HARD AGROUND

 

It has been 2 years since the demise of Frolic and our last blog. I suppose some people may have thought we went down with the ship. We got “blown” into the northwest part of FL known as the panhandle.  We bought a 6 acre property that needed lots of TLC as we had to work with the insurance company 8 months for a payout.  The pictures here are recent after much work.  The gate was an anniversary gift to Carl. 

Our New Place

A couple of cats came with the house

 We spent the first part of 2018 returning to BVI and try to salvage some of our stuff and see the insurance people…..again.  We stayed with friends on Ragamuffin and they sailed us to BVI to work.  In April we took a cruise with Gordon and Sue and stopped at all the islands we would have gone to if Irma had not destroyed us.  End of April saw Leslie having surgery from an old injury so did the recovery bit, then put on our traveling shoes and went visiting. 


















 
Aron and Maddie joined Carl and Eric to sail Puurfect from Amelia Island FL to Newport, RI. 

Kids enjoy Amelia Is.

Eric is prepared to met Aron and
Madison at the airport

The kids enjoy lunch

Aron plots our course while Madison helps

The crew at rest

Night watch Aron and Madison in

charge

 

We visit at  Bret's

Girls miss having a pet

I took Kelly and the girls with me as they wanted hot tubs and hotel rooms and we drove to meet the boat.   We met the boat in Newport and sailed with the kids to some of our old haunts, Cutty Hunk being the favorite. 

We meet Dave and Jan at Block Is.

Girls meet the Blues Brothers
at Cutty Hunk

Cutty Hunk bunkers

Perrfect underway

We visit Newport

From there Carl and I took off for Canada to visit friends at their lake cottage and down to NC to visit more friends at their lake house.  Seems all our friends have lost their boats to Irma and are landlocked at present.

Sue, Gordon, and Leslie on the
lake in Canada

We do a tree walk in Canada

Wilma and Leslie enjoy the lake
in NC

 

Some of our catfish catch in NC

We met the kids again in Nov. in Norfolk and connected with Rebel Marine where Carl and I lived on a boat many years ago.  The kids had a great time as the Marina now has a hot tub and cruiser’s pot luck.    Carl and Eric sailed to Charleston where we all met up with Aron’s family and in-laws to celebrate Thanksgiving.. We lost my Prius to a moon high tide.  Who knew the river would rise over the parking lot and drown the car.  We ended up with an unplanned new Prius.  On this trip we also went to DC as Aron was promoted to Lt. Colonel, very impressive ceremony at Pentagon. 

Sunset coming into Charleston 

The kids explore Charleston

In Dec. Carl tried his luck hunting a deer and caught a cold instead of a deer. We Spent Christmas with the kids on Puurfect in Lake Worth.  It was cold!!  Carl and Eric put in a mooring in 34 degree weather and 0 visibility in the water, ugh but now they had a place to anchor each time they came in and out of the states. 

Purrfect's Grill Master at work

Manatee sanctuary

Eric and family

2019 found us with visitors and working on the property to finish much on the honey do list. We also had to fly back to the Virgin Islands to take care of business, get our mail etc.  We got back just in time to fly out to Georgetown the Bahamas to meet up with the kids and enjoy the Family Island Regatta.  Eric was the announcer for the class C races, made them very exciting.  In May a 2 week trip to Kauai Hawii, a beautiful island to hike, much of the western and northern areas are park.  In June Eric and Kelly completed their 2yr odyssey and sold the boat.  We picked up the girls and brought them back to finish school with us and explore the Walton Beach area while the parents got the boat ready to turn over to new owner.  Eric took a job with his prior company, Boeing, and the whole family left after the 4^th of July for MO. Aron’s family visited in Aug so more exploring.  In November we flew to Albuquerque to visit the cousins there and catch up. It had been 5 yrs.  Again we went hunting in NC and this year Carl got his deer just before we left to meet the whole family in Butler TN for Thanksgiving, a week of eating and eating and eating.  The deer meat is still in NC as we could not go back to get it. 

Carl's deer

The Family at Thanksgiving

 Our niece got married in Dec. in the keys and it was a big family gathering with family coming in from as far away as Australia.  And since we were in the keys we had to continue the party in Key West.  We rounded out the year with a trip to MO. to spend Christmas with Eric and family and ring in 2020.  Many more adventures happened in between as well as lots of work on property but these are the highlights of the two years since last we blogged.

Girls dress up for Halloween

The Fly In at Lakeland

Hope  this finds everyone healthy and enjoying a new year!