Captain's Choice blog: Heading home

Wow, when you stop and think about this trip...we are 7 months in, have been to our farthest point south (Key West) and now we will start the journey home today (Tuesday) heading for the east coast and then north, north, north, and yet we have so much more to explore!
We had decided before leaving home that we would not venture to the Bahamas this year. It will give us an excuse to bring the boat back down to Florida another time, like we need an excuse! We have been at Faro Blanco for almost a month and we are ready to get back into the "looper lifestyle" of moving from place to place. We are especially anxious to anchor out a few nights in the keys, Islamadora and Key Largo. We have been getting ready to start up again which has had us busy cleaning, waxing, maintenance projects, provisioning (thanks Becky from True North for the rides), mapping out the next stops and so on.

A few highlights of the week after Allison left include a birthday party, dinghy ride and dinner with fellow loopers.
The birthday party was for Mia, a now 6 year old little spitfire who has defeated the odds as the doctors had told her parents she would not make it to her 1st birthday due to a congenital heart defect. Her parents and 3 sisters are one of the "loop families" doing the loop while they can, as a family and the outpouring of love was sure evident when you saw the number of people that came to celebrate her birthday. The mailman was also busy delivering cards from the looper community to the marina!

We had a great 7 mile dinghy ride on the Gulf to Island Fish Co, where Mark enjoyed some delicious grilled oysters. A question comes up frequently as to whether loopers need a dinghy...in our book that is an empathic YES! With no car here and so many restaurants being on the water it was a great mode of transportation to get around. To us it is one of those "don't leave home without it" items!

We had a wonderful dinner with fellow loopers at Sunset Grille, which is aptly named since you have a fantastic view of the sunset.

One of the other looper families that we met from Canada have two boys, both being home schooled by their mother. They found out that the students in Lucas's class had to do an oral essay on the subject of their choice. Ten year old Lucas did his on the Great Loop and he did a fantastic job. Please follow the link to hear his explanation of the Great Loop. https://youtu.be/XmYGFY27VGI

Normally we are happy February only has 28 days, since it's usually pretty cold and snowy in Buffalo (although this year has been much milder), but being here with the beautiful weather February has been a delight!