Friday, January 29, 2016
Today we leave the docks!
The sky is parting, the sun is finally starting to shine and away we go to Jew Fish Anchorage today Brad is busy checking the weather and me I am having my coffee and trying to relax before the trip.
Thursday, January 28, 2016
DeLorme in Reach unit & Current Calendar
Ok, the boat repairs are done. All the provisioning, organizing, system checks, maintenance, upgrades and misc. are done. It rained all day today and it’s forecasted to rain most of tomorrow.
Weather window permitting, we’ll be cutting the dock lines Friday.
A rough planned itinerary for the next 2-3 weeks is:
· Jan 29-Feb 4 – Bounce down the gulf coast. Stops include Anna Maria Island, Venice, Naples, (Florida), and Shark River
· Feb 6 and 7 – Key Largo – will be checking out a new boat yard to keep the boat on the hard next summer/fall. So saying goodbye to PYCC and keeping the boat in the water in St. Petersburg.
Wanna follow us?????
We now have a DeLorme inReach unit.
This allows us to send tracking updates, via satellite, to a web based map/database, when the device is turned on.
It will send a “bread crumb” trail to a map. Any you can go to that map and see our trail, and location.
Bookmark this website
It’s not a device that we’ll leave on all the time, so the tracking is not non-stop.
I plan to turn it on whenever we are moving the boat. So when we are moving the boat, it’ll be “live” tracking”
Because its satellite based, it can also be used for communication. However it’s very expensive to use for text messages. I bought a plan that allows 40 text messages a month.
So we’ll send you a text, once in a while, to provide an update on our status. For example, “got to xyz ok”, and such.
No need to text us back to the DeLorme address, just to say “have fun” as this counts as one of our 40 texts.
So the boat work is done and the boat is ready, so we’re shoving off in less than 36 hours to begin the “cruise” part of our 2016 cruising season.
Track us when you can.
Love and Smooth Sailing.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
El Nino Weather in Florida
So far this tropical vacation has been anything but warm and sunny. El Nino has caused the weather patterns everywhere to go crazy. Winds of 20-30 mile an hour with rains like your taking a shower have been the norm around here the last couple of days. Last night the winds were so fierce that we hardley slept with all the noise and banging around going on. Brad got up at about 2 am and went outside in the pouring rain to reposition the boat, it was a wild ride. Today is suppose to clear up and tomorrow if all is well we will be on our way to Egmont. I am sure glad I brought fowl weather clothes to my tropical vacation. I have several raincoats and jackets that have been very useful so far. The plan is to go out and about to Egmont and LongKey for a few days and then return to our slip for the next round of storms. It looks like we are going to learn about weather and how and when to duck into a hurricane/storm hole. Don't you worry we will know where the closest storm protection area is and we will be there if I have anything to say about it. And as you all probably know I do not mence my words when it comes to safety. Anyway today we are going to do a few more errands to finish getting ready for our trip. I'll tell you what, it is a lot more work then I remembered it being and Brad is doing most of it. Attached is a photo of my tropical outfit for the day.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Sail La Vie Cruising Plans for next month
Sun or Mon leave Pasadena Yacht Club in Gulport to start our adventures with Sail La Vie in her second season. For the first 3 days we plan to stay local, first stop will be Egmont our little nature island about an hour away for our home port. Then we are going to Jewfish anchorage in Long Boat Keys for a day. Moving down the path towards Key West, our next stop will be Sarasota and we will probably plan to stay there for a few days, it is going to rain a little at that time so we should stay put in the bad weather. Naples will be our next place to visit, I love Naples, it is a great place to ride your bikes and shop. It is a very cute little town, but a little expensive. From Naples we plan to go to Marco Island and we may do another provisioning run for more groceries there. Then we will be doing an overnighter to Marathon. From here we will go to the Alantic side of the Keys and check out Key Largo. We are going to check out one of the Dry storage areas there for a place to possibly leave the boat on the hard next season, if we like it better than St. Augustine. We loved the town of St. Augusting with all of the historical homes and buildings, there was so much to see. We rode our bikes all around town and had so much fun. Now the Storage Yard was ok, it did take a lot of Catamarans which was nice to see. The prices were reasonable and it would work ok for us other than it is 2 days sail from where we want to be next season. Key Largo is just across the Gulfstream from so it is an easy way to get to the Bahamas fast. So basically it will depend on how we like Key Largo and if we feel safe leaving our boat there for next season. Today we met with Cam to discuss the Bahamas and it sounded so exciting. Cam was very enthusiastic about the island and the places to see and food to eat. He gave us a lot of recommendations on where to anchor and where to eat and of course where to have a sunset cocktails and rum punch. The place sounds fantastic, he said we would love it and would probably want to come back every year. I hope so, it would be a great place for us to hang out season after season. I am sure Brad will find a place to Kiteboard, there is plenty of wind in the islands, so he should be happy. As long as the boat is in good shape we should be good to go. Let the adventures begin... See ya on the waters.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
West Palm Beach Food Tour
“Amazing Food Tour”
Loved our tour today with Kristl at West Palm Beach Food Tour! The food was amazing & delicious! Here is a list of all the great tasting locations and food we enjoyed on the tour:
TASTING LOCATIONS
1) The Blind Monk
We starting the tour at "The Blind Monk" with an Ahi Tuna Tostada piled high with fresh local mangos and avocado, and Pan Con Tomate – a garlic rubbed toast with a fresh tomato dipping sauce. Both pair perfectly with the fresh and crisp Cuban Prosecco Mojito, very tasty!
2) Hibiscus House
We tasted Brazilian street food called Pao De Quijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread) in a charming historic Florida Inn known as the Hibiscus House, yum! I am getting hungry again just thinking about it.
3) Longboards
One of my favorite tastings was the Florida classic...Key Lime Pie. I am definately going to try to make some on our upcoming trip to the Bahamas.
3) Ganache Bakery Cafe
At Ganache Bakery Cafe we learn how to properly cut a Coconut, plus we sampled refreshing Coconut Water, Tamarind Juice and fresh Cane Sugar Juice.
4) Pizza Girls
We then enjoyed award winning pizza along with a local Florida craft beer. I had the SoHo pizza which had gorgonzola cheese and artichoke hearts and it was fabulous. It was thin crusted New York style.
5) Le Rendez-Vous
We had probably the best dessert in town...Croustade Aux Pommes a la Mode (Apple Croustade with Ice Cream)
We loved all of the variations of tastings from Brazilian to French and everything in between. We plan to return to many of these locations for either dinner or lunch at a later date. In fact we already have gone back to the Blind Monk and we had their Cheese Platter and wine tasting. Next we plan to do dinner at the Le-Rendez Vous possibly tomorrow night and I can't wait.
Food Tours are a great way to get to know the restaurants and the town history all at one time. We always do the tour at the beginning of our vacations so we can find all of our favorite places to go back to during our time in town. Kristl did a fabulous job with our tour, she is very friendly and knowledgeable about West Palm Beach. The is definately a DO NOT MISS, thing to do in West Palm Beach. Kristl even provided us with information on other great activities in West Palm Beach. Today we went to the Flagler Museum which turned out to be another great day in West Palm Beach.
TASTING LOCATIONS
1) The Blind Monk
We starting the tour at "The Blind Monk" with an Ahi Tuna Tostada piled high with fresh local mangos and avocado, and Pan Con Tomate – a garlic rubbed toast with a fresh tomato dipping sauce. Both pair perfectly with the fresh and crisp Cuban Prosecco Mojito, very tasty!
2) Hibiscus House
We tasted Brazilian street food called Pao De Quijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread) in a charming historic Florida Inn known as the Hibiscus House, yum! I am getting hungry again just thinking about it.
3) Longboards
One of my favorite tastings was the Florida classic...Key Lime Pie. I am definately going to try to make some on our upcoming trip to the Bahamas.
3) Ganache Bakery Cafe
At Ganache Bakery Cafe we learn how to properly cut a Coconut, plus we sampled refreshing Coconut Water, Tamarind Juice and fresh Cane Sugar Juice.
4) Pizza Girls
We then enjoyed award winning pizza along with a local Florida craft beer. I had the SoHo pizza which had gorgonzola cheese and artichoke hearts and it was fabulous. It was thin crusted New York style.
5) Le Rendez-Vous
We had probably the best dessert in town...Croustade Aux Pommes a la Mode (Apple Croustade with Ice Cream)
We loved all of the variations of tastings from Brazilian to French and everything in between. We plan to return to many of these locations for either dinner or lunch at a later date. In fact we already have gone back to the Blind Monk and we had their Cheese Platter and wine tasting. Next we plan to do dinner at the Le-Rendez Vous possibly tomorrow night and I can't wait.
Food Tours are a great way to get to know the restaurants and the town history all at one time. We always do the tour at the beginning of our vacations so we can find all of our favorite places to go back to during our time in town. Kristl did a fabulous job with our tour, she is very friendly and knowledgeable about West Palm Beach. The is definately a DO NOT MISS, thing to do in West Palm Beach. Kristl even provided us with information on other great activities in West Palm Beach. Today we went to the Flagler Museum which turned out to be another great day in West Palm Beach.
Adventures in West Palm Beach
After we left Ormond Beach where our condo was located, we drove the coast down to West Palm Beach to visit a friend of mine Kristl that owns the "West Palm Beach Food Tour". Of course we went on her tour and it was absoluetly fabulous! I will attach the Trip Advisor review I did to tell you more about her tour. Anyway after the tour she invited us to stay in her guest house, which was a cute little beach cottage attached to her home. Kristl was great to hand out with and talk shop, we accomplished a lot just sitting down talking to each other, it was great. Hated to leave we had so much fun and it was such a beautiful place to visit. Kristl and her husband plan to come to dinner on the boat when we are in Miami.
Today we said goodbye to Kristle, Ashley Kate and Jack the dog and we drove 3 hours back to the boat then 4 hours from the Shipyard to our home port at the PYPC Yacht club in St Petersburg, FL. well at least it was our home port. At the end of this next season we plan to move the boat to St. Augustine and put it on the hard for the winter, it is cheaper and probably safer during the season. Then maybe next year we may leave it in Key Largo, we are planning to check them out on our way to Miami.
Hopefully we are going to start having fun on our boat trip soon. A couple more days of getting ready then off we go. Right after leaving the shipyard today we noticed that the electricity on the starboard side of the boat was not working right, so Brad ran around trying to fix that for an hour, while I drove the boat, which was also not without excitement. While going along on the charted course I noticed that we were getting ready to cross an area marked as the "Anchorage for explosions", WTF is that all about, I don't know but I was for sure not comfortable crossing those waters. So I decided to turn the boat away from that area and proceded to set a couse right in the path of a huge ship, so it was not exactly a calm and relaxing trip. So we are moving along and I am now competing with the big ship to see who can make it to the bridge first, and yes we did get there faster. The charted courses around here are sometimes very narrow pathway, so later on in the ride we got to an area where you had about a ten foot wide path to stay within or you would be on land, well obviously we made it but still it was a bit hectic.
We did make it to the dock before dark so that was great but after having spent $$$ money to get the boat fixed up, first the electricity was messed up but Brad did fix it and then when we got settled in the slip we went to turn on the heater because it is freezing here on our tropical adventure and now the heater is not working right. The air conditioning specialist is coming over tomorrow so hopefully he can just flip a switch and Voila it is working!! So if you think we are over here just sipping Pina Colodas think again. Boating is a lot of working and it is very costly,, but we love the boat so I am hoping to soon have the tropical vacation we had envisioned. In 2 days we will set off to Egmont for our first stop on our trip down the Florida coast to the Keys. Then on to Miami for the boat show, Brad is going to work the show and I will probably go on another Food Tour. And hopefully Kristl and her husband Eric will come for a visit on the boat.
I will attached photos from our West Palm Beach visit and Flagler's mansion. Flagler was Rockerfeller partner in the Standard Oil business and he created about 10 large resort hotels in different cities in Florida, as well as the mansions that he and his wifes lived in.
Today we said goodbye to Kristle, Ashley Kate and Jack the dog and we drove 3 hours back to the boat then 4 hours from the Shipyard to our home port at the PYPC Yacht club in St Petersburg, FL. well at least it was our home port. At the end of this next season we plan to move the boat to St. Augustine and put it on the hard for the winter, it is cheaper and probably safer during the season. Then maybe next year we may leave it in Key Largo, we are planning to check them out on our way to Miami.
Hopefully we are going to start having fun on our boat trip soon. A couple more days of getting ready then off we go. Right after leaving the shipyard today we noticed that the electricity on the starboard side of the boat was not working right, so Brad ran around trying to fix that for an hour, while I drove the boat, which was also not without excitement. While going along on the charted course I noticed that we were getting ready to cross an area marked as the "Anchorage for explosions", WTF is that all about, I don't know but I was for sure not comfortable crossing those waters. So I decided to turn the boat away from that area and proceded to set a couse right in the path of a huge ship, so it was not exactly a calm and relaxing trip. So we are moving along and I am now competing with the big ship to see who can make it to the bridge first, and yes we did get there faster. The charted courses around here are sometimes very narrow pathway, so later on in the ride we got to an area where you had about a ten foot wide path to stay within or you would be on land, well obviously we made it but still it was a bit hectic.
We did make it to the dock before dark so that was great but after having spent $$$ money to get the boat fixed up, first the electricity was messed up but Brad did fix it and then when we got settled in the slip we went to turn on the heater because it is freezing here on our tropical adventure and now the heater is not working right. The air conditioning specialist is coming over tomorrow so hopefully he can just flip a switch and Voila it is working!! So if you think we are over here just sipping Pina Colodas think again. Boating is a lot of working and it is very costly,, but we love the boat so I am hoping to soon have the tropical vacation we had envisioned. In 2 days we will set off to Egmont for our first stop on our trip down the Florida coast to the Keys. Then on to Miami for the boat show, Brad is going to work the show and I will probably go on another Food Tour. And hopefully Kristl and her husband Eric will come for a visit on the boat.
I will attached photos from our West Palm Beach visit and Flagler's mansion. Flagler was Rockerfeller partner in the Standard Oil business and he created about 10 large resort hotels in different cities in Florida, as well as the mansions that he and his wifes lived in.
Friday, January 15, 2016
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