12/28/2012

The trip is taking its toll on Martha. She has gone completely gray. Just kidding, this is her new natural hair style for the Bahamas trip. It took her 3 months of new growth and a short cut to get rid of the blonde. We have both decided we like the new look. Well we finally made it to Miami Beach. We have a quiet anchorage not far from the Miami Yacht Club. Miami is a big city so there is a lot to explore. To start off we tied up at the dingy dock at the MYC and looked one of the original members of the Macassa Bay Yacht Club, Jim Duncan. We got into the stories about the old days and one beer led to another and before we new it the day was over. Jim is now the dock master at the MYC so it is a good connection to have if we want to hang out there anytime during our stay. This morning we took our faithful dingy on a long trip up a canal that takes you all the way to South Beach. We walked along the board walk for a while then found a spot for lunch. We will now keep a close eye on the weather to get a window for our crossing to the Bahamas.

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Sunny and Warm
12/26/2012, Hollywood

Well Christmas in Florida was a big change from our usual ritual. We had a Christmas Eve dinner at a lovely restaurant on the ICW followed bye a very quiet night on the boat. The restaurant had these neat glider seats that you could rock back and forth surrounded by privacy curtains, cool. Most of the people from the marina have left for the holidays and the marina itself was closed for Christmas Day. We wanted to stay at the marina so we were sure to have internet to talk to all the kids and granddaughter. It was nice to talk to them all but we missed seeing them. Martha and I had a game of Tennis followed bye a swim in the pool. Martha put together a Turkey dinner that was delicious but it seemed very quiet with just the 2 of us. We have decided to stay another day at the marina in Hollywood as a storm front is coming in later today. One more day and its off to Miami.

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Magnificent
12/20/2012, Fort Lauderdale

Today we did 20 bridges making our way south and passed through Fort Lauderdale. What a place from the water. The homes on the intercoastal are amazing. Looking at the great homes makes the monotony of all the bridges not so bad. It was a long day but we made it to our final Loggerhead Marina in Hollywood. We will stay here to use up the last of our reciprocal days and wait for a weather window for a crossing to the Bahamas. When it looks good we will
take a day to get to Miami and then pick a spot for an early exit from the ICW to cross the gulf stream. Until then its time to relax and take it easy.

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Sunny and Warm
12/19/2012, Lantana

We are now in a part of the ICW in Florida that has a lot of bridges. On average there is a bridge every 3 miles or so. Some lift on demand, others every half hour, on the hour and half hour or 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. If you do some calculations in advance and take your time to ensure you have lots of time to make it to the bridge its not bad. The worst thing is if you rush to make a bridge only to miss it by 1 minute and have to wait a half hour for the next opening. The following is my calculations for the bridges we went through today to give you an idea of whats involved.

ICW mile---Distance---Bridge--------------ETA
1012.6-----3.3--------PGA Blvd-----------10:00
1013.7-----1.1--------Parker--------------10:15
1021.9-----8.2--------Flagler Memorial----11:45
1022.6-------.7-------Royal Park----------12:00
1024.7-----1.9--------Southern Blvd------12:15
1028.8-----4.1--------Lake Ave-----------On request

You get the picture, plan ahead and take your time. We are now at another Loggerhead marina and have just come back from the pool and are enjoying happy hour on the boat.

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Sunny and Warm
12/18/2012, Palm Beach Gardens

The picture of a wild mushroom was taken with my new camera, a Panasonic FZ200, in the rough at the golf course in Vero Beach . Just wonder how many golfers mistake these for their balls? We are making our way south to Miami. The monthly rate at Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach allows us to stay on reciprocal at any of their sister marinas for just the price for power. We were at Stuart on Sunday and Monday and are in Palm Beach Gardens tonight. While in Stuart we reconnected with Steve and Patricia who we met on the Erie Canal and spent time with in New York City. They are the couple that have sailed their boat around the world. They have a lovely home in Stuart and treated Martha and I to a great dinner. One negative of the trip are nasty little buggers called no-see-ums. They are so small you can't see them or feel them bite, but a couple of days later you break out with nasty itchy red bite marks. Martha must be allergic to them as she has developed welts the size of a loony then a blister forms the size of a pea. We had our friends in Stuart take us to Home Depot and Ace Hardware to buy extra fine no-seeum screening and special bug spray that contains a lot of deet. We will have to be extra careful to apply the spray and close up the boat at dusk. We have fumigated the boat with mosquito coils to be sure that none of the little beggars are left inside. I'm telling you it's an all out war and so far we are losing the battle. Its a little unfair when the enemy is invisible and you can't feel the shots but we are now retaliating with chemical weapons of mass destruction. Will let you know how it goes.

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Sunny
12/14/2012, Vero Beach

We are now back at our monthly slip at Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach. Our return home to Hamilton was busy but very enjoyable. We had dinners with close friends, our step mom Nina's 90th birthday, dinner with family in Toronto, early Christmas with the kids, MBYC christmas party with our boating friends, several medical checkups, and caught up with the mail. I put on at least 5 pounds and will have to be on the South Beach Diet on our way to South Beach Miami. It seems kind of surreal to be sleeping in our king size bed at home in Ancaster one night and then in a V-berth on the boat in Florida the next. We have been at the dock here in Vero for 19 days now. Loggerhead has turned out to be great for us. It has a lovely pool, complimentary coffee in the Captains lounge in the morning, friendly neighbors and very secure when we were away.We got a monthly rate that allows us to not only stay most of the month in Vero, we can stay for any remaining days at reciprocal Loggerhead Marina's on our way south to Miami. Last night we had dinner with our friends Jim and Barb Gardner who live in Vero for the winter months and helped us a lot during our stay here. We took advantage of having a dock and car to provision for the three months we will spend in the Bahamas. Some of the essentials packed on the boat include 6-24's of beer, 10-12 packs of coke, 12-3 ltr boxes of wine, a dozen quarts of milk, and oh yes, lots of food. As you can imagine the waterline on Eagle's Wings is lower then ever before. There is a potluck dinner at the Marina tomorrow then we will be on our way south on Sunday.

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