December 29, 2008 – Getting Ready for New Year’s

Pics of "Fear Factor Live" and Rachel and Paige in front of the Amityville "Jaws" exhibit!

Paige arrived on Christmas late afternoon. Rachel, Chris and I explored the Caribbean Village at Disney World and got checked into the hotel. Since we didn’t get to celebrate Paige’s 16th birthday with her, we decided to take her to Al Capone’s Dinner Theatre. This was a cabaret type show with singing, dancing, comedy and lots of Italian food to eat. We even embarrassed Paige by telling the dinner theatre that it was her birthday and she received an “honorable mention” before the show.

On Dec. 26, we got up early and after a hearty breakfast of MacDonald’s (ok, not hearty but good!) we went onto Universal Studios. It was a blast! We shot lasers at Aliens on the “Men In Black” Ride, took a wild ride through the “The Mummy”, saw how a disaster movie was filmed, survived a Twister, saw Shrek in 4-D and had a great experience at “The Terminator”. We even saw a live version of Fear Factor, including the part where 4 unlucky contestants drank a puree of roaches, worms and other assorted bugs - Y-U-C-K!!!! Universal was really crowded so we missed a couple of rides since the day was winding down and we (meaning Chris and me) were tired. We drove back the 3 hours to the boat and got settled in after picking up a couple of pizzas.

The last few days have been spent by the pool and the girls have enjoyed working out in the gym on the third flood of the yacht club. Paige has even been practicing her driving with her Dad since her Christmas present will be a car – yet to be purchased. That will have to wait until we are back home and can devote some time to finding just the right one.

The girls leave tomorrow and the boat will get a good scrub, all tanks filled, provisioning done and laundry caught up before we give up the car. After that, we’ll look for a good 3 days weather window to depart here, head to W. Palm and then over to West End Bahamas!
Our communications will be limited to Skype and email since our cellular phones don’t work there. We miss all of you and wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December 17, 2008 - Just Coasting

Rachel arrived on Saturday so we drove to Orlando to pick her up. We took the FL Turnpike since it was the most direct route, but wow...the tolls on that road were unbelievable - over $10! Needless to say, we took an alternative road back.

We took the car over to Hutchinson Island (across the Indian River) to visit the Beach there. Quite a bit of erosion has occurred for those folks and million dollar homes are perched precariously at the ocean's edge. Almost all of them had "for sale" signs on them but I can't imagine that there would be many takers.

The days just seem to fly by with pool, walks, etc. We are consuming books like crazy so it's time to do a flea market run to replenish our library.

Our Christmas will be "light" this year and I'm sure we'll be in good company. With the stock market and economic situation, gifts will be few, I'm afraid. But we're so lucky to have this time to fulfill this dream and that's the best gift we could ever receive.

Paige arrives on Christmas day so it will be another trip to Orlando. We're hoping to stay for a couple of days there to take in some sights before returning to the boat.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Sunday, Dec. 07, 2008

It's been a great couple of weeks.

We've really been enjoying the pool and the hot tub here at the Harborage. Thank goodness for Linda and Bill of "Bohemia" since they have provided our transportation to grocery store, etc. They took us to a nautical flea market on Saturday morning but no deals to be had, then it was onto the big flea market on US 1 where Chris and I picked up several books for $.50 each. Linda is a big thrift store shopper and is teaching me how to find deals. I've gotten quite a wardrobe for very little money and it's fun! She and I walk at least 3 miles each day!

Today was the Jazz Fest in downtown Stuart so Chris and I walked across the bridge to see the entertainers. It was chilly today so we stopped and sat for one set, then onto the Dockside Bar for a live band, then downtown for the events there. We walked back to the Marina and stopped at Wahoos, the restaurant at the top of F dock to listen to the Sunday guitar player there. We enjoyed fresh blackened Mahi sandwiches, a couple glasses of wine and then trekked back to the boat to get warm. It was the coolest day all week and we were anxious to get back aboard and enoy the heat.

Rachel is coming next week and will arrive in Orlando so we'll have a car for a day or two. It will be a treat to check out the surrounding area - something we haven't really done.

November 26, 2008 - HAPPY THANKSGIVING

We left Jim & Sharon's house in Vero Beach and sailed down the Indian River to the St. Lucie River. The Harborage Marina & Yacht Club is 7 miles up the St. Lucie River and across the river from downtown Stuart. Amenities are plentiful here - 2 pools, hot tub, on site restaurant and tiki bar (WITH frequent live guitar player). We learned of this marina from some folks we met in Baltimore at the Anchorage Marina whom we reconnected with in Morehead City. Photos are of one of the heated pools and a view of the "Captain's Lounge" in the Yacht Club.

Sailing up the Indian River was a bit sad as we sailed right by Chris' dad's old residence in Hutchinson Island. We had always promised him that we would anchor right outside his home, but unfortunately, he passed away 3 years ago.

We hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We'll be cooking aboard (honey baked ham - yummy).

Nov. 22/23 - Vero Beach

We had SUCH a great time in Vero Beach visiting Sharon and Jim in their beautiful Intracoastal home (with a dock for Long Gone). Sharon's mom was also visiting them from California and I hadn't seen her in 20 years--she hadn't changed a bit and is 90 years young! Chris got to meet Jim & Sharon for the first time and Jim & Chris became fast competitors at Jim's pool table! We all went to the Vero Beach boat show and then out to lunch at a cute waterfront restaurant in Ft. Pierce. We were sad to say goodbye but they've promised to visit us here in Stuart where we can hopefully get in a day sail on the St. Lucie River before jumping over to the Bahamas.

Nov. 21, 2008 - We're in Cocoa Beach, FL

Yesterday we traveled from Palm Coast to New Symrna Beach, FL. We arrived fairly early and had a chance to explore. We went into the New Symrna Beach Museum and walked around downtown. It was definitely like walking into the past.

Today was uneventful unless you count the Sheriff's Department boarding the boat. They were checking MSD's (Marine Sanitation Devices) on the ICW. Thank goodness that Chris had wire-tied ours shut so we were cleared in record time and were on our way. We had quite a few opening bridges to navigate today but the bridge tenders were on the ball and no waits for Long Gone. A 1954 Trumpy Motor Yacht passed us by today and she was so beautiful. Dolphins also were just everywhere, but nary a Manatee was spotted (and I was looking!).

Cocoa Beach Village Marina is quite beautiful and within walking distance of everything. Chris & I found an old hardware/marine store in town which was like a Mitchell's Hardware on steroids.

The last 2 days have been lonely on the waterway - we were by ourselves pretty much all day yesterday and only in the company of motor yachts today. We suspect that our going offshore has put us in front of the "pack" that we were accustomed to traveling with.

Tomorrow we're hoping to be able to dock behind my friend's house in Vero Beach. We're a bit worried about depth, but we'll keep you posted.

Nov. 18, 2008 - We are in Palm Coast, FL

Here's a photo of St. Augustine from the water as we were waiting to go through the Bridge of Lions

We took an "easy" day today to Palm Coast, FL, only 37 miles from St. Augustine. We were so wiped out after that 14 hr. offshore sail that we provisioned in St. Augustine, but never got to the laundry, boat cleaning chores, etc. We had planned on making Daytona Beach, but would have arrived at sunset or after so we thought we'd stop here early and get the rest of the chores done. When we went through the Bridge of Lions this morning, it was a parade of boats - there were 12 of us.

Palm Coast is one of those "weird" places that was hit hard by the housing recession. It has a wonderful marina, a huge parking garage with a big condo complex beside it. Plans originally called for a big hotel on the waterway, but then the recession hit and plans just halted. Now it's a half built planned community and houses here are ridiculously low priced. I don't see how the builders even covered their costs.

We walked about a mile or so to a shopping center of sorts called "European Village". It was very cute, but over half the shops had gone out of business and there wasn't very much activity that we saw. We walked around a few of the shops, came back, made dinner of quesadillas and we'll go to sleep early so we can get an early start.

We have reservations tomorrow at Symrna Beach Yacht Club - a private yacht club, but it has reciprocity with the "River Rat Yacht Club on the Pungo River" which we joined earlier this year when we passed through there.

We had "separation anxiety" today from "Enchantment" since they went on yesterday to Daytona and we stopped in St. Augustine.