February 8, 2012

It is official, we have sold Never For Granted. Chris left early yesterday morning to deliver the boat to Pensacola. He is meeting the new owner in St. Pete, and then they will take the boat together to Pensacola. He anchored last night in Charlotte Harbor which is just North of Pine Island, and today he is planning on getting to Tampa Bay. He left Charlotte harbor this morning and is about 3 miles off shore with the wind in his face, which makes for a slow passage so if he can't make it to Tampa Bay before twilight he will head into Sarasota. Then St. Pete tomorrow.
It feels so strange to have him out there on his own. I know he is perfectly capable of single handing that boat, but it still feels like I have abandoned him. It was either we all go with him to Tampa, which would have required us to take linens for all of us, more food, and clothes, which we had already off loaded. Then the kids and I would have had to rent a car to drive back to Naples. He choose the less complicated option of going by himself, and it does make the most sense, but it still feels wrong.

February 4, 2012

We hit the Naples car show today. Deason was in his glory....well, so was Chris. It was an enormous show. We probably only saw 3/4 of the cars that were there. I am not the biggest car enthusiast, but you can't help but walk around there and be envious of some of the owners of these old cars. The pink Crown Vic was my favorite.

February 2, 2012

It was so nice coming back to the kids, and they even seemed just as pleased to see us. We get to relax for a couple of days before we close on the boat, then Chris will be helping the new owner to deliver the boat up to Pensacola.
I will greatly miss all that we had on the boat, but it is kind of exciting knowing that we have endless options open to us!

January 31, 2012-Naples

Today was like Christmas morning. I woke up at 5am just waiting to be able to get going to see the kids. We wanted to wait until the sun came up so we had a better view of crab pots, but that meant we had to wait until 7am. It was a beautiful morning, the winds were out of the East at 18-20 knots, and we motor-sailed the last 10 miles of our trip up to Naples at 7.5 knots. We entered Gordon Pass at 9am (the inlet into Naples) and were escorted by two dolphins that swam off of our stern for a good half a mile into Naples docks.
It really couldn't have been a better morning....Dolphins and our kids!

January 30, 2012- West Coast Florida

Sea turtles head....they are not easy to take a picture of!

We had an unbelievable day today. The wind was strong, but because it was a NE wind the land kept the seas small and we were flying. We averaged over 7 knots, and we saw over 8 knots quite a bit. I wasn't too lazy to sail today, so we sailed from anchor up to anchor set. We had to keep one reef in the main and played around with the genoa as the winds picked up. We couldn't have asked for better weather for this trip.
We had hoped to make it to Marco Island, and we almost did, but we anchored just a mile south of there in the lee of Kice Island. We had to do a fair amount of steering around crab pots during the day, and rather than continue on another mile to Marco in the dark we decided to get in before all the light was gone so we didn't catch a pot on accident. We didn't see any pots on our way in to anchor, but better safe than sorry.
We saw two sea turtles today, right after Chris and I were talking about how we had seen a ton of manatees and hardly any sea turtles...two of them pop up one right after another. Dahlia would have loved it, they were fairly big too. Then, as we were heading into where we were going to anchor, I was on the trampoline near the bow of the boat looking out for crab pots and I was nearly scared half to death by the surfacing of two dolphins on our bow wave. We have been waiting so long to have dolphins swim off of our bow, and they show up when I can hardly see them. There is something really special about being able to stand only feet away from them while they were swimming along with us.
This is definitely one of those trips that I will never forget. Chris and I miss the kids terribly, but it was nice to have this time for just he two of us!

January 29, 2012- Florida Keys

 We were up before three and had the anchor up just after that. We took our time getting out, and made it through the 3:30 am 17th Street bridge. On our way there we had an interesting side show. We saw this boat coming out of New River as we had just gone by, and who ever was in it was yelling something but, we couldn't make out what he was saying. As he caught up to us in his small wooden hand made skiff, we realized that he was heavily intoxicated. He was hanging on to the wheel of his boat, waving a beer bottle in the air, screaming at the top of his lungs "Obama is a fraud", repetitively. If we hadn't been concerned that he was going to smash into one of the channel markers (which he came very close to...twice) it would have been really funny. Only in Ft. Lauderdale!
 The transit out of the inlet was effortless. The wind was blowing NE at 15 knots, and we could have sailed, but I was too lazy to raise the mainsail at that hour so we ended up motor-sailing with just the head sail out. We were traveling along at 7 knots for quite a while until our wind had dropped off in the afternoon and we had to roll the genoa in. It was a very comfortable ride, we had a trailing wind and following seas the whole way, if the sun had been out a little more it would have been perfect.
We made it to Long Key around 5:30, but we decided that we would have better wind protection on the inside of the Keys. The wind had started to pick back up after 3pm. So, we crossed under the bridge and anchored just off of Lower Matecumbe Key. It was a little more protected from the wind, and the waters were relatively calm for the amount of wind there was. It was blowing steady at around 20 knots, but both Chris and I were so exhausted that I probably could have slept through a hurricane!

January 28, 2012

 

The sea trial was yesterday, and both Chris and I feel that it went really well. The weather was perfect and we had a blast!
We had a bunch of errands to run today before we could leave the dock, but we were able to accomplish them all and leave the dock by 2pm, we had to stop and get fuel and now we are anchored in one of our old favorite spots....Lake Sylvia.
 We have to get going so we can get around to Naples to get the kids. Dad and Jodi have had them since Thursday, and I feel like a whole part of me is missing with out them. I knew we would miss them, but I didn't realize that it would hurt this much to be away from them. They are apparently having the time of their lives!!!
The weather looks fairly good for tomorrow, and we plan to leave at 3am so we can get in a nice long run down the Keys. Our plan is to go outside through Hawkes Channel then cut in between Lower Matecumbe Key and Long Key. The forecast is for NE winds so hopefully we will have a nice down wind run!!!

January 26, 2012

What an exciting place to boat. There is not another place that we have been that has a larger boating community/population. Ft Lauderdale has it all, huge boats, massive marinas, and it is in the middle of a city. We had to travel up New River to get to LMC, and it is at some points narrow, and has lots of twists and turns, and multiple draw bridges. That said, our boat doesn't have trouble making it up and down this river. But, if you are looking for any skilled captains....they are here. We saw multiple 150+ ft boats being towed down this river. What they do is have a tow boat pulling at the bow, and another on the back to control the stern. We came by this boat which wasn't the largest boat we saw getting towed, but the captain in the aft tow boat looked as if he was asleep. I am comfortable handling our boat, but if I had to do that....I would need to be wearing diapers and have a pacemaker.
We got to LMC just about 11am, and did a fair amount of cleaning, there really isn't that much to do, but it is nice to be at the dock and get our thoughts organized. We have to bring the kids to Naples tonight, and just the thought of not having them on the boat is hard, I already miss them terribly and they are still here.
The haul out is scheduled for 11am tomorrow, so we will have a busy day ahead...I wish Deason could be there to help us out.

January 25, 2012

We had a great day, Dahlia spent a good part of the day buckling and unbuckling herself into her car seat. This is strange because she generally doesn't like the car seat, anything over a 20min car ride and she is writhing and complaining. So to have her willingly in the seat all day was a mystery.
We did see at least a dozen manatees on our trip today too, for an endangered species they seem to be doing fairly well.
We made it to Lake Boca around 5ish anchored and had a delicious pancake dinner. We are only a stones throw away from Ft. Lauderdale, but we still have 8 bridges to go through. We should make it to Lauderdale Marine Center by 11am tomorrow.

January 24, 2011

We are rounding out our time here in Lake Worth. We will start heading South today. We probably won't get that far, but if we can get a few bridges out of the way it will make a world of difference. There are 22 bridges we have to go through just to get to Ft. Lauderdale, and that doesn't include the 4 that we will have to go through to get to Lauderdale Marine Center where we will have the sea trial. I don't mind the bridges so much, but it does make a short distance of travel, take a while.
We have had a great week hanging out with Marsha and Barry, and the weather has been beautiful for both boat chores and hanging out by the pool. Yesterday, Marsha and I took the kids over to "The Breakers Resort" on Palm Beach...whoa....is all I have to say! It is like an adults Disney World, everything seems too nice to be real. We were invited guests of a friend of Marsha and Barry's, so we got to spend the day at the pool. It was surreal. If we used a towel, it was immediately replaced with a dry one by one of the pool attendants, and at least every 10-15 mins someone was asking us if we needed anything. I have never had such treatment before, I don't think I have ever said "thank you" so much in one day, there were just so many people who were catering to us and so many people to thank for their services.
While we were in Disney World my camera took a spill off of the stroller and my new lens suffered a little. It was still working, but there is a piece on the side where you switch the lens from manual focus to auto focus that popped right off. I have not used my camera since, but luckily there is a camera shop in Ft Lauderdale that does in house repairs, and I am hoping they can fix it. Every other camera shop sends repairs out. It looks like the piece will just snaps right back on, but I am not risking trying to do it myself. There are too many working parts in the lens that I don't want to screw up. I do still have my other lenses, and I put one of  my old lens on to take some pictures at "The Breakers",  but of course, I forgot an SD card....so no pictures of living the high life!

January 18, 2011

  

Not surprising, we had a blast at Disney. Mostly because we got to see the Lowe Family. They are all such great company, Deason had a blast riding on all the rides with them. He got to go on Space Mt, Splash Mt, and a bunch of other rides that I can't remember all the names of. I went on Splash Mt with them, they have these pregnancy warnings for some of the rides, but since I had been on the ride before, I knew that it was no worse than half of the dinghy rides we take. 

Dahlia had a great time too. I was actually surprised at how much she enjoyed herself. She loved, It's a small world, jungle cruise, and the light parade. She did not like the fireworks at the end of the night, which I wasn't complaining about....I was cooked and ready to head home anyway. 

January 16, 2012

The kids had such a good time playing and hanging out with their cousins. I do wish that they could see more of each other, but it is amazing that they always seem to pick up right where they left off, as if they just saw each other the day before. They all get along so well too. Deason is requesting a trip to one of the Disney water parks for his birthday, so that will at least guarantee another time for them to all hang out. The rest we will have to play it by year.

January 15, 2012

We had a great time visiting Oma and Pepe, of course Oma cooked my favorite french spaghetti, and over fed us for all of our meals. French spaghetti is one of those family foods that no one else has heard of except our family. It is a sauce made from salt pork, onions and tomatoes over spaghetti. It is greasy and salty, and tastes so much better than it sounds.
Again, it was so restful, and relaxing to be around family, and it was nice to escape the cold front that had swept in for the weekend. We left the boat and it was only in the low 50's we actually turned the heat on in the morning before we left the boat. As much as I love being on the boat, it is never fun riding in the dinghy when it is freezing. I shouldn't really complain, back home on the cape has seen temperatures in the teens. Yuck!