While we have done a bit of traveling by car, Echo has remained moored here in Stuart for the past week. 
Jeff has been busy installing the water maker we bought in Annapolis. This unit makes fresh water from sea water and will allow us to be much more independent as we travel to remote areas. There have been several trips to the Ace hardware, Home Depot, Lowes and West Marine and it looks like the installation is almost complete. The installation will require a through hull for the water intake so we plan to have the boat pulled from the water for that and a few other projects. We plan to arrange for that by the end of the week and expect to be out of the water for a few days.
While we’ve been here we met Roberta and Steven Brandt from Michigan. We had only “met” Roberta electronically through our blog and Facebook. They are from the Detroit area and spend winters in northern Bahamas at Abaco Beach Resort on their boat, Indemnity. It was just chance that we ended up at the same marina and were able to meet up for a drink. Roberta had gone to school with several of my cousins and good friend Mary Tamasiunas and other connections through Our Lady of Grace and Bishop Borgess. So many connections, then a chance meeting here in Florida. Roberta and Steven took advantage of a long awaited weather window and headed out early Monday morning and may be at their destination by now. Hope our paths cross again.
We had a very nice Thanksgiving visit with some of Jeff’s family, it was good to catch up with them. Thanksgiving dinner was with Mom, Jay, Kim, Riley, and Kerry. We visited at Mom’s condo for awhile and then went out to a restaurant to dine. Jeff’s Aunt Linda, who lives in Naples, met up with us the next morning and we had a nice visit.
We spent Friday evening visiting with our friends Tim and Ellen from Michigan. Tim and Ellen have a condo in Jupiter and were down with their kids for the holiday. It was great to see them again and to meet the rest of the family.
The weather here has been perfect; high 70’s and sunny. It’s going to be hard to pull out the long pants and warm jackets again for our trip back to Detroit. Haven’t made arrangements yet but think it will be some time next week.