A highlight of the week was dinner with the Busey’s on their farm. We sipped Côtes du Rhône and Cabernet under the stars while the kids played baseball, puzzles and Yatzee!  The farm was gorgeous, with eggs to collect and many animals to feed, pet and marvel. Brooks and Jennie are building an extraordinary life there with their two beautiful children. We share a similar vision with the Busey’s of wanting more quality-of-life family experiences and adventures with our kids… between our two families I would say we were achieving this in spades. We feel lucky to have found this incredible, perfect-for-us boat but the real gift was meeting the Busey family, from whom we bought our boat. We endeavor to take great care of the JENNIE MAC in her new life as the CORTADO.

Needless to say, leaving Jacksonville was hard to do.

As I explained above, we had made some friends there and sort of liked being around them. We could not wait to get going south and started on our adventures, but the safety of Sadler Point Marina and the wealth of knowledge there about our boat was a nice comfort. There was some anxiety about leaving the boatyard but we knew it was time. The kids were flexible and helpful and Tony and I were a formidable team in the preparation.

Our first day underway took us north out of Jacksonville and the St. John’s river, which hooked around east and south to St. Augustine. It took us about 7-hours to our next port of St. Augustine. It was a surprise to us, boasting beautiful Spanish architecture, a quaint, cultural community, lots of art, music and many great restaurants. We stayed two nights at the City Marina, as we continued to organize ourselves, explored the town, picnic-ed at the fort (Castillo de San Marcos), played putt-putt, all while also doing schoolwork and laundry.