Brooke Smith
12/15/2011, Lake Park Marina, Riviera, FL

So, what can I say about today? Well for one thing, I'm tired. I think this passage-making is work. Yes it is fun and a great adventure. But, Susan and I stayed put today in the Lake Park Marina. We needed a break and the wind is relentless. It blew hard all day long yesterday on the 52 mile passage from Ft. Pierce to Riviera Beach. We met my friend, Wayne Baker and his wife Susan who now lives in West Palm Beach. Wayne and I went to high school together;were in a few garage bands and also college at VCU. Anyhow we had them over to Liquid Therapy for happy hour and then they drove us to see their condo in West Palm Beach. WOW is all I have to say about their condo. They got a very good deal on a brand new condo. It is the 12 floor and overlooks the ICW and you can see the Atlantic too. After touring their resort condo, which is their home, we went to a TIKI bar for dinner. That was great too except for the DJ trying to hold some trivia contest with no one wanting to participate. The wind continued to howl all night long at the bar, at the boat and we did not get a good nights sleep. In the morning it was still blowing and we decided to stay put today. We walked to a nice restaurant called the Pelican for breakfast. It was great. Susan and I both got three egg omelets that were too huge to eat. Mine was so tall it had to have had more than 3 eggs. Susan's was loaded with Salmon, capers onions and cream cheese with grits and mine was cheese and bacon- lots of bacon. Susan and I both have lost weight with the rigors of voyaging. So I got a box to bring the leftover breakfast back to the boat.. I was tired when I got back to the boat. Felt like taking a nap but didn't. Jumped into a project of fixing our leaking scupper,( a hole in the side of the main deck for water to run overboard) and seal the fuel filler fitting on the deck that has been dripping into our storage area. I hope I was successful but will not know until the sealants dry up and it rains or I throw some water on the deck.
So, now it's December 15 and we are getting ready to get underway from Lake Park marina headed south to the Ft. Lauderdale area. I slept about 11 hours last night and feel much better.
This picute is from last night at you guessed it sunset at our slip.

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Brooke Smith
12/12/2011, Ft. Pierce City Marina Slip E25

Yesterday's passage from Melbourne to Ft. Pierce can be summed up in one word. RAIN. The day started out with a 40% chance of rain in the forecast. It took a few hours and I didn't write down when it started. But it rained off and on for about 3 hours culminating with a huge downpour as we were trying to make our way into the Ft. Pierce Marina. We are spending two days here as it's time for some maintenance. Change engine oil; injector oil and transmission fluid. Also laundry and anything else we can get done. We had not been into a dock for 6 days and the wind is supposed to be really high today and night. So, the dock feels good.
We had a nice snack and drink at the restaurant soon as we checked in about 3PM. Went back and placed things around to dry. with all of our fans. It continued to rain off and on. We went to the Cobb's Landing Restaurant for dinner. Avocado BLT and Quesadillas for me. Both were absolutely great. We brought back enough for lunch. Gotta go.
Picture is sunrise shot out the door this morning in our slip.

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Brooke Smith
12/10/2011, anchored in Melbourne, FL

Called my friend, Jim Price, today as I was passing Kennedy Space Center. He loves all flight vehicles. I told him one of the things I will regret is that I never saw the space shuttle take off. It would have been one great thing that was sort of on my bucket list that I just didn't take time to do. So here is a very distant shot of the Space Center with the NASA logo and American flag on the side of the building. Of course you can't see those. I could only see them with binoculars. I still feel bad about the space program. I guess you go to the visitor center now to see what we used to do, Not what we are doing next. More like a museum of the past. Sorry for this downer of a blog.

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Brooke Smith
12/10/2011, Anchored in Melbourne, FL

We are on a roll now. Not stopping for any sight seeing until Palm Beach where i hope to meet my High School friend, Wayne Baker and maybe the lehman Czar, Bob Smith. Our run from Daytona to Titusville was rather uneventful. There was a 7 mile straight run on the indian River North that the Autopilot kept me from going nuts. I got up and did modified yoga poses and stretches while the autopilot steered straight as an arrow, rarely getting off more than 25' either side of the proposed track. Pretty amazing device. But finally the Space Center started being seen. Im very sad about the shuttle being shut down and nothing made by the US replacing it. Now we are thumbing rides with the Russians. That's so wrong on so many counts. I shot tons of pictures. before we anchored in Titusville. We had a nice meal aboard and FINALLY got the stencils in place on the dinghy and the numbers are traced on the dinghy with a sharpie. But could we find a small paint brush. NO!! So, we still do not have the entire lettering done YET. We had a nice sunset. But the Full Moon Rise was gorgeous. Nice temperature. WE slept with the hatch over our bed cracked.
Today we got going about 9AM. Shot tons more pictures of the space center with a cloudy backdrop. Pretty uneventful run to Melbourne and we anchored just before the NorthEast wind picked up and it rained.

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Brooke Smith
12/08/2011, Daytona, FL Anchorage

St. Augustine to Daytona, FL. We started out very cold and windy leaving our mooring ball and going to the marina dock to pump out the holding tank and take on water before heading south. We got a late start and the tide tables do not jive with what is actually happening, so I'm pretty much taking whatever the tide gods give or take from me each day. Well today was a good push day. WE made 55 miles today. WE passed some nice sections of FK ICW. The Palm Coast section is a development on the water with water for streets it seems on the charts. Very nice homes with water fir streets. The trip was cold and threatened rain. Wind out of the Northeast which was at our backs, That was nice and soon off came my fowl weather jacket and wind pants. It's 63º right now with a wind chill factor of -5º it feels to me. We have scheduled to meet our son Jonathan in Ft. Lauderdale next Friday. So we might actually have ot slow our progress down. Not sure where we will be tomorrow because I cannot predict whether I will have a push or be bucking the tide. We had a great meal of spaghetti with white sauce and kelblasa sausage. Very sleepy. So, here is a picture of our Christmas Tree and I'm headed night night.

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Susan Smith
12/08/2011, St. Augustine Municipal Moorings

Day in St. Augustine

After the rocking stopped last night around 11PM, we got a good night's sleep and were ready for a day of being tourists! Still did not get the required numbers stenciled and painted onto the dinghy. We must do that! Eric, where are you? I know, doing much more important things, Good Luck! Anyway, we hopped a jitney and went to shore. Once there, we decided the best option of a St. Augustine tour was the narrated Trolley ride of 23 stops. It was great! We got off at several of them, looked around and hopped the next trolley. This was really a good deal as it was valid for 3 days! Wish we had had more time as St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US! Lovely architecture and a fort built of coquina stone in 1565, I think! Lunch was delicious at Casa Maya, Mayan/Yucatan food. We started with a glass of house made sangria with apple chunks floating! I had mahi tacos in tasty soft corn tacos and Brooke had authentic huevos rancheros (sp?) eggs, tomatillos and queso cheese. So yummy, and we had room to split a mango key lime pie slice decorated like a Christmas tree! A little rain was predicted, with high winds for late in the afternoon, so after we looked in vain for a market with fresh vegetables, we headed for the boat. Trying foods we do not normally get is a passion with us, so we stopped in a Cuban restaurant right across the street from the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, where we were moored. We enjoyed being the only customers at 3PM (had to make the 4pm jitney to our boat) and the bartender made us a super mojito! I don't know why she was not as thin as a rail, as much as she muddled and shook our drinks!! We took home a Cuban sandwich and black beans and yellow rice for dinner. It did start raining before we left the most BEAUTIFUL clean and tiled bath rooms! They reminded me of country club facilities! Remember, this is a City marina. Not to belabor the BR factor, but it is so nice on a trip of this length to find a marina with nice, adequate, true to listings in our marina guide, facilities. Several times we have paid top dollar to stay in a marina which we found out too late did not have all the facilities listed! WE RECOMMEND VISITING ST. AUGUSTINE!!
Picture is of Brooke and me at Casa Maya.

Susan Smith
susansmith_1@yahoo.com
www.sailblogs.com/member/liquidtherapy

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