Due to a boat transmission issue I’m spending more at this Bahamas Berries island than planned. This island has a very friendly and welcoming cruiser and local Bahamian community. Fairly quickly I met some long time island cottage home owners and was invited to their Saint patty’s dinner and other events. The Friday night bbq…

This island is bigger than I originally thought. Today I grabbed one of the free marina bikes and headed to the north end of the island. After about 6 miles the road pavement ended and followed a dirt road for another mile before it simply ended in a forest. Biking back south I stopped at…

We left no name harbour after waiting about 3 days for the wind direction to shift more southerly to enable us to sail there. It never did fully rotate enough but we decided to mostly motor there on Monday. During this 24 hour passage, the motor quit at about 12:30 midnight due to fuel issues…

We did an outside Atlantic passage and entered into Biscayne bay near Miami for waiting for weather window in no name harbor. This anchorage turned out to be a wonderful place to wait with places to hike and walk into town for coffee and free concerts just right next to the anchorage. A very short…

We have sailed another two days down the Florida inter coastal waterway with a night stay in Boca Raton and now in fort Lauderdale. Yesterday was navigating thru 20 draw bridges to get the beneteau 42 58 foot mast thru. Between the bridges we would throttle up to 2500 rpm to barrel thru the waterways…

Today we started to sail south on the icw toward Miami. We left about 9 and sailed about 35 miles in higher 10-20 knot winds in the narrow icw waterway. We are staying the first night at Peck lake. Two additional crew are on board who were found thru the crew finding site called offshore…

A bit more time preparing for launch on March 2 with some time to visit with cruisers and paint some pictures and enjoy the few days of warm weather that finally arrived. Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning are filled with pickleball and the community there. Thursday afternoon are the cruiser socials now with some guitar…

The warmish weather is back in Vero beach and everyone is back on the trails and beach and enjoying the days and nights in typical shorts and t-shirts. I’ve added a new piano to the boat as I had my first boat/ piano bar soirée with other cruisers in the marina one night. More pickleball…

Florida experienced extremely cold temperatures for multiple days and Vero Beach had temperatures of 27 and 17 with windchill. A very coolish week or so but keeping busy organizing a trails project in the Exumas and a trail angel conference in Pinecrest in May. The indoor pickleball a few days a week and boaters Thursday…

I’m starting to get into the Vero beach routine as cruiser in this happy healthy town. A typical day starts with a listen on the boat cruisers net on vhf channel 69 and then a nice hour run and walk into the island part of vero for coffee and mocha. Maybe a bike ride over…

Arrived this morning on the 3rd day of the short sail from Titusville to Vero Beach. An easy sail with crew I recruited from a crew finders group called opo/ offshore passage opportunities. It was about 68 miles. It was nice to be back at Vero where multiple cruisers said / hi Scott / welcome…

Today was the big splash day when the big 50 ton crane came over and grabbed the sailboat and dropped it in the water. Today, with crew I recruited from a crew finders group, we sailed down the icw from Titusville to Cocoa Florida. The winds were lighter at 10-15 and made for an east…

You know you been somewhere a long time when you get invited to the local birding club and everyone at the pickleball club say hi to you with your name. Last week I was kidnapped by 3 birders who we met up again at the famous Dixie crossroads restaurant for more laughs and of course…

I’m back on the boat in Titusville preparing the boat for Florida and Bahamas cruising in the next 4 months. I’m keeping busy with boat projects and playing pickleball at the local kava bar, biking with locals and learning about how the kkk burned down a family’s house in 1951 here. Today while doing a…

The weather cleared for a few sunny days so I was able get out and do some plein air paintings near Pinecrest. I packed up my painting easel and paints and wandered over the snow to capture the snow and shadows.

The lack of snow in Pinecrest finally ended on December 24th. I headed back to pinecrest after some family events in the Bay Area to enjoy the cold fluffy white stuff at the cabin. Pinecrest has the full range of seasons from icy snowy winters to warm and dry summers. The snow tends to arrive…

The holidays were busy with several fun family and friends gatherings in the sf bay catching up with many this year.

One of the projects I did this summer and finally having some time to enjoy it is the trail log book and sign station I created at the top of Sonora pass where the pct hikers cross hwy 108 and record for others their arrival to this location near Pinecrest. The log book consists of…

A quick trip to check the cabin in Pinecrest. This year, it has snowed a few times in October and November but all the snow is gone now which is becoming more the normal. Pinecrest should have snow now and ski resorts nearby are usually open by now. Instead it is completely dry and climate…

I’m back in the sf bay staying with family and visiting friends.