Here in Boot Key Harbor we start our days listening to the cruiser’s net on VHF channel 68. It’s a good way to find out who’s here, where folks are headed, where to find services, etc. We responded right away when the announcement came for new arrivals. Turns out the folks right across from us are from Middleton (3 or so miles from our old house), there is a couple from Wausau and a day later another boat from Madison showed up. That boat, Terrapin, was written up in the Capital Times (I believe). There are people from Minnesota and Illinois as well as hundreds of others from all over.

We have become friends with our neighbors and have enjoyed various outings including the trip to the Everglades. Life on the hook is slow and and what you may consider an errand becomes a full days project for us. We may walk to the grocery store or Home Depot. West Marine is a dinghy ride away. They have water access. We spend a lot of time at the Overseas Lounge and Sports Bar. They have free internet, popcorn, show movies, television and great cheeseburgers. Pretty low pressure place where they don’t force you to buy anything or move on. We enjoyed watching the Packers whip Seattle’s but yesterday but enjoyed more watching it snow like crazy in Green Bay while we enjoyed blue skies and 81 degrees.

Today was pretty typical as we lazed about. I did a couple small chores until I managed to fall down the companionway (stairs to you on shore). Pretty bruised up but no broken bones. Gave me an excuse to extract massive sympathy and read a book while I “recuperated”. p

We aren’t making any decisions about leaving soon. We’re ordering solar panels and I still have a number of projects to complete that involve going to the top of the mast. Stay tuned. I’ll try to be more careful. A fall from up there could hurt. It’s about 62′ down!!!

TTFN

You can pick the time or you can pick the place, just not both. That’s the credo of the cruiser when accepting visits from friends and family. Well, what can we say, we’re still new at this.

Mary made arrangements some time ago to have her two boys join us in Islamorada on January 3rd. She had been getting nervous as the time grew closer but we didn’t! As explained earlier we opted out of Islamorada and made it to Marathon with 5 days to spare. Not bad considering we were in Wisconsin four and a half months ago.

The boys arrived as did the strongest cold front to hit these parts in recorded history. Rule out sailing, snorkeling and fishing. We headed for Key West. How can you not have a good time in Key West. Good food, good drink and running into a friend from Madison area who keeps his boat down there was a plus. The boys were content with chilling (no pun intended) for a few days. They’re learning the life quickly.

On their next to last day we followed them north to the Everglades to see some birds and gators. We had been to the Anhinga Trail before and wanted to show them the sights. We had a great time and saw lots of gators and a wide assortment of birds.

We really enjoyed their stay.

After leaving No Name we headed for Rodriguez Key near Key Largo. Now heading west along Hawk Channel the main challenge is avoiding lobster pots. They are everywhere! The water is now very blue as we are over a sand bottom.

We arrived at Rodriguez Key and dropped the hook. Mary immediately donned her new wetsuit and snorkel gear and gave it a try. Water temperature is now between 76 and 80 degrees and the water is usually clear. No fish or other sights to see but she seemed to enjoy herself.

The following morning we chose to alter our plans and head for Marathon instead of Islamorada. There was a strong front coming and the anchorages at Islamorada were still questionable in my mind. Turns out it was a good decision.

We made it to Marathon and picked up a mooring. We will stay here at least a month.

The next morning it was dead calm and we were treated to a pod of very playful dolphins. There were 3 or 4 adults and a similar size group of kids. The young ones were rough housing and doing all sorts of jumps out of the water.

We moved closer to Miami Beach and reanchored in order to make a grocery run. After loading everything up we were on our way again. We needed some fuel and a pumpout and hoped to make No Name Harbor before dark. Well, sometimes plans don’t always work out. In a city the size of Miami and with all those boats you would think that services would be everywhere. Not so! It seems Miami Beach Marina allowed someone to tie up at the pump out dock so no one could get in. We headed to Miamarina where we could get a pump out but no fuel. What a disaster this was. Very tight quarters, no dock help and a DIY pump out! The pump required you to walk over to turn it on and then hustle back to the boat to pump. Well a little too much pressure built up and when we turned the ball valve on, Mary and I were covered in %#$*! Mary almost died on the spot and spent quite some time in the shower. I think she has been permanently traumatized!

After that we headed for Marine Stadium to anchor. All in all it took all day to get about 2 miles. Marine Stadium is an old water ski show facility that is been long out of business. The area was a little noisy till after dark but very well protected. We woke the next morning to a manatee slowly swimming by.

We still needed fuel so we headed over to Crandon Park Marina through some unmarked channels. What fun that is! Try to keep the deep appearing water in front of you and try not to panic when the sounder starts to quickly go to shallow. We got our fuel and headed to No Name Harbor, only 2 miles away. This is a very small manmade harbor with a narrow entrance. It is a favorite of those heading to the Bahamas. We managed to find a small space and dropped the hook.

The area is surrounded by a park and we got a chance to explore. Three boats left the next morning to cross over to the Bahamas. We went out a little later and wondered if they had mad the right decision as the wind had picked up and it was quite rough. As it turned out it kept getting rougher so I guess they made the right choice.

If you’re gonna get anywhere, you just have to keep moving, so early the day after Christmas we headed to Miami on the outside. No way was I going to spend another day in the ditch with a million more bridges and boats to deal with.

Seas 2 to 4 feet met us as we exited the channel at Palm Beach. We turned south and soon put up the sails and zipped right along. We kept the motor on to keep the speed up as we didn’t want to get there too far after dark. At times we were exceeding 9 knots!

Seas quieted down a bit and we had a pleasant sail into Government Cut arriving a little before 8:00 pm. We headed down the cut, turned north and anchored just north of the Venetian Causeway towards Miami Beach.

Goliath hadn’t been feeling too well so we started our morning by trying to find a vet on Christmas Eve. He had been vomiting and was starting to get dehydrated. We gave him some Gatorade, which he took a few slurps of. He started to perk up a bit so we decided to take a slip for the night just in case he got worse. He did all right and we took him for a long dinghy ride exploring the lakes and canals in the area. It was pretty cool watching hundreds of pelicans dive bombing head first into the water to catch their fill of mullet. Somewhere along the way Goliath got into something as he started to scratch like crazy. We couldn’t see anything on him but bathed him and generally tried to relieve his agitated state.

Mary had purchased a large whole chicken in Fort Pierce for our Christmas dinner so that afternoon she began preparing Christmas Eve dinner. While she was working on that I heard a call on the VHF from a boat we had seen several times in the last week. He was coming into the marina and was looking for directions. All staff was off for the holiday so I helped him in. He tied up in the slip next to us.

A nice young guy sailing solo who had set out for the Bahamas in questionable weather. His autopilot gave up on him and he missed the Bahamas by some 20+ miles to the north so he turned around and sailed back. We decided he needed some home cooking so invited him for dinner.

Dinner was great with chicken, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy. Christmas on a boat is very uncomplicated. No presents, just enjoy the day. We stayed Christmas Day and enjoyed the peacefulness of a very quiet day.

The run to Lake Worth is a little longer than we usually make in a day so we decided to go only as far as Fort Pierce the first day. We anchored just south of the bridge and dinghied ashore to pick up a few things at West Marine. Unlike Vero Beach, this is a cruiser unfriendly town. We had to pay $12 to dock the dinghy, which they would gladly refund if we spent more than twelve bucks at their establishment. In all fairness, there are a lot of cruisers out there who sneak into marinas to get water and leave their garbage and I’m sure some marinas don’t take kindly to cleaning up after people who don’t spend any money with them. It turned out that the little restaurant at this marina had great food and the folks there were very nice. We split an artichoke appetizer that was stuffed with crabmeat. It was excellent!

This was another of those anchorages that are close to inlets and so have quite a bit of current. We did ok but there were some others who didn’t get much sleep as the winds picked up late and there was some sailing going on.

The next morning we were off again, this time headed for Lake Worth and North Palm Beach, a favorite spot to anchor while waiting for favorable weather to cross to the Bahamas. I broke a cardinal rule of mine and traveled through a VERY popular area on a Sunday. We first transited through the St. Lucie Inlet and then towards Hobie Sound. Hobie Sound is very popular with powerboats of all sizes and we met many who have no clue about what there wakes are capable of. One sent water over our decks. This stretch also has seven bridges with different opening schedules. The last six come in rather close succession. We hit Jupiter Inlet at low tide and high traffic. The 707 Bridge and Jupiter Federal Bridge are on demand so weren’t a problem. The next one opens on the hour and half hour and we just missed it. We waited knowing that at least we would hit the rest on time as they were well spaced for the timing. We waited almost a half hour and as the opening time came and went we got anxious. It seems that the car traffic wouldn’t stop for the bridge signals and the bridge tender couldn’t open. We got through there 5 or so minutes late which put us late for the Donald Ross Bridge. Well we finally got through there and made it through the PGA and Parker bridges and on into Lake Worth. WHAT A HASSLE! I was beat. We dropped the hook in a packed anchorage and chilled for the short remainder of the day.

Up early as usual to mush on to Vero Beach. Not a long day as it is only 25 miles or so. I’ve been a little lax lately in keeping an accurate log, so it’s just a guess for now.

This stretch of the ICW is very pretty as you close in on the urban areas of south Florida. I remembered this stretch from my trip north three years ago when bringing the boat north. My friend Mike and I were treated to quite the show by a pod of playful dolphins. We also saw quite a few dolphins this trip but they weren’t quite so playful.

No anchoring is allowed in Vero Beach so we had planned to take a mooring. It is the custom here to raft as many as 3 boats to one ball. We pulled in and were assigned to raft with a single boat, a Catalina 42 from Connecticut. The owners, Dave and Ginger are a very nice couple that we hope to see again soon as their destination is also the Keys. That’s us in the center of the picture below.

The cruising community here calls Vero Beach, “Velcro Beach” since so many who stop never leave or at least stay at lot longer than they originally intended. We stayed 3 nights. It is a very cruiser friendly town with free bus service and lots of friendly helpful people. We met quite a few folks and will plan to spend more time next time we are there.

Goliath enjoyed the stop here too. There is a public park nearby that allows the dogs to run free. Everyone comes by to run their pets. There are always half dozen or more dogs there. He got to run and meet quite a few friends. The size difference is still a problem as the big dogs still scare him. We gave him a treat by taking him for a ride in his dinghy through the mangroves. He enjoys taking in all the sights.