Leaving the dock in Kemah, Texas is probably one of the hardest things we’ve ever done. It’s appropriate that we should discuss this in today’s blog because it was 17 years ago yesterday on May 21, 2000 that we threw off the docklines and headed across the Gulf of Mexico for St. Petersburg, Florida. A 652 nm passage that was just the beginning of our life aboard. A passage that would take us far beyond the Gulf of Mexico and Florida both in distance and in confidence.