For Christmas, Derrek and I each went home (MN and WV) for the holidays. Derrek enjoyed his time with family and getting to see his new puppy (McGroober....or Goober as I call him) and I got to redesign/redo my childhood bedroom for the few weeks each year I get to spend at my parents. My room took a total of 10 days (including tearing down 2 walls to redo its insulation to making my closet doors wider to allow better access).

This project was tons of fun, a family endeavour, very time consuming.... and best of all.... it let me use ALL of my pinterest ideas that I've been saving up for the past few years that was not quite compatible with the boat life ;)

We are very excited to be starting the next chapter of our sailing adventures!

This summer we have agreed to help start a new ASA sailing school / Water Sports Program (Grace Harbor Watersports) out of River Dunes near Oriental, NC. It will be in part with one of our previous boss's that we both worked with at the Boy Scout camp in Islamorada, FL. This opportunity will also allow me to be closer to my family (by 8 hours, instead of 19) and Derrek to keep his proximity to an airport to continue his excellent flight benefits for seeing his friends and family.)

A few weeks ago we drove up to River Dunes on my way home to WV for the holidays and went over their program ideas. We were also able to commodere a few kayaks for a few hours and had a an excellent guided tour kayaking through their beautiful backwaters with a local resident of the River Dunes community.

During the summer, starting close to April, we will be helping with everything from ASA classes, kayak tours, paddleboarding, sunset cruises, to helping dock boats to get our new program up and running. S/V Bandit, along with S/V Barefoot (the boat I helped to deliver to NC last month) will be a part of the new school's fleet.

This opportunity will also allow us to "upgrade" for the winter season... **** insert super excited part here!!***.....as we will be bringing S/V Barefoot back down to Miami to continue our ASA couples charters working in conjunction with Island Dreamer Sailing School. S/V Barefoot will present to be a bit of challenge in that it draws just over 5 feet.... something we will have to consider with tides on our anchorages/state parks we visit.... but will be a huge luxuory in her spacious galley, large grill, massive dinghy davits, sleeping arrangements, and bathtub.... yes bathtub!! It will also be a bit of a stress reliever as she is a newer boat, compared to S/V Morning Dance, so her systems are bit easier to work/live aboard with (including inboard generator, wind vane, and solar panels), and is a sloop rig with roller furling (oh yes!!).

We have many plans / ideas with the new sailing school, Grace Harbor Watersports. We want it to eventually include upper level ASA classes such as offshore passagemaking, celestial naviagaion and floatillias to places such as the Bahamas or Caribbean... Currently Derrek and I are working on advancing our ASA instructor licenses and to also increase our captain's licenses by getting our Master's License. We also hope that the watersports program may come to include sailboats for bareboat chartering and jetski rental.

Stay tuned for links to our upcoming Grace Harbor Watersports website and info on the new Sailing School!!!

Our "relaxing" delivery of S/V Morning Dance, from her haul-out in Manatee Bay in Key Largo to our anchorage in Miami, planned out for our weekend before going home for the holidays...

We had left late - around 4pm - from Manatee Bay waiting on High Tide to clear their channel and had made it up to Pumpkin Key shortly after dark. In the morning we left early - around 5am- to hopefully make it back to Miami in time to pick up my car which as still in the Manatee Bay Marina Parking lot.Once we cleared featherbed channel we heard a loud bang and our engine came to a sudden hault..... at first we thought it may have been a lobster pot (super tangled up in the prop) but after further investigating and trying to crank over the engine found out it as not the case.

Luckliy we were already motor sailing and were able to continue on our path North until we were close enough for Harold and Margie to come out and tow us with S/V Island Dreamer before it became dark back to the anchorage.

We believe that it was just the engine's time to go and that a rod had broke loose on our journey North..... watch for posts on her new engine and on pictures of us (Derrek) working on getting the old one out and hauled away! Until that time however we will be doing charters on S/V Island Dreamer and living inbetween trips on S/V Morning Dance.

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While the boat was being hauled out, we could not live on the boat in the yard..... 

so we stayed at the motel at Gilbert's in Key Largo for a few days....  it was nothing fancy, a few broken drawers, no hot water, but was upstairs from the bar, live music, beach, and had tv and wifi to enjoy. Ah! Living the 'land life'

Enjoying the beach

 Their entire trip went smoothly from favorable weather, wind direction, timing, to taking shifts sailing throughout the night.  .....BUT along the way one of the zip ties that held their EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) *that had been holding it on for the past few years* broke loose when it was bumped with a fishing pole - dropping the EPIRB into the water. It took them a few minutes to pick up the device but once it had hit the water it had automatically activated a distress signal. Within that hour every person that was listed on Lou's EPIRB received a phone call from the local coast guard asking about the boat's float plan, passengers onboard and other vital information Since the EPIRB was not in the water for very long it didn't register their location so left the coast guard with a distress call that they could triangulate to the nearest 50 nautical miles of where it sent the message from. ........ Let me tell you there is nothing scarier that receiving a phone call saying that your boyfriend is on a boat where their EPIRB had gone off... and the location is a little iffy.... but long story short within another hour the coast guard had made contact with the boat through VHF in a plane that flew over head and they were able to let everyone know that the crew and boat were okay and that the EPIRB had accidentally fallen overboard.