Afloat

Northern Light made it back into the water midday Tuesday. She still floats! We continued to do rigging and maintenance chores during the week while we waited for the arrival of our third crew member on Friday. As we have found in the past, there are always interesting people to spend time with while living aboard. We have met a young family of four from Arcadia Michigan that built a catamaran sailboat in their barn over the last 2 years; they launched last October and came down the river. From here they plan to start their circumnavigation the globe. We had evening cocktails several times with a couple from Indianapolis who recently retired and also were on their way around the world. We had dinner last night at the nearby Mobile Yacht Club with Clint who we had met last October aboard his trawler on the Mississippi. He’s on his way to Galveston to help out with the hurricane reconstruction. Good luck to all of them.
We picked up Gary Gaudreau at the Pensacola airport Friday morning; he came from 7 degree temps in Michigan to the balmy 20 degree nights here in Mobile. But days here have been very pleasant with clear skies, lots of sunshine and temps in the mid 50’s to low 60’s. We were planning to sail out of Mobile Saturday but a failed depth sounder altered our schedule. The plan now is to install the new depth transducer Monday then head out Tuesday A.M. We are hoping to get to the Tampa FL area in about 5 travel days plus any down time for weather or sightseeing.
We send our sincerest condolences to our friend and family back in Michigan’s deep freeze. Wish you were here! Finally if anyone sees Kathy Mills tell her we finished her fabulous cookies and and she can send some more to general delivery at the Panama City marina.
Peace….