To the Frostlands!

My lovely wife and I have decided to cut our southern trip a bit short. Instead of arriving home the middle of April, we are shooting for the last week of March. Yes, I know winter is in full force up in New Hampshire. It was -20F in the morning. On the bright side, black flies are down to a bare minimum.

We hope to get a few days in the St. Augustine area. Right now there are no openings at the State campground, so we are looking for a boat ramp in the area where we can keep the van and trailer for a few days. We'll figure something out. I wouldn't mind being on the water at all.

The loose plan is to spend some time in the St. Augustine area, a few days in Georgia, and maybe visit new friends in N. Carolina. After that, it's a long push to New England -weather permitting.

A friend of mine cut up some firewood for me, so we should be able to keep warm until spring really gets to the North Country.

In other news, we've decided what to do about our outboard issues. When up in New England, we barely use the outboard. We really don't need a powerful motor with a lot of range for 99% of the sailing we do there. With that in mind, we ordered an electric trolling motor with 55 lbs of trust. That should be enough for our needs. I use the motor so little during the summer that my solar panel should be enough to keep the battery charged.

The next time we go on long southern boat trip, we plan on having a different boat anyway. Ideally, having a boats in both NH and FL would be the way to go. That would save a lot of towing.

I'm thinking that our time remaining down south is short, but it's still longer than most people's vacations. Good thing this isn't a vacation, but a lifestyle.

-Sixbears