This was the first NYE we spent at home—not in Florida on our boat—since 2009, before the whole winter boat thing started. It wasn’t a bad NYE. We streamed a movie and actually stayed up ‘til midnight—actual midnight, not sailors’ midnight—sipping our bottle of Prosecco all evening. I missed the fireworks show we’ve enjoyed the last two years from a mooring ball at Fort Myers Beach, but our kids treated us to a video of the 360º fireworks show they enjoyed from their Philadelphia rooftop. All is good!

It’s been a tough autumn. We hoped for a quick Thanksgiving visit from our Philly kids, but as COVID cases mounted and we learned of hospitalizations with the virus, and then deaths of people we knew, a visit—even a cautious visit with masks and social distancing—felt too much of a risk. Instead, we got good at Zoom. It may not replace physically being with family, but it’s the next best thing. And it allowed us to share a libation together, even those in different time zones.

Until we get the vaccine, we are not comfortable traveling and being away from the safety we feel at home. And so, we stay in Michigan where January has been gray and cold. If we are able to be vaccinated in the next couple of months, we have hopes of traveling to Florida for a couple of weeks to clean up Prairie Dog for NEXT season. This season looks to be a bust. —jes