12/27/2011, West Palm Beach, Florida

The morning dawned with moderate breezes but the weather forecaster said the rain would not come until evening. Jill snapped the morning sun above as we motored away from Jensen Beach. The winds were not strong until late afternoon, and then still were not much of a problem until we were docking in Palm Harbor Marina. It took two dock hands to get us pulled into our slip as the wind wanted to blow us away. Today we traveled down the ICW through long stretches of beautiful homes on canals and lagoons as well as fronting on the ICW. As we got closer to Palm Beach the houses got even bigger and the slips out front went from containing nice power boats to huge yachts. There were a number of luxurious homes where the yachts out front were even bigger than the houses! Our plans for the next few days are pretty much as described yesterday except that we may cut out the 2nd night here because the weather looks great to keep moving. The Captain Today was a glorious day, and it felt wonderful to be moving on the water again. Meeting friends from New Jersey for dinner is the icing on the cake. The Admiral

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12/26/2011, Hutchinson Island, Florida

We spent had a very nice Christmas at Bruce's sister's home in Miramar, Florida. As shown in the picture, the outside activities were a little different than we are used to. We have had a lot of fun during our stop here, but we are ready to get moving. Our plan is to head down the ICW tomorrow, passing under 8 draw bridges, to a marina near West Palm Beach and stay two nights. Then move down the ICW, passing under an additional 14 draw bridges, to just inside Port Everglades inlet for a night or two. Weather permitting the third travel day will take us out in the ocean around Miami (there is a 55' fixed bridge in Miami that our 60' mast will not fit under) and into Dinner Key Marina in Key Biscayne. However, the forecast for tomorrow is such that we may wait one more day before getting started. We will make that call in the early AM Tuesday. The Captain.

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11/29/2011, Hutchinson Island, Florida

We had a nice walk through downtown Melbourne yesterday while sitting out a day for forecasted bad weather that mostly missed us. Today we were underway at 6:55 am. We traveled 61 miles down the very scenic Indian River and arrived at Nettles Island Marina by 2:30 in the afternoon. At the Fort Pierce Inlet to the ocean several sailboats we traveled with went out into the ocean with plans to sail through the night and arrive at Miami at 8am tomorrow. As we continued down the ICW we listened to the chatter among those offshore boats about how wonderful the sailing conditions were out there now that the cold front had passed by. We hope we enjoy such conditions at the end of December to travel from here down to Marathon. Marathon is on Vaca Key, only a $2.00 bus ride away from Key West.

We have traveled approximately 1,129 miles to this point in the 25 days we have actually moved the boat from one place to the next. We have about 215 more miles to go to Marathon. Dreamboat will stay here on Hutchinson Island until December 26th. Weather permitting that is our target to set sail for Marathon. Please tune in then for more news about our adventure. Today's photo is Dreamboat at the dock in Nettles Island Marina. The Captain

This a wonderful vacation with a new adventure everyday. Today was a day of beautiful houses on the shores. Glorious palm trees adorned the Florida estates. When we arrived in Nettles Island, we took a walk to the beach. We saw clear, green/blue ocean water and sailboats drifting by. Our little marina has Christmas lights all around on shore and on the boats nearby. And to top it off, this island is full of golf carts! These are a few of my favorite things: boats, water, pelicans, clear waves, and golf carts. It is just great! The Admiral

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11/27/2011

Today we motored down the Indian River past the Cape Canaveral rocket launch facility. Then the river widened out and got somewhat deeper and we saw a few local sailboats sailing around on this beautiful 80 degree Sunday afternoon. Both sides of the Indian River were lined with nice, mostly modest houses on lots filled with palm and fir trees and green lawns. The photo is an example. We have been pleasantly surprised at how lushly green everything is. We did see several more abandoned boats at anchor, and three that had been blown right up on shore and left. We are docked in Melbourne Harbor Marina. We will stay here tomorrow and tomorrow night to sit out the forecasted bad weather blowing through Monday afternoon and evening. Assuming it clears out by Tuesday morning as promised, on Tuesday we will travel about 60 more miles to Nettles Island Marina on Hutchinson Island. We have reserved a slip there for a month. The Captain.
We are docked in a marina that is known for being a hurricane hole. It's very protected from wind and we are tucked between a small bridge on one side, a park and tall condo building on the second side, and a point of land with a restaurant on the other. I've been watching a gray heron and a pelican perched on the top of the dock pilings peering down into the water, hoping for a meal. It was a quiet day compared to yesterday's rocket launch and manatee visits. The Admiral

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11/26/2011

Here is the photo of the mars rocket seconds after liftoff.

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11/26/2011, Titusville, Florida

Quite a diverse set of experiences today! This morning our slip neighbor was washing his boat and attracted a group of Manatees. Apparently they like the hose water to drink so they show up when hose water drips or runs into the water. Later in the day we decided to wash our own boat and had a repeat visit. At one time there were six of them. The shot of the back of the boat shows them lapping up the hose water as I "thoroughly rinsed" the stern of our boat. We also went with our neighbors from Maryland to watch the mars rocket launch this morning. I will try to post the best picture of that also. The Captain. The manatees were so cute. One of the boats felt sorry for me this morning when I was searching for them, so he offered to "call" them for me. In 2 minutes they were here, slurping, actually slurping from his hose. We had a repeat of the same scenario. Ours were slurping and kissing each other. I longed for a photographer with a real lens that could have caught them close up. It was certainly something I had never seen before. One of them actually had a blue nose from the boat bottom paint. We won't mention the one with the scar from the last boat he ran into. I should be gushing about the rocket launch but somehow the animals just do it for me - not mars. The Admiral

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