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

Crossing Florida...Okeechobee Waterway

After almost three weeks in the Ft. Myers area, we provisioned our boats and headed out Wednesday, 7/9.  Said goodbye to some new friends and left around noon.  We went about 33 miles toward Okeechobee, through our first lock and stopped at the free city dock in LaBelle.  We met a couple from Texas that have been living aboard and traveling for 6 years.  It was a cool evening and we enjoyed the relaxing evening.  There were lots of fish and some small turtles swimming around our boats.

We got up Thursday morning (11 weeks since we left!) and walked about 1/2 mile to Big V's for breakfast. It was noted on the bulletin board as a great place for breakfast/lunch and the reviews were not wrong.  I had a great ham and cheese omelet, Hoppy and Annette had bacon and eggs, and Barney had biscuits with sausage gravy and corned beef hash.  Everything was good and lots of it!  Good thing we were walking...

We dropped our dock lines at noon and headed east.  Then it rained...  Passed through some small towns and another lock, which we shared with 8 manatees (and another boat that did not know what they were doing...a real circus!).  One of the manatees was bigger than our dinghy!  Next lock was Moore Haven (about 16 miles further) and went through with no issues, then dropped anchor just outside the lock area. We shared the anchorage with a few alligators!  We also picked up thousands of mosquitoes.  The boat looked black when we got up...but they did not bite...weird!

Anchors up at 7 AM on Friday morning.  We crossed Lake Okeechobee and continued on through another lock and then on over to Indian Town (about 52 miles) where we stayed at a marina/boat yard.  After washing off all of the bugs that hitchhiked over from Moore Haven, we sat under the palm trees on the patio to enjoy the afternoon. Talked to some of the other boaters, walked around the boat yard and headed back for dinner and an early evening.  Tomorrow is our last leg before the east coast and Atlantic Ocean.

Dropped the lines this morning at 7 AM headed east the last part of our trip across Florida.  Our last lock dropped us about 15 feet.  So cool!  Made it to the Atlantic Ocean at 11:37 AM.  It was a crazy Saturday, boats everywhere!  Note to self: only travel on weekdays!

We went 53 miles today (about 8 hours) and we made it to our new "home" at Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce, Florida, for the next 3 months.  It is protected and we can have our boat hauled in case of a hurricane. We will spend our time exploring the area and hope to enjoy some time anchoring in and around the area.

Arrived on Saturday, 7/12, at 3:00 PM.

First view of the Atlantic Ocean!

 Moore Haven...with the gators.

 LaBelle's FREE dock!

 Sunset!

 Maybe next adventure will be a boat plane!

 Journey leaving the lock

 Tending the lines as we rise up

Heading into the lock

 Some interesting art work