On the way back

We are heading back to Florida, Warren said we need to re-power.  I really don't want to keep putting money( that we don't have) into this boat so we will see what we'll do when we get back. I can't put pictures on the blog right now.... Wifi is to weak. We'll be here for a week at least.

Frazer's Hog

Today we are on a mooring at Frazer's Hog Cay and it's raining. The front that came though last night was not suppose to come down this far down when we left Marathon. Thank God Tom and Judy have weather XM. We had originally planned to go to Morgans Bluff to check in. That would have been a terrible place in North winds.
So I'll relax and use the wifi and check out the weather for next week.

  One the mechanical side of things Warren is very disappointed that the bracket on the new alternator broke. He really wants a new engine.  I don't think we will go pass the Exumas. That's OK, I will trust in his judgement on this. We talked about it and we can change our plans anytime we want.
We do thank The Lord for a safe passage!

In the Bahamas

We are in the Berry Islands and waiting for a front to pass, more tomorrow.

Getting ready to head South

  Now that we are getting ready to head South we will start up the blog again. We had planned to leave last week but the new computer we bought was having major problems. We had to send it to TX to get fix, and we are just waiting for it to come back. We have been working on the boat and just living the dream. The weather down here in Marathon is great, its the best in all the US!!!! I did get the enclosure done on the hard dodger, boy was that an ordeal! The old sewing machine that I was using finally broke so my wonderful sister in law sent me her heavy duty one from the 60's and it did great. My Mother would be shocked that I finished a sewing project!

Warren put in an AIS (Automatic Identification system) it helps with vessel traffic. So we can see the vessels around us and see how fast they are moving.  He also did many other things and I did some painting and varnishing.
Hopefully I'll be posting about our travels soon, so please check back.

Home again on Sea Notes

Well here we are again, back on Sea Notes! God is Good! We enjoyed our time with my Brother in Arizona, but I think my strongest memories are of Mr Gibbs aka Derek's new dog. He was so cute and adorable. Then he started to chew and chew and bite! That is how he would tell you he wanted to play,play play!

Now he is huge!  And still chews!

On the way to Florida we stopped in San Antonio TX. We just had to stop and Lu Lu's for their 3 lb Cinnamon roll.  It lasted three days! Then a stop to see good friends Johnny & Colleen who Warren worked with in Fairbanks. Thanks guys for a nice visit!

Our next stop was St Augustine FL. There we met up with our friends John and Kathy Noland who we met last year here in Boot Key. We are really going to miss them! They are heading back to Michigan :(  St Augustine is actually the oldest city in the United States. The city has tried very hard to keep the old world charm. We toured the Old Spanish Fort Castillo de San Marcos, its amazing how good of shape it is in. Here is a link if you want to know more  http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/castillodesanmarcos1.html



Now we are on the boat in Booty Key, working on getting Sea Notes ready for her next adventure. If things work out I think we are going to Costa Rica after the hurricane season. The weather  is not cooperating right at the moment, very rainy but the temp is great! This last picture shows just how rainy it is.  We get a break for a while its just cloudy right now. More as things develop, thanks for tuning in



Boatyard not closing

We are still in AZ working, the boatyard where we have the boat renewed their lease for one more year. So we decided to work longer here and get debt free again! We hope to head down to Florida first or second week in May. The weather is great here low humidity and lots of sunshine! :)

Arizona until March

Since the middle of August we have been in Arizona working for my brother. He is a contractor and remodels homes. Its great spending time with Derek. He works very hard and does a great job.  It's hard to tell that there is a recession on, he is always busy.  While working in the desert  we have seen snakes, scorpions, grubs and many other  bugs, so here is a picture for ya.... can you see the bug?

 I am so looking forward to being retired again. We finally have a day in the week to stay home. (we are staining and clear coating 500 ft of base board.) Sounds like fun, huh?  Its better than doing drywall mud.  We should be back at the boat around the first week in March. The boat yard that we have the boat at is closing. The owners are trying to sell it and they think they can get it sold faster if no one is there.  So we will leave here March 9th and should be back in Marathon the 11th.

We are not sure where we are going once we get there, but I would love to go back to the Bahamas:) We don't do much but work, but if we do something interesting I'll try and post it. Thanks for keeping tabs on us.

This view shows the stick bug better. This bug picture reminds me a little about when we think we have troubles. Sometime all we need to do is step back and look at it for another view. A new perspective changes everything

That is Kathy's bug thoughts for the year:) Stay tuned for How fast grubs can dig. LOL I am just having a little fun here.

Hope you All Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

We are anchored at White cay in the Berry Islands. This is a beautiful little anchorage that is just big enough for a couple of boats.  We traveled 20 miles from Frazer Hog Cay and stayed two nights. There was a strong current running through the anchorage and Warren never felt comfortable. This is when he realized that he had a lot to get used to.  Worrying about dragging anchor all the time is very nerve racking.
 Here are a few pictures of this beautiful place.  When you look out and see the different colored water, the light teal colors are the sand and the darker ones are grass or coral.  When we anchor I am at the bow trying to direct Warren to the best looking sand patch. The hard part is trying to find one that is not to close to shore and not in the current. I did a pretty good job, we never dragged. Oh, I should mention that we had the best anchor Warren could find, a 60 pound Mason supreme. Warren kept saying how he wished it was 80lbs for the additional holding power.

 

 We left Boot Key harbor Monday, May  28 and arrived in the Bahamas Wednesday night. Crossing the gulf stream went very well. The waters where very calm and the color was so pretty. The picture is from behind the boat while we where crossing. We anchored 2 nights on the Bahama banks.  The water was only 8ft deep, the winds were 15mph and it was quit Rollie. We then anchored in Bullock harbor for 2 nights it was very squally and windy. We decide to leave there and head for Frazer Hog cay to meet up with friends who where in the Abacos.

 The marina here is small, they have wifi so its prefect. The wifi is $10 a day, so we will not use it to often. You can order a conch salad, chowder or fritters. We will try some while we are here.

Here is a picture of us on the mooring at Frazer Hog

                                                         

Here we are getting the dink ready to go in and clear through customs. Here Sammy decided that he would try to sneak on shore before all the clearing in was accomplished.  Warren is admonishing Sammy that only the captain can go ashore until customs has been cleared and to get back on the boat.  Sammy wasn't a happy cruiser for a few minutes.

Today started out like all the others, everytime we try to leave something goes wrong.  This time it was a broken wire to all the gauges. And Warren will not leave if his gauges are not working. After spitting 20 tons of nails!  We are finally sailing!!! We left Boot key around 3:00 and are headed to channel 5. We'll spend the night there, then head on over to the Bahamas. We are going to meet up with John and Kathy Noland. Great friends from Boot key.   Here's a picture of Warren finally enjoying the fruits of his labor! The sun is shining and we are sailing along at about 4 to 5 knots. It is Memorial Day so we want to say thank you to all past and present people who have served their country.   

Almost finished

We are just waiting on one more part that we had to special order from West Marine. It should be here today, so keep your fingers crossed!

PATIENCE

After days of trying to align the engine so that the shaft coupling alignment is correct. Warren is going to find someone to help him. Nigel Calders book says patience is the order of the day. Warren is out of it! So hopefully he can find someone to help him who knows some secret....If we can get this done we can leave at the end of the week. I keep saying that but someday it will happen!

The old bow roller was very old, so after talking with Dave McCampbell on s/v Swoggy Paws. Warren came up with a new project for Dad.  This new stainless steel bow roller will help keep the chain from twisting and jamming up at the windless and in the chain locker. Thank you Dad!

Getting closer

In the last two weeks we have been having so much fun, finding parts and repairing this old engine.(ha ha)  Warren is dreaming of putting in a Cummins.  He is going to be dreaming for a while. Here is a picture of the old torque plate, as you can see it is broken and the springs are very loose. We took the transmission into get tested and it did great. We also had the starter checked out and it was full of oil. Once Warren removed the bell housing we could tell the rear main oil seal was leaking.  So we sent to England for it, no one in the states had any.  We have all the parts and pieces now.  Everything is going back well, the only problem is the new V-drive. It weights 100 lbs and a little awkward.  We are going to test fit it in today.  The picture that came with the unit shows it to be a little bigger.  But the guy who designed it says it's the same. If it's bigger we will need to do a little fiberglass work on the built in hydro muffler.  It was bigger (3") and we had to take out the hydro muffler completely and buy a new one. It was not an easy job.

 While we have been waiting for parts we did a little bright work.  Here's Warren doing some sanding, then I come along and put a new coat of vanish on. Ahhh what fun! Sarcasm is one of my many talents.:) 

Right now it is very windy and rainy, but if we can get this done by the weekend the weather forecast is starting to look good for a gulf stream crossing. My fingers and toes are crossed!  

new v-drive

This is what the v-drive looks like on the inside of the salt water cooling compartment. Very corroded and the black hole on the upper left hand corner shows were the dip stick corroded through.  So we are buying a new v-drive and a torque
plate for the transmission. We are thankful we found it here. We are ordering the parts now so maybe we'll have it in, in two weeks.  Thats looking on the brite side. :D 

Here's a quick shot looking out toward the boat from the marina.  Just thought you might want to share the day:)

Beautiful day to work

What a great day to work! Warren is repainting the outboard motor with anti-barnacle paint. The reason for this is because Boot Key really has some of the fastest growing sea creatures. We also are putting it on the bottom of the dinghy.

  Here's a update on the dental problem. Last Monday we rented a car and drove to Miami so Warren could get a root canal.  What a hassle, the dentist at Gable dental couldn't find the last root so she sent us to Dr Gracia. A specialist.... what a nice guy, fast and efficient and the authority on the best cupcakes around.  He treated us to a pack of Misha mini cupcake. While I was waiting for Warren I kept watching all these people going in this cupcake place. Now I know why, they are the most moist and delicious we have had. :)
So then Friday we went back for the crown fitting.
Now we wait until the 12th for the crown to be put on.

We also sent the parts and metal pieces off to Dad
so he can make us a new top for the v-drive,  hopefully it will be done at the same time. When that's done we'll be able to check the oil in the v-drive. Why someone filled it with epoxy we don't know. A new dip stick was only $35 we picked it up in Fort Lauderdale Friday.  Also we'll change the oil, who knows when that was changed last.  Warren can't believe he missed this.
I told him he had a lot of broken stuff to fix so the stuff that was working was not on his mind.

Sammie has a problem with his nose.... he keeps putting it in things :)

delayed

 I am learning the meaning of patience! Warren needs some dental work done so we"ll be here for at least two more weeks. The dentist is in Miami so we thought we would just sail to Dinner Key which is in Biscayne Bay. The dentist is an easy walk of 1.9 miles, sounds great, right! So this morning we are ready to leave (again) and we put the boat in gear and it starts making weird noises. We just had the prop and bottom cleaned so there are no barnacles.  Warren thought it was coming from the "V" drive and is now going through it.  So now we are delayed again.....but there is a happy spot in all of this mess.  We found a stow way, he jumped ship from another boat. The only thing we can figure is that the boat he was on was either going home for the rest of the year or for good. We've met so many people here from all around the world and a lot of them going home or are ending their cruising lifestyle.  So we guess he still wants to do some traveling.  And there is just no way to tell who let him go.  There are inflatables going by the boat at all hours of the day and night he could have hitched a quick ride on any of them to jump ship.   I just hope we don't disappoint him.

What happened

We are so bad, sorry I haven't written in a while. We never made it out of the harbor, the brand new fresh water pump on the engine went bad.  Warren was doing the final engine check and found anti-freeze in bilge so....... to make a long story short the pump is fixed and we have two spares and we also worked on many other projects while waiting for another weather window.  The winds have been blowing out of the east like crazy. There is a window this weekend that we'll try for. Of course as soon as we said this,  Warren's tooth started acting up and he needs to see the dentist for a root canal, so we are going to make a quick trip to Miami.  I'll let you know if we get to leave this time, I promise!

This is the new LED lights on the arch

Manatees by the dinghy dock, mommy and the kids.

Time to leave Marathon

We have had a nice stay here in Boot Key Habor. The weather is great and the people are wonderful. We met a fun couple, John and Kathy Noland from Michigan.  They started out this spring to start their adventure on a 31 Hunter s/vAurora.  They got as far as the Erie Canal but the canal was closed due to the hurricane last fall and had to have their boat shipped overland to Virgina.  Kathy and I are like two peas in a pod, crazy kats!
Anywise, there is a window starting tomorrow and lasting through Sunday and we have decided to seize upon the good fortune and head on over to the Exumas. more later

Happy New Year

We are still here in Marathon working on the SS radio and a Bimini. Everyone has told us that we should have shade over the rest of the cockpit. So today Warren is getting some tubing and will rent a bender from home depot. We hope to get the fabric on line, I should be able to sew it up. Hopefully it will all work out and we'll be able to leave on the next weather window. We had a nice Christmas, just wish we could share it with some family. The weather was great sunny and warm. Hope you all have a great New Year!

Thanksgiving in Paradise

This is the Tiki Hut where they had the Thanksgiving feast last night.  They also had a movie, Operation Petticoat. I love that movie, it's with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis...funny. 

Today the wind is blowing like crazy and tomorrow it's going to be the same.

The water police were out here in the harbor this week writing tickets to people who did not have all their safety equipment and registration numbers.  No numbers on your dink is a hundred and seventy five dollar fine. So we got the numbers on the dinghy and now we are finally legal.(figured we would do it before we got a ticket)  We had to paint the numbers on while we where at the dock,
because the water was so rough out at the boat.

So for all you are-tist types out there, here is the sun setting on our Mona Lisa.



Now Warren is waiting on the Single Sideband radio to arrive so he can get it in before we head on over to the Bahamas. So after our friends come and go in the middle of Dec, we will be waiting for weather window to cross over and the radio is really important.  We'll probably be here until late December or whenever we get some kind of southernly wind for a couple of days. 

In seach of the beach

The other day we decided that we wanted to go to a beach and chill out.  So,...here we are heading down the channel looking for Sombrero Beach. It's about 1 mile away so we just tootled along, looking at some nice, REALLY NICE  homes.The mangroves you see behind us are on a little island, that no one lives on anymore.

Sombrero beach is a nice man made park that has volleyball courts, bathrooms and a picnic area. 

As we walked along, discovering the beach, we found some really old brain coral. It was cool. I was sure glad I wore my nifty crocks because there are some pretty sharp edges on it. Of course there were not many people over here. So in my searching and discovering this new area, I discovered a small tidal pool.  I love to examine them to see what the tide has left behind. 

Here is one of those pictures like, "Can you find Waldo".   Except, "Can you find the fishie?"  In Alaska there where always crabs but all I could find here was one lone fish.  :(  It took me a little bit to find it because it blended so well with it's background.

Marathon

The Marathon City Marina is a pretty nice place. Here's a picture of the book exchange, you can bring in your old books and exchange them for books you haven't read. This is also where you can find business cards for people who can help you with your boat problems and guide books on what is going on in the Keys. 

Here is another one that shows how the mooring balls are constructed and work.

The Marina also has WiFi, TVs, work rooms and laundry facilities. The monthly charge is only $275 and that includes one pump out a week and full run of the place. One of the people staying here puts on a movie on Thursday nights with his computer and a sheet in an covered area on the grounds.  In the morning there is yoga in that same area.  We have decided to wait here for a weather window to cross over to the Bahama's and drive to the Seven Seas Cruising Gam if we still want to go. The Gulf Stream that runs up the coast of Florida can get pretty bad with any North wind and that is all we are having right now.
Marathon is not what you would call a picturesque town.  So I'll try and find other things to take pictures of.
We hope to take the dinghy out for a beach combing exploration ride tomorrow if the winds die down, they are blowing 18 to 25 mph right now.  We have had to walk everywhere but Warren met another CSY owner and he is letting us use his bikes. Boy it sure makes it a lot faster.  Warren made 3 trips to the West Marine store, I think he had his exercise for today.

This is Tom and Judy Johnson we met them at Marco Island they are sailing on a CSY 37. They left St. Petersburg the same day we did. They are super nice people!

Marathon city Marina

Well, we have left Shark River. All it was, was a bend in the river with lots and lots of bugs as the river exits the Everglades, except there were no bugs. (we got lucky) So we hoisted anchor about 7:15am and headed out into 15 to 20 knots of wind. Good sailing, except it (the wind) and waves were behind us. Cannot sail with the wind straight up the stern. So once again we are motorsailing the 41 miles to Marathon. Crab and lobster season opened here 2 Sundays ago and the crabbers have put out tens of thousands of pots with little Styrofoam marker balls out. You cannot move forward for more than a 30 seconds before you have to dodge a crab pot marker. If you saw one crab pot ball you know it had a sister or a brother near by, sometimes even a whole family. They even have them in the approach and exit of the bridge channel. Boy are they a hazard. The crabbers can teach the Navy on how to lay mines if they've a mind to.


As you can see in the picture we are approaching the Moser Channel Bridge. It is 65 feet high at high tide and we are just about 2 hours after low tide. There is some apprehension on our part about going under the bridge and shearing all my attachments off of the top of the mast as our mast is 63.5 feet. As we went under the bridge, the VHF antenna hit and bent but nothing else did. BUT WAS IT SCARY! We arrived close to 3pm in Boot Key harbor for our mooring ball.

Here in the bottom picture is a view of the boat in Boot Key on the ball. There are not many boats here right now. The harbor can hold 226 boats but I would say that there is less than a third of that here now. Next month the snow birds should be starting to arrive.

We were going to sail up to Melbourne to attend a sailing convention but the weather here is getting stinky again. And if we did go north, we would have to turn around after the convention and head back down this way against the Gulf Stream to go to the Bahamas and that wouldn't be easy. So...we have to make a decision on what to do.

To all our friends in the frigid north, enjoy.