Friday, January 30, 2015

It’s a Celebration!

We left at sunrise on Thursday morning for Cabbage Key. It was a fairly long day and we wanted to get in early enough so we could drop the tender and go celebrate Sean’s birthday. 

It was a long day. After much consulting with folks on the NOG (Nordhavn Owners Group), friends, and ultimately SeaTow for final verification, we decided to go down the inside. We figured we'd do it once to see what there was to see. It was helpful for us to have Vector ahead with their slightly shallower draft.  Well, we knew we’d be in very skinny water and we weren’t disappointed!  We ended up dredging only once, a small area just north of Venice Inlet.  Actually, it was just a quick “bump” so we probably only lost a tiny bit of bottom paint. Then a bit later we pulled off to the side of the channel to wait for a bridge and though Vector was in water that the charts said was deep, they hit a hump and grounded temporarily. It made for a bit of a stressful day.

We had a surprise when we found out that one of the bridges was having work done and closed from 10-2. Luckily we heard people talking about it on the radio so we slowed down. By the time we got to the bridge we only had to wait about 15 minutes. There were several boats all station-keeping, waiting for the opening. It seems the closure wasn’t well advertised.  One boat had been waiting for over three hours, ouch!  While we were station-keeping, we struck up a conversation with a sailboat that was close by and found that their good friends have a Nordhavn and that he was in fact one of the people that had given us advice on traveling down the coast. Small world!

We arrived at Cabbage Key around 4:00 and anchored next to Useppa Key, just south of Whoopee Key. (You have to love the names.) The anchorage is really beautiful, nestled between several keys. The weather was chilly but calm, sunny and gorgeous.  We celebrated Sean’s birthday at the restaurant on Cabbage Key. The interior of the entire restaurant is lined with one dollar bills. You can see them on the wall behind the guys in this photo. The food was delicious, the staff was super friendly and we had a great time.



Birthday Boy & Martin


Our morning view – it doesn’t get much better than this!



This morning we were off to Tarpon Point Marina in Cape Coral where we'll be visiting with fellow Nordy owners Brad & Lorraine.

Sarasota, Florida


Sculpture on the waterfront
Blossom is tucked into the Marina Jacks


Vector is hanging out on a mooring ball, center of the picture

Another fun west coast Florida city!  We had a great time over our three days in Sarasota visiting and exploring. The party started as soon as we arrived as we hosted happy hour on Blossom with Sean, Louise, their friends Ben & Karen (who were along for the ride down to Sarasota aboard Vector) and Martin’s family, Penny, Syd and Brenda. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture from the evening, the night slipped by and I forgot!  After drinks and tours, we went to dinner with Penny, Syd and Brenda. Our last visit to Sarasota was last almost exactly a year ago last January when Martin’s Mum was here so we had a lot to catch up on! It was a lovely evening and we’re so happy that we were able to see everyone.

On Tuesday we went to the Ringling Museum. At first I was unsure about going because I really don’t like the “menagerie” aspect of circuses. The only circus I’ve been to is Cirque du Soleil for that reason. Several people recommended it however, so we decided to give it a try and we’re so happy that we did. It’s a large park that includes an art museum, a circus museum, the Ringling’s mansion (Ca’D’Zan), and education center, a theater and gardens.  It was an amazing history lesson and we learned more than I ever would have guessed about the circus. We rode our bikes up and spent 6 hours there – and only saw about 2/3 of the park. Highlights were the tour of the Ca’ D’ Zan Mansion and the “miniature” model circus which was mind-boggling. Again, I was really lame about taking pictures. I managed a few photos of a ceiling in the mansion because it looked like inspiration for an applique piece…


Gorgeous ceiling that could be adapted to a quilt pattern!

We enjoyed the evening out with Sean & Louise, having a drink at a Tiki Bar and eating out in town. There are as many restaurants here as St. Pete’s…so much to explore. Friday turned into a crazy day. We pumped out and explored routes in the morning. Sean had laid the groundwork for our trip south so we reviewed, confirmed and verified an area that looked hairy with SeaTow. (He said we should be fine as long as there wasn’t a strong northerly blowing water out of the waterway making it shallow.) We had a lot planned for the afternoon but filling prescriptions turned into a bit of a fiasco (can you say “new insurance carrier” and “no inventory of needed drug”) and required biking to two Walgreens to sort out. Once that was resolved we rode over to St. Armands Circle, which is a really nice shopping/dining area, for lunch and to replace my sunglasses (they’ve disappeared in the boat, I have no idea where). We had just enough time left to visit the Save Our Birds bird sanctuary. We had wanted to visit the Mote Aquarium and Research Center but we didn’t have time and since we’d toured them last January we opted for the birds.

This guy was rehabbed and returned to the wild but he keeps coming back hoping to steal some fish!

We learned that these guys from St. Pete’s aren’t cormorants but are Anhingas

The bird sanctuary was very interesting and pretty depressing. So many magnificent birds with so many horrible injuries. They return thousands of birds to the wild but I wonder how many they are forced to put down. They have an info sheet on why the captive birds are there. Cars, boats, fishing line, golf balls (!) and owners giving them up, are the most common. The incidents of nasty people harming them is horrifying – one poor Great Egret “lost an eye because it was spray painted pink…” Seriously? Well, I’m very grateful to those people who try to help the poor creatures who others have harmed.

We spent our final evening in Sarasota visiting with Syd & Brenda. We had a lovely evening at their condo and then went to a tasty dinner in town. We had such a great time with them and we’re really looking forward to coming back for a longer stay.


Martin, Syd & Brenda

Next stop: Cabbage Key


Boat Business:  With the exception of one of our depth finders thinking we were in 1,250 feet of water for a time, all seems well. We still need futzing with our autopilot parameters, they seem to have gone off a bit, but that’s an ongoing lesson.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

St. Petersburg, Florida

We’ve just spent a fantastic week+ in St. Petersburg, FL. Originally, we had planned on staying here for no more than a few days, but somehow that turned into over a week and we’ve loved it!

We stayed at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina. The marina is huge and is in an excellent location – right downtown. We were at the far southern tip, adjacent to the Albert Whitted airport so we watched small planes and helicopters taking off during the day. It reminded us of home. It’s walking distance to restaurants, theaters, museums, bars…you name it.  There’s so much going on here that we could stay for much, much longer. We’re heading out because we have a “goal” (we’re loathe to use the word “plan”), and we’re anxious to get the Bahamas this winter. But we’ll definitely be back on the west coast of Florida again. We’d love to spend a couple months or more exploring the area.

View of our dock


Views from the boat


 
Cormorants living in the marina. I've never seen them with such pretty white markings

One of my favorite activities in St. Pete’s has been the Saturday farmers market which we were lucky enough to visit twice. It’s a great, even better than the Lake Merritt market I used to visit every weekend when I lived in Oakland, CA. We also went to a great show at the Palladium– the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, all the way from New Zealand.  It was so much fun!  We didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out to be a super entertaining show. St. Pete’s is home to the Dali Museum as well and we stopped by to see the exhibit “Dali/Picasso, Picasso/Dali. This style of art isn’t my favorite but I learned a lot and found it very interesting! Our last day in town we visited the Chihuly Collection at the Moran Art Center. It’s a small collection but it was stunning.



The Dali Museum


Chihuly

We got a bit of exercise while here, walking around town and also checking out the Pinellas County bike path that our friends Atle and Kristina told us about. We rode over 18 miles out of town and it was beautiful!  It was a little difficult returning to the boat, we’re not exactly in shape for a 36 mile ride, but it just shows how much fun we were having J 

I’m really very taken with St. Petes, it’s my favorite Florida town that we’ve visited so far. There are so many restaurants, all seemingly fantastic (and we visited quite a few!). There’s a local university so there are lots of young people and night life including a lot of live music. There are museums, stadiums, theaters, marinas…a bike trail that goes on forever. We’ve only had a week to explore and then only by foot and bike, but wow!

And with all that, the actual highlight(s) of our stay here have been the visiting that we’ve been able to do with friends.  When we first arrived we got to meet up with good friends of Sean & Louise, Ben & Karen. We had a great meal in town. Then a very close friend of mine from high school, Amy, came to visit with her youngest daughter and her parents. I hadn’t seen her parents or daughter in over 10 years. Her daughter has changed a lot since she was 6 months old J  It was such a great reunion!  The day passed far too quickly.

Dave, Pat, Amy & Katy


Amy & Me

Then we had two fantastic evenings with a couple that we had met back in ’09 when we were cruising on Lucky. We met Amy & Kurt in Atlantis (Bahamas). They were on the dock with their Tiara (a larger version of Lucky) and we stopped by say hello.  Since then we’ve kept in touch via Facebook. They came to see Blossom and we went out to a great dinner. The next evening they invited us to their beach house for an amazing dinner. We enjoyed their gracious hospitality so much. I hope that we’ll see them again soon out in the Bahamas!


Me and Amy

I know I’ve said it before, really, we meet the most amazingly wonderful people cruising…

And now it’s time to move on to Sarasota. We have family and friends there so we’re looking forward to our visit. We left this morning for a long, slow day. There’s a trouble spot between here and Sarasota (shallow and current-y) so we need to watch tide and tidal current which are most favorable in the late afternoon. We also would like to get to the marina before dark. And there’s a wind advisory out today, with winds gusting up to 30 as the day progresses. So we left before the wind started blowing, putted along as slow as we could. Right now we’re hanging on the hook waiting for the water to rise and current to subside a bit, so we can pass Jewfish Key.  The adventure is on!

*Update* I wasn’t able to get this blog entry posted before our arrival. The “trouble spot” proved to be fine. We followed Vector and they gave us depth readings (they draw a foot less than us). We never saw less than 8+ feet at high tide. Getting docked was more challenging. The winds were picking up considerably by the time we arrived in Sarasota (as predicted).  We got in to position to enter our slip at Marina Jacks to find that the slip was too short for us to properly secure our bow. Though I gave them the dimensions for our boat, we’re a very big boat for our length. So the added windage was a concern. The marina was great, the dock master saw us enter, saw our size, and called us to tell us that they were going to relocate us to a 100 foot slip on the other side of the marina. We may have to move before Thursday if its regular occupant returns, but it won’t be under such windy conditions. More on Sarasota in our next blog post!

Boat Business:  Nothing to report. We’ve been at the dock with all systems functioning well. We have arranged for a wash/wax and warranty service in North Palm Beach. We’ll also be taking care of a list of maintenance items while we’re there.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Happy Birthday, Martin!

Martin celebrating the big 5-0

We had hoped to be in Tampa to celebrate Martin’s 50th but the weather had other ideas. So Martin spent his birthday sailing Blossom across the gulf. We both decided that this is a fine way to spend a birthday and begin a new decade of adventure J  We’ll have a more formal celebration later this week with Sean & Louise.

Night falling on route to Tampa

This was our first overnight passage with just the two of us. We were looking forward to this milestone as it would be a good indication of how well we’ll manage long range cruising without a third person with us. The passage went very well and we changed up our watch schedule. We like the 3 hour shift schedule when we have three people. This assures that everyone gets a 6 hour chunk of time to rest. This time, we worked on a more natural schedule and stood watch until we got tired. This worked out to us both taking a 5 hour shift to get through the night. We’ve decided this is a good system for us as long as we’re clear that as soon as someone is tired, they call it in.  I imagine that you’d fall into a fairly set routine on a multi-day passage as each person settles in to their own rhythm.

The passage itself went well. We left at first light. It was bumpy for the first 7 hours or so with 2-4, leaning towards 4 and a short frequency it was just up and down. It was too bouncy for me to sew or read without feeling queasy so it was a bit boring. By late afternoon it had calmed down to 1-3 and was easier to move around the boat and read (and type!) We only had two dolphin visit the bow(that we saw). Satellite radio “saves the day” during the night.  We were quite a ways off shore and I was surprised how little traffic we saw. Other than two fishing boats fairly early on, we were alone with Vector for the vast majority of the trip. It was nice to have a buddy boat along with us to chat with throughout the trip.

We arrived this morning in Tampa and are anchored out in the bay...


Blowing in the Wind in the Dry Tortugas

Fort Jefferson and the ferry

We’ve just wrapped up a little over one week anchored out in the Dry Tortugas, Florida.  We knew when we left that there was some blowy weather coming in and that we might end up spending more than a few days there. As it turned out, two high fronts came through, one after the other, so we chose to stay put and enjoy the quiet and very pretty anchorage.

We had a nice ride out of Key West. It rained a bit (just as I was untying the lines, of course!) but the winds were behind us and the crab pots weren’t too bad.  Luckily there was only one other boat in the anchorage when we arrived. The anchorage is very small and provides the only protection from North and Easterly winds there is.  We were shocked when just after anchoring I looked down and saw a huge nurse shark and then an equally large grouper hanging out under our boat. There are several large groupers that seem to spend their days wandering between the boats at anchor.  


 Blossom & Vector at anchor

It’s really very beautiful here. The keys are tiny and all uninhabited other than Garden Key on which Fort Jefferson is located.  The fort is a huge six-sided brick structure built as a naval defense to control the straits of Florida. It was never actually used to defend against anyone though it was used as a sort of prison for a while. Now it’s a national park. There are a handful of people who live on that key, park rangers, researchers and a few people who help maintain the island. There is no internet, no cell coverage or fresh water on the island available to visitors.  Visitors arrive by a large ferry, by small plane or by private boats. 

Plane leaving the anchorage

You can camp on the island, bringing in your own water and carrying out all trash. There is a rhythm to the island. Every morning, one or two planes arrive from Key West bringing visitors around 8:30. At 10:30, the ferry from Key West arrives bringing several dozens of people. The planes come and go all day, as many times as they have people paying to come visit.  Some people stay the night, camping on the island, but most leave by plane or ferry at 3:30.  From the late afternoon to evening, boats arrive. A few sail boats came through and every evening fishing and crabbing boats would come in and anchor for the night. 

The guys

The anchorage is very small so only a handful of boats can anchor there and not be in the path of the ferry or planes.  It’s deceptive here because it looks like a huge expanse of water but much of the water around the keys are 1-2 feet deep. There is another anchorage to the west but it’s not as well protected from north and northeast winds. The charts are also way off. Martin ran through the anchorage on our tender to get a feel for the actual depths. With that information, a couple of boats were guided to anchor in what the charts said were 1-2 feet of water.

The area is teaming with wild life. In addition to some very large fish, we heard dolphins breathing in the anchorage our first night. The next afternoon a sole, large dolphin swam around the boat. There is a key called Bird Island where frigate birds breed. These are large, impressive, black birds that seem to spend most of their time floating on air drafts above the island. There are also hundreds of terns that are fairly quiet during the day but party down after sunset, making so much noise that Martin had a hard time falling asleep one night.

Bush Key and frigate birds
 Tricolored Heron
 Starfish
 Crab in need of a shell
Portuguese Man O' War
Area around the fort

I had fantasies of snorkeling around the island but the wind and the 74 degree water kept me from going.  The first day, we went to the island and took a tour of the Fort Jefferson with a ranger. Wednesday I got out my nice camera and tried to take some good photos of the island. I wasn’t terribly successful but a few came out half way decently.




Photos from Fort Jefferson

Walking the moat

On Thursday a nasty front blew through and winds were holding at 25 knots with gusts up to 34. We hunkered down and held fast. A fishing boat lost its anchor and came drifting through the anchorage in the evening. Luckily Sean saw it and blew his horn 5 times (this is a signal for danger). That got the captain out of bed and he turned on the engines and moored his boat on a mooring ball for the rest of the evening.  Otherwise our time in the anchorage was uneventful and downright peaceful.  The wind blew hard for three days and we stayed aboard reading, quilting, cooking and doing chores. It was great!  We shared dinner with Sean & Louise, on Vector and Blossom, several times.

On Sunday the wind had calmed down to 15 knots so we invited folks from the three boats in the anchorage over for sunset drinks. There were two sailboats, Sea Monkey and Vizu, and Vector. We had a great evening and I was so happy that we’d invited everyone over. One couple has been sailing for 25 years, crossed the Pacific, visiting the small islands of the south Pacific and New Zealand. The other is a young family cruising for a year hoping to provide their 12 year old son with an experience of a lifetime. What a lucky kid J  I hope we’ll be hosting many more happy hours over the next several months. Meeting such interesting people is one of the highlights of cruising!

By Tuesday the winds and waves had calmed down enough to head out so we left at daybreak for Tampa. I’ll be posting this blogpost as soon as we’re within cell range.  I surprised myself a bit by not missing the internet or email. One afternoon I listened to NPR as I was quilting and was almost sad that I had when heard the news of the week.  Sticking your head in the sand isn’t an answer but it was nice to be oblivious for a short while.  Once we’re back in cell range we’ll be taking care of business, reconnecting with friends and family and getting back into the groove of normal life.  We plan to visit St. Petersburg, Tampa, Sarasota, Cape Coral and Ft. Myers before we turn eastward and head across Florida via Lake Ocheechobee.


Boat Business: Sitting at anchor gave us the opportunity to test some systems on the boat.

Watermakers. We have two watermakers, one up front in the basement and one back in the lazarette. They both make about 35 gallons an hour. We haven’t run them yet and with such pristine water we thought this was a perfect place to do it. We were bummed to find that the membrane in our forward watermaker is fouled even though we had flushed it well after testing it at commissioning. Luckily, the aft watermaker is fine so we made a couple hundred gallons of water.  Martin tried to clean the membrane but it’s shot so we’ll get a new one before we head to the Bahamas.

Blossom with her floppers out

Flopper Stoppers. We’ve practiced deploying the floppers a few times but we’ve never really needed them until this week. The flopper stoppers are poles that stick out from the side of the boat. Normally, they stay tucked up under the side of the boat. Deployed, the stick out like wings, held by three lines. A heavy metal “fish” hangs from the end of the pole. The fish is a large rectangular piece of metal that is hinged at the bottom. As the boat tips to one side, the pole lifts the fish which opens. This movement and the weight of the fish, slows the roll of the boat. We deployed both fish before the storm hit and were really impressed by how well they worked to reduce roll. The only problem we had was that during the worse of the winds the fish would spin, coiling up the line. We need to do some research to see if this is a common problem. We’re thinking that we could put a swivel on the fish and that might stop the coiling.

Blossom’s bottom. Martin broke out our hooka system and cleaned the boat bottom along the waterline. The system worked well (an 80 foot hose attached to a dive tank) and found mostly algae with a few barnacles growing in the through hulls. (He confirmed that the water was really, really chilly!)


Underwater lights. We have lights mounted under our swim platform for night time fish viewing. Our friends, CJ & Margie had them on Pazzia and we thought it was the coolest thing. Since August, we’ve had them on a few times but seen little as the water has been pretty murky everywhere we’ve been. In Key West we were able to see some of the large tarpin come in at night to eat the little guys that were attracted to the light.  In the Dry Tortugas it was awesome!  First come the little guys, then fish about 6 inches, then some large silvery fish, about 2-3 feet long. I’m not sure what they were, and then arrive - the goliath groupers. What a nice show!  I’m looking forward to seeing what we can attract in the Bahamas.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Leaving Key West




Leaving a rainbow behind in Key West

And we’re off!  It’s been a great three weeks in Key West. It was a perfect place to celebrate the holidays.  New Year’s Eve in Key West was a bit less crazy than we had anticipated, though we had a fabulous evening none the less!  Martin and I invited a few couples from the marina to come over for a drink early in the evening. Every day we pass folks on their boats and say hello.  It’s nice to get together and actually meet them!  We had a lovely time and really enjoyed our happy hour with everyone.  Then we went off with Sean & Louise to see what was happening around town. We had 10pm reservations for dinner but were relieved to find a nice restaurant with a cancellation that could take us, right on Duval. We walked up and down Duval Street after dinner and then decided to return to Blossom so we could watch the wench drop from mast of the pirate ship across the way. I was bad about taking pictures, other than a banjo-playing Darth Vader, but Sean got a few good ones from the evening.  


Darth and a banjo

On the 2nd we had to move out of The Galleon Marina so we popped over to the City Marina fuel dock, just across the waterway from Vector.  We were a bit sad to leave The Galleon as we were making friends with some of our neighbors there and enjoying visiting with everyone.  Our new home, however, is in the thick of things and a stone’s throw from Vector.  We have an amazing view of the entrance of the harbor and all the tourist boats coming and going. 


Vector, second boat on the left, we moved to the fuel dock directly in front of them

We had a couple very exciting wildlife sightings last week. The day my Mom left, we were walking along our dock and saw a crowd gathered around. There was a manatee sleeping peacefully in one of the slips. He even let us pet him (felt like wet leather).

Manatee

The next day we were on the west side of the island visiting another Nordy and another creature appeared. This was a giant grouper. I’ve never seen one before and it was amazing!  He was about 5 or 6 feet long and Huge.  He was big enough to have a couple small remora hitching a ride.

Big Guy

As our time here has been winding down, we’ve been making plans for heading out to the Dry Tortugas on Monday. There’s a front coming in on Thursday so we may end up staying there for a few days longer than we might otherwise, but we’re looking at it as a break from busy Key West. We’ll be off the grid, with no phone or internet so I imagine we’ll all be very productive J  We’re hoping for some serious “play time” with the toys.  If weather permits, this will be a perfect place to take out the kayaks and SUPs and get in the water for some snorkeling and maybe even go diving!

Once we get a fairly calm weather window we’ll head to the St. Petersburg/Tampa area. We expect that to be sometime next weekend. 

Vector leaving for the Dry Tortugas