A mantatee comes to visit.

We took a slip in Great Harbor Cay Marina today to be more comfortable in the higher winds and lumpy anchorage, Amy did loads of laundry and we used the marina bikes to explore the north end of the island.

  We also had a large mantatee come visit a couple slips down.  For some reason, it really liked fresh water from a hose and gobbled down our lettuce.  Got to try out our new underwater camera.

In the Bahamas!!

We picked up guests in Ft. Lauderdale and 20 min later, we were headed out.

  The forecast was sw, then west, then nw winds and calms seas and a full moon.

We had a great crossing after seeing this huge lit blimp.

The winds were just right, increasing all night and all the next day.  We had 1 gybe for the whole trip. We arrived at Great Harbor Cay 24 hours later, dropped anchor and we all slept well.

Iguana land

The first thing we noticed here in Boca Raton is the large iguanas. 

A couple rainy and windy days allowed us to prepare the guest cabin, picking up our first boating guests later this week.  We have been blessed to be able to enjoy the hospitality of Chris and Bob Lindmark as they have been so kind to us, driving us for errands and repairs.  We head toward Ft. Lauderdale on Monday.

Fridge Road Trip - Boca Raton

Our troublesome fridge finally quit a few days ago and the company sent ANOTHER new controller, this time to the former boat owners who live in Boca Raton.  We arrived in the land of canals and are currently sitting at the dock of the very gracious former owners of Sea Castle, Chris and Bob.  They have been very kind to drive us around to get things and even invited us to dinner at their beautiful home. The new controller did not solve the problem, the company said it must be low of Freon so we made a trip to buy more, and hoses to install it.  That did not solve the issue so I had to remove the complete system and Bob drove us to the supplier about 30 miles south of here and we spent the afternoon having the unit checked out and new Freon added.  We were SO HAPPY to have it start up last night.

Today is a windy rainy day so we have some engine maintenance  and clean up to do and then we will be moving along to pick up first guests in Ft. Lauderdale next week.

COCONUTS !!

As we came near Jupiter Inlet, we noticed the bright blue water color and it was still getting warmer.  Then we spotted our first coconut floating in the water.  We snagged 3 of them to use making our first batch of coconut bread.  Water temperature up to 78 degrees !!

We pushed well into the evening and anchored in Lake Worth

VELCRO BEACH

As we neared Vero Beach, we called ahead to reserve a mooring ball but none were available. Instead, we ended up at a delightful tiny anchorage called Pine Island 3.
With high winds expected the next day, we did share a mooring ball with a Prout 39 in the  municipal marina and quickly came to understand why the nickname was Velcro Beach.  Everyone was so friendly, the costs were low and the city transit bus came right to the marina.  With the water temperature up into the 70’s, Ed got to clean the props and the bottom.  We got soaked in our first rain since the start of the trip with  thunder and lightningwhile in the dingy.  As a reward, we treated ourselves to a dinner out and took the dingy to the Riverside

Fort Matanzas

Coming into Staint Agustine, we spotted our good friend Rich on Shampagne and were very sorry we were not able to stop and vist with him.  We anchored RIGHT next to the old Spanish fort Friday night and enjoyed a very quiet anchorage.

Traversed Daytona Beach on Saturday and finally have warm weather.  Expect to clean the bottom Sunday and improve our speed.   Hoping to to meet our sailing/author friend Margaret in Vero Beach Monday evening.

We have a new new blog because neither of us remember how to access the original blog.

We left New Bern on November 15th and sailed out of Beaufort Inlet later that evening for our first overnight sail on Sea Castle. Arrived in Wrightsville Beach just before sunrise, topped off fuel and then back out thru the Cape Fear River.   A large pod of dolphins joined us for part of the afternoon, about 12 of them swimming under and around the boat.  Our first stop was Wynyah Bay (Georgetown, SC)  at 3 am. We  had a short trip to McClellansville, SC to have dinner with good friends Connie and Pete Wood.  Pete also had a box of spares for us.
Next was a short trip to Charleston where we had dinner with another  old friend, Pat Neeley and a new alternator ( more on the alternator saga later).  On the way back to the boat, our new cheap chinese outboard quit and we had to row back.

We traveled a little along the ICW and then back out thru Port Royal Sound, 2 more overnight stops and arrived at St. Mary's inlet and the Florida border.  Another short day and we arrived at Amy's brother's location where we have been sitting since.

All the little white dots are from our AIS transmitter and are a result of the wind and current moving us around.

We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with Brian's daughter and relatives and enjoying the great hospitality of Cheryl and Brian for the past week while we get some boat projects completed in the warmer weather.  We are loaded up and will be headed  south early Friday morning.  The next destination is to visit the former owners of Sea Castle in Boca Ratan.