S/V Sweet Liberty

We are still here in Little River, SC about ready to resume our trip south! We arrived here, as you may recall, back in the beginning of November 2015. The plans were to get the boats here and then for all of us to return to Vermont for the holidays. The Botulas left by plane from Wilmington, NC on November 10th and we drove home leaving on November 16^th. We had Thanksgiving in Maine with Joan's daughter, Lindsay; and Lindsay's husband, Noah, and daughter, Lucy. We then returned to Vermont to have Christmas with them as well as with my son, Bert, who came in from Seattle, WA for the occasion! Christmas in Vermont was a bit unusual this year – it was record setting warm – 68 degrees on Christmans day having not had any snow yet for the season! That didn't last, unfortunately. Because before we left to drive back down to South Carolina on January 4, 2016 – we got cold temps and about 5” of snow just in time for the drive!

The Botulas arrived in Little River the day after we did and proceeded to make ready as early as possible for departure from Little River to get to warmer temps in Florida as soon as they could. Joan and I, however, have had to wait until the end of January to resume our trip – doctors orders following a hernia repair for Whit while home in December. We are now re-provisioning the boat and getting ready for departure, however we are keeping an eye on the weather. We may have to wait a bit longer than next week for our departure. The weather is the big deciding factor. (Note that today, we have had a few flurries – all a part of the big Nor'easter that is slamming NE today!!)

A few cool harbor notes! Pictured below is our Irwin 38 in our slip here in Coquina Harbor. Along with our boat are two other Irwin sailboats just across from us on the next dock! “Powerless” is a 52' Irwin cutter and “Distant Drummer” is a 68' Irwin cutter. Both of these other boats are owned by the same person and the 68' used to be Ted Irwin's personal boat. I think this was the last boat Ted built. So, in our little harbor, the three Irwin sailboats are just like the "papa bear", the "mama bear", and the little "baby bear"!!! :-)

Our boat (the "baby bear") in our slip on "O" dock