A Wonderful Week in Coconut Grove (Miami)

One of the women crews of the 29ers,
which look like leaves on the water!

Double Rainbow

This is our last night at a mooring as guests of the Coconut Grove Sailing Club. It has been an amazing, fun week, and we love Coconut Grove. Yes, South Beach is fun, but Coconut Grove seems a bit more diverse, down-to-earth, and appealing to people with lots of different interests. Among our experiences were several rainy days when we went to the movies (saw The Artist - great!), watched two regattas (the Melges and 29ers), met a lot of friendly people at the club bar, met folks from RYC - Kim Meyer, Jeff Pierini and Katy (sorry, don't know her last name) who were here for the Melges, sampled the local restaurants, and got all our errands done (filling the propane tank, doing laundry, making several trips to West Marine and Crook and Crook - another marine store. You get the idea.

Books in the Grove Loves Dogs!

Most mornings we walked or biked to a bookstore that is a great place to get a sense of the people here. Well-to-do older folks, college-age young people, even a few folks who appeared to be homeless. And LOTS of dogs. This is a dog-friendly town, and the bookstore allows people to bring their dogs in, even though they serve food. It seems to work.

Gelato for lunch!

The Optis were out along with the
two regattas - a busy club!

This weekend the town of Coconut Grove is readying for a huge art show - the whole town is full of tents in readiness for all the exhibitors. We wish we could be here, but we've got a good weather window, so we'll head to Pumpkin Key tomorrow, and to Bimini on Thursday, provided the weather forecast holds.

Nothing but Bridges! The route to Ft. Lauderdale

If the weather had cooperated, we would have taken the outside route from West Palm to Fort Lauderdale, but it didn't, so we stayed in the 'ditch.' This stretch of the IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW) is made up of myriad bascule bridges, all of which need to be opened in order for our mast to clear. Altogether we cleared 20 bascule bridges today, which considerably slowed our progress. It was a lot of hurry up and wait as we raced to get to the next bridge for their scheduled opening, then waited while the bridge operator ran the opening sequence.

All the way up - starting through

Still opening, we're getting closer!

The bridge begins to open

We're through! (Beth at helm)

For those who haven't been through a bascule bridge, the pictures give you some idea what it looks like. We ended up anchoring in Sylvia Lake (Ft. Lauderdale) and tomorrow will head up the New River to public docks, so we can find a place to watch the Superbowl on Sunday. Go Giants!



End of Day Reward at anchor

A Great Week in Jupiter, now moving on!



Carol Fanning (in blue) and friend Dee Dee

Perfect weather (cool nights, warm but not hot days, and no rain), family nearby, a rental car in a place close to EVERYTHING - what more could we ask for? We got a whole lot done this week, and enjoyed a lot of local restaurants (including the restaurant of Susan (Adams) and Larry Connor. Thanks, guys!
Had a surprise visit from Carol Fanning and her college friend Dee Dee, who stopped by the boat on their way to golf.

Cockpit Workroom!

Managed to just about finish installing the single sideband antenna, finished and painted the storage box seats so they will look presentable in the salon, got a replacement matress section for our Sleep Number bed, did laundry at Susan's, and provisioned to the teeth for the Bahamas, so we're ready to go! Also got set up with basil and a tomato plant, so if all else fails we can have a modified Caprese salad.

A tomato and basil garden to go!

Tomorrow we turn in the car, give the boat a wash, and either head south or just around the corner to anchor, depending on when we acutally get away. As great as it has been here at Old Port Cove Marina, it'll be nice to be at anchor again.

Short break in Jupiter

A quiet night in Faber Cove

Bill's sister Susan and husband Larry have a great place in Jupiter, so we planned to stop here for a few days. En route, we noticed some gear slippage, so we've had someone take a look at our port engine. We are now waiting for estimates on that (plus cosmetic repairs caused by the Virginia canal encounter with a cruise ship), and may have the boat hauled while we're here. Should know more tomorrow.

Susan and Larry Connor

What a cool bird!

The pictures include a sunset from Faber Cove (in Fort Pierce), a really cool bird that visited us at dinner last night (either known as a golden crested night blue heron, or as a yellow crested night heron, but cool, nonetheless), and Susan and Larry at their condo. Temps are warm (just shy of 80 degrees), and life is good!

Underway Again!

After finishing a bunch of projects (new salon cushions, new side curtains, a WIFI extension system and several things  made from a re-purposed mainsail cover (screen holders, a head curtain, and covers for both bikes) we left late in the day Tuesday, 1-17. The railroad bridge is under construction and only open before 8 AM and after 5 PM (and for an hour at lunch time) so we timed our depature for the 5 PM open, then tied up at Jacksonville Landing for a great dinner at Fionn MacCools, with the Main Street bridge all lit up in blue for a backdrop.

On Wednesday morning, in a light rain, we took off for Saint Augustine, where we took a mooring. It was chilly last night - down in the 40s - but OK under the covers. Today was gorgeous - sunny with a high around 65 - so we took our bikes in and visited the lighthouse, had a terrific lunch at a locally favorite place here, and then biked to the ABC store for Sailor Jerry's (a great price - $20 for the gallon size! Tomorrow after breakfast and a pumpout we'll head for Daytona Beach.

Enjoying Jacksonville

We love the marshes!

Amazing Spanish Moss at Fort Caroline

The Batmobile at Jacksonville Beach

Rented a car this past weekend and in addition to running errands we enjoyed Jacksonville. Beautiful weather (sunny, about 70), so Friday we explored Jacksonville landing, Saturday Fort Caroline (with Timicuan Nature Preserve adjacent for a really nice hike) and Sunday we headed to the beach. Had a great light lunch at Joe's (Joe's know crabs), walked the beach, and watched the many fishermen (and fisherwomen) on the pier, mainly catching fish that looked like bait. Saw a phenomenal Batmobile at the beach.

We're still having work done - some metal work tomorrow, and an extension to the side curtains we had made over Christmas (we liked them so much we wanted more!). Earliest we are likely to be heading south is next Tuesday, January 17th.

Back on the Boat in Jacksonville

Someone looks comfy!

After a great time at home in New Jersey for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we flew back to Jacksonville January 2. The boat is still floating, and now has new seat cushions in the salon, which look terrific. It was very cold for a couple days, but has now moderated and should hit a high of 75 today. A neat surprise - we met up with my old friend from Rocky River (Marianne Wellington Fugeman) and her sister Nancy Laszlo, who lives in Jacksonville. We've been taking care of little errands all week, and rented a car for the weekend to get to Home Depot, Lowe's, and Costco for some bigger things.

Yesterday we went down to Jacksonville Landing, which has a free dock for visiting boats. We stopped there briefly on our way to Ortega Landing Marina, but didn't have a chance to explore. So this time we checked it out, and had a great lunch on a beautiful day, sitting overlooking the river. The pix is from our lunch table at an Irish Pub (great food), and the other pix is of our first trial run of the cool solar charger we got for Christmas (thanks, Liz and James), which worked great to charge Bill's cellphone.
We're having some metal work done, and then will be heading south. Life is good!