Home is where we drop anchor
7/2/26 This year has been incredibly busy and stressful on land and so far we’ve only managed two other short trips out on our Happy Wife. We saw an opportunity to set sail and decided we had to take it. One thing we both don’t like is being tied to the dock for too long. Just setting out for a nearby trip is so worth it. Of course there are the simple comforts of being in the marina…our family, friends, the gym, my running and so on, but you quickly get settled into a rou
Ocean Air and Island Flair
It had been a long five months since we floated away on board our Happy Wife. Between overseas travels, holidays, a frigid winter and an over scheduled work life, we found ourselves tied to the dock for far too long. And so it was that we decided to grab a week or two and head out to the tiny islands right near Tampa that are very special to us. Bird Island and fantasy Island are about 2 hours away from home for us and they are the first locations we took Happy Wife to on o
Back Where We Belong…Floating again after 6 months on the hard!11/13/2025
Today is Shauns 61st birthday and had hoped to be anchored in Boca Grande by now…but…its a boat and this is what happened. What should have been a splash and go turned into us staying in the yard for a week, which was not planned. We went down a day a half before our return to the seas to clean Happy Wife and get everything ready for our trip back to Tampa As they came to fetch us with the boat lift, in our mad rush, we realized that we couldn’t lift our dinghy off the groun
Secrets of the Ten Thousand Islands
5/1/25 After our generator debacle, we felt like we had a new lease on life to leave Marco Island Rose Marina is always outstanding with the best staff and they are so very helpful in every way. We love stopping here for this very reason. We filled up with fuel and water, gave the boat a quick hose down and merrily set on our way with dolphins in tow as always We anchored just after lunch, which I made underway, and went straight to the beach for Cali. This is our (and her)
Charting our course
4/15/25 I think a good analogy for leaving on a long trip as we are, is to picture popping a champagne cork, along with the cheer! It is always a mad rush of boat repairs, varnishing, paint touch ups, polishing and cleaning, let alone stocking up on supplies and making sure we have back ups for every filter or thing that could perhaps fail while we are out. We are, after all, our own little island when we are away from shore but we absolutely love everything that goes with i
HAPPY NEW YEAR, HAPPY WIFE!
12/30/2024 Goodbye 2024 and hello brand new 2025!! After a tumultuous end to 2024 due to the two back to back hurricanes (in which we sustained major damages to our properties), we were ready to just quietly let the new year slip on in, anchored alone at our favorite nearby Fantasy Island We did a lot of the work ourselves to our Airbnb units and between that, dealing with insurance adjusters and so on, I think this time may be the happiest I’ve been to just “let the ropes go
4 months out of the water and 2 major hurricanes later…..
10/22/24 It took a lot of thought and planning to leave our beautiful Happy Wife out on the hard in the middle of the state for this length of time. We’d never done it in our eight years of living on board. The forecasts called for the worst storm season ever for our coast and boy, they weren’t wrong with the worst flooding in 103 years! We went for months with nothing major happening and we wondered if it was all worthwhile. Happy wife was out of the water, safe in the mid
Ten Thousand Islands - Our second home!
After spending the night in Marco Island and refueling etc, we left early and anchored at our beloved Tiger Key in the Ten Thousand islands. Its only about two and half hours at our speed to the anchorage from Marco Island. Every time we are here I can feel myself exhale and just breathe. I feel at my most creative when we are here. I write, draw, collect things to make onboard with shells and driftwood and exercise. We eat well (besides faaaar too many cocktails of cour
Coasting to Cayo Costa
5/21/24 This has to be one of our favorite anchorages for sure. Usually we stay a lot longer but we were eager to get out to the Ten Thousand Islands and so this trip was a short one for us. We didn’t even make the short dingy ride to Boca Grande as we always do. We stayed at the anchorage with our little beach just feet away from our boat. We watched eagles nesting, dolphins visiting and had beautiful dinners and cocktail hours together up on the helm. We had been so bus
The sea called my soul so we answered with all our hearts
5/16/2024 As always, before leaving the dock, theres a flurry of activity. Getting ready to go out for a length of time requires planning, fixing little things that need fixing, stocking up on supplies and making sure we have spares of a multitude of things that could give in when under way on our little island This time was no different and we went through everything meticulously. We repainted decks, even painted both engine rooms and engines and made sure varnish was all