Savannah, Georgia

We narrowly escaped Ft Lauderdale’s imminent siege by hardcore Spring Break partiers. Luckily our beach front hotel in Lauderdale was only about half full of drunk and rowdy college coeds! We decided to cut our stay short in “Liquordale” as the locals call it and instead torture ourselves with a four hundred plus mile drive to Savannah, Georgia.

After the all day drive we took a well deserved day off from boat shopping. Our day was spent walking the sometimes cobbled, but always historic brick lined streets of Savannah. A truly beautiful and well planned city with over 20 parks in the city core. A nice lunch and a stroll along the Savannah river under crisp blue skies was truly refreshing especially since it was nearly freezing with the wind chill. We’d narrowly escaped the Spring breakers to be caught out in the cold as unusually chilly weather descended on the south for the next few days.

Boat shopping travel mania

We've been all over the place lately and it seems we sleep in a different bed every night... mostly because we have. As you know we are shopping for a new home (i.e. Catamaran sailboat). Our short stay in Florida had us in Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Stuart, Fort Meyers and Miami. Then a night in Puerto Rico when a flight was canceled. Now we're in Marigot, St Martin, where we thought we had a deal on a boat... but didn't.

All for the better as we are now heading to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic tomorrow to check out a better boat. Then back on a plane to Ft. Lauderdale, then who know where next. I'm confident that investing the time and money will really pay off with a nice boat.

The good news is I'm finally adjusting to the 10 hour time difference between Australia and the Caribbean and can actually sleep while it's dark outside instead of my vampire routine of late.

Kathy has been working diligently on a website for our next venture of offering exclusive 1-2 week charters for 4-6 guests on our new 40-50' Catamaran. More on that soon.

Flying to St. Maarten in the Caribbean today. Our new cell number may not work there so just email.

New Phone number

We've just arrived in Miami, Florida and are recovering from serious jet lag.

Our new phone number for the next few weeks is: (954)-305-2703

We'll be traveling in the Caribbean and may be out of phone coverage areas so if you don't catch us on the phone try an email as we try very hard to check email once a day.

Dave & Kathy

55 hours of Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Bundaberg to Brisbane to Taipei, Taiwan to San Francisco to Kathy's parents house in Santa Rosa, CA.

...Too bad we didn't confirm they would be home!

After one hour in the driveway trying to unsuccessfully call family and friends we give up and head for a hotel.

...a block later we turn around and head back... to check under the doormat... "just in case".

Luck is with us! The key is under the mat and we are in!!!


So, since leaving the boat in Bundaberg, Queensland Australia we've traveled:

Car 1/2 hour from marina to Bundaberg train station.
Meet up with car buyer and wait for train 2 hours.
Train 4 -1/2 hours Bundaberg to Brisbane
Layover 16 hours in Brisbane
Taxi 1/2 hour to Airport
Wait at airport 3-1/2 hours
Plane 8-1/2 hours to Taipei Taiwan
Layover 6 hours at Taipei airport
Plane 10-1/2 hours to San Francisco
Rental car 2 hours to Kathy's parents house.
Figuring out key is under the doormat after 1 hour in the driveway... priceless.

For a grand total: 55 plus hours and 6 time zones.

In the scheme of things no complaints... it's a lot easier taking a 747-400 to weather than a 40' yacht and a heck of a lot faster.

USA Bound

We are jumping on a train today bound for Brisbane, Australia then flying to San Francisco for a few days to drop off bags before heading east again to Miami, Florida.

The Miami boat show is on February 14-18 and will provide a great opportunity to check out many different models of catamarans and make great contacts.

Beyond Florida a few stops in the Caribbean are in mind to travel and see more boats.



Kathy and I will have a USA phone on the 11th or 12th so we'll post our new number here.

Buyers inspection completed

As is customary the purchasers of La Vie lifted the boat out of the water for an inspection. As expected everything looked great so the sale is moving forward.

We are still uncertain what we are doing next. Perhaps flying to the Caribbean to look at catamaran sailing boats.