2018 began with us back home in League City, Texas. This would be our last winter season at home as we planned to take Destiny across to the Caribbean at the end of Hurricane Season. We tried to spend as much time as possible with our grand children and families and traveled a bit while home. Frank made a trip to Denver for a week in January. Soon after his return we both flew to Phoenix to visit our friends Jeff and Jeri Lyn Martin, where we enjoyed two days of Golf tournaments and spent Super Bowl Sunday. In February, I drove up to Dallas for a week with my Mom, sister and her family.
March took us to New York City for a very cold but fabulous visit with fellow sailing friends, Gary and Louise (s/v Lulu), where we ate at as many "foodie" spots as possible, visited the 911 Memorial, attended a Broadway show, several museums and met up with more sailors, Jackie and Mel (s/v Feisty). April sent us to New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival and to Lake Charles for gambling and a George Benson concert – and Yes! He's still got it!
Also in April we made the very difficult decision to sell our beautiful home. Knowing that we would be away for nearly a full year when we returned to Destiny, we just couldn't fathom leaving the house empty for that long. Renting it was not an option that we would even consider. After the terror of hurricane Harvey the previous season we just didn't want the worry. So we listed the house, hoping to have enough time for it to sell before our return to the boat at the end of summer. As fate would have it, our home sold within the first few days. We were then thrown into panic mode to find a short-term rental ASAP as the buyers, having paid cash, wanted to take immediate possession. How lucky were we? We put everything into storage and moved into a tiny 1-BR apartment in May. We didn't plan to spend much time there anyway as we still had some travels planned.
In early June, because I had spent my 60th birthday on the boat in a disgusting dry-dock in Bari, Italy, Frank planned a surprise 61st birthday for me. We flew to San Diego where he booked us into a suite in the concert venue section at Humphreys. He arranged a surprise dinner party for me at Miguel's with several of our San Diego-based sailing friends, Jaime and Christine Tate (formerly s/v Morning Light), Glen and Sally Vienna (s/v The Dorothy Marie) and Eric and Gisela Gosch (s/v Dolce) and Jeff and Kathi (s/v Bold Spirit). With our suite came the dinner and concert package and a view of the stage where, from a comfy seat on our balcony, we watched Judy Collins warming up for her performance that night with Stephen Stills. It was a magical trip. Later in June, we traveled to St. Paul, MN to spend a week with Lynn and Dick Bisanz (s/v Wind Pony). That trip was again full of adventure and surprises. Rick and Robin of Endangered Species rode up on their massive Harley to spend a few days with us. Another sailing couple who are good friends of most of our sailing group, David and Melinda from s/v Sassoon also joined the gang. We of course went to the Mall of America and accomplished some lovely hiking, touring, eating and shopping. While there we celebrated an early surprise 70th birthday for Frank so that he could enjoy it with some of our favorite sailing friends.
Frank traveled to Colorado in July for his annual "Golfing With The Boys" trip, and to visit his son and daughter.
Before the end of summer, I had taken up golf lessons after wanting to do so for many years, and we both learned Pickle Ball. Finally our departure date loomed and on July 30th we bid a sad goodbye to my daughter, son-in-law and the grandkids and boarded our flight back to Spain where Destiny sat on the hardstand patiently awaiting our return. As is outlined in the blogs beginning in August, we sailed her down the coast of Spain to Gibraltar, Morocco, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and then across to Martinique where we now sit. We had one crew join us for the passage, Jim Collins, who boarded his return flight home two days after we arrived at lovely St. Anne's Bay, Martinique. Frank and I then got down to the business of getting on the appointment books with the sail-maker, the rigger, the water-maker people, the dinghy outboard repair folks, and engine maintenance guys. Nothing will happen until after the holidays, and the marina was fully booked so we stayed at St. Anne to enjoy a very nice quiet Christmas dinner at Coco Neg, a local Creole/soul food café. We moved Destiny over to the anchorage at Le Marin just before New Year's to await the arrival of our friends Mark and Laura (Sabbatical III), from the Canaries. I'd like to say we had a fantastic NYE celebration in Martinique but we fell asleep long before midnight following a delicious grilled steak dinner aboard. Goodbye 2018. Let's wake up and find what 2019 has got in store.
