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| Peace & Quiet taking a break for the Summer.... We have very low expectations of selling her, so we're already talking about where we will sail to next January. |
Monday, March 23, 2015
Taking a break...
Thursday, March 12, 2015
March 12
March 12
Sitting in Vero Beach enjoying some down time. Weather has been very hot, the first we've really seen all winter. The boat will be hauled out March 18th at Fort Pierce and we fly home on the 31st. Very excited to be heading home.
Sitting in Vero Beach enjoying some down time. Weather has been very hot, the first we've really seen all winter. The boat will be hauled out March 18th at Fort Pierce and we fly home on the 31st. Very excited to be heading home.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Feb24-25. Back in the USA
Feb. 24-25
We had a very nice sail across the Gulf Stream arriving in Port Everglades around 3:30. On the way across we noticed 100's of the strangest looking jellyfish. They had a rectangular blue bottom and a clear top with a sail shaped fin and floated on top of the water. We thought they were made of plastic at first and filled with air.
The first bridge we came to is 55' and of course we are 55' plus 1' of attena/wind vanes so we requested an opening. Once clear, the bridge master told us to pay attention to the height boards cause the tide was down and we could have gone through without an opening. Hmmm...my opinion is that if we're off by a couple of inches, we loose the attena. I'll stick with the opening, thank you very much!
We headed up to Middle River to the anchorage only to find it full. So it's back downstream to anchor off the ICW. It's only a so-so anchorage with a lot of boat traffic and wake, and not a lot of swing room. Good for the night but anxious to move on.
We were invited to have supper with friends of Mark and Kay, but not having gone through Customs, and not secure in the anchorage, we felt it best to stay on board. Probably a good idea as we were in bed and asleep by 7:30.
We listened to the weather at 6:00 the next morning and felt that we needed to leave today or be stranded in Fort Lauderdale until next week. We quickly ate breakfast and pulled anchor to make the 7:30 am bridge opening to get out to the ocean again. We were both upset that we couldn't say goodbye to our friends but we are counting on meeting up with them again in Lake Worth.
It was a beautiful day to be on the water with winds just off the bow and motor sailing at 6 knots. It almost felt like coming home as we entered Lake Worth and headed for our old anchorage spot. We managed to get in to Customs 10 minutes before closing making for an unhappy Customs Officer, but we cleared without incident..other then he forgot to give us back our passports and we had to go on a mad search to find someone to get them back for us.
The wind picked up considerably through the night and we were both awake most of the night listening to the creaks and groans of the boat. But since she has weathered 30 and 40 knot winds without incident, I was not too concerned with the 20 knot winds here.
We had a very nice sail across the Gulf Stream arriving in Port Everglades around 3:30. On the way across we noticed 100's of the strangest looking jellyfish. They had a rectangular blue bottom and a clear top with a sail shaped fin and floated on top of the water. We thought they were made of plastic at first and filled with air.
The first bridge we came to is 55' and of course we are 55' plus 1' of attena/wind vanes so we requested an opening. Once clear, the bridge master told us to pay attention to the height boards cause the tide was down and we could have gone through without an opening. Hmmm...my opinion is that if we're off by a couple of inches, we loose the attena. I'll stick with the opening, thank you very much!
We headed up to Middle River to the anchorage only to find it full. So it's back downstream to anchor off the ICW. It's only a so-so anchorage with a lot of boat traffic and wake, and not a lot of swing room. Good for the night but anxious to move on.
We were invited to have supper with friends of Mark and Kay, but not having gone through Customs, and not secure in the anchorage, we felt it best to stay on board. Probably a good idea as we were in bed and asleep by 7:30.
We listened to the weather at 6:00 the next morning and felt that we needed to leave today or be stranded in Fort Lauderdale until next week. We quickly ate breakfast and pulled anchor to make the 7:30 am bridge opening to get out to the ocean again. We were both upset that we couldn't say goodbye to our friends but we are counting on meeting up with them again in Lake Worth.
It was a beautiful day to be on the water with winds just off the bow and motor sailing at 6 knots. It almost felt like coming home as we entered Lake Worth and headed for our old anchorage spot. We managed to get in to Customs 10 minutes before closing making for an unhappy Customs Officer, but we cleared without incident..other then he forgot to give us back our passports and we had to go on a mad search to find someone to get them back for us.
The wind picked up considerably through the night and we were both awake most of the night listening to the creaks and groans of the boat. But since she has weathered 30 and 40 knot winds without incident, I was not too concerned with the 20 knot winds here.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Feb. 19-22. Bimini
Feb. 19-23
I made my first visit to a casino where I actually sat down and tried a few slot machines. We all went in with $20 to throw away. I played my first dollar for about an hour getting up to $13.50 before I lost it all. I tried $4 more to get get it back but ended up $5 in the hole when we left. Greg came out ahead at $21. It was fun..and the plus side is that Greg got to buy me lunch with his big winnings.
We did a fair amount of walking around which is the best way to see a place. Nassau has a very bad reputation for its high crime rate, but we were fortunate that we did not encounter any of it. There were some areas that seemed a bit sketchy, but the people couldn't have been any nicer. I got a hand bump from an 80 year old lady when she learned we were from Canada. She has two grandsons in Canada on university basketball scholarships.
We were very pleasantly surprised Saturday night with an amazing fireworks display in the harbour. It was very loud and very beautiful and no one knows what it was for. We figure it was some rich guys birthday celebration. Whatever it was for it was one of the best fireworks displays I've seen.
We enjoyed being on the dock as it gave us a break from having to dinghy ashore all the time. One downside was that this week we were experiencing extreme tides and so every low tide had us bouncing on the bottom and it was a bit of a stretch for someone with short legs to get from the deck of the boat to the dock.
We left Sunday morning for Chubb Cay, once again in a following sea. It was a 39 mile trip and we were pretty glad to pull into the cove to drop anchor. The plan was to get supper, relax a few hours and then head out at 1:00am to make Bimini by 4:00 pm the next day. However, the surge at the anchorage was so bad, there was no way to get any rest so by 7:00pm we had hauled anchor and had a very nice night sail to Bimini, arriving by 9:30 am.
Our arrival was greeted with a group of dolphins, the first we've seen since leaving Florida. I take this as a good sign. We also saw quite a large shark so that put an end to any thoughts of a last swim in the Bahamas.
We went to shore looking for sea beans. Mark and Kay found some, but I came up empty handed.
This was the perfect day to commemorate our last day in the Bahamas. The weather was perfect, sunny and hot with a gentle breeze. No other boats except our friends on CKII, and no traffic noise from the island. Greg and I celebrated together with a final Bahamian sundowner and talk of what we would be doing next year at this time.
I made my first visit to a casino where I actually sat down and tried a few slot machines. We all went in with $20 to throw away. I played my first dollar for about an hour getting up to $13.50 before I lost it all. I tried $4 more to get get it back but ended up $5 in the hole when we left. Greg came out ahead at $21. It was fun..and the plus side is that Greg got to buy me lunch with his big winnings.
We did a fair amount of walking around which is the best way to see a place. Nassau has a very bad reputation for its high crime rate, but we were fortunate that we did not encounter any of it. There were some areas that seemed a bit sketchy, but the people couldn't have been any nicer. I got a hand bump from an 80 year old lady when she learned we were from Canada. She has two grandsons in Canada on university basketball scholarships.
We were very pleasantly surprised Saturday night with an amazing fireworks display in the harbour. It was very loud and very beautiful and no one knows what it was for. We figure it was some rich guys birthday celebration. Whatever it was for it was one of the best fireworks displays I've seen.
We enjoyed being on the dock as it gave us a break from having to dinghy ashore all the time. One downside was that this week we were experiencing extreme tides and so every low tide had us bouncing on the bottom and it was a bit of a stretch for someone with short legs to get from the deck of the boat to the dock.
We left Sunday morning for Chubb Cay, once again in a following sea. It was a 39 mile trip and we were pretty glad to pull into the cove to drop anchor. The plan was to get supper, relax a few hours and then head out at 1:00am to make Bimini by 4:00 pm the next day. However, the surge at the anchorage was so bad, there was no way to get any rest so by 7:00pm we had hauled anchor and had a very nice night sail to Bimini, arriving by 9:30 am.
Our arrival was greeted with a group of dolphins, the first we've seen since leaving Florida. I take this as a good sign. We also saw quite a large shark so that put an end to any thoughts of a last swim in the Bahamas.
We went to shore looking for sea beans. Mark and Kay found some, but I came up empty handed.
This was the perfect day to commemorate our last day in the Bahamas. The weather was perfect, sunny and hot with a gentle breeze. No other boats except our friends on CKII, and no traffic noise from the island. Greg and I celebrated together with a final Bahamian sundowner and talk of what we would be doing next year at this time.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Nassau
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| Cruise ships in Nassau Harbour |
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| The Atlantis Hotel and Casino where I lost a whole $5. Luckily Greg was the big winner with $21. |
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| CKII leaving Nassau |
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
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