Enjoying a little R and R on board Dream Catcher.  Doing a few small projects that have been on our list, while waiting for the wind to go more south to make our crossing to the Bahamas.  Today it looks like it might be Saturday or Sunday - we'll see.

We start every day catching up on email, checking work, Greg get's as many calls done as possible so that he isn't on the phone much in the afternoon. Then we try to have much of the afternoon relatively free to do boat chores and other things.

After Boca, we continued south on the waterway and ended up at Bill Bird/Haulover Park Marina just north of Haulover Inlet in North Miami.  We were the only sailboat there, and it was pretty quiet.  We imagine the weekends are busy.  There were charter fishing boats coming and going all day and we shared the enthusiasm of the resident pelicans in seeing their catch.

We walked on the beach and hiked to the Publix (the grocery chain in FL) for last minute provisions.  It was warm and humid, but the breeze kept us a bit cool.  The east wind brought hundreds of Portuguese Man 'O War onto the shore, caught up in the seaweed.  Really cool to look at, don't touch!

We also enjoyed the Food Truck Fest on Tuesday night.  Tacos, sausage sandwiches, gelato and the Grilled Cheese Truck!  Kites, music, kid's rides - good clean fun!

Wednesday morning dawned sunny and hazy.  We filled the water tank, the fuel tank and headed south to check out our options for leaving the comfort of the waterway to head to the Bahamas.  Motored out of Government Cut - the huge Port of Miami entry - to see the sea state and the exit.  Lots of barge and ship traffic and we even saw a sea plane take off!

Disney Wonder Cruise Ship

We decided to continue south into Biscayne Bay, hoping if we got further south, the angle to Bimini would allow us to sail with the Southeast winds.  We had a delightful afternoon of actual sailing!  Both sails out, no engine running, blue-green water - our first real sailing since we left the Chesapeake in October!  It was a delightful afternoon, until the Coast Guard pulled up on our starboard rail.....

We are sailing along loving life and here comes this large gray and orange inflatable Coast Guard vessel and he seems to be getting very close.  Don't you know - some guy comes out of the little house and smiles and asks us if we have ever been boarded by the Coast Guard.  NO!  (of course, Sharon is like - why - what did we do??)  Greg suggests that perhaps we first need to take the sails down and get squared away.  They kindly say, no, and suggest they will simply come aboard and be done with their process by the time we get close to our desired anchorage.

So - two guys come aboard with their big honkin' black coast guardy boots and step on our beautiful cockpit cushions and proceed to stomp all over our home.  They wanted to know if we had firearms on board (No), and said they were there to check our documentation and safety gear.

Now we want to tell you that we have spent untold hours and money assuring we have all the proper documentation and safety gear.  We have our lifejackets, a ditch kit (which is in case we have to abandon ship) filled with all appropriate stuff, we have tethers to strap ourselves in while at sea, we have a life raft, an EPIRB,  a throw rope to go with the Man Overboard button on our chart plotter, in case one of us goes in, and we have this cool new MOM 8A which takes the place of a life ring and takes up less room on the rail.

So - they located all of our safety equipment, they checked all bilge access panels to assure no leaks (and probably to look for contraband, but they didn't say that), they assured our holding tank was set to hold and not to overboard discharge, they located and counted our fire extinguishers, and they appreciated that we were a documented vessel and that we had copies of that documentation which made it easier to pass paperwork back and forth to their "mother-ship".  They asked for our ID's as well.  Sharon kept sailing the boat and chatted with the guy in the cockpit while the other guy went below with Greg to help locate everything.  All in all, they were kind and respectful the entire time - except for the boots, which we suspect they were not going to take off, even if we asked them to.

After what Greg says was an hour and Sharon says was a half hour (which means it was probably somewhere in between), they gave us a written warning because our cool new MOM (Man Overboard Module) is not USCG approved (which if it was would have a little notation on the device).  They suggested we get a throwable floating seat cushion (really?!) to toss to someone if they go overboard.  Of course, Sharon wanted to "discuss" this with them, but all it resulted in was a lecture about USCG approval.  So - our next visit to Walmart, we'll just pick up a floatable seat cushion.  An interesting experience to add to out list of interesting experiences.

We both wish we had thought to snap a photo of the Coast Guard vessel, but I was a bit busy trying to keep my blood pressure in line while still sailing the boat and paying attention to them - and Greg was rolling his eyes!  If we see another one in our travels, we will snap a shot for you.

We had a quiet and dark night (oh the stars you see!) anchored just inside Key Largo at Angelfish Creek, waiting for our perfect crossing day.  And we have accomplished our goal of transiting the intracoastal waterway from Newport to Biscayne Bay.  What a great experience it has been.  We loved it all.

PS - for those of you less computer savvy, note where you see underlined copy in blue or purple and click on it.  It will send you to a web link describing that place or thing.  Enjoy!

We left Hobe Sound after a mostly peaceful night.  The short story is we awoke around 1am hearing a weird sound.  It was sort of like when your phone vibrates for a second or two.  We spent an hour, pulling open all compartments (and there are a lot on an Island Packet), listening intently, you know how you stick your ear there to determine the location of the sound?  We had the floor boards up where all the pumps are, we stuck our ear to the mast, we turned all the electricity off, we turned the batteries off, then on, the noise kept going every 30 seconds.  Then, it would stop and you would think it had stopped, and all of a sudden, it goes again.  It was maddening!  We never found it.  So far, we haven't heard it again, but it hasn't been so quiet since, so who knows (not a great comfort on a sailboat when you can't figure out what it is...)  It might have been coming from outside the boat!

Anyway - anchor up at 7am on Friday, March 6 and off to Boca.  Nineteen bridges later (18 of which were draw bridges!) we slid into Boca Lake for what we planned to be a couple days of hanging out and getting to share time with Courtney and Paolo (daughter and boyfriend).  Within 15 minutes of dropping the hook, along come some guys in a dingy to inform us that their yacht club was going to be taking over the lake this weekend for change of commodore.  This little body of water just off the waterway offers anchorage for maybe 15 sailboats.  Only one end of it is deep enough for us, so there is not a lot of room.  Of course, they said we were welcome to join the raft up (there were to be 50 boats!) and if not, then they apologized for any inconvenience.  (Really?)  So, by 8am the next morning, boats were arriving and anchoring way too close for comfort.  Needless to say, we were not happy campers (or cruisers).  After letting them know what we thought about the whole thing, we took off and luckily were able to get dockage at the nearby Boca Resort - a favorite spot, but more pricy than we were expecting.

So, we motored out of there and across the waterway to tie up at the face dock at Boca Resort.  As we plugged everything in, because of course we would take advantage of the amenities, we noticed the air conditioning wasn't working.  After about 15 minutes of recon, Greg figured out the pump was no longer working.  Oh yay - another project....  The good news is that with a few phone calls, and the lucky convenience of Courtney nearby, we were able to find a new pump at the West Marine in Pompano Beach.  Sharon and Courtney ran over to get the pump while Greg took the old one out and within three hours, we had a new pump to fuel the air-conditioner/heater.  Yay!

We ended the day with a quick load of laundry at Courtney's place, while enjoying a pitcher of her  famously strong margaritas, enjoyed lounging on the new furniture they have purchased over the last few months, had a great meal at Tanzy in Mizner Park and really enjoyed sharing time together.  Thanks Courtney & Paolo for being great hosts, as always!

As we peruse the weather forecast this morning, we have to decide our next stop on the way to Miami.  The wind is blowing out of the east.  Rain squalls are predicted and there is heavy cloud cover.  We aren't going to the Bahamas in the next couple days, so stay tuned.

And we are off!  Left Vero Beach City Marina this morning at 8am.  We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends and dock neighbors, Rick and Kay, as well as other friends we made while there.  But we know we will stay in touch and share future adventures.  We loved our time in Vero and can see why it is sometimes called Velcro Beach - people come and end up sticking because they love it so much!

The week before we left, Greg's mom and sister were in town.  We had a great week sharing time with them.  We returned to McKee Gardens, visited the Art Museum and enjoyed a fair bit of beach time.  It was great to show them around town.

McKee Botanical Gardens

Today was a gorgeous day that gave us an opportunity to try out the boat's new navigation instruments.  While Sharon steered in circles more times than she could count, Greg read manuals and calibrated the new instruments.  The circling is supposed to calibrate the digital compass settings and the wind speed and direction instrument. At least fifteen circles later, he just calibrated manually.  Still not sure it is right, since it seemed that the wind was blowing somewhat more than the 16 recorded on the instrument.  Same for the depth.  We had our old depth sounder set so that it read from the bottom of the keel (showed how much water between our boat and the ground).  Since the installer set this one up, we weren't sure where it was reading, so we tried our best not to find any water below 5 feet (just in case).

One of the cool new things we have is AIS - Automatic Identification System.  This is required for any ships over 300 tons, as well as all passenger ships.  It's a radio transmitter and receiver that sends/receives boat information to other similarly equipped boats. So, when we are sailing at night, or in low visibility, we will see other ships in our area on our chart plotter (screen display in front of the wheel). We can see what it is, how large, how fast and what direction it's traveling.  We are also transmitting a signal, so they can see us too.  Isn't technology a wonderful thing?!

The big news in Vero Beach today is the arrival of the Nina and the Pinta.  These are two replicas of the originals that are touring the US.  They arrived in Vero Beach today and were to be docked right  where we have been docked these last couple months.  We passed them going north as we headed south.  We are kind of glad not to be around for the general public admission happening from the 6th to the 12th.  Check out the website here The Columbus Foundation.

It was a fairly uneventful day otherwise and we dropped the hook in Hobe Sound at about 4pm.  We are about halfway between Vero Beach and Boca Raton, where we will head tomorrow to spend a day with our daughter Courtney and her boyfriend, Paolo.  The trip tomorrow will involve getting through 19 bridges, so it will be a bit more eventful than the four we had to negotiate today.

We just discovered that SPOT didn't save our previous travels.  So we are starting anew.  For those of you just catching up, we left Newport on Sept 23, 2014 and arrived in Florida for Thanksgiving.  Sorry to lose that SPOT data.  We'll try to fix that and assure the track gets saved from now on.

So - here we are again, very soon after our last post.  We are getting closer to leaving Vero Beach and so the projects continue.  Last week, we traveled (on the boat) about 10 miles south on the waterway to Fort Pierce, FL.  We left on a rainy morning around 6:45, with the generous help of our friends Rick, Kay, John and Grace getting us out of the slip unharmed.  It was drizzly for most of the trip.  The town of Ft Pierce has several marinas and yacht yards.  There is also an outlet to the ocean here - a popular jumping off spot for folks going to the Abacos - the northern islands of the Bahamas.  So anyway - we spent a day and a half at Harbortown Marina where we had our mast pulled so that we could add a couple wires.  The staff at Harbortown was extremely friendly and accommodating while we were there and we enjoyed being in a new place.

The week before, we had taken our two foresails, the large genoa and small staysail, off the furlers (the mechanism that lets us easily wind the sail around the forestays, instead of dropping them on deck when not in use.) So - Dustin and Travis from Nance and Underwood (sail riggers) showed up around 10am to help us prepare to pull the mast.  These guys had been on our boat a few weeks before, trying to run the wires through the mast from top to bottom, without success.  The wires kept getting caught up inside.  Thus, the reason for the mast to be pulled.  The heavy cables (shrouds) that hold up the mast have to be disconnected, the wires that run through the mast that power anchor lights, spreader lights, radar, VHF, and the new cellular antenna have to be disconnected, and the boom (with the mainsail on it) has to be disconnected.  These guys had all this done by noon and then the crane moved in to lift the mast out of its step, up through the deck of the boat, and then move it off and lay it down on two sawhorses.  One real problem was that when we arrived we found that no one had ordered the crane!  Everyone thought someone else was doing it.  So, we asked around and found one, and luckily it was able to arrive within a couple of hours.  More luck happened when the haul out slip was available an hour early.  This all enabled us to get the job done in a single day, and not pay for techs another day.

This process from when the mast was ready to pull, to laying it on the sawhorses took about one hour.  Travis is the "monkey" in the photos who climbs the mast (with a little help from Dustin who cranks him up on the halyard), and puts the lanyard in place, which is what the crane ball gets hooked to for pulling.

Once the mast was out, they went to work.  The whole point of the wire was to add a cellular booster antenna to the top of the mast.  This should help us get a better signal for cell service when not so close to land.  In addition, we are going to upgrade our instruments next week and so a wire for the wind instrument was run, and we replaced our VHF wire which was pretty much the worse for wear.  There are three (way too small) conduits (tubes) that run down the inside of the mast.  The cellular wire is a thick wire and it kept getting wrapped around the other wires that were there and thus the reason they couldn't get it through when the mast was in place, as they were pretty much working blind. Besides those just mentioned, other wires that run through the mast include wires for lights - spreader or down-facing deck lights, an anchor light (the light at the top of the mast that you turn on when at anchor so other boats see you), running lights - so people see you when you are sailing at night and radar.  Considering the boat is 20 years old, there has been a lot of new technology since it was built.  Therefore, the conduits are probably undersized for today's standards, making it tough to add new stuff.  While the guys were dealing with the wires, Greg changed out the spreader lights, Sharon added flag halyards (this is where you fly another country's courtesy flag, or a yacht club member flag), bird spikes were added wherever possible (refer to previous writings to see these are only minimally effective) and replaced a couple sheaves (these are the pulleys that the halyards run through just inside the top of the mast).

Then, once all the work was done, the entire process happens in reverse.  The only delay in getting it all put back together was trying to run the wires inside the boat at the base of the mast when you had to go through this tiny hole.  Finally, we stepped the mast back on its bed (placed it back on the boat, through the cabin top, and onto a frame in the bottom of the boat) and paid the crane guy at 5pm.  However, that still meant all shrouds still had to be reconnected and tightened, the boom put back on and other various and sundry jobs that would take too long to explain on this already gone too long blog post!

Dustin and Travis are extremely knowledgable and did a great job.  And they had great attitudes.  Travis pretty much sang while he worked the entire time.  And we all took the occasional break to check out the dolphins fishing nearby, the pelicans landing in the neighboring bush and the large snook swimming around the boat.  We said a huge thanks to Dustin and Travis at about 6:30pm.  They still had a two hour drive back to Fort Lauderdale.  We still had to move the boat out of the haul out slip and back to the dock and finish up those loose ends.  The other thing about working on a boat is that it is always in some cramped space where you have to contort your body to get the thing done.  We were both wiped by the end of the day.  Greg is still nursing the cuts and scrapes on his hands. We spent two more days figuring out wiring, connecting it all, installing a mast boot (the thing that assures no water gets through to the inside of the boat), and doing general clean up.

The temperature that night was in the high 30's.  We were happy to be plugged in with the heat running.  We left Ft Pierce by noon the next day to travel back to Vero Beach.  The wind was blowing at 20 knots with gusts up to 25 and it was only about 50 degrees, without the wind chill.  Though it is nothing like what our friends are dealing with in the Northeast, we were happy to be back in the slip and out of the wind by 2pm.  All in all, a successful endeavor.  We will let you know how the cell coverage is when we hit the Bahamas.

So we have recently heard from a few friends that they are wondering what the heck we are up to and how come we haven't been in touch.  Therefore, here is an update.

We have spent the last six weeks, getting to know Vero Beach and traveling around the state of Florida.  Here are some highlights:

We spent Dec 30th with our friends Marilyn and Bob from Massachusetts.  They own a condo in Vero Beach and we shared the evening and a yummy dinner at their home.  It was great to see them and catch up on life, plus we got to see the Kennedy Center Honors on their big TV.  Marilyn stopped to see us again late January when she was in town with her BFF's.

Sharon picked strawberries in early January at U-Pick Hornbuckle Family Farms.  What a treat!  Fresh berries in January!!  (not anything like the ones they pick in California and ship across country)

We visited McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach.  This has been here since the early 1930's and was a wonderful way to spend a sunny afternoon.  It helped us begin to learn some of the many varieties of palm trees.  There was a special Lego exhibit that was fun to see.

Lego Rose

Sharon's high school friends Peg and Allene visited during January.  It was great fun to share time together catching up.  Sharon also traveled to Ocala to visit Allene's home.  It was delightful to drive through central Florida, seeing all the orange groves, cattle farms and open land.  Very different terrain from the Northeast.  And seeing Allene and Kent's home and sharing time with them was a treat.

Garden Fest is an annual event in Vero Beach, where the local businesses in landscaping and gardening display their wares.  It is two days to enjoy all the natural and unique foliage and plants of the area.  We were sort of wishing we had some land to plant!

GardenFest 2015

We watched the Super Bowl at a really cool pool bar at the Vero Beach Hotel and Spa.  They made a special night of it and we were able to enjoy being by the sea.  It was a nail biter for sure and there was an even split of Seattle and New England fans.  It was great to be able to yell and scream when required!  Both of us are now sporting Super Bowl Championship t-shirts!

Super Bowl

We have also spent a lot of time (and money!) upgrading or replacing outdated equipment on Dream Catcher.  We have five new batteries - four house and one new start battery, giving us 500 amp hours. This pretty much guarantees us a few days of using our LED lights, the frig/freezer and keeping our phones, iPads and computers charged up before we need to recharge.  Thanks to Mike at Hartge Yacht Yard, we have a new and more powerful alternator, a cool new LinkPro monitor that tells us how our batteries are performing, and a new battery switch and combiner that allows charging to combine between house and start batteries without us doing anything.  We have had a wash down pump for our anchor so that when we bring it back up from the bottom of these muddy creeks, we can wash all the muck off of it, so that it doesn't go into our bilge.  Since we are heading for the Bahamas, and water is at a bit of a premium there, Greg switched that pump to salt water, leaving more fresh water for us.

Old Batteries

New Batteries

We hit the Miami Boat Show this past weekend.  It is something we always wanted to do and it was fun for Sharon to see Miami.  Greg was excited to be back to the area where he once spent a year as a young man.  We also got to see our friends Lori and Tom, who were vacationing in Boca Raton, and share Lori's birthday with her.

We spent one morning walking the "boardwalk" at Hollywood Beach.  (reminded us a bit of Ocean City, Maryland, except for the blue water and palm trees)

Later this week, we head south about 10 miles where a rigger will pull the mast in order to upgrade some wiring, install a cellular booster antennae and run new cable for new instruments.  Our wind, speed, depth and auto pilot instruments are original to the boat - 20 years old.  We got a deal at the Boat Show and are hoping to replace all of this within the next week.  Since the connections went out on us a few times on our way south, this will be a welcome comfort to us as we head offshore.

Next week, Greg's mom and sister will be visiting.  They are looking forward to some time away from the cold and snow in New England.  We have planned a full agenda for them while here.

The best part of being in Vero Beach has been our proximity to our friends John and Grace.  We met them while in a marina in Wickford, RI some years ago.  They are the ones who introduced us to Vero and convinced us to spend time here.  They spend four winter months here and we have loved sharing time with them.  John is trying to teach Sharon how to fish.  So far, she hasn't given it enough time and attention, so she has not been a very good pupil.  Though we have all been busy, we have spent as much time together as we can and have loved it.  We will miss being so close to them once we head offshore, but know that we will remain in touch and hopefully see each other this summer in Rhode Island.

We have also met tons of people who are living the cruising life.  Our neighbors here at the Vero Beach City Marina, Kay and Rick, are from Maine.  They live aboard a lovely trawler and we have been trading back and forth each time one of us prepares some special food item.  There are people from all over the east coast who are here or are passing through.  It is so cool to hear of their travels and destinations.  It has truly been a great experience living this way.

We will be back in touch as we head south to Miami in preparation for our crossing to the Bahamas.  Stay tuned!

It has been awhile since we last posted anything and so we are here to wish you the Merriest of Christmases and the best for 2015.  We feel blessed to be able to live the life we are living and are glad you are sharing it with us this way.

We have been nestled in a slip at Vero Beach since December 1.  It has been a lovely month here.  The marina sits just off the island side of the waterway.  This means that walks and runs include a daily pass by the beach, less than ten minutes from the boat.  As we make our way through the streets of town, we see these lovely one-story homes, all architecturally unique, all surrounded by towering live oaks, dripping with Spanish moss.  The tree above is one we walk by many times each day. There are many of these in "our neighborhood" as we come and go to town from our marina base.

What we may have had as houseplants in New England, we see growing tall and lush in the yards, with small creeks and waterways edging around the neighborhoods.  It is beautiful and we are beginning to see why they call this "Velcro" Beach - people come to visit and end up sticking, because they love it so much.

The island side of the town boasts ocean side condominiums, boutique hotels, unique shops and restaurants, parks and bath houses.  Cross the tall bridge to the mainland and you will find all the large stores, supermarkets, malls and services anyone could need.  And we are on the Indian River, which, of course, is famous for its citrus.  We discovered a wonderful spot not far from the boat that will ship fruit wherever you want, and you can buy right out of the bins.  The best thing we have tasted in a while is the "Red Navel" fresh squeezed orange juice, bright pink and sweet - unbelievable!

There is a long boardwalk along the water where people walk in the morning.  If we can't be sailing the ocean, what a treat to walk beside it every day.  Work has kept us busy over the month and will continue to for the next few. But, hey, we often quit at 2PM!

It has been so different being in a warmer clime during this holiday season.  It is beautiful though.  There is a boat parade somewhere almost every weekend in December and boats are decorated in our marina.  And, we finally have a tree on board thanks to Sharon's Aunt Gale and Uncle Dan!  The perfect size for our abode!

Yes, that is a cocktail napkin for a tree skirt!  And the colors change!

This guy actually rocks back and forth like he is rowing - crack-up!

Sending good wishes to all.  Blessings to you and all of those you love.