mile marker 1218 Saturday, (NY day), we were up with the sun to welcome the new year. It was a spectacular sunrise. We had a nice breakfast then I set about making the food for the New Years dinner. I steamed the sweet potatoes for the brownies in the solar oven, then did the potatoes for the mashed potatoes. This kept steam out of the boat which was great. Later I started cooking the brownies in the solar oven but ran out of sun. It…Continue Reading “Officially on a Mooring Ball”
Started day: mile marker 1216 (No longer on the ICW) Ended day: mile marker 1218 Sunday (Dec 26th), we woke feeling terrible. We neither one slept very well and honestly the difficulties we were having traversing the keys we getting to us. It was just so difficult with our 6’ keel and 56’ mast. We were exhausted. I was getting depressed because the keys were disappointing. I thought we would anchor and swim and snorkel… not so much. We couldn’t get protection from wind and swell because…Continue Reading “So Tired of Rolling”
Started day: mile marker 1185 (No longer on the ICW) Ended day: mile marker 1216 Saturday, Christmas day, we decided to have pancakes for breakfast and talk to our family. In addition, it was time to make water. Making water takes about 3 hours so I decided to make lentil soup for the thermal pot. I add all the ingredients, bring it to a boil, then put it in the thermal pot and close the lid. It takes about 3 hours to cook – but you can…Continue Reading “Just Keep Rolling”
Started day: mile marker 1152 (No longer on the ICW) Ended day: mile marker 1185 Friday, we woke and got on our way raising the sails and back into Hawk’s channel. It was a really nice morning. We decided to stop at Hen and Chickens reef to do some snorkeling. That was really fun. When we arrived there was a mooring ball (which was super lucky) and it was not super choppy. This was our first time at one of these reefs so we took some…Continue Reading “OOPS, we hit a crab pot”
Started day: mile marker 1100 (No longer on the ICW) Ended day: mile marker 1152 Thursday, we woke and exited South Basin, raised the sails, and headed to the ocean via Cape Florida Channel to Hawk’s channel. It was a beautiful day, and we did some sailing without the motor. We couldn’t do that for long because we needed to travel 52 miles today before dark. Since we draw 6’ we could no longer travel in the ICW. We had to use Hawk’s channel that is…Continue Reading “Heading to the Florida Keys”
Sunday (Dec 19th) we awoke to more rain, but it cleared enough for a nice breakfast on the “veranda”. After breakfast we loaded up Pete the dinghy with our laundry, all of our shower gear, and reusable grocery bags and set off down the canal system to find Moondance, the Sailing Jason’s boat. The canals in Fort Lauderdale are noteworthy with low bridges and houses all along the ride. It took us about 20 minutes to get to Moondance. The Jasons were so great! First…Continue Reading “Fun in Fort Lauderdale”
Started day: mile marker 1031 Ended day: mile marker 1064 Last night we had a discussion with some friends that are local to this area, the Sailing Jasons (both sailors are named Jason!) on S/V Moondance. They were concerned about us traveling this part of the ICW on a Saturday as it gets VERY busy and is very narrow, shallow and wakey. Plus we have 15 low bridges to traverse. We decided to leave really early since it was Saturday and hopefully get a head start…Continue Reading “The Day of Bridges!”
Started day: mile marker 998 Ended day: mile marker 1031 Left Hobe Sound (Friday) around 8 am. Stew’s back was still not 100% but he felt he could drive today. We iced it before we left and slathered on the Icy Hot. It turned out to be a more grueling day than we thought as we had 11 low bridges to navigate. Most of the day was spent calling bridge operators and waiting for openings. We did grab some fuel and topped up the water along…Continue Reading “Moving on to Lantana”
Started day: mile marker 966 Ended day: mile marker 998 We decided mid-morning on Sunday (Dec 12th) to move further south. A storm was coming and we were not very protected in our Fort Pierce anchorage. Stew’s back had been hurting the last few days and it was starting to hurt worse so getting somewhere safe seemed a good idea. We decided to anchor in Hobe Sound. A beautiful anchorage and no one was here, which was nice. As soon as we arrived we started seeing…Continue Reading “Arrived at Beautiful Hobe Sound”
Started day: mile marker 951 Ended day: mile marker 966 We had a great time in Vero Beach but we were ready to move on to a new anchorage. We pulled anchor and said goodbye to our mooring neighbors, Symbiose, at around 9:30 on Wednesday. It was a very calm day with little wind so we just motored south. We noticed the really blue water as we entered the Fort Pierce area so we grabbed an anchorage just south of the Fort Pierce Inlet (and bridge),…Continue Reading “On to Fort Pierce”