Bert and I arrived yesterday! The first thing we did when he arrived with his rental car was go to a grocery store. Wine was on the list, as you can see. So was blackberry cobbler. We're really roughing it, aren't we? As I type this, the cobbler is in the oven. mmmmmm

So far so good on everything still working on the boat, and finding all systems as we left them on Nov 3. I couldn't believe coming back after 2 1/2 months to such a clean boat and nothing out of sorts (other than my bike chain, but rust is inevitable there). I arrived a few hours before Bert, and got things going and heated up. I ate a soup-and-spaghetti dinner from what had been left here.

Last night was so cold! We're going to leave the heater on tonight so it won't drop to 50 degrees as it did on the shivering last night.

We had visitors right away this morning! This is a picture of Annie, her daughter Carrie, and Carrie's friend Dylan. Annie and Carrie are friends from Charlottesville, VA, although they moved here about 10 years ago so it's been a long time since we've visited. We drove Bert's rented car to the airport early this morning, and then Annie picked us up there and returned us to the boat. We had a wonderful visit on a beautiful, sunny morning.

This picture shows where Breaking Away has been since last Nov 3. I'm looking west toward Alabama, which is precisely where we traveled this afternoon - "backwards" to AL. I wanted to stay one night in a state other than being in Florida for 4 1/2 months, in case FL decides I have become a resident of their state and needs to charge me taxes.

When the time came, the engine started right up, we released the six tie lines, and traveled all of 3 miles into AL since the border was only about 200 yards west of us. We got to see dolphins playing near us along the ride!

When we got to this marina, we did several chores. One I had planned to do was scrub the hull, but after I donned the wet suit and dipped in the water, I jumped right back out again! It was FREEZING. So, I did my best by getting in the kayak and scrubbing the sides from there...but it didn't work too well. Still, I stayed with it for a long time to get as much of the gunk and barnacles off the hull as I could. I'll hope for warmer water in Key West to finish the job then.

Late in the afternoon, Bert and I decided to take a bike ride. Well, he got to anyway - 21 miles! But my chain had rusted solid, and it took almost an hour to get it operational again. I had to work on each chain link, one at a time with WD 40 and then lube oil, and manually pry each link back and forth to get it cleaned and free to move. I eventually did take it out for a ride, but I must have ridden only a few miles. But it was my first time on a bike outside in about three months!!

While I was on my short bike ride, I took this picture of the houses here on their stilts. The hurricanes are common enough that the home owners want the flooding to stay below them. We saw these stilted homes along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers too.

Tomorrow we plan to make some good distance to the east. We have about 200 miles until the Intracoastal Waterway ends, at which point we have a 70-mile crossing on the Gulf to reach the Steinhatchee River. Look it up on a map, and you'll see how we are rounding Florida's Nature Coast bend before reaching civilization again down by Tampa Bay. We hope to see manatees! The weather forecast is for rain tomorrow. Breaking Away can handle it! See ya soon.