Stock Island/Key West - October 18, 2014 to April 15, 2015



Schooner Wharf shopping

Arrived at Stock Island Marina for our winter stay. Hoppy and I have not been to Key West since the girls were little...looking forward to checking out the town, points of interest and the 347 restaurants and bars!  The marina has shuttle service into town and grocery stores several times a day.  

First week in town and its rainy. Get a break in the weather and decide to don our raincoats and take the shuttle into town.  Walk up and down Duval Street, take pictures with the parrot (costly!  Don't make eye contact!) and decide to stop in at Margaritaville.   Thanks to wet floors and a raincoat tied around my waist (and gravity) I end up on the floor. Not pretty!  Tried to walk (and drink) it off, but only got worse. Broken tail bone...slowed me down for a couple of weeks but I will be back!!

Beautiful Sunsets

We enjoyed a lot of the sights and sounds of Key West.  After hitting all of the "famous" spots, (Sloppy Joe's, Captain Tony's, Hog's Breath Saloon, The Bull) we started venturing off the beaten path and found some of our favorites. Enjoyed breakfast at Pepe's, Blue Heaven and Six Toed Cat. Afternoons at Southermost Inn, Green Parrot, The Rum Bar, Hurricane Hole and Schooner Wharf. Saw some beautiful sunsets at Louie's Backyard, Mallory Square and upstairs at a Turtle Kraal.  Hemingway's house was interesting, took the Conch Train tour and saw the eyebrow houses and enjoyed the Christmas light tour on the conch train before heading home for the holidays.

New Year's Eve 2014 on "D" Dock!!!

Enjoyed the sand sculpture exhibit on the beach and the chalk art drawing at the Truman Center.  Enjoyed the Jimmy Buffet concert streaming live from Key West from a great spot on the beach - we did not win tickets :(  

Had a lot of fun at the marina functions. Pot lucks, movie nights, Full Moon parties, Thanksgiving Dinner at the Tiki Hut and a great New Years Eve Dock party with friends - old and new!  

Barney, Steve & Hoppy



Fresh Coconuts!
Thanks, Fernando, for the lesson.

Miami Boat Show

Made a road trip to Miami for the boat show, trip to Islamorada for the big Nautical Flea Market, and road trips would not be complete without the afternoon in Big Pine at No Name Pub for pizza and feeding the Key deer!  



The gang's all here!



Spent beach days at the sand bar (including New Years Day!) and lots of dinghy rides exploring and hanging out at the Hogfish Grill and Geiger Key. 

 

It was sad to leave all of this behind, but we need to move on to new things. We plan to back in the fall for another great winter in the Keys!



Waving goodbye to our friends at SIVM!



Beautiful Key West sunset from our boat!

Christmas in the Keys!

Waiting for a table at Blue Heaven

Lunch at Tiki Hut

Chalk Sidewalk Painting
3D

 

Feeding the Key Deer at No Name Key

 

Sand Sculptures

Fort Piece to Key West, FL - October 8-18, 2014

Wednesday- October 8, 2014

Slipped the lines in drizzling rain a little after 8 AM on Wednesday morning, 10/8.  By the time we fueled up and closed out at the dock office, it was about 10...but we are on our way.  Decided to run about 30-40 miles today which puts us south of Stuart.  Dropped anchor around 4 PM just off the intercostal neat Jupiter, Florida. Beautiful homes all around and calm.  Tonight we we had dinner aboard Journey and toasted to the next leg of our adventure.  

Thursday - October 9, 2014

Anchors up at 8:30 AM.  Long day ahead, going through Fort Lauderdale.  We passed through Jupiter and got a lot of nice pictures of the red lighthouse.  It was slow moving through a lot of bridges and slow wake zones due to manatee areas. We had great weather and hit most of the bridges without long waits for openings.  Finally dropped anchors at 7 PM just north of Miami (about 62 miles today).  This was suppose to be a quiet anchorage, but whoever noted the "no wake area" on the reviews failed to mention that not many of the big boats bother to slow down...lots of rocking and rolling!

Friday -October 10, 2014

Anchors up at 8 AM.  Today we passed through Miami and crossed Biscayne Bay.  Seeing Miami in the distance was cool.  Once in town, the houses, condos and resorts lined both sides of the waterway. Saw lots of cruise ships and many, many really big boats!  Even saw the Hard Rock.  Impressive!  Once out of Miami it opened up into Biscayne Bay.  It was on and off rough spots of wind and waves, but we made it to a very well protected anchorage off the north end of Key Largo.  We are officially in The Keys!!  Dropped anchor around 6 PM and settled in for a quiet night.  Plan to sleep in tomorrow and decide on our next move...which may be to sit here another day or two. 

Saturday/Sunday - 10/11-12

Decided that this anchorage would be a quiet place to spend the weekend. Nothing but the birds and fish to keep us company. Watched some football (Geaux Tigers!), read, napped and took a dinghy ride around Steamboat Creek. 

Plan to head out Monday morning to Islamorada. 

Monday 10/13

Anchors up at 9 AM headed south. Passed through a small thunderstorm but it passed quickly. Lots of wind today. Also lots of areas of very low water!  Slow going and then there were crab pots everywhere. No rhyme or reason to the madness. It was like a mine field. Finally made it to Meticumba Bite and dropped anchor for the night. 

Tuesday, 10/14

Another morning of dodging crab pots. Headed to Marathon today. Once there we will wait for a weather window to make the cross to Key West. Probably hang out at Sombrero Marina until Friday or Saturday. 

Marathon 10/15-17 (Wed-Fri)

Made it into Marathon and got a slip at Sombrero Marina. We have been anchored out for a week on our trip from Fort Pierce and it is nice to be able to get off of the boat and walk around a bit.  The marina is nice and there is a restaurant with great food and live music. The owners are a couple we recognized from our Latitudes and Attitudes magazine. The band was Eric Stone.  Great times and fun hanging out with our dock neighbors.

We walked around the golf course across the road, made it over to Publix and West Marine (you can never pass up one of those!) and Hoppy and I got our Flu Shots!  Enjoyed Cuban food, seafood, and a great burger.  Weather window to cross to Key West/Stock Island is Saturday. 

Saturday, 10/18

Dropped the lines at 8:00 am headed out to Stock Island. The weather is great, light breeze and the water is almost like glass and as clear, too.  In 25' of water we could still see the bottom.  It was a beautiful day and we made it into Stock Island Marina about 4:00.  We checked in, got the boats tied up and settled in for a quiet evening.  We will be here through the winter.

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Fort Pierce, FL - August-September 2014

August/September at Harbortown/Fort Pierce

Everyone has been asking about the blog and our adventures. I thought telling everyone about all the Tiki Bars we have found in the area might get a little boring, so I sorta put the blog on "hold".  However, we have had some fun times...I will try to catch everyone up!

We have had some canvas work done.  We had the back of the upper deck screened in to give us extra shade and it also helps with privacy.  Had new bench cushions made and a Hoppy's captains chair redone. It's looking good!

We went to the Navy Seal Museum, took a ride north to Sebastian, and enjoyed an afternoon listening to a songwriter, Robbie Bullard, that writes for Kenny Chesney. He was really nice and we had a great time with the locals :)

Labor Day weekend we took a road trip to Palm Beach. Shopped, ate, walked and enjoyed the sights acting like tourists. 

We found a nice lagoon that we spent several fun days hanging out at the beach. One of the days we had a visit by a very friendly manatee. It was cool watching him play near the beach in the shallow water. 

Took the dinghy to Little Jim's for Lobsterfest. They had fried lobster...that is the way to go.  Seasoned and deep fried!  Live band and fun times.

The Beebes went home for almost two weeks and, about the time they were heading back we headed to Baton Rouge to visit family and friends. Our return was a whirlwind...a lot to do in a small amount of time. But we got to visit with both girls (Amy flew in from L.A.) and our families. Dad had a fish fry (yumm!) and we hit some of our favorite eateries while home. There is no place like home for the best foods!!  Even went to play Bingo! with the girls. It was really hard saying "bye" as we were headed back East and Amy was heading West for her new assignment at Stanford in S.F. and Lauren is holding down the fort at home. But, we all survived! 

Once back at the marina, we had a Cajun cookout for our dock friends. Barney cooked a great jambalaya and crawfish étouffée, I added white beans, boudin and hog head cheese (we brought an ice chest of goodies back from Jerry Lee's). Everyone (about 30 people) had a great time. I think they all tried everything and seemed to like it.  What a fun and adventurous group from all over...England, Ohio, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa and Pennsylvania.  And some from Florida, too!

Now we are provisioning for our next leg to Key West. Restocking our meat, fresh veggies and picked up a loaf of jalapeño cheese bread from our favorite bakery.  Once we are on the water again, I will try to do better keeping everyone up to date! LOL!

Fort Pierce 7/12-8/4/2014

Sunday afternoon at Archie's

Well, we have been in our new "home" in Fort Pierce for three weeks.  It has been nice meeting new people and seeing some old and new places.

We spent the first few days just settling in.  Walked over to Publix and West Marine for a few supplies, cleaned up the boat and did some minor maintenance. By the end of the first week, we decided to rent a car.

We took a ride down to Stuart/Jenson Beach to some of the places we have been before.  On Sunday, 7/20, we drove to Hutchinson Island to Archie's to check out some local flavor and live music.  Nice afternoon!

Monday morning we started lining up some work. Our front hatch has been leaking on my feet at night when it rains...  We tried lots of things, but baby diapers finally did the trick!  Now we are getting it pulled and rebedded!  No more diapers hanging from the ceiling!!

We also met a friend of Barney and Annette's from their stay here in 2009 that has a canvas shop.  He is working on sun screens for the back of our top deck.  We decided we needed more shade!  He is also replacing our cushions on top.  The old ones are worn out!

The Beebe kids and grandchildren came in for a week on 7/30.  They rented a house about 20 miles from the marina.  We have been back and forth visiting them and spent Friday with them in Orlando at the Magic Kingdom.  Hot!  But fun!

Saturday, 8/2, we drove down to Fort Lauderdale to meet up with Michael, Kelli and Sarah.  They flew in Wednesday and went to Key West and spending a few days at the beaches.  We had lunch and went to Miami and South Beach for the afternoon for some people watching.  Walked to the ocean so Sarah could put her feet in the water.  People everywhere!

Afterward, we drove to Hollywood Beach and walked around the beach walk.  Stopped in at Ocean Alley for dinner before heading back to their condo, where we spent the night.

Sunday morning we went to breakfast and then went over to the Sawgrass Mills Mall for some outlet shopping!  Then we headed over to Fort Lauderdale and drove up A1A.  Hoppy and I left them at the beach and headed north toward "home". It was a fun time, but too short!  They are flying back to Baton Rouge today, 8/4!

So, today is a "rest" day...time to catch up on some organizing ( since the inside of the boat has been rearranged with A/C work and hatch work).

Fort Pierce - Harbortown Marina

Tiki Bar / Fort Pierce

Disney with Beebe Family

The Deck / Stuart, Florida

Dinking...

Looks like a serious conversation...

 SOUTH BEACH / MIAMI, FLORIDA