Gigantic oaks have crushed homes that have obviously been given up for lost. And we saw more blue-tarp roofs through here than even in east New Orleans.

Mother Nature really had it in for Louisiana this year.

T-t-t-texas
I don't think I've ever been so cold. The cold snap that chilled us in Florida and Louisiana turned us into blue popsicles in Texas. The wind was bitter and relentless. On the bright side, the sunset was extraordinary. We spent Tuesday night in Ft. Stockton.

New Mexico
We were there for about two hours. It was uneventful.

Arizona
I love Arizona. But by this time, we had promised the girls we'd do our best to get home by Saturday the 10th so they could attend a tree-decorating party at my mom's. It meant driving with dedication, despite the lure of the beautiful Arizona scenery. We enjoyed another spectacular sunset past Tucson, cruised through the huge freeway superstructures of Phoenix, and settled in for the night in Buckeye.

California
We've driven the length of California so many times, it was mostly a chore this time around. We did cope with and enjoy some amazing fog, and were impressed by our 3rd stunning sunset in a row. Thursday night, we stayed in Tulare (north of Bakersfield on Hwy. 99). Friday, we drove past the stunning vistas of feedlots (not really stunning, except the smell), Shasta Lake (really stunning), and Mt. Shasta (and how!), and it was a very happy Krewe that crossed into Oregon about 8 p.m. On a whim, I took exit #1 so we could get out and play in the snow for two seconds. It turned out not to have a return ramp to I-5 N., so we ended up sailing right on back into California to turn around at exit #796 or whatever it is. The girls and I were wildly entertained by this, and cheered even louder entering Oregon the second time. I think Frank was less amused. :-)

Oregon
Somebody else pumped our gas for us. That's Oregon for you (state law requires attendants do the pumping). We slept in Eugene. Portland was as pretty as ever. And then we crossed the mighty Columbia River into...

Washington!!
...where we promptly got stuck in traffic. That's Washington for you. Travel the entire country and people keep right except to pass. Enter Washington and everybody jumps into the left lane. And traffic stops. Coincidence? I think not.

We did eventually make it to our very own hometown, though, with about two hours to spare before Grandma's party.

We got off the freeway and entered our residential neighborhood. It hadn't really occurred to us, but that was our first visit to a non-hurricane-ravaged residential neighborhood since Houston in early September. The first words out of my mouth were "It's so clean!" The lack of destruction here seems like a miracle, and it is certainly a big psychological relief. (Washington locals who want to know what the Katrina aftermath is like should imagine Tacoma to Marysville flooded then dried out again, with mud and mildew everywhere, and with *every single house* gutted onto its front lawn. Then imagine living in that environment for three months, with no real end in sight.)

And now
We've been home for a week. We're almost unpacked, almost settled into life here, almost ready for Christmas, and almost happy to be here. Well, the girls are completely thrilled to be here. Frank and I are still grieving for what should have been and wishing things were different.

We did finally plug in the CF card from our camera and found some poignant pictures of our time in Bayou Bonfouca. It's pretty ironic that turned out to be our only real cruising time, but they're fun shots. I'll close with a few of those.


Note all the cruiser gear shown in the 3rd picture: sun awnings, spare gas and water tanks, windscoop (colorful "sail" over the forward hatch, funnels breezes into the cabin), mosquito netting, laundry/dishes bucket, and cushion and pillow for lounging on the bow. The scuff marks on the side of the boat are Katrina damage. There are similar marks on the port side, too.

KQR

Home again, home again, jiggety jog

Yes, we are back to being landlubbers. Our 4,200-mile drive home was long and mostly uneventful. We froze from about Gainesville on, with our two days in Destin a relatively warm stretch and with Texas being especially frigid thanks to a cold snap. California and Oregon were more temperate, but very foggy.

Back in the great northwest, we're unpacking, getting back on top of the details of real life, and suffering a certain amount of culture and climate shock. We're also kind of jet-lagged after all the time-zone changes. But I do have some things to say to wrap up this blog, percolated stories to add belatedly and reflections-in-conclusion to share. If you check back in a few days, I might have gotten caught up enough to get some writing done.

KQR

'Home' in Destin, FL

After an unexciting bit of car trouble, we are cozy in our old stomping grounds. Sugar sand at last!

The last cruise of the Zombie Princess

Yesterday morning, we put to sea once again, to sail around Key West to the new home of the Zombie Princess at Peninsular Marine boat yard. It was a beautiful, sunny sail, with crisp wind and calm seas, but it was a bit chilly! (A cold front has come through that's bumped the high temp down to about 71 degrees. Brr!!) Marjie spent most of the sail huddled under a blanket, and we got an early (before noon) start, so nightowl Chloe slept through the whole thing. But we had a completely uneventful trip, believe it or not. No rain, no giant swells, no seasickness, so sail mishaps/errors, no spills below. Amazing.

At the boat yard, we tied up to the seawall and emptied off the last of our belongings. The rats found their shady space on the wall pretty interesting, and the yard guys found the rats pretty interesting. But duty called, and before long, the ZP was loaded onto the TravelLift, going up.

Seeing the bottom was pretty interesting. It was "done" last June when we bought the boat, but you couldn't tell by looking at it. I think they didn't do a very careful job. On the other hand, the boat's been through three big storms. There are a couple of whacks (my highly technical term for places where we obviously hit something), one at the bow and one at the crease of the keel, that must be from Katrina. I hope potential buyers won't be too turned off by them.

As for the Krewe, we are headed home. I write this from a motel in Florida City, the gateway to the Keys, or, in our case, the gateway to the continental United States. We've rented a small U-Haul trailer so we can haul home the dinghy and motor. (Our too casual effort to sell them resulted in only one lowball offer. We have always been tempted to keep them as our boat for home, and we figure it won't be too late to sell them once we get there.) It also let us pack quickly and with abandon, instead of having to carefully apportion van space. So we're loaded for bear.

We're keeping our options loose for the trip home, taking one day at a time. Today's big debate is which route to take through Florida. The choices are the Florida Turnpike (efficient but dull with about $20 worth of tolls), Alligator Alley (very, very cool -- gators sun themselves along the freeway -- with a return trip to Naples on the other side, but a longer, squared-off route), or this little principal highway that runs by Lake Okeechobee (an unknown, probably scenic but slow). Whatever we choose, we're all looking forward to some fun land cruising.

KQR

The cork pops

We move to the boatyard tomorrow, get on the road on Fri. Mixed feelings as we spend our last hours aboard the ZP.

Percolations 1

With time to breathe, we've had cruise memories percolating up in our minds and conversations, events and moments and observations that didn't previously make the blog. I'm almost out of Internet time here at the KW library, so I'll share just one now, then add more later.

**Chloe teaches Marjie to drink**
As you might recall, during the passage, Chloe got to a point where she began feeling human. She was stretched out on one of the dinette benches, crosswise to the boat's motion. Part of what helped her is finding a jug of juice on the floor under the table. She began drinking that. Up in the cockpit, we were aware that she was getting fluids, but didn't really understand how much juice she'd consumed until she popped up in the companionway with the nearly empty jug. The child was positively giddy on a sugar high. I asked her to share the remaining juice with Marjie, and she began teaching Marjie how to wrap her lips around the mouth of the jug so as to prevent sloppage when the boat moved. She made perfectly ridiculous "O" shapes with her mouth that had us -- even poor Marjie -- cracking up. It was a most welcome moment of hilarity after a grim couple of days. Weeks later, Chloe still remembers the necessary "O" and still gets a chuckle when she demonstrates it.

KQR

Creeping up on December

"The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the orange and palm trees sway; there's never been such a day in Key West, F-l-a." (with apologies to Barbra Streisand)

I hear rumors that winter has arrived in some parts of the world. Not so here. So, while we're getting a bit frustrated and anxious about the slow pace of things here, we are certainly enjoying the weather! Still hitting 80 or better during the day, with nights in the 70's. Love it!

As for getting out of here, we're hoping that today will be the day the cork pops and we get some action. Hurricane recovery efforts at the boat yards and then the holiday pretty much meant no action toward our goals for two weeks. Tough when we all just want to be home now.

On the bright side with the sunshine is the fun we're having as a family. We're still more homebodies (boatbodies?) than tourists, preferring to hang out reading, watching movies, and having family game nights, but it's a good time. Last night, we finally tried out Fluxx, a wacky card game, and we all *really* loved it. The rules and the goal of the game keep changing, so there's a lot of laughter and having to remind each other of what comes next. Kind of like life, I guess....

KQR

Gobble gobble

It sure doesn't feel like November here, but Happy Thanksgiving anyway, with love from the Krewe!

The Conch Republic

I learned the story behind Key West's being called the Conch Republic. Here's the story, borrowed from one of Lonely Planet's guides:

"In 1982, the U.S. Border Patrol set up sporadic roadblocks on U.S. 1 just south of Florida City in an attempt to stop drug smugglers and illegal aliens driving up fom the Keys. As traffic jams and anger mounted, many tourists decided to forgo the Keys altogether.

"Enter a bunch of outraged Conchs, led by Key West Mayor Dennis Wardlow, who came up with brilliant idea of seceding from the U.S. They established the nation of the Conch Republic on April 23, 1982, seceded from the U.S., rebelled for one minute, and then surrendered and requested $1 billion in foreign aid and war relief.

"Every April, Conchs celebrate the anniversary of those heady days."

The official store of the Conch Republic is located on Duval Street. There, you can purchase flags, t-shirts, shot glasses, etc., bearing the bright Conch Republic logo. You can also read posters and watch a video that reveal the more entertaining details of the rebellion. For instance, the Conch weapon of choice was hard Cuban bread, and their troops were sustained by conch chowder and Key lime pie.

KQR

Conchs

Residents of Key West refer to themselves as Conchs, and they call Key West “the Conch Republic.” The conch is even the fierce and frightening (not) mascot of Key West High School.

From what we’ve observed, your typical Conch is very friendly, a bit scruffy, a bit sun-weathered, smokes and drinks however much s/he damn well pleases, and feels vastly superior to mainlanders. One of the most popular bumper stickers here says “Slow down! This ain’t the mainland!” (No, we haven’t observed that Conch drivers are any less intense behind the wheel than the rest of us). They’re a funny mix of liberals and conservatives, but as a group they are environmentally conscious enough that bicycles are everywhere. (The marina here has a couple of sizable areas dedicated to scooter and bicycle parking.)

So, no, not all Floridians – or even Keys residents – are Conchs, and I think you have to live on Key West quite a while before you earn the name.

Pork fried rice

Before Katrina hit, we went to the (subsequently flooded and looted) Winn-Dixie in Slidell and bought a bunch of canned and dry goods. This was supposed to be our food when we couldn’t find good fresh food at our exotic cruising locations. As it’s turned out, we’ve never been more than 5 days from a grocery store, and that was on our passage across the Gulf. Currently, even with the flooding KW experienced during Wilma, we have 4 fully stocked grocery stores within 5 minutes of us.

Still, we’ve been trying to eat the canned goods, both to save money and to avoid having to give it away or haul it all home. The other night, Frank made what he wisely termed “pork fried rice.” It was nicely seasoned, with vegetables, big hunks of (ahem) meat, and even some bits of egg. Marjie and Chloe were munching away pretty happily until I made the mistake of referring to the “pork” as SPAM. Our gourmet girls immediately lost all interest in the dish, and we ended up feeding about half of it to the fishes.

World famous sunsets

There has been a turn in the weather down here since Wilma. High temps are “only” in the low 80s, the humidity is down, the water has cooled considerably, and we have some cloud cover and sprinkles on and off most days. The upside of the clouds (aside from the happy fact that we’re no longer broiling to death) is that the world-famous Key West sunsets are exceeding all expectations.

Last weekend, we went down to Mallory Square for the nightly sunset celebration. We watched several street performers (a tumbler, an escape artist, a unicycling juggler of flaming batons, a not-so-high wire walker, and a fire eater), listened to some good music, browsed through the arts and crafts booths, and applauded with the rest of the crowd when the magenta ball of the sun sank into the water.

Tropical storm Gamma

Imagine my dismay when I made my morning trek to the restrooms yesterday and saw this headline on the Key West Citizen: “Gamma targets Key West” UGH!! At the time the paper went to press, the forecasted path “eerily” matched Wilma’s, with Gamma hitting KW noonish on Monday. Happily for us, the forecasted path has moved steadily southward and the storm is weakening, so we’re not expecting to see much activity from this one. What a refreshing change!

Katrina and Wilma woes continue

If you can find it in your hearts and pocketbooks to send a little (more) money to the Red Cross, the people of Louisiana and Florida would really appreciate it! As you’ve probably gathered from the news, FEMA help is limited to nonexistent. Here’s a quote from a flooded resident in the local paper: “[We] would like to thank the Red Cross for giving us water, food and helping us to buy new furniture. They’ve been wonderful to us. FEMA has not done one thing.”

From our conversations with friends and relatives in New Orleans, we know that things are still Really Bad there. Many areas *still* don’t have power and gas. This has impact city-wide. Chris says the few school buildings that are open are “platooning” students through, holding classes for one school in the morning, another midday, and a third in late afternoon. With the infrastructure coming back at a snail’s pace, with some areas still closed completely to residents – they can ride a bus by their homes to have a look at the outside but are not allowed to disembark – and with very few stores and restaurants open very limited hours (making for lines and crowds), life there sounds pretty depressing.

Here in the Keys, the damage was a fraction of what New Orleans suffered and recovery is well under way, but people are still hurting. Insurance checks are starting to arrive for damaged homes, businesses, and boats (we heard 3500 wrecked boats from Key Largo to Key West), but the big pinch here was all the cars destroyed by the flooding. One guy joked that 5% of KW residents evacuated, so about 5% of KW residents still have cars. In many cases, comprehensive auto insurance does not include flood damage. This is true for one of the guys in the dockmaster’s office here. To replace his flooded work truck will cost him more than $20,000 out of pocket. Even those with insurance or the wherewithal to simply buy a new car are having difficulties. Imagine car dealerships under six feet of destructive salt water, and you can see that not only did residents lose their own cars but there was nowhere to go to buy new ones! When we turned in our Orlando rental car, the agency waiting list had more than 700 names on it, and two weeks after the storm, we still see truckloads every day of replacement cars being hauled in and ruined cars being hauled out. (I don’t want to think about where they’re putting all the heaps.)

Anyway, sad stories abound, and help is still desperately needed. Pitch in if you can!

Marina nights at Garrison Bight

During all this time spent resting and soul-searching in Key West, we have become part of the liveaboard community at Garrison Bight (one of KW's city marinas). It's been an interesting experience.

Our neighbor on one side, Tim, is in a 2-room houseboat. He's a massage therapist, drinks quite a bit, and is playing host to his 20yo nephew and the nephew's best friend. They're pretty crowded in there, but they're having a good time. The other night, they threw an anti-hurricane party, celebrating the end of "the season," that was attended by folks from several boats around. The girls and I stopped by (Frank was retrieving the van) for a bit and had several inebriated Conchs tell us how silly we are to quit our cruise. It was entertaining.

On the other side of Tim is a young couple in a pretty Oday sailboat. They are both pilots for a local airline, so the $1000/month slip fees (which include utilities) probably don't make much of a dent. Their snazzy new 350Z sits in the parking lot between flights.

My favorite marina resident is 11-month-old Judah. He lives with his parents in a somewhat rundown but huge houseboat -- probably 1500 square feet of living space in there. He is as enchanted with our rats as I am with him and squeals with delight when we bring them out to visit. Mezza and Snowball are less entertained.

On the next dock over live a couple of guys in their 40's who are trying to break into the music scene. They had their first gig this past weekend. One of them looks amazingly like Frank. The other is a big black guy who wears dark shades at all times and has wonderful rasta dreads.

I love nighttime here. Warm air, sweet breezes, stars and moon, and a quirky shabby-but-ready-for-anything atmosphere. Frank and I agree that we wouldn't want to live here -- guess we like a little less Conch and a little more yup -- but it's an intriguing place.

KQR

What comes next

After much agonizing and discussion and a few tears, we have decided to conclude our cruise here in Key West. The girls -- Marjie especially -- are done, with the captain nearly as reluctant as they are to continue. That leaves yours truly as the only one hoping for a little more tropical time. My "I'm sure it will be better now" reassurances carry no weight whatsoever anymore; I've offered them too many times now when they turned out not to be true.

I know there will be some among you who can't believe we're bagging it NOW, when hurricane season is finally over (or should be) and we've got the whole Keys island chain stretched out before us. We understand how backwards it is; Chloe says it's like agreeing to do the dishes in exchange for $5, then declining the $5 after the dishes are done. But we all agree that continuing because we "should" is not what this cruise was supposed to be about, and the simple fact is that all the running and recovering from hurricanes has significantly depleted our cruising budget.

So. We're taking care of practicalities now, and trying to enjoy a little island time, Key West style, in the meantime. We met with a broker yesterday and felt pretty good about what she told us about the market here and the price we should be able to get for the ZP. The downside is that moorage space is at a premium, both in terms of price and availability. We're chasing down a lead on a dry spot at a boat yard. If we get in there quickly, we'll be cruising west (over land) by next week.

KQR

Some family notes

Please join us in wishing nephew Jerry (Judy's son) a safe deployment shipboard. Also, send lots of hugs to Cori to help her get through this lonely time. We love you both!

If you can catch a Michigan game, watch for niece Katie (Chuck's daughter) in the cheerleading squad. She's terrific!

KQR

Not quite a Fantasy Halloween

With the girls in make-do costumes, we toured the island yesterday looking for a neighborhood where we'd be comfortable trick-or-treating. Unfortunately, KW is looking a lot like Slidell did, with houses gutted into piles on the streets. Would you let your kid beg candy at a home where they've lost most of their belongings? No.

Needing an alternate plan, we pulled into a drugstore and bought some bags of candy ourselves. Then we headed for Duvall Street and handed it out to the kids we encountered. This is probably the quietest Halloween Duvall Street has seen in 40 years. They've postponed Fantasy Fest (KW's Mardi Gras) until early December, so there weren't many people down there. We did see a few wild costumes and the usual weird mix of people that seems to be standard for Key West (degenerates, yuppies, retirees, very few families, very few minorities). Clothing is optional during Fantasy Fest, but the only thing we saw of the (in)famous body-painted Conchs was very impressive photos in a shop window.

Handing out candy was fun, though. The kids we gave to positively lit up. It wasn't much of a Halloween for them either, I think.

After our tour of Duvall, we bought key lime sherbet (ice cream in Frank's case) at a little shop and sat outside in shirtsleeves enjoying that. It was a very pleasant evening. The rain didn't start until we got back to the boat, and the BOY did it rain. Hard drumming all night long. We had to get up a few times to deal with leaks and clean out the Wilma rubbish in the cockpit drains because it started to fill.

This morning, the town is drowned again. We had to negotiate several lakes to make it to the Internet cafe.

We are pretty tired of all this, and we're contemplating going home. More on that later after we've talked it out.

KQR

All is well

Boat is ok, more scrapes but afloat. KW is shaken, some flood damage, but 80% functional. We'll spend H'ween here.

Plans made

We reached the marina by phone today. The ZP is not on their "Sunk" list, so it looks like she made it through another one. They have power there. We've decided to drive back down on Saturday, hoping that will allow time for a few more gas stations to get back on line between here and there.

In the meantime, we've been doing Disney. On Tuesday, the girls and I went to Epcot. They are having a food and wine festival this month, so we ate our way through the World Showcase. We had tasty tidbits from Greece, France, Turkey, Ireland, China, Norway, and Japan while enjoying a variety of musical acts. My favorite was Off Kilter, a kilted Canadian group featuring bagpipe and electric guitar. They were very fun, doing a mean Whiskey in the Jar, Johnny B. Good, and (of course) Amazing Grace. The Taiko drummers in Japan ran a very close second.

Yesterday, Marjie and Chloe stretched their wings a bit and went to Magic Kingdom on their own. They had a BLAST. I remember going to Disneyland alone with my sister, so it felt like a traditional rite of passage for them.

Much of today was taken up with a trek to the doctor's office and pharmacy. I've been having asthma trouble, so it was time to go back on the "control" medication. I'm not sure if it's close proximity to the rats or a new selection of pollen. I tend to suspect the latter, since I breathe just fine when we're out at sea.

We all have mixed feelings about returning to the boat. We're all a little homesick and discouraged. But Halloween is a rockin' time in Key West, and then simple Keys cruising awaits. We'll see if we can't get this adventure back on track.

KQR

Making plans

Despite tornado warnings a couple of counties over, Wilma was no big deal here. We got a lot of rain -- the hotel pool overflowed a little -- and the winds blew steady at about 35 mph for several hours, but we never lost power and certainly never felt endangered. The theme parks reopened in the afternoon ('though we found out too late to take advantage), and we were able to have a pizza delivered this evening.

Our plan is to visit the Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and then head back to Key West on Wednesday. That depends on the Keys highway being reopened by then. If it isn't, well, we'll get to visit Epcot, too.

I had written up the highlights of our visit to Disney-MGM Studios, but the computer hates me today and I lost it. When I quit being frustrated, I might try again. Short version is: We loved the Beauty and the Beast show, we loved the giant fish puppets in the "Under the Sea" part of the Little Mermaid show, and Marjie and I got happily scared to death on the Aerosmith Rock'n'Roller Coaster (Chloe sat that one out with the 8yo daughter of the family in front of us in line). The rains hit in time to cancel the laser show at the end of the day, but nature substituted thunder and lightning. Marjie didn't have a raincoat, so she got totally drenched, but she got a new shirt and a Mickey rain poncho out of the deal.

KQR

The rains arrive

Had a fun day at MGM, didn't get soaked til eve. when fringes of Wilma arrived in style. Parks closed Monday.

Waiting and moving

Wilma's slow pace is costing us too much in marina fees, rental car days, and motel nights. When all is said and done, we'll have gone through more than a month's worth of cruising budget in order to spend this week on land. And I know we've been making the best decisions we could with the information that was available at each decision point, but it's pretty frustrating that we could have had another day or two in the Tortugas or Key West.

Frank has a cold. Too many germs on land.

Anyway, now that we've had a couple of days of veg'ing out in front of the TV, we're moving again. The Motel 6 up in Orlando is our next destination, being both cheaper and less in the line of fire (we hope). If the rains aren't too bad -- and so far they haven't been -- we might even hit Walt Disney World. The girls just have to agree on which park to visit.

KQR

West Palm Beach Motel 6

We had a very uneventful evacuation drive today. We got up early to avoid traffic, expecting it to be like our 13-hour 5 mph drive out of New Orleans. Instead, thanks to Wilma's slowing down out there and the resultant push-back of the mandatory Keys evacuation, we had clear roads and (ahem) easy sailing. We got up to Lantana (just south of West Palm Beach) before noon. We have reservations here at the Motel 6 through Monday, so we're all set. Depending on what Wilma does, we may end up heading south again before then!

Yesterday was a busy day. We got into Key West in the morning and, after getting turned away from one marina (scary moment), found a spot at the Municipal Marina at Garrison Bight. That's on the north side of the island, with Lemming Key stretched out to the west, so we hope we've found the best protection we can from the nasty southeast winds that come from being in the "bad" quadrant of the storm. The marina also has floating docks, a nice plus for riding out storm surge.

After a phone call to the concerned rangers at Dry Tortugas National Park to let them know we made it, I made a lot of phone calls trying to find a rental car. We did not want to become dependent on government services to get out of town, so it was with great relief that I took the last car Enterprise had to offer. After that, we could "relax" into prepping the boat for a hurricane. That we have down to something of a routine, unfortunately. We strapped down and stowed everything loose, packed up a trunkful of possessions we'd rather not lose if the worst happens, and then took a few minutes to enjoy the famous Key West sunset (made truly spectacular by an advancing squall) and drive down to Duval Street (KW's mini-Bourbon Street). It wasn't enough sightseeing at all, but we took what we could get.

As for today, we spent the afternoon watching HBO in the air conditioning. I guess there are worse things.

KQR

And about the Dry Tortugas

Here's a belated trip report about Dry Tortugas National Park.

The 20-hour passage from Naples was distressingly familiar. The girls and I were sick again, so Frank ended up doing most of it alone, poor guy. We made good time, though, due to some very fresh winds. We arrived at dawn at the first of the ring of lights that mark the shallow waters of the mini-archipelago. From there, it's a connect-the-dots cruise to the channel that leads to the keys within.

The main island is Garden Key, home of Fort Jefferson. The fort is a very interesting place, constructed in the 1800's for its strategic position out in the middle of the Gulf. It also did time (pun intended) as a prison, with its most famous prisoner Dr. Samuel Mudd and several other men convicted of complicity in Lincoln's assassination. (It was there that Mudd earned his pardon; he took over as post doctor after a yellow fever outbreak killed the regular doc and worked with great dedication.) Engineering and water-supply difficulties abounded, and, combined with disease and a big hurricane, led to the fort's being abandoned without ever being completed.

Nowadays, it's a fun place to explore, with three stories of pentagonal structure to wander through. (See photos at http://www.nps.gov/drto/.) It has a moat, and the sea creatures are making fine use of both sides of the wall as a handy reef. It was really wonderful to get in the water finally. Chloe and I did the most snorkeling and saw a nice variety of flashy fish and corals, but Marjie got quite close to a big barracuda under the pier. They are pretty creepy to encounter, what with the way they just hang there watching you, and she cracked me up with the less than ladylike exclamation that escaped lips and snorkel.

There were several boats in the anchorage when we arrived, a couple of sailboats and a variety of fishing boats, but there was far less tour-boat traffic than we'd been led to expect. A seaplane or two came out once or twice a day, and a couple of big catamarans (the powerboat kind) came every day from 11 to 2. It was fun to watch the traffic - especially the seaplanes - and we ended up having a really fun chat with a Scottish man and his two teenaged sons. We also made the acquaintance of the folks aboard the Delfina 2, a Catalina 38 that we first saw in Naples. They kept trying to leave but a persistent overheating problem kept bringing them back. We could relate!

Wilma soon became the dominant topic of conversation among visitors and staff. We had one day - ONE DAY - where we felt really relaxed, thinking she was heading straight north to Texas or (gulp) Louisiana. That didn't last long. Tuesday morning's trip to the dock to see the latest tracking maps revealed the updated forecast path, with the Tortugas in the crosshairs.

We made plans to depart Wednesday, taking the trip to Key West in two hops, with an overnight stop at the Marquesas preserve. A visit and strong recommendation from the ranger scotched that plan, and we ended up hustling to get ready and leave Tuesday afternoon with Delfina. With only about a quarter of all we wanted to do in the Dry Tortugas done, we headed out together, to discover the upsides and downsides of making passage with another boat. Delfina has fancier navigational equipment than the ZP, so they took the lead. That was comforting, and the company was nice. But they also had a questionable engine and less fuel than us, so we ended up following as they tacked their way east (upwind). Plus, we're slower than they are (partially on purpose, with sails reefed in to keep the boat level enough to avoid scaring the krewe), which must have been irritating for them.

After a very rolly start, the seas and winds leveled out. About midnight, with everybody obviously safe, we parted ways with Delfina and motored on in to Key West (while they kept sailing). Miracle moment of the night: Keeping to Frank's excellent course, I not only motored directly to an unlighted channel marker a few miles from Key West, I didn't hit the damned thing even though I didn't see it til I was right on top of it.

Fortune favors the foolish.

I do love nighttime sailing, though, when the seas are calm and the skies are clear. It was full moon time for this one, playing peek-a-boo in enchanting fashion through banks of drifting clouds. And after doing it twice, I think dawn is my favorite time to come into port. You can see all the channel markers really well in the dark - the lighted ones anyway ;-) - and then the sun comes up in time to help you find your anchorage or marina. I've seen much more of sunrise than I'm accustomed to these past weeks. :-)

KQR

ZP 'safe' Key West

Easy overnighter to KW marina gives us time to evac by land if needed. More later when I find Internet cafe.

Passage notes

Good morning! Sorry for the delay in posting; Internet access here at the Naples City Dock is a pain, and I suppose I’ve been on strike, preferring resting and doing nothing to taking care of business. Nevertheless, I have put together some notes and stories about our passage from Gulfport to Naples. In fact, I spent quite a bit of time during the passage mentally composing my blog entries about the experience. (During the first day, I decided the title would be This Had Better Be Worth It. Things improved after that, and I’ve had a couple of days of recovery in Naples, so that doesn’t seem quite necessary any more.) Given 5 very long days to think about it -- and given my intense need for distraction during that time -- I composed quite a lot! The notes that follow are the highlights of those mental ramblings and should paint you a picture of life as a deep-water sailor. Enjoy!

First, last, and always foremost
Frank is my hero. With his entire crew incapacitated much of the time, he bore a heavy burden indeed. His watches were longer, his rest periods were busier, and his responsibility for getting us all back to shore safely was huge. He never faltered and he never complained. I was already pretty fond of him before this trip ;-), but my admiration for him now knows no bounds.

The days have character
A lot of things about the trip are already blurring together, but less so than I might have thought. I think this is because the 5 days we spent at sea were surprisingly distinct, as these next few sections will show.

Thursday – Day 1 – Rainy, chilly seasickness hell
The big weather system that we had hoped we would be tucking in behind was still very much in residence in the Gulf. We rocked and rolled and took in most of our sails and still did better than 5 knots in the right direction. The girls and I were so sick, from the outset, and even iron-stomach Frank succumbed eventually. We were somewhat underprepared for the cold, so we were terribly uncomfortable outside. Plus, everything below decks that we hadn’t stowed properly and a good bit that we thought we had ended up tossed every which way. The ensuing mess meant the inside wasn’t terribly comfortable either. We got through this day not so much with grit and determination as by the simple fact that we had no choice but to do so. In the Captain’s Log, Frank described this day as “Survival conditions,” and I’m afraid it was no exaggeration.

Friday – Day 2 – A little less rainy, a little less chilly seasickness hell
Signs that the weather system was moving away were the only thing that kept us going. Land was no longer in sight when dawn broke, and the water was a deep, pure blue. We were literally surrounded by storm clouds, but our regular drenchings fell into the category of showers rather than squalls. I got out the silver emergency blankets and we used those to line our rain gear. It helped the warmth situation immensely and left me kicking myself for not thinking of them sooner. The entire cockpit and good portions of our bodies were soon tinted silver, since that silver stuff rubs off of cheap space blankets, but it was well worth it. Our seasickness continued unabated. Not wanting to be too graphic, I will just say that I did all right while I was driving, but once relieved of that duty, I would “make a stop” on the way to the companionway, go below to strip out of my rain gear and make a stop in the galley, walk the ten feet forward to the head to make a stop there, and then collapse into my bunk. Most unpleasant.

Saturday – Day 3 – Twilight at the end of the tunnel
Oh, the relief as the seas calmed down! People tell me that the third day is always when things start to get better, but we’ll never know, because the conditions were so markedly improved by our third day. We all managed to eat a very little bit and – most importantly – to start taking in fluids. The skies were thick and gray, so that we couldn’t tell 11 a.m. from 4 p.m. Twilight all day. That suited Chloe just fine, since she stayed below all day. She’d found a spot – lying crosswise on one of the dinette benches – where she didn’t feel sick. She read and slept all day and began caring for our poor, neglected, storm-tossed rats. (Their water bottle went flying on the first day, and I was worried about them but beyond helping them. They owe their little lives to Chloe.) Marjie, meanwhile, stayed in the cockpit most of the time and was still one miserable kid. I had to bully her into taking small sips of water. By the end of the day, when she ate half a slice of bread with jelly, she and we began to know she would be all right. So, things improved. But there was still a fair amount of tedium, and I’m sure you can imagine our dismay when we realized we’d need a fifth day to get there.

Sunday – Day 4 – This isn’t so bad
With the weather turning ever more pleasant – warm but with enough overcast to keep us from broiling – we got a glimpse of what the passage would have been like if not for the bad weather. The sea was actually CALM, and we had Singular Experiences (see below). Chloe came abovedecks and Marjie actually sat up. We’d gone 24 hours without “feeding the fish.” As night fell, we could see the glow from Tampa, and it was comforting to know that we could end our passage at any time simply by heading due east.

Monday – Day 5 – Nature’s last laugh
It was a beautiful day. The sun was out, the seas were calm, and we were almost there. Unfortunately, our Conservative Navigation (see below) and a shift in the wind meant that we had to take a power-boaters-don’t-have-this-problem jog back out to sea to get around the headland at Fort Myers. How depressing to spend hours going in the wrong direction!! Okay, okay, we were still headed south, but – with the way the Florida coast curves to the southeast – we were heading AWAY from land. Ugh. We did that until I simply couldn’t stand it any more, then took aim at Naples. We were running downwind now, with a stiff breeze and waves pushing us east, so our speed was about 8 knots. Cruising, indeed! But the wave action wasn’t pleasant and driving the boat as it surfed took a lot of energy and attention from our sleep-starved selves. I managed to broach the boat once, fortunately with no harm done except to re-trash the interior that Frank had recently tidied. By nightfall, the clouds rolled in again, and we had to dig out the raingear. (Our raingear being rather icky with sweat and saltwater by now, this wasn’t thrilling.) I felt totally disoriented. My tired brain was not quite able to simultaneously reconcile that (1) though the land and lights were on our left with a big empty nothing in front of us, we were going the right way, and (2) though the coastline was in sight and curved around to be directly in front of us, we were in no danger of hitting it. I spent a few hours alternating nonsensical worries that we were off heading out to sea with even more nonsensical worries that land was about to jump out and bite us. To cap things off, the wind shifted again to come straight at our noses. There was NO WAY we were going to do the purist sailor thing and do a bunch of tacking and jibing to come into Naples under sail. We fired up the diesel and motored the last 3 hours, anchoring about midnight off the Naples beach, in the rain, just outside the channel that leads to the Naples boat basin.

Singular experiences: Dolphins!
On the fourth day, there were dolphins. Oh, my, how there were dolphins! We were cruising along, feeling mostly human again by now if a bit bored, when there was a sudden commotion alongside the boat. A pod of dolphins arrived with much speed and fanfare and began frolicking around us. There were at least 30 of them, in a wondrous variety of sizes and colors. The girls ran forward to see them better, while I enjoyed all the slicing fins and splashing breaths from the wheel until our cries of excitement woke Frank. Then he and I took turns driving and going forward to watch their show at the bow. That was definitely the best viewpoint: seeing those sleek forms zip and dive and dash as they played with our boat was amazing and glorious. There were several babies in the pod, with one little guy no more than a foot and half long joining his elders at the bow. Fabulous sight. We cruised along together for probably half an hour, til even the teenager dolphins had enough hot-rodding and the pod moved off.

Singular experiences: Merry and Pippin
During a rainstorm in the fourth day, a significantly bedraggled little brown bird arrived on our boat. Shellshocked and shy, she at first huddled on the bow pulpit looking distinctly pitiful. We left her alone to rest – we were at least 100 miles from shore!! – and by morning, she was hopping around deck like she owned the place. Alone with her for the moment, I started calling her Pippin. As the sky lightened and my family began to stir belowdecks, she got increasingly brave, til the moment came when she perched on the companionway, eyeballed the interior with visible curiosity, and then flew right on in. Marjie and Chloe were thrilled.

Not long after this, Merry arrived. He plopped down out of nowhere to perch on a coiled line hanging next to the companionway. I called out to the girls to let them know we now had two birds, and Chloe cautiously stuck her head out to have a look. He was too tired to be perturbed, so she slowly reached out a hand toward him. He let her pet him! A few minutes later, she had him perched on her hand, and a few minutes after that, he was sitting on my shoulder while I drove the boat, listening with great curiosity to my whistling.

Interactions with these little friends dominated the rest of the trip. Pippin nibbled on some spilled rat food and whatever tasty tidbits she was finding on deck during her constant patrols. Merry wouldn’t eat anything, but he grew increasingly comfortable with us, and even seemed to seek out our company. At one point, he discovered a conveniently concave little spot in Frank’s discarded rain jacket and burrowed and nestled in there with evident great pleasure.

As we neared the end of our trip, you will recall that things got a little hectic. I did my daring 360 in the sailboat, we had yet another rain squall, we took down the sails and started motoring, etc. Somewhere in there, Merry took his leave. We were only about 10 miles from shore, so we have every hope that he is now happily munching food from some backyard feeder, but we *really* wish he had stayed with us all the way to Naples so we could be sure.

Pippin did just that, though. After we dropped anchor and made our way below to collapse utterly, I found her sitting in the open window in the head. I wished her a good night and went to bed. When we awoke the next morning, she was gone.

Points of reference
When you’re out in deep water, you don’t have land masses, radio towers, buoys, and the like to use as points of reference while steering the boat. Staring at the compass or wind indicators for hours is not exciting and, for me, not conducive to good steering or a calm stomach. Here are some things I used to help me stay on course:

• Sail shape and sounds (sails make unpleasant noises when you’re not steering right)


• Wind direction


• Wave direction


• Oil rigs (first night only)


• Stars (when we could see them)


• The new moon (when we could see it)


• Cloud shapes (unless they were moving)


• City glow (last two nights only)

Here are some things that did *not* help me stay on course:

• Other boats that I’d mistaken for stationary objects


• Gut instinct

Conservative navigation
One principle of upwind sailing is that you should sail “tight to the wind,” meaning you point the nose of the boat as much into the face of the wind as possible. This is because no boat can sail directly upwind and some boats are, in fact, really bad at sailing anywhere close to that. If you get as close to it as possible, you will be free later to “fall off the wind” – sail so the wind is coming comfortably over the side of the boat – and point directly at your destination.

Well, for two days of survival-conditions sailing and without consulting each other about it, Frank and I both endeavored to sail a bit tighter to the wind – in this case, more east than south – than our course required. We had these huge southerly swells that we just *knew* had to be pushing us south, and one just never knows what the wind is going to do later on in the trip. Thus confident that we weren’t going to miss Florida entirely and with other more pressing priorities on our minds (surviving), we didn’t check our relative position on the chart until the third day. We realized then how far east we’d come and how much south we needed to go. That’s about when the wind changed and “falling off” was no longer possible. Instead, we had to sail downwind, and we couldn’t point as southerly as we wanted to without a bunch of maneuvering that we didn’t have the energy for.

The result of all this was that we “came out” near Tampa instead of near Naples. Not the end of the world, but it probably added twelve hours to our passage.

Sleeping at sea
Reading between the lines, you may have figured out that Frank and I didn’t require Marjie and Chloe to stand watches. They were both too sick initially, and then Frank and I were in a groove and just happy to have them pretty much taking care of themselves. So all steering on the passage was done by the adults. Since the longest either of us took the wheel was about four hours, you can see that Frank and I got our sleep for those five days in small doses. I discovered a variety of ways a tired, seasick KreweQueen can sleep under those conditions.

While on watch:

• Slumped over the wheel


• Sitting upright at the wheel


• Standing at the wheel


• In any position, with eyes wide open

Note: These are not as dangerous as they sound. The sails make those aforementioned unpleasant noises and wake you up if you start to drift off course.

While not on watch:

• Curled up on the stern seat next to the captain


• Curled up on the low-side cockpit seat


• Curled up on the floor of the cockpit


• Stretched out on the floor of the main cabin


• Curled up crosswise on the slightly damp sheets of the very noisy forward cabin


• Stretched out on the side deck


• In the rain


• In the sun


• With blankets


• Without blankets

The 110-degree diet
We had a small lunch as we left Gulfport. That was about it for food for nearly three days. Then we had some very small, bland meals here and there as we finished out the passage. There's no scale onboard, of course, so I can only guess at how much weight I lost. Let's just say that, while I wouldn't wish the 110-degree diet on an enemy, I am quite pleased with the results!

Technical notes
Days 1 and 2 – As we left Gulfport, the wind and waves increased. We gradually took in sail until we were running with only the jib sail, and even that was furled to about 50 or 60 percent. We held a rough heading of about 110 in a close reach and did about 5 knots steady.

Day 3 – The wind had eased up considerably, but we were all SO tired that we didn’t add any sail back on, being quite sure that would be Mother Nature’s signal to kick us in the head. Besides, we were still making about 4 knots. By end of day, the wind shifted so we were running downwind.

Day 4 – Returned to full sail. *Tried* to hold a heading of 125 or so, but it meant a careful balancing act to keep the sails full of wind.

Day 5 – Full sail mostly, with occasional variations in the amount of jib we had out. Standing rigging on this boat keeps us from pushing the boom out enough to run downwind smoothly, so the price for our excellent speeds (8 knots or better) was a whole lot of muscling the wheel around. We jibed out to sea at a heading of ~135 for several hours, then back in to Naples at about 120.

And in conclusion
Naples. City of the rich, evidently. We motored up the channel to the Naples City Dock, flanked by gigantic mansions that inspired thoughts of hurricane vulnerability. But it’s definitely Florida!! Palm trees, lovely beaches, mangrove swamp, and dozens of million-dollar power boats.

I totally impressed myself by piloting the boat into the gas dock like a pro. To my desperation-tinged inquiry about guest facilities, the clerk replied, “Of course!” We filled up, found our slip, and began the recovery process. SHOWERS!!!!

It’s all been rather surreal, but no moment more so than our first shore dinner Tuesday night. Remember all we’d been through, then imagine my near-hysterical, laughter-and-tears reaction when the waiter at the marina restaurant presented us with a basket of bread and said, “And that’s mango butter with honey.” Of course it was. What else could we possibly have on our bread at such a time?!

We’ve spent the last few days doing as little as possible. We have managed to clean the boat, stock up on provisions, and have a little engine adventure involving a bad batch of diesel (the dockmaster apologetically took care of having the bad pumped out and we’ll fill up with a complimentary tankful today). We also had a few meals that we didn’t have to prepare and walked around Naples a good bit. A fine little vacation!

What’s next
We leave Naples today for the Dry Tortugas, a small collection of islands at the western end of the Keys. They comprise a National Park, complete with a ranger-staffed fort to explore and lots of good snorkeling (finally!!!). About a dozen tour boats come out there daily from Key West, but before and after tour-boat times, we should have the place to ourselves.

Days 2 & 3 of the Florida Crossing

Friday, October 7th: Calmer Seas, 200 Miles est first full 24 hrs. Current position: N29deg 6.35mins; W86deg 45.17mins; About 4:30 PST. Est. speed 7-9 mph, yes, mph.

Saturday, October 8th: Much calmer seas; Queene Ronnie is able to eat; traveling much slower. Pointing 110-120 degrees into the wind. 4:38 PM PST: N28deg 35.59mins; W85deg 12.92mins. 4-5 mph.

Jerry LL: I hope you're plotting this! How many more days do you estimate to Naples, Florida?

Further locations, when they call them in, will be posted as comments on this page. (I hate to mess up her blog.)
She's calling now about 4:30 while it's still light in the Gulf.

Mary, aka Queen Mother

Day 1 Crossing to Florida

Veronica called; big rollers and queazy but all are comfortable. At 6:20 PDT: N2949.5W; W8814.6 Decreasing if we got it right via Sat phone and Frank yelling it up to V. They will call again Day 2, October 7th, about 6 PM PDT.
Mary

Lazy days

Well, we're still at Cat Island. We discovered that none of us was so anxious to do the passage to Florida that we could resist having a few truly relaxed days. We have the island all to ourselves, you see, and the beach is nice, and the breeze is steady, and the stars are gorgeous, and we have dolphins around regularly, and... you get the idea. Our only complaints about this spot are that it's pretty rolly when the wind clocks around from east to northeast, and the water isn't clear. Frank says the Gulf in Louisiana and Mississippi is too muddied by the Mississippi River to be that beautiful blue-green we're all dying to see. But it's still a nice spot, and we've been such a long time getting here.

If Stan proves no threat, we'll spend tomorrow getting shipshape, and then jump off on Thursday. (To give you an idea of how relaxed we are, I had to check the calendar to see what day of the week it is.)

I had a little adventure today. Frank and the girls weren't interested, so I went ashore alone. I had a lovely time exploring the north tip of the island -- went wading, found a suitcase from New Orleans, saw a small ray in the shallows, and walked over to the eastern beach to look out at the wide expanse of water that we'll soon be crossing -- then got back to discover that the dinghy was floating away. (Lesson learned: No matter how far up on the beach you *think* you've pulled the dinghy, you still need to tie it up to something.) After a 100-yard sprint up the beach, I entered the water already tired. Fortunately, the water is about 3 feet deep, even just beyond the ZP's anchor 1/4 mile out, so I could walk when I got tired of swimming. I was still pretty whipped by the time I got up with the wayward Grave Tender. I walked it back to shore, then collapsed in the limited shade of the scrawny pine trees that inhabit the center of the island. Phew! Definitely got my exercise for the day!

Marjie remains diligently at work on her novel. She has more than 300 pages now. As have we all, she's also been working her way through our collection of paperbacks. She very much enjoyed the first 5 Janet Evanovich stories and is currently reading a medical thriller.

Chloe is doing her usual craft projects. She made quite a few Harry Potter-themed items, including badges for her improvement on Hermione's S.P.E.W. club, H.E.L.P. (House Elf Liberation People), and a bunch of sickles and knuts. This evening, she had a somewhat chilly shower in the cockpit, so I bundled her into a big green beach towel. She discovered how to drape it as a toga, so we've been digging out safety pins and talking a lot about Roman lifestyles. She draped her toga-draped self across the boom and said, "Venus on the boom."

As for Cap'n Franko, I think the quiet days are doing him a lot of good. He's been reading and napping and adjusting to the heat and taking care of his queasy wife, but mostly recovering from all the stress of recent weeks. We're all slipping into cruising mode, and it feels really good.

KQR

Cat Island, Mississippi

We made it! An actual cruising destination, sort of! Cat Island, Mississippi. (For Jerry and other GPS fans: N 30 degrees 14.680' by W 89 degrees 04.704'.)

But first, some details about our trip here. Bayou Bonfouca was... UNEVENTFUL!!! Crossing Lake Pontchartrain was fun, breezy, and easy. The only real excitement came in anchoring after dark. New Orleans is pretty devoid of lights right now, with the exception of some big generator-powered halogens they're using while they do repair work at the Lakefront airport. With those hummers as beacons, we zeroed right in on our destination... and almost hit some big pilings that extend out into the lake past the end of the runway. Fortunately, a big tug was there, too, feeling his way with a big spotlight. We tucked in behind him and he led us right to the entrance to the Industrial Canal. We dropped anchor just off the airport, in dead calm conditions, with dolphins as escorts. It was really nice.

Up early the next morning, we scooted in to the Seabrook Bridge, right there at the mouth of the canal. Informed by the railroad bridge operator that we would have to make arrangements to get the roadway bridge opened, we started our round of radio and phone tag. Coast Guard to DOT to a different DOT number to "hang on, I'll call you back." Fortunately, all that tagging led to not only the Seabrook being opened for us, but also the Danziger farther down. The Danziger operator drove out just for little ol' us. Once clear of the Danziger, you can imagine our jubilation with no further obstacles between us and the Gulf.

The Industrial Canal shows heavy hurricane damage. The warehouses there look blasted, with shattered windows, crumpled walls, and twisted frames. And the smell is AWFUL, except for one short stretch that smelled strangely of coffee. We didn't have far to go before making the turn into the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (or Mister GO, as it's known here), which is also the Intracoastal Waterway. We branched off to the Rigolets cut of the ICW, a peaceful motor up what is essentially a bayou. Before we knew it (about six hours later), we reached Lake Borgne, aka the Gulf. WHAM! Big waves, big winds, but still a narrow channel to stay in, keeping company with big barges making their way to and from New Orleans. With the wind coming right over our nose, we had little choice but to keep motoring, so we've made a bigger dent in our diesel supply than we had anticipated. By early evening, we had entered Mississippi Sound (aka the Gulf). The channel markers were a little messed up, thanks to Katrina, but we found our way to Heron Bay where we could anchor with a (very) little shelter from the wind. Fine all day, even out in the big waves, the girls and I got a bit queasy at anchor, rolling around in the bay. Chloe soon adjusted. Marjie and I each took a Dramamine and went to sleep.

This morning, we got up and rejoined the ICW traffic. All the barges were headed to New Orleans today. We saw some more dolphins. The rats coped better with the big waves. And it was a long, slow trip east. About 5, we pulled up to Cat Island. Cat is about 4 miles long, with a 2-mile foot that stretches north to south and provides some protection from the wind and waves. It would be better if we could get closer to the island, but we ran out of depth about 1/4 mile from the beach. Eager to run around a bit, we took the dinghy ashore. There are a couple of wrecked power boats and miles of Katrina debris there, which made for an interesting hour of beach combing. We're going back tomorrow with a knife so we can salvage some rope off a big reel. Other than than, it's a mixed collection of trash, furniture (including several chairs, a TV, a couch, and a computer monitor), and dock and pier pieces (including a door that says "Test Operations"). One of the boats is perhaps salvageable; the interior is fairly intact and there are no holes in the hull. She's out of Mandeville, LA, not far west of Slidell. Hard to imagine her getting carried all this way.

Tentative plan is to stay here all day tomorrow, then start our passage on Tuesday. So if you don't hear from us for a few days, that's why!

Marty home Sunday

See more family news from Judy in Comments on my "Back in Slidell" post from 9/26.

Mississippi Sound

W/bridge operators coming to work just for us, we left LA for open water. Sad rats but girls had fun bow ride.