we leave today!

This is a very short post because we are very busy getting everything finished and ready to go. As some of you know we decided to go directly from Palacios to Ft. Meyers Florida, bypassing the southern Gulf ICW. Brett Corbett is joining us for this leg; he is an experienced trimaran sailor with offshort experience so it will be great to have him along. The kids will be joining us in Florida (Jim and Linda are bringing them) and we will continue the rest of the way on the ICW.

I don't have time to post all the things we have done to the boat but I have loads of pictures. Hopefully when we get to the other side I'll have everything ready to upload to the site.

The weather has been "unseasonably" (ready unimaginably) cold and the winds have been blowing to gale force. But today it is warming up and the wind has decreased. We are hoping to catch the tail end of it to push us out into the Gulf (we want to get about 200 miles out to miss all the oil platforms & stuff). From there, everyone hope for a North, South, or West wind so we can head straight east to Florida.

Friends and family -- thank you X 10! -- you guys have helped us out so much to get ready. We'll see you in about a week, but don't fret if it takes longer; we are probably just becalmed. I've brought a deck of cards and some books in case that happens.

We'll talk to you then!

fair winds,
Tom and Dana