It's better To Say See Ya Later, Than To Say Goodbye

~Shep~
Thank you! It is hard to put all of feelings of pride, thankfulness and love into so few words. You must always remember that your participation in our journey, will never be forgotten. You made sacrifices and worked your tail off, but left us as a strong, confident young man on a mission of his own. You will always have a home here on Free Spirit!!

It is almost impossible to get a picture of all 3 boys smiling with one of them not looking like an alien from Pluto. Unless they are sleeping, of course :-)
The day before Shep had to leave we went out for one last sail. For him, as well as for our new sailing master, Raoul to get a quick days lesson on the workings of the rigging and sails from Shep.

We had all us Smyth's including Shep, Dave our ship's carpenter, Raoul the new sailing master, Gina the occasional activities coordinator, and the crew of Second Star, Jason and Josh. 11 of us altogether for an afternoon sail with some amazing snorkeling.

Shep's last project while the kids and I were in Alaska, was to rope work netting around the bow sprit. It was great that he and the boys got to enjoy the fruits of his labor on his last trip out. It is a wonderful place to relax, listen to the water rush by, and talk to the dolphins swimming and playing around in our bow wake.

You would never believe how hard it is to get decent pictures of dolphins. They play fast and furious, and I probably get 1 pictures for every 50 sightings.

Just taking a little snooze......

A few days before this sail, we had bought the boys and I snorkeling gear. Although I have a terrible claustrophobic fear of being under the water, I knew that I had to do it for them. Not only that, but we are going to be sailing to places where it would be a tragedy to not see the beauty of what lies beneath our keel. Blayde and Valin took to it like fish in water, but Drake had a harder time with the whole mask/snorkel idea. He did put on his fins and goggles to see some of the more exciting underwater creatures.

Blayde and Valin snorkeling away! Once I got in and overcame the initial hyperventilation, I had a wonderful time, and spent about an hour and a half exploring and taking pictures.

Just a little plant dancing in the current.

A few colorful fish amongst the reef.

Although the picture is a little cloudy, you can still clearly see that this is a 6 foot barracuda! The funny thing is that I was the only one left in the water, and everyone was telling me from the deck of the boat that there was a barracuda in the water. I figured that can't be that dangerous so I decided to swim over and take his picture. It was not until I got about 15 feet away and saw all of his sharp, jagged, nasty teeth that I quickly got to the swim ladder and joined everyone else for lunch.
It's all fun and games, and NO ONE got hurt :-)

We left just a few days after Shep did on the 21st of May, to head on our first jaunt North to Tavernier, FL. P'tit Louis had departed the day before, and we had heavy hearts leaving Gina and San Patresha behind. She will join us for some great cruising adventures this fall when we return to Florida before we head further south around November.

It is interesting that when you are on land with a car, life has a completely different prospective. The cruising prospective; It was going to take us a full day of sailing, an hour or more to find a suitable anchorage, and a 30 minute (wet, wet, wet) dighny ride to get to shore. The shore prospective; get in the car drive for a little lesss than an hour and you were are there! I point this out because when you are travelling by sea everything seems longer and harder, but at the same time it is slow and easy. You may have a few more hardships, but you have the time to enjoy and savor the experience that you are having at that moment of your life. You gain a much greater appreciation for your surroundings and the many, many things that landlubber's take for granted. More thoughts on this later.....