Once we made it to Miami Beach, we decided to stay fro a few days to wait out a storm. Mostly, High winds. We read in our guide that there was an anchorage very close to the Miami Beach and decided we would risk the trouble with the law to anchor there. The anchorage was a little out of the way to get to and and we were hoping there would be very few boats anchored there. It turned out to be a very protected lake that was created when developers built islands in Biscayne Bay. Something is very wrong about building an island in a beautiful Bay like this. The canal we puttered up was gorgeous. I hate to admit it. This kind of development is the worst. Below is a pic of Piper in the pretty green canal.




The anchorage was very well protected from weather and we were close to Miami Beach. We walked around the Lincoln Pedestrian Mall and were able to pick up wi-fi there and skype our nephew. We had fun in Miami, but when we returned to the boat we had a letter from the police. They had begun a case against us for anchoring in Sunset Lake. We have a copy of the Florida State law pertaining to Anchoring rights. We are allowed to anchor anywhere we like except mooring fields. Miami is breaking the law. They know it is too difficult for us to fight the city. I felt better after I called the mayor's office and told them that I was planning on staying in Miami for a month and now you are chasing me out? I got a lot of uh's and well's and I then said, " Listen, this is what is wrong with the world today. Just remember that when the water levels rise, I'll be anchoring on top of your police station. click. They make me feel awful and with any luck, hopefully, they'll worry about losing their whole city. Here are pics of Sunset Lake.








Being very aware of the energy crisis and just plain waste, Piper and I were disgusted by the way all of the houses on Sunset lake left all their exterior lights on all night. It is ridiculous. The place is lit up like an amusement park.



However, despite the police, it was so nice waking up in Sunset Lake and watching the palms pass by the companionway. Here is a video clip to give you the full effect of waking up on Delphine.



We finally left Miami Beach. We crossed Biscayne Bay headed for Angelfish Creek where we would anchor for the night and then go on the outside between the reef and the keys to Key West. A thunderstorm quickly caught up to us. It was very cool looking but generally, wasn't the beautiful bay crossing we had last time.







When the rain came down, we took some video.



As we pulled into Key West Harbor, we decided to stay in Key West for a while and not just a month. We need to work and fix things. We love Key West and it's the perfect place to do it. We were hoping to go to the Bahamas, but our window to avoid Hurricane season is narrowing. Bill and Kitty will be a little disappointed, we are very happy with this decision and still hope to get over there eventually. Quite frankly, we don't know what our plans are. Flying back to NC for a summer beach trip is definitely on our agenda. Why sail all the way back? We are against torture.

We anchored near this palm covered boat. I spoke to the guy about where his anchors were and he gave me the scoop on Christmas Tree Island and the fight with the city. Why does our sailing adventure seem to be about fighting for rights more than sailing and having fun? Anyway, the boaters caught the city lying and having secret meetings which is illegal in Florida. The city lost its right to annex without a public referendum! So annexing the island is being held up quite a bit. This is what we loved most about Key West last year. All the boaters hanging out on this island, singing songs and cooking over a fire. Kids playing, building treehouses and exploring this 21 acre island covered in art and gardens that have been here for years. I went back to the island by myself the other day. There are no trespassing signs everywhere. No one really hangs out here much now since the topic is so hot. Our tree house that Piper and I started last year was just how we left it but a lot of the sculptures had been burned and removed. The gardens were overgrown and awesome. Boat Kid Camp had been ransacked. That was sad. However, Rat key is the new place. No one is trying to develop it yet. The same thing is going on there. As of March 18, the city is not prosecuting people that anchor there anymore. This will create a boater surge which I am excited about. However, I still have not been to Rat Key. The trails are manacured and a camp has been established. The boaters are once again caretaker's of their own private paradise.




below is Toko and his family's boat. It doesn't look like much, but they are very happy to be on the water. Their other boat disappeared during hurricane Wilma. This boat was salvaged and sold to them cheap so they could stay out there. Toko is an incredible musician. He is the real deal. A true performer. We heard his family singing songs the first night we were anchored. They are right next to us.



Here is Toko's family in their dink.



The second night in Key West, our friend Cliff, a palm hat weaver, told us Toko was playing at the Conch Republic Bar. We decided to go. During a Bob Marley song, Toko saw me singing along and pulled me up on stage for the "Everything is gonna be alright" part. I knew he likes my high pitched voice, so I gave him what he wanted. It was awesome. It was the first time I'd been on stage in years. Afterwards a man approached me and said," They must have flown you in?" Piper responded, "We sailed in, actually." Only in Key West. This place has so much magic and opportunity. Cliff gave me one of his hats. He also played harmonica during Toko's show. Toko's Daughter also sang a Cindy Lauper song and more. She is incredible. They are a family of stars. Toko's other kids as well as some other children were dancing and playing in front of the stage. A little girl visiting Key West got on stage and played the steel drums upon Toko's request. She actually did very well, but when her parents said it was time to go she demanded, "I'm not going!" It was sad and awesome at the same time.



I began setting up at Mallory Dock within a few days. We help a woman named Melanie Griffith by driving her scooter and display trailer up to the pier. She bought a big lizard from me last year and mounted it on her house near the Hemingway house. That has given me a lot of publicity being in such a prominent position in the "old Town".





The people at Mallory are very interesting. The Escape artist, Rondini, broke his collarbone in a bike accident. He hangs upside down in a straight jacket wrapped in chains for a living. Everyone donated money because he will no longer be able to do that act. He received a large amount of money in which he was very grateful for and wrote a nice thank you letter to all of us. It's kinda funny that this generosity occurred because these people are constantly arguing with other. That's just standard performer/vendor practice.






Andy, the pier manager, was wearing a Shikori Hills shirt last year and that's how we met. I said to him,"That's deep chatham...my stompin' grounds." He was like, "How come we've never met." He has a new girlfriend this year, Vicki. She's a t-shirt artist. We all hang out at their house making art and drinking coffee. Piper has a new job at the Boys and Girls Club. She passes by once a day as she escorts the kids to the park. The other day I set up my art in the park to show the kids how they can make art and sell it at Mallory Dock. They kept asking, "How much does that turtle cost?"
"50 dollars", I'd reply. One kid said," That's a rip off." I laughed and said, "You're missing the point. You are lucky enough to live here in Key West and could make art and sell it at Mallory Dock. You could get $50 for your artwork."




Below is a photo of a Smart Electric Car. There are several here in Key West. They go 75 mph and have a range of 70 miles per charge. Also for more money you can purchase a 10 minute charger. They are very nice cars available for $27,000. You have to import them. America hates these things.





Our friend, Cliff, made this palm hat. He is the best hat weaver here. He also plays harmonica at Christmas Tree Island bonfires and when Toko is playing he jumps in sometimes.



This iguana barely made it across the street. It is now wild and free. It was probably a pet once. They are all over because they can survive here. They aren't native. But scorpions are. They are all over the streets at night. Careful with your flip flops.





Yesterday, Dusty, another old friend from Chapel Hill, took me out on a fishing charter he payed for. He caught a jack something or another, I caught a 4 foot hammerhead and mangrove snappers. The captain said I caught a world record pinfish. It was like 8 inches long. It was beautiful fishing 15 miles out on the flats. The water was so many different colors there.



Then our friends Dave and Rachael showed up. We took them to Fort Zachary Taylor Beach.

After that we went back to the boat and picked up the snorkels and hawaiian slings and went spear fishing on the Wysteria wreck near the anchorage. Dave couldn't stand it and had to kill something, so he speared a 6 inch snapper. It was pathetic and hilarious. He was so happy. I told him it wasn't too late to change their minds about not coming to Key West and heading back north to New England again. Right now they are in Miami. Still not in paradise. hmm... well see what happens.



Then after that, Piper cooked Thai curry and we went to see Toko play again. Dave and Rachael departed. We went to sleep and woke up as the wind picked up to what seemed like 80 mph. NOAA said it was 35 and over. Later, we heard a few people actually clocked the wind at 57 mph. with on-board technology. Everyone in the anchorage felt as if there must have been a water spout nearby. It was the scariest weather we had ever experienced. We were ready to swim to shore. Christmas Tree island is about 250 feet away. The waves were about six feet in the anchorage. On the radio everyone was reporting lost dingies and boats adrift. One forty footer was headed for the seawall. The next morning we saw bent markers and broken signs. Magic Penny, the salvage boat was hard at work at 2 am. We also heard a man report an epirb floating by underwater. He was unsure if there was a body attached to it. That storm could have killed someone very easily. Swimming 250 feet might not have even been possible with the ripping water. It was raining heavily and nothing was visible. We kept trying to look ahead of the boat and see if any boats were dragging our way. But the rain felt like needles to the eye. Over the course of the next few days, we noticed many boats were anchored in the channel as if they had drug anchor while unattended and still have not been moved. The channel has large vessels maneuvering in it all the time. There is a 4 knot current that will eventually pull up the anchor because the water is about 45 feet deep. You just don't anchor in a channel.

Let's go for a ride in the dingy back to the boat.



Okay, paradise is waiting. Must get back.

In St. Augustine we tried to locate our friends. Everyone was gone. Curtis was in Savannah with his girl. Kelly missed us. All art was banned in the park so there were none of our vending buddies to be found. It was a ghost town. So we left after the storm. There were 35-40 knot winds. The wind created a record low tide that dried some of the marina docks.



Delphine was actually sitting on the bottom for a few hours. Because the wind was from the west, it blew all the water out the inlet. We had always known this as a deep harbor (18feet), so we were surprised.

We managed to make it over to Sailor's Exchange, a used marine store, but it was closed. They remembered us and opened the door for us. They had been closed for several months to reorganize. We bought some new anchor rode and used LED lights. What a score. Rachael and Dave were shocked by the things that were available there for pennies.



Above is a picture of the most beautiful and wild section of the Florida ICW. We took this pictue in August of 2006. I'm sure the developers feel they have made an improvement by adding a bike path. We hate what they did with the land. Below is what it looks like now.



We stopped in Daytona to visit Todd, Kim and Maria. They were looking to buy a new boat while we were in a boatyard in Palatka. We have kept in touch ever since exchanging stories. We stopped to visit with them and introduced Rachael and Dave. They made us a steak dinner and I grilled some zuchini at their house. It was good to see them again.



We made it to New Smyrna and decided to stop early at the free dock right down town. We heard that they don't always enforce the "No Overnight Docking" rule. So we tied up and biked to the beach. We stayed overnight without trouble. It is amazing more towns don't allow this for the sake of commerce.

We left early the next day and made it to Titusville where our friend Caleb has taken up being a dock rat. We were shocked, but he loves it there. It is where he is from. He took us to the nearby island that was very clean with cute little trails and sweet sunset campsites. The island was covered in super tiny unbroken shells. No one cares if you camp there, unlike Christmas Tree island of Key Weird. He was trying hard to get us to stay, but there's not much there.





Rachael and Dave had to stop in Daytona due to engine trouble. They're about 5 days behind us now.





Turkey Creek is where we dock the boat at Bill and Kitty's in Melbourne. It is so calm in there that we decided to finally climb the mast to replace a bulb and check the connection for our VHF radio. Bill and Kitty were kind enough to offer us the use of their car so we ran a few errands in Melbourne. They also took us out to a nice Mexican restaurant, kind of a rare thing in Florida.



After Melbourne was a day trip to Ft. Pierce, then another day to Lake Worth. We've had great wind to help us along. Above is a picture taken in Hobe Sound. This is where the water starts to become blue.



This picture was taken near in Jupiter. It was a Saturday afternoon and the waterway was very busy. These kids really seemed to know how to have a good time. They had their own portable tiki bar and dance floor.

We knew we wanted to go on the outside at this point to bypass the densest section of drawbridges on the ICW and the winds happened to be favorable for doing this, 10-15 out of the west switching to NW in the afternoon. We went out at Lake Worth inlet and traveled all day, almost 50 miles, to Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale.



This was taken going out the inlet that morning. The clouds dissipated and the weather was perfect for an outside trip.





We weren't expecting the Gulfstream current to be against us only a few miles from shore but it slowed us down intermittently throughout the day. Fortunately, we made it to the inlet by sundown. We anchored in Sylvia Lake, a very small lake in the heart of Ft. Lauderdale. It was surrounded by million dollar homes. So it made going ashore difficult and our stay there was limited to 24 hours before the city illegally kicks you out. FL law says we can anchor anywhere we want for as long as we want but many towns are ignoring this knowing most people don't have the time or money to fight it and we are among those people. So we unfortunately had to leave the next day and were unable to visit Andy and Nena in their hometown. Hopefully, they will visit us in Miami Beach, although, it is spring break here and we wouldn't wish anyone the annoying drive after a long day of work.

Until next time, have fun.

We had a great time in Savannah. At this point we were no longer talking about moving off the boat. Although, we do know we must pursue other endeavours after this trip. Savannah had about ten or more freighters a day pass by while we were tied to the floating dock on River St.



I set up an array of lizards one night at the plaza on River street. We met the other artists whom had been fighting for their rights to sell on River Street and finally won with the help of the ACLU. However, they were supposed to be paid retroactive permit fees from the city, but that never happened. They did not care as long as they were allowed to sell from that point on. Permits are still being issued despite the lawsuit and very few are aware that the sale of art is legally protected under freedom of speech.



I pulled out my acoustic bass one night and tried to keep up with Walter, but I never know where he is going. He has performed in many movies and with many popular artists like Tom Petty. But you will always find him on River street every evening.



Our new friends, Dave and Rachael, are travelling with us down the coast to Key West. Here is the great departure from Savannah.





Above is Barbarella, Dave and Rachael's boat, in a creek in Georgia. Below is the part of ICW where you have to go outside to the ocean to avoid a sandbank before continuing south.

Here are a few pics from our time in NC and visiting Chelsea, Aaron and Larkin in Chicago.













What was supposed to be a few months in NC has turned into 8 1/2 and counting. We stayed with Betty and Da out at their place in Chatham County, which is beautiful, but the gas it takes to get back and forth was an added stress on our wallets and consciences. Paul bought an electric bicycle and made the 15 mile trip into town and back almost daily throughout the fall. In the winter he carpooled with me.



The first time we pushed our departure date back was after a visit to the dentist led to more visits to the dentist for Paul. We thought we still might get out by early January, but then Paul noticed a leaky thru-hull in mid Nov. By December we were hauled out at a nice boatyard in Washington, NC that allows do-it-yourselfers. We replaced all the thru-hulls, raised the waterline, barrier coated where the old waterline paint was chipping, painted the hull and bottom, varnished the toe-rail, installed a new (salvaged) sink and a new double action foot-pump, installed new (salvaged) carpet, installed new (salvaged) plexiglass hatch cover, made two plexiglass slats for the companionway, made a new tiller (in October), cut out the old rotten chain-locker bulkhead and glassed in a new one, made and installed a double bow-roller, and some other odds and ends. Paul did most of this himself. We were in the boat yard a little over two months, driving down every day off except Christmas and the day after.



We left Washington two days ago. The first day we got a late start. Landlubber Time has already began to shift back to Island Time. We put the sails back on in the morning then realized we needed fuel. Paul went off in search of a ride to the station and came back with a 5 gallon jug of diesel from our dock neighbor, John. Paul insisted I needed to see John’s catamaran and, especially, his LED lights. What makes these lights so special? They cast a yellowish light like an incandescent bulb, for one. Also, they run on .3 milliamps, not amps, but milliamps. It’s actually a bulb that can be installed into any existing fixture.

So we chatted with John and admired his spacious living accommodations until about 1:00. Then we pushed off for an uneventful day on the water. It was chilly but I had my ski gloves and a hot-water bottle under a blanket. It didn’t really get cold until we were anchoring as the sun set.

The next day was forecast to be about sixty degrees with 15-20 knot winds. As I looked at the charts I saw we were going to be spending a good portion of the day out in Pamlico Sound and the ten-mile-wide mouth of the Neuse River. I knew it would probably be choppy but this turned out to be the wettest day we’ve ever spent on the water. In the afternoon the wind picked up to 20-25 knots out of the south. We were headed SW so the waves were hitting us on the port bow the whole time. Four hours of spray in the face later we pulled behind Oriental’s breakwater and tied up to the free town dock. After changing out of our wet clothes we crossed the street to The Bean coffee shop and indulged in some coffee and WIFI.



The forecast called for rain and strong winds with gusts to 35 knots, gale force. The morning coffee shop crowd agreed with Paul that some of those felt like at least 45. Certainly not a day for travel. We relaxed at The Bean all morning, then went for a bike ride. Several times a day some old sailor would stop by to admire the boat. It’s such a small town that we found ourselves running into people we kinda knew as we cruised around.



We left Oriental. Paul started to scrape and sand all the old varnish off the combing around the cockpit. I steered all day. It was kinda cold again. We made good time and decided to pass Morehead City and made it to Swansboro instead. Camp Lejeune is just past Swansboro so there were a lot of unusual noises (by that I think Piper means bombs exploding), but at least we had a WIFI signal.



On this day, our spirits sank to new lows. I was already miserable thinking of the many days I had ahead of me where I sat at the helm, back and hips sore, staring and steering. Paul was getting tired of having to fix things. Last night our poorly regulated new alternator fried our power inverter, but he fixed the alternator this morning and was trying to keep his mood up.


We were approaching a channel dredging barge and I should have slowed down but the markers looked pretty clear cut. They were directing me towards the side of the channel to go around the dredger. With the dredging crew being right there, I felt these markers must be right. We were all wrong. I’ve never run aground so hard in my life. It was like we hit a wall. I sat stunned and shaking afterward and looked around to see if I had wandered out of the channel. We were dead center. It didn’t gradually get shallow. Our depth alarm, set at 7 feet, didn’t go off until we hit. Our draft is 4’. We tried full throttle reverse and winching on an anchor we’d set out at the same time and didn’t budge. Paul started up the dinghy and then it quit. About a half an hour later he got it started again but at that point I thought the tide had already gone out too much and we’d be stuck there for the next ten hours. He insisted we keep trying and with the dinghy pushing against the stern, he turned the boat 180 degrees. Then he pushed the bow while I winched on the anchor set out behind us. Thirty seconds later we were floating again.

While Paul felt around with the oar for deeper water, I radioed the dredge operator to see if he knew of a path by him. He said, “at high tide it wutn’t much deeper ’n four feet over there, ‘n’ mos the sailboats‘ve had to wait ‘teel then.” Well, we’ve seen only one sailboat in the five days we’ve been traveling so how long have they been watching boats hit this speed bump across the channel? Paul did find a seven-foot-deep channel past them, within eight feet of the shore, that the dredger captain seemed to know nothing about. They may not be the ones in charge of moving the markers, but they could certainly suggest the change. We’ll pass dredgers at a snails pace from now on.



Piper was looking very depressed and not talking to me. I felt selfish about wanting to buy a boat and pushing her toward this dream which was actually her idea of retirement. I told her I was sorry. This created a dialog which was, of course, about house flipping. I guess that’s gonna be her way of paying me back. We both agree that living on a boat sucks. TV is where it’s at. It’s sad to think about what all we are giving up to live on the water with a bunch of single alcoholic men. Don’t get me wrong, when we get to the warm air of Florida, we will be much happier and we will always love sailing. It seems that everyday life on the boat is just too much. The worry, the stress and especially, the maintenance. Despite all of this, we will continue to push for this next trip to Key West and the Bahamas. We will maintain a positive attitude because we are anxious to see all of our friends in St. Aug, Daytona, Titusville, Melbourne, Ft. Lauderdale and Key West.



In Wilmington, we anchored in a large empty harbor for three days. We hung out with Piper’s cousin, Nick. He drove us around to get supplies and we watched the tube at his house. It was a nice break, though every night we had a curfew issued by the city because they detest cruisers. There was a horrible thunderstorm with a lot of lightning and high winds gusting to 50mph. At abot midnight I heard a strange sound and realized our cockpit drains were clogged and we had about twenty gallons of water filled up like a tub. It was just about to overflow into the quarterberths. Lucky us.

My birthday occurred. We all went out to a mexican restaurant. We had a great time with Nick. We tried to convince him that since he had quit his job, he should come with us to Charleston. We had already complained too much for him to bite. He made the right choice. It was very cold.

Nick told us how to make spinach artichoke dip the day before, so I broke out the mini food processor and whipped it up. For two days we were able to forget about the weather because of this incredible dip. We were indeed going insane. Giddy and silly behavior was becoming more frequent.

We made it to Bucksport, SC in the Waccamaw River. There are swamp trees and stumps lining the shore here. We tied up to the dock at the marina hoping to score a free overnight stay. We had indeed lost our minds at this point. While talking to the locals they told us how lately there are large submerged trees that float around in the 30 foot deep black water. The trees had been moving lately with the tide into the ICW and then back into the lagoon. We had anchored in the lagoon last summer. It is eerie. There is no room for scope. You can’t really dig in an anchor. Just like the trees, you could drift about. We didn’t want that. We opted to pay the dollar per foot ($30) to relieve us of worry. There was a man looking at a Grampian 26 sailboat for sale on ebay there. He was from NC. We talked for about an hour or so. I showed him my art and he bought a lizard which made the stay easier on our wallets. I hung out on the dock with two fishermen telling stories on the night the lunar eclipse occurred.



The next morning we headed down the Waccamaw, a deep river with black water and swamp trees lining the shore. The fishermen were all out with their nets blocking the entire river. Luckily, they knew they needed to guide us around their net buoys. It was cold and eventually started raining. We anchored in a creek that had a huge fetch of shallow water leading to the Atlantic. This offered no wind protection and we had wind 15-20 mph that night. The motor stut off while anchoring and we immediately thought we had run out of deisel. We checked with our dipstick and we releived that we still had about three inches. We added more from a can before restarted. Running out of deisel out in the middle of a marsh would be a huge blow. Luckily, we were fine.

The next day we made it to Charleston, SC. On our way across the harbor we suddenly heard the depth sounder go off and powered down.... then deeper water came and we looked to port and saw a huge freighter coming into the channel. Where did that come from! Instantly a thick fog rolled in. And then some rain came. We could barly see anything and I rounded up all the gps, binolculars and horn preparing for the worst. Then, over the VHF radio, we were being hailed by the captain of the freighter. We answered him and he told us to head towards the fort so that we would be out of his way. We could barely see anything and we were worried about the shallow water over there and there was also supposed to be a submerged dredging pipeline. Uhh.. Everything went well. It was just a frantic "OK let's get it together" moment.

Our friend Caleb had been there a few months ago. We called him and got the scoop on the anchorage. We were excited to have a sort of nice day for the first time. In the morning we dingied to the Free dingy dock which they were aparently now charging $5 a day for. We blew the city municipal marina off and docked without paying knowing they were too big to notice us. It was called the MegaDock. There were a lot of huge yachts.

















Charleston had a very large outdoor covered city market with crafts, jewelry and more. We inquired about what the market was like with one the vendors. She told us of the original slave market that was owned by some family and given to the city under the condition that they would never charge rent to the artists and vendors. I told her that of course she pays rent and she said "yes". (I am not your typical American – a song by the goats came to mind) They now charge $22 per day. Do the math. That's the kind of local government I don't care for. She also said the spaces are permanently rented to specific vendors and that no one has ever left. Meaning, you can go to Charleston to sell. Sorry, fellow artists. Aren't you glad I shipped you to Key West? I keep thinking about how our sailing adventure started off being a sailing getaway and has turned into a street artist adventure/protest/education endevour.



We left the next day because Charleston blows. I don't know why people say if you like Savannah, you'll love Charleston. Savannah is 1000 times better. As we left we did not heed the warnings about the strong currents through Elliot cut. We passed through against the current. Books said not to do this because there are rocks on boths sides and a pipeline crossing. If your motor stalls or cannot keep up with the current, you may turn sideways and crash and sink. It was extremely dangerous! We should have waited till slack tide. WARNING to any other boaters. We were going full throttle doing 1.5 knots. ( normally that would be six.) We will never do that again and have decided to examine each warning in the watewrway guides very seriously.



The Photo above is of Beaufort, SC. We took some great photos of this cute little town. We anchored here for the night. The weather was finally warmer. We were not miserable anymore.









We spent a day or two in some marshes until we hit the Savannah River. We had decided that even though it was out of the way, we were going to Savannah to have a little fun. As we pulled up to the towns floating dock, we were unsure about the cost of the dock and the rules. There was already another little sailboat about like ours. We tied up and a young girl about our age came to help from the other sailboat. Her name was Rachael. We were so excited to meet another young couple on a sailboat doing what we are doing. They were from the Boston/Cape Cod area and had left in November. Their trip was more miserable than ours and we were so happy to be able to share stories. She told us, her and her boyfriend, Dave, had been tied up to that dock for two months while Dave picked up a construction job. We asked about the cost of the dockage and she said," We stopped paying after a day or two because the attendents at the parking garage, where you pay, were shocked that we would come to pay them in the off season. "



No sailors seem to come to Savannah, because of all the intimidating freighters and the fact that all the cruising guides say you have to pay for the dock and that Savannah has no shopping. The dock really only has room for about five boats. The city is about eight miles out of the way as well. That's about two hours in a sailboaat.





Dave and Rachael are headed to Key West as well. They plan to do a crossing from there. For about two days however, we were all too busy to hang out. We felt as if we weren't going to hang out after all. Then on the third day, Dave borrowed a car and we all left for Spin City, to do our laundry. We had a great time and then went to their boat to talk for the rest of the night. The stories just started pouring out of all of us. They are the first couple our age we have ever met while living on Delphine. They told us we were the first young people they had met ever on a boat. Poor Dave had jumped in the water three times this winter in Delaware because the painter line from his dingy was caught in the prop. They met a guy in NC who was travelling in a canoe with outriggers. Apparently he was crazy and many people felt they had to help him along his way to wherever he was going. He was covered in mud and his canoe was stuck in marsh grass we they met him. He asked for a tow out of the mess. It was awesome meeting another couple on a sailboat. We hope to meet up all the way down the coast, but we know that our schedules will probably not mesh that well.




Savannah has grown. The businesses were thriving. Many clothing shops, coffeeshops. eceryone was flipping old houses. A new mall is opening in the spring right downtown. The fashion department of SCAD had twenty fashion students when Piper attended. Now they have 900. Piper wishes she was in school there now instead. But when she attended, all fashion students got to display their collection in a huge fashion show in the theatre with some celebrity fashion icons. Now only the top students get into the Runway show. her fashion degree is probably more appealing to the fashion industry now that it is a big fashion school.



I managed to fill an order for Mt. Dora, FL while is Savannah. I also made some lizards on River street. The locals adopted me right away and we played music and talked a lot about the ACLU helping to protect artist rights to selling and displaying art on city streets. These artists were being kicked off the streets and the ACLU helped them preserve their right to sell on the street. They were also supposed to be back a lot of money. That never happened but at least they are being left alone. The city still tries to issue permits to control horrible epidemic of artistry that is taking over our nations streets. But if you mention artist's rights and the ACLU, they may just leave you alone and let you pass under the radar. Free Speech ... still fighting for it. Remember, Art is a universal language. It says more than a picket sign and payment for art keeps the message coming, just like the newspapers.