December 1, 2010
Chris and I decided to leave home (Windsor Now!) a day earlier than planned because of the weather (see we are already getting in practice, but as Canadians, we are always watching the weather). Glad we did that, we missed some real heavy rains through Ohio. Our first leg of the trip as land lubbers took us as far south as Richmond, Kentucky. The next day took us as far as Tifton, Georgia. Our next destination….Clearwater, Florida. There are two reasons why we went to the west coast of Florida. First, to see our good sailing friends – Joel and Jackie from s/v Oblivion. We met a few years ago sailing and since then, they have settled there. The second reason, I have never seen the Gulf of Mexico, nor been to the west side of Florida. The beaches are BEAUTIFUL, the sand is just like powdered sugar. If there was any evidence of an oil spill, we did not see any. That is a blessing!
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| Clearwater Beach, Florida... The Gulf of Mexico |
After a wonderful weekend! Thanks Jackie and Joel! It’s now Monday and time to head to “No Keys”.
With leaving early in the am, we took advantage of no traffic and took the scenic route and went as far south as Fort Meyers, there we cut across the state and headed to Indiantown. We arrived in the afternoon and checked in and went to see how “No Keys” held up since March, 2010. She is green but that’s OK! We covered the cockpit this year and that saved us a lot of work! We are lucky this year that we do not have to re-do the bottom and we had no major projects to complete. Almost a clean, splash and go. We did however need new batteries. Over the past few years, we have changed out a lot of old tech and have gone green….led lights, solar. It sure makes a difference.
We spent the USA Thanksgiving Week with family and cleaned and scrubbed and scrubbed and cleaned. The sun does do wonderful things and so does the wildlife of the sky’s. At our marina, there was all kinds of festivities with fellow sailors, great music (Chris really liked the bands that played…great guitar playing, singing, etc.). There were some familiar faces and lots of new ones too!
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| Indiantown Pets that swim around us! |
We had the batteries installed and managed to get a “splash day”….Wednesday. Not bad for only being away 7 days from home. The “splash” went well….no leaks!! She Floats!! So, we finished the wash down, ate Turkey and left there Friday morning to to head to Stuart, Florida (22 miles).
The Waterway has some beautiful, if not the best views of “another world” than the asphalt road. There are alligators, eagles, turkey vultures, cranes, egrets and pelicans. Along the river way as well is one of best polo pony breeding facilities as well as polo fields in Florida. We had the river to ourselves for a long way. There is a lock to go through to continue the rest of the way down to Stuart. We arrived in the Stuart and are now attached to a mooring ball. There are about 64 balls and most of them are filled. The facilities here are GREAT! So with our To Do List’s in hand as well as the “Long Shopping Lists” it’s off the endless shopping mecca of the US #1 Highway. What helps us a lot is being familiar with the area and checking those yellow pages.
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| Polo Ponies on the St. Lucie River |
Our water taxi is doing great too! This year my goal is to be able to take that baby anywhere I want to. So, I now am “getting my learner’s”. Hopefully, the captain will pass me, in time. We are so glad that we made the “Arch” last year. With the dinghy safely stowed up out of the water, it allows us to sail faster and it keeps it safe and clean.
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| Entering The St. Lucie Lock on the East End |
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| Almost empty and the gates are opening |
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| Our Anchorage in Stuart, FL |
So we are continuing to get the “To Do” list done and making “No Keys” seaworthy and home!
Back to the “To Do’s”
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