Spunky Moving South

John has sent out a couple of short updates but he sends to a somewhat different list than I so I will send mine as well and apologize for any duplication. 

We left Stuart, FL on Thursday morning and had an uneventful motor trip down the ICW to Lake Worth Inlet where we went out onto the Atlantic about 4:30 p.m. and set course for Miami. Shortly before going through the inlet our autohelm started to act up. As we sailed south from the inlet the autohelm stopped steering a course so we turned it off and began to hand steer. We sailed for a few hours but the wind died down and with the waves behind us it became difficult to hand steer so we turned on the engine for the remainder of the trip. It was an easy trip. It was very pretty watching the shore lights as we went by. We shortened our watches as we were hand steering and arrived outside of Government Cut in Miami by 6 a.m. We slowed down and waited for two huge cruise ships to enter the cut and then followed them in. With the ships docking in the channel, the marine police close it to recreation traffic and we took a left and came in by Fisherman's Channel. We had anchor down by 7;30 a.m. in our anchorage just south of Belle Island right off South Beach. It is so pretty here with interestingly designed condos lining Biscayne Bay.  We spent the day napping and trying to decide what to do about the autohelm. We called a contractor to try to get an idea of repair cost and it had the potential to be huge. We would have to go into a marina and have the contractor test the compass. If it was working they would suspect the control computer which would have to be sent back to Ray Marine for repair or totally replaced. After adding up medical bills, boat insurance and potential repairs it was clear our cruising kitty would be gone. 

Saturday our friends whom we met in Stuart, Rick and Chris on One With The Wind, arrived in the anchorage and we took them into South Beach to show them the Publix, Ace Hardware and Lincoln Mall which a wonderful outdoor mall-actually a main street that has been closed to traffic with shops and restaurants. We walked all the way down to the Beach listening to all the voices speaking many languages and watching all the interesting people. At night we watch the lights.

Sunday Rick came over to Spunky to help troubleshoot the autohelm. He spent about 3 hours moving our compass location and cleaning wire attachments. We took Spunky out that afternoon to check the results and still did not have success. John and I then disconnected the compass once again and checked the resistance between the wires and put things back together again. 

Monday we once again took Spunky out to try to calibrate the autohelm which requires going around in circles a full 360 degrees 2 to 3 times until the autohelm senses what it requires to steer our boat. Success !!! we think. It seemed to hold a course so we returned to our anchorage. 

John thinks we are set. I am hopeful. Now we will enjoy South Beach find a laundry and await a weather window that will allow us ample time to cross the Gulf Stream and arrive in Nassau. 

The weather here is lovely. Temps in the high 70's and low 80's. We hope that 2013 is beginning well for all of you.

Elyse and John

sv/Spunky

Sweating in Miami

We are enjoying our stay in Miami waiting for weather.  Thanks to my new best friend Ric, on One with the Wind, our auto pilot is now working. He spent yesterday morning cleaning terminals and relocating the compass.  This morning Elyse and I calibrated the auto pilot and adjusted the deviation.  He saved us a bunch of $'s and time.  We are now just waiting for a good weather window.  We are hopeful it will come next week.  There is a short window tomorrow but we are going to wait for a little longer window.

South Beach is a great place to spend some time anyway.  We may watch the Super Bown there.  We are rooting for Elye's  49ers.  Hope you have a good week.

John & Elyse on Spunky

Miami

Hey gang,

We arrived in Miami at the crack of dawn on Friday after sailing (motoring mostly) overnight from Stuart.  We had some problems with our auto pilot and will see about getting it resolved.  We have a nice breeze this morning and we are told it will be 81 degrees.  We had a couple we met in Stuart over for a drink last night and showed them some of South Beach today.  He is coming over tomorrow to look at our auto pilot.  I am hopeful I will only need a new compass.

It was great walking down the Lincoln Mall today.  It's not your typical mall.  The closed about 7 blocks of Lincoln Ave and put in fountains and restaurants, etc.  While in Publics today we ran into a young man we met last year in St Mary's, GA.  He is single handing his way down to the Florida Keys.

As soon as the auto pilot is fixed and we get a good weather window we will head to Nassau.  It looks like the wind will be out of the North East for the next several days.  We need to wind to be out of the south to cross the Gulf Stream.  

As my friend Ed Kelly says, I hope this is a great week for you.

John & Elyse  

Update from Stuart

Dear Friends

I have included a photo of the mooring field where we have been living for the last month.  It's the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart.  It is a great place with a nice downtown.  The marina has a lot of services including free bicycles and a bus that takes us to many places like grocery and marine stores.  We have met some great people.  We are having dinner tonight with some Canadians we met last year.

As of the 20th I am cleared to do what ever I want.  Elyse has kept me busy.  Yesterday we changed the fuel filters and today we took the boat in and filled our fuel and water tanks.  Our current plan is to leave here on Thursday and go off shore at Lakeworth, FL and sail overnight to Miami.  It is also a great place.  The grocery and South Beach are a short dingy ride away from where we will anchor.  We will wait there until we get a good weather window.  That means that the waves in the Gulf Stream are under 3 feet and the wind will hopefully enable us to sail.  We will sail from Miami overnight to Nassau.  From there we will work our way down the Exuma islands.  There are a lot of places we want to visit again and couple we missed last year we want to see. Places like Big Major where the wild pigs swim out to greet you when you dingy ashore.

The weather has been great in the 70's.  Today the wind is blowing pretty hard.  We hope it will die down before we dingy in for dinner.  We have settled into some routines.  Meeting people, doing boat chores and relaxing.  It is a nice life.  We hope your life is good as well.  As my friend Ed Kelly says, "I hope this is the greatest week of your life".

John &  Elyse on Spunky

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! It is 2013 and we are here in Stuart, FL. There is supposed to be a great weather window this week, the first week of the year, so many of the southward bound boats will be leaving the mooring field. We, of course, will remain as we are awaiting John's appointment with the surgeon on Jan. 4th.

We are enjoying being in one place for an extended period as it has allowed us to order some needed items on line and have them shipped to the marina. The weather has been lovely excect for a few days of high winds when a front passed through and the morning temps dipped below 50 degrees. The sunsets are beautiful and the dolphins play in the river. We don't think we could have found a better spot to be "stuck"  for 6 weeks.

We are trying to take advantage of some of the opportunities here in Stuart so we went to see Paula Poundstone perform at the Lyric Theater. She was very funny. The theater gets some very good acts and it not anywhere near the cost of the DC area. We are buying our vegetables at a small local market within walking distance of the marina that carries local produce and products and we rented a car to take to Melbourne for John's appt. and used it to go to a movie, Les Miserables. In the evenings we watch shows on Netflix and read a lot.

As for John's appt. with the surgeon, it went well. The doc said everything looked good and John could begin to lift things again slowly just not any major strain til 6 weeks. Once we get to Jan. 20 he can pretty much do what his body tells him is not painful. So we are relieved. We will remain here until then and try to decide if we want to go off shore again and risk another emergency. We will probably head down to Miami before the end of the month going outside the ICW at Lake Worth, FL and see how we do with raising the sails.

Today we will go into shore for a marina potluck and to watch the Redskins play Seattle.Life is good for us and we hope for all of you as well.

Elyse and John