mvalwayshome

Always Home has been SOLD!!!!  

Thank you for following along with our adventure.

Good Bye!!  ( please do click on the video)

Good morning Cruisers and Loopers and Casual Readers of all walks of life,

We have reduced the price of Always Home from $118,500 to $99,000.  Price just reduced over $20,000! We are motivated since our cruising days are completed. Please visit Curtis Stokes for more information.

1988 47’ DeFever Performance Offshore Cruiser – ALWAYS HOME – still for sale – US $139,000 $99,000   – Family says it is time to get back to land.  They want us homeward bound. We have reduced the price to make their wishes come true. http://www.curtisstokes.net/trawer-for-sale-defever47-always-home.html     Contact Curtis Stokes via Email or call 954-684-0218 for more information and an appointment to view this DeFever trawler for sale.

What can I say?  We are anxious to get back to land and start our next adventure.

It has been a glorious couple of weeks here in Sarasota, Fl.  Perfect weather.  Blue skies and calm breezes welcome many winter visitors to the city. Please do not tell your friends to come visit.  The roads are already bumper to bumper, the restaurants are packed, and you have to watch where you walk in Costco or you will get run over!!

Good morning Cruisers and Loopers and Casual Readers of all walks of life,

We have reduced the price of Always Home from $139,000 to $118,500.  Price just reduced over $20,000! We are motivated since our cruising days are completed. Please visit Curtis Stokes for more information.

1988 47’ DeFever Performance Offshore Cruiser – ALWAYS HOME – still for sale – US $139,000  $118,500 – Family says it is time to get back to land.  They want us homeward bound. We have reduced the price to make their wishes come true. http://www.curtisstokes.net/trawer-for-sale-defever47-always-home.html     Contact Curtis Stokes via Email or call 954-684-0218 for more information and an appointment to view this DeFever trawler for sale.

We are excited that 2018 came so brilliantly!!  We stayed up for the fireworks at Marina Jack Marina in Sarasota, FL.  We were invited to join several boaters on the deck of their yacht to watch this show front row and center.  Outstanding!!

Starburst

3-in-One Starburst

Finale!!

You can almost hear the booms and cackles of the explosives from these pictures.  It is always amazing to see fireworks this close, feel the explosive compressions, and sense the excitement all around the marina basin.

We are looking forward to the New Year!!  How about you?!

BTW – No tattoo for me yet.  😉

Good Morning Boaters, Cruisers, and Loopers!!

Cruisers and boaters along the west coast of Florida were warned a week ago to be aware of the Jellyfish in the water.  We were aware a few days earlier than that.

This is an early morning picture of the waters behind a boat on our dock.  They have a blue light shining below the water line all night long.  In the wee hours of the morning, large fish accumulate to feed off the smaller fish drawn to the light.  On top of the water were silver dollar sized floating opaque objects.  I recognized them from the Jellyfish display at Mote Aquarium as baby jellyfish.

Baby Jellyfish

Yes, the fish are dinner sized but we don’t fish nor are they easily baited by the time they get this large.

Then the winds and current changed and carried a few Moon Jellyfish and a slew of Sea Nettle Jellyfish into Marina Jacks Marina.  One dock mate said he saw a “Man-of-war” floating around.  We did not.

Moon Jellyfish

Moon and Sea Nettle Jellies

Look at those tentacles!!  Some of them looked almost 2 feet long!

What is a tangle of Jellies called?

Pink lights shining on these two Sea Nettle Jellies

Yes, the local divers say the Sea Nettles tentacles do sting!!  They have vinegar at the ready for any and all contact with these little guys and gals.

I enjoyed watching them swim around each other.  Bouncing off the side of the floating dock.  Trying to navigate around all the boats and dinghies.  Even watched this one-legged crab swim for its life to get away from the jellies.  It swam over to our boat and hugged our hull until the jellyfish moved away.

I still see an occasional jellyfish.  Reminds me of the Cannonball Jellies we saw a couple of years ago.

Lastly, if you have 2 minutes, a short video of some of the Jellies swimming around.  The slapping noise in the first half is the lines (rope) on the sailboat nearby and the winds causing the lines to “slap” the poles.  Sometimes the constant slapping noise is rather annoying.  Enjoy.

The video was captured using my cellphone. The glare on the water made it difficult to capture what the eyes see.  They were fun to watch non-the-less.

Good Morning!!

Always Home did not suffer any damage during Hurricane Irma.

1988 47’ DeFever Performance Offshore Cruiser – ALWAYS HOME – still for sale – US $139,000 – Family says it is time to get back to land.  They want us homeward bound. We have reduced the price to make their wishes come true. http://www.curtisstokes.net/trawer-for-sale-defever47-always-home.html

Always Home was relocated to the most eastern side of Marina Jack Marina in Sarasota, Florida where it is considered a Safe Harbor on September 7th.

We left Sarasota on Sept 8th for Mobile, Al and stayed with family.   I wasn’t sure if the human on board Always Home would be able to handle the wind and rain.  I was confident our DeFever would do well.  And it did!  Look how beautiful the skies were.  The weather was calm, hot, and deceiving.  No one would have guessed that within 48 hours, wind and rain would gust up to 60-80mph with Irma cruising by.

Always Home

We waited for utilities and gas stations to get back to normal before traveling back to Sarasota.  No need to rush if South Florida was still under flood waters, power outages, etc.

Always Home

The only difference between the two pictures is the dinghy cover was blown back a bit.  All systems were operational.  Everything looked great.

Fantastic!!

Always Home proves to be a sturdy well built DeFever!!