At "Kayaking Disneyland" and Then on to Miami

Pictures: This is the Intracoastal Waterway near Hobe Sound, as our friend's neighbor caught a good shot of us passing by their condos; VICTORIOUS is in the mooring area near the Las Olas Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale; Ken is checking out a very low-rider outside of one of the tatoo parlors near the beach in Ft. Lauderdale; a new cruising friend, Louise, and I found these comfortable tables at the Florida International Univ. campus near our anchorage; another new friend took a picture of Heidi while kayaking in the Oleta River State Park; this group of happy kayakers makes it look like so much fun!; a typical line of kayakers as they explore the waters at Oleta River S.P; approaching Miami from the north on the ICW; in No Name Harbor after sunset, the boats are lit by their masthead anchor lights; this is how the sailors at the regatta move their boats from the launching area to the overnight area; here are Brazilian sailors and their 49er FX class boat passing us in the mooring area

This month we don't have a schedule and can revisit some favorite places, get lazy and stay in one place for a week if the mood (doesn't) move us, and we are enjoying the better temperatures mostly, comfortable for sleeping at night and not overly hot during the day. We've got DVDs to watch, quite a few books to read, and something new to us, podcasts to listen to. There is no TV on our boat and it is a relief in a way to get away from bad news, repetitive commercials, and somewhat unintelligent programming. We are also in the area of Cuban-American food, music and sexy lit-up speed boats! Every once and a while there is work to do, like changing engine oil, emptying the composting toilet, or cleaning the waterline of the boat, but we can space these chores out.
We only had a brief stopover in Ft. Lauderdale. A familiar boat was there, ELAN from Hull, Mass. We've been talking with Steve and Lynn off-and-on all trip and wondering when we would meet up. Here we had a chance to invite them to see our boat and they returned the favor. From the City Marina at Las Olas the area we could walk to was somewhat sleazy with tatoo parlors, the beach, and lots of liquor stores and bars. In the other direction we walked to a grocery store and got an Uber ride back as it was quite a distance. It is a busy boating place, and right now there are extra cruising boats accumulating, waiting for a good weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. The trip passes through the Gulf Stream (a strong current going from south to north just a few miles from the Florida coast) and this makes it a tricky passage, as you want to be sure to get the best weather.  We don't plan to go to the Bahamas but we are getting caught up in the discussions and the excitement!
The next stop is a return to Oleta River State Park where we first went 5 years ago when we came south in our Mainship powerboat. There is a bay adjacent to the Park, room for 2 dozen or so boats to anchor. It is well protected from the wind and happens to be bugless on this visit. Best of all the bay dead-ends nearby so there are no wakes from fast boats. There is also a uniersity campus across the bay; all this is in North Miami. The Park rents kayaks and also has a lot of mountain-biking trails and rents bikes. Every day dozens of kayakers paddle through our anchorage, mostly young people in their teens and twenties, but also families. They are almost all having a great time, splashing each other, racing, yelling back and forth. Our kayak got a lot of use here, as Heidi went on daily trips from one end of the bay to the other, and through the mangroves on narrow, bending routes.
We immediately met up with people from four sailboats who have recently connected with each other and are all waiting to cross to the Bahamas. Each day there was either a large group cocktail party on one boat or another, or smaller groups getting together for a hike in the park, to play board games, or to exchange books (this activity was initiated by the couple on WHISPER from Newfoundland). The other couples were from Maryland, Maine and a single-hander from Ohio.
One early evening gathering we were treated to a line of kayaks paddling by, lit with lightsticks on each bow and stern. It was the special "Full Moon Tour" for people who signed up at the rental center. This place is like a Kayakers Disneyland!
While taking a walk in the Park we saw a fox. It actually was waiting near the dinghy beach and most likely had spied our small plastic garbage bag we were bringing in to dispose of. It came quite near to us, but we headed in the other direction and waved it away. Other than the fox, wildlife was scant. Not too many birds other than herons, no manatees or dolphins. Good-sized orange iguanas are often seen hanging from the mangroves over the water. The weather has been a bit unstable, with clouds and passing showers, sometimes two or three times a day. But it hasn't really stopped the activity.
There are no services (water, laundry, etc.) here so the other four boats and ours had to eventually leave. Most of the group crossed to the Bahamas on the 18th of January. We moved down to Miami, to Key Biscayne which is across Biscayne Bay from the city center. We really enjoy No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. We have anchored here on each of the three trips we have made to Florida. There is a restaurant in the small harbor, and another State Park with good bicycle trails. The ocean beach is just a few minutes on the bicycle trail. We only stayed for two days this time because we still need water, but it was long enough to meet boaters from Fairhaven, Mass. and get together with them to compare notes. We rode bikes to get groceries here and had lunch each day at the two restaurants in the Park and Harbor, featuring seafood and our first Presidente (from Dominican Republic) beers of the trip!
Finally getting to the first "real marina" in quite a while, we got water at Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, part of Miami. While at the dock we were almost sideswiped by two girls on a small boat, sailing by fast with a spinnaker up, downwind, in the inner harbor. They were followed by two more female crews on similar boats. They all had insignia on their sails indicating where they were from -- Norway was the first boat. It turned out that a lot of sailors are in town for a "Sailing World Cup" that starts this week. It is so much fun watching the different classes (all are Olympic classes) sail out of the harbor with their coaches for training runs each day. We also pass through their staging area by the launching ramp and see the sailors all over town, at the grocery store nearby, and at the pre-launch area assigned to them.
We need to move from Dinner Key where we have a mooring to a quieter spot as a big wind is coming that will make it uncomfortable for a few days. But we did have three nights and days there, and had time to get a gourmet pizza lunch, go to the beautiful Barnacle park nearby (it is a former home of a boat designer from the late 1800s and also has a boathouse and carriage house), ride our bikes around to hardware stores and gelato shops, and get our laundry done at the marina headquarters.
The wind is hitting us now, but we are back at Key Biscayne. This time we went to Hurricane Harbor, a very safe anchorage, where we have no access to shore, but we can ride out the high wind gusts and relax. The homes here are beautiful, many have private docks, and there are another 8 or 9 boats anchored with us. It's 76 degrees out, sunny, and even though they are threatening thunderstorms, and even possible hail and tornados, it doesn't seem likely!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and into the New Year

Pictures: Our adorable granddaughter Sienna in Braintree (Peter and Eri's daughter); Ken cooking breakfast; the impromptu instrumental group after Thanksgiving dinner; our new composting toilet (before installation); sharing a mooring with two others (including our Hull friends) in Vero Beach; Christmas lights in Stuart; stopping to talk with a kayaker who is on vacation from South Dakota, a serious fisherman; Kenny on the beach in Vero Beach; Sally, our Christmas hostess-with-the-mostest; Kenny in a pint-sized Santa suit examining his new toy; Justin and his friend James (from Justin's Army days) who drove over from Sebastian to join us at one of the breweries; the Vero Beach Botanic Garden lily pond with decorations as Kenny sleeps; the pool with Jamie and Tammy; the whole family posed at the marina in Vero Beach; lunch with Tammy and Mike at Riverside Cafe, near the marina; on the beach with Justin Kenny and Ken

The last month and more of holidays has been a lot of fun for us. It has also been uncomfortably hot and humid. We would have thought that December weather would be a bit more moderate.
Six weeks ago we visited another Victory Tug owner-couple in the Cocoa Beach area, the Mackies. They have their boat right at their house on a private dock on Merritt Island. We had lunch in Cocoa with them and they ran us to CVS for supplies. The night following we anchored in Eau Gallie, a small harbor very similar to Cohasset, our home harbor. It is a beautiful stop, we've been here before, but just at dusk a woman from shore yelled out to us and we couldn't make out what she was saying. The setting sun was in our eyes so we couldn't see her at all. So we waved back. Then a few moments later she yelled louder and we could make it out this time -- "You friggin' freeloaders!"  We have heard about the friction between shoreline homeowners in Florida and boaters; and there are some towns with restrictions on anchoring, but so far this is the only case of our being yelled at. Maybe she was just a little loose from cocktail hour! Later someone shined bright lights on our boat for a while.
This part of the ICW is called the Indian River, and it goes for quite a way north and south. Everything to our east is Atlantic Ocean barrier beach. We reached Vero Beach and the nice City Marina there on the eve of Thanksgiving. In VB the barrier beach has residential houses and some small hotels directly on the oceanside. There are also shops, restaurants and many banks. A free shuttle runs from the marina to the beach and also over to the mainland.
We shared a mooring with WINDEMERE, our friends from Hull, Mass. who got to Vero Beach a few days before us. It was our turn to invite the Mahoneys to breakfast on our boat. Ken cooks a mean fried egg and bacon combo! Thanksgiving dinner here is all arranged by a group of former boaters who live in the area. We brought an apple pie and the WINDEMERE crew made stuffed mushroom caps to contribute. The dinner had about 120 people with seats for everyone in a community building near the marina. Afterward there was music on an adjacent patio provided by cruisers from SALTY PAWS and some of their friends.
WINDEMERE left the next day, hoping for a weather window to get them to the Bahamas on the weekend. We stayed to do laundry and go grocery shopping on the shuttle bus. The coincidences that happen on the ICW route are great: on the bus we met the couple from Canada who we pulled off of a shoal back in Georgia! We didn't know them by sight but found out who they were when they mentioned going aground several times in Georgia and we asked what the name of their boat was.
We plan to return to Vero Beach at Christmas when some family members are visiting. For now we have 3 1/2 weeks to kill, and will spend the time in the vicinity of the St. Lucie Inlet and the city of Stuart, about 45 miles south. We visited Kevin and Chris Buckley at their marina which is in the Rio section of Stuart. The marina is not open for business, but we can stay for a week or so--no cost--as the owners are marketing the property for development. The Buckley's boat APRES SKI pays a monthly fee and there are just 4 other boats there. We also spent a week at the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, on a mooring. From both locations we can bikeride, shop, go to Farmer's Markets, socialize. The Buckleys loaned us their truck for errands, and Sunset Bay has a shuttle bus to get boaters to popular shopping sites.
We found a posting on a bulletin board for a composting toilet. We really would like to have one on VICTORIOUS. On our last boat we had converted to this method. So we answered the ad, and ended up buying the toilet, ordering a few parts that it was missing, and installing it during the third week of our "wait time", when we were back at the marina in Rio. Thanks to Kevin and Chris Buckley for help with the logistics, as it was a fairly big project. Ken needed to cut out the platform for the existing toilet, cut out the hoses, remove the toilet, add a vent for the new one, and a lower platform for the new one. Now we are not dependent on getting a pumpout to stay legal, and the waste does compost in peat moss or coconut coir.
We usually follow a guide for anchoring that helps us pick a safe spot, but we did go rogue for two nights in Hobe Sound, where there were no sanctioned anchorages near to town, and found a great spot off of the Jupiter Island Club. Heidi kayaked around the area and found a town dock on the opposite (Hobe Sound) side and we were able to take the dinghy in there and tie up for an afternoon of lunch and shopping. We've driven to Hobe Sound several times in other years and it is a favorite of ours.
On December 23 we went north to Vero Beach so that we could greet Justin, Jamie and Kenny when they arrive on December 24. They will stay in a studio apartment on the beach, about an 8 minutes bikeride from the City Marina. Tammy and Mike are flying in on the 24th also, staying with Mike's mom for the first few days of vacation, then with us on the boat. On Christmas Day we are invited to Mike's mom's house, near Orlando, for a large group (23 people) Christmas dinner.
All went well with our Christmas week. The airlines  delivered everyone safely, our Christmas dinner was wonderful, including a yankee swap and cocktail hour. Our Christmas presents to our children and grandchildren are homemade ones this year, including canvas bags made from weather cloths we didn't need on VICTORIOUS and an activity board with hinges and other boat parts for Kenny to move around, opening and closing, etc.  We had fun with Kenny, who is now almost 15 months old, and just walking. We went to two local breweries each a few times, and local cafes and restaurants interspersed with meals on our boat and at the beach. Mike's mom and stepdad came for a boat ride one day. Tammy likes to play games and we got to do that several times. Jamie found a great citrus seller that also had THE BEST orange flavored soft-serve ice cream and floats. We all enjoyed the pool, hot tub and beach at the apartment. Justin chauferred us in his rental car several times including a trip to the botanical garden for the ladies (and Kenny) and he also got in a bike ride with Jamie on our folding bikes. The kayak and dinghy got used, too.  We were very busy and very happy.
At the end of the week we were able to connect with Pete, Eri and Sienna by the new app "Tango". Sienna is almost 4 months old now and darling! Tammy and Mike got a shuttle back to the Orlando airport and Justin's family drove back to the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Unfortunately Justin's flight was cancelled as the last minute, but more fortunately they got on another airline's evening flight, so all-in-all they made it home OK even though it was 5 hours later than they had planned.
We had VICTORIOUS at the dock for the week between Christmas and New Years Day which made it more convenient with all the goings and comings. We stayed in Vero Beach on a mooring for another 2 days to get laundry done, go grocery shopping, and to get one more oder of the soft-serve orange icecream! We felt a little lost without all the visitors. On New Years Day we caught the entertainment at our favorite oceanside bar and watched the Patriots play the Dolphins.  We are getting gradually back to our more quiet life.
On our way south once again, early 2017 activities have been to revisit the Buckleys in Rio, have lunch with former Cohasset residents/friends who moved down to Port Salerno (also in the Stuart area), the Olneys, and to anchor off of a nice small beach in the Hobe Sound area of the ICW next to our October-November traveling friends, the Colemans, who we just randomly came across there. We'll be heading for Miami next week, and then the Keys, with no specific schedule. As this is written we are getting a tropical dounpour in Ft. Lauderdale. The last few weeks have brought these showers more and more frequently.
Happy New Year to All! (Lets make America nice again in 2017.)