January 14, 2006



Hi to all of our dear family and friends,

Our last update ended with Diamond Girl being loaded onto the ship, and we were going to Portland for Christmas and then New Jersey for New Year's. Finally, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale and were able to unload the boat on the 6th of January. Our friends, Clay and Debi, drove over from Marco Island and gave us very needed extra hands. The unloading went fairly smooth, and it was incredibly exciting. We're here now and we can start our trip.

Before we could do much with the boat, we needed to do a lot of clean up and scrubbing. We moved Diamond Girl to a marina about 4 miles up the New River which runs right through downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Well....we just thought that loading the boat onto the ship was nerve racking. The trip up the river was its equal. It was very narrow with mega yachts in the 100' range parked everywhere. We also had a number of bridges that needed to open for us to pass under. It felt as though we had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. But with a lot of help from Elaine, Clay and Debi we made it to the marina. We had a great experience!

We stayed in the marina for 6 days so we could get all of the chores done and put the boat back together. We needed to reinstall all of the canvas, put everything back on deck and do 2 full scrub downs. Before we left Ensenada, we had to get rid of all of the items in the refrigerator and all of the perishable food that we had on the boat. Elaine made a couple of trips to the market and re-bought everything.

The marina that we were in, Marina Bay Marina and Resort, was very nice. There was a little of bit everything available to us; workout facilities, pool, sauna, laundry facilities, restaurant and bar. Also, we spotted a Manatee in the marina right in the area of our boat. It was a great spot to stay, and we met some very nice people who had been doing for the past year exactly what we were about to do. So we got a lot of great information from them about what and where to go. We hope to meet up with them again in the spring, if possible.

Well, on Friday the 13th of January, we left the marina and officially started our trip on the ICW. We decided that our first stop would be Miami. We entered the ICW on the south side of Ft. Lauderdale and traveled 31 miles to a great anchorage right in the middle of town. The weather was beautiful for our first trip, and we were very excited to start moving. Friday night everything started to change. First, we had a lightning show that was interesting, then the rain came and boy did it come. It rained like hell for about a 1/2 hour and then quit. But then the wind came up. Since about 4 AM this morning it has been blowing 20 to 25 knots with gusts up to 40 knots. That's not cool!! We have been hunkered down on the boat all day and staying in out of the wind. It's supposed to die down tonight. We certainly hope so. The weather for the next couple of days doesn't look as though it's going to be great so we will probably just stay where we are and wait for a better weather outlook. That's why we say, "Our plans are cast in jello."

We think that we will be headed for Key Largo next. And then down to Marathon. We probably will stay in Marathon for a week or so. Everyone says that it is a great place to hang out. We will see for ourselves.

That's about all for now. We will send another update when we have something else to report. But for now, we hope that this finds everyone in good health and happy!