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What, another new dinghy? Yes, this one
replaces the last under warranty. We took a slightly smaller model since
the old one was a little large for our boat. |
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Northwest Creek over the stern. We are
away after a real crunch to get ready. Although a couple of days later
than planned we are still 10 days earlier than our last trip. |
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If Lynn had more clothes she would wear
them. Temperatures are bitter cold and the wind off the water makes it
even worse. |
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Yesterday this sign was flashing and
boats, including us, could not proceed through Camp Le Juene on the ICW.
It was dark and cold as we went by so it was hard to get a good photo.
This will have to do. |
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We will miss the historic Sunset Beach
Bridge when it is replaced with a modern, high rise bridge in a couple
of years. This is the oldest bridge on the ICW and is unique in its
pontoon design. Instead of swinging or rising out of the way, cables
pull it our of the opening. |
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This is the mysterious waypoint that was
always 100 miles at 104 degrees true to which the boat wanted to steer
when we tried to set a location to go to. We were going nuts trying to
get rid of it without success. A Raymarine tech rep said the "S" in the
middle meant that it was a Sea Talk (their communication protocol)
generated way point and that it was coming from another instrument in
the system. He suggested unhooking the old GPS display. George was able
to get the old display to act as a "repeater" rather than "master" and
the problem is gone. Hooray! |
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Charleston looked beautiful from the
deck of Sunspot Baby as we transited the harbor early on Thanksgiving
Day. |
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Each of us poses with Toby in front of
B&B Seafood. We liked this spot and will be back. |
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Lynn cleaned the 2 pounds of shrimp we
bought and then boiled them up and made a great "happy hour" dinner. |
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Sunspot Baby at the B&B docks. Our only
company was the shrimp trawler Billie B. |
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As is so often the case on the water,
the sunrise at B&B's docks is spectacular. |
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On Friday between Beaufort and Skull
Creek it started to rain. George put on his rain hat. We wore rain gear
a lot for the next several days. |
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Fishing boats in Brunswick, GA. |
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Pelicans on a frosty morning in
Brunswick, GA. |
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Brunswick Landing Marina is the base
site for a local youth sailing school. We both wish our grandkids could
all participate in something like this. |
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Our friend Shirley spontaneously flew to
Vero Beach to stay in the time share. Her sister, Pat, drove up from Ft.
Lauderdale to see her and visit. Shirley is on the right.
Shirley also took our picture on the deck of
the Driftwood Resort where we had the time share. You can see it was
beach front. Look Ma, no winter clothes! |
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Sunspot Baby has a great helm station.
We use the bulkhead as our "Cruise Information Center" (CIC). George has
the bridge list in front of him. Many instruments and beyond his arm you
can see the new GPS chart plotter.
Each day Lynn writes bridges and other important waypoints with washable
crayons on the CIC. It is most helpful |
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Looking up the New River toward downtown
Fort Lauderdale where we tie up to the sea wall.
Lynn sees homes like this along the river
and says "I could live here." Maybe after we hit the lottery. |
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Tied to the wall along the New River in
downtown Fort Lauderdale, FL where we plan to spend Christmas. The day
after, we will probably start working our way down to Key Biscayne.
Twenty knot East winds outside might keep us in the waterway. We are
waiting a weather window to hop across the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. |
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FLORIDA IGUANAS
We saw a lot of Iguanas this year. The
one at the top is along the river in Ft. Lauderdale. When a cruisers
across the river wanted to plug in his shore power, this one displayed
and yielded the ground grudgingly. I didn't get the camera out in time
to shoot the altercation.
The next is two iguanas in the same tree.
I don't know about their association if any.
The upper was more colorful and larger.
The lower was still a formidable lizard.
Down the way was another colorful
specimen. |
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NO NAME HARBOR
No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne is our
favorite jumping off place to cross the Gulf Stream.
The top shot is early in the morning
before the Miami Cubano Navy arrives. The iguana shots were taken in the
trees on the far side.
The on-site cafe serves Cuban food and we
love the Cuban Coffee. George has on his serious coffee gourmet face.
We dinghy ashore but one talented
cruisers stands on her surf board and rows ashore. She bought to cups of
coffee to go, placed them on the board and rowed back to her boat. We
wonder if our surfing granddaughter, Bonnie can do this. |
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FAREWELL FLORIDA
On Monday 12/29 we departed early. Our
last views of the good old USA were the Cape Florida lighthouse on Key
Biscayne, Stiltsville, a group of cabins on stilts on the shoal near
Biscayne Channel, and looking over our stern a glimpse of the Miami
skyline. Incidentally, the nice new throwable life ring was a Christmas
gift from Frank and Madelyn. |
