Blair and Lorie's new Morgan, they will be heading to Cuba next weekend.

Friends around the dock!

After being away from the boat for 6 months, there is always a transition period where you have to readjust to once again living aboard a boat and spending most of the day with your spouse. This is not always easy but eventually you do and you get used to the bad habits (and sometimes annoying habits) you have picked up by being a landlubber for the last 6 months. I am happy to report that I think we have finally done so (although I still haven't gotten Bruce to hang up his wet towel yet!) He is not writing this or I am sure he would be adding his two cents also, but I am not going to let him!
When we first arrived, most of the other boaters were live-a-boards that either worked in town or spent most of their day at the local pub with their dog and a cigarette in their hands. We really didn't have much in common and had a difficult time meeting new boaters. One day while listening to the Cruiser's Net, Bruce heard a gentleman by the name of Tom looking for other people to join him and go diving. He thought this sounded like a good idea as our boat was not ready to take out yet and he was anxious to get diving again. We tried to meet up with him before going out, but that didn't work out (big mistake), Tom said he didn't mind picking us up as we also had not got our dinghy in the water yet. We hadn't gotten very far in the dinghy when he started to tell us that he was short on cash and had to find a way of making some money as he had lost his check book (we found out later that his check book was his last girlfriend). He then told us that he would like to charter his boat but was having a hard time getting the appropriate licences as he was bipolar and on medication. This was looking more and more like a bad idea! As we were getting out of the dinghy and onto his boat, he told us that we would have to take our shoes off, which we didn't mind until we got on to the boat and saw that the boat was filthy! At this time I was glad that I told him we would bring lunch instead of taking him up on the offer of pea soup that he had made the day before and was still sitting on the stove and remained there all day. He started the engines and told Bruce to throw off the bow line. When he put the boat in gear, I heard him say "that doesn't sound good" and when he tried to put move forward, we didn't move at all except to drift toward another boat. We fended off the other boat and picked up another mooring ball. Tom jumped into the water to check out the problem only to return to say that he would have to put on his scuba gear as the prop was covered in barnacles. We finally got off again and decided to go out Sister's Creek as it would save us some time and it was high tide so we wouldn't have a problem getting out that way. Both Bruce and I told Tom at different times that he could not head straight to the entrance of the Creek as there was a very shallow shoal that we would have to go around first but he assured us he had the depth sounder on and he was in lots of water. I guess you already know what happened as our day just kept getting better and better. We were now hard aground and could not get off by ourselves, we had to call Boat U.S. to come and tow us off. Our day did manage to get better and Bruce did get out diving but we will certainly think twice again before we commit to a day on the water with a stranger!
By the end of November many of the Snowbirds started to arrive along with some friends that we had met last year. It was nice to meet other sailors that were on their boats because they wanted to be, were anxious to meet other sailors and were interested in travelling to other areas. Soon all the docks will be full here with the arrival of our friends Kent and Linda from Ottawa and Pat and Addison from PCYC. The meet and greets have started over at the city marina and we have met other Canadians from Penetanguishene and Manitoba. We have finally got the boat ready to sail and will probably go out for the first time this week as the weather is supposed to hit 80 degrees again by midweek but then turn cooler again by Thursday. We have again been having trouble with our dinghy engine and Bruce has spent many hours working on it with lots of advice from the local inflatable boat dealer. The salt air along with the ethanol in the fuel causes the carburetor to gum up and then the engine will not run. The latest piece of advice from the mechanic at inflatable boats was to boil our carburetor for 20 minutes every three months (seriously). We tried this and it has been running better than it ever has!
The fisherman next door is back finally so we now have a constant supply of freshly cleaned Mangrove Snapper anytime we want. This makes Bruce really happy! Many of the restaurants here are feeling the effects of the poor economy and are offering $5.00 lunches which are just great as you can't even eat at McDonalds for that! This really makes me happy as it means less cooking yeah!
There is less than 3 weeks left before Christmas and we are really having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. It just doesn't seem right to have warm weather and palm trees at Christmas. We have not even started to decorate our boat and have not gotten a tree yet. We did go to see Four Christmases this weekend so that helped get me motivated a bit . One thing that I am not missing however is the crowded shopping malls. We move over to Sombrero Resort next week so am looking forward to using the pool and tennis courts. All of the kids are coming down for a week over New Years and we are really excited about having everyone together for a whole week. Not sure what our plans are over Christmas yet but this will probably be the last blog until after New Years. We are anxious to get on the move again and it is looking more and more like the Bahamas in January but like all of our plans this is subject to change at any time!
Bruce and I would like to wish all of our family. friends and anyone else that follows our blog a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

On the boat again

As most of you already know, we are once again continuing our voyage on Con El Viento. We left home on November 3rd for a much easier and quicker trip by plane to Ft. Lauderdale. After a brief stop in Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our bottom paint which arrived by car courtesy of a friend of Bruce's who drives down each year and spends the winter there, we were once again on our way to Marathon. As we headed South to the Keys, we both felt that it seemed like only yesterday that we had put the boat away for the summer. We were never more acutely aware of how quickly time really does pass by!



We spent the first 4 nights staying with Gale and Mary, friends that we rent our dock from in Marathon, and after spending so much time in their spacious brand new house, I wasn't sure how I was going to adjust to the confines of the boat again!



When we summerized the boat in April, we left it thinking that we would probably return once or twice during the summer to check on it but those plans never materialized therefore we were very anxious to get on board and to see how it had summered! There were a few surprises but all in all the boat did not look too worse for wear. We have already started a list of things to do differently when we put the boat away for next summer. The real test would be done once it was put in the water and we could check all of the systems that couldn't be started until then. Since we were not allowed to do any work on our boat in the yard, we had a fairly easy first few days as the bottom was painted and then dropped in the water by Marathon Boat Yard. We were happy with their service but found their prices a bit high so will probably check out a couple of other yards next year, especially those that let you do your own work on your boat. Once the boat was in the water, our work began and we had a very busy week ahead of us.



Once the batteries were charged, the engine started the first time and we left for our dock at Gale and Mary's. The first order of business was to start up the air conditioning as it was stinking hot and anyone that knows us, knows how much we love our air conditioning! Without it, we would be miserable . Unfortunately, it didn't work. The pump had seized and had to be taken out and fixed. As it was an old style pump, it weighed a ton. Bruce was not doing any heavy lifting as he had hernia surgery before coming down, so it was up to me to help him get it out and fixed. We lubricated the pump and got it working again but had to put it in twice as the first time we reinstalled it, we screwed up the electrical. This job took all day to fix but we now have air conditioning, yeah!



The first few days flew by as we plugged away at all the chores that had to be done, the boat had to be cleaned, inside and out, the new enclosure put on, the sails brought in for repair, everything had to be unpacked again and put away, beds had to be make up, suitcases unpacked, food had to be purchased, barbecue and instruments had to be reinstalled, systems had to be checked and the list goes on and on! We were so overwhelmed at first we didn't know where to start but eventually you get through it. Each task seemed to take longer than planned, not one thing seemed to go off without a hitch and everything cost more than we planned. Some would say "that's boating", but it can be very frustrating at times. There is still work to be done but we are not feeling so overwhelmed anymore and we are now working at a slower pace.



Talk about costing more than we planned, since we had to have our sails checked over and a few minor repairs done, we called around to a couple of different places. Most had gone out of business and there was only one place that would do work on sails. After telling us that she charges $100.00 an hour and if we didn't like that we would have to take them to Ft. Lauderdale, we had no other choice but to leave them with her. The bill was $500.00 dollars for work that would have cost us at the most $200.00 at home! I also decided to have our comforter dry cleaned as according to the tag, it could not be washed. I sent it with Bruce when he was out doing some errands and asked him to drop it off at the cleaners on his way. He returned with the comforter as apparently they wanted $95.00 to clean it! Even to him that seemed a bit steep! I threw it in the washing machine as I didn't really have anything to loose and it came out beautifully! We also had to purchase a new starting battery, ours was 8 years old so it was due, and the pump to our forward head had to be replaced. We were glad to have the car for a week with all the running around that had to be done.



We are now settling back into our routine of coffee and a bike ride in the morning. It feels good to be back and hope to start up our social life again after a week or so of solid work! We still haven't put the sails on as Bruce should not be doing any heavy lifting for another week or so, but once they are up, we look forward to getting out on the water for the first time. We are just about ready for company, any takers?? our plans are to stay here until around the 15th of January and then who knows...

We are now in our final week of our 11 month adventure and it is hard to believe that it is coming to an end. It seems really strange to be preparing the boat for summer storage instead of winter storage. We are newbies at this so we have been trying to gather as much information that we can on the best things to do to prepare your boat for the summer sun, high heat, and hurricane season! The last thing we want is to come back in the fall to a real mess. The sails are now down, the dinghy is out of the water and we continue each day doing a few things towards getting the boat ready for Monday's haul out. This will also be my final blog entry for this season. I have never been a journal keeper or enjoyed writing much so I have to say that I am glad to stop for the next few months! I am proud of myself to have kept it up all year and hope that you all have enjoyed sharing the adventure with us.

We have really enjoyed our time in Marathon and have made some great new friends with whom we have shared some wonderful times with. We had been out to Sombrero Reef 3 different times snorkeling and diving. Once on Euphoria with Rick and Carla and twice on our boat when Leanne came to visit. We had quite the exciting day with Rick and Carla. We had decided to go diving early so that we would be sure to get a mooring ball and also because Rick rented his equipment so we wanted to make sure we had lots of time as the equipment had to be returned by 6 p.m. Rob and Susan from Mandate were also joining us so the boat was very full with 6 people, 3 who had all of their diving equipment and the rest of us with all of our snorkel gear and food etc. We managed to get it all loaded by shortly after 9 a.m. and quickly got off our mooring ball. As we were motoring very slowly out of the harbor and picking our way around all of the other boats, we somehow got into shallow water and you guessed it, grounded ourselves. This was really quite funny as we had often joked about the first time we had talked to Rick and Carla was when they were hard aground along the ICW. After that first day, it seemed everyday that we talked to them or saw them, they were once again on the bottom or had been on the bottom at some point in that day. It got to be a daily ritual and we often joked about it with them so it only seemed right that the first time we went out with them that we were stuck in the muck so to speak. They knew just what to do and there were lots of other boats around to help us out, but no matter what we did or how hard we tried, we just couldn't get free. We had resigned ourselves into thinking that we would have to wait for the next high tide which was about 4 hours away and started to get the cards out when all of a sudden we looked like we were moving and sure enough, we were free at last. Our diving day was not ruined after all and we had a fantastic day even though it was shorter than we hoped for!

Here we all are trying everything we possibly could to get the boat off the bottom!

Bruce (the heaviest) on the boom!

Susan hanging off the side

Highlights of the last month have been a visit for a long weekend by Bruce's daughter Leanne, lunch with some old friends from Naples Stefanie and Jim Curland (Bruce and I worked with Stefanie at Nordair and Canadian and they are now living in Naples Florida), a visit from Bob and Mardi (Salty Lady) who drove down from Nettles Island for a visit and stayed overnight, many potluck dinners with our friends Rob and Susan (Mandate), Norm and Paula (Madame) and Rick and Carla (Euphoria), bocce ball tournaments, baseball games (apparently I was the best 2nd base player they ever had, maybe the years of playing catch with my now brother-in-law finally paid off, who would have guessed!) and last but not least eating lots and lots of fresh fish caught by the owners of the boat beside us, Chuck and Barbara.

As much as we have enjoyed the last year, I am really looking forward to becoming a landlubber again for a few months. Bruce is looking forward to improving his golf game in the coming months and I am looking forward to long, hot showers, a toilet that never has to be pumped out, doing laundry whenever I want and only one load at a time, a dishwasher and spending time with my friends and family again. I am not looking forward however to driving again in traffic, yard work, having to wear makeup and do my hair every day and just generally the rat race of city life again! I am sure that when November comes around, we will be ready to continue our life as cruisers once again.

Out for a day of diving with Leanne and Bruce

Visit with Bob and Marty (Salty Lady)

A great catch of Tuna

Chuck and Barbara (boat next to ours)

Dolphin

Bruce was washing the boat one day and left the hose over the side while scrubbing off some dirt, you can image his surprise when he went to pick it up and a manatee was beside the boat having a drink of fresh water!

Big smile for the camera! I think he was pretty happy to have gotten some fresh water.

Some pictures of our last week in Marathon, lots of get togethers to say goodbye to all of our new friends!!

Mary and Gale's new house on Sister's Creek. Picture is of Mary and Dave though, don't know where Gale was at the time.

A very fun evening of dinner and dancing at a great Italian Restaurant! Ken and Angela won the prize for being the best dancers. Bruce and I realized after seeing all of the great dancers that we should probably take some dance lessons before next year. This place was like dancing with the stars there were so many great dance couples.

Time sure has a way of flying by! I can't believe that we have already been in Marathon for over a month. I thought that by now we would have been getting a little bored with sitting in one place and that the time would seem to go a little bit slower but so far that has not happened. It is hard to believe that in a little over a month, we Will be putting the boat away for 6 months. It really seems surreal looking back at how quickly the year has gone by, but then I think of how much we have done in the last year and it seems we have done sooo much in only one year!
When I was home at the end of February, I talked to our neighbors Casy and Nancy and they told me that they were heading to Marco Island in Florida in March. I mentioned that if they had a chance, they should drive down for a visit. Sure enough, we received a phone call that they were going to take a drive down and have lunch with us! It was great to see them along with their friends who they were visiting in Florida. I only wish they could have stayed a little longer with us. It was a long day for them as the drive here from Marco Island is over 3 hours! Lindsay however missed them at home as Casy has been helping her keep our driveway shovelled and there was quite a bit of snow while they were gone so........ she actually had to do it herself! (Can't believe that I forgot to take a picture of them on the boat!!)

Bruce joined the golf course here for a couple of weeks (thanks to our friends Dave and Pat who are members) and has golfed a few times. We have seen Pat and Dave a couple of times since we have been here and look forward to spending more time with them before we leave but with their busy social life and our busy boating life, it can be difficult to schedule a time!

Great dinner at Dave and Pat's!!

Our friends from Ottawa, Kent and Linda, took possession of their new 41 foot PDQ power cat and called to say they were heading to the Keys for the March break along with their daughter Sophie. Bruce's sister and brother-in-law also arrived the day after Kent and Linda so we all got to spend some time together. We had a great time and a very busy few days! Kent and Linda had us all for dinner and invited us out for a day of snorkeling on the Sombrero Reef. It was Bettyann's first time snorkeling and we were all amazed at how well she did! It is never too late to try new things and she had lots of fun and was quite proud of herself. It was a treat to be on a catamaran as it is a lot easier to get in and out of the water with all your gear. Thanks Kent, Linda and Sophie for a great day!

Bruce's school of snorkeling

Tons of yellow tail snapper
The proud skipper and his crew!
First and second mate (Linda and Sophie)

They say that it never rains but it pours and it was very true this week. For months we have been following Rick and Carla on a boat called Eurphoria. We have talked to them on the VHF many times, followed them while travelling in the ICW and talked to them often by phone, but as Bruce puts it, have never touched them! We have been trying to meet up and have a chance to meet them in person and you guessed it, this week they pulled into Boot Key Harbor and we finally got the chance to meet them. It felt like we already knew them and since we had already been planning a fish fry on our boat with Kent, Linda, Sophie, Ray and Bettyann, we invited Rick and Carla to join us. Bruce ordered 5 lbs of fresh mangrove snapper from the fisherman next door, who catches it in the morning, cleans it when he gets back and hands it over the fence to us. It doesn't get much fresher than that! Rick and Carla will be staying here for a month so we should have lots of time to get to know them better.

Kent, Linda and Sophie
Bettyann and Ray
Rick and Carla (Euphoria)

We had a great week with Bettyann and Ray. Bruce and Ray golfed at Sombrero Golf Course, we spent a day in Key West, visited the beach, ate at a few restaurants in town and of course shopped a bit! Bruce, Ray and Bettyann also golfed at a par 3 course in Key Colony which I think was the first time that Bruce ever golfed with his sister! Not sure if she beat him or not??

My sister and her husband were suppose to come from Denver for Easter but unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute. Neil was coming to Miami on business and they hoped to stay for the weekend and drive to the Keys. Neil's meeting in Miami ended up getting cancelled and so did the rest of the weekend. We were quite disappointed but there is always next year!

Jim and Karen left yesterday morning so we are once again on our own. We have been travelling with them for almost 6 months so it seems quite strange to look out and not see their boat close by. They too will be by themselves for a couple of weeks until they meet up with the other 2 boats in Georgia.

We are now in the final weeks of our trip and I am sure that they will fly by. We are looking for a couple of boats that will be visiting us in April. One from Naples, Florida who we have not seen for quite a few years but all worked together at Nordair and then Canadian. They hope to be hear around the 2nd or 3rd of April. Our friends, Bob and Mardi, hope to be here around the second week in April when they get back from the Bahamas. It will be great to hear all about the Bahamas from them. Bruce's daughter, Leanne, is coming the weekend of the 4th of April to do some diving with her dad, so before you know it, the month will be over, the boat put away and we will be back home once again for the summer.

Happy Easter everyone!

We have made it to Marathon, Fl. It was somewhat of a milestone when we set our anchor just outside of Boot Key Harbor on the West side of Boot Key. We had always said when we left home in June that we hoped to make it as far as Marathon so when we actually arrived we felt like we had accomplished what we set out to do this year and if we never went any further, we would be happy!
We left our anchorage in Biscayne Bay after a nice week not only weather wise but also fun spending time around the South Beach area of Miami and visiting with Dave and Judy and Kent and Linda. By the time we left our anchorage the boat was in need of a good wash, the water tanks needed refilling and the head needed to be pumped out. We found out that you could go into Miamarina at Bayside and pay a flat fee of $25.00 for a 3 to 4 hour stay. We decided to do that and spent a good part of the morning working at cleaning the boat and getting it ready again for our next leg of the the trip. Bruce and I also fit in a trip to Starbucks to get on the Internet and check out mail, pay a few bills and make a few skype calls to family and friends. We then treated ourselves to lunch and some shopping before heading back to the boat for a short trip to No Name Harbor in Bill Baggs Park. For some reason right now, I can receive e-mails but neither Karen and I have been able to send any mail. We are working on the problem and hope we can get it fixed soon. In the meantime, we are receiving your e-mails but unfortunately cannot send back a reply!
While heading over to No Name Harbor, we started getting worried that we wouldn't be able to find any room in the Harbor to anchor for the night as we had stayed longer at Bayside than we had planned and it would be getting dark by the time we made it to our anchorage thus leaving us little time to get to another find another before dark. We looked at our charts and found another anchorage close by so decided to stop sooner and avoid the danger of not finding another anchorage before dark. I think it was a smart decision as the next morning when we arrived in No Name Harbor, we found it to be a lot smaller than we pictured it to be and already fairly crowded with boats. By late afternoon, we were all crammed in like sardines and any late comers were out of luck when it came to finding a spot to anchor. It ended up to be a beautiful spot and we decided to get our bikes out and do some exploring. The park takes up 494 acres at the southern tip of Key Biscayne, has a working 19th century lighthouse and one of the top 10 beaches in the U.S. It was a beautiful sunny, hot day and after a great lunch in the harbor we decided to check out the beach. It truly was one of the nicest ones we have been on so far. Because of the natural reef in front of the beach, the water is really calm and there were no pebbles, rocks or seaweed, just a beautiful hard sand bottom! We probably should have stayed a few more days, but we were anxious to make it to the Keys. We weren't sure how we were going to get out early in the morning as the harbor was so crowded that we were sure another boat had to be on top of our anchor. We did however manage to leave without hitting anyone on the way out (mostly due to my good driving abilities).
By that evening, we were anchored beside Key Largo just in front of Rodrigues Key and enjoyed a swim in the blue, clear, warm (27 degrees) water. We decided to stay there an extra day to take advantage of the nice weather and water so Bruce could get his tanks on and clean the bottom of ours and Jim and Karen's boat. As the water gets warmer, we get more and more growth on the bottom of our boat and Bruce could notice that it was slowing us down when motoring or sailing. Jim put on his snorkel and cleaned along the waterline and Karen and I helped from the dinghy. With all of us working, it didn't take long to get the job done and Bruce said it really came off easy just using a brush. We finished just in time for lunch and of course an afternoon nap for Bruce!
We had a great sail the next day on our way to Marathon. It was an easy 50 miles and the wind was from the Northwest. We probably sailed for about 5 hours, which is a record for the last few months!! We were unable to get a mooring ball inside Boot Key Harbor so we anchored on the West side of the island for the night. The next day we took the dinghy into the city marina and put our name on a waiting list for a mooring ball. Unfortunately before we were assigned a ball, the weather turned very windy and it was out of a direction which made it quite uncomfortable on anchor. Since there was no where else to go, we just toughed it out and ended up spending 2 fairly uncomfortable nights with high winds and thunder storms. We got in touch with Dave and Pat (Dragon Wick) and they told us about a friend of theirs that had a couple of docks to rent. She got in touch with them for us and to make a long story short (as Lilliane would say) we are now in front of their house on their dock which is only about 2 doors down from Dockside (the dock we had originally booked for January and February) and have all the amenities we would have in a Marina. The place is fantastic. We have taken our bikes out again and plan to call this home for a couple of months. We were sure glad to get this place but unfortunately not before we lost our anchor again for the second time since we bought the boat, Bruce fell overboard while climbing onto the boat from the dinghy (just a few bruises) and we broke our davits while trying to raise the dingy. It was definitely not one of our better days!
We realized once we were finally settled that Bruce had let his health insurance lapse and the only way to get insurance again was to return to Canada. I was planning on coming home for a few days anyway, as Bruce and a few of the guys were planning a trip to Miami for golf, so we moved our trip up a few days and we both flew home together. I immediately went up to Sault Ste. Marie to see my mom ( who is turning 80 years young on the 28th of February) and we had a good visit and I was able to spend a nice couple of days with her and my sister and take my mom out for her birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!!!
I came back to Mississauga in time to do spend some time with Lindsay and take her shopping for her 20th birthday on March 8! Can't believe my baby is getting so old! I was not able to see too many people as my car broke down and was in the shop for the entire week. They still have it and no word yet on when we will get it back. There is no rush now that we are back on the boat. I met up with Bruce in Ft. Lauderdale on Monday night and we drove back to Marathon together. As I was saying, we will be here now until we put the boat away some time in the second or third week of April. We had planned on leaving for the Bahamas but decided that it would just be too rushed and we didn't think we wanted to do that. We will probably plan 2 to 3 months in the Bahamas next year when we have more time to enjoy it. That decision made, we were able to have some company here. Bruce's sister and her husband are coming for a week in March as well as my sister and her husband are planning on coming for Easter weekend. Leanne hopes to come for a couple of days of diving with her dad and we hope to meet up with friends that are planning on coming to the Keys in March and April. It should be busy and the time will pass quickly. It is hard to believe that we have been on the boat for 9 months already and that we are quickly coming to the end of this adventure. We have pretty much decided to leave the boat here in Marathon for the summer at the Marathon Boat Yard. We now have to figure out how to summerize the boat as opposed to winterizing the boat! Any suggestions or helpful tips are always appreciated! Any visitors are also welcome, just make sure to reserve early as we are already getting booked up!



South Beach, here we come!

Heading into Miami.

Sailing in the Keys!

Need your boat moved to Europe, this is the boat that it will be loaded onto and moved for you!

Private boat docked at someones house, makes ours look really small!

Salty Lady, our friend's boat registered in Sault Ste. Marie. They are in the Bahamas now but hope to meet up with them again in the Keys in April.

Visit with Steve, Shirley, Mark and Carol just before leaving Nettles Island

We are on the move again! We finally left our comfortable slip at Nettles Island Marina and all the new friends that we had met during our six week stay and headed back to the high seas. It was a bit tough to get back into the travelling mode after such a long time in one place but we were glad to be back on the water. We left the marina with Jim and Karen as well as another Canadian couple, Bob and Mardi on Salty Lady, that we had spent some time with during our time on Nettles Island. Their boat was registered in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario but they were from Sudbury and were headed to the Bahamas. Since most of you know that Sault Ste. Marie is my hometown, it was nice to get to know another couple from Northern Ontario! They truly are a great bunch of people. It is a small world as they are now living on Manitoulin Island and Bob knows my cousin Garnet Behnke as he plays hockey with him during the summer. There had been quite a bit of wind prior to us leaving and the waves in the Atlantic were still 5 to 6 feet high so we decided to stay in the ICW and although it would take us longer as we had 7 or 8 bridges to go through, it would be a lot more comfortable for us. We went as far as West Palm Beach and all anchored in the same area after some confusion as to where that was and a grounding by Captain Bruce (managed to motor off the bottom without any assistance). Bob and Mardi invited as all over for a movie and popcorn night after dinner and after finally deciding on a movie that no one had seen before, we all enjoyed the movie! After going to bed before Bruce I was awakened by the sound of the engine starting and I got up out of bed to see what was going on. Bruce said that he though we were getting too close to Jim and Karen's boat and that we would have to raise our anchor, move further away and set it again. At this point, we could not find our anchor ball anywhere and realized that it was under the boat but did not realize this before Bruce had put the boat in gear and what we didn't know was we had wrapped the line from the ball around our prop as we decided that maybe we didn't need to move after all. The next morning we were sitting in the cockpit having our coffee when Jim and Karen's boat seem like it was moving past us, when in fact we were the ones moving past them. Our anchor had been pulled off the bottom by the trip line that was wrapped around our prop when the wind changed and we were moving quite fast. Thank goodness there were only a few boats in the anchorage and we didn't get to close to any other boats, although there were a few tense moments while we tried to figure out what had happened! We managed to reset the anchor but knew that there was still line wrapped around the prop and Bruce would have to dive down and cut it off. This time there was no Lillianne to do it for him! Jim came over and helped him get all his gear on and we were thankful for the new sharp knife we had bought the last time this happened to cut the line! The water temperature was also 26 degrees so he didn't even need a wet suit. Things could have been a lot worse it this had happened in the middle of the night when we were sleeping. Who knows where we would have ended up. We had only been on the water again for two days and two bad things had happened already. This is when we realized that we had not thrown any money into the sea when we left again and although we are not usually superstitious, we did not leave again without throwing a few coins overboard!
Bob and Mardi were leaving the next day but we stayed an extra day as we need to go into customs and get a new cruising permit. When we had talked to customs on the phone, we were told that the permit that we were given in Bar Harbor was an old one that is no longer being used and it would be better for us to have the new one so we wanted to get that taken care of before we left for the Bahamas so it wouldn't be a problem for us when we tried to get back into the United States. We found the customs officer in West Palm to be one of the nicest officers we had ever met and wanted to get it from here rather than take our chances with someone else!
We left West Palm onTuesday, January 29th and thankfully this time were able to go out the Lake Worth inlet into the Atlantic and head to Ft. Lauderdale. The only bad thing was that there was that the wind was from the South which was the direction we were travelling so we motor sailed again but at least there were no bridge schedules to worry about! Ft. Lauderdale was about a 50 mile run from West Palm and we pulled into the Port Everglades Inlet around 2 p.m. We anchored in Lake Sylvie and dropped the dingy to go exploring. Within about 30 minutes of anchoring a police boat came up to the boat to inform us that there was a 24 hour anchoring rule in Ft. Lauderdale. We had hoped to spend a few days in the area to visit Dave and Judy and see a few others that spend the winter in Ft. Lauderdale from P.C.Y.C but we were unable to pick up a mooring ball and since we could only anchor for one day, we decided to head to Miami the next morning. We did manage to do a bit of exploring by dinghy and see Dave and Judy for about 1/2 hour before we left.
We are now anchored on the Biscayne Bay side of South Beach and have been enjoying an amazing stretch of hot, sunny weather! It has been great spending time in South Beach people watching, sitting in cafe's for happy hours and enjoying the beautiful beach. We can take the dinghy up the canal, park it in front of the Publix and then walk to the beach from there. Dave and Judy drove down for lunch and spent the day with us as well as another couple from Ottawa who were in Ft. Lauderdale to inspect a 41 foot PDQ that they have an offer pending on. Some of you may remember the dock we used in Gan on our way through the Thousand Islands that belonged to some friends of my friend Joanne from Ottawa. Their names are Kent and Linda and they are the ones that are here looking at the boat. They heard through Joanne that we were in the area, so they looked us up and we finally got to meet each other. We had heard so much about them through the years but had never met. Everyone ended up coming back to the boat for dinner and a swim. It is so great to get together with friends along the way and we look forward to these times! Dave and Judy have been to visit us at least 4 times and Bruce says that they have almost caught up to the number of times we have seen his sister and brother-in-law on this trip!
We hope to leave here perhaps on Tuesday if the weather holds. I have been having problems with my hearing aids and may have to send them to Toronto but have to wait until at least Monday to talk to the girl in the office. I was supposed to talk to her on Friday but with the snow storm in Toronto, no one was in. There are worse places to be stuck and today is Super Bowl Sunday so it should be a zoo in South Beach. Not sure if Kent and Linda will come back again today to spend the day at the beach with us. Again it is going to be another hot, sunny day! I am not going to be able to post any pictures this time as the internet is very slow and very intermittent so will have to wait for better internet, but thought everyone could use an update on our whereabouts. Talk to you from the Keys!

Boxing Day Dinner set up in the livingroom and the diningroom as we where having 18 people!

Leanne, Lindsay and Alison all decked out in their holiday hats!

Trevor, Bruce's brother Earl here from Ottawa to spend Christmas with us and his son Morgan from England! It was great to see them.

Happy New Year everyone! We arrived back at the boat on the 28th of December after sitting through a few flights and finally getting on an Orlando flight. Jim and Karen were nice enough to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to come and pick us up in Orlando, unfortunately our luggage was not so lucky and had to be delivered to us 2 days later. I was not surprised that it was not on the flight with us as we had changed destinations 3 times! The surprise would have been if it had actually arrived with us. From the airport we only went home to quickly change our clothes as we were invited out to dinner on Choices (John and Mary's boat who used to belong to P.C.Y.C and who we had met the first year we were member's.) Although we were a bit tired, we had a great evening with them and a delicious dinner! We had probably not seen them for 3 years so we had quite a bit of catching up to do and Bruce and Jim helped them out by picking up John in Indian Town where they were to leave there car while they headed over to the Bahamas.
It was great to be back on the boat after a hectic schedule at home. We decided to take a few days of R and R and enjoy the beautiful weather as we had heard that a cold front would be moving in after the New Year and bringing with it, cool temperatures. We had temperatures in the 80's and spent a couple of days on the beach, went for dinner with Jim and Karen who had company visiting again from P.C.Y.C and decided what we would do for New Year's. We had been invited to a New Year's Eve party in this area by a former member of this Marina, but when we got back to the boat and started asking around, no one planned on attending the party. Since we didn't know the person hosting the party, we decided that if no one else that we did know was going, maybe we should just stay home too. The guys left it up to Karen and I to decide what we would do so we decided to pick up some mussels, shrimp and lobster and have our own New Year's party on the boat. We had a great time together but had a hard time staying up past 11:00 and I am embarrassed to say but this was the first New Year's Eve in a long time that we did not make it to midnight. At 11:30 we called it a night, said "Happy New Year" to Jim and Karen and went right to bed. We are really getting into the boating life as all boaters seem to go to bed early and get up even earlier! We made up for it the next morning as we took our champagne and orange juice to the beach and celebrated New Year's Day together. In the afternoon we attended our first low country boil which consisted of every type of seafood imaginable but together in a pot along with potatoes, sausage and corn and boiled and then dumped on a piece of newspaper on the table for all to enjoy. What a feast!

This is the tiki hut where all the boater's can get together and socialize.

Low Country Boil. What a feast!

We have started to get into a routine here and try to start each day with a bike ride or a walk and have been finally getting some exercise after about 6 months of inactivity on the boat. It has felt good to finally stop travelling for a bit and take some time out for ourselves. We have also been kept busy with company. Dave and Judy Burns stopped by on their way to Ft. Lauderdale and we had dinner with them and Jim and Karen on our boat and they stayed overnight with us. Amy and Ken (Mary T) visited us as they were having transmission trouble and had to bring the transmission into Stuart to have it fixed so they stopped by on the way home and invited us to their marina for Sunday brunch on the weekend before they left for the Bahamas . Brunch was delicious and it was great to see them one last time before they left. Don't know when we will see them again so we will miss not having them around. We are going to try to get some work done on our boat as well. The wood needs to be done again and we have some caulking to do around the windows as there has been a few leaks sometimes when it rains and we have yet to find where the water is coming it. We have enough to keep us busy for the next couple of weeks but still have time to enjoy the weather.

We have rented our car for another 3 weeks and will stay here until the 24th or 25th of January. Bruce is going home for a couple of days for a doctor's appointment. Jim is going home for a week to renew his passport and Karen's mom is coming for a week to visit so we will also be kept busy driving to the airport and back a few times! We hope to leave for the Florida Keys next and then possibly to the Bahamas in April or the end of March.