6-15 Home in Gulf Harbors

Pos:N28deg13.83min/W082deg45.11min. We've been very fortunate coming up the west coast of Florida. The weather (once again) has been unstable, a very common summer-time occurrence here in Florida. Many thunderstorms and lightning were seen in the distance, but none threatened us and we had an uneventful motorsail to Anclote Island (Tarpon Springs) on a beautiful, clear night, our last for this passage, in 5-8 knots of breeze and smooth water. We have to play the tides going into our channel where we live in Gulf Harbors (New Port Richey) as the water in the channel is just inches under our keel as we transit. At least that's the theory. It's easy to hit bottom around here, but this afternoon there was no drama, and we even had a friend come out in her runabout to accompany us in as a surprise. Thanks, Virginia! There were a group of folks waiting at our dock who graciously took our lines and help tie us up, and the party began.

6-12 Boot Key; Back in the USA!

Pos: N24deg41.19min / W081deg07.40min. Infini is back on US soil after a ten year hiatus! We're anchored in 10' sand at Boot Key (Marathon) after a benign crossing of the Gulf Stream. As we have so often found, the weather predictions and what we experience are two different things. From West End, Bahamas, the forecast was for E-ESE wind 10-15 knots. That didn't happen. We ended up motoring with about 5 knots of wind directly behind us - yuck. Furthermore, the extended forecast wasn't promising at all, which is why we departed when we did. To summarize, the Gulf Stream was relatively OK, but there were many squalls around. During much of this passage the wind forgot to show up and when it did, was about 10 knots from astern, not enough to get us where we wanted to go in any sort of a timely fashion. We did, however, set the pole across the Great Bahama Bank from the NW Channel Light (which, btw, is out) to South Riding Rock, and had a few hours (6) of very nice wing and wing sailing. Eventually, we did our trawler imitation and Mr. Perkins was called upon; we ended up motorsailing most of the way here. As I said, it was either that or wait for who knows how long to get favorable wind conditions. Some passages are like that. Predictions and reality: two different things, especially when it comes to the weather. Lest anyone think this is a weather rant, (OK, so I'm a bit tired...) in spite of all this, Team Infini is happy to be back!

Sept. 21 - Things are moving along

Well, there... Hello, again! We trust all of you are well, rested, and have enjoyed yourselves in our absence. It's been a very busy summer for us as well, visiting lots of family and friends, and taking care of a ton of stuff, mostly expected, but you know how that goes. Plane reservations have now been made to return to Trinidad late October, where we'll get Infini ready for next season's cruising in the eastern Caribbean. We're really excited about that! Meanwhile, just a note to say we attended this past weekend's SSCA gam in St. Petersburg, Fl. For those who don't know, a "gam" means a social visit or friendly interchange, especially between whalers or other seafarers. (Yes, I had to look that definition up...) We didn't spot any whalers, but the event was quite well attended, and we enjoyed seeing old friends and making some new ones. If you're not a member, consider the benefits of joining; the website is www.ssca.org. We'll be starting to make more regular blog entries in the very near future and, as always, look forward to your comments and suggestions.

June 1 - The official start of hurricane season

As we're not aboard, this will be our last blog entry until we return to Infini later in the year. We can be contacted at the email address found on the side bar and look forward to keeping in touch with many folks during our land travels. Have a great summer (or winter, for many of our friends in the other hemisphere)!

May 13 - Back in the USA

We arrived just after midnight to New Port Richey, and still wanted to unpack a bit before hitting the sack. There's a lot to catch up on, but having fast, unlimited internet is a huge help, and Sue's already planning on photo album updates and adding pictures to our blog entries.
Pic: Where Infini departed from 8 years ago.

Sept 23 - Family album posted

In our latest picture album is a quick tour of the family; it's always great to see the kids and grannies!
Pic: Ty and grannies checking out locations

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Sept. 10 Back to the USA

In all our travels back to FL for family time, this was the roughest in terms of delays and missed flights; 60 hours total transit time! On the positive side, we did get a hotel room and meals comped at our last stop at Dulles airport in Washington. Suffice it to say, we wouldn’t choose Qatar Airlines again. Thankfully, our four checked-in bags did arrive with us in Tampa. Coming from the mild winter weather in Richards Bay and arriving to the summer heat and humidity of Florida, we know our time here will go way too fast!