Heading For the Keys

Heading South on the Intracoastal

March 21st!! - Finally!! 0800 hrs and the Captain had our lines let loose and down the New River we ventured. Where too? After careful consideration about the Okeechobee and our time constraints ( yes we have a small schedule,, OOPS). We motored down the Intracoastal towards the Keys. The weather had been absolutely lovely with high 80* and sunny. We must inform you that our newly designed steaming light saved us quite a bit of time from bridge delays, now what to do about those weekend Manatees? The colour of the water changes from a brown tea to the aqua/teal color everyone expects to see when you think of Florida.

Water Taking on an Aqua Hue

The Smile Says it All!

Out into Biscayne Bay and our first stop for the day was No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. It's a wonderful anchorage (hurricane hole) and usually very busy. You can dinghy ashore and visit the Bill Baggs State Park  which is exactly what we did each day.Our first vist to the State Park we sat along the wall and looked down into the water where we noticed a conch making its way. The water was shallow and clear enough to take this little video below.

Can you carry your house too?

 Early  the next morning we jumped in the dinghy and "somewhat sputtered" to shore, hmmmm another project in the future perhaps? We love this park, there are trails to follow through the natural growth of Biscayne Bay. The weather promised to be in the low 90's in the afternoon , so we planned to spend the morning walking throughout the park. I (Elle) hate heights had for some strange reason  decided that I could climb the stairs of the lighthouse. Each step closer to the top the staircase literally shook, or was that my knees?  The captain waited patiently for me to climb from the comfort of the rocking chairs on the lightkeepers cottage.  After our walk we returned to the Summer Wind for a delightful lunch. The temperatures did indeed climb to a record 92* so an afternoon swim in the harbor water was indeed refreshing. Thank goodness for a good breeze in the evening, it would have been very muggy and the 'no seeums' would have been out in abundance.

Note: We discovered our ice maker draws too much electricity and really drains the battery down when on anchor. Remedy: Only run the ice maker when we're travelling or plugged into electricity. Provision the cooler with ice from a store if possible when on anchor 2 or more days. We keep a cooler with soda (pop for Canadians) , bottled water, and juice on the back deck. Easy access and very important to keep oneself hydrated.

Dinghying around Biscayne Bay

Cape Florida Lighthouse

Can You See the Captain?

Lightkeepers Cottage

Trail throughout Bill Baggs State Park

Looking out into the Bay

How to Keep Busy While Your TV is Being Held Hostage

March 1- March 20, 2011
What's one of the most important rules with this lifestyle. ALWAYS BE FLEXIBLE AND ABSOLUTELY KEEP NO SCHEDULE!!! After organizing the boat and tweaking a few more projects, we were ready to leave, or so we thought.

We discovered our television wasn't working and we made the decision to hand her over to the repair people after several reassurances, " that it only would take a few days to a week at the utmost". Our 26 inch flat screen tv is not quite 3 years old, so we decided that it  was worth repairing. What's a few more days?

Thank goodness for our neighbours and friends Ted and Nancy , they made our delay a positive event. Early one morning we saw Ted and Nancy returning from their ' morning walk' and we inquired as to how far they walk and how long it takes. They knew we were trying to diet and 'positively convinced' us to join them the next morning, they even started a little late because they knew we weren't quite the early risers. Ok, so up we rose and donned our sneakers and hats. We thought we were keeping a good brisk pace, until a few short minutes, we saw Ted and Nancy's silouhettes fading off in the distance as they made short work of the walk, we were impressed.Over the  half way mark for them, we crossed paths and they were smiling and always encouraging, but Oh MY! did our legs feel the burn. We think Ted said our walk was calculated at almost 5 miles and it took us over an hour to walk.

Fort Lauderdale has a great St. Patrick's Day celebration. On March 12th we walked down to Las Olas Blvd, for a wonderful pancake breakfast with fresh fruit toppings. I know ,, what happened to the diet we were just talking about? Well we had been so good and when you walk into  La Bonne Crepe with the heavenly aroma, how can you not resist temptation? They were delicious!! But we would definitely work off the extra calories by the days end. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the fantastic parade.

 Have you ever met an Idol or someone that you would definitely love to emmulate? Well the captain had his chance on March 17th. Our television was still being held hostage by the repair people and we found out that Sir James Galway was giving a one night performance at the Broward.His wife Jeanne who is also a fantastic flute player joined him onstage for a few songs. There was only a microphone on the stage but each note could be heard clearly. For those that may not know the Captain has been playing the flute for a few years and Sir James is his Idol. It was a memmorable evening, we were five rows from the front  and each sweet note that was played I'd look over at my husband and see the awe in his expression. He'd shake his head in incredulous wonder. After the performance we stood in line for  short period because Sir James was signing autographs. With program in hand Captain Dick waited his turn. But my husband not being shy told, "Sir James that he had been playing the flute for a few short years." Not missing a beat Sir James asked him, " If he was catching up?" The response was, "I'll never catch up," and they both laughed. What a night!

A few days turned into a few weeks but we made our delay a positive event. Each evening at 5 o'clock we'd relax with our friends on the dock. On one of our last evenings Gisela and Hans joined us all for a great rib dinner.  "Life is definitely good!"



A Flock of parrots



Where have we been?

Where have we been?  Well since our last post in December we've had a very busy couple of months. We made it as far south as the New River in Fort Lauderdale, where we welcomed in the New Year with Ted and Nancy ,who are aboard their vessel Aloha Friday.  This year the music the band played wasn't the Doo Wop fifties that we  had heard last year, but what made the night special was celebrating the event with our friends Ted & Nancy. Isn't that what makes life special,,, friends celebrating together!

January 1st we moved the Summer Wind to a dock on the New River. It was a perfect spot, and we have to thank our friends Ted & Nancy for finding us this gem after our dock reservation fell through. We can watch the mega yachts go by at a slow pace. Each day we watch  and hear the parrots fly from tree to tree. The manatees swim by with the current, and this year we're happy to report several baby manatees have been spotted. There's a house across the river from us that have 7 dogs  and each time a manatee swims by they are out there trying to get the manatee's attention,, very cute to watch.

 As most of you know we plan to begin the Great Loop this year so we began our ‘maintenance list’ to get the Summer Wind ship shape.

• installed new batteries
• installed battery monitors
• changed/installed new shower sump
• changed waterpump on the engine
• changed a few head hoses
• replaced horns that stopped working
• removed moustache from the hull
• had our anchor light pole hinged so that we could clear 16’ bridges
• installed yardarms to display our flags
• bought new deck furniture (great find at Home Goods!)
• repaired our ice maker
• installed a new anchor light, rewired that and the steaming light 
• changed the oil and filters
• fixed our x-changer pump
• cleaned and polished the stainless steel 

The whole month was not spent working, we enjoyed several walks on the River Walk. We met friends and family for lunch/dinner, thanks Naomi, Leslie, Hans, Gisela, Craig, Kathy, Giuliana and Karl. We participated with the MTOA for the Trawler Fest. Our treat of the month was to see the play Les Miserables,, fantastic!

The end of January we returned to our home in New Jersey. Let's just say it was definitely a different climate up north. Our first day back the temperatures rose to 20* . Now, that was almost a 60 degree difference. The snow was piled high and there was a 2 inch layer of ice on the driveway.  So why be where its white, cold and slippery??? We rented our house for a year and the tenants have their own furniture. It was a fast month of packing , storing and making things shipshape for our tenants. Needless to say, we decided to bring a 'few' extra things back to the Summer Wind.  Our rental car ( a Ford Focus) was jam packed. Our first rental car was a VW Beetle!

Upon arrival we 'unloaded' the car in several trips. There wasn't a place to move around and several times "The captain would say, the Summer Wind looked like it had been bombed."  One of the most important rules on a boat is that things need to be put away securely and you definitely need to know where things are when needed. 

The captain and I had always been discussing about removing our washer/dryer from the cubby closet. NO,, we weren't trying to get out of laundry detail,, the machine isn't as useful or as practical or efficient as one might think. We rarely used the machine for two reasons, it took a great deal of our fresh water to wash a tiny load and it would only wash tiny loads and would take forever to wash/dry one load, probably because it was in a tiny cubby closet with no ventilation. We're normally at a marina when we wash laundry anyway and most marinas offer the use of their own machines. That cubby space could be put to better use, and with Ted's  not only offer of assistance, he researched that we could donate to Habitat for humanity. We decided the machine definitely had to come out. So how do we get the darn thing out?

Here are a few pictures of that removal and our new cubby closet! It's now 10 days later and we've found a spot for almost everything,,, including the toaster oven! The Summer Wind is almost ship shape!