Work..Work..and work

Well, it’s another day here in Marathon. Last Summer on our powerboat we installed USB ports. They are awesome! This allows me to charge my phone and run my fan at night without running a generator or inverter. I ordered four more for the sailboat. It’s the little thing in life. This is one of our USB fans. I ordered them from amazon. They are amazing, I think they run better the a 120v fan.  And they draw considerably less power.

Okay to help increase the power in the sailboat we are installing a wind generator. Believe me it’s not getting installed without a few unrepeatable words. My poor ears. LOL  I think I should learn how to drive that darn dinghy so I can escape at times like this. Bryce has tried several times to teach me how to drive the dingy.  I just can’t control the darn thing using a stick for a steering wheel. 

Okay, back to the new Wind generator. We are at the local Home Depot. We need a pole to mount the Wind generator on.  Of course, it’s like playing with an Erector set as a kid.  Or I think of it like a puzzle. Piece by piece You must have the right pieces for things to fit together.

The putting together of the Wind generator. It Works!!!

We took a night off and went back to Overseas pub. I think it has become one of our favorite stops.  This old sub is next to it. I can’t even imagine someone fitting into this tiny thing.

We were Celebrating the finishing of the painting on Beauty. 

I call this the three amigos (three sailboats), It starts with SoLuna, then Beauty and then Three Penny Opera. As we dingy back in the dark, we look for these three mast head lights.  They are quite distinctive.  They are our guiding lights at night.

Update on Georges Paperwork.

I’ve been dealing with the department of Ministry of Agriculture in the Bahamas.  A permit is required for any pets going into the Bahamas. However it seems as if they never get my paperwork along with the money order no matter how many times one follows the instructions.  Now they say they have no post office and I should resend everything without the p.o. box.

Okay enough is enough. I have never had such an issues in the past. We were at a happy hour up at the “Teaky” hut. Someone told us to go through Wellington.  He is a guy in the Bahamas that you email your pet paper work to.  Everything goes through the internet; no more of this crap of dealing with Faxes or expensive Mailing fees.  You send everything to him supposedly you get back everything in the email and sooner.  

This is George enjoying my new USB port and fan.

This was taken last night as we finished up with the Wind Generator

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It’s just Magical

Wow…I am so thrilled at the results of her make over. She has dimension now; much more detail on her. I just don’t understand how she had three colors on her non-skid. In the last blog I told you that she had peach/tan and white and gray. The faded gray looked the best to me, so I wanted the non-skid to be gray. I sure hope that this is a good product. I guess time will tell how Interlux-Deck non-skid paint will work.  She feels like a new boat.

LOL.. Last year a new Little Red engine, this year paint the non-skid and next year new interior cusions.  We have a few more projects underway before we untie from Q3 mooring ball and set sail.  I just can’t wait…..  There was so much going on this past weekend but we missed it all. We knew we had to finish painting. There will be time to play again.

This was Saturday:  Bryce painted the side decks. Poor guy painted all day and ended at dusk.

Both port and starboard side is done… Look the top deck is dried!! I put a towel under the chairs just to make sure the paint is fully dry I didn’t want any scratches. 

(Sunday)Bryce started with the Starboard side cockpit so we could get in and out of the boat. It looks so much nicer when the tape is removed. This shot is from the starboard wheel side.

(Sunday)Look at the before shot. She looks so colorless.

Sunday evening we went out to eat. Before we walked to the local Public grocery store, we stopped at Overseas again. Bryce is having the octopus serve him a beer. It is a well deserved beer after all his hard work today.

(Monday) Can you tell the difference? This shot is from the companionway. Bryce just removed the tape.  Bryce is painting the last half tonight as we go in for the night. So tomorrow we will be able to walk on the Starboard side. It takes two days to be completely dried to walk on.  Some call this the cockpit; I call it  “Jane’s patio”.  

This is the sugar scoop; even it has non-skid. I call it a boat painting because there was so much non-skid. This is where we get on and off the boat.

Well today is Tuesday. Bryce finished up the painting last night. Now it will take a few days to dry. With the wind and low temps it’s taking a while to dry. My table top in my patio. I am madly in love with this make over. 

Now lets hope this paint holds up! No shoes on board for a while. She really needs time to dry (cure). As I said further up, the winds and chilly air along with the condensation she is taking longer to dry. 

Even the sugar scoop is done. 

She is dry to touch but I found out she is not ready for lawn chairs yet.  Tonight we go out to celebrate Bryce’s hard work and Beauty’s new look.  

This lazy cat. I told George I was giving him away. No more waiting on him to leave! LOL.. I think Bryce would miss him, so I better keep the spoiled cat.

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Ants-in-pants

Hello; hope life is going well for you all. I am getting restless, so hopefully we leave soon. But in the meantime Bryce is getting things done on the boat. We bought paint to repaint the skid area on the boat a few years ago. However it seems like the boat is under a nasty tree dropping stuff all over the boat or it’s in a boat yard with other boaters sanding boats next to us; so the painting never got done.  So the time is now. We been asked what type of paint Bryce using. It’s Interlux- Deck paint with non-skid finish.  She is starting to look like a new boat to me.  We are not done; but I will leave the final pics for our the next get together. She has had three different colors that we can tell: white, peach, and gray. The gray seems to be the original color. I am loving the new face-lift of Beauty.

This photo is Bryce doing the initial cleaning.

The taping takes such a long time. He started with the anchor hatch. We had heard that the paint would be runny; but it was a bit thick.

The anchor hatch is done.. I think she looks amazing; fabulous job sweetie..

Now to the top deck. We are doing it in sections.

The top deck is painted… There is still so much to be done. Where Bryce is standing is the side deck. We will start them today (Saturday)

Okay, after seeing people standing up in their dinghy.  I tried to get use to it; I just can’t. LOL I keep hearing a voice in my head Jane sit down before you fall out. That is what my parents would say as my brother would row me in our little row boat.  It seems one of the boaters fell off his dingy and the prop cut him up good.  Needed something like 30 stitches.

The fun never ends here in Marathon. We met Jon & Diane on the Erie Canal 2 years ago. We followed each other on FB. When Diane heard we were going to be here, she contacted me and said they would be here on the first. We finally met up at the Sunset grill and had a great dinner and a Tsunami.  Its a drink made for two.  I am surprised I was able to walk back to our dinghy after they dropped us off at the marina. LOL

This is Trampus. That is his Cat in the background.  They were having dinner with his parents at the Sunset grill when we were there and he introduced us to them.  What great people. Anyways his parents were headed home the following day and he delivered two bottles of wine to me that were from his parents. Oh my aching head..LOL Thank you so much all of you for such a lovey gift and a wonder time.

That evening we were invite over to join Rachel, Trampus and their two lovely sons Tripp and Carrick.  We had our first Vegan meal and it was pretty delicious. Hamburgers made of sweet potatoes and oatmeal. What a great family enjoy your adventures on your beautiful Catamaran SoLuna.    Our Prayers go out to Trampus and his family they will be flying home soon for he lost his grandma.

The following evening we joined up with Jim and Shirley from Perfect Love for dinner and drinks. Although, I must say I wasn’t up to drinking. LOL Our prayers go out to Jim & Shirley. Jim lost his father and flew home. 

One more night of fun. We went over to a couple’s boat Steve & Zoila. Their boat name is Miss Rita. It was a great night.

She officered us lots of appetizers… Yummy night.. Thanks for your wonderful hospitality 

Thanks to all of you for following our blog!

It seems like it has been awhile since we have last spoken; so I figured I would update our status. FYI, we are still in Marathon waiting for paperwork for George. A little bit has happened that I will share with you. I hosted my first appetizer and cocktail party on Beauty. It was awesome but I forgot how to use a camera that night. Thanks to Rachel and Trampus and their two sons along with Jim and Christy for joying us. We also met up with Shirley and Jim from Perfect Love. Awesome time!

The funniest things can happen when you least expect it.  On New Years Day we were sipping our morning coffee on the deck listening to the cruiser net when a call from another boater came across during “Question, comments, people needing help”.  A boat named  “Scalywag” was asking if he could get about 10 guys to help move a mast from one marina (Marathon marina) to City Marina.  Anyways I asked Bryce if he wanted to help out. He already had the microphone in hand volunteering.

A few hours passed.  While I was doing some cleaning I faintly heard “Jane” As I ran up the companionway I heard “Grab the camera.” I hesitated; thinking by the time I ran across the salon, it would be too late. I was right but it’s awesome to have a zoom lens.

They had laid the 54 foot mast lengthwise on a 17 foot boat to move it across the harbor.

Bryce was on the bow as the helmsman navigated through the mooring field.  One of the other guys dragged our dingy to the City Marina area.

Here is the mast after they had placed it on the boat.  This shows 9 people, Bryce was the tenth.

The time has finally arrived; It was time to rent a car. We went into Naples for a hair appointment and up to St. Petersburg to see some friends: Mike & Miranda.  These two sailed with us from Key West to Marathon this past March..

Mike and Miranda from S/V Sea Turtle. We met them in Mobile Alabama over a year ago.

What a cool Christmas bulb.  It was so good to see both of them again.

These are concrete dividers you see sometimes during construction or along the highway. Anyway they are apparently used in St. Petersburg during a street closure that go on in town.  Pretty cool place.

It was totally fun; but we only went in for a few hours.  On the way back to our boat, we ended up pulling off the road and sleeping at a truck stop for a few hours.

The following morning we needed to start stacking up on a few things before we take the car back on Monday. Bryce dropped me off at the laundromat while he went into Public’s grocery’s store. When he came back, he said I picked up 10 cases of beer for our trip. I think he is nuts but we will see. He said we took 18 cases the first time.

On Sunday, we took our final trip with the car to  Key West. It’s always pretty to walk the board walk.

All ways a ship photo.  This looks like a big buoy tender.  But not sure as it appears to be military rather than Coast Guard.

Bryce noticed this huge Catamaran carrying a full boat of site seers’ out.

As we walked along the boardwalk we noticed these Pelicans and fish swimming all together.  When we looked up, we read the sign.  It said feeding time 4:00 p.m.  Must be pretty smart animals.   The fish are apparently large Tarpons.

Key West has some of the prettiest roosters. So my question of the day is: If you order Chicken wings in Key West, where do they come from? LOL

As we walked back to the car we noticed these people painting a mural.  I said jokingly how far to you travel to paint murals?  He started laughing “Anywhere a plain ticket can take us?”. LOL 

Well it is always our pleasure to share our journey with you. Thanks for reading our blog!

Happy New Year to you all!

It has been one crazy week since we have last spoken. We were very unsettled about taking a mooring ball . I didn’t want to leave Sisters Creek but when winds settled down came the attack of the (No-see-ums). Saturday morning we woke up thinking we would spend the day at the beach but we needed to go to Home Depot for a few things.

As we wandered the store, the phone rang. It was City Marina saying there was a mooring ball available for us: Q3.  Without a doubt, we took the ball and said good by to my paradise. We moved the boat and connected to the mooring ball without any issues.

While we were in Home depot we picked up a sheet of PVC to use as a cover for sink, stove and trash bin.  This added considerably more countertop space. Bryce is sanding the corners.

I think they are amazing…  Really adds the countertop space.

It is very warm here so we decided to remove the plastic enclosure and put the screens on. Bryce wanted to rinse the salt off the plastic before putting them away.  As he hung the portside piece over the boom; our neighbors Threepenny Opera, came by for a chat. They are really nice people.

About 45 minutes later, we turned around to get back to work when we noticed something was missing. Our portside enclosure has slid off and sank into the brink. Crap…

That was one huge piece of enclosure. With that gone most of the portside will be exposed to the rain, wind. Worst of all, it will be cold sailing at night. Sunday came; Bryce wanted to try and dive to look for our missing buddy.  But he knew he wouldn’t be able to see through the muck to the bottom. So off to the beach we go. What a great day.

George found a new place to sit.

The wind ended up blowing out umbrella away but we saved her.

Love watching the boats; just thinking that was us about a week ago.

we are enjoying our day at Sombrero Beach.

We sailed passed this island as we approached Marathon from Hawk Channel. While sitting on the beach I zoomed in on it. So pretty…

A guy was fishing off the beach.  Look he caught a fish.  I cannot tell what it is LOL

Look at the people on Sombrero Beach.. It is a bit windy but very warm.  First day at the beach in a long time.

Monday morning as we sipped our morning coffee on the bow and listened to the morning cruiser net, we decided to call OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Divers) to see if maybe they would dive for our missing buddy.  It has already been three days but it was a heavy piece of plastic. Bryce said it would have gone straight to the bottom.  We have done this before…

Now the boat swings all over the place on the mooring ball. When I spoke with the gentleman on the phone, he asked all kinds of questions  I asked him if it was a lost cause. He didn’t think so. He said they like searching for lost treasures.  Within a few hours a dinghy motored up to us.  It was two divers Chris and Jessica from OCD.

I heard Bryce say “hello Jess;  I knew you worked for OCD; but I didn’t expect to see you. What a great surprise.” Chris & Jess are very nice people.   After we talked their ears off, Chris got ready to dive.

He is putting on his mask. I am holding my breath hoping Chris will find it..

There goes Chris I highly doubt he will find it it has been 3 days.  But Chris was quite confident..

OM!! Look!!!I cannot believe my eyes.. He found it. I don’t know if it was even 10 minutes. Amazing!!!!! Just amazing..  This is why Bryce and I decided to call OCD.  We figured they understand how to find such lost things.

What a guy!!!

Chris swam over and handed me the enclosure section.

We are still smiling just cannot believe Chris found it. Thank you both so much…

Later that night we went up to the Tiki hut and had cocktails with a few other sailors. Happy New Year!!!!

Thank you all for reading our blog!

OM! So Christmas has come and gone. This is the first time I have had to catch you all up to our status.  The winds settled down on Saturday, So we left St. Lucie’s River. We had a great weather window that allowed us to sail out in the Atlantic for 39 hours to Marathon.

But our spur of the moment sail down here wasn’t planed with provisioning. We had 6 mini potatoes and a can of pork-n-beans for dinner. So you know after we arrived and got tucked into Sister Creek, we headed to the our favorite Chinese Restaurant.  After our stomachs were full we headed over to Publics to grocery shop. We found out that Winn-Dixie went down with Erma and hasn’t re-opened yet. 

We are anchored in a little piece of what I call paradise Sister Creek. Our journey from here will be back to the Bahamas. But in the mean time We will enjoy our stay here.

This was a portion of the St. Lucie’s outlet/inlet  We came out with no issues.

It was a great day to sail the winds were NE about 16-18 knots

We were able to sail wing on wing for a while.

Some of the sights we see in the Ocean are of other vessels. We didn’t see many mammals or fish out here.

One of the best things that can happen when sailing at night is a full moon. She is our candle in the sky.

As the moon started to surfaces so did this cruise ship.  Looks like they are headed towards the Bahamas.

It was a long night as we sailed toward the shore line of Miami. The sun was peeking through the clouds. It was a beautiful morning.

After cruising down the Florida coats, we cruised down the Keys in Florida (Hawk Channel).  We were passed by this sailboat. We then met these two later at the Boot Key Harbor Christmas get together. 

There was so many crab pots on the Hawk Channel we did not run the motor at night.  Rather, we sailed the whole night no matter how low the winds were.  Turns out we ran between 5 and 6 mph in these light winds.

The sunlight on the ocean is just as remarkable as it is on the Great Lakes.

Even the birds are preparing to nestle in for the night.

Our second night out, it’s still a fabulous night sailing.  Once again the moon shared her light with us.  Around 12:30 a.m. We sailed on to anchor just outside of Boot Key Harbor in the Florida Straits.  After 39 hours,  I don’t think it took us 5 minutes to fall asleep.

We are on the waiting list for a mooring ball.  We are number 7 on the list; but in the meantime we are in Sisters Creek. I really like the anchorage here. Bryce is tiring off our stern lines to the mangroves. With two anchors off the bow.

On Christmas day we celebrated with a diner at the Marina.  The gathering of a lot of joyful people. 

This is the deck area. Very nice. Lots of great people

He loves the warmth.. We are having a great time here.  It was a bit nippy in Jacksonville, FL.

Apparently Raciti (local artist) refurbished this mural originally done by “Rocky” Post Irma 2017-2018

Here is our route at https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC

Well, Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

Thanks for following our Blog.

The sounds of the howling winds stirred us around 4:00 a.m. here as predicted.  As we woke up and put our feet on the floor, we heard the alarm go off.  We didn’t even get our first sip of coffee.  We headed up to the cockpit to see what was going on. All I could think about was having my first sip of freshly brew.. Bryce looked at the GPS our anchor had a little itch and reset herself.  (Good Girl)

We have used WindAlert for about 3 years now and it seems to work well for us.  Issues always appear worst during darkness vs daylight.  Soon daylight will be appearing. I am not sure when the rain is suppose to start. According to my cell phone there is nothing on the radar. That’s good for now.  I just looked out the window daylight is on the horizon with some scary looking clouds.

For a few days now someone, I won’t name him LOL keeps asking me to make bread. I decided that today would be a good day since we will be on the hook.

Great advertisement.

Look at his smile someone is having fun in the 12 knot wind.

These people were walking there boat from a sandy gouding. I turned around and noticed two tow boats showed up to help them out.

Look they planted palm trees on this sandbar. It’s going to be an island.

So many boats with wakes as we came in from the ICW. I always feel bad for the boats in the boat wells. They seem to always take the brunt of the wake. It was nice to see the sailboats coming out; it was reassurance that it was deep enough for our keel.

We are anchored on the portside of that green buoy closer to shore.

Yes, I found the house Jane wants… I guess it’s nice to want! Bryce said house vs boat. I said boat

Okay look who found his chair first. I put a pot of coffee on so we could enjoy the evening.

St. Lucie’s River: Well, we tried several times in this area to find a deep enough anchorage. Due to the storms coming in over the next two days we wanted protection from the south west winds. At first we couldn’t find anything deep enough, Bryce said one more try then we will head out. We were lucky we found an area 500’ by 1000 feet area; plenty of room. We are in 10 feet deep at low tide, no current. Yeah the water temperature is 71 degrees. Get this no crab pot patch

See our position at https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC

Have a safe day everyone. Thanks for following our blog!

Traveling The ICW South

What a crazy amazing day. I have waited a while to be able to sit on deck in shorts and a sleeveless shirt.  Today was the day.   Although when we pulled up anchor, it was still a bit chilly.  I to have to laugh because when we anchored last night, I didn’t realized we were in a crab pot patch.  We were totally surrounded by these little guys.  

We had thick fog early morning fog as I sat in the cockpit waiting for the fog to clear up. I could see these little floating objects that look like some child lost their ball appeared out of no where as the fog lifted. We had no issues really as Bryce was standing on deck directing me as I dodged the crab pots to the main channel.  What a beautiful day.

Yesterday, I posted about the weather that will be upon us Thursday and Friday. We are going to anchor in an area near the St. Luci inlet.  It is supposed to be a good holding area. Believe me I will let you know.  I have no doubt that I will be a bit nervous, because I already am. LOL The local news said gusts up to 50 MPH. We have seen higher.  It’s just uncomfortable and nail biting for me.  Maybe I’ll catch a movie to help time fly by.

Bryce took off our smaller Danforth to install our bigger one.  This one has held us in 80 mph winds.

This is a small view of the ICW. It became very twisty for a while. I had to sit on deck without my sweetie.  But someone had to navigate.

We need to anchor and take our chairs to this sandbar; it looks so inviting to me.

Okay, There are so so many boats in distress.  I say so many dreams are lost and those dreams became someone else’s nightmare. As you can see it is not always a sailboat in distress  powerboats boats are lost also. With that said; being from Michigan I am not use to seeing this.  But it’s not just Florida. Sunken boats are all over.  We saw them going down the Mississippi and in the Bahamas. 

Now, look.. It is a tower of boats…Look how tall it’s Must have a huge lift.

These jet skiers are dressed like we dress to go snowmobiling. The one in the rear had a big rack.  I think they are cruising the ICW.

Well, I guess someone found away to use damaged boats… Advertise “Send Nudes”. LOL It could be worse. 

I don’t know why but it’s kind of cool to watch the fisherman get ready to toss their nets.

Well looks like they might have to dredge this area in not so far in the future. It is pretty close to the channel.

It’s always so peaceful to watch people fish.

I cannot believe all the boats out today. School must be out.  Maybe a lot of people on vacation. I don’t understand why people are always in a rush. They miss so many fantastic things. But I guess if they have the power, that’s what they do. I can say that because we have a power boat in Michigan.  We have learned the best thing about boating is the cruising. Slow and peaceful.  

We passed through the Fort Pierce draw bridge. Just to the Port side is the inlet to the Atlantic. We will be out there this weekend.

Last time we were here which was last April, Cobb’s had the best “Rum Runner” cocktail

Tami, it looks like the moon is getting fuller. But I thought the next full moon was in January? I could be wrong.

Well, Thanks for following us.

We are trying to make Marathon FL by Christmas.  After Marathon, we will head to the Bahamas. Then back up this way.  According to WindAlert, We are going to be getting some undesirable winds coming in this Thursday and Friday. What that means for us is the loss of two days travel. We will make up for it over the weekend. Cruising the ICW is a blast for us. However we will slip out into the Atlantic over the weekend to make up for lost time. 

These are WindAlert  forecast for Thursday and Friday so we are trying to decide where to hole up. 

This is Fridays forecast. Not a pretty picture.

We went in to City Dock Marina for fuel then headed out. This is the mooring field; they appeared to be full.  We anchored just North of the mooring field where we anchored on previous trips. It was a good anchorage. The pump out is separate from the gas docks. The wind was a bit strong to have to try and tie up at another dock (likely we were lazy) so I had to forgo a pump-out. It was no big deal; I really didn’t need one; but I just thought that it was odd to have to move to another dock.

So far we haven’t had any issues with the bridge openings or bridge clearance.  I think what I like about the ICW is all of the many different things to do. Towns to visit; people to meet.

Cocoa area.. I waved hello to my brother Joe, his wife Evelyn, Janette and Katie as we passed by. See you in the Spring

Our Niece Katie-Did (that is her nick name) LOL Works at Ryan’s Hello Katie-Did……  If you are thinking about stopping here it is a really cute area.

Now me.. I am just sitting on deck watching the birds go by. I didn’t see and dolphins today.  Maybe because we are not by an inlet.

Right around 2:30 p.m. I noticed the moon. Our light of the night is shinning during the day. On the ICW we don’t travel at night; too many crab pots.

Well, as you can see my Captain is enjoying the view too.  Motor sailing with a light wind.

Here are our anchorages. We normally post on Active Captain but having password issues. But we post on https://trackmytour.com/2p4qC  So if you’re ever interested you are welcome to view our map.

Okay, I have a joke: Which holiday mascot has the least spare change? 

Answer: St. Nickel-less

Thanks for following our blog.