Moving on to Melbourne, Fl

2/26
     We traveled 35 miles to Melbourne Harbour Marina.  It was a very easy, pleasant trip.  This town has a charming historic downtown area within walking distance!  The marina is small and nice.  The next day was overcast and rainy and we spent the afternoon watching the academy award winning film, The Green Book.  We really enjoyed it!
     We spend a lot of time planning where to go to next!  We booked a reservation for a marina in Titusville starting March 1.  I got on line, like I usually do to find out what there is to do in that area.  The Kennedy Space Center is just a few miles away, so imagine my delight when I found out there is to be a Space shuttle launch scheduled for March 2!  We got real excited and decided to buy tickets to the "Feel the Heat" experience, an up close and personal visit to view the launch! The launch is scheduled for 2:48, but what I "overlooked" was that it is for 2:48 AM!  I just assumed it was for the afternoon!  Ha, Ha, now we have these expensive and nonrefundable tickets to see the launch which will occur in the middle of the night!
     We are usually the early to bed, early to rise sort of people, but we are coming around to thinking this will truly be part of our adventure that we will treasure!  It should be a spectacular site, seeing the shuttle streaking through the night air!
     We are looking forward to it, and hope to get some good pictures!
   

Vero Beach and a Visit with Good Friends!

2/22-2/25
     We traveled for 18 miles to Suntex Marina in Vero Beach.  This marina is very nice and we liked the friendly people there.  It was a great, safe place to run, throughout a very nice neighborhood and golf course.  It has a beautiful swimming pool, with the laundry facilities adjacent to the pool.  You can enjoy the pool while doing the laundry!  This is an important amenity!
 
     When we pulled into the marina, Karl got an email from some friends that we had met while in the Bahamas.  We have seen them on several occasions in the Bahamas and really enjoyed their company.  Imagine our surprise when she said they lived in Vero Beach and they kept their boat at the very same marina we just pulled into!  In fact, turns out their beautiful home is a short walk from the marina.  It was an unexpected pleasure to get to visit with John and Ann and to see where they live.  They invited us to have brunch with them at their golf/tennis club, which we thoroughly enjoyed and invited us to their lovely home!  John is a retired air force and Delta pilot and Ann is a retired nurse. They have traveled all over the world and it is always fun to talk to them!  They have even traveled for 8 months on their boat, Freedom, doing the Loop on the eastern shoreline up into Canada, so they offered good advice!  They generously lent us one of their cars to use.  We took them up on it and drove to a store that John recommended, called Marine Connections Liquidators.  This is a huge warehouse building full of all sorts of marine supplies that boat owners had to liquidate.  Karl was like a kid in a candy store! We actually needed a part for our toilet and after looking through dozens of old toilet seats, (yucky) we luckily found the piece we needed!

Bad sign when Mackie needs a cart to bring her shopping bags back to the boat!

    Since we had the use of a car, I spent an afternoon shopping.  I went to the mall and to Publix to re-stock.  It was fun to spend a few hours shopping.

Moving on to Ft. Pierce Marina

2/20
     We traveled on the ICW for about 45 miles to Ft. Pierce.  My binoculars are my best friend on the helm!  Not only do I use them to help with navigation and reading markers, but I enjoy looking at all the sights and homes along the ICW.  I wish I had taken a video, because it is hard to describe how many huge, beautiful homes there are, one after another, all through the areas of Miami, Palm Beach, Jupiter and Stuart.  I am amazed at the wealth that these people must have!  Most of the homes had manicured yards, pools, fountains and large boats!  It was certainly a sight to see.
     The wind was gusting up to 25-30 knots when we arrived at Ft. Pierce Marina.  It was a challenge to get in.  We needed to get fuel.  The dockhand was by himself, so he radioed for us to "hang out" for a little while until he could get to the fuel dock.  Karl was using all his skills to keep us steady and keeping us from blowing into the rocky seawall on one side and the boats on the other side!  We heard others calling on the radio, saying they were just going to anchor out and let the wind calm down before making the attempt to come in.  We were lucky to get to the fuel dock in one piece.  We took on about 600 gallons of fuel.  This is the most we have had to put all at once since the beginning of our trip.
     To get in our slip, we had two dockhands helping.  Karl has learned that "Slow is Pro" when backing into a slip.  I am happy to say, he did great.  It is nice to be secured in a safe spot for a few days, hopefully until the winds die down.  Off to explore this small coastal town of Ft. Pierce!
 

Visiting Good Friends in Palm Beach Gardens!

Visiting Mike and Debbie!

2/17-2/19
    It was great to visit our good friends, Mike and Debbie Johns!  We became friends when they lived in Tallahassee nearly 40 years ago!  Karl and Mike met at a race and struck up a conversation. They soon started training together and running races.  Our families have been friends ever since, even after they moved to south Florida.  It is hard to believe, but we are all now grandparents!  Mike is doing well, his smile says it all!  We enjoyed spending time with them. He and Karl smoked a cigar together, and we talked about old times!
     We got our dinghy engine serviced.  The impeller was damaged.  The mechanics did a complete service, so we should be good to go now.

The Drawing Room in Whitehall, the Winter Home of Henry Flagler

      We had a rental car, so we went to Palm Beach to visit the Henry Flagler Museum.  This was the winter home of Henry Flagler and his wife.  It is a huge palatial mansion with 75 rooms, 100,000 square feet, decorated in the Gilded Age fashion (Louis XIV and Louis XV style).   Every room was filled with beautiful ornate furnishings, art and gold covered ceilings.  It was built in 1901 and opened to the public in 1960 as a museum.  We learned that at one time, Henry Flagler, along with Rockefeller were the richest men in the world.  They founded Standard Oil company.  Henry Flagler was an important developer in Florida. He built the railway that linked the entire east coast of Florida down to Key West.  He built luxury hotels, including The Breakers, to attract tourists to visit Florida.  He developed over two million acres of land to help establish tourism as the foundation of Florida's economy.  He was phenomenally wealthy.

Whitehall

   
 

Moving on to Palm Beach Gardens!

2/16 Saturday
     We traveled on the outside to reach our next destination of Palm Beach Gardens, with is just a little north of West Palm Beach.  It was a beautiful day and we saw so many boats out fishing in the gulf stream.  We decided to try our luck and put out a couple of lines to troll.  We were going slow anyway so why not!  After an hour or so, one of the lines went reeling out, Fish on!  We put the boat in neutral and Karl grabbed the pole.  The fish took it hard and almost ran the line out.  We watched it jump out of the water many times.  It was splendid to watch a fish jump, twist and turn multiple times  in a fight to get off the hook.  It was very exciting to watch!  Karl worked to get it in for about what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes.   He got it up to the boat and discovered it was a sailfish!

                                                   Video of final seconds of sailfish battle

Ft. Lauderdale

2/11-2/15

Popular Motorized Scooters!

     The Ft. Lauderdale beach is right across the street and it is crowded with people.  There is a sidewalk that runs on the beach side, filled with walkers, runners, bikers and these little motorized scooters.  The scooters are so popular!  You can rent one at any starting point, with an app that you download on your phone.  It seems that you can take them from one destination to another designated drop off area!  We did not try it, but so many kids were riding them!

Dessert at the Mai-Kai Restaurant

     We went to dinner on Valentine's Day to the Man-Kai Restaurant.  They have a Polynesian show with men and women dancers twirling with fire.  We actually went to this same restaurant and show over 40 years ago and it brought back so many memories of that first trip to Ft. Lauderdale.  It was fun, nothing had changed!
 
     Update on anchor light:  We had to throw the towel in and call a marine electrician.  He had to rewire it from the flybridge lights to the anchor light.  The PVC pipe that housed the wires was filled with gunk, so he had to drill it out to get the wires to go through.  It was a much bigger project than anticipated and it took a total of about 7 hours!  It is finally fixed and now we can anchor out whenever we want.

A Tow on the River in Ft. Lauderdale

     Another problem happened:  We got our dinghy off the boat.  To do that, we have to hook it up to a davit with strong wires and swing it over the front of our boat to place it in the water.  It takes a little time, but is not hard to do.  We took it down the river to a place called RiverWalk, a vibrant place on  the river full of restaurants and shops. We ate lunch at an outside  cafe  along the river walk.  On our return, the 25 HP engine overheated and quit working.  We really hadn't used it much since our last trip to the Bahamas last spring.  We ended up having to call Boat US for a TOW!  I am sure we looked kind of funny, our small dinghy being towed down the river next to all the big boats!

     The next day, we took an Uber to the historic Stranahan House, which was built in 1901.  It is the oldest home in the county and served as a trading post with the Seminole Indians.  We learned a lot of history about Ft. Lauderdale.  This was surprisingly more interesting than we thought it might be. 


   

   
 
   

Chores, Karl's Lists and Moving on to Ft. Lauderdale!

2/10
     We have to do regular chores on the boat, just like at home.  Today was a day to wash clothes and do some shopping.  We have a small washer/dryer combination on our boat which comes in handy to wash small items, like running clothes, etc.  When we need to do larger amounts, like towels and such, we take them to the laundry facilities.  Luckily, most marinas have washers and dryers.  I cleaned out my change bucket at home, gathering all the quarters I could, to bring on the boat for the washers and dryers!  This has been helpful, but doing laundry is time consuming.
    How do you pack clothes for an entire year?  I certainly overpacked!  We end up wearing the same things, favorite shorts and T-shirts.  Just like at home, you tend to wear the same jeans, etc.  I wish I hadn't brought so much, it just takes up valuable space. A woman likes to have choices, though!
    Going to the grocery can be a challenge.  We have to either walk, ride bikes or get a cab or Uber.  We tend to walk as much as we can, getting exercise and seeing the town, but you have to carry everything, which takes the place of lifting weights that day, for sure!  We got an Uber on Sunday, because Publix was a little far and traffic in Miami is heavy!  None of the drivers spoke any English, all Spanish.  That was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out.
 

Mega Yacht!

Salty wants this boat!

2/11
     We moved on to Ft. Lauderdale, traveling on the ICW.  It was only a distance of 12 miles, very easy travel day.  We arrived at Bahia Mar Marina in the afternoon.  It is a very large marina, full of mega yachts!  I am always amazed at the wealth that some people have, who can afford these yachts?  The dock master said that he fueled up a yacht this morning, took all morning, because the tank held 28,000 gallons!  There is a crew of 20 to run this boat.  I wonder who the owner is?  A nice thing about this marina is that the beach is right across the street!

2/12
    Karl has these spiral notebooks full of notes and lists of things he needs to do on the boat.  He likes to stay busy and do a lot of the work himself.  He orders parts, changes water filters, does general engine maintenance, replaces gaskets, checks for water and oil leaks, replaces hoses, installs software, cleans out sea strainers, etc...the list goes on and on.  We had three full pages of things to do before we could begin this trip!
     He has always been a list keeper.  He keeps lists of things he has to for home and his practice.  Usually he keeps it all very organized!  But I do find sticky notes all over the place!

   
   

   
   

Having a Dog on the Boat and Moving on to Miami!

2/5 to 2/9
     Our dog is a cute little white maltese.  We got her right after we bought this boat, so it was fitting to name her Salty!  She is 11 years old.  She seems to love the boat, probably because she gets a lot of attention!  Karl calls her a "chick magnet" when he walks her around the marinas.   Women are always drawn to her and want to stop and talk.  No wonder Karl does not mind taking her out for walks, especially when we are in the Bahamas!
   

"Pup Head"

Salty's New Haircut

People often ask, where does she go to the bathroom when she can't get off the boat?  We bought what is called a "Pup Head," which is fake grass set up in a tray.  The bathrooms in a boat are called heads. We put it on the cockpit (the back deck) where she has adjusted to using it as often as she wants!  We just hose it down when ever it is necessary.  It works!  Since she is a maltese, she needs to be groomed every few months.  We found a very good groomer in Marathon, the place was called Salty Dog Grooming, so it was meant to be.  It is great having a dog on board, she gets us out to exercise everyday and we meet a lot of friendly people.
     We met up with some friends of Karl's brother and his wife's, Joni and Mark, from Kentucky.  They were staying in Big Pine Key for a month.  It was fun to re-connect with some Kentucky folks and enjoyed a great lunch with them!  Karl and I grew up in Lexington and we both graduated from the University of Kentucky.   Karl attended medical school there.

Corroded Solenoid

   
We had more problems with the solenoid again.  This time, Karl knew exactly what was wrong, tapped on it and the engine started.  Luckily, he bought the part when we were in Stock Island and replaced it.  It was very corroded.  He also put up a  new anchor light, because it was still only working  intermittently.  This has been an ongoing project!  He replaced the corroded wires, but it still seems to not be getting electricity.  We will see, he has some ideas...
   
2/8  Moving on to North Miami!
     We  left Marathon to go to North Miami, our next stop.  We went on the Atlantic side, which started out fairly nice.  The seas were choppy, but after a few hours it started to pick up.  We were heading into the waves and it started to be a little uncomfortable, 4-5 feet waves.  Our trip was a total of 112 miles.  We went in through Government Cut in Miami and headed up the ICW.  This was unfamiliar territory for us, so we had to pay attention to the charts.  There were several bridges to go under, some we had to wait for an opening on the hour or half hour.  This is something we will have to deal with going on the ICW.  We made it to our destination of Williams Island Marina in North Miami around 5:30 pm.  We were pretty worn out, but delighted with the beautiful marina.  It is on an island with canals running all around it.  We are surrounded by tall condominiums, all with lush trees, bushes, flowers and fountains.  It is especially pretty at night when the buildings are lit up.  Again, we are in a nice place with tennis courts, a pool, restaurants, etc.
 

Salty and Karl ready for the games

 We watched basketball on Saturday!  Kentucky beat Louisville in a close game.  Florida State made a great comeback in OT and beat Mississippi State.  It was a good day, both our teams on the winning side.


   
   

Moving on to Marathon and A Word about our Boat!

Stock Island Marina

2/3   Last few days in Key West
    We toured Key West one last time, this time on our bicycles!  We have these really cool bikes that fold up and can be stored on our boat.  They even have 5 gears!  We rode on the beach side and stopped for lunch.  It was Super Bowl Sunday so it was pretty crowded.  People were already claiming their bar stools to watch the big game!  We ended up watching it on the boat.
     Karl received his order of an anemometer, which is a weather station that measures the wind speed and wind direction.  It also monitors rainfall, temperature and barometric pressure and several other things.  It is a "smart weather station," connecting wirelessly.  He has always wanted one, so he was pretty excited to install it.  He mounted it on the roof of the boat and the display console sits inside the boat.  I think it will be another helpful and fun tool to have on the boat for determining the weather.
     We ended up liking Stock Island Marina, despite hearing the loud navy F-18 Fighter jets flying over the island every day.   The Naval Air Station is a training facility for combat fighter aircraft. This is where the pilots learn to land the jets on big carrier ships.   It was kind of cool seeing them fly so low and in formation, made us think of watching the Blue Angels flying out of Pensacola, which is very close to our home port of Sandestin, Florida.

Mackie and Salty on the front of the boat

2/4 - 2/5       A Word About Our Boat
    We departed Stock Island Marina to go to the Marlin Bay Yacht Club in Marathon, still in the Keys.  It is a distance of about 41 miles, the weather was nice but cloudy.  Seas were calm.
     We have a 50 foot Mikeleson sports fisherman boat with twin Cummins QSC 540 horsepower inboard engines.  We have had this boat for 11 years and used to fish a lot.  It is also very comfortable to cruise on.  Our tanks hold 1000 gallons of diesel fuel.  Cruising speed is about 20 knots and at that speed it burns 40 gallons per hour! A little math:  If we go that fast, it will only get 0.5 nautical miles per gallon, which can get quite expensive!  When we slow down, say to 7.5 knots, it uses about 6 gallons per hour and we get about 1.25 nautical miles per gallon, extending our range to about 1100 miles.  Much more reasonable cost wise, but it takes longer to get someplace!
     We decided to go slow since we now have the time.  This trip of 41 miles took us about 5 and 1/2 hours.  It was actually a relief to go slow and enjoy the day,  eating lunch on the boat and watching the dolphins play.  They will often come up to the boat and jump in our wake.  They always make me smile and I never tire of seeing them.
     We motored on the Atlantic side, then passed under the famous 7 mile bridge to the gulf side to reach our destination marina. This bridge is the longest of the bridges that connect the islands together.  The bridge is undergoing a makeover now, which apparently it needed since it was built so long ago. The bridges were originally built by Henry Flagler as an overseas railroad.
    Marlin Bay Yacht Club is absolutely beautiful.  It is small with only about 40 slips.  the facilities are brand new with condominiums for rental, a very nice pool and clubhouse.  We feel like we are really on vacation! We are off to the pool this afternoon!

   

So much to do and see in Key West!

Mackie in Key West

1/31 (Thursday)-2/2 (Saturday)
     We took the shuttle to the downtown historic district of Key West.  There is so much to see and do in this busy, crowded space of about 6 square miles!  It is full of historic buildings and has such a  rich history of pirates, gold, shipwrecks, art, bars, music, restaurants, seafood, museums sunsets at Mallory Square and most of all tourists!  What an interesting blend of people walking around, riding scooters and bicycles,  eating, bar-hopping, shopping and looking for fun! We saw the furthermost point in the United States, beautiful beaches which are somewhat different from what we are used to on the gulf.  Since the island is surrounded by coral reef, there are no waves and the beaches can be a little rocky.  But, the water is so clear and beautiful, it makes up for the lack of sand! In fact, they import sand from Miami to build up the beaches for the visitors to enjoy a beach!
   

Karl at mile zero

Check out the Six paws

Our first stop was the Ernest Hemingway house.  Hemingway lived here in 1931 for 10 years and did most of his writing in this home.  The home itself is built out of limestone and has withstood many hurricanes.  He has a very colorful history, was married 4 times and enjoyed his whisky, fishing and bar fights!  He frequently visited Sloppy Joe's bar and today it is a pretty famous watering hole! He also loved his cats, bringing in some unusual cats that have six toes!  Our tour guide said he thought they would bring him luck since they have 9 lives, maybe more with 6 toes!  There are currently about 56 cats living around the house, all have names of famous people and movie stars, so we can say we saw Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart!  I am now inspired to read and reread some of Hemingway's novels and stories.
   

Truman Little White House

 After an enjoyable lunch on an outside deck surrounded by lovely banyan trees and palm trees, we went to Harry S. Truman Little White House.  We learned so much about this past president during a delightful tour of the house.  It was built in 1890 to use as Naval Officers quarters.  It was used by Truman as the winter White House, because his doctor said he needed to be in a warmer climate due to health issues.  This was a perfect spot for him, it was protected by navy officers and has since been used as presidential retreats for several presidents.  We then walked all around town, easily getting our 10,000 steps!
 

This Speaks for Itself

Michael McCloud has been singing his own songs there for years

   1/2  Friday.  Today we went to the historic waterfront district.  We ate lunch at Schooners Wharf, which is a place where we have frequently been.  The same guy was there singing and playing his guitar that we have seen many times.  He smokes cigarettes, keeping a lit one attached to his guitar strings most of the time.  His original songs are about Key West, women, drinking, booze, fishing, boats and hurricanes.  He is pretty irreverent, but it is just who he is and he does not apologize for it!  It is always fun to go to this bar.  We went to Kermit's for their famous slice of Key Lime pie, and it was just as good as we had remembered!
     We then did a very touristy thing, something we would never think of doing when we have visited here before when we were younger, because we thought that it was just for older tourists! At that time, we were more interested in the whole experience of Key West, the bars, music, art, fishing and water sports! But since we now are the "older tourists," we decided to take the World Famous Conch tour Train ride! We actually learned a lot about the history of Key West and it highlighted some of the more famous places to visit.  We found that we have already visited a lot of these places!  It was a fun experience, you could hop off and on at various spots around the city.

     I must mention about the roosters and hens that are all over the city!  They almost seem like they are taking over!  Turns out, they were brought here during the early days, when cock fighting was a popular sport by the drinking crowd and it was allowed.  I am so glad that it is not legal anymore, but it looks like the roosters have gotten their revenge!  They are now protected, and the fine for harming one is $500!  They are everywhere, in open air bars and restaurants and walking down the streets, holding up traffic, etc.