Letters from Home - or What Constitutes Home on a Boat

This morning's email brought a strong upbraiding from our good friend, Heather Loveridge, back in Nova Scotia.  Heather and husband Pete aboard Radical Jack shared the waterway with us last year back and forth to Bahamas.

Heather is a bit of an Aunt Bee from the Andy Griffith show.  Her sharp tongue masks a motherly concern for all her friends.  In her words: "when you said that you were leaving as you thought that you had a weather window, I took a great breath and said to Pete, What does he think hes doing, he will be stuck in an open bay on anchor in a gale!".

 Thanks Mom.  We love you too.

Next email brought further harsh words from friend Wade on Joana: "I'm surprised that you wired your chartplotter to direct the autopilot. I refused to do that"

Penned by Wade the correspondence necessarily continued in painful detail to explain how wiring a chartplotter to an autopilot was the brand of lunacy found only amongst powerboaters.  Now there's an insult.

With luck we will make it to Georgetown Bahamas to meet up with Joana and cross to Cuba together.  Wade, ex military, needs  me to stay out of jail.  I need him to stay afloat.  We all need Heather to stay in the game.

Then we reread the last message we have from Randy and Donna who were having their (very nice power)boat repaired in Beaufort NC.  This couple flew to Beaufort last week intending to launch on Monday past and then run south ASAP.  We worry that they may have hit an iceberg and sunk in the now frigid waters of the ICW.  Randy has HIS chartplotter wired directly to the autopilot.

Lastly was the exchange with Ben and Andree (who still sail Douce Folie, which starts brilliantly and runs perfectly) who are arriving by automobile today.  We will enjoy a lovely lunch and then persuade Ben to drive us to the Tohatsu dealer so we can pick up some parts.  

Finally some good news. 

There is no doubt in our mind that we are most favoured among the citizens of the world.