Thanksgiving

A windy, but beautiful day on Key Biscayne...

 
 

 
 
 

Lessons

On Sunday, we pulled into Biscayne Bay just as one of the worst northerners (multiple days of high winds and some rain) hit the Miami area. 

Lessons we learned from Sun-Tues:

1.  When a review of a mooring says "no protection from northern winds," they're not kidding- you'll rock and roll and wonder why you're paying $22 a night to be so uncomfortable- like roller coaster in your bed uncomfortable... Well the bad kind of roller coaster in your bed...

2.  It's not a good sign when you have to use your manual bilge pump on your dinghy in order to pump out the rain water from the night before.

3.  Miami has the best food in Florida- hands down.

4.  Trust your instincts about anchorages, moorings etc - and never (or try to never) arrive in a location so late in the day that you don't have time to make a good anchoring choice.

4. I love dog-friendly, covered, coffee shop book stores with free wifi.

 

By Tuesday we had had enough and we ventured across the bay to the Bill Baggs Florida state park and anchored in No Name harbor.  The water was calm, the anchorage was protected from strong wind and there was a great Cuban restaurant at the end of the harbor.

Lessons learned from Tues- Thurs:

1.  Trust your instincts about anchoring (theme?)

2.  Just because other people haven't anchored by sunset doesn't mean they won't show up at 9:30 at night and try to anchor right next to you in the dark.

3.  Golden silk spiders are super creepy- but generally harmless. ( mostly they're creepy because they make giant webs in the trees and hang out right above your head...shiver*). 

 

4. Don't needlessly suffer through rough weather- find a better shelter if possible.

Fort Lauderdale to Miami: ICW: Bridges of Dade county

After spending a calm night in Fort Lauderdale, we decided to motor south on the ICW to Miami and Biscayne Bay.  Predictions of 25-30 knot winds kept us from the ocean and we needed a mental break after our ocean experience.  

The ICW between FtL and Miami is a tour of multi-million dollar homes, yachts and draw bridges.

Bridge 1:Las Olas- opens once per hour at quarter past the hour

Bridge 2: 17th street bridge-a tall draw bridge which requires no opening (for us).

Bridge 3: Dania Beach bridge- opens every 30 minutes on the hour and 30 past the hour.

Bridge 4: Sheridan Street bridge- notice the timing - it opens on the quarter hour- so you have to time your arrival from the last bridge to make this bridge neither too early ( sitting and waiting is difficult) or too late (wait 30 more minutes).

Bridge 5: Hollywood Boulevard bridge- opens on the hour and 30 past- same timing issue...

Bridge 6: Hallandale Beach Bridge- draw bridge

 

Bridge 7: William Lehman Causeway bridge - fixed

Bridge 8:Sunny Isles Causeway bridge- draw bridge

Bridge 9: Broad Causeway bridge- draw bridge
 

Bridge 10: Venician Causeway bridge- on demand draw bridge and gate to South Beach

Bridge 11: MacArthur Causeway

Success! Miami skyline from Biscayne Bay

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale

Our rainy Thursday was redeemed by Friday's purchase of a new sea kayak and a wonderful drinks/dinner at World of Beer with Keath and Dieter and Karin- all of our new friends in one place!

And, after watching the weather very closely for a week, Saturday became the day that we ventured south to Fort Lauderdale via the ocean.  

Going out into the ocean (in our boat) is much like getting ready to go on a full-day, high altitude hike: wake early, full day's work in the elements with the promise of some earthly reward (beer) at the end.  

Our day began at 3am- because that's when Tyler and I woke up...and couldn't go back to sleep.  We managed to push away from the dock at 4am- just in time to catch the 4:15 Flagler Memorial draw-bridge opening.  After venturing north for about 5 minutes, the following exchange took place between me and Tyler: Tyler, "I can't see sh*t," me, "I know, sunrise doesn't happen until 6:30 I think," Tyler, "well, I don't want to go out into the ocean in the dark," me, " then why did we leave at 4am?," Tyler, " because everyone leaves at 4am..."  At this point, for the voyage and our marriage, we decided to anchor for a while, have some eggs and wait until first light.  

At approximately 6:45, we were underway, headed out Lake Worth inlet and into the big wide-open ocean. 

The wind was about 20-25 knots from the east and the waves were 2-3 meters high- which, we soon learned, is a little bit uncomfortable on our boat. A little bit uncomfortable= no one went below except for dire bathroom needs- and that was at their own peril, Zander lost his cookies 3 times, Tyler was at the helm almost all day ( I only had the guts to try steering our boat for about 20 minutes).  Our tiny boat did almost 7 knots the entire trip, if the waves had been smaller, we would have gone faster- we were actually moved off course every time a wave rolled in behind us and Tyler would have to counter steer to accommodate for the change.  

We did get to see a ton of flying fish throughout the trip- that was cool... I've never seen them before!  Cyrus also did very well after an initial bout of seasickness.  He was comfortable enough to be bored- which is a good sign.

What would be a trip out on the ocean without engine trouble though?  As we made our final turn upwind to douce the main sail, Tyler pushed the gear shift to forward and... No go.  He tried again and it would not engage. The sequence of events that followed was like the scene in A Christmas Story when the furnace blew up and the dad went downstairs, swearing up a storm, smoke billowing, tools clanging, but add in a rolling sea and rain.  After about 10 minutes, Tyler emerged successfully and we were able to put the boat in to gear once more. 

But wait, there's more!  

As you can imagine, inlets for large cities are very busy.  They are full of commercial and recreational boats- especially on the weekend.  Inlets also have handy little walls called jetties that come out maybe 100 feet that help keep the inlet from changing shape/ eroding/shifting.  As Mirage headed into the inlet and approached the jetties, a cargo ship began to exit the inlet.  We moved enough to clear the cargo ship, however, a mega yacht was also creeping up behind us.  I admit I've never been the captain of a mega yacht, however, I feel as though I would not try to squeeze tiny sailboats between my boat and a cargo ship...ever.  The captain of the yacht actually radioed us to make sure we saw that he was behind us (and going to overtake us) and to make sure we knew that he was close to the jetty wall.  I tried to point out that we were also trying to avoid a head-on course with a cargo ship... Funny how when you release the radio button, you can add all kinds of nice words to the end of your communication. 

We eventually found a very calm anchorage in a beautiful part of Ft  Lauderdale.  

I noticed a bride getting her pictures done at the hotel next to our anchorage and thought about the partnership our ocean journey (and this whole adventure) requires.  Patience, trust, communication, empathy, love- every day.  

This 50+ nautical mile trek taught all of us a great deal.  Not only was this distance very similar (actually a bit further) to our planned crossing to the Bahamas, it was by far not a perfect sailing day.  Things went wrong, the sea was big, Zander puked... And we were successful. We are the better for our trials. 

Rained out

The last 24 hours have been nothing but rain and rain with some showers mixed in.  We actually saw lightning and heard thunder for the first time in FL last night.  

What happens on a boat when it rains like crazy?  Well-we all lived in very close proximity the entire day, that's for sure.  Cyrus worked on school work and Tyler, bless his heart, did a boat project.  Have I shown the picture of what happens to a boat during a boat project? 

If that looks messy, it's because it IS messy.  When something must come out from a locker (storage space) in the boat, everything else that is in the way comes with it.  Or, when a space is needed to work on the engine, bilge, etc- everything that's in the way gets moved- not necessarily in a great place.

I'm happy we made it through the mess and the rain... 

 

Play

http://youtu.be/C8KfxhuOmh4

Marina slow-down

Much like when summer begins for teachers, when you tie off in a marina, your head is full of plans of what will be accomplished during this "break."  And similarly, actually accomplishing everything is much more difficult.  I'm not sure what access to actual laundry facilities and showers does, but it seems to slow one down- as evidenced by the slow down in blog posts.  Granted, we were waiting for an engine part and a few items ordered on Amazon, and I went and had a birthday in the middle of everything, however, 9 days in a marina is quite enough (and a little expensive). 
Today, however, is the day we leave the marina and go to an anchorage nearby.  Our plans are to stay a few more days in North Palm Beach and then sail south offshore to Fort Lauderdale and then Miami.  From Miami, we will sail to Bimini island and enter the Bahamas! 
A new friend, Keath, spent some time with us and our charts last night and gave us some excellent tips and advice about the crossing and features of Bimini to look forward to- especially the road to Atlantis and the Fountain of Youth. More about that soon...
I should mention what was accomplished during our stay at the marina:
1. Purchased: 50 feet of anchor chain, new anchor, depth gauge, child's sea kayak, EPIRB- google that- they are pretty cool, Bahamas charts, 35 lb kettlebell and ankle weights, RAM iPad mount for the binnacle, tethers, wifi solution for the boat- more about that soon
2.  Fixed engine gasket
3. Entire boat cleaned inside and out
4. 40th Birthday celebrated!!
5.  New friends made and played with
6.  Laundry done repeatedly
7.  Outboard motor repaired (leaky gas fitting, and clogged jet)
8. Zander shaved

Lovely cake from Karin and Dieter- I am still hoarding the leftovers

Cyrus and his new sea kayak- hopefully I will get a matching kayak on Thursday

Tyler and Keath talkin' Bahamas charts over beer and pizza

 

  

 

40

Although the day was blustery and rainy, we managed to celebrate with champagne, dinner and a very silly cake!

 

 

Dipping our toes in the pond...the big pond

    Palm Beach is close to one of the nicer/tamer (I hear) inlets on the eastern coast of Florida.  Many cruisers choose this area to sit and wait for a calm weather window and cross the 50+ miles to West End in the Bahamas.  We may also cross from here as well, however, before we can run (definitely a metaphor here as we usually sail slower than an average runner), we must crawl.  And crawl we did today- meaning we took our very first sail in the real for real ocean.

Cyrus fought off seasickness and finally joined us in the cockpit

Our fearless captain

   Passing through the inlet was not difficult, I imagine it could be a harrowing experience if a large freighter were moving through the inlet at the same time, but we only contended with a few of the usual $250,000 "fishing boat."  Tyler and I are learning to move with the tides and use the technology we have on board and we chose a time of 'slack tide' when the tidal current in the inlet is weaker to pass through to the ocean. Once we were out of the inlet, the fun really started.
  The waves just outside of the inlet were pretty confused- not big consistent rollers, just big almost ski mogul type lumps of moving water.  Our 30 foot boat was rocking and rolling and there was little to do about it except keep moving out to sea.  I know our boat will not roll over.  Boats with keels are built to right themselves.  When you are being pushed around by waves, it is difficult to remember this fact and the instinct to panic and try to steer to "fix" the motion of the boat is STRONG.  We persevered though, and found calmer waves about a mile from shore.
  Tyler managed to walk to the mast and release the mainsail and we tried sailing- Tyler encouraged me to try different movements of the boat- jibing and tacking, to get a feeling for what happens to the sails and I was able to walk forward to the bow of the boat to release a caught line without panicking too much.  We were able to put Mirage through a decent test and she performed well.
  Other than mother nature, the scariest part of going out in the ocean are the other boats.  When you are sailing, powered boats must give you the right of way if you are headed toward each other.  There are no rules, however, about creating giant wakes which rival the ocean waves and come from any direction.
  I don't want our first jaunt into the ocean to sound terrifying.  It was more like driving on the highway or an amusement park ride for the first time.  It is thrilling and beautiful and just scary enough to keep you very aware of your surroundings.  Our next window to sail in the ocean is Saturday- and we'll be there for sure.

Kids!

Who said you can't have new experiences in a marina?  Over the past two days, two children (11 year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy) have adopted us...well really just Cyrus and the boat.  When we had a house in Denver, we often had 2-4 other children running around..running amok, but having 3 kids running around our boat is completely new- and not quiet.  

If you can imagine a boat from a child's perspective, it is the perfect fort: hatches, ropes, lockers, a steering wheel: translated into adult that's: finger killer, dangerous, messy and breakable.  Needless to say, we (eventually) had to lay down real ground rules.  Kind of a no-brainer, but Tyler and I were taken completely off guard by the energy 2 additional kids add.  

Overall, however, the added thumping and shouting has been worth it. We have taken 2 trips to a nearby park with a beach (1 mile away- which is just far enough to tire everyone out). The kids have played together for almost 8 hours each day.  We'll take it because when you're at anchor, children are rare.  I'm hoping this is a trend and I'm sure Tyler will be less freaked out by children on the boat in a few weeks.  

Update 11/9/13

We haven't posted a story update in a while.  This is partially because finding a decent wifi signal has been difficult, partially because we've been in the same spot for some time.  We used the time to pick Cyrus up from the airport and play with him for a couple of days, enjoy West Palm Beach and wait out some weather.
We had planned on moving south yesterday, which we did... sort of...
As we were discussing plans over coffee yesterday, Tyler peaked his head out of the companionway and said the words we'd been dreading for the past four days, "Oh my god, we're dragging."
As you can imagine, dragging at anchor is a bit of a hazard for boats and there are many tools to try to assist with anchoring and alert you to dragging your anchor.  We, of course, had just turned off our drag alarm because we were awake (and presumably aware).
I had peaked out the companionway and windows just 10 minutes before and did not notice any movement, so this episode of dragging was very surprising.
After Tyler's announcement, we sprang into action, turning on the engine and moving to a safer spot....and this is where the fun of the day began.  Because of the current and the wind, we could not dock successfully at the South Palm Beach public docks- so we decided to simply start our adventure south.  Simply is the key word here.
Traveling south of Palm Beach on the ICW, "the ditch", requires passing through a draw bridge every 30-60 minutes.   These bridges run on a schedule and very much dictate your pace travelling the 40-ish miles to Ft. Lauderdale. After successfully passing through 3 bridges, we came to the Lantana bridge, which is currently under construction.  I had heard many boats attempt to hail the bridge during the day with limited success- and ultimately it became the end of our travels south.  The construction worker on the other end of the radio informed me that the bridge was scheduled to open in 4 minutes (we were not going to be there in 4 minutes) and that he did not know when it would be open again and they are not on a schedule.  After beginning the day with a dragging anchor, unsuccessful docking and a harrowing incident with a yacht wake (which interfered with my coffee drinking....don't mess with my coffee), we decided to turn around and head north.
We ended up a few miles north of West Palm Beach, ironically, at the North Palm Beach marina.  The plus side of the marina was showers, laundry and a good night's sleep without worry of dragging.
We plan to stay here for a few days and wait out some weather, continue boat repairs/improvements and order some essentials.

More pictures today

Cyrus playing the the West Palm Beach fountain

A rare kid and dog nap!

One of many Dad and Cyrus projects- probably one of the best things to come of this adventure

Yes- that IS a Broncos flag - in FL

Our hero!

Hooray! technical difficulties gone

Technical difficulties gone- at least with blogging!  I swear the best technical advise is unplug the computer or delete the app and plug it back in or reload it.  Anyway- we have a back log of pictures...

Tyler at the top of the mast

Our cockpit at sunrise

Doggie drinking fountain in West Palm

Mirage at anchorage

Our neighbor- Diamonds are Forever- mega-yacht.. A cool $450,000 for a week aboard.

Cyrus is playing somewhere in the fountain 

Blue crab visitor on our swim ladder

Last Supper tailgate- I'm thinking about a boat rendition 

More pics tomorrow because Tyler is using my phone right now..
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

West Palm Beach

I was hoping to post more but am having connectivity problems.  I will post many pictures once the issues are resolved.
We travelled to West Palm Beach and will most likely stay here for a few days.  The weather is turning - Florida gets 'northerlies' in the fall and winter, and we are smack dab in the middle of 25-30 mph winds from the north and possible rain for a couple of days.
We are currently anchored right next to the downtown area and we were able to easily dinghy to a dock and walk around this evening.  There is a great deal of money in this town- more about that when pics can be posted.

Traveling South

Our journey today was short, but very needed.  We travelled from Vero Beach to Jensen Beach and anchored next to the causeway (bridge).  We are both getting used to sleeping at anchor- it is a very odd feeling in heavy wind.  On the other hand, the gentle rocking of the boat is quite soothing.

Teamwork

There are quite a few cruising couples in the Vero Beach marina.  Like most cruisers, (not to be confused in the least bit with swingers) the majority...meaning pretty much everyone else but us... is over the age of 55.  Their children have grown, they have sold their paid-off house and actually have an income, many live at the marina permanently.  One thing all cruisers have in common, however, is the fact that we all spend a great deal of time with our spouse.  Now that Cyrus is visiting his friends and grandparents in Colorado, Tyler and I see each other A LOT.  I think I mentioned before that Cyrus' absence allows Tyler and I to work together on some boat projects and that is exactly what we did today.
Teamwork took on many forms today:  the biggie was Tyler's first adventure up the mast.  We bought a new bosun's chair in Ft. Lauderdale, similar to the one that I borrowed to go up the mast a couple of weeks ago.  I would have gone up the mast again today, but the task involved a good deal of electrical expertise, and even though Tyler said, "Oh it's easy..you just blah blah the blah blah wire to the blah," as a way of trying to get out of being hoisted up the mast, today was his big day.
Not surprisingly, teamwork is essential when one is going to the top of a mast. The first part of today's teamwork was simply talking through the task and trying to be proactive about what Tyler might bring with him to minimize the amount of time waiting for tools to be run up a little line. The second part of today's teamwork involved working together to lift Tyler, this ultimately involved a combination of pullys and our handy-dandy wench- a metal fixture to which you can wrap your line and use a handle to wind the line- as opposed to just pulling on the rope until your arms fall off.  As Tyler was moving up the mast, he tried to stop the entire operation claiming that it wasn't going to work anyway and it was too dangerous.  I knew better, and so I told him he was going up the mast and kept winding the wench handle.  Sometimes being part of a team means you don't listen to the other team member.  Tyler eventually made it to the top and then spent a good 3 1/2 hours up there installing a new anchor light/navigation light (of which only the anchor light works at this time) and windex- a lightweight device that indicates true wind direction (because your perception of the wind is affected by your velocity through the wind- whoa).  What did the other team mate do while Tyler was at the top of the mast?  Not much- looked up a lot, fetched tools, turned breakers on and off- what I was really doing was being readily available in case of a problem and helping to ease Tyler's mind.  Walking around the deck made the boat sway- which is not a good top of the mast feeling. Going below was out of the question because I wasn't able to hear when Tyler needed something. I was simply at hand.
We accomplished a few more things together today: Ty went to the grocery store and I cleaned the cabin, dinner was definitely a shared effort, but the mast ride was the topper (so to speak).  I'm so thankful that Tyler could wire and install the mast light correctly today....and that we are a close enough team that I know when to force him to face a fear.