France by Land!

The crew of Dream Catcher took a two week hiatus from the sea and traveled across the ocean via airplane to France!  It was a wonderful trip and went by in a flash.  The overnight flight is akin to an overnight sea passage - we were wiped out when we arrived, and found ourselves needing to take a quick nap at the hotel.  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Adventure is found everywhere when you travel!  The trip to the airport from Sharon's sister, Pam's, in Pennsylvania, was delightful (of course, someone else was driving).  We flew out of JFK, so that meant a trip around the tip of NYC, across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and then into the airport.  It was fun to drive over this bridge that we have passed under a number of times onboard Dream Catcher, on our way south these past four years.  It was fun to see the NYC skyline, and the Statue of Liberty.  Just being in JFK was almost like being in a foreign country.  LOTS of people, from all over the world!  NYC is truly a microcosm of the world.

The flight on Delta Airlines was very comfortable (although it would have been SO much MORE comfortable if we had flown first class!) and the staff are extremely professional and accommodating.  We left JFK and arrived on time in France.  Flying into Nice, one of the furthest east cities in France,  put us in mind of flying into a Caribbean Island.  Immigration officers were very casual; a quick stamp on the passport with no questions, a walk out of baggage claim with our bags and no customs check, and off we went to our rental car!  It took longer to settle the rental car than it did to get out of the airport.  This was because we needed a car that had a GPS.  So rather than a sporty Renault or Citroen, we ended up with a Nissan.  All the cars are standard shift - so if you young folks ever want to drive in another land, learn how to drive a standard!  There was an upcharge for a GPS and we momentarily considered skipping it.  We would still be driving around France finding our way home if we had!

Our first destination was St Paul de Vence - a beautiful bastide city about a forty minute drive from the airport.  Bastide towns are very old - often more than 1,000 years old - towns that formed on high hills for security, and usually surrounded by large, stone walls. One of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, Saint Paul de Vence is well-known for its art galleries and museums.  Everywhere we walked, we saw the sign "Atelier" (workshop) and each one was filled with original and unique works.  It was a beautiful way to begin our time in a beautiful country.

These walkways are not level, often a 30 degree incline all over town.

The streets all looked like this.  Apparently, the river stone was
hand carried by the townspeople, many, many years ago

We learned that the typical French home has shuttered windows, most are beautiful.

Our hotel entrance

It was a very charming place and we wished we could have stayed a few days.  But, after a good night's rest, we headed down the mountainside and off to the Mediterranean coast.  Our second destination was in the hills of Provence, an hour north of the sea. But, first we wanted to see a few seaside towns we've always read about.  We drove through the seaside streets of Antibes, Cannes and St Tropez.  The Mediterranean looked very intimidating that day.  With high winds and chop, we were happy to be on land for now.  It is truly a hangout for very large personal watercraft.  Amazing how big those motor yachts are!

By mid-afternoon, after long hours waiting through serious traffic jams along the coast, we headed up into the hills towards our next destination.  Winding, narrow roadways, steep drop-offs and a little construction made it an adventure.  The further into the country we went, the more we were hopeful that we had entered the address properly into the GPS.  Finally, we found our spot for the night at Baumaniere, in the town of Les Baux de Provence. It is a beautiful spa-getaway location amidst olive groves, huge natural rock formations and fragrant lavender fields.  Again, we were wishing we could stay a week!  It is one of the most serene and peaceful places we have ever been.  And the Michelin-starred restaurant did not disappoint.  We definitely want to go back to this area!

Olive trees

Sunflowers for miles!

After a wonderful dinner, a restful night and a splendid breakfast by the pool, we headed off again.  By now we were feeling very pampered. After driving through miles and miles of farmland, orchards, and a nuclear power plant, we climbed the hills to our next destination, a tiny town called Puymirol where we found the hotel and chef,  Michel Trama.  The town, another bastide,  was very small and there was very little going on.  Set at the top a hill, the views were amazing.  The chateau itself was unique, and the Michelin-starred chef, who owned the establishment, was on his game.  This time, he visited our table in the tiny dining area and shared a bit of his background with us.  He had just finished filming a spot on Top Chef and had also just returned from China where he was on the jury for other Michelin chefs.  It was great fun to meet him and we were delighted with his amazing creations. Greg sampled sweetbreads for the first time, which he says were wonderful. And the Granny Smith Apple desert was incredible. We still can't figure out how they assemble it without the ice cream melting.

View from the neighborhood.

This is a fire hydrant that unlocks before use

Side of a home with a funny scupture on it...and Greg

Jasmine is everywhere in France

The living room at Michel Trama

The pool at Michel Trama, where we had lunch.

The requisite church in the town of Puymirol

The outdoor dining area

Sweet Breads and "onion rings"

Dried Granny Smith Apple Slices stuck into an ice cream core

Finally, after three days and nights our time in the car came to an end in the bustling city of Bordeaux.  We dropped the car and our bags off and took the modern, clean and quiet tram to La Cite du Vin - a museum of wine.  There were many interactive exhibits on wine - the terroir, the grapes, the history.  We finished our tour with a tasting up on the top floor overlooking the city.  Good fun!

La Cite du Vin wine museum

It seems most cities have a carousel

Our hotel for a night, the Intercontinental.

In the square by our hotel

From the roof of our hotel

A young artist sketching on the street

After enjoying another lovely evening in this vibrant city (another place we wish we could have stayed longer!) we hooked up with friends Pat and Eric for a light breakfast, then headed to the train station to meet the group from Backroads Cycling for the next phase of this fabulous adventure.  This group will be our bike mates for the next week, visiting Chateau after Chateau in the Bordeaux wine region.

You'll get the details and photos on that in our next blog entry. 

'Til then - 

Where have we been for the last two months??

A bit too much time has gone by since we last posted news about Dream Catcher.  We made our way to the Vero Beach City Marina by April 5th.  It was just in the nick of time since we were closing on a land house on April 9th!  What you say, you bought a house?  Why?  Well, we knew that one day we would want a place to go back to on land, we love the town of Vero Beach (if you've never been, you now have a guest bed waiting), we have several good friends who live in the area, and it was a good time to buy.  We had actually made our offer and had an acceptance in early January, but the previous owner had renters committed through March, so closing was put off.  This delay was good, because Greg's business income was helpful during the first few months of 2018.

Anyway, the rest of April was spent clearing out the previous owner's stuff with help from the real estate agent's team (yuk for two days!), planning ever-growing renovation projects, supervising contractors, adding things to the contractor's list, doing some of the easy work ourselves, and some not-so-easy, and generally being exhausted at the end of each day for several weeks.  What started out as a plan to change the old carpet in the living room and put a fresh coat of paint on everything in preparation for renters, ended up being all new floors, new bathroom, walls demolished and opened up, and much more.  We are very pleased with the outcome.  The main contractor, Samuel Beers, and side kick, Michael Viamontes, have done a really, really great job for a really, really fair price.  Plus they are really, really nice guys!  We love these guys!

732 Banyan Road is a sweet little two-bedroom cottage with a great backyard, less than a block from the beach, and has eight Live Oak trees adorning the property.  We still plan to rent it out during high season, keeping us sailing for a good while yet.

While in Vero the Nina and the Pinta
(replicas of course) visited our dock 

By early May, in the middle of our house renovation project, we had to get going north.  A plan to enjoy Charleston together with our kids the beginning of May had us hightailing it north from Vero.  Weather has been pretty tricky all Spring for any passage-making.  We had planned to go offshore directly to Charleston, but weather was not great for this so we stayed inside and had a delightful week along the waterway.  We got lucky with our timing and every area where we were concerned about thin tidal water we hit at high tide, keeping the stress at bay and progress moving forward.  We arrived in Charleston by May 9th and were well-rested from a good night's sleep at beautifully remote and quiet anchorages all along the way.

Scenes from the Waterway - Vero Beach, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina

A Great Blue Heron fishing in Haulover Cut

Manatees Fishing in Haulover Cut

Haulover Cut is just north of Cape Canaveral

Dredging buoys in Ashepoo-Coosaw Cutoff

Dredging Equipment

The long weekend with the kids in Charleston was delightful.  It was a big birthday for Greg, and this weekend was a wonderful family celebration. Lots of dining, a horse carriage ride through historic Charleston, learning a bit of history, lots of walking, and good fun just being together.  It is rare for all of us to be together and we were very happy to share time.  Grateful thanks to Olivia, Courtney & Paolo for making the trip so memorable!

(Click to enlarge)

By late May, we knew we had to get the boat moving north.  After a drive back to Vero (where we snagged some yummy Georgia peaches along the way), more house projects, and a quick visit from friends Hayden and Radeen, we drove back to Charleston, and on May 24th at 5am pulled out of the slip and headed offshore (timed to avoid the fast current that runs through the marina).  We had a good passage, quiet and benign for the first twelve hours, then the wind switched and was on our nose the rest of the trip.  Fortunately, it never got over 12 knots, so even though we did a fair bit of bashing, it was manageable.  We entered Beaufort, NC inlet 30 hours later, continued up the waterway and dropped the hook in the Neuse River.  We slept quite well that night!!

Hayden, king of selfies, snapped this one!
And the work in progress is in the background....

Spring along the waterway

From under the Jordan Bridge, Elizabeth River, Norfolk,
built by Sharon's brother-in-law's firm

Memorial Day Weekend, Norfolk Waterside

There was light traffic on the waterway this late in the season.  We made 80 miles to the Little Alligator River next day, then 70 miles to Norfolk, VA the following day, then 70 miles to Mill Creek off the Great Wicomico River.  Today was a short day of 45 miles. As we write this we are on the hook in another Mill Creek in Solomons, MD, only 45 miles to go to reach Annapolis, home for the next six weeks.  

It has been a good trip!  We outran the rains and squalls from Alberto.  Tomorrow, we'll pull into Bert Jabin Yacht Yard in Annapolis where Dream Catcher will stay secure for a good while.  We have one more trip back to Vero planned to finish more projects. We'll spend time in Fenwick Island, Delaware.  And we'll enjoy a much anticipated bicycle trip through the Bordeaux Region of France before sailing north to New England.

Livin' the life, we are!  'Til next time - 

Naples, Florida, around the Everglades and up through the Keys back to the ICW

After our lovely time in Pelican Bay, Cayo Costa State Park, we headed out in a blustery wind.  Cayo Costa is situated between Fort Myers to the south and Sarasota to the north, also just north of Captiva Island, which is north of Sanibel Island. Each of these locations face the Gulf of Mexico about mid-coast West Florida.

We had planned to go "outside" into the Gulf, but the wind and waves were so bad inside, we decided to just stay in the waterway bays.  As choppy waves pushed against our bow, we pulled out half the jib to steady the rocking motion and motored on through.  Conditions were brisk with 20+ knot winds.  After a few hours we turned East and had better protection from some of the bay's islands, so things calmed down.  The highlight was, just as we were turning out of the waterway and into the channel to head through Matanzas Pass (just West of Fort Myers), we watched in awe as a lone dolphin jumped at least six feet out of the water - over five times!  It was rolicking in waves made by a passing motor yacht and made an unforgettable show.

The rest of the day was routine as we headed downwind just offshore and toward Naples.  Big excitement came when we turned East again to enter Gordon Pass into Naples Harbor (they call inlets passes over on the West coast of Florida).  Suddenly those waves were broadside again instead of behind us, and the boat rolled, tossed and hopped its way along until we entered the jetty - whew! Then, just inside the jetty, a 70 foot scenic tour boat decided to do a U-turn, effectively blocking our entry in high winds and waves. Greg called on the radio, they turned quickly and headed back inside. Another "Whew"!

After motoring three miles up to Naples City Dock we pulled into the fuel dock, fueled up for our next trip, then moved to the brand new face dock where they put all the "transients".  We were excited to see the new place after staying at the old docks last year.  They did a beautiful job with their $6-1/2 million renovation.  Three new buildings, all floating docks, gorgeous baths and laundry, shiny new utility pedestals with power and water, and very friendly, efficient staff.  Perfect!

Check out this cool new water fountain.  Hold your bottle in
front of that outline of a bottle and it fills it up for you with filtered water!

This was Sharon's breakfast one morning at a local cafe - poached eggs
with  "avocado smash" that had feta, chives, tomatoes
and cilantro mixed in - YUM!

A good day for the fishing charters - eleven Grouper hanging up there ready to fillet!

Naples is always fun for us.  We love to get on our bicycles and ride around the gorgeous neighborhoods and enjoy a variety of good restaurants.  We've been lucky with our timing to enjoy the Naples Art Council Art Show that takes over the downtown area for a weekend.  This is a great show of high quality artisans.  It did not disappoint.  We scored a couple cool items and enjoyed walking the booths.  It was also the morning of the "Walk for Our Lives" supporting gun control in the aftermath of the horrible Parkland, FL shootings.  We were surprised and impressed that the local march included several thousand people - it went on for hours: kids, parents, and many grandparents - all calling attention to the problem of assault rifles in the hands of the general public.  It was good to be engulfed in that positive and inspiring event. We applaud the valor of the kids at Parkland.

We had planned to stay for only four days in Naples - in fact, the marina has a rule that you can only stay that long.  But - the weather for continuing to travel east was unsettled, so we asked for more time and they kindly gave it to us.  We ended up being there a week - and enjoyed every day!  Finally, by Friday, the wind calmed down enough for us to start south.  Up before dawn, we were off the dock before 7am and motoring out of the harbor with all the charter fishing boats and their paying guests.  It was another calm day - which is why we waited so long - so we motored south, past Marco Island, further on south to round Cape Romano Shoal (too shallow to cross), then turned southeast towards the Little Shark River on the Gulf side of the Everglades.  About halfway through the day, the wind came up enough and from the right direction that we could unfurl the jib and enjoy a bit of sailing.  The day's highlight was when a ray flew up and out of the water about 50 feet from the boat.  We have seen videos of this, but never live.  It "flew" about 10 feet, flapping its batwings,  before softly splashing back into the water.  These things we see are so cool.  Just not possible to get a photo.

Great Blue Heron in the Little Shark River

Three boats anchored up river from us

Our view sailing around the tip of Florida

This is what Sharon's hair does on a breezy sailing day.  

We pulled into the Little Shark River a couple hours before sunset, anchored, and enjoyed a nice meal. As the sun dipped below the horizon we retreated inside as the "no-see-ums" started to bite.  We know sailors that have made screens out of wedding veil material because the "no-see-ums" fly right through a normal screen.  So, no openings anywhere for us onboard Dream Catcher that night.  Any cracks even got towels stuffed in them!  The next morning, you would not believe the number of small flying bugs around the boat - thousands.  We dressed to cover every area of our bodies and got out of there as fast as we could, even while being chewed on - ankles, faces, hands. Yikes!  There were teeny tiny black flies coating the windshield, stuck to the bimini (the top canvas covering above the cockpit), all over the deck - it was gross and disgusting.  (did we mention how much Greg hates bugs?)  Once underway we got the water hose out and sprayed down almost every surface.  Later, we used the hand vacuum to clean the underside of the bimini.  By 10am we were comfortable again.  The evening seems to bring these critters out; but the sun seems to kiil them.  All OK, but what a clean up!

Saturday, after exiting the river, we turned East again and made our way around Cape Sable (the bottom tip of Florida) and on over to the Keys.  The original plan was to retrace the tracks we traveled from Key Biscayne early in February.  But, for a variety of reasons, we decided to try something we hadn't done before and travel up inside the Keys - between the Keys and the mainland.  We got some advice from other sailors whom we knew had made this trek before (thanks Bill and Tricia) and started northeast on our travels.  It was delightful.  Quiet anchorages, beautiful sites, nice sailing - a real treat.  On Easter, we dropped the hook off Elliott Key just north of Key Largo and Southeast of Miami.  We could see the beautiful sandy bottom through the clear water, the sunset was gorgeous, and the moon rose over the water.

Moonrise at Islamorada

Looked like a storm was brewing, but blew right over

Navigating inside the Keys, you follow these
deep cuts right through the mangroves

Beautiful Biscayne Bay

Took this from the cockpit looking over the side. We're not in Chelmsford any more!

After a huge amount of debate, considering timing to leave and arrive in daylight, checking waves and wind, concerns about business calls, we finally gave it up and decided to motor inside the waterway to get to our Vero Beach destination by Thursday.  We were so looking forward to an overnight offshore sail.  But, one business call scheduled for Tuesday at 1pm put such a kink in our plans that we decided offshore just wouldn't work.

Our next day took us through Miami, which is one of the busiest in the waterway for small boat traffic, rude motor boaters and bridges.  We persevered and dropped the hook in Lake Boca at 7:30pm just as the sun was sinking below the horizon, 57 miles after we started our trek north.  Leaving early the next morning, we caught the first bridge at 7:30am and hit almost every one at the designated time needed to keep us moving along.  As we passed through Palm Beach, we spotted our friends Hayden and Radeen on board Island Spirit at anchor in preparation for their run to the Bahamas the next morning.  Check out this great shot of their beautiful boat amidst the tall buildings and palm trees.

Island Spirit 

Sunrise at Hobe Sound, Jupiter

The beach at Hobe Sound

We finally ended our full day of bridge tender negotiations and dropped the hook in peaceful Hobe Sound between the mainland and Jupiter Island.  This is a beautiful area with the entire north end of the island designated wildlife area.  Check out this bald eagle Greg spotted high up in a tree along the way.

A Bald Eagle

Traveling towards Fort Pierce on the waterway

Today was a shorter day of only 35 miles ending at 1:30pm (!) in a nice protected anchorage in Faber Cove, Fort Pierce, in anticipation of increasing winds and swinging at anchor.  We are surrounded by land, which means no waves or boat motion - so a restful night ahead.  Tomorrow we make our last ten miles to Vero Beach where we will hang for the next month.

It has been a great winter here in Florida and we look forward to our slow journey north for summer.

'Til next time -