Life is a work of art...

Life is a work of art.

In our case, it's a Watercolor!!

What a month we have had onboard The Hoot.  John and I closed up the house in Santa Rosa Beach, FL and boarded a Delta flight headed to Key West thinking, perhaps a bit optimistically and naively, that we would have 3-4 weeks of sailing her back home.  Well...hahaha, joke was on us.  We spent four weeks sweating in a broiling hot, windless boat yard "partying" with the no-seeums from hell.  

Boat projects, maintenance, shake-down cruises and the hunt for shower facilities became our daily chores.  Gone were the visions of sipping pina-coladas on the deck every night while we watched the sun set.  

Maybe by now, from reading some of the previous blog posts John and I have made, you may surmise that we would be ready to call it quits.  But, we are both pretty tenacious and found ways to make things in the boatyard as bearable as they could be all while knowing soon our day would come!

Well, yesterday...finally... we had our day.  And what a glorious day it was.  Finally!  We pulled away from the Driftwood Boatyard and headed out the now familiar canal on our way to the Atlanta Ocean.  We were going to make another attempt to make it to the Marathon City Marina where we would spend a week or so on a mooring ball.

Along the way, I've been playing with this cool iPhone app called Waterlogue.   While I brought my own watercolors along on the trip, I've yet to have an afternoon free to pull them out.   My creativity will have to be digital media for a bit longer but I think the "art" I've created is beautiful!  And, so is life on a mooring ball!

Ramble-on Rose, our boat plant likes her new spot next to the mizzen mast.

A rare moment of relaxation...  I love John's Texas pride!

Our manatee friends that loved coming for happy hour.  They got theirs out of a water hose while we had ours from a bottle.

Speaking of bottles... this bottle of Conch Republic rum looked intriguing.  If anyone has ever tried it let me know.  I'm thinking we may need a bottle of this before we cast off again!

My darling sailor looking relaxed and happy.  

 Watercoloring images makes the sweat and grime disappear!  

Our ship's compass.  

Although, if I need to know where my "true north" is,  I just look for John.

Taking a turn at the wheel.  

Unfortunately, Watercoloring images doesn't slenderize.

Sailing the Hoot... 

Sunsets here are almost as nice as home.

The view from our mooring ball.   F-3

The blue boat is called "Daydream" which of course made both of us smile.

Speaking of mooring ball F-3... 

The Hoot looks pretty good floating there!

John couldn't stop smiling all day yesterday.

It made my heart happy too!

Yes, life is art... life is an adventure... and if you are living it right you never stop learning!