Going Places Where Most People Don't

It happened, it finally happened. On Monday May 20, 2013  (also my birthday) Jordan gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Lyra Charlett Byrd.  9lbs 3ozs, so we are officially Grandparents.

As of this moment all are doing good and scheduled to come home today. (Wednesday) We look forward to spending a couple of weeks with little Lyra before we head back down to Stray Catz and journey out to sea. Lyra’s Great Grandmother flew in from CA and it was neat to see four generations of girls hanging out together.

The quick answer is …. No we are not grandparents yet. As most of you know, we have been hanging out in TN for three weeks now anxiously awaiting the birth of our first grand child. I say anxiously because, while we are excited to meet our little grand angel, our other dream is just waiting for us down in FL.  And I miss it.

We have been making the best of our land locked trip by visiting friends all around eastern and central TN. Our visit to friends Robert & Angela in Knoxville was cut short by a phone call at 3am from Jordan saying she might be in labor.  With a three hour drive ahead of us we didn’t want to risk it, so we quickly packed everything in the car and headed out only to get a call 30 minutes down the road notifying us of the false alarm.

That trip started with  a complimentary trip to the Coal Creek Armory gun range with some of our church friends.  Anna has found a new thrill, and she hasn’t stopped bugging  me to take her back.  Thanks to our friend and financial planner Corey Wilson with Morgan Stanley.  Shooting the fully automatic rifle was a blast, and I think something like that should keep the pirates away. (if only)

This last weekend we spent with our friends Ted & Charlene in Collegedale. Between Charlene’s great cooking and Ted’s personality it’s always a good time there. On our way out of town we got to do some catching up with Greg & Karla. We wish them well on their upcoming mission trip to the Solomon Islands.  Kind of jealous actually. It’ll be a year before we make it that far.

Alas we are back in Murfreesboro just waiting. The baby is late and there is not a lot to do while we wait.  The title of grand parents is still eluding us, but once it’s official we will be sure and let you know, and also we can get headed back to Stray Catz and off on our other adventures.

Untill then…..

The weather has not cooperated and the due date of our Grand daughter quickly approaches, so we will park Stray CatZ and journey by car to TN to get our first Grand Parent thrill.

We found a dock space to rent in Fort Lauderdale for half the price of Palm Beach so we set off on a big adventure just 50 miles down the coast to a new port.

I checked the weather for the trip. Slight chance of thunderstorms, but winds are supposed to swing around to the SE. We should be able to sail and not motor the whole way.  But it was not meant to be. We headed out the channel and turned right. We hugged the shoreline only about 1/2 mile off the coast so we could avoid the north bound gulf stream current. Seas were only about 3 feet, but the winds were light. We put up the sails (yes even the mainsail) Those pesky lazy jacks gave me trouble again, but this time I won the battle.  We still motor sailed because we couldn’t get over 2 knots otherwise.  It wasn’t long before we saw a pod of about a half a dozen dolphins.  Anna saw flying fish and the water and sky color were beautiful.

After about 6 hours into the trip, the sky started getting very dark. It didn’t take long to realize we weren’t going to miss this storm. We put away the sails, put on foul weather gear and life vests just as the first drops started to fall. It got bad. There was this huge water spout about a mile to the SE. The lightning was striking all around the boat and the thunder crashing.  It rained so hard it soaked through my foul weather jacket. God was kind to us though, because Stray CatZ motored right through it all and came out, other than a little soggy, just fine. A excellent testament for a great boat.

Just as the storm was subsiding, we reached Hillsboro inlet, made a right and raced in past the jetty, made a left at the ICW, cruised a few miles south where we picked up my sister and her family. They were kind enough to bring dinner, so we dropped anchor in Lake Santa Barbara and finished off the day having a wonderful evening with family.