COMING HOME

February 21, 2019 update

As Frankenfurter in the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" said... I'M GOING HOME.

Due to a few unforeseen circumstances, we are on our way home about a month earlier than we original intended. This is not entirely a bad thing... just life. We experienced a flooded living room at our 'dirt' home in January. The January thaw, combined with 2 days of intensive rain resulted in water coming in our back door, soaking the carpets and 'wicking' up some walls damaging insulation and drywall. We ended up losing the carpet and some drywall/insulation. We are so appreciative of our kids for dealing with this, while we helplessly supported them, 2500 miles away and no "real way" to  physically help and/or get home. This incident however, showed what family can do when confronted with an emergency. As it is, the damaged areas have been removed and the house has dried up.

Another circumstance but as important , Joanne hurt her wrist. After 2 weeks, of pain and attempting to rest it, with little benefit, we went to the hospital for an examination. Thankfully our insurance will cover this. The x-ray showed extensive swelling from severe strain and sprain. They gave her a brace to stabilize the wrist. This appears to have helped but due to her advanced arthritis, she will continue to have difficulties in her recovery.

Boot Key sunset

Never get enough of these

 

Along with this, we dropped into the local Customs Border Patrol office and got the low down on how we could extend our  cruising permit in the US. It appears nothing can be done until our present permit expires ( August 2019) anyway. No need to head off to the Bahamas now, unless we want to for personal reasons.  Originally the Bahamas trip was to extend the permit only.

We have examined and looked to see what we really like in boating. We enjoy going ashore, having coffee, drinks, services available at a perceived value. It's bad enough that we pay 70 cents on the dollar for this in the US, but to go to the Bahamas, the cost is  much, much more.

The Bahamas weather, although many say its perfect, is not entirely true. The Bahamas and the Islands  are subject to cold fronts, winds and waves and for every couple of days spent in some secure , isolated anchorage, the other days are spent in a secured area or at a dock when the cold fronts blow through. The food, water, fuel and docks are expensive. For the sake of 15 days minimum, to get a new 1 year cruising permit after the present one expires will cost a few thousand dollars.

One boating fact about the Bahamas is that the average water depth through out the islands, is around 6 feet as the islands sit on a plateau. The tidal change, a couple of times a day is 3'. This means that half of the water goes out every low tide and new water comes in at high tide. That's why the water is so crystal clear and blue, what everyone raves about.

We find the Keys as beautiful an area. The water, winds waves are as troublesome , but the colors  and environment is as great... except you have all the necessary services for boating within close distance and at a fair value.

Beautiful waters coming north along the Keys

Atlantic (blue) Ocean

With this said , we are coming home to address the home issue and will return to Florida in May to start the process of bringing the boat home ( 8 weeks)

Now to catch up on the last several weeks.

When I last blogged we had finally got on a mooring ball in Marathon. This allows us the opportunity to leave longer and start venturing further away from the boat and explore the Keys.
After a month in this little bit of Paradise, it was time to leave. We prepped the boat and departed on Saturday Feb. 16-19 and headed north ( actually it was east as the Keys run east to west). We had 100 miles of Atlantic Ocean to run to get into the protected waterways of the Intercoastal Waterway at Miami.  We chose to go up Hawks Chanel in 15-25' of water in the Straight of Florida. We still had to dodge a myriad of crab traps that line the 100 mile course. We made Rodrigues Key (Key Largo area) about 50 miles, to an anchorage that sheltered us from the waves and winds for the night. We had a terrific sail and averaged about 6 knots on 10-15 south winds  accompanied by south waves that essentially pushed the boat all the way. We were travelling with 2 other sailboats most of the day.

The next morning we headed off at 7:15am to Miami, another 55 miles. The conditions again were favorable like the day before. Once you start turning north, about 20 miles from Miami, you lose the protection of the reef that we were running behind. We now were facing the conditions on the Atlantic. Not overly bad, but could be rough if conditions changed. We made it into Biscayne Bay and got into the protected waters behind the barrier islands that line the Atlantic coast. We anchored in the heart of Miami where we were 4 years ago. Winds and waves from boating activity were relatively high until after 10pm. Next morning we headed north on the ICW where we have 35 odd bridges to go through over the next 100 or so miles.  We made it through Port Everglades and all the cruise ships, and picked up a mooring ball at Fort Lauderdale for the night.

Miami at daylight

Miami at night

Cruise ship Port Everglades

Next day, we again headed out early, hitting the first bridge opening at 7:15am (Las Olas). We have 17 bridges to go through today and being President's Day(holiday) in the US, we anticipated that the waterway was going to be busy.  We got about 20 miles north (planning about 40 for the day) when we heard that a bridge about 5 miles up the waterway was  down for repairs ( had happened about 3 hours earlier). With no real anchorage areas ahead, we turned around and headed back south to Boca Raton, where we knew a suitable anchorage was available. We arrived early afternoon  and tossed out the anchor. We had to wait until all the local  boaters left ( around 4pm) before we could throw out enough rode to be comfortable. I managed to put out 50'  which made us comfortable . The winds did pick up that night to a steady 15 knots with gusts to 25 plus. It was a rough night and I did anchor checks every hour.

There was no indication when the bridge would be fixed, but it appeared to be a couple of days anyway. Rather than return to Fort Lauderdale and go outside on the Atlantic to an inlet just north of the broken bridge (50 miles)  we opted to take our chances and stay on the ICW. We found a marina in Delray Beach at $65/night. This is where we are now.  We are a 15 minute walk to the ocean (beach)  and there is a free trolley up and down to the downtown core for shopping etc. Looks like we may be here for 5-7 nights, before the bridge is repaired. We are about  85 mile ( 2-3 days) from Indiantown, our destination
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GOOD NEWS UPDATE- later today we heard that they have gotten one span of the bridge functioning. We are heading out at 7am tomorrow. The marina was great in giving us tonight 's slip fee free. We did laundry and got a pump out and are ready to roll tomorrow at 7am

Keeping our fingers crossed