BS4 01 – Updates!

Today is the second day of 2025, a Thursday, and a sunny 73 degrees says my phone, although our boat thermometer says it is 83 degrees outside. We are currently back in the Keys at Marathon, after spending our Summer and Fall up the Caloosahatchee River between LaBelle and Moore Haven, near Lake Okeechobee, in the middle of Florida.

 

This past hurricane season was an active one where we witnessed many storms, saw our first tornado, and survived hurricanes Helene and Milton without taking on a scratch. Because of our location we were lucky, while many others were not. Depending on how this season goes we may return to the same boatyard during Summer and Fall this year to repaint the boat, or we may be out of the country, who knows?

 

This last year we hauled the boat out of the water and put it on the hard (or on the ground) for a month during Halloween while we took care of some maintenance, sanded and repainted the bottom, installed a new auto-helm, and then re-splashed her again in mid-November. After waiting on a weather window to get to the coast, it then took us 9 more days to make the trip down South, past the Everglades, and back into the Keys.

 

We arrived in Boot Key Harbor two days prior to Thanksgiving, where we melted back into harbor life almost immediately and enjoyed a very merry, and very busy holiday season amongst our many friends. Unfortunately during this busy time of travel and holidays I also missed posting again in November (or even December), and so now we find ourselves in 2025.

 

For this new year, we’re completely uncertain of what it will bring. Our plans first and foremost were to make it back here, and then William would like to hit the Bahamas at some point, which if we do that we may just continue East and South down through the chain of islands and not return to the US. Or, we could go West, to Mexico, which has recently become another new addition to our travel possibilities. Everything is really just up in the air at this point.

 

Thus far things have really been busy for us. Besides the normal social life in the harbor, we’ve had friends arrive here to visit for a month, and we’re expecting 3 more friends to arrive at the end of January which will keep us in Marathon at least into mid-February. After that, we have some friends here in the harbor, and another pair of friends due to arrive shortly (hopefully within the month), whom we’ve been contemplating joining on their planned journeys to the Bahamas this year.

 

There is safety traveling in numbers, and especially with people who are also on small catamarans like ours, powered about the same, who can all travel together. Even better than that, these sailors are well more experienced than we are, and both crews have visited the Bahamas previously, more than once. It will be great to have their guidance, and tutelage, along the way on our first big adventure. We shall see.

 

Until next time my friends, fair winds!