Arriving in Ft Lauderdale

Left dinner key at 7am for a offshore leg to Ft Lauderdale. Dead calm conditions at departure made for a comfortable motor. Water was so calm we were able to spot turtles on the seabed 20 ft below us. The skyline of Miami , North Miami, south beach and port of the Everglades passed to port as we made the trip in 5 hrs.





Above is south beach from our boat about a mile offshore








Government cut passes to port in the above photo








Canal in Lauderdale




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Starter home in Lauderdale just inside the port of Everglades cut.







Some nice little boats in the ICW in Lauderdale







Approaching the 17th street bridge in lauderdale on the icw


We got a slip for a few days at Los olas marina in Lauderdale. Nice public marina in Lauderdale.
Will be looking to head north Sunday or Monday

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North in the hawk channell

Pics from our trip from key west to Miami up the hawk channel

Below a shot from the Bahia Hondo bridge just short of marathon





- above is fun shot out in front of the keys fishery in marathon, great place to eat, happy hr crab claws are one buck each


Below is a sunset at channel five on our way from marathon to Rodriguez key






Above is a shot of our mooring field at dinner key in Miami, very cool, used to be the Pan Am terminal and air boat landing area






Nita in front of one of the endless high rise condos in Miami




Above is the american airlines arena where we went to the heat game wed right across from the Volvo compound







Nita with the skyline of biscayne bay drive behind










Volvo promo downtown Miami







Nita with bayside shopping area, very cool marina, shopping area near the american airlines area and the volvo compound!


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Key West to Marathon

We departed conch Harbour at 8 am Thursday after the kids left at 5am, calm wind made for a easy exit from a tight side tie. Weather was predicted perfect, sunny, wind from the NE at about 12knts. It was the best sail we have had on our trip so far, water so clear we could see the bottom from 22 feet well enough to make out crab traps and bottles! Water was flat even with 10 knots of wind because we were so close to land(maybe a mile offshore)and the wind was coming directly over it! We spent most of the trip sailing at 7 knots sometimes motor sailing at 9, over the ground was more like 8, cause of a head current. But a great time, we made it to marathon and entered boot key Harbour about 3pm. We called the city marina and arranged for a mooring ball and were snug by 4!

Had some cool times so far, went fishing in the dingy with Laura and Steve from paradise at 7mile bridge, took the dink down sister creek, had a bunch of great meals at the stuffed pig, a great little hole in the wall on hwy 1 just across from our dingy dock. Saw some native animals seen in below pics






-Never get tired of seeing these beautiful monsters (Manatees)





These pics were taken on paradise while SW was berthed at Marathon boat yard getting an new Jenny!





Above is a pic of the mooring field at boot key.

Looks like we will be here a bit because our transmission started leaking and we have it out getting a new seal and our generator began making a loud noise so I imagine we will be spending boat units to repair it also. Hopefully we can get back underway soon'

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Fort Myers to key west

We left ft Myers crewed up by the Seagraves family,Dwight,Mary, and son Sam. Left at about 7pm and had a uneventful sail although a slow one(more on that latter). We arrived at Conch Harbour marina at about 7pm the next day! Great sunset on the way!



Next day I dove under the boat to check on why we were unable to make more than 6 knots, this is possible in the clear water here in KW! I was shocked to see a Forrest of growing things under the boat! Got in touch with a diver and got it cleaned the next day and later we saw 8 knots under sail! More better!

We did the entire kw crawl with the Seagraves, lunch at schooners, breakfast at Pepes, dinner at commanders, Mallory square, hogs breath, sloppy joes, and of course Kermit's key lime pie shop! Chinch Harbour has a rockin pool bar with a dj who shows up at 1pm and it is very interesting after that! Great local color if you get my drift!



The Seagraves stayed with us from we'd eve til Sun and we enjoyed every minute of our time with them!

Mon saw us saying goodbye to the wonderful Conch Harbour
(and the 170 dollar a day rate) and hello to the 3 dollar a day mooring ball out in man of war Harbour! See below pic of our view!




Not to long after the Seagraves left we were joined by our daughter Alissa and her hubby Jason, they flew in for a 8 day visit and we showed them the key west we have loved for these past 15 years.



-Above is a shot of Jason poolside at conch Harbour pool!

Not to be outdone here is Alissa at the aforementioned pool!






We had a fantastic time with the kids and it was a sad parting when they finally had to fly off to Texas! But 8 days was a good long time to share paradise with our kids! Weve got great memories to cherish til the next time!

When our last visitors left we did a bit more sight seeing.....





Did the southern most thing, and the chicken thing....




The hwy A1a thing.....


Then it was time to sail up to our next stop, marathon!


More to come!

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Heading South.. Twin Dolphin to Ft Myers Beach

Our trip from Bradenton to Sarasota was uneventful, several bascule bridges and the fixed 65 ft  bridge near Marina Jacks in Sarasota. We arrived about 4 pm and quickly got the hook set, launched the dink and docked the dink at Oleary's and went into town to shop and have dinner. Sarasota has a great downtown easily accesable to boats anchored or on mooring balls near there. and they have a whole foods grocery just blocks away.

Friday we again went in for breakfast and then back to the boat, stored the dink on the arch and raised anchor and headed south again to Venice, destination crows nest marina. We arrived at the marina after a nice run down to Venice. Pretty water and a few dolphins! Crows nest is right inside the jetties making for great clear water and dolphins all over the place. They have nice facitlities and a  26 year old parrott named Pepe! he is the same parrott my wife and I got to know when we were chartering a boat doen that way in 1986! If you whistle jingle bells he will talk his head off!

Sat we took on some fuel and again headed south, destination the famous Cabbage Key resort that is famous for being the birthplace of Buffetts biggest hit, Cheesburger in paradise! We anchored next door at Useppa Key and really cool private island. We launched the dink and motored over and hit the resturaunt and smapled the Cheesburger ( really good) and as the ritual prescribes we left our signed dollar bill on the wall. It joins 70k worth of dollar bills! They say 10k falls off  each season and they donate it to charity! Apparently Buffett left a ten spot on the piano in the bar area, but someone took it. So he sent them framed 1 dollar bill that they keep behind the bar now. We had a great calm night at anchor. Alissa and I spent a few hours sitting on the deck listening to the dolphins breach and admiring the circle around the moon.

Sun we hauled anchor and headed again to the south, destination Ft Myers beach and salty sams marina. We enjoyed a good trip down, much busier than the other legs though, lots of big power cruiser waking us all the time. We arrived at sky bridge at low tide thank goodness, its listed as 65 feet, but clearly is more like 65 feet at low tide and 64 at low tide or less. We made it thru and made our way past the mooring field and tied up at Salty Sams marina. We quickly determined that this marina even though it has floating docks, and a couple of good eateries, (one I watched the super bowl that night)its just not the place for us. The next morning we checked out the shoreside facilities at the Matanzas  a night or 267 dollars a month. That sure sounded better than the 496 dollars they wanted for a week at Salty Sams! So we checked out of SS's by the 11 oclock check out and moved on to a ball, where we are now and will be till the end of Feb!

Yesterday we put our daughter on a airplane back to Ft Worth, we had a wonderful visit with her and enjoyed sharing the trip down here with her!

I will post some pics of the trip down and will post shortly about or stay so far in Ft Myers!

The Adventure Begins

Well after years of planning, saving,preparing, planning, we finally are "out there". We sailed Discovery across the Gulf of Mexico early November. We had several issues during the crossing. First the weather did not cooperate. Our expected south wind never materialized so we had winds on the nose for the entire trip! Second, we had several occasions of clogs in the fuel line caused by algae growth even though i had the fuel polished prior to leaving. Then the engine overheated casuing us to divert to Port St Joe in the Florida panhandle. We spent a couple of days in this wonderful town and managed to find a good deisel mechanic who diagnosed the problem causing the overheating and got us going again. We motored up the ICW to Carabelle and spent the night there. We left out early for Tampa the next morning and again hit winds on the nose as we tried to close the gap between us and the Florida mainland. Unfortunately we had another bout of fuel line clogs. Finally got that cleared up and just in time the wind went NNE and allowed us to sail at full speed (8 knots) into Edgemont channel! We motored( gingerly) up the Manatee river and docked at Twin Dolphin Marina. We spent a couple of months there at Twin dolphins and highly reccomend this place! Great floating docks, a old downtown area just 2 blocks away with cafe's, coffee shops and watering holes. Below a shot of the dolphins that followed us out of Port Arthur Jetties! 

     Recently, due to a RIFF at PHH my retirement was accelerated and we decided to begin the trek down south on the Florida west coast with the Bahamas as our eventual destination. More posts and pics of that trip will follow! Below is a pic of Anita with the Edgemont Key Light house in the background! 10 days after we left the Port Arthur jetties!

Some Summer snapshots

Well summer has come and gone, been so busy hard to belive its been almost a yr since the last post.
These are shots from this summer.

Had a great time at the Ft Worth Boat Club as guests of my Son and law and daughter!
Also included is a shot of the boat under its summer shade!
Last Anita in front of the Oscar Meyer weiner mobile in Little Rock!

We are busy getting the boat ready for an adventure. More soon