Happy Holidays to you all. We are enjoying our time here in Boot Key Harbor. We took advantage of the one perfect day and spent it on Sombrero Beach.  My toes hit the sand; I’m so happy.  After the beach, at night we got a bit tipsy on the bow of the boat singing Christmas songs.  Not sure our neighbors appreciated our singing.

The next day after the beach, we have battened down all hatches and moved anything that could flyaway. We are having a week of heavy winds.  This is wind alert. The little blue dot is us. The wind is non stop.

This is George. He is a lazy cat during the day.  He has an open door at night and loves exploring the deck.  It is so funny watching him hang his head over the side staring into the water. You just know he is seeing sea critters. 

This is a small portion of Boot Key Harbor. We are on the East side this year; on mooring ball C-14.  Last year we were on Q-3 near where this photo shows.

This is Book Key Harbor Marina. It’s not like our marinas back up in Michigan. This Marina has dinghy docks for us to dock at. These really tall poles are new. They just rebuilt this area after hurricane Erma. The two smaller boats you see are pump-out boats. Everyone is assigned one day a week that the poop-butt boat comes out and cleans out your poop tank. (IT’S FREE) We do tip them. 

This is the channel East of the harbor. We are headed over to Sombrero Beach

I like watching the Pelicans. Bryce says they have a face only a mother could love. 

We had to turn into the channel that leads us though the anchorage of Sisters Creek

Not really sure if you can see the boats in this photo I had to take it into the sun. but anyways. When I talk about getting on the wait list for a mooring ball this is where we love to anchor. 

It seems like this dinghy as taken up residency I know I saw it in the mangroves last year. lol

These are the US Government propaganda towers sending radio to Cuba.  Best not to anchor in line of these, because they cause all kinds of electrical anomalies on the boat due to their high power and focused beam.

As we continued on to the beach we noticed kayakers coming in. I can’t believe we left our kayaks at home. 

Sombrero Beach this is the West side. We pull our dinghy up on shore.

Look… my toes are loving the sand and for all my Fitbit pals my fit bit is on.

Bryce and I play musical chairs in the shade of the palm tree. I like the sun kissing my skin he likes the shade cooling him down. lol  It was too windy for our umbrella.

This is still such a pretty area to walk and explore the coral. Just remember you need something on your feet.

We think they are adding more sand to build up the beach. It’s funny to watch everyone play on the small mound of dirt.

This little guy is going to need a good bath. He was making sand angels because as you know not everyone can make snow angels. Merry Christmas little man. 

Well, that’s a wrap. Thanks so much for following our blog.

I must say, I was very apprehensive about going out in to the ocean on Saturday; day after the Friday the 13 and a Friday that was windy. The weather map called for perfect winds to sail down to Marathon on. WSW 12-15 MPH. However, at first glance or first approach to the open waters I was ready to head back into Fort Lauderdale. It was a mixing bowl and I was in it. Bryce said lets just get the sails up and see what happens. Well, of course he was right. She grabbed the wind and off we went they were gusting up to 26 mph. The weather wasn’t as nice as they said it would be but it ended up a great day/night sail over a 130 miles without engine noise…(PERFECT).

Heading down the ICW we had 4 more bridges to pass under before the inlet at Port Everglades. Why they call it an inlet I don’t know LOL it’s also an outlet

This was a funny looking building to me. I think it is a marina.

Okay sails are up; we are out of the Fort Lauderdale inlet. Don’t you just love how hard it is to capture the eyes view with a camera.  The winds are brisk at 15-23 mph, but the waves are not large because the winds are from the shore.  Waves are typically 1-2 feet, with an occasional  3-4 footer.  We are zipping along at 7-10 mph.

North Miami is in view. Bryce said we could go into Mimi if I want to and wait for a bit smoother window.   I said Heck no I am loving this now..  He said it will settle a bit when we get in the protection of the Hawk Channel in the Keys.

Yep.. I am getting brave that is what a few beers due to me..LOL

I just love the wind in my hair. Maybe it will help it grow…

We made it into Hawk Channel just before dusk. We were glad we had wind because this is one channel we don’t like to motor at night due to the crab pots.  For those that don’t know, crab pots are small cages on the sea floor that capture crabs. The cages are connected by lines to small round floats on the surface.  The lines can get tangled in your propeller if you snag one.  These floats are nearly impossible to see at night.  So we only sale at night near the Florida coast.

Day break.. Good morning from Beauty.  Red sky in morning sailor be warned? Marathon here we come. I pray they will have an open mooring ball for us.

As daylight approached it was getting time to pull down our sails to head into Boot Key Harbor (Vaca Key, Florida). What a surprise to fine a dead fish on deck. Bryce tried to give it to George but he only sniffed it. I think he thought we would fillet it for him…lol Bryce put it back into the ocean. 

OMG!!!! We were so blessed; they had a mooring ball for us: C-14. I was so happy I couldn’t get the smile off my face all day. It has been 12 days since my feet has felt shore. I know that isn’t a long time for some of you.  We have been rushing down the Florida coast to get to the warmth of the Keys.  We did what we had to do;  getting trash off the boat and going in to pay. Then we came back and took a five hour nap. lol

After our 5 hour nap and a warm shower it was dinner time. Bryce wants to have dinner with the octopus & friends at the Overseas restaurant. 

He also visited the mermaid too we will call her busty..

Careful, Bryce you are wasting a good beer..LOL Shirley & Jim we thought of you two.

Well, we made it to Home Depot after a great dinner with 5 minutes before closing. It was a nice walk.  We will be here for a month or so. We are hoping to second coat the top deck paint with non slip again. I still loving the gray. Marathon is our place to repair simple things like leaky window seals. I want to remove the skylights and replace them with tinted skylights and of course a few other things to do on our list. We are still trying to decide where to go next.

Check where we are at: https://trackmytour.com/7Krz1

Thanks for following us. Talk soon

We are sitting here in Fort Lauderdale Florida waiting for the right winds to come in.  Hopefully that will be today.  We are planning on going out into the ocean and heading to the keys to celebrate the holidays.  I am sure most of you have had a night where you just could not sleep. Tonight was my night, I just went to sleep way to early; now I am up typing talking to you and listening to the manatees swim around the boat.  George is loves watching them swim in the dark. 

I lost count on all the bridges we went through Thursday.  We made excellent timing, but we had to deal with a crabby bridge operator on one bridge.  One thing we learned you better say and pronounce the correct name of the bridge or you will get scolded.   

As we approached the bridge the photo above I was trying to figure out what it said. Look it says Welcome to Fort Lauderdale. Oh you might not know this, but when I was packing up things to bring; I must have removed something that we needed. I removed the binoculars and forgot to repack them.  They are sitting on the foyer table at home. I will have to order a new pair soon. lol 

More homes are decorating for the holidays along the ICW.

This is Tin Lizzy an aluminum boat. The owners are from Germany or at least they fly the German flag. We are in Sunrise Bay not far from the next bridge.  We will only have two bridges today as we head out the inlet toward the ocean.

As we sat on the bow as we normally do drinking our coffee we noticed several big boats go by; decorated for the season.

Okay see the smile on Bryce’s face?  Well let me tell you; when we left Green Cove Springs we thought we were good to go.  We did not realize the dinghy motor was not running and we have a leak in one of our hydraulic hoses on the lift.  We were trapped on the boat with no way off.  Bryce took the engine apart and boy was the carburetor a mess!!!  A bit of cleaning; engine is running and Bryce is smiling. Me too

Across from Sunrise Bay is Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. It is a really nice park.  You can dinghy over to the dock and enjoy the day. We did this in the Spring and we walked over to the ocean side.

Here is a map of our trip so far at https://trackmytour.com/7Krz1

Thanks for reading our blog

While we wait for the wind to change we are cruising the Intra Coastal Waterway, other wise known  as the ICW.  One thing about this part of the ICW:  there sure are a lot of bridges.  The trick in transiting the bridges without having to idle and fight the wind and current is to carefully time the bridge openings.  We set the route from one bridge to the next on the GPS.  The GPS gives us the arrival time to the center span of the bridge based on our speed.  We  do this according to the time of when the bridge opens. It works well for us, we rarely wait.

This is the SR 80/Southern Blvd Bridge. This bridge spans over the intracoastal Waterway between Lake Worth Lagoon and West Palm Beach. The new bridge over the water way here will be a drawbridge.  We were hoping for 65 foot bridges.  lol The top photo shows the bridge starting to open and the bottom shows it full open. This is the temporary bridge till the new ones are built.

This is the Delray Beach Bridge. One of the prettiest bridges.

coming upon the Delray Bridge from the North heading South, you will notice on your Starboard side a place to fuel up.  And if you are hungry, the Two George’s restaurant and the Banana Boat restaurant.  George perked up when we mentioned this restaurant.  

George is just enjoying his ride. It’s hard to believe he is 14 years old.  In this picture, he is safe in his blanket.

This is by far the pretties decorated Christmas house on the ICW so far.  Cool gingerbread house.

After traveling on the ICW and passing under 12 bridges we finally made an anchorage in Lake Boca Raton. This was our view as we were sipping our evening coffee watching the clouds and full moon.  Enjoying the warm 77 degree light breeze. 

You can see our map location at  https://trackmytour.com/7Krz1

Thanks for reading and following our blog.

Wahoo.. We are back!  Well with the new iPhone XR  my photos are not JPG. I finally had download a file converter to convert HEIC to JPG.  We have already left Green Cove Springs. When we approached the area in Jacksonville Fl where we could motor the ICW, we decided to Sail the Atlantic from Jacksonville to Cape Canaveral Fl. It was an all night sail and a good one at that. The further South we went the warmer the air temp and water got. It was just an amazing night.

Anyways, I now have photos I can post! So here is a little bit to the start of our journey.

After we said hello to the birds, Bryce radioed ahead to the train East Coast Railroad Bridge for an opening.  The railroad bridge operator said it would be a few minutes.  They had to move an engine.  This is the engine. Pretty cool

Normally this railroad bridge stays open. but they had an engine sitting on it and they had to move it before it could be opened for us.

Did you know that Maxwell house Coffee is produced in three states and that it’s a Kraft Brand? The three locations are Houston,Texas, Jacksonville, Florida, and San Leandro California. The original Jacksonville plant was built in 1910. This is a cool fact: did you also know that the coffee bean comes in by ship and sent to a facility on the Westside of Jacksonville for cleaning and blending then move to the plant here for roasting and grinding and packing then it gets shipped back to  Westside warehouse for distribution just a cool fun facts. lol We drink a lot of Maxwell house coffee.

Look how awesome these murals are. Apparently an international artist painted these murals in hope they would send a message of unity.   They tower 150 feet over the shipyard on the St. John River.

I like watching the birds flying around the fishing boats looking for food.

These tug boats are so cool. they can hit you with a huge wake.

I don’t think I have ever seen such a fancy gravel storage  area. 

As we cruised the St.John River still near Jacksonville we saw this huge freighter loading or unloading boat to other states or country’s.  

As we made it out of the inlet we put Beauty in to the wind and raised her sails wing on wing.   We were catching the North wide to go south.

We are so much enjoying this awesome weather.

George is very happy to be back on his winter journey.  He has a new George Towel..

Well, After a great sail out on the ocean, we came in and are traveling the ICW till we get the right winds to go back out. We just anchored back in at West Palm Beach. From here we will travel South till we can get out into the Atlantic to sail to Marathon Keys. 

Hey, want to see what Bryce did? I know you do. LOL

We have our first flag flying

Every night after work he came home and worked on the new cushions for Beauty.

This one wasn’t finished but jus wanted to show it.

This is how she looks inside now; so much nicer than the blue.

You can see our route on the map at https://trackmytour.com/7Krz1

Well, thanks for following us Talk soon

Peanut Island

We are heading back up the ICW rather than jump out into the ocean.   Why, you might ask yourself?  We want to see things that we have missed such as anchorages and towns that we have not seen.  Normally on these trips we motor sail a lot. This year we have sailed more then motoring it has felt great.

Lately we have had high winds and just yesterday we had a storm move through. I must say it was the worst we have seen at anchorage in a while.  Bryce started the engine in preparation for any issues.  The winds clocked around as the storm passed through. We heeled heavily as the boat swung.  We are in a crowded anchorage and when the rain came in, we couldn’t see any boats around us. Bryce kept telling me the anchor was holding when the wind meter read 28,36,42,50,54, Knots which comes out to 60 miles an hour. I was praying that the other boaters anchored out here would not drag down on us.  Our little (well.. not really little) Danforth with out any chain came out a champion.

If you remember at the beginning of this trip we lost all our chain along with our big Danforth anchor. In our many years of boating we have never used chain. Well, we have never had the need to. When we bought Beauty she came with chain so we used it. I think we dragged as much with chain as we did without it.   We noticed one boat dragged across the bay.. it was using a CQR.

While we were in West palm Beach we visited Peanut Island It is a cute Island made from dredging the ICW. In 1918 the inlet to the Port of Palm Beach was created. You can camp here swim and snorkel but don’t even think of bring any balloons here. Loggerhead Marine life Center and Palm Beach Country are committed to the prohibition of any balloons. Why you might ask? For the protection of the sea Turtles.

I took this photo in Hope Town Bahamas.  A big sea turtle coming up to look around.  But even in the Bahamas you might see balloons floating on the water.

         Whale & Turtles are nibbling on all the plastics in our oceans and lakes. They are dying after swallowing objects from the ocean.   Remember the old sayings Put liter in the right place and keep America Beautiful? Please don’t let your balloons fly away. Lets save some ocean lives.

There is this awesome small craft boat dock area here at Peanut Island. You just have to be prepared for the shoaling at the entrance.

Patch (our jet ski) had no issue entering the area.

Bryce is on the ramp waiting for me to stop Lolli-gagging around.

While on peanut Island we walked along the paver brick path that leads you around the island. 

I have to show you this photo. This whole area is full with Mega Yachts. On the bow of this boat is a 40 or 50 foot fly bridge cruiser. On Starboard side is two more boats. I think we counted 5 boats on this private yacht. It’s crazy….lol

As we strolled this beautiful area we found an old Coastguard Station. 

This was really a scenic walk. 

The shoreline of Peanut Island was full of boats anchored off it. The beaches were getting crowded with sun bathers and swimmers.

Throughout the island we see these huts with picnic tables.  This is a great place to visit if you are in the West Palm Beach area. Unfortunately you can only get to Peanut Island by boat. There are local marinas that will take you there by ferry.

The red dots indicates our anchorages. I have been asked about the different places to anchor off the ICW and Bahamas. This map will show you some great places to anchor. https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC 

This is the North part of Lake Worth where we are anchored till Thursday. It’s a great place with awesome holding for us up to nearly 60 mile an hour winds.

As always thank you for following our little blog

What a cool State Park. We enjoyed our anchorage here. The bottom was sandy and it held our anchor well. The following morning I contacted our oldest granddaughter Hannah. who is on Spring break in Miami with a few Girlfriends.  What a delightful day we had. We are working our way back up the ICW checking out areas we haven’t seen.

Jess, Kai, Hannah We are anchored in front of the beach that you see behind girls.

Alex is Kai’s father who brought the girls over to see us.  We were anchored in Oleta Bay State Park. We gabbed for a few hours and gobbled a plate of brownies and Reese’s Peanut butter cups.  We had a great conversation with Alex.  We would have loved to spend more time with Alex and his wife.

The girls enjoyed the water.  We inflated our dingy and two floating chairs.  They rowed all over the bay.

Bryce is fascinated by this boat.  It appears to be a 30 foot trailer-able boat.

LOL This small table cloth is fun when you want to doodle. It came with a set of markers to color with.  The girls did a great job coloring in the pictures.  After the party is over you wash the table cloth and all the markers come out.  Then it’s ready for the next party.

While the girls were out wandering around the bay on dingy and tubes, they were asked if we were in Marathon FL this past Dec & Jan. The girls really didn’t know but they came back and asked us. “Island Round” is the name of the Trawler of Jim & Donna.  They had heard about the BOLO out on us on our way to Andros. So we went over later that evening. But they were getting ready to eat. We spent a few minutes explaining the bolo.  

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We sailed wing on wing as we left Green Turtle Cay to Great Sale Cay  Winds were 16 knots from behind, boat speed was 8-8.5 mph. This was about a 60 miles sail and it was perfect. There were several boats ahead of us sailing and few powerboats. Our plans were to stay at Great Sale Cay till the following morning and cross over to the St. Lucie Inlet Florida.

As we sat on the deck the following morning sipping our morning coffee we watched 18 sailboats and 4 powerboats leave the protection of Great Sale Cay to cross over to the shoreline of Florida.  This is an all night sail for most sail boats. We were timing the tide into St. Lucie Inlet so we didn’t want to leave till some time between 10.am and 11.am on Friday morning.

However, looking at the winds and waves, we realized we could anchor another night at the edge of the banks and not have to make an all nighter.  Rather we would sail to Palm Beach Inlet.

Our Stop at Green Turtle Cay was awesome. Green Turtle Cay is one of the barrier Islands off The mainland of the Abaco. You can only reach the island by ferry or boat. It’s worth the stop. Bryce anchored us behind a 100 foot tall rock cliff to protect us from NE winds. We were only 300 feet from the beautiful shoreline. Our water depth at low tide was 10 feet. The winds were to be gusting between 20 to 25 miles per hour. Bryce was amazing at picking out this anchorage. We didn’t feel the harshness of the winds. We drove the jet-ski into Green turtle Cay for the day.

Patch is tied up to the dinghy dock at Green Turtle Cay.

This cannon surely is being destroyed by the saltwater. She is mounted near the dinghy dock.   

The streets are so narrow just barley enough room for a vehicle. It’s funny it takes 15 minutes to walk the town yet people drive cars.

Haunting Loyalist Garden: The history here is the American Colonist that were loyal to the British flag left their slaves in the U.S to travel to the Bahamas in 1770’s.  In 1780’s the Spanish tried to retake the possession of the islands and failed. Due to the help of the South Carolina militia the loyalists in the Bahamas, without a shot fired, made the Spanish retreat. 

In just a few minute walk you will see an out door park with busts the represents the loyalist of the Bahamas. It is really neat to see. There is so much history on each island  and it’s fun to learn to learn about the Bahamas.

This is an old jail house.. They say there isn’t any crime in Green Turtle Cay do to the fact that it is inhabited by a close knit community of about 500 residents.

Although when they saw Bryce was coming,  they locked him up behind bars because they know how he likes to reroute the traffic- streets when he been drinking. LOL The jail is known as “Ye Olde Gaol”

After Bryce was released we continued on our journey and found Miss Emily’s Goombay Smash. This is the original  Goombay Smash.

The inside of the Blue Bee Bar is lined with anything you want to donate to the walls. I like this shirt!

We continued to walk through the quiet streets.

Is it Halloween or is this a hunted house? As  we walked through the narrow street we passed this house with ghouls in the windows.

This is one of the narrowest streets it’s questionable if even a golf cart could make it along the ridge. There is a Warning of the narrowest street: “enter at own risk”. LOL, We walked carefully..

With all the fun we had to pull up anchor and leave the following morning. We sailed to Great Sale Cay where we stayed the night  to make our crossing. Well we decided not to sail over night into St. Lucie inlet. The weather was perfect to head near Document Island where there was shallow anchorages that would allow us to cut across to West Palm Beach on Saturday.  

There were many vessels out on the Atlantic as we made our crossing back to the US.

As always  Thanks for following us.

So what a wonderful anchorage. After stopping in at Marsh harbor for provisioning, we decided to anchor in the bay at Great Guana Cay. It was only an 8 mile trip.  Great Guana Cay is a long narrow islet and is only 7 miles long.  She is also the center of the Abaco Island and is near Gumelemi Cay. There is only 150 people who live on the island.

We took the jet-ski out to do some exploring. As we headed into the beach we noticed Grabbers a bar & Grill. The tide was low; the pier behind the jet-ski is the dinghy dock. There wasn’t any one in the water so we beached the jet ski.

It is so summery to see all the beach chairs lined up on the beach; even without people in them. LOL

As I put my feet in the pool I noticed this cat drinking from the pool. That can’t be to good for the cat. It started to gag like it was going to vomit so I splashed water to get it to stop drinking the chorine water.

The silly cat just looked at me. Hey see that little drink on the table? It cost $11.00. The most expensive drink in the Bahamas so far. It’s just rum punch. 

Look how massive these chess pieces are..

Goodnight our friends. Tomorrow we head to Green Turtle Cay.

We made it to Green Turtle Cay. https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC 

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I don’t know where to even began. However, we must be very lucky. See we have been anchoring out since the 25th of January.  Our last day of mooring ended when we let loose of the mooring ball in Marathon Fl.  The mooring field here in Hope Town is very small and boaters are here several times a day searching for a mooring ball. Each mooring is a different color and they look like bumpers not balls. Depending on the color of the bumpers depends on who owns it. We were very lucky and found a green one. Our mooring is owned by Lucky Strike, a gentlemen name Truman.

One of the most appealing views here is of the light house.  Hope Town in Elbow Cay features one of the last operational kerosene fueled lighthouses in the world.  Still filled and pumped up by the operator.

She was built in 1864 and then rebuilt in 1934.

I started to walk up the steps but I ended up a bit nausea so I walked back down and Bryce continued without me.

She spiraled around and around: 101 steps.

These are the kerosene canister they have to be refilled and pumped up every two hours while running at night.

This spring wound mechanism caused the light house lenses to rotate. 

She has candle power of 325,000 and her visibility is 17 miles.  You can see the kerosene wick in the center and 2 of the 5 Fresnel lenses.  There is about three areas of no lenses.  This causes the light house to give 5 flashes with a break before the next five.

This is a tiny door you can climb out of and look around.  Her Height above sea level is 120 feet.  Bryce walked around this area and took pictures.

Her height at ground level is 89 feet. This is a view from the balcony that wraps around her.  It shows the mooring field.

Bryce took a picture of me from the top

After we settled  back in at the boat, Bryce inflated the dinghy and we headed into the dinghy dock. There are several areas for dinghy’s to dock up to. We are usually docking up at the sailing club docks.  The closest dingy is ours.

The streets are narrow just wide enough to get a golf cart down them. The walk ways are nestled with flowers and white picket fences.   No cars or gulf carts are suppose to be on the North side of town.

This is center of town where you can rent a golf cart to explore the rest of the island.

Before we rented a golf cart, we strolled through the streets and walked up the steps to the next street.

You can see the white picket fences go a long ways.

The view of the mooring field from shore through the palm trees.

We are now inside a golf car ready to explore the rest of the island. One must not forget they drive on the wrong side of the road here or is it that we drive on the wrong side of the road. LOL

What a pretty place.

There are so many signs with city names and the mileage on them.

We stopped along the road side as we headed to the Abaco’s Inn to absorb the beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean here from Elbow Cay just outside of Hope Town. 

So we decided to do lunch here at the Abaco’s Inn and it was a delicious. We split a wrap..  Abaco Inn looked out over the Atlantic on one side and the sea of Abaco on the other side.

We did a little walking though the streets of Hope Town.

Okay, I got very low on the Grey Goose Vodka; so we needed to stop in and get a re-fill.. LOl

Ever wonder what we do if we need medical attention? More then likely you may not see a doctor on the island, but they have nurses that work under a doctors orders.  

Hope Town is full of rich history.

One of the most treasured moments are the ones in which you invite new friends into your life.  Left to right: Bryce, Jeff, Alan. Rob, Gloria, Robin, Claudia, Me. We all met at “Sip,Sips” for pizza.

The shoreline is lined with the sailing dinghies that they use for their sailing events. 

So someone has drawn out the points of sail. One thing is for sure they have a lot of racing here in Hope Town.

Another great view was at Firefly Resort and Restaurant. But I think the food was a bit better at the Abaco’s Inn Restaurant.  But both restaurants are great.  Firefly looked out over the sea of Abaco.

Okay so I had to pick what really needed to be washed. I only have three months of laundry to do. There are several places to do your laundry. This is a new place; it is also a bicycle rental and repair and now laundry mat.   It cost $6.00 an load to wash and another $6.00 to dry.  So I put two loads in. How many times to you go to a laundry mat that offers a Martini bar? LOL Only in the Bahamas

We are making our way through the Abacos.  You can track our anchorages at https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC

As always Thank You for following us!