LONG TIME NO ENTRIES- 2011 Catch up

August 2011- 

Dan and I were again living at E dock of the Titusville Municipal Marina in Florida.  We loved our trip out West; the scenery of our wonderful National Parks and excitement of the trip by motorcycle- but now, August 5th, we were glad to be back in Sea Star's soft bed and luxurious salon after camping and minimal facility hotels since April. Sea Star is the name of our 45 foot Island Packet sailboat.

We both avoided talking about or even considering leaving again as it was hurricane season and we needed to be vigilant. Of course after four months away we had the regular, and sometimes boring things we had to catch up on.  Sea Star had survived our time away well.  We ran a room a.c. from her largest hatch in the hot, Florida summer.

 We had kind of hurried back from our last stop in Colorado because Florida was expecting a tropical storm named Emily. It was the hurricane season after all.  We had picked Titusville Municipal Marina to store and hopefully protect Sea Star during these events, and we have conscientious dock mates; always on watch, but still...

  Emily, August 5^th, thankfully did not develop into a large enough storm to disturb us, and life went on with Emily dropping buckets of rain on her path North--Life went on as usual until the report of Tropical Storm Irene became the topic of the day and caught the attention of boaters.   

G2 at 16 and Aunt Bev have a birthday party.

G2 with girlfriend Sam

In the storage locker down the road- camping and motorcycle gear.

Always beautiful at sunset in Florida.

This larger boat helped block the wind for one of our storms.

The main outcome of Irene for our area was in high seas, rip currents and inland rain- so we felt we’d been lucky again.  My family in Massachusetts had greater destruction from the storm than we felt in Titusville on August 25-26.  Of course Irene was not a gentle presence in Puerto Rico or the Bahamas, where she hit with a vengeance as a category 1 hurricane.  Irene caused heavy rains, flooding, and trees to fall in many areas all up the Eastern US. to the Canadian Maritimes, spawning a few tornados as she swept through. 

Finally the boat and car are cleaned out!

I think Patty is dancing because she is waiting for Grandson Donovan to spend his first weekend with Grammy and Gary

Some of our dock mates joined in the fun with pictures to welcome him.

But some, like younger teenager, another Sam, drew a regular project! She drew an entire moon-landing scape, complete with waving astronaut and American flag.

August was lots of boat cleaning. Here dockmates are wondering how to get all that-onto their sailboat.

What was not a bit boring is the life at Titusville Marina, and we simply fell right back in for awhile; the rest of August and September, and had fun with friends. I joined a health club and Dan and I went riding locally.

Next entry September and October 2011