Just turned on the anchor light - Valkyrie in the Keys!

[Valkyrie]

Hi Brats,

Just a final update here. Marcia and and I had a great time in the Keys and the day that I picked her up at the airport in Miami the weather turned great - temps in the 70's and 80's with rain on only one day. As noted previously, the big, nasty sexy predatory fish that we hoped for didn't cooperate. Water temps for them to start hitting should be in the mid-to-upper-70's, but were only in the upper 60's due to the cold weather for most of the winter. Bottom line: it really didn't matter; we still caught reef fish and had a great time on the beautiful turquoise water.

The final two nights before Marcia flew home we spent at Coconut Bay Resort in Key Largo, the small motel were we spent our honeymoon and visit every year. However, it didn't seem right leaving Valkyrie in the parking lot after a great vacation aboard her. The next morning, after a night in a king-size bed with AC and cable tv, we both admitted that we wished that we had spent another night on Valkyrie instead, but neither of us wanted to make the suggestion, thinking that the other wanted to go to Coconut Bay. Lesson learned.

I took Marcia to Miami this past Monday and headed north with Valkyrie in tow on Tuesday. I spent a few days visiting a retired CG buddy in Jacksonville and we splashed Valkyrie for a run down the ICW to St. Augustine for lunch at the Conch House, right on the water. I'm in SC now at my in-laws helping reinforce their seawall with Sakrete - 24 bags today! I'll finish up tomorrow.

Also, tomorrow I'll unload food that can freeeze and re-winterize the boat for Ohio temps. I'll head for home on Monday and take Valkyrie up to our marina on Lake Erie for launching in early May.

I had an interesting encounter just south of Savannah on Route 95 the other day. The traffic was stop-and-go and a gold Lexus SUV pulled up beside me and the passenger was yelling something to me. I turned down the radio to hear him say, "Hey! I see you on the C-Brats all the time!" I asked if he had a C-Dory and he replied that he didn't, but would one day!

We had such a good time in the Keys that we plan on a full month there next winter and will store Valkyrie at Mobile East for the winter. I've added a few more pics to our Keys sub-album(p7)and some more neat running shots of Valkyrie from the bridge and sunset shots to our main album, page 8.

Best wishes,

Nick and Marcia
"Valkyrie"

[Casey]

(Album, Page 8: ) Great "publicity" shots of Valkyrie !

I suspect you had someone on the bridge near Bahia Honda, but if you want to tell folks you hired a helicopter for an hour or so to get the shots, I won't
tell anyone. It'll just be our little secret, eh(?), and no one will notice!

Best,
Casey