Smile "Manny"

Jon teased me every day when he took a ride ashore without me that he had seen a manatee. It would hang out at the dingy dock and come up to blow or snuff up air. I was so jelous of course.  I would ask of he got a picture but lamely he would offer up his pathetic phone with a sad picture of the water.  There may been a shadow that Jon claimed was the creature but I could see nothing. And Jon would go on and on, excitedly even, telling me how he watch the manatee and he would greet him with a snuff.  ???? Sooo, I was determined not be outdone and perhaps get a greeting myself. So being laundry day (another whole story..it seems to take all day) I went with Jon ashore. There was no manatee. Ok we'll check later. Sure enough there is a couple pointing looking at a light shadow and then he/she came up. And there were two of them and they would lounge along and then come to the surface and and well they would snuff. Yeah that's what I said, snuff.  But I have pictures to prove it. 

 Ok there is the shadowy look before they surface. 

Just peaking out to "snuff"

          Underwater

Look closely under the boat. 

Here he is coming up...

          Oh, Manny you're so cute.  

Lots of Little Sails

From our little mooring in Coconut Grove (that's south Miami) outside of Dinner Key Marina Jon and I were able to watch hundreds of what appeared to be sailing dingys being towed. Then we saw flags on the sails from all over the world.  Australia, Italy, Mexico, Canada, Germany and of course United States.  Looking it up we saw that this bay (Biscayne Bay) is the spot for the ISAF WORLD SAILING CUP.   How exciting... So every day we watch and wave to the different countries as they literally all pass in front or back of our boat. The weather has been pretty good except for the showers we've had today. 

      South imam as a backdrop. 

South end of Biscayne Bay. 

In front of the marina. 

Across our bow. 

In back of us. 

Along side of us. Y

Stand up if you're an American!

Sails everywhere. 

Off to Coconut Grove

We really enjoyed our time in Ft Lauderdale.  We enjoyed the mooring at Las Olas Marinia even though the city was working on the bridge all week. Otherwise it was like a boat show and we had front row seats. The quick ride to the dock was nice and we only had three short blocks to the beach. Our friends, Ladd and Denise took us all around. We especially like the River Walk.  Jon really appreciated the ride to Lester's (a diner that all marine stores are located near. It's either in front on Lester's or behind Lester's.) They had stores where you could buy planks of teak and every clasp, latch or screw for a boat.  There were stores just for boat exhaust systems and stores for just electrical systems. Ofcourse there was your canvas stores and marine air conditioning stores. It really is boater heaven. We also like how Ft Lauderdale is set up. Ever other cross road there is a canal that runs through it   It's like a little Venice with water taxis that will pick up from the other side of the city.  

We were lucky enough to spend a few hours with our nephew, Ben. We had such a good time catching up with him and hearing about his life in Ft Lauderdale with his girlfriend, Ashley. Hopefully the next time through we'll be able to catch up with her. 

So it is off to Miami, Dinner Key Marinia in Coconut Grove to be exact. We had decided to go through the intercoastal and all went smooth except for running aground. Yes, we ran pretty hard ona shoal that is on the western side of a narrow channel at Haulover Inlet. It was low tide with the current coming in and a First Response Rescue boat hailed us to let us know about the narrow channel and to stay close to the green.  Well we didn't. And before you could say oh crap, the First Response guy was hugging our starboard rail saying he'd tow us off for free if we told the other tow boat lurking behind him that we paid full price. Fortunately, Jon was continuing to wiggle us off and we got free within minutes. Neither of us had a good feeling about Mr. First Response and we felt lucky that we didn't need a second tow within one month.  

 

Across from our mooring at Ft Lauderdale.  

    Our shadows...so artsy...haha

   Ladd and Denise peaking from the back

Nice picture Ladd took of us

      Jon just chilling with his new friends

Our nephew, Ben and us(getting better at selfies)

   Us with Denise. 

     On the intercoastal near Miami the water is getting bluer

Dozens of cruise ships...everywhere in Miami

This is what our roomy cockpit looks like when Jon has to look for a possible oil leak our first day a Coconut Grove. 

That is Jon scrunched in one of the cockpit lockers looking at the engine for a oil leak. 

Our mooring at Coconut Grove. We are one of the last mooring balls...,one with the bay. 

22 Bridges, 45 Miles and 8 Hours

This is the last of the 22 bridges we did... That boat was huge and wasn't sure if he could make it through with just one bridge side up. 

The intercostal in southern Florida had a different feel. Tedious, Jon would say. Probably a few other words like  time sucking,  exasperating and exhausting. Ever bridge has it's own schedule like only on the hour or half hour or only quarter after or quarter before the hour or only twenty after or twenty before the hour. If you missed one opening your doomed...which we did ofcourse ( I miss read the bridge table that gave the mileage and so Jon slowed down and we missed it...what?..it could happen to anyone). It also was a holiday. All the nice people of the world were out celebrating Martin Luther King Jr's Day, just not on the intercostal. A man that was towing a rather large catamaran asked the bridge tender if all the locals were red necks because they were passing him under the bridge at about 40 miles per hour. She said probably and the pedestrians were not much better, when she announces the bridge will be opening they run toward the bridge instead of waiting. Like I said a different feel. Even the houses were grander with huge boats in front of them. But.. We survived to make Ft Lauderdale by 4:00 and grabbed a city mooring ball. The big payoff is that the beach is only three blocks away and it's a beautiful 75 degrees.   But next time we'll consider going on the outside(what sailors call going on the Atlantic instead of the intercoastal) when visiting south Floridia. 

One of the houses that I had time to take

      This house just looked cool

     Real mermaids!!

     The water is so clear and pretty. 

      Our feet. 

Some kind of gar fish swimming in surf where we were walking on Ft Lauderdale Beach 

We couldn't capture the beautiful colors of green and teal. So pretty. 

Huge ship coming into Ft Lauderdale Channel. 

Traveling Again

After being at a dock for a week, we were more than ready to get moving again. Even if we had to leave the hot tub, the infinity pool, the work rooms, the captains quarters and last but certainly not least the pool bar/grill Splash. I can tell you we used everything at the Loggerhead Resort and Marinia especially the hot tub after pulling the transmission and working on Quicksilver all day.   We even took a day and walked over the bridge to Stuart's old downtown. We had a really nice walk along the River on the River Walk.   

So we made it a shorter day of about 35 miles to Lake Worth-Palm Beach area and anchored for the night. Our anchorage was quiet compared to the busy inlet.  Tomorrow we'll head for Ft Lauderdale where we hope to see our nephew Ben and Ashley as well as our friends Ladd and Denise. We'll probably stay for a few days before heading to Miami.  

     Relax

The lights on the bridge going to Stuart

Monday we finially hit different color water

       Light house near Jupiter

Our sunset at anchorage at Lake Worth, Palm Beach. 

A bunch of mega Yachts across from our anchorage.