Remembering 2011

With the holidays over we want to wish our friends and family a Happy New Year.

After taking down the decorations, cleaning the house, and provisioning the boat, we will return to s/v Kinvara for the winter months. This will be the start of a new experience without Pretzel aboard so this time we will go where the wind blows and do some more off shore sailing. Our blog will start again in the New Year once back aboard. Good health and happiness to all of our friends for 2012.

Pumpkin Key, Florida Keys

Chillin in Marathon, Florida Keys

Peter completed his scuba certification
Marathon, FL



Our southern most point in the US
Mile 0   Key West, FL



Back home in April,
 O'Shea's from Ireland visit



May in the UK
 The first Bugg family reunion

June..Jane's first overnight sail
Cape Canaveral Florida  to St Mary Georgia

August
Pat & Lynn Acheson from UK visit for a week

September
Disney with the UK Bugg's

October visit from Jane's brother, Jim

November we moved s/v Kinvara from
Brunswick, GA to Cape Canavaral, FL
Thanksgiving in St Mary's Georgia










2011 Christmas

Our Christmas this year began  when Sarah and Eric arrived on Friday night Dec. 16th. We spent the entire day Saturday in Disney Hollywood Studios and Epcot World Showcase. A delicious dinner at the British restaurant was consumed before watching the Candle Light performance and spectacular fireworks. On Sunday the "old folks" stayed home to recover while the young-uns went to Seaworld and Downtown Disney. Monday we joined Sarah and Eric again to go into Animal Kingdom and back to Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family festival of lights. Tuesday we stayed home to have our Christmas together, opening presents and having steaks on the grill.

Sarah's favorite character, Goofy

A visit to the orange groves on Tuesday

After Sarah and Eric left on Tuesday night we faced our first Christmas without family around. With Pretzel also gone the house was very quiet and "empty".  On Christmas Eve we had an open house for our friends who were also here and had such a good time. Christmas Day we had family friends from Conneticut for dinner. Richard, Chris, Lily, & Georgia arrived about 5Pm and we had a wonderful dinner and visit.

Richard, Peter and the girls after opening
their Christmas cracker!

December 15, 2011 Pretzel

The tree is all trimmed.

The gifts are all wrapped.

The songs are all sung,

And travel plans mapped.

And still there's a sadness

That lies in our hearts,

For Pretzel who is gone

And a love now apart.

Her stocking is missing,

With toys and a treat.

Our lap is now empty,

And space at our feet.

We'll remember this season

God's little gift too,

With wonderful memories

To treasure life through.

Run free little one



Christmas Events

Our first event of the holiday season was in Disney's Epcot park. We went with a group of 22 friends to the German pavilion for a buffet dinner and then into the American Gardens amphitheater for the candle light ceremony. It is a small adult choir centered on the stage in the shape of a tree. they are flanked on each side by a huge number of youth chorus, mostly local. The choirs sing seasonal songs then a guest reader narrates the Christmas story with musical accompaniment. Our guest reader was Isabella Rosselini.

This is in the Disney Boardwalk Inn
It speaks for itself. We found 11 hidden Micky heads

Everything made of chocolate!

Stage right in the theater

An awesome sight.

Returning Home

On Tuesday Nov. 29th we left the Titisville mooring field around 8AM to make the first bridge opening on the way to Harbortown Marina.  We had great weather along the way. the trip took about 2.5 hours but we missed the next bridge opening on the Canaveral canal so we had to run along the ICW for 30 minutes. After passing through the Christa Mc Cauliff lift bridge we had 2 miles to go to our marina. Along the way Jane spotted a large dolphin off the bow. It playfully rode in the bow wave the entire way. Peter put the boat in auto and came forward to watch. This was the largest dolphin we had seen and it was really having fun. It veered off a few times and jumped and splashed off the sides. When we pulled off the canal into the marina for diesel the dolphin came into the little harbor and started splashing around chasing fish. What a nice surprise and welcome back to Harbortown Marina. this is the same place we stored Kinvara last spring before moving out of Florida for hurricane season.

So now that we are back home we have started the Christmas decorating. This year we have 3 trees to accommodate all our ornaments. We love the way it turned out this year!

The newest tree has all our boating destination
ornaments on it. Great memories.



Our original tree from Massachusetts. We finally have room for all the ornaments.  We love the new fireplace...especially ready for Christmas!