HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Dear Friends:

Craig and I hope this finds you well and well-prepared for the holidays!
Our journey is on hiatus as we are currently anchored to land in Deltona,
Florida, spending the holidays with family (which is always an adventure in
itself!). Our boat has been docked in Daytona Beach since November 13 and
we have enjoyed spending time with friends, many of whom we have not seen in
years, although some of whom we still have not yet seen. Our escapades
include a road trip to Fletcher, North Carolina, to see friends who have
recently escaped the heat of Florida for the mountains and are loving it. I
do love the mountains, and it was great to be in them again, if only for a
long weekend. We were also invited to the Christmas party of the firm I
used to work with in Orlando -- what fun to see my former colleagues and
friends.

Since I last wrote from Beaufort (pronounced "Bofort"), North Carolina, we
traveled down the ICW and made short visits (I won't bore you with all of
the details) to Oriental, Wilmington, Southport, Charleston, Fernandina
Beach, and St. Augustine and finally ending in Daytona Beach (with a few
secluded anchorages along the way.) We had some oops adventures but still
no holes in the boat and no broken bones! The coolest things we see are
from nature. For example, we saw a bald eagle catch a fish not 50 feet from
our boat one day while we were traveling, we saw wild horses as we left the
secluded anchorage at Brickhill River early in the morning, I feel like I am
seeing the beautiful pelicans (and there are lots of them) for the first
time, and we bought fresh shrimp (and I mean the shrimp boat came in from
off-shore and docked right next to us) while we were fueling up at Leland
Marine Service in McClellanville (we froze the shrimp and shared it with
family once we landed, and everyone said it was the best shrimp ever).

The eeriest thing was waking in the middle of the night to hear a soft
"thump." We were at an anchorage in Factory Creek at Beaufort (pronounced
"Bufort"), South Carolina, with a few other boats, including an old
catamaran that looked un-cared for and abandoned. Anyway, the current and
wind were not in harmony and our boats, having different hulls and therefore
different reactions to the wind and current, swung together. Luckily the
winds and current were light. Craig slept through the "thump" and did not
want to believe I heard anything. But I looked out the port of our cabin
and there it was ... like a ghost pirate ship! It was spooky -- I thought
of the movie Cape Fear. Craig remained calm and we were able to push away
from the catamaran but then had to re-anchor farther away to avoid another
mishap that evening. Though nobody wants this to happen, we are glad, of
course, that the weather conditions were not worse, that the soft "thump"
was not a strong "bang" (and so there was no damage) and that we learned
something about anchoring near catamarans.

We are currently painting our house in Deltona. It's good work and keeps us
occupied during the day. Our journey's hiatus ends January 1, when we will
resume our course south. We hope to be anchored in Titusville when the
shuttle is scheduled to go off on January 2. Though we had thought of going
to the Bahamas this year, we decided to stick with the original plan of
going to the Keys instead.

For those in the northeast, you are especially in our thoughts these days as
you weather the storms that have descended upon you. We hope you and your
families are safe and warm!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and that the new year is
filled with joy!

Love, Debbie