West Palm Beach

City lights make a nice backdrop 

We decided to swing on the hook for awhile and one great place to do so is West Palm Beach.  Palm Beach is a very high-end, happening place.  Someone told us it is the most expensive zip code in the States.  We're not sure if that's true and not that we care about such things anyway, but it IS a great place for people/boat watching. The folks hanging out downtown pretty much sum up the dichotomy of the States:  you see street people sleeping on benches beside chauffeur driven cars waiting for their owners to come out of the wealth management building.  As well there are some pretty spectacular yachts in this neighbourhood to shake our heads at and wonder just who has that much money and what we would do if WE had that much money.  Probably not buy a ginormous yacht to leave sit at a dock as a tax write-off.

Market day

Craft show

But the real advantage to anchoring in Palm Beach is the convenience.  There's a large free dock to park the dinghy which has access to free water to fill our tanks.  A vibrant downtown which always has something going on -- free concerts, farmers' market, dog shows, car shows, craft and flea markets etc etc.  And a grocery store and large movie theatre within a few blocks.

Visitors from the North!
Brenda driving in salt
water for the first time.

We spent about ten days anchored at Palm Beach.  While there, we enjoyed a visit with friends Stephano and Brenda from Harbour West Marina, our home port in Penetanguishene, where  a couple of afternoons were spent on the boat, taking in the sights and sharing meals and libations.

Gran Vida at anchor in Palm Beach

 A Few Sights From Around Palm Beach

Downtown Palm Beach

Several old classics

Lots of huge yachts.  We rarely see them move.

A walkway around the entire anchorage and over two bridges
 My circle circuit - over 8000 steps

Flaglar museum

Nope.  Ain't gonna fit.

The big boat is heading under the lift bridge with the assistance of a
 tow boat pushing an anchored fifty footer out of the way.

B-Bye Stuart

 Those Northern winds are just not cutting us a break at all.  The few days this month that they've shifted away from the North, they have been too strong to consider a safe and pleasant crossing.  Some boats, especially sailboats who are designed for such conditions, have gone across but, in all honestly, we're just not interested in banging around out there for nine or ten hours.  There's plenty to see here while we wait.  Usually things start to settle down in mid-February and we'll get our smooth and pleasant trip across the gulf stream and our Bahamas fix.

We've decided to move on from Stuart though and just cruise around in Florida, maybe work our way to the Keys, we'll see.  It's been a great month here in Stuart.

Here are a few highlights:

Tour of the renos they are completing

Reno tour

A Visit Home

View out the kitchen window of my
daughter and her husband's home.

I zipped home to Penetanguishene for a very short but sweet visit only to shock my newly developed Floridian blood with the coldest snap of the Canadian winter.  Yowzers!  They were calling it the arctic vortex.  I had forgotten how that first breath of really cold air shakes up the lungs.  I spent the weekend curled up in front of the fire, chatting and visiting with my daughter, her husband and my two granddaughters.  I needed that!

Daily Living

We've enjoyed lots of downtime just puttering, long walks, reading, hanging at the pool, happy hours, dinners with friends etc. I've been swimming about a km in the pool several times a week.  I sewed up some covers for our old mis-matched fenders, which looks a little tidier.  Jeff painted all the black trim on the boat which freshened things up.  The gran vida continues.  It's a great life!!

Our good buddies Joe and Connie (M/V Chesapeake) stopped in for a few days on their way through the Okeechobee waterway.  It was great to have a visit, even if it did piss-pour rain almost the whole time they were here.

 Dinner on M/V Chesapeake,  Joe and Connie's beautiful Kadey Krogan Manatee
L to R:  Cindy, Grant, Connie, Joe

We've seen quite a bit of wildlife:  Manatees, dolphins visit often, rays.
On the very top of the tuna tower on a sports fisher boat docked here in the marina,
the osprey have decided to build a nest. 
The owner cleans if off regularly but by the next morning they have
built it again.  Funny.  We think there are now babies in there!

Sewing in the Cockpit

New fender covers.  Tidier.

B-bye Crow Boat

I've written about our friends, Grant and Cindy's (M/V As The Crow Flies) and their engine trouble.  They'd just put new tanks into their boat, provisioned and prepared for a winter in the Bahamas when they discovered a small engine problem that morphed into a major one.  

Grant had accepted a position in Halifax which was to start in the spring.  Considering all, they made the difficult decision to list their boat for sale and head home early.  They've been busy packing and showing the boat and we've tried to do whatever we could to be helpful and supportive during this transition.  

Yesterday they had the boat towed to Indiantown for an engine rebuild and storage.  It was a sad day watching the sick Crowboat being towed away by Tow Boat US.

TowBoatUS, towing As the Crow Flies out of the marina
on "the hip".  They towed them nearly 25 km, through one lock.
She'll get all fixed up with a new engine and hopefully sell quickly.

It's been a good run, Stuart, but we can't sit still any longer.  After a quick oil change, we will pull out of our slip here at Harbourage Marina later today and see where hook drops tonight. Plenty of options.  It's been a great stay!

Stuart FL

Dinner on Grant and Cindy's lovely Albin Trawler.

The big wait begins.  The "big wait" being the wait for the right weather conditions to head out into the Atlantic on our older coastal cruiser and cross to the Bahamas.

We are here on the East coast of Florida, fully provisioned and ready to go.  Only King Neptune is not cooperating yet. The preferred time to cross to the Bahamas is in the spring.  But, like many snowbirds, the time we have is now.  Winter.  So we wait.  And wait.  For just the perfect combination of weather factors to make our trip out onto the big blue ocean not only safe, but pleasurable.  Ten hours of uncomfortable bouncing is NOT on my bucket list.

Early morning swim.
Best way to start the day!

Jeff bought me a new
hat for my birthday!

We intended to stay here at Harborage Marina for one night only.  Our boating buddies Grant and Cindy (M/V As The Crow Flies) are here preparing their boat for sale. We just wanted to visit for a day and then head out to anchor. The marina offered us such a good deal we thought, what the heck, and signed on for a week.

Our week has come and gone with no weather window in sight.  The marina offered us an even better deal for a month long stay, so here we sit.  It's a great place to wait, with an awesome pool, hot tub and a nice, easy walk into town for shopping.

It's been sunny and warm and we're managing to fill our time. Jeff's completed a few more projects on the boat.  A new horn has been installed and it's good and loud!  A new depth sounder/transponder is set up.  We've been having tons of fun with Grant and Cindy, managing to find various happy hours around town etc.  My birthday was celebrated by taking in the Stuart Boat Show which was conveniently located right outside the entrance to the marina.

The guys have enjoyed some fishing but they got "crabby" when they didn't catch any fish.  They did catch yet another frog on the boat though.  We thought we had gotten rid of them all from winter storage, but alas, one little critter was found in the pedestal of our captain's chair.  The poor little guy was white as could be.  What a testament to resilience.  Jeff and Grant "floated" him up to the top of the pedestal and threw him in the water, where he promptly started to swim back.  Days later, another frog was found in the dinghy (not sure if it was the same one).  He was taken farther from the boat and set "free".  Always an adventure!

Surf fishing.  Waiting for those rods to dance.

There are no weather windows opening up in the foreseeable future, so here we'll wait for the month of January or until the winds change, whichever comes first.  In the meantime, I've booked a quick visit home for my Nana fix.  Winter, here I come!

Gran Vida and As the Crow Flies, across from each other wisely placed alone at the end of the dock.  

Okeechobee Waterway, Again.

To get to the East Coast of Florida from Fort Myers there are two options.  We could either go west, then down and around the bottom of Florida or go east, and cut through the Okeechobee Waterway.  We have done both and both have points to recommend them.  This time we chose the Okeechobee, simply because it is shorter.

The Okeechobee does not have the greatest reputation.  People call it the "ditch", which, for the most part, it is.  We were not impressed our first trip through but now we've grown to quite like it.  It cuts through rural Florida, past farmland and wilderness.  There are four locks, one lake and a few small towns or parks to stop at.  There are tons of birds and alligators.

We are currently in Stuart Florida at a lovely marina, docked across from our boating buddies Grant and Cindy (M/V As The Crow Flies).  From here, we'll just need to wait for the winds to shift Southerly and the seas to settle.  We use many sources for weather information, but we tend to hover over windy.com.  We check it daily (actually several times a day) and once it looks good, we refer to several other sites and confer with other boaters in, well, the same boat, waiting for that elusive winter weather window.

We must have seen at least twenty alligators, many of them babies,

M/V Mary Rose ahead of us crossing Lake Okeechobee

He was trying to steal my lunch!

approaching a lock

Early morning start

Bye-Bye Fort Myers

The clock ticked down and before we knew it it was time to leave our boating friends from Fort Myers.  As always, it was a GREAT stop.

Here are a few bits, pieces and highlights from our time in Fort Myers:

Dinghy 'Sploring:

Dinghy 'sploring.  It's one of our favourite things to do...  just take off in the dinghy and see what we can see.  This particular day we tooted over to the next marina, Legacy, to hang out with buddies Dave and Michele (M/V Just Us) 

The Cooking Christmas Dinner Adventure:

 We prepared our contribution to a dockside pot-luck Christmas dinner with other boaters.  With no oven on board Jeff cooked turkey breast on the barbecue while the drumsticks stayed warm on top.
It turned out great!
 I cooked a big pot of yummy mashed potatoes on my one burner hotplate and served them up in a crock pot, with gravy piping hot from a thermos.  Not exactly a fancy fine china affair
but where there's a will, there's a way!

What a beautiful meal we enjoyed with friends.

Russ & Janices Dirt House:

We were very honoured to be included in Russ & Janice's (M/V Dream Chaser) first house warming party.  They just purchased a new "dirt house" after living aboard for five years. A dishwasher is a very much appreciated new novelty!  They will be sorely missed at Fort Myers Yacht Basin.  It is outside their boat where boaters gather daily at "the wall" to share stories, laughs and camaraderie.

New Year's Eve:

The New Year's Eve celebration in downtown Fort Myers is a happening place to be. They close off the street and host several bands, food trucks, street vendors (including beer stands) and a midnight ball drop.  It was very convenient to be docked two blocks from all the action.

"The Wall" 

 At the sound of the conch being blown at sundown "the wall" is where we pull up a chair and gather most days for "docktails", which does not necessarily include an adult beverage, but often does.  Russ and Janice are the informal hosts. They have lived here at Fort Myers Yacht Basin on their boat for about five years and are in the process of selling their boat and moving into a "dirt house". Great friendships have been formed and lots of laughs and stories have been shared at "the wall" over the years.  Fort Myers Yacht basin will feel different once their boat has sold.

Bye-bye Fort Myers

And then the big day came.  Two little Canadian trawlers (M/V Mary Rose and us, M/V Gran Vida)

threw off their lines and cast off, with their bows pointed towards our next adventure.  Bye-bye Fort Myers until next time.  It's been a blast!

Friends gathered to see us off

Ready, set....

And away we go.