The ORDEAL is finally over!

Skip just saw the hand surgeon this morning and was declared cured!  Yay!!!!  He still has some weakness in his hand that the doctor says is normal and will strengthen over the next few months.  The ordeal that started as a cut on his knuckle in October and lead to a nasty infection, a week in the hospital along with lengthy stays for treatment in Savannah and Vero Beach is finally over.

Having fun in Florida

Even without this drama, the trip south this year was not entirely fun.  We left later than usual and got stopped by Hurricane Sandy.  The rest of the trip was cold and foggy until we got to Cocoa.  The upside is that we had fun traveling with Bob and Pam (Silhouette) and we are enjoying our extended stay in Vero Beach; so much so that we are looking to move here!

Skip researched boat insurance options and we’ve decided to leave Moondance in Brunswick in May and return home by rental car.  When we get home, we’ll get the house ready to sell.  Once we sell the house, we’ll come back to Vero Beach and look for a house to buy.  We’ve already looked around and feel confident that we’ll find something we like.  It’s both an exciting and scary prospect to relocate but we’ve always talked about finding a new place to live and this feels ‘right’ to us.

In the meantime, we’ll look for good weather to head further south and cross to the Bahamas if it looks good.  Right now the weather is crappy.  A strong front is coming this weekend and the middle of next week.  Maybe it will settle down after that.

Last week we went on an evening river cruise with Bob and Pam and their friends who were visiting.  We had the boat to ourselves and the guide thought it was funny to have a bunch of sailors take a cruise!  It was a beautiful evening to watch for herons and dolphins.  We had our eyes peeled for manatees but didn’t see any.

Pam and Bob (Silhouette)

Moondance at the dock (only blue hull.) Silhouette is on the end.

White pelicans and their cohorts

Dolphin escort

Under the Barber bridge

Today we met John , Carolyn, Jim and Binnie for lunch at Mulligan’s in Vero Beach.  They’re excited about our moving plans and offered a lot of helpful advice.

Lunch gang at Vero Beach

Jim was disappointed that they were temporarily out of diet Coke. The waitress brought him a sippy cup when their tap was fixed!

The local pet store didn’t have Bailey’s brand of food so the store gave us a few samples to try. We decided to give Bailey a blind taste test to see what he liked. He went to the chicken first but seemed to like the duck and sweet potatoes the best.  She said it’s her best seller!

Blind taste test – of course he ate them all!

I was so excited to get my Moondance necklace in the mail. I follow Mermaid Tears on Facebook because I love her seaglass and silver jewelry. Every 100 ‘likes’ she gives out a prize so I was thrilled to win a $25 discount. I told her which style I liked and asked for a sailboat charm and a ‘Moondance’ charm. I love it!!

Moondance necklace

It’s pretty dreary today with rain and a cold front approaching this weekend.  It’s a good day to catch up on my blog!