Waiting in Fort Lauderdale....

Dec. 12, 2010:   We left Jacksonville on the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Our son, James, and his wife, Jennifer are both stationed at Jacksonville Naval Air Station so it was a great chance for us to spend Thanksgiving with them.  We had a wonderful, wonderful visit and were also able to get a jump on provisioning but more importantly, get a hot shower every night.  If you've done any sailing you'll know what I'm talking about. 

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 7th.  We're lucky enough to have friends who have a house on one of the canals right on the ICW and they offered us their dock (picture above.)  Along the way we saw some pretty unique sites...

Do it youself drydock

             
                                                                     Bed and breakfast offering fishing trips!!!

Here's David as we crossed the 1,000 mile mark as we were getting into North Palm Beach. 

Going through Palm Beach was amazing especially when we saw all the "other" boats .... like MEGA YACHTS.....  These guys have so much money they bubble wrap their boats.....the boat to the right is probably 120 feet or bigger.... must be nice.

The other mind boggling thing we saw were the homes...tons of mega mansions down to tiny beach cottages.  Here's just one example:

Well...maybe more....

As we neared Fort Lauderdale we looked up ahead and thought this boat was tied up because it was HUGH and didn't appear to be moving.  Well,  it was moving, very slowly, right towards us.  When it passed it actually blocked the sun.  It's hard to imagine this was someone's personal yacht.  There was only one other boat in front of us and we both looked like little puddle jumpers.......

So here we are.  Waiting in Fort Lauderdale for the weather to break so we can get across to the Bahamas.  We've had a wonderful trip.  We're at Mile 1060, tied up at a friends house right on a canal right on the ICW.  We're use to cul-de-sacs, in Florida, they have canals where people tie their boats up..some small boats and some not so small:

Once the winds shift from northerly to southerly/westerly we'll move the boat to an anchorage close to the Port Everglades opening to the Atlantic and leave around 4:00AM. The trip over to check in with Bahamian Immigrations will take about 10 hours..long day but we'll finally be there.  We're hoping to get out by Friday, Dec. 17th.  

Not sure if we'll get another edition of the blog done before Christmas so we want to take this opportunity to wish each and everyone of you a very Merry Christmas.  This will have to do in place of the annual photo card we have sent out for the last 29 years.   Until later..... Dave and Peg  

We made it to FLORIDA

It's the last day of November and we're tied up to a mooring ball here in St. Augustine.  We stayed
on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) the whole way and have been really enjoying seeing a part of
the country you don't see if I95. 

Here's a picture of David on the beach on Jekyll Island, GA.  There wasn't a soul on the beach looking up and down the entire length...nothing like  OBX!!.




The next big stop was visiting with our son, James, and his wife Jennifer.  We stayed at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station for Thanksgiving.  Our week with the kids was wonderful and being able to catch up and do laundry.   We drove to St. Augustine in about 45 minutes ... of course,  when we left Jacksonville yesterday it took us a day and a half to get back to St. Augustine..... here's a picture of the harbor.....

So friends...we've travelled over 766 miles since we left in October.  We've been in thunderstorms,  seen more marsh grass than you can imagine.  Haven't seen any alligators except in the Alligator Farm here in St. Augustine  ... like these ...

We haven't seen any manatee's yet but tons of bottlenosed dolphins.   We're headed to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow morning.    Until later.... much love to everyone.   Dave and Peg

Bay Trip 9/15 to 10/4/2010

Hi everyone: I'm not sure when everyone will get this since I have to get our address book complete so bear with us.  

We started our trip leaving York River Yacht Haven on 9/15 and returned home on 10/4.  We learned a lot about the boat and each other and saw some great little towns on the Chesapeake Bay and anchored in some peaceful rivers as well.  Here's a list of towns and rivers we got to: Deltaville and Indian Creek in VA.  Crisfield, Oxford, Cambridge, Rock Hall, Solomons, the West River, the Rhodes River, the Magothy River and the Honga River.  We logged 363 miles this trip.  Unfortunately we didn't make it all the way up to Balitimore, maybe next time.

We were able to meet up with some of our cruising friends in Rock Hall and got to go grocery shopping - something we don't take for granted anymore.  We have to plan our trips carefully especially when we have to carry everything back ourselves...no putting everything in the van!!   We sat in the Solomons (a nice little town south of Annapolis) and waited on a mooring ball for 3 days while Mother Nature dumped 13" of rain on us. 

Cambridge, Maryland is a great little spot and we found a free bulkhead to tie up at right down in the harbor! Anytime you can tie up for free you grab the chance.  Of course there wasn't any electricity or water but we have all that on the boat so it was great.



The highlight of the trip was "surfing" home on Monday, 10/4!!  We waited for 2 days with a good friend close to Kilmarnock and decided we needed to get home to start making preparations for the trip south.  Dave thought it I was funny sitting all snug in the corner of the cockpit staying warm!!  The wind was coming from behind betwen 20-25 knots with some gusts of 30 knots.  The fun started when a big wave came up from behind and I could feel the boat speed up.  I asked Dave our speed and his eyes popped out and said 14 knots...on the downside of a wave... whoopy!!!!  But the boat did great and so did we!  We're looking forward to the next leg of our adventure. 

We head south through the Intracoastal Waterway around Oct. 15th.   Until then take care... more later......Peg and Dave