Home and Back, and Boat for Sale

We left sunny warm Florida for home last month, to find Iowa a balmy 70 degrees for several days. Very nice! We drove home specifically for the birth of grandchild number 5- a 9 pound boy named Jacob Russell. It looks like his nickname - Moose- just might stick. His older brother Thomas is fondly called Goose, so there you have it. It has also been pointed out that Tom and Jake are male turkeys!

Moose is a cutie!

The older grandkids

What you see here are 5 reasons we have decided to transition to a smaller, more mobile boat. In order to cruise for shorter periods of time we want a trailerable trawler. With a trailerable boat we can explore rivers by driving the boat on highways, put it in the water, and take off. To that end, we have put Mara Beel up for sale. We want to finish the Loop this summer (North Carolina to Leland, Michigan). We hope to sell MB at the end of the Loop, but if she sells sooner, we will buy a small boat and continue. Mark says the best time to sell is when someone wants to buy! We are thinking a Ranger Tug 27 meets our needs- most of them, anyway. That's our plan, but as our friend John says, you need to have a plan so there's something to change from.

We returned to Fort Myers earlier this week and are preparing for our departure in a few weeks. There are plenty of small projects to complete, and provisions to gather.

You can see Mara Beel's listing with Curtis Stokes on Yachtworld. 

We met new friends this week-- Bruce and Bev purchased the former Fruitcakes from old friends Andy and Julie, and have renamed her Seaquest. They are a lot of fun!

Bev, Bruce and Mark

The Coast Guard vessel Vise is tied up just across the dock from us tonight.