The weather is finally starting to lie down, which means that we will be able to leave. Right now the ETD is tomorrow, Wednesday. We are all getting antsy to get back on the water. It does mean, however, that we won't be going to the Dry Tortugas as we are running out of time and we are afraid that we might get stuck there with other fronts coming in.
In the meantime, on Sunday we had the DeFever gang (12 people plus one guest) over to Rickshaw for appetizers, drinks and a book and DVD swap. Vicki had the idea for the swap and everyone was really pleased with trading for new (used) books and movies that they had not seen yet. Thanks to Bob for some of these pictures.
It was fun to host everyone on our boat. The next morning some of our boating neighbors laughingly said that they were worried that with so many people on board the boat might sink!!! After the party here, most folks went down to the Dockside Bar and Grill for dinner and dancing with a really great band.
Yesterday Rick and I took our bikes down to West Marine, the boat stuff store, and Home Depot. Then we made our way to the Fish Tank for a lobster reuben. We had heard it was a great sandwich and it was! It was a funky place where you placed your order at a window and they asked for the name of a wild animal. I said Tiger and that is what our order was called by. Strange but Keysie, I guess. We forgot our camera so we 'borrowed' Doug's picture when the Gypsies went there. 
From here we will start up the west coast. We are doing our chart planning now but we think the first stop will be an anchorage on the Little Shark river which is actually part of the Everglades National Park, although we will see more mangrove and hard woods than the grasses that you normally think of in the Everglades. Then on to Marco Island and Naples. Mo' later!
