Whew.

Each fall we travel with Tony, following his race schedule. Each fall our itinerary is different and we have been able to get to know some extraordinary parts of our amazing world.  As I have written before, this fall we are exploring the western part of the United States (a small part of it – it’s hiYUUUUUGE out here!) and also quite far away from either our land or boat worlds in the East.

We were feeling particularly far away this week as the hurricane barreled down on our east-coast haunts. We watched as it spared the Cayman Islands where we have many dear friends. We cringed as it blew past the Bahamas and our favorite places in Elbow Cay, Marsh harbor and of course our friends in Hopetown. Next it crept towards Miami/Coconut Grove and Ft. Lauderdale – an area which is almost a 2nd home to us in the winter… Thankfully the storm seemed to spare Port St. Lucie and with great relief we hear the marinas in the Ortega River in Jacksonville have faired OK. Our friends at Huckins and Sadler Point Marina (both in Jacksonville) are always in our thoughts when storms head to Florida’s northern shores.

As we count our blessings, the Caribbean islands, Haiti, Bahamas, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas will have a significant amount of loss, repair and clean-up to do. Some places are still flooded or without power. The American Red Cross is collecting donations earmarked for people affected by Hurricane Matthew – if you want to help, here is the place: www.redcross.org.  We will be down there in a few weeks to help out where we can and we expect to be needed.

We feel a bit helpless all the way on the other side of our glorious country, but our hearts were with our boat friends in the east this week.

Thank you Mother Nature for all you do & continue to stay safe everyone!

(hurricane photos courtesy of the internet, specifically: www.nj.com and http://www.cbs.com)