Stuck in Miami

     So we made it to Miami! Bienvenido a Miami.  We had the sweet pleasure of having Jimmy and Courtney with us from Key West to Key Largo. Tons of laughter and good times, great drinks and eats, some pretty fun sailing, and a general feeling of excitment and adventure was the energy of the trip.  So when we reached Key Largo and they did not spring the news on us that they have changed their minds and are coming with, we were a bit deflated and the good bye was tougher than anticipated.  Con and I and Pen Dog were left to fare for ourselves aboard Gualby.  We are have been so fortunate to have such a crew of people helping us that we really hadn't spent much alone time on the boat.  We honestly felt a bit lonely.



Girls stick together



drinkin and stinkin

 We sailed the rest of the way to Maimi and picked up a mooring ball in the dinner key mooring field.  Although we were feeling a bit bummed, we quickly started to adjust to our new lives on the water.  We get up, make some coffee and decide what we should do that day.  We still have quite a list of projects but the pace has become less frantic and more enjoyable.  Penny is having a bit of harder adjustment phase with the potty training and I have never said "Go poo-poo, go pee-pee" so much in my entire life. 

The Oed's came to wish us well

After few days of Miami life we had an emotional and super fun visit from our families.  We laughed, cried, laughed some more, looked at charts and made tenative plans for future meeting spots which made the good byes much easier.  We both have amazing families and the good byes were hard,... harder than I expected.  We both felt emotionally drianed after the weekend and I was starting to have trouble seeing because my eyes/face were getting too swollen from complete uncontained on and off tears.  Once you get that dam open, its hard to hold em back.  For example, after my fam left, thankfully out of site, Con and i flipped our canoe getting back into it and there was no penny lane to blame it on. We were covered in the nasty bight water which is more oil/gas/illegal holding tank pump outs than sea water.  Con climbed onto the dock and i pulled myself back into the shit water filled canoe and cried. Con thought I was hurt because usually I would be laughing but instead I tearily mumbled "I just said bye to my family and now I'm sitting in shit water and the canoe is sinking and you need to pull me out!" I sound tough and ready to sail the world, right? 

The fam checking out the lounging life

We orginally planned to be in the Bahamas by now but we are detained due to Hurricane Tomas.  We are hangin in Coconut Grove, frequenting such hot spots as the public library, grassy, shaded areas near our marina, coin laundry facilities, and the other boats in the Tortilla Flotilla.  We are sure to spot a celebrity visiting Miami soon.  We have found a sweet, dog friendly bookstore with free wi-fi to hang out at.  There are a surprisingly large amount of smelly people at the library so we feel much more metro-chic on our laptop at the bookstore and less like a homeless person.  Meanwhile we sit, wait, wonder, and try not to spend money.

M.