Saturday, April 23, 2011
Back at 'home base' - Ft. Pierce
We are now back at our dock in Ft. Pierce. It's calm here at the marina, but the Atlantic seas outside the Ft. Pierce inlet are far from calm. This is surfing country and, on our beach walk yesterday, we watched with envy as lines of surfers waited for that perfect wave to carry them triumphantly into the beach. Bill and I enjoyed surfing many years ago in Cape Town. Could we get back into 'the scene'? Maybe not!
Since I last wrote we've spent almost a week at a mooring in Ft. Lauderdale. We bought ourselves some beach chairs and would walk over to the beach late each afternoon and swim in the silky, warm ocean. We caught the bus into the town, and also took the water-taxi excursion to 'Hollywood'- just six miles south of Ft. Pierce.
We had heard that Hollywood was very different from the busy metropolis of Lauderdale. With very few high rise buildings, and millions spent on a spectacular, miles long 'Broadwalk' along the beach, it was rated as being definitely worth a look. Well, one look was enough for us! Yes, there is a spectacular and very busy beach fringed by a beautiful brick pathway and restaurants, but it doesn't quite make it! So we had a good lunch at 'Georgios' restaurant on the ICW, and were very pleased we did our Hollywood research by water taxi, rather than bringing 'Southern Vectis' down to find a dock there.
The weather had become unsettled and thundery by the time we decided to move north to Lake Worth and Palm Beach, so we decided to brave the 18 bridges on the ICW rather than getting caught in a storm going outside. It's a long trip - about 10 hours of trying to catch, and sometimes missing, 18 bridge-opening times. We made it finally to our usual anchorage in Old Palm Cove at the north end of the Lake Worth. We had planned to shop for food the next day, but this was not to be. The forecast was for 6-10 knot winds. That day we had 30 - 32 knot winds which whipped up the water so much that, unless you wanted to get soaked, going ashore on the dinghy was not an option. So we, and the other boats at anchor, waited it out until the following day, when the weather forecast for a calm day came true!
After three days at anchor, we made the decision to move straight on to Ft. Pierce and our 'home base' of Harbortown Marina. We looked forward to being tied up snugly to a dock, to enjoying the swimming pool, our car and, of course, the 'Harbor Cove' waterfront Tiki Bar. So here we are. We have met up with Mike, our musical friend from the Bahamas and Key West, and also with Al and Maggie, who were also here in January. Each day more boats are coming in, either on their way north, or to be hauled out for the summer. We've driven north to Vero Beach, and plan to drive south to the lovely town of Stuart. There's lots to do and see. This morning we went to the downtown Farmer's Market, and this evening there is a Boaters' Pot Luck Supper. We'll have an evening out with Fruji and John, joint grandparents of Leo, Orson and Simon, on Tuesday. We are not sure when we'll set off to drive home up the east coast. At the moment we are happy to be enjoying life in the sun.
Monday, April 11, 2011
'Au revoir' Margaritaville
We sailed away from Boot Key Harbour on Saturday 2nd April. It was the day of the 'end of season' BBQ, but we couldn't linger. We had two long days with 100 miles of Atlantic waters to cover before the next storm was due, and if you don't have a definite plan of action in the Keys you could end up staying forever!
The seas were fairly smooth, and a calm night at our half-way point anchorage was forecast. As usual on this trip, the wind was on our nose. Nine hours of motor-sailing later we reached Rodriguez Key along with others making the same trek back to civilization. We anchored in the same spot as on our trip down and had a lovely evening swimming off the boat and barbecuing our favourite dinner of lamb chops. As we came in to anchor we had seen large rays jumping out of the water, turtles sunning themselves and dolphins swimming along beside us. While we were swimming a large ray launched itself out of the water quite close by and had us scurrying to get back on board!
Another day, another 9 hours of motor-sailing and we arrived at Dinner Key Marina,Coconut Grove, Miami. En route, some friends took their boat outside the Hawk Channel reefs and snagged a huge fish - only to have a shark snatch it from the line as they were hauling it in! They ate what was left on the line!
As usual we enjoyed our stay in Miami. We did a mixture of staying at a dock, mooring and anchoring. It was, and is, very hot. So much hotter than last year. On what must have been a 30F day with high humidity, we decided to take what we had been told was a short walk to a lovely estate called 'Viscaya', on the bay 'close' to the marina. Well, 23 blocks later we made it...just. But it was well worth
it.
The Italianate mansion had been built by a leader of commerce, James Deering, as a winter home in the early part of the last century. The owner's shopping sprees in Europe had resulted in an eclectic and rather excessive (for modern tastes) collection of baroque furniture and decorative items dating from the 16th to the 19th century. The gardens were formal and dotted with brides having their photographs taken. Strangely enough, we didn't spot any grooms!! Were they all hiding inside Viscaya's dark and air-conditioned halls?
While in Coconut Grove we also went for dinner with our friends', Fraser and Edi's, daughter, Sune. It was good to catch up with the soon-to-be graduate of Miami University.
The next night we went to an outdoor concert at the 'Barnacle Park', also in Coconut Grove. We bought two collapsible beach chairs earlier in the day, and armed with these and a picnic packed in our cooler, we struggled through the heat of the early evening, with only a short stop to take advantage of the 'Ladies Night' free champagne at our favourite 'Greenstreet' watering hole. It was a perfect evening in the grounds of the oldest house in Coconut Grove, on the shores of the bay. The music was a mix of folk, blues and blue-grass, and the audience was a mix of all ages. All the children had so much fun running beside the bay as the moon came out and their parents grew mellow.
Yesterday - April 10 - we motor-sailed yet again up to Fort Lauderdale. It was so hot that we decided to pick up one of the mooring balls conveniently placed just off Fort Lauderdale harbour, and spent the afternoon swimming. As the sun set we came through the bridge and were lucky enough to find an empty mooring ball at Los Olas.
We'll be here for a few days to take advantage of the lovely beach. Must finish now as we are off for a swim!
The seas were fairly smooth, and a calm night at our half-way point anchorage was forecast. As usual on this trip, the wind was on our nose. Nine hours of motor-sailing later we reached Rodriguez Key along with others making the same trek back to civilization. We anchored in the same spot as on our trip down and had a lovely evening swimming off the boat and barbecuing our favourite dinner of lamb chops. As we came in to anchor we had seen large rays jumping out of the water, turtles sunning themselves and dolphins swimming along beside us. While we were swimming a large ray launched itself out of the water quite close by and had us scurrying to get back on board!
Another day, another 9 hours of motor-sailing and we arrived at Dinner Key Marina,Coconut Grove, Miami. En route, some friends took their boat outside the Hawk Channel reefs and snagged a huge fish - only to have a shark snatch it from the line as they were hauling it in! They ate what was left on the line!
As usual we enjoyed our stay in Miami. We did a mixture of staying at a dock, mooring and anchoring. It was, and is, very hot. So much hotter than last year. On what must have been a 30F day with high humidity, we decided to take what we had been told was a short walk to a lovely estate called 'Viscaya', on the bay 'close' to the marina. Well, 23 blocks later we made it...just. But it was well worth
it.
The Italianate mansion had been built by a leader of commerce, James Deering, as a winter home in the early part of the last century. The owner's shopping sprees in Europe had resulted in an eclectic and rather excessive (for modern tastes) collection of baroque furniture and decorative items dating from the 16th to the 19th century. The gardens were formal and dotted with brides having their photographs taken. Strangely enough, we didn't spot any grooms!! Were they all hiding inside Viscaya's dark and air-conditioned halls?
While in Coconut Grove we also went for dinner with our friends', Fraser and Edi's, daughter, Sune. It was good to catch up with the soon-to-be graduate of Miami University.
The next night we went to an outdoor concert at the 'Barnacle Park', also in Coconut Grove. We bought two collapsible beach chairs earlier in the day, and armed with these and a picnic packed in our cooler, we struggled through the heat of the early evening, with only a short stop to take advantage of the 'Ladies Night' free champagne at our favourite 'Greenstreet' watering hole. It was a perfect evening in the grounds of the oldest house in Coconut Grove, on the shores of the bay. The music was a mix of folk, blues and blue-grass, and the audience was a mix of all ages. All the children had so much fun running beside the bay as the moon came out and their parents grew mellow.
Yesterday - April 10 - we motor-sailed yet again up to Fort Lauderdale. It was so hot that we decided to pick up one of the mooring balls conveniently placed just off Fort Lauderdale harbour, and spent the afternoon swimming. As the sun set we came through the bridge and were lucky enough to find an empty mooring ball at Los Olas.
We'll be here for a few days to take advantage of the lovely beach. Must finish now as we are off for a swim!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Blue days and 'Parrotdise' in Newfound Harbour
Leaving Key West - blue skies - light breeze - the strains of the 'Star Spangled Banner' floating in the air, plus the aromas of coffee and cigars. It's always best to leave with good memories intact, and to look forward to the next visit.
We motor-sailed out into the Hawk Channel for our 30 mile trip to Newfound Harbour. We'd spent one night there on our outbound journey and, as the weather forecast was for calm, warm days into the foreseeable future, we decided to treat ourselves to an experience that would be the exact opposite of Key West. There was one other boat on the horizon as we slowly and carefully navigated through the shallows. It was 'Jumasi', our neighbour from Key West with Martin & Sigida from Ontario.
Newfound Harbour is large and enclosed by Big Pine Key, Little Torch Key and Ramrod Key among many others. Upon our arrival Martin & Sigida told us about the two local 'watering holes' - 'Parrotdise' and a Tiki Bar. We made an arrangement to dinghy together to find the Tiki Bar, and then chugged around the bay to explore. Of course, we couldn't resist taking a look at 'Parrotdise'. It didn't look at all exciting viewed from the end of the long and rather rickety pier where we tied up. But we were out to explore, and so made our way towards the salmon pink/parrot pink barn-like structure. Imagine our surprise when, upon stepping inside, we were greeted by cries of, "Here comes Lake Ontario", by the large crowd at the bar. We were so stunned by this reception, and mistakenly thought these must be boaters we had met somewhere en route (Remembering names and faces is not one of our srengths!). As we chatted to this animated bunch we realised two things - that $1 Happy Hour beers had been flowing for a couple of hours, and secondly that Bill's T-shirt had had a large map of Lake Ontario prominently displayed on the front of it! With promises to return the next day...and the next and the next...we dinghied back to Southern Vectis before setting off on our trip to the local Tiki Bar with Martin & Sigida.
Our voyage of discovery took us right across the bay - about two miles - and in through an extremely narrow channel bordered by razor sharp rocks just waiting to test their edges on tender dinghies like ours. As we entered the channel a boat full of young people (polite description) came screaming outbound on a power boat, and almost hit Martin & Sigida's dinghy. Undaunted, (or maybe slightly daunted) we carried on, and soon found ourselves in a long, dank, and seemingly endless canal to nowhere. At this point, Bill remembered we had forgotten to bring our lights for the return after sunset! To cut a long story short, we found the Tiki Bar - it was right beside the busy highway - and had a nice meal eaten fairly quickly due to the fading light. We may have broken a few speeding rules on our way back down the canal in the encroaching darkness, but we all breathed a sigh of relief when we got out into the open harbour and could just about make out Jumasi and Southern Vectis in the last glow of the day.
The weather for the next two days was perfect - 30C each day with clear blue skies. We swam and explored, and didn't miss a single Happy Hour at 'Parrotdise'. Then, on another clear blue day, we set off for Boot Key Harbour with a lunchtime anchorage at Bahia Honda State Park. The depth at the Bahia Honda anchorage is fine, but the holding and the proximity of two huge bridges - there's a gap in the old rail bridge to allow for boat traffic - does not make for a comfortable overnight anchorage. Later that day we arrived back in Boot Key Harbour to find there was no longer a waiting list for mooring balls, and that Jumasi was bobbing on a mooring close by.
So now we have been here for the past week. We've had two major storms during that time, and it has been extremely hot and humid - at least 7F above the normal high temperature of 80F. Last year at this time the low was 58F, setting a low temperature record, and necessitating a production run of T-shirts with "I survived the winter of 2010 in Boot Key Harbour"! Maybe they'll do the same for this year with the record high temeperature of 91F and winds of 44 knots!
Many of the boats that were here when we left are still here, so it was rather like coming home - with the Monday night dinghy drift, the Wednesday get-together under the Tiki Hut, the Thursday afternoon game of 'Mexican Train' dominoes. We've enjoyed them all. We dinghied up to 'Castaways' and had a good evening out with Martin & Sigida. We've also had a few outings to the 'Dockside' bar. Tonight will be our last outing with our bikes. We sold them this morning on the Cruisers' Net, but can use them for one more night to cycle down to our favourite bar 'Salty's', for a sunset dinner and farewell to Martin & Sigida. We think we have a two day weather window to get us up to Miami before the next unsettled weather comes in. The cruisers' weather guru, Chris Parker, had both his radio antennas knocked out by a tornado last night, and today's weather, though warm and sunny, has a very unstable feel about it! We can always change our mind about going - and there's a great BBQ featuring the 'Barnacles' music group, at the Marina's Tiki Hut tomorrow!
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