November 11, 2011-Naples

We have met the midwife and loved her, she is knowledgeable, laid back, and can be to the house in less than 10 mins. We did have a little scare, we got to listen to the heart beat and when she felt my uterus, she seemed to think that it was a little big for my supposed gestation. She thought that we should have an ultrasound to see if there was only one baby in there! I wish I could have got a picture of Chris' face when she said that, it was priceless.
We went for the ultrasound that day, and there is only one baby in there! I am 14 wks and the baby looks healthy and growing normally. What a relief, mainly because I really want to have this baby at home, and no one will deliver twins at home. I am sure I would have been hard pressed to find a MD who wouldn't try to convince me to have a C-section too.
We will be in Naples until Sunday, then back to Lake Worth to await some Southern winds for our crossing over to West End, Bahamas.

November 9, 2011

We had a great day. We swam in Barry and Marsha's (or as Dahlia refers to them as; Auntie Barry and Auntie Marsha) pool and then went to a sea turtle hospital. They rehab sea turtles and then release them back to the ocean. There were quite a few sea turtles there, most of them had swallowed fish hooks or gotten entangled in fishing line, but there were some who were there from boat propeller injuries. When they have shell injuries air gets trapped under their shell and they are not able to dive because of the buoyancy issues. They need to dive to be able to eat and sleep, without that ability they have a hard time remaining healthy.
Deason and I took a half an hour sea turtle class while we were there. We learned all about the 5 different types of sea turtles that inhabit the Atlantic and about how they treat them at the hospital. It was a lot of fun, apparently it was only for kids and I was the first adult to sign up.....weird!
We head to Naples tomorrow, and Uncle Barry will be keeping a watch out for our boat while we are away. I wonder if he will have a big party on the boat while we are gone?

November 8, 2011

We made it! It was close today, we weren't sure if we would be able to make it all the way to Lake Worth, but we did. We ended up anchoring in the dark, but at least there was a near full moon and plenty of room here. You could probably anchor 1000 boats and still have some decent swing room.
We are not sure yet if we will head over to the Bahama's from here or from Ft Lauderdale, but at least that is only a day trip if we decide to go down there first. The winds are forecast to be out of the North indefinitely so we won't be heading to the Bahama's this week at least.
We are going to leave the boat here in North Palm for a few days while we head over to Naples. I have an appointment to meet with a midwife on Friday to make sure everything is going according to plan. Feels like it is, and hopefully we will be able to do a home birth at my Dad's house.
I wanted to do a home birth with Dahlia, but at the time my insurance said that I couldn't, even though it would have been considerably less expensive. This time I would really like to have this baby at home (or Dad's home). I had two natural child births so far, with no complications. I didn't exactly have bad experiences in the hospital, but as soon as the babies come out I want to be in my own bed and not have to hear overhead STAT pages waking me up at all hours. Its a frustrating process if you want to go home from the hospital early, there are massive hoops to jump through.

November 7, 2011

We left Titusville early, and had another beautiful day, sunny and warm with a few passing showers that only lasted 10 minutes max and after they always left a rainbow. We had dolphins off of our bow today too, and even though we see hundreds of them each day, I never get tired of seeing them.
We had planned on anchoring just North of Vero Beach. Right near the anchorage is a small dock that is listed in our guide as being only $10 per/night, usually these places are taken up pretty quickly by other cruisers so we never plan on staying at one of them. When we came up to the dock it was empty, so we decided to take advantage of it.
The dock is called "Jones Fruit Dock", it is part of the land that was owned by the Jones Family who had a citrus grove. They use to sell the fruit commercially, and also if you bought fruit from them you could stay at the dock for the low price of $10. Years back hurricanes had destroyed the citrus plants on the farm, and they were no longer able to sell commercially. Dick Jones who had been the owner at the time had still allowed people to stay at his docks for the minimal fee of $10 plus he would usually bring you a free bag of fruit.
Recently, Dick Jones has passed away, but before he did he had sold his 16 acres of land to the county for a large sum and they let him stay in his home until he passed. The dock is sort of in limbo, the county is thinking of using it for environmental purposes. The gentleman who is the care taker (Scott) came to see us when we pulled in, he gave us the run down of what happened and told us that he wasn't really concerned if we paid or not.
He also gave us a small tour of the area, and showed us the inside of a house that was for sale next to his. Most of the area around Jones land is big gated communities, and golf courses, except for the small part that we were showed by Scott which is all dirt road and privately owned homes. It was peaceful and quiet, and almost felt like we were walking down a dirt road on a small tropical island. It is these experiences that we would never have had if not for being on a boat, I think there is something kind of special about that.

November 5, 2011

It has been windy! We got to Daytona Beach on Friday around 4pm, and it was blowing around 20 knots steady out of the NW. We found an empty spot in the semi filled anchorage that is just on the west side of the ICW. We were wondering why no one was in that area, because in that empty spot there seemed to be a little bit more protection from the wind. We just thought we were lucky, but when the anchor kept dragging after the fourth try we figure the empty spot wasn't that big of a mystery any longer. Upon further examination of our surroundings, there seemed to be what looked like a sewage treatment plant right off of the shore where we were trying to anchor. Which would explain the horrible smell when we brought the anchor up each time. I don't even want to know what was being discharged into that water, treated or not!
We moved the boat to another spot mixed in with all of the other boats that were anchored there and the anchor stuck on the first shot. So we packed it up and went to shore. The kids and I were going to spend the night at my Oma and Pepe's house. Chris didn't feel comfortable leaving the boat, so he just dropped us off and went back to the boat to make sure that it stayed where it should be.
Its weird, Chris and I spend so much time together you would think that we would needed a break from each other now and again, but it is just the opposite. The more time we spend together the less I want to be away from him. It almost feels like I am missing something when we are apart. I totally disagree with the statement "absence makes the heart grow fonder". Who ever said that, never met anyone they truly liked to be with.
Saturday morning rolled around and so did the wind. It was blowing 25 knots with gusts in the 30's all day, and the wind was now out of the NE. So, our nice spot was not so nice anymore, from what Chris said the boat was getting tossed around by the 2ft waves that were being created by the wind crossing the bay area. I left the kids with Oma and we moved the boat....again! It was a good move, we went to the eastern shore and hid behind some condos, it was a bit more protected from the wind and we weren't getting beat up by the choppy waters. Win....Win! Chris actually felt comfortable enough to leave the boat for the day and even spent the night with us, we spent the day eating and playing cards comfortably and quietly at Oma and Pepe's.
I didn't get any pictures of our time in Daytona, because I had left my memory card on the boat. I should have just purchased another one, but I didn't. The only picture I got is of Oma waving to us from the shore as we got underway this morning. It was a great stay, and a good recharge for me. Chris said my blogging was getting negative, and he even offered to let me rent a car and drive over to Naples with Dahlia and he and Deason could bring the boat the rest of the way. The thought of that was actually repulsive to me. I do feel better just getting a small break from the boat. It feels like home again, instead of a floating machine designed to make me nauseated.

November 3, 2011-Florida

All that complaining about the weather must have paid off, it was beautiful today. The weather was sunny, warm, and the wind was mild out of the South. Chris was in shorts and I didn't even have to wear a sweatshirt, it was awesome.
In our travels today we saw an old Corsair WWII fighter plane. It took off from the airfield right near the ICW and North of St. Augustine. The plane flew in a few circles over us before heading North. Chris and I were more excited about it than Deason was, but if it had been some kind of fast boat he would have perked up a bit more.....kids!
We made it to St. Augustine a little late at 6:30pm which was close to sun down. We met another lagoon catamaran owner who came over to our boat for a little while. It seems that we are on the same schedule to head over to the Bahamas, which will be nice to have a buddy boat for the crossing if it works out.
I know we have kind of rushed this trip a bit, but I have to say that the only people that have been friendly towards us are the other catamaran owners. Maybe we just need to put ourselves out there a little more to get to know some other boaters, but there seems to be a divide between the two hulls types. Monohulls stick to monohulls, and cats to cats! I hope that really isn't the case, but so far it seems to be.

November 2, 2011

I complain about the weather because it stinks being in Georgia having to wear a winter hat and jacket just to be outside. I am sure that on land it isn't this cold, but it is on the water. On the flip side, the same cold Northern winds have helped us get through Georgia faster. We have been able to have the head sail out both days, and have averaged well over 6 knots of speed (which is good for us).
We anchored last night right off of St. Simon Island, and today we could have made it into Florida, but we opted to stay and anchor off of Cumberland Island. The wind was pretty strong and we would have some better protection from the North anchored off Cumberland than if we had continued into Florida.