Winter 2012-13

Merry Christmas everyone!  Early we know, but still very much our wish for all of you.  We're on Grand Bahama Island tonight as well plan our next few steps into new territory for the winter.  Here's out notes from the last few days:

12.17 Finally, our final preparations for departure to the south and then across to the Bahamas. 8a eye appt, quick stop at the store, return the bikes, dinghy out to the boat, raise the outboard and the dinghy, top off water tanks, ride through the bridges and we're off at 1045a. ICW to Lake Worth, set anchor @545p, try to sleep, ha.

12.18 Our Window to Cross

We're underway @245a. Seas are calm, waves are small, winds are light, and the sky is very dark. We motored until sunrise and had the sails up by 7a. With the motor off for the rest of the day, winds stay steady out of the west 10-12kts, 15-19 for a while, then back down to 12-15. If you asked for the best possible conditions for a crossing today you couldn't done any better than this. After the sun started to warm things up we finished opening the enclosure for better visibility and some sunshine. What a surprise it was to find a flying fish that had made his last flight. Poor guy, laying still just inside the toe rail there. Off you go! At 1130-1p we were surrounded by dozens of dolphins that enjoyed playing in our wake, chasing the boat and jumping into the air. What a sight, “Dancing with Waves”.
Our boat speed averaged around 5, then up to 7 for a while, then back down to 4-5 after the Gulf Stream dies out. Being in no real hurry we enjoyed a long overdue sail and landed easily at West End by mid-afternoon. Customs-no problem, top off fuel-no problem, take a slip for the night-no problem. That's the Bahama way, No Problem.  The water is clear and blue and we are already seeing small colorful fish all around the docks. We enjoyed the company of friends Duncan and Cathy all afternoon and evening before hitting the bed hard for some rest! We'll use tomorrow for recovery :)

12.19 After a much needed rest, we're up and out of West End, Old Bahama Bay Resort at 845a and fully under sail @9a. The ride was wonderful from there to the turn towards east at Freeport. Winds died for a bit, and so did the auto pilot. Instead of staying out on an anchor for the night we've pulled into ORYC (our home away from home) to evaluate the repair. If all goes well we're off to the Berry Islands in the AM. Or, we stay here. It's a win-win,really.

Hello Everyone! Happy Fall 2012

Long time no see, or BLOG, eh? We'd like to be able to say we've been to busy to write but that wouldn't be true. The truth is we haven't done much to write home about. We survived our first summer in Florida and not without some very expensive A/C for the boat. Loggerhead-Stuart was our home for 3 months where we enjoyed floating docks, shore power and a pool. Our daily routine including early starts to beat the heat and then shaded projects on the boat until sundown. We made some great friends at Harborage/Loggerhead and will look forward to crossing paths with them again.

September brought a few changes as we relocated to the mooring field at Sunset Bay Marina and no longer had shore power. The heat was still a problem so we solved it by getting off the boat for a few weeks. We had a fabulous 3 week road trip from FL to PA and back. If our count is correct, we slept in 11 different beds as friends and relatives took us in for a night or two. After over a year in the V-berth it was nice to hang a leg over the side of the mattress for a while :) This little vacation from our vacation was a much needed break and we came back feeling renewed and ready for another season.

So we're back on board and the galley is close to being fully restocked. We've upgraded a few things including a 12V freezer and a Propane oven. Isn't it amazing how sometimes the smallest things can make the biggest differences in our comfort and ease of use. Anyway, it's time to head even further south for the winter. By next month the “snow birds” will start pouring into Florida and the sleepy towns will come alive again. We're looking forward to the return of all our “Cruiser” friends and acquaintances, as well as our second season in the Bahamas.

To all our friends and family, please keep in touch via email, facebook, texting, Skype or phone calls. And be sure to call ahead if you're planning a visit to the Bahamas this winter! We'll keep a light on for ya!

Vero Beach Loggerhead_July 2012

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A year ago today...

A year ago, today.....

We've reached another milestone today. It's been a full year since we pulled away from the PIYC in Erie PA. After 10+ years of planning, 6 months of intensely downsizing our personal belongings and also working to complete the major boat projects, we finally started the adventure. “Living the Dream” is not really what either of us expected and the sunshine and roses have been intermixed with some real emotions and difficult times.

We have seen thousands of miles of coastline and more that a few dozens islands both here and in the Bahamas. This really is a dreamlike lifestyle and we pinch ourselves often to refocus on that distant reality that exists on shore. We do make an effort to stay connected with the economic and political news as those still effect us very much. We are also enjoying the blips we see of many of your lives via Facebook and emails.

Oh so many lessons learned about navigation, weather, tides, currents, anchoring, as well as the life lessons that come with the separation and isolation that is a very real part of cruising. While we tend to make new friends everywhere we go, we really miss all our lifelong friends and many relatives.

We've already started to formulate float plans for the next 6 months and look forward to discovering new places. We're heading north today from Stuart to Vero Beach. We have reciprocol dockage with Loggerhead Marinas so we though we'd see some of their other facilities.

2 more months of high humidity and 4 more months of Hurricane Season before we resume our more normal cruising routines.  Can't wait!

May and June, 2012

The month of May included 430 miles up and down the Florida Keys, and we've barely scratched the surface of places to visit and things to do. From Marathon we stopped for one or more nights in: Big Pine, Key West, Dry Tortugas, Marquesas, back to Key West, then Bahia Honda, Marathon again, Indian Key mooring, Rodriquez Key, through Angelfish Creek to Pumpkin Key, Lake Sylvia, Lake Worth and finally back to Stuart. We're starting to call this home base and are currently enjoying the amenities at the Loggerhead Marina. The dockage rates are lower in the summer and we have a small portable AC unit plugged it, yeah!

We are now faced with some boat insurance questions to find answers to before making a decision about the rest of the summer. Hurricane season is upon us and State Farm doesn't work in Florida. A few nights ago we experienced a strong lightening/thunder storm and can see some minor damage to the other boats as well as some tree branches down throughout the area. Wind gusts were clocked at 50+ and it gave us a true wake up call about what a hurricane might be like.  It wasn't pretty. 

So June will continue here at the Loggerhead pool, etc. and we're enjoying all the time we're getting to visit with the kids, including our youngest son Logan from Erie and his girl Alyce!  We've had some great days on the beach and lots of fishing.   

Keep in touch and look for us on Facebook, too! Jim and Linda

Tortugas and Key West

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May 1st Already?

It's been a month since we last posted? Wow. Time certainly has taken on a new dimension for us. Seriously, what day is it? Lol 

While we are still keeping notes and log books and expense charts regularly, the days seems to be blurring into weeks and so on. It's a good thing we are writing things down, even just for our own sanity. The hustle and bustle of our first six months was so packed with adventure we couldn't help but share things with you as often as possible. Since returning from the Abaco Islands in March the pace has definitely slowed down. We've been working on finding a happy medium between hustle bustle and bored silly. We haven't been bored, but the possibility does exist I guess. Living aboard is not just fun and games all the time ya know. We have chores and maintenance, and we still haven't run out of self inflicted home improvement projects. :0) We also want to keep discovering all those places we read about.

So, we left Stuart FL April 9 and SAILED to Lake Worth. With a plan for just a few days there we of course got busy and ended up staying almost a week. Jim snorkeled under the boat to scrub off the slim and growth while I scoured and scrubbed from the water line to the rail. The water there was very clear which made it so much easier to see the results of our work. This effort has to be repeated at least monthly to keep the scum off and to keep the boat moving quickly through the water. Mission accomplished. In between dives we explored Peanut Island and found that to be quite nice. We snorkeled there and even observed a manatee from an observation bridge. We included some pics from Peanut Island as well as the sites right around the island. You may find an interesting business endeavor, too.

Our next stop was an anchorage in the ICW near Delray Beach, and then on to Ft. Lauderdale. Lake Sylvia is a popular anchorage there, especially for all the local boaters in the weekends. See pics of AQUAJET. It was the craziest, funniest thing we've seen in a long time. This self contained water propulsion system was hilarious! We stayed two nights in Ft. Lauderdale before headed further south to Miami. We SAILED again believe it our not, from inlet to inlet. It was glorious. We anchored in “marine stadium” for a night and observed the local crew boats practicing. The young adults were working very hard. The younger students, not so much. Fun to watch though. The second night we moved to Dinner Key/Coconut Grove just to revisit the scene of the original crime (read on). On Thursday morning (4/19) we sailed in Biscayne Bay, tacking back and forth with no apparent forward progress. Oh well, for once we didn't care! It didn't matter where we went or when we got there. Finally!! SAILING!!!! We arrived at Pumpkin Key about 330p and settled in. 

Now, whether it was just complete exhaustion or if it was the actual calm conditions there, it was the best night sleep we've both had in a long time. The wind was calm, the water was flat, and there were no strange noises floating in through the open hatches. We woke up to the sound of snorts coming from a pod of porpoise playing around the boat. “Now that's what I'm talking about!”

The Pumpkin Key anchorage, and the day before in Miami, mark the moment of our dream having come full circle (the scene of the original crime). For those of you that did not know this, Jim and I chartered a sailboat from Moorings for our honeymoon trip in 2000. We flew to Miami and remembered Pumpkin Key as a favorite stop on that trip. The sailing/cruising bug gave us both full blown infections! We've been working towards getting back here (Pumpkin) ever since. It's real now. We're really doing this. And we're loving it!!

OK, enough of that. We're moving through the Florida keys now headed for Key West and Margaritaville and the Dry Tortuga by the end of the week (if the thunderstorms subside). Don't forget to check out the latest batch of pics. We're over 700 now. Might need a back up and/or another camera card soon!

JLM

S/V Y-Knot 3