Hello Family and Friends,

Chris and I are well on our way towards Florida.  Our summer went by quickly in Hampton, VA.  We were so happy to see friends in the area and those of you we missed, we hope to see you next year.  We were a little surprised by tropical storm Ernesto, and we're so glad it was just a tropical storm.  In September we cruised up the Chesapeake Bay as far as Annapolis.  We visited Solomon's Island, Oxford, St. Michael's and some of our favorite coves from years past.  We tried to sail wherever the wind took us.  We had a wonderful time visiting with two sailing families and caught up on new news and relived some of our best memories.  We even had our friends from DC take time to come and visit with us.  Life on the boat has been so good.

Heading south in the Fall is always a great adventure.  We know so many of the stops we want to make, yet we try to find new anchorages to spice up the trip.  We stopped in Georgetown, SC and rented a car to visit our South Carolina relatives.  It is always a great stop and our cousins Ben and Mary Margaret make us feel so welcome.  Spice, our cat, is now their cat and she’s doing great.  She much prefers chasing critters on land than being out at sea.

Our stop at Charleston is always wonderful.  Since I’ve learned how to weave baskets in the Bahamas I was especially interested in checking out the sweet grass baskets.  They’re beautiful and the ladies are quite talented.  But the highlight of Charleston is the food.  We ate at Magnolia’s and it was exquisite.  We biked through the downtown area again this year and found the streets and buildings delightful.  Flowers and shrubbery were everywhere.  Our biking took us over cobblestones, bricks, slate and sometimes even pavement. 

We did not want to enter Florida before November 1^st , so we slowed down.  It was so nice getting to anchorages early in the day.  We took a side trip to Hilton Head, which we hadn’t done in years.  Our sailing friends Dave and Harriet aboard Pageant just happened to be there by car.  With them and their friends Martha and Vic we biked all over the island.  I never realized how pretty that island was before.  While there are so many resorts, houses, golf courses, shops, and restaurants, so much of the place has bike paths.  The foliage is so extensive that you can be biking past houses and barely see them.  We saw 2 alligators on our ride as well as a snake, which those who got a good look said was a rattlesnake.  Luckily none of these animals were hungry or angry.

Today we’re anchored off of Cumberland Island.  It is a national park and we spent the morning with a park ranger learning about the early inhabitants of the island.  It’s so undeveloped and it’s interesting to see what the shoreline looks like in its natural state.  We’ve seen turkeys and an armadillo so far, as well as evidence that there’s wild horses here.  It’s a lovely place.

We'd love to hear from all of you.  Let us know what you're doing and how you're doing.  We'll be flying to Africa in November, so we'll pass on any words or stories you'd like to send to Justin.