It has been a long time since my last blog entry. My last entry I announced that we were heading back to the U.S. Well we have been back for about a year and half and a lot has happened.
Two big milestones for Rigo; he is now officially a U.S. citizen and he also got his captains license. We are very proud of him and look forward to what he will accomplish next.
Zyon and Hunter are growing up way too fast. Zyon easily towers over me in height and is quickly catching up with Rigo. Hunter is still a little shorter than me but it won't be long. Both kids have been continuing Bridgeway online homeschool. Zyon will be starting 9th grade next year and Hunter will be in 7th. Bridgeway is proving to be the right choice for us so far. We have the dependency of internet access but that will always be the case while I'm working. Speaking of work, I started a new job almost a year ago. I was a good move for me as I really needed a change. I'm still able to work remote 100%!
After we entered back into the U.S. in Key West, FL, we started up the East Coast. We stopped in Fort Lauderdale with high hopes to do some major work on Heavy Metal. We were able to put in brand new house batteries which was very much needed but that was about it. Everything else was a little too above our budget so things like sand-blasting will have to wait. After leaving Florida, we went to Brunswick, GA. What a great marina that was. Free wine happy hour Mon, Wed and Fri and daily beer flow or PBR. We spend 4th of July in Brunswick before heading more North.
We spent a lot of time off and on in Tennessee where my sister and dad live. The kids got to spend lots of time with the cousins. Thanks so much to my sister, Donna for putting us up for so many months. We spent some time boating on my dad's boat in a lake up near Smithville, TN. We also did some hiking and a camping trip on a river where we floated down on a canoe. I was nice being able to spend a lot of the summer in Tennessee.
When it was time to move the boat up to the Chesapeake Bay, Rigo's friend from Brazil, Lucio (aka Troxa) came for a visit to sail the boat from Brunswick, GA to Norfolk, VA with a short stop in Charleston, SC. Then they flew back to Tennessee just in time for Hunter's 11th birthday. After spending a few more weeks in Tennessee, the 4 of us headed back to Norfolk to start the trip up the Chesapeake Bay. We stopped at Solomon Islands, Deltaville and the South River on our way to Baltimore. We arrived in Baltimore in the beginning of October just in time for Fleet Week. Fleet Week consisted of the Blue Angles, the Navy, and other arial planes. There was also a visit from the Navy destroyer, Zumwalt. Previous to Fleet Week was the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race so many schooners sailed right by the marina where we were docked.
So the plan for going to Baltimore was to stay the winter so the kids could experience the snow and also plan for a trip to Maine the following summer. Baltimore had an unseasonably warm winter and there were only 2 snowfalls with accumulation and even those weren't that great but we did get some time to play in the snow and do some sledding. For Christmas time, my family all came to Baltimore for a visit. My dad stayed with us on Heavy Metal and my mom, sister and her family stayed in hotels nearby. We also took a trip to Washington DC and took an all-day tour of all of the monuments and memorial throughout the area.
We met a lot of new friends in Baltimore. I attended several Drupal User Group meetings and Drupalcon was also in Baltimore this year. We had lots of fun hanging out with Dan and Liz who run the user group and were the main organizers of Drupalcon. They also have 2 boys that Zyon and Hunter got to know and really enjoyed hanging out with. We also made friends with a "kid boat", 3 Pearls: Daryl, Yulia, Steve and Andrew. We took turns having dinner on each others boats and attended some local Baltimore events. They also took the kids to the Baltimore Aquarium a couple of times. We really enjoyed the time we had with them. Now another family we met in Baltimore was Mark, Siata and Eli who are a cross between Drupal and sailing. We originally met them through the Drupal group but it turns out they are sailors as well. They came sailing with us once and we ran into them many, many times throughout Baltimore.
An establishment we often frequented in Baltimore was Urban Evolution. This is a parkour, silks and gymnastics gym that we discovered. Zyon and Hunter took classes almost every day and eventually I even took a few gymnastics and silks classes. It was really a great place to spend our energy and get off the boat. We had our car the majority of the time in Baltimore so we were easily able to get to the gym on a regular basis. My dad came back to Baltimore in May to drive our car back to my sisters so we can make our voyage to Maine. But not before Doug and Rodney came for a visit for Maryland Deathfest. They brought Danielle, Tim and Karen who quickly became new friends of ours and spent some time on Heavy Metal before listening to Heavy Metal; seems appropriate.
We were able to take some trips around the Bay to St. Michael’s, Rhode River, Magothy River and back to the South River. We meet some people along the way and we hope that they find there way to our Facebook group or blog so we can cross paths again.
Now we are on our way to Maine for the summer by way of New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Enjoy the photos below of some highlights and follow us at https://www.facebook.com/svheavymetal/ for more frequent updates.
This website is a collaboration of information, stories and adventures during the Fuzetto Cruising Era. There are blog entries written by all of the Fuzetto - Rigo, Zyon, Hunter and me, Deborah. There are also articles in this site that may spark some interest in fellow cruisers, family, friends or just someone looking for some good entertainment. We are very challenged with Internet access as you can read about in the Saying Connected articles. So if some content looks unfinished, it probably is. 
Our first month in El Salvador, we spent a lot of our time with the El Salvador Rally meeting new people and exploring new places. Crossing the bar was very stressful just waiting for our turn. We started to get sucked into the surf while waiting for the perfect moment that we had to make a quick 180 to get out. That was probably the most exciting part. The actual crossing of the bar was completely uneventful. After they said we were across we all were like, "That was it?" The rally had happy hours at the pool and nearby restaurant, Sunday afternoon at Lynn and Lou's, BBQ at the pool and fish lunch at the palapas on stilts that were underwater during high tide and had beach enough to play bocce ball on low tide.
