Fort Lauderdale, FL

8 November 2014

Well we made Fort Lauderdale. This will be our jumping off point to the Bahamas. We are making final preparations, getting cash, having our mail sent to us, and getting Bella’s health certificate. Those are all supposed to happen on Monday. After that we will be looking for the “weather window”. Because the Gulf Stream flows from south to north it gets unpleasant with any kind of north wind. Ideally you wait till the wind has moved from a southerly direction for 2 days before crossing. When we leave we will leave at around 3 AM that should put us in West End in the early afternoon. We are told you want the sun high so you can read the water depths.

We left Stuart and stayed a night in West Palm Beach in a marina. Skip visited the VA Hospital and got a checkup and flu shot. We went to “Boat Owners Warehouse”, a mega boat stuff store. Those of you with boats might want to check them out on-line, their prices were good and they had the stuff you need, not clothes and cutesy stuff like West Marine.

The next night we anchored out in a very shallow but well protected little nook. It’s amazing that shallow water hardly bothers us anymore just like 65’ bridges. The dreaded no see ums got us again though.

The last 30 miles on the ICW were beautiful. Very expensive houses, huge yachts and lots of bascule bridges. The bridge schedules barely give us enough time to get to the next one without having to idle for 30 minutes. There was a stretch before Lauderdale that we had 7 draw bridges in 14 miles.

The homes here are beautiful, the mega yachts are plentiful. I had no idea there were that many extremely rich people in the country.

There are many pictures today, good internet.

Not a home, just the boat house

A nice house

Clear water

More derelict boats, a real problem in Florida

A private vessel

with it's own sub

Just another pretty house

and another

and another

OK, I don't know either but there where a bunch of these on mooring balls, pontoon boats with tiki huts

A huge catamaran, neat place to store the dink

Mega yacht boatyard

Mega yacht

and another

and another

Me and him waiting for a bridge opening

Very nice hedges

Even the bridges are pretty

There are many canals with beautiful homes

I started to complain about the crab pots being in the channel,  i realized they were coconuts

A stainless steel marlin sculpture 

Another nice guy waving to the passing boats

Peace 

The swimming pool area

Dragon fly

Does the house come with the yacht or vice versa

Palm Beach, FL
6 November2014

I'm sorry for no recent posts. We motored to West Palm Beach and stayed in  municipal marina without internet. I went to the VA Hospital for a quick last minute check up and flu shot.

Palm Beach is what you think Florida should be, clear water, reef type fish you can see, 85 degrees, and blue skies.

Palm Beach is where the rich and famous hang out, you couldn't believe the number of mega-yachts here.

We are near a position to cross to the Bahamas, getting anxious.

I will post more with pictures as soon as we get to internet.

Stuart, FL

4 November 2014

I hope everyone exercised their right to vote today, Maryland needs voter opinion to set a course.

We have been in Stuart the last few days. It is the Sailfish Capital of the world and you can tell by the beautiful Sportfish boats everywhere.

We spent the last 2 days provisioning for the trip to the 

Bahamas. A young receptionist at the marina lent us her Cherokee and we filled it up. We filled propane tanks, bought can goods, (fixin’s for Thanksgiving), paper products, alcohol, beer, fuel cans, toiletries, we had two grocery carts in a mega Walmart over loaded. It’s amazing but we found storage for 10 cases of beer, 10 boxes of wine, 2 huge packs of paper towels, 10 packs of toilet paper and gallons of liquor. The boat is a little lower but we also found space for another case of beer.

We changed the oil in the engine, vacuumed, did all laundry, scrubed carpets and cleaned the boat.

Tomorrow we will go to West Palm Beach, Skip needs to visit the VA Hospital for a flu shot and to register. Then Lauderdale, and Miami. 

Dinner this evening with Bev and John Stehman. They drove us around, showed us the sites and dinner at the famous Dolphin Bar and Shrimp House, home of Frances Langford, star of many films including the Glenn Miller Story and many USO tours during WWII. She was also noted for her signature song “I’m in the Mood for Love”. A pleasant evening. 

A 65' Donzi

Bath Tub Beach

John and Skip

Bev and John Stehman

Robin and Skip

Manatee Pocket, Stuart, FL

2 November 2014

We spent the last 2 days in Vero Beach on a mooring ball at the Vero Beach City Marina. A very nice marina, free public transportation, free wifi, and $14 a night. And they have a free pumpout boat that will come to your mooring, how about that for an amenity at Bowleys? 

We went to the local West Marine and picked up some things we needed for the Bahamas, fuel jerry cans, extra zincs, big fish lures, engine oil, and a Hawaiian Sling for spearfishing.

As we waited for the bus, the sales guy at West Marine finished his shift, saw us waiting and gave us a ride back to the marina. More nice people.

We caught up with Sue and Dan aboard Tranquility, a Grand Banks trawler. We met them originally in Oriental, NC, then again in Morehead City, NC. They are from Connecticut, Dan was born in Morehead City, NC and seems to have family everywhere. They are really nice people, we spent yesterday walking Vero, getting flu shots, having lunch and enjoying great conversation, finishing the evening with wine and cheese.

We hear the weather is unpleasant in Baltimore and I can’t say it is great here, (but it is better than there, hee, hee). A cold front came through yesterday, wind at 20, 65 degrees during the day and a low of 44 last night. Blankets, hoody, and long pants today. 75 tomorrow.

We motored to Stuart and anchored in Manatee Pocket. Along the way we watched an airshow in Stuart that featured  the Geico Skytypers, a precision flying team using vintage WWII aircraft, an F-22 Raptor, a Harrier “Jumpjet”, (made famous in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film “True Lies”, with a great seen with Jamie Lee Curtis, the guys will remember), and my favorite, Vietnam era UH 1 Hueys. I’m sorry we didn’t know about it or we may have tried to get here sooner. The water is interesting. It’s very clear and the bay/river about a mile wide. There is a channel in the middle that is about 50 yards wide and about 12-15 foot deep, outside the channel is from 2-4. A lot of water with no water…

We are anchored in Manatee Pocket for the night and hope to catch up with John and Bev Stehman tomorrow. Kabobs and wine tonight on the boat and maybe Raven’s football if we can pick it up on a network channel.

Dan, Sue, Robin and I in Vero Beach

Maybe not the Blue Angels but these guys are doing it with WWII vintage aircraft. I'm impressed!

Another dream lost

I loved flying in these things, still a distinctive  sound
Bell UH 1 Huey

Titusville, FL

30 October 2014

We spent 2 days in Daytona. We were cleaning up the boat doing laundry, and refilling water tanks. Working on a boat behind ours was Dave, who is a Battalion Commander in the Daytona Fire Department. He is restoring an 80’s vintage Post Sportfisher. He offered to show us some of the town and help us provision. He suggested we go to get dinner, after a very pleasant evening and conversation he paid the bill on the sly. More nice people. He drove us by the Speedway and told us a lot about Daytona. 

Tuesday we walked about three miles of the beach. Thirsting for a beer and burger we found a Tiki Bar at a hotel. We met the owner who was a WWF wrestler and manager, his team was the Champagne King and the Heartbreakers (photo below). An interesting guy. The beach is not as well kept as Ocean City where they rake the beach often. In Daytona’s defense they did have an off shore storm that washed a lot of sea grass and moon jellies onto the beach. The water is clearer though. 

After lunch we took a cab to Ponce de leon Inlet, Lighthouse, Jetty, and beach, very pretty. The cab ride cost us $25, we rode the bus back for $2. Live and learn.

Wednesday we motored along the Indian River, lovely, beautiful day, mid 80’s abundant sunshine, Florida as I imagined. Along this stretch we saw our first manatee, large, dark with a paddle tail. They don’t surface very much and at first all you see is a slight wake in the water then the tail. They are very large creatures and not terribly becoming. They are also known as seacows and sea elephants. 

The water is really clear. Later I was on the bow polishing the bow rail with my feet hanging over both sides. I felt a splash, looked down and a dolphin was swimming right under the bow of the boat. He would surface blow air and go right back to keeping pace just under the bow, he swam there for about 5 minutes before heading off. It was amazing to just watch him swim. 

Later we noticed a flash of light ascending from the ground to the south. It was an Atlas rocket carrying a new GPS satellite launched from Cape Canaveral. Cool to watch on a clear sky day. A day full of new experiences.

We anchored for the night near mile 880 of the ICW. We will pass Cape Canaveral today, anchor out again tonight, next stop will probably be Vero Beach.

Live Aboard?

A beautiful bridge in Daytona

Pucker moment

Leaving Daytona

Daytona Beach

Champagne King (WWF)

Looking north to Daytona from Ponce de Leon inlet

Our Radiology friends will understand

? an addition?

Dolphin under the bow

Cape Canaveral

See boat and Canaveral

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