Sombrero Beach

Today we spent a couple of hours at Sombrero Beach. We get there by dinghy, or by bicycle. We usually dinghy from Boot Key Harbor through a short creek to the beach on the ocean side. White coral sands and torquoise waters. Can you find Carol in the picture?

Our electrical upgrades are nearly complete with everything functional. I still have some work to do to dress all the wiring and make it pretty. We have 3 to 4 more weeks here, so the pressure is off and we intend to relax!

Market Day

It's a breezy sunny Saturday morning. While Carol went to yoga class, I rode a few miles upwind along US 1 to a fabulous open air farmer's market. Tonight we will enjoy a fresh vegetable and tuna stir grill preceded by a rum punch with key lime juice.

Today is for relaxation. I spent all day yesterday working on the installation of the new alternator and inverter/charger. This is about as large a project I would want to do away from home, but Marathon has everything you need a short bike ride away. The only problem is I have to rip our home apart every time I work on it. One more days worth of effort should have it finished - maybe Monday. I'm looking forward to testing everything so I can throw away the empty boxes littering our cockpit.

This afternoon we had lunch and a bridge game on our friends Dennis and Barbara's Gozzard 36. That is Carol's idea of one nice boat!

After dinner tonight we will go to a jamb session in the Tiki Hut for some guitar music and songs. Pretty nice day!

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning and a few presents under the little tree in our boat. We attended a very nice service at the Methodist Church in Marathon last night. There were a number of cruisers participating with the choir.

I doesn't seem like Christmas even though there are lights everywhere especially at the power plant which is adjacent to the City Marina.

This afternoon we will be participating in another large potluck holiday dinner.

Life in the Keys

We're settling into a routine here in Marathon. Carol goes to a yoga class in the park three times a week, there are potluck suppers with the cruisers, a terrific white sand beach is a short dinghy ride away, and we plan to head out to the reef and do some snorkeling soon.

We had fellow cruisers Bill and Betti Neumeyer from Newburyport Mass over for a Pre-Christmas dinner last night. Prime Rib from our little oven. Dinner in the cockpit worked out fine with the decorations provided by a small Christmas tree loaned to us for the trip by Chris and Rob Skrotsky.

I have been attending a very good series of seminars on boat systems at Sea and Land Technology (SALT). They are covering electrical power management, solar and wind generation, refrigeration, battery maintenance and so on. Lots of interested attendees and I have picked up at least one tip that will make our boat safer.

Marathon and home for a while

We arrived in Marathon - Boot Key Harbor a little after 1:00 pm after an exhilarating sail downwind sail in the Hawk Channel. We don't usually see 10 knots on the gps, but broke that speed several times surfing off waves. Carol really earned her crew stripes today!

There was one dock spot left at the Marathon City Marina and we took it for a month. We are actually docked next to the cruisers lounge and would you believe - a wood shop! I don't plan to build any furniture but we do have a few boat projects to work though in the next month. Mostly we will be dealing with house battery management issues. I will be installing the inverter charger I selected last fall but ran out of time and energy to put in. Also a new high amp alternator and heavy duty wiring for same. And of course we will be putting a couple of coats of varnish on the teak to get her dressed up for Key West in February.

Hope everyone is well and ready for Christmas!

Key's at Last

Tuesday we left Dinner Key for Key Largo. What a day! We had a nice sail from Coconut Grove down to Angelfish Creek at the east end of Key Largo. You can see our boat anchored in the mangroves right off the Anglefish Creek channel. Mangroves are wonderful plants for dampening wake either from wind or boats. A number of large sportfishing boats plowed through the channel between where I took this picture and our boat. Almost no rocking.

We spent three nights at this spot. One night to enjoy the scenery and two to wait the passage of a cold front. This area isn't as isolated as it looks in the picture. On the otherside of Angelfish Creek is the community of Ocean Reef Florida. I took a few dinghy rides past some very exclusive waterfront real estate. I thought it might look tacky to take pictures so I didn't. We were anchored fairly near the jet strip and saw a number of Gulfstream Jets touch down. Not too many people out and about around the houses however.

Today we left for a motor sail down to Holiday Isle Marina. We are motor sailing in the Hawk Channel between the keys and a reef. Note the color of the water. I was concerned about anchoring out in the fairly exposed spots south of the Keys and this was the only marina who offered any encouragement getting in with a sailboat. Well we just about didn't make it over the bar in mid to falling tide touching a couple of times. We're glad we got in, but it could have been a long time waiting for a rising tide.

Tomorrow we leave in 3/4 and rising tide for what should be a sleigh ride sail to Marathon.

Dinner Key Marina

We are in the very large Dinner Key Marina which is run by the City of Miami. We have enjoyed several great municipal marinas in Florida. This one is pretty large and not at all geared to transients. But it will do for one night. Then it is off to Angelfish Creek where we will anchor out for several days maybe waiting for a weather system to move through so we can enter the Hawk Channel (between a coral reef and the Keys) and traverse it to Marathon. The trip will take three days. So no updates until we arrive in Marathon and that could be a week or so.

The weather is great here. Bathing suit warm during the days and cool hatches open sleeping at night.

Miami

We got into Miami around noon. We sailed outside from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami and arrived at the inlet sandwiched in between a couple of container ships. The Miami pilot boat was helpful with navigation, keeping us away from the overtaking container ship and directing us away from the government cut where the number of cruise ships dictated no pleasure boats. (Homeland Security). We went outside expecting 10 to 15 out of the north west. Perfect, but it didn't materialize until we were securely anchored amongst the harbor islands.

Sunday afternoon is probably not the best time to arrive in Miami. Lots of small boat traffic and noise from bars and the tour boats. But it quieted down by 7:00 or so and we enjoyed the nice sunset pictured here.

Off to Dinner Key tomorrow - about 5 miles away.

Ft Lauderdale

We are enjoying a down day at the Coral Ridge Yacht Club. It is a very nice club with a large, mostly social, membership.

The club is decorated up for Christmas and Carol wishes she had a short sleeve Christmas shirt for the picture.

Today we enjoyed a morning swim in the heated pool right next to the ICW followed by a great outdoor lunch featuring very fresh fish. I also got some time on a treadmill in the well equipped gym. The only issue here is the proximity to the ICW which is hard bulkheaded in this area. Even though boats traverse at low speeds, the wake reverberates forever and it can get uncomfortable aboard. Not very many Coral Ridge members sleep aboard.



I spent an hour or so cleaning up the boat. A great product introduced to me by a power boater in Titusville may be of interest to boaters reading this. It's called Salt Away and sold by West Marine. I'd never heard of it. You attach a mixing accessory to your hose and fill the jar with Salt Away liquid. You just spray the boat with a frothy mixture and don't rinse. When it drys the whole boat sparkles!



The current round of ecomomic problems seem to be hitting South Florida particularly hard. Lots of For Sale signs and stories of fortunes being lost in the real estate market.

Boca Raton

The picture to the left is of a house and boat who are our neighbors for the night. While this house and especially the boat out front are impressive, we have passed many much more elegant places along the way. Someone came out to watch us anchor and about a half hour we were visited by the Boca Raton police. Maybe a connection - probably not. The police were very polite, asked how long we were staying and where we were headed.

We have passed many derelict anchored boats which look like they may have been abandoned. I can see why Florida waterfront home owners are sensitive to the issue of having anchoring neighbors who may be inclined to make it a permanent arrangement.

Lots of bridges today (12). There opening schedule is great for a boat which can comfortably do about 7 Knots. We can, but not comfortably. Our normal diesel consumption is just over 1/2 gallon per hour. Today it was probably close to 1 gallon per hour.

Tomorrow we head into the Coral Ridge Yacht Club in Ft. Lauderdale. They are YCA members which gets us a slip for $2.00 per foot. Not free, but a big bargin for Ft. Lauderdale

Another Cold Front

We are anchored in Lake Worth (North Palm Beach). Some very nice homes and condos are breaking up the North wind. Lots of sunshine but cool and the promise of 40's again tonight. No swimming for a while.

Jensen Beach

We left the comfort of Vero Beach this morning after a very stormy night there. A cold front came through, but we were at the dock for some much needed cleaning! Hated to leave the many friends we made while there, but most of them will be heading across to the Bahamas anyhow. We will meet up with some in Marathon, which is our next major stop over. Went swimming in the Atlantic Saturday in the warm air in advance of the cold front. Not as cold as the beach in Cape Cod this last labor day.