Burnt Store Marina!

We arrived today, Saturday at about noon, at Burnt Store Marina. It seemed like an eternity trip but when we add up the actual time moving it was about 5 weeks. It just seemed very long because of all the hold ups for everything from weather to health. We both are exhausted but very happy to have finished our trip unscathed. Dad will pick us up tomorrow to go to his house. We spent today doing some cleaning but there is still lots more to do but we have plenty of time to do it in.

We were at anchor last night on the ICW side of Sanibel Island. It was a quiet night with a rain shower lasting less than 5 minutes. That's more than I can say for our night at little Shark River. The trip getting there was very stressful and stormy the whole way. Seas were rough and visibility was low because of the heavy rain, with lots of thunder and lightning. We both felt like we had been on the inside of a washing machine when we got to our anchorage in Little Shark River. So much for the storms looking like they were going North. When we got to the anchorage we found that it had shoaled in since our last time there. We had to anchor almost in the channel in order to get enough depth under our keel for low tide. Being that far out and the wind doing a switch it brought waves up behind us and slapped our stern all night. By morning we felt like we had not slept a wink. As soon as day broke we were out of there. We decided to have another long day and go all the way to Marco Island. The weather was supposed to get very nasty the day after. This was another very long day. The winds were on our nose so we couldn't get help from our sails to steady the boat in the rolling seas. We could see storm clouds building around us but most avoided us. Thank goodness. One storm cloud that passed by had a funny looking spray of water below it. At first glance it looked like a fishing boat with its nets and rig out, but then as we watched it a water spout developed below it. It was big and hung there sucking up water for what seemed like an eternity. We were really glad this cloud was going away from us. By the time we got to the channel at Marco Island another storm was building and we had opposing wind and tide as we entered the channel. This is not fun to  maneuver, it's hard to stay up right and steer. By the time we got to the marina our equilibrium was so bad from the two days of being rocked around it was hard to stand on land without feeling like you were still moving. We decided to stay an extra day, the weather was not going to be a good day for being on the water. What else was new! We always say we are going to rest when we stay extra days but they never happens. We cleaned the boat up some and did laundry and went to the grocery store for some supplies. We left Friday morning to go as far as Fort Myers Beach and then up to Sanibel to our
anchorage. We had some scattered showers but no thunder and lightning. The water was rolling us around and the wind was not a help for sailing. We were very happy to be under the bridge at Sanibel and into the ICW.

Moving Again!

We finally pulled up our anchor this morning, after two days of thunderstorms. Generally the storms don't move in until afternoon but the past two days they happen early in the morning. By the time they clear out it's too late to move to the next anchorage. This morning for the most part they were not near us. We hope by the time we get to Little Shark River and anchor, they will have moved further northeast.

Our plan for tomorrow, if the weather allows it we will anchor at Indian Key. Both today and tomorrow will be in the Everglades. Lots of bugs. If there wasn't a threat of storms we would just anchor out along shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The third day we will go to Marco Island and take a slip. We are hoping by doing only 30 nkm a day we won't be traveling during the storms.

Anchored in Islamorada Fl!

We are at anchor in Islamorada Florida for the night. After we set our anchor we went for a swim to cool off. The water is very warm but refreshing. Again today we have been watching the storms developing. One was starting to develop near where we are anchored so we got out of the water. It seemed to disperse while we were eating lunch but then shortly after the skies seemed to explode with lightening and thunder and a deluge of water. We needed a fresh water rinse, we sure got it. After the skies emptied the sun came back out and it was beautiful again.

Tomorrow we start our trip up the west coast. Four days more and we will be at our new home dock. That is weather permitting.

I've created an album on iCloud to share some pictures. I hope it worked. Here is the link. If it doesn't work just copy and paste into your browser. Enjoy!


https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0QGWZuqDuDhC2

Moving Again!

I'm having issues with my blog so no pictures, sorry. Wanted to let you know we are moving again. We left on Wednesday from North Palm Beach and took the outside route via the ocean. It was calm with between 5-10 knots of wind out of the east. The most we saw was about 8 knots. It was a motoring day as there wasn't enough wind to get us to Fort Lauderdale in a timely fashion.

We entered the channel and found our anchorage in Lake Silvia. We have anchored here on several trips in the past. After a calm night and we were up and on our way early, just before 7 AM. Again we took the outside route on the ocean to Miami. After entering the Miami channel we made our way to an anchorage just off Key Biscayne, an anchorage we have used several times in the past. As we were making our way to the anchorage the thunder clouds were building over the mainland. By evening more clouds were building over the ocean creating thunder and lightning. This made for an uneasy nights sleep. We never did get any rain or storm activity near us. We were thankful for that.

With the excessive heat we are having it was nice to cool off in the water by the boat. We did enjoy our evening, even while we sat in the cockpit watching the lightning strike out on the ocean side. We were also treated to a show by two spotted rays that kept swimming by the boat. They are so graceful as they swim.

This morning we woke to storms building out on the Hawk Channel, the route we were going to use. After some debating we decided to go the ICW to avoid the building storms. Well that didn't work. We were almost to Key Largo and new storms developed in our path. We were almost to Card Sound bridge when we could see lightening striking where we were headed. We opted to drop our anchor just north of the bridge and wait it out. After waiting about 30 minutes, the storm subsided and we were under way again.

We are at a dock at Gilbert's Resort and Marina for the night. We are plugged in and cooling off with the air conditioning. The last we will see of that until we are at our new dock.

Earlier in the day we had made contact with a sailing friend of ours, Mike. We met him and Diane our first year cruising. They continued to go back and forth from NJ to Florida during our hiatus in DC. We wanted to know about depths in the ICW route and he shared that things had not changed much since we were here last. He also suggested the Yacht Channel up to the Everglades. We had taken that once several years ago. It will cut off several miles of our trip so we plan to take it. Tomorrow we will go as far as Islamorada and anchor off Lorilie's restaurant. The following day we will head to the Everglades and anchor off Shark River. If I don't do an update when we are in the Glades I probably don't have a signal.

Still in North Palm Beach!

This is just a short post to catch you up to speed as to our whereabouts. 

Sunday night was a rough night for me with my coughing. I pulled a muscle in my chest because of the coughing. Monday morning Larry searched on line for a clinic near by. We found one and called the marina shuttle, when they opened, for a ride to the clinic. They agreed I had pulled a muscle. They gave me prednisone to help with the muscle pull and curb the coughing. They also took a chest X-ray and EKG. Tuesday I was still not up to par and we stayed put. On Wednesday I got a call they needed me to come in for the results of my X-ray. There was evidence of infection in my lower   right lung. Just what I needed but now we know why I wasn't getting better. This time they put me on Azithromycn for the infection. I believe it's helping but all I want to do is sleep. 

Fortunately Larry has had a lot of work for work to do that is better done sitting still at a dock. Otherwise I'm sure he would be going stir crazy waiting for me to get better. 

At this point we are not sure when we will start out again. Every day I think the next will be the day but then it isn't. I will certainly post a yeah when we do. 

Respite in North Palm Beach!

After leaving our anchorage in Hobe Sound Friday morning, we headed for North Palm Beach and a marina. We arrived about 1:00. We were both very tired, after working the tide so we had enough water and were on a raising tide at Jupiter Inlet and managing 6 opening bridges. Most of the bridges were on a schedule not request. That meant keeping the boat in the channel as not to hit the bridge while we waited.  I forgot to mention there was current and wind added into the mix. 

Needless to say when we got settled at our dock neither of us were interested in doing much. We had planned to stay only one day, Saturday, to do laundry, get groceries and make water. When Saturday got here and Larry attempted to make water the filters had become foul, so that meant he needed to pickle the water maker. This and changing the filters will make it fresh again. Between the high heat and some of the places we have made water there has been a lot of sediment, things get rancid. We have decided to leave it pickeled until we get to Charolette Harbor. It's easy enough to fill our water tank when we get fuel. After doing all that we did on Saturday we decided we needed a day just to rest. I've been under the weather with a bronchial thing going on, so I haven't been a lot  help on the helm for Larry. We also haven't been getting a lot of sleep with me coughing. I think today's rest was much needed by us both. 

We plan to leave tomorrow morning about 8:00. The tide should be about slack for going out the inlet to the ocean. Hopefully it's calm out there, east winds are predicted. We don't have the option of the ICW because our first bridge is closed to boat traffic until September 14. 

Anchored Out in Hobe Sound!

We did get to Vero Beach yesterday. Here is a picture of our boat on a mooring ball at the city marina. 

We had left Melbourne early so we could arrive early at Vero, get things done and relax. Best laid plans. When we arrived at the marina we stopped at the fuel dock for diesel and to top of the water tank. After we checked in and paid we went out to our mooring. No problem all hooked up, let's have lunch and launch the dingy to go to shore. Well after lunch Larry put the dinghy down in the water. We then attached the engine to the back and he went forward to get the dinghy fuel tank. That was when he realized the tank had cracked and was leaking fuel if it was tilted. Now we needed to get to West Marine for a new one but first he had to find out if the marina would dispose of the fuel in the tank. He was certain if fuel was leaking out water was getting in. Now the only way to get to shore was to row and an inflatable dinghy isn't the easiest boat to row. We got to shore just minutes too late to catch the free bus into town, so now we had to sit and wait, which we did. We finally got to West Marine and purchased their last 3 gallon tank on the shelf. We hurried across the street to Publix to get some groceries and quickly returned to the curbside bus stop where the driver said was a pickup on the hour. We were early, but she must have been even earlier, because we waited till at least fifteen minutes past the hour and still no bus. We needed to be back before the office and gas dock closed for the night at 5:00. We had 45 minutes left so we called Über. If you have ever used Über, you can track them to see how close they are to you. We were still out by the road and we could see he was riding around in the parking lot for the plaza behind us. Talk about a comedy of errors, we started to run after him hoping he would see us. Finally he stopped and we were able to catch up to him. We made it back to the marina thankfully before they closed. The fun just never ends! 

During our many trips North to South and the reverse I have always been about the journey not the destination but this trip the destination can't come soon enough.

This morning we were up early and out by 7:00. Our dodger windows needed a cleaning since they were salty from the constant winds across the salt water. I hadn't gotten to it yet and along came a rain cell and did the work for me. Here's a picture of the rain. 

Tonight we are at anchor in Hobe Sound. The breeze is pretty constant and we hope it stays. Last night the wind died and we were eaten alive by noseeums. It was too hot for a sheet but you didn't dare push it down. 

This is the view in front of our boat, beautiful expensive homes. Behind us is all a preserve, that's were the noseeums hide. 😊