Not much to report…

Freddi and I enjoyed our stay at Hendricks Isle and would return given the right circumstances. Freddi spent a few weeks helping out at the SSCA "Home Base" http://www.ssca.org and I got a chance to really work on the boat. We also had a chance to see Dennis Corcoran (TEMPTRESS) a few times and prepare a nice dinner aboard CHARDONNAY for Dennis and Scott Schramm (LUCKY BUOYS).

After a bit less than a month in the slip we pulled out and motored around to Lake Sylvia. We've been here long enough to get a feel for the place, and we really like it. We have an easy dingy ride to Bahia Cabana http://www.bahiacabanaresort.com/restaurant.htm. We took one of our old license plates to add to the collection that it the main decor of the Bahia Cabana bar--we're still waiting for it to be mounted. It's also a pretty easy dinghy ride across the ICW to the Southport Raw Bar http://www.southportrawbar.com where the dingy dock has a "$10 Minimum", easily met with a draft ale, dozen on the half shell, or a couple of their excellent fish tacos. About the only exciting thing that's happened here is that our dinghy decided to go visiting one night and managed to get into a fight with a nearby private dock. Fortunately, we have a rowing/sailing dinghy as well so Scott went in search of the wayward inflatable and dragged it kicking and screaming back "home." It has been said that cruising is just working on the boat in new and different places. The sociable dinghy has had several holes in it for a while so we pulled it out to patch the holes. Freddi spent an entire day scraping barnacles off the bottom and scrubbing it down. We patched the holes and then painted the bottom with anti-fouling paint specially formulated for inflatables. We'll see if that helps keep the bottom barnacle-free. While we were working on the inflatable, Scott took the Trinka to the raw bar, but the little outboard just wouldn't cooperate so Scott got his exercise rowing all the way down the 15th Street canal. He left the outboard to be repaired and managed to get towed back by some folks he had met earlier in the day. While the inflatable was being painted, Scott changed the spark plugs on its outboard and managed to change the pull cord that had broken off months ago. We've been working on installing our water maker, a seemingly daunting task that will displace my nice laundry set-up. I'll be happy when we can make our own water, but creating new storage space is the next challenge.


We have met some interesting folks while anchored here. One other boat has been here as long as we have, SV GRACE, owned by a wonderful couple, Pam and Andy. We have had them to our boat and been to their boat, and today SSCA friends Trish and Dave on SV EQUINOX came into the anchorage for a day or so en route to Miami. We had met some new boaters at an SSCA pot luck a month or so ago, and they called us for help anchoring. I think we will be teaching them quite a bot n the newt few days. After getting their anchor sorted out, Scott laid hands on their outboard. They had been trying for 2 hours to start it, and he got it going on the first try! Most weekends there are raft ups of local boaters (one group in particular called Sailing Singles of Southern Florida or something like that), and the ever present water skiers who like to make the maximum possible wake. We've also seen something called Jet Lev. I'm not sure how it works exactly, but it looks like a stream of water pushing a person into the air. The good ones can turn somersaults and do other acrobatic tricks.


We did take the boat out of the anchorage one afternoon to buy fuel and fill the water tanks and pump out the holding tank. We were able to anchor pretty much in the same spot even though it was late in the day and the anchorage fills up. We're so comfortable here that we've decided to stay until after the Miami Boat Show next week. After a lot of research, it turns out to be easier and less expensive to drive to the boat show than try to anchor in Miami (we are limited by height and depth to far out anchorages), dinghy to a water taxi or take a 2 mile dinghy ride across Biscayne Bay. We may move to Middle River for a few days after the boat show before leaving for the Keys. It's nice not to be too driven by a schedule!