Monday is the day

Hey gang,

Happy Groundhog day.

It looks like Monday will be the day we leave, we think.  We plan to leave mid day and sail overnight and arrive in Nassau Tuesday afternoon.  We will make a final check of weather Monday morning to be sure but it looks pretty good.  I don't think there will be much wind so we will probably motor most of the way.  

We are hoping to spend enough time in Nassau to do our laundry and get some conch salad from under the bridge.  When we leave the states, we will put our phones on vacation.  I live by my smart phone.  It's hard to believe there was a time when I couldn't call or check email at will. We will activate our Bahamian phone so we can reach the states.  Our wifi will be much more intermittent.  We will check in from Nassau but many of the islands (cays) where we stop do not have wifi.  

Yesterday we commissioned our new water maker.  We were excited to drink our first toast.  We will be much cleaner in both body and boat this year.  It makes 20 gallons an hour.  In the Bahamas you have to pay for water in most places.  Normally we would take our 6 gallon tanks in the dingy to a dock where we would pay as much as 50 cents a gallon.  We would then bring them back to the boat and pour them into the tanks.  A gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs and lifting a 50 gallon can is an effort. 

Have a wonderful weekend and go San Francisco.

John & Elyse 

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

Merry Christman

We spent three days in Vero on a mooring ball rafted up next to a beautiful Island Packet 45, Margarita, with a very nice couple, Bill and Margaret, who we really enjoyed. They were on their boat when we arrived and were able to assist in our rafting . They were waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas. While in Vero we were able to visit with some friends from Annapolis who are heading south and also where able to take the free public bus into town to get a little shopping done. We can't do too much at one time since I am the only one who can currently carry any groceries back to Spunky.

Vero Beach has a mooring field off of the municipal marina in a very protected creek. They pretty much accommodate all boats by rafting (tying together) 2-3 boats on a ball. It is a nice place to stop with easy access to groceries and boat services. We enjoyed our stay but were anxious to get a mooring in Stuart where we planned to stay until John's doc appt. back in Melbourne on Jan 4. We were in touch with our friend Jage who lives on her boat in the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart and was assisting us in getting an open mooring. They fill up quickly and do not raft boats so we needed to know when one came open so we could get there quickly. Jage suggested we come down and anchor across the river if none were available so we left Vero early Sunday morning and headed down the ICW with plans to arrive between 1 and 2 p.m. in Stuart. On our way we received a call from the marina that our name was next on the list and there was a ball available. On the way down our throttle cable stuck and would not let us accelerate past a certain point so we were a little bit slow in transit but arrived and attempted to pick up the empty ball. Usually John drives up to the mooring ball and I use a boat hook to grab it and attach it by line to Spunky. It is not usually a problem.  We proceeded as usual but as we approached the ball Spunky's momentum kept her going past the ball while I was holding on. I ended up flat on the deck holding on to the pennant as it floated past the bow toward the stern while trying to communicate with John that I needed help. We didn't have a hand signal for Help!! I finally let it go and we circled around for our second try. I was just on edge with all my new responsibilities and didn't handle things as well as I might have. The second time worked fine and we had a chuckle about our first try.

Stuart is a charming town on the St. Lucia River with a small downtown area with restaurants and shops within walking distance of the marina. We have enjoyed the potlucks and 'meet and greets' at the marina. Dec. 21 was a Christmas sing-a-long in the Marina lounge. We have used the marina shuttle to get to West Marine, Publix grocery store, and Walmart.It runs twice a week in the morning. Today we walked into the old downtown area and found the public bus stop which is a free service that goes to the big box stores out on Highway US 1.

It is Christmas Eve and we are back on Spunky fixing dinner and relaxing. Tomorrow will be a potluck dinner with the cruisers and marina inhabitants who are here for the holiday. We are thinking of all our family and friends and hoping everyone has a wonderful day. We are thrilled to have a new granddaughter, born on Dec. 21, Cora Elizabeth Solomon. Know that you all are all in our thoughts and our hearts.

Merry Christmas,
Elyse and John

Heading South

Hello to you.  It has been too long since I sent an update.  So long I have forgotten many of the shortcuts on the Mac.  I will work to do better.  I have added Elyse's updates which are always better written and entertaining.  If you like, you can read mine as the Reader's Digest version.

We are currently located in Stuart, FL.  It is one of our favorite stops along the way.  We are on a mooring and have all of the services of showers and laundry.  We met friends from last year when we were here and Elyse is off shopping with them now. We are back in cruising form.  Only wear shoes to go ashore and the long pants have been stored away.  We are dealing with bugs but that is a small sacrifice.

This past year we made a pledge to renew old friendships and contacts.  We rented a car in Annapolis and drove around and visited kids and grandkids who had not been able to visit us in DC.  We also saw my old VMI roommate, Larry Boese, and his wife.  Larry is a retired 3 star Air Force general.  I wish I had followed his lead in school.  We saw my old boss and close friend Ann Sarles in Memphis and saw friends in Panama City.  On the way back to Annapolis we spent the night with the Larkens in Columbia, SC

The Annapolis Harbor Boatyard again got Spunky ready to head south.  New bottom paint and polish.  Our big purchase this year was a water maker.  We are looking forward to an unlimited supply of fresh water while in the Bahamas.  We worked at the Boat Show again.  More work than money so we are trying to decide if we will return next year.  We spent time with lots of old friends and met some new ones.

We headed south around the first of November.  It was already getting much too cold.  We stopped in Solomon's Island and had trouble with the windlass which pulls the anchor and chain back on board.  They do not make our model any more and parts are getting hard to find.  We decided we would bite the bullet and go replace it and upgrade the size to handle our larger 73 lb anchor.  As we continued south, Hurricane Sandy was coming north.

We had promised to stop and see my old friend Renny Barnes in Fleets bay on the Chesapeake.  Renny and I grew up two blocks from each other from the time we were in 2nd grade.  He and his beautiful wife Lena built and incredible home on a point of land near White Stone, VA.  They had arranged for us to put Spunky at a friends dock because their water was too shallow.  At the same time we research and selected our new Maxwell windlass.  Sandy passed by and we adjusted lines and lived with two feet of water over the dock.  After passing it turned very cold.  We quickly accepted Lena's invitation to move into their warm home.  Through their contacts we selected a yard to help with the deck modifications that were needed.

We have seldom been better cared for.  It was great spending time with Renny and sharing old stories with Lena and Elyse.  Some of them may have even been true.  Because of the hurricane many businesses in the Northeast were closed.  It took longer than expected to get the windlass and I started filling out adoption papers and prepared to change our name to Barnes.  Friends went from it is so great for Renny to spend time with his old friend to, "they're still there?". We went to a neighbor's birthday party and the local Oyster Festival.

We moved to the Weldon Brothers Marina in Deltaville for the installation and they did a fantastic job at a great price.  As you will read, I am very happy we put in the new windlass.  Renny and Lena drove over and took us to dinner.

We had great weather with good wind behind us as we moved south.  We went through the Dismal Swamp that had been built by George Washington and dug by hand.  We stopped in Elizabeth City and spent a couple of nights with Don and Jean Pratt, another childhood friend.  At one point on the Nuess River we hit 9.5 knots of speed, motor sailing with just our genoa out.  For us that was very exciting.  We reached Hilton Head right after Thanksgiving.

We secured the boat in a marina and moved into a time share condo with Ann Sarles and another old friend Marilyn Shane.  While there we saw Michael Griffith and his daughter Ryan.  Like Haley she is still looking for the "right" position.  She spent years over seas in the middle and far east.

We left Hilton Head and sailed overnight to St Augustine, FL.  From their we followed the ICW to Cocoa Village and met up with my Cousin, Mary Solomon.  She is a retired Air Force LTC who at one point had taught Astronautical Physics at the Naval Academy.  She spent most of her career launching missiles and putting up satellites.  She now teaches underwater photography and diving.  She was able to fix Elyse up with all new snorkeling gear for a song.

We left there for the Seven Seas Cruising Association meeting in Melbourne.  It is a great group we listened to some nationally known speakers and saw several people we had met last year in our travels.  On Saturday night we left a little early to return to our boat.  Our dingy was tangled in a group of seven others.  I had to climb around and push and pull lines to get where we could get in and get back to our boat.  At that point things got bad.

I started having increasing pain in my lower abdomen.  It became so severe I told Elyse I needed to get to a hospital.  When we were unable to reach friends at the meeting who had cars I said call an ambulance.  At the hospital it was determined I had an acute hernia.  They had to put me to sleep to stuff my intestines back in the hole.   The next day the operated and repaired it.  Over the years Elyse had learned how to operate the dingy and outboard but as rule I handled it.  She returned to it at 1:30 am alone and started the engine and got back to the boat.  She has had to take over all the chores and lifting on the boat.  I am glad we have the new windlass that enables her to raise the anchor with a foot peddle.

We then went to Vero Beach and now to Stuart.  We will be here through Christmas and maybe New Years.  We will rent a car and drive back to Melbourne for my follow up appointment.  We are still planning to go to Miami and then cross to the Bahamas.

Spunky Fall 2012

After leaving St. Augustine, FL, we had two nice days of motoring down through FL to Cocoa where we anchored out and spent some time with cousin Mary Solomon. Mary was kind to take us to her home where we could shower and do laundry. We were able to use her great expertise to purchase new snorkel equipment. She is a master diver and travels the world diving and exploring.  We wandered through Cocoa Village with lots of small gift shops and art galleries. It is lovely here. We can't believe how many dolphins we saw on the trip down. I dug out my bird book to follow the shore birds. Today the temp is forecast to be in the high 70's. I am finally warm.

We arrived in Eau Gallie Wed. morning and anchored close to the civic center where the SSCA gam will take place over the weekend. We plan to enjoy the speakers and vendor displays and ask a lot of questions of the other cruisers.

Well Friday and Saturday went well and we heard good speakers, saw friends and had a good time. Around 9 p.m. we were tired and headed back to Spunky on the hook out in the anchorage. There were about 6-7 dinghys at the dock and John had to push and pull to get ours out of the group. As he climbed onto Spunky he started having strong pains in his lower abdomen. In a few minutes the pain went from bad to worse. I tried to reach our friend Debbie with a car who had driven down to the gam but the call did not go through so I called 911. They said to get him to shore and there would be an ambulance. We got to shore and rode to the nearest hospital where they determined it was an acute hernia and proceeded to try and push John's intestines back into his abdomen. The pain was intense and the admitting doc called the surgeon who came down and put John under anesthesia so they could push things back together. When that was done it was about 1 a.m. and I left him called a taxi and returned to the dock. Due to my back problems, I don't often start the outboard or run the dinghy but there I was at 1:30 a.m. by myself getting the outboard going and getting myself back to Spunky. I was truly concerned that I would not be able to get the outboard started as it can be temperamental not to mention steering the thing accurately enough to glide up along side Spunky and climb aboard. I did both and arrived totally exhausted but so hyped up that after running the generator to charge the batteries I could not get to sleep.  I managed those trips in to shore and back to Spunky until Monday afternoon when the surgeon released John after preforming repair surgery on Sunday and with a promise not to lift anything or strain for 6 weeks. Our good friend Debbie, with whom we sailed in the Bahamas last winter, was there for us driving me back and forth from the dock to the hospital and back again.

Tuesday we figured out a way for me to raise the dinghy onto the davits since I don't have the strength to pull it up and my back was not up to that task even if I did. Wednesday morning John coached me through raising the anchor and we were off to Vero Beach to catch a mooring and spend a few days trying to do some provisioning. We arrived Wed. afternoon and rafted up with a 45 ft. Island Packet (beautiful boat). Later I will lower the dinghy (not as hard as raising it) and we will head into the marina.

We have pretty much decided we will not attend another gam considering it was last year at the gam in Annapolis when I ended up in the hospital for emergency abdominal surgery late Saturday night. We are not up for a replay of these medical emergencies.

Miami Beach

We are in Miami Beach at anchor in a beautiful location. After leaving Stuart on Tuesday morning we motored down the ICW to Lake Worth. It was a great day and we arrived early so we tried to find an alternative anchorage from the recommended one but every spot was taken and the anchorage behind Peanut Island where we thought we would have good shelter from the winds and a place to walk Moose was very small and full so we motored back to North Lake Worth and dropped the hook. It was the first time we used our new anchor and it preformed like a champ. The predicted t-storms arrived and although others in the anchorage dragged we held tight. The landing area for the dinghy where we went in to walk Moose and others use to get to shopping is known for theft. A friend we met in Stuart had their outboard stolen a few years back and all of the guides caution not to leave your dinghy unattended even if locked. We decided to only stay the night and left early the following morning. We had hoped to jump outside of the ICW into the Atlantic and head to Miami but the weather was iffy so we stayed inside and motored through Palm Beach and onto Ft. Lauderdale. This area of the ICW is called the canyon as the sides of the canal are all concrete and lined with homes some quite opulent. North of Del Ray Beach the temp alarm went off and smoke started pouring out of the hatchway. John shouted to turn off the engine as he raced below to see what was up. We had broken an engine belt and blown out a hose. We dropped anchor in the middle of the channel and John spent over an hour below making repairs. There are 20 bridges to get through in this 50 mile stretch and most are restricted to certain opening times. Some are only a couple of miles apart and you go through one at quarter to or after the hour and the next on the hour or half. We don't quite go fast enough to make the quick openings and spent a lot of time waiting for the 2nd opening. That combined with the time lost on the repairs put us into Ft. Lauderdale too late to find an anchorage and we were forced to stop the night at a marina. This morning we left and made it through the final two bridges to Port Everglades Inlet. John noticed that our oil leak that he thought was fixed when he tightened every bolt in sight is worse than ever perhaps due to the belt episode and the heat that generated. We decided however to push on to Miami so we motored out into the Atlantic passing a few huge cruise ships at dock and hoisted the sails and took off south. The wind died shortly and we motored on to Government Cut a big shipping channel into Miami. We passed by a huge cruise ship at dock awaiting and made our way slowly up the cut being bounced around and side to side constantly by all the big and small power boats that don't know the meaning of "No Wake"

New Year's Eve was great. We had fireworks all around us in the anchorage. There were some over Miami and some over South Beach. It was very exciting. We have found the Publix, Ace Hardware and Post Office. We can walk to all of those as well as into South Beach and the upscale shops there. The street with the shops is closed off for pedestrian traffic only and it is line with outdoor cafes and filled with people speaking spanish. We love the mix of cultures here and the excitement of the city There is a lovely little park where we take Moose for his twice daily walks. It has a fenced in play area for the children and is right on the water.

We tried to use the Alfa antenna that we had purchased but after loading the software and wiping out our 'easy tether' and gmail, we took the Mac and antenna into an Apple store for help. As usual the store was full to the brim with people shopping for Mac products. Pretty incredible. We were able to get our gmail back but could not get the antenna to work so we sent the antenna back and will try to order another brand that can work with the Mac. The parts for the oil leak are not going to arrive until Jan. 9th so we will remain here in Miami until we can get those and meet with the mechanic. Once they arrive we will have to go into an expensive marina to have the work done. The good news is I will do laundry and we will take real showers. Looks like it will be the middle of January before we leave. Our next adventure will be to take the bus to the West Marine store to purchase some more spares in case they are needed in the Bahamas. From what we are told it is very hard and expensive to get parts there. We are anchored very close to South Beach and the West Marine stores are all in Miami so we will try the bus. Here in Miami there are no special rates for seniors as we have found in other locations unless you have a special card which requires a bus trip in order. to apply for the card. More trouble than it is worth.

We had a cold snap for a couple of days. One night the temps dropped to the high 30's but today it is back to the 70's with a nice breeze. Just lovely. I shall send this now as our wifi coverage is very spotty and I may not get an opportunity to send an update for a while. At least until we spend the night at the marina.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying life.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone. Today is beautiful here. The sun is out and there is a nice breeze. John, Moose and I walked into town this morning along the Riverwalk and had breakfast and bloody's at Mulligan's. Stuart is such a nice little town. I keep thinking that I could settle here for a while and be quite content. We went to dinner a few nights back with a group from the marina. They had cars and it was a lot of fun. The town is quite spread out with lots of the usual stores, services etc. but without a car we just stay in the old town area which is great. There is a Publix, ABC liquor and Ace Hardware within a bike ride and the marina has bikes we can check out for the ride. We are planning to take a ride this afternoon and then I will do laundry as it won't be busy on Christmas day. Tomorrow is a brunch put on by the son of a cruiser who is a chef from Atlanta visiting for the holiday. That should be a nice opportunity to bid farewell to everyone we have met here and then we will ready Spunky for our departure on Tuesday morning.

I have to say that walking into town on this beautiful morning I felt so very grateful that I am alive and able to enjoy this experience. As I begin to look back on 2011, it has been quite a year for us. So many challenging days not the least of which was my unexpected surgery. I recognize how fortunate I was to have it all come on so quickly. I really had very little time, only hours, to worry (which, by the way, I am very good at) about upcoming surgery. We are looking forward to 2012 which I know will be an outstanding year if we all survive the end of the Mayan calendar.

Thinking good thoughts of all our friends and family. Much love and cheer,

Elyse, John and Moose

Stuart, FL

We are still in Stuart, FL. After a phone conversation with Foley Marine, we decided to stay through the weekend in hopes they might have an approved mechanic here in Stuart that can take care of the engine while we are here. It is a major fix as the entire front of the engine must be removed to reach the timing case cover and replace the gasket if that is what is actually leaking. While they are in agreement to take responsibility(we think), we want to take advantage as it will be a very expensive repair.

Yesterday was overcast and in the low 70's and a bit on the cool side for me. We worked on projects on Spunky. Some were successful and some were not. John tried to install a navigation program (MAC ENC) on our Mac but the program would not run. He was able to set up our Alfa antenna which will hopefully allow us to access wifi when we are close to a transmitting tower. It is beautiful today. No clouds but fairly windy and once again in the low 70's. Today my plan is to use teak oil on the salon teak and John is going to install copper strips to ground our SSB radio. The Tacktick wind speed instrument which we installed last Monday did not work consistently so John called Ray Marine which had recently purchased Tacktick. After several calls over 3 days,they finally determined that we had been sold an old unit without updated software so we had to send it back to them to be reprogramed. Had we just exchanged it for another, one of us would have had to go up the mast where the transducer is mounted to synchronize the new unit. This way, with the reprogram, the unit should work without a climb up the 62 ft. above the water. Now we only have to figure out where they can send it when the program is complete.

Friday John took one of the marina bikes and rode to the hardware store to find screws in order to mount a chart shelf he had made for me from scraps of teak. It works wonderfully mounted under the navigation table in an out of the way place. Many of our charts are very large and hard to store but this appears to be a great solution for us. The trip to the store was down A1A which is a very busy traffic street and he said it was an exciting ride. All the jobs on a boat seem to take much longer then jobs at home because we have to get into the dinghy and then take a long walk to accomplish many of the tasks not just jump into the car for a ride to Lowes.

We found today the name of a mechanic that can look at Spunky's engine so tomorrow we will take her back over to Manatee Pocket for the day. The mechanic won't work at this marina as they are not accommodating and has recommended another marina where we have permission to tie up for several hours in their lift area. In order to hold our mooring ball we will leave our dinghy tied to the ball when we leave. We will leave early tomorrow morning as it will take a few hours to get back over to Manatee Pocket. This scheduling means we will remain here through Christmas as we will have to have parts delivered after we have determined for sure where the leak is originating. We are hoping the work can be done the week following Christmas. We are having our mail sent here and our wind instrument returned here which will make things a little less complicated.

Yesterday afternoon MAC ENC called back and walked John through installing our nav. software and that is up and running. Now we just have to figure out how it works and what it can do for us. I started putting teak oil on the wood in the salon and it really makes a difference. Tonight we will attend the Tuesday night "meet and great" and see if anyone shows up. The mooring field is full but many of the boats are sitting empty as many folks have left their boats and flown out for the holidays.

Not much too exciting going on but it sure is a nice place to spend the time waiting for repairs and equipment. It looks like Dec 24-26 will be a great weather window but we will not be able to take advantage of it. Another will come around when we are ready.

I am sure you are all frantically completing shopping, decorating and traveling for the holidays.

We wish you all a wonderful time and will be thinking of you.

Being Lazy

Friends and Family,

Life is good. We are currently located in Stuart, FL. We came in here originally at Manatee Pocket to pick up our new genoa (the sail on the front of the boat) Mack sails as always did a great job. We then moved over to Sunset Bay were we are on a mooring ball. It's like being at anchor except they are able to fit a lot more boats together. This has to be one of the best places we have been. The people here are friendly and helpful. We have run into some old friends and made some new ones.

The trip down the Intracoastal Waterway has been pretty uneventful. We stood at the doc in Titusville and watched a family of Manatee feed at our feet. We have had many porpoises join us along the way to be sure we are ok. Vero Beach is another great place to stop. Many cruisers go no further. Many call it Velcro Beach. There is free bus service to take you anywhere you would like to go.

We will probably leave here next week. We plan to motor down to Ft Lauderdale and then we will go off shore to Miami. At that point we will wait in Miami for a "weather window". In order to have a quiet crossing of the Gulf Stream we need to be sure there will not be any wind from the north. North winds make for big waves and uncomfortable seas. Much of the last month the winds have been steady from the northeast. Lots of boats have been waiting. If the weather isn't good we may head on down to the Florida Keys to wait. The nice thing is we are not in a hurry. We have most of the food we will need for the next 5 months. Our front berth is loaded with cans and packages. Our freezer and the refrigerator are filled to the brim. We are told wine if very expensive so we may pick up a little more.

We bought a Spot GPS. When we push the button it sends out our location. Click on it below and it will connect to Google Maps. We can also send out a request for help. It will serve as a backup for our EPIRB which when activated notifies the Coast Guard we are in trouble and where we are located.

Click to see where we are located:
http://fms.ws/6gAWS/27.19985N/80.26123W

If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27.19985,-80.26123&ll=27.19985,-80.26123&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Today I am using the Internet threw our new extended Alfa antennae. It enables us to pick up wifi from locations on shore. We are settling in to a routine. Moose is doing much better. Last night there was a "meet and greet" at the marina. We sat and visited with a group of people and Moose took turns sitting in people's laps. He would still prefer to be on shore. The night before we went to a Christmas sing along that was organized by a Jewish couple. We included the dreidle song.

Our new engine has a little oil leak. We are talking to Foley engines who remanufactured it. We are hoping they will step up and honor the warranty. I don't have high hopes. We can probably live with it through the winter but it would be nice to get it resolved before we leave.

We miss our family and friends at the holidays. We have talked and if we do this again next year we will probably park the boat and fly off to visit someone, so kids, be warned.

Elyse's son Michael has set up a blog for us. Elyse, as many of you know, does a much better job than I of telling about our adventure. You can read what she says at http://spunkysvoyage.blogspot.com/. You may have to cut and paste it into your browser. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas will give you time with those you love. Thanks for being a part of our adventure. Time to take Moose ashore.

Sailing on Spunky,
John

Spot Tracking

We left Mariner's Cay Marina on Wednesday afternoon after John returned our rental car. Monday we had our genoa delivered and our rigging checked and a mobile groomer came and shaved Moose. We had spent Tuesday day at Walmart, West Marine, Office Depot, Petco and Publix shopping like we would never see a store again. I know after this year's trip I will have a much better feel for what can be obtained in the Bahamas but for now we are working in the dark except for what others have advised. There was a Hair Cuttery next to Publix so I got my hair cut by a fellow named Dallas who was born in the Virgin Islands and studied "under Vidal Sasson". We also went to customs at the St. Lucie County International Airport which makes Panama City International Airport look huge. We submitted ourselves along with passports and boat documentation for approval and we passed and now have our "Local Boater's Option Card" which allows us to return to the US without actually going into a customs office for clearing in. It was a long day and we were exhausted when we returned to Spunky. We spent the next hour in the dark transporting bags and bags of provisions to Spunky. Wed. morning we grouped and repackaged purchases and stored them in the v-birth and forward head hoping that we can find something when we want to use it.

We arrived early afternoon at Sunset Bay Marina where we hooked the last remaining mooring ball available for our size boat. We are close to the marina office and dinghy dock which is a wonderful location as it is not so far to take Moose in. It is really pretty here. We are moored with about 70 other boats of all size and design. The marina is about 2 blocks from the old downtown which is a charming village with restaurants, shops and a theater that has a wonderful lineup up of performers for the winter months. I can see why people stay here year round. John stopped in at a barbershop and got a short cut so we are now all shorn. We did pick up some clippers so we can try to keep ourselves and Moose respectable and comfortable in the Bahamas. That will be an interesting experience. A couple we met at Mariner's cut each others hair. Her's looked really good. He said he just puts the 5/8 in. blade on the clippers and shaves like I remember from the film they showed when Elvis went into the Army and they cut off his hair. As I said it should be interesting.

This afternoon there was Ladies Lunch and I went along. It was a very eclectic group of women who live on their boats. All were in long term slips at the marina where they now live as opposed to moving from place to place as we are. My favorite was Amy, who is 70 years old and lives with her significant other Marty who is 82, on a 49 ft. trawler. What a kick she is. Tonight we will attend "Sing-a-long for the holidays".

I am sending the address for our Spot tracking so you can follow us on our journey. The Spot will take a GPS reading and put it on a google map so if you go to the site you can track us on our journey. I think. You will probably have to cut and paste it in order to open it. It also allows us to call for assistance if we are in trouble. Sort of a backup for the Epirb, which we have as well, which calls for help and sends out our position after we have been separated from our radio. As I understand it we will loose phone and computer transmission for a while when crossing the gulf stream and not be able to call on a cell phone until we purchase a Bahamian phone so we will not be able to check in and let everyone know we are ok and have arrived. The Spot, however should continue to track our progress. We will soon see how well this all works.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=27.15765,-80.19528&ll=27.15765,-80.19528&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

We are thinking of you all and I will try to keep the updates coming.
Elyse

Holiday Spirit?

We left St. Mary's Boatyard this morning on a rising tide. We had planned on anchoring after about 45 miles, but the anchorage is unknown to us and only recommended by one cruising guide with all sorts of disclaimers about debri on the bottom and swinging space limitations. With the weather forecast to be 20 mph winds today and possible thunderstorms tonight with higher gusts we decided to stop in a known anchorage only about 7 miles from where we started that will put us within striking distance of St. Augustine if we leave in the dark on Tuesday morning and arrive at dusk on Tuesday evening. So we are here in Fernandina Beach, FL. We went into town and walked around. It is a charming town on Amelia Island. There are lots of little shops with interesting items and a couple of book nooks which I love. There are little parks with benches along the street which Moose loves. We are anchored out in a large anchorage with about 15 other boats and dinghy into shore for restrooms/showers and trash disposal. Moose is napping, John is cleaning stainless and I am on the internet.

Tomorrow we will go into town when it is dry and not too rough hopefully. We have some documents to put in the mail. Right now the winds are picking up and it is getting somewhat wavy with rain showers. We will try to get Moose into shore shortly so we can remain on Spunky through the evening and keep watch on the position of the boats around us.

We have had 3 uneventful days down the ICW. Things are getting easier. We made St. Augustine from Fernandina in a day. We were able to catch the current and went through the Bridge of Lions at 4:30 the last opening before rush hour when the bridge does not open for an hour. We took a mooring ball ($20.00 per night) and stayed 2 nights. St. Augustine is a favorite place to stay. It is charming and the city is all lit up for the holidays.

Leaving St. Augustine, we anchored out in a creek just north of New Smyrna Beach named Rockhouse Creek. It was quite windy through the night and since we are not confident of our anchor, John spent the night watching from the cockpit to make sure we stayed put as there were several other boats around. We have received our final documentation papers after the name change and now we have to find a customs office in order to get our "Local Boaters Card" to make our reentry to the USA much easier.

I have been working on our provision list for the Bahamas. We think we will try to stop in Vero Beach to do this big shopping trip and then stop in Stuart for our sail and then head down to Miami to await a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream. I am not sure how long all this will take but we will probably be on our way by the end of December.

Although the mornings in St. Augustine were downright cold, the days are warming up nicely as we travel south. Spunky likes the warm weather as well and her engine starts on the first try in the warmer temps. The stratoglass in the cockpit cover rolls up easily as the temps warm up as well and of course I do much better in the warmer days.

Here we aren Titusville, FL. on a mooring ball. They have covered almost the entire free anchorage area in mooring balls. On our way up north, in the spring, this was an open anchorage with no charge to anchor. Now it is $15.00 per night and we dinghy in to use restrooms and showers and laundry. There is a great dog park in the city park next to the marina which is very nice for Moose. He has had two playtimes since we have arrived. We will stay two nights and head for Melbourne tomorrow to get some work done on engine. This afternoon we watched a group of 5 manatees feed on grass floating on the water in the harbor. They are such wonderful creatures-the couch potatoes of the marine world.

Two days in Eau Gallie and we have our new anchor. Now we will have to see if it works. It doesn't quite return to its home spot on the front of the boat easily so John will have to figure that out. The weather has been lovely. We have spotted many porpoises and manatees as well as a variety of birds. I love watching the pelicans dive into the water for fish. They look so graceful until they hit the surface. Then it looks like a car hitting a brick wall.

We arrived at Vero Beach on Wednesday and rafted up with another boat on a mooring ball. Vero Beach, or velcro beach as many cruisers call it since it is so hard to leave, is a wonderful stop. The marina is welcoming to cruisers. The facilities are clean and well cared for. There is a free bus(donations accepted) that stops at the marina and goes all through town. The cruisers use it to shop at Publix, Target, Walmart, West Marine and many other shops. We went into town on two occasions and filled our back packs with groceries, wine/alcohol, and boat supplies. We realize that we will have to rent a car to do our final provision in Stuart as there is just too much to carry on our backs. There was a cocktail get together on Thursday night where we were able to meet people going south. We haven't yet met anyone doing the route we are planning. Most were going to the Abacos or not leaving until well after Christmas.

Our next stop is Stuart where we arrived this afternoon after traveling the day in wind and rain. We are in a marina here and the guys from Mack sails will arrive tomorrow a.m. with our new genoa. They will also do a check of our rigging and install our wind speed transducer. We are renting a car and will drive to the St. Lucie County International Airport to meet with customs and get our "Local Boaters Option" number. Then we will shop for our 5 months of meals and other gear and hopefully Moose and I will find a spot to get our hair cut. We both are way overdue.

Hope this finds you all well and getting into the Christmas spirit. It doesn't yet seem like Christmas to me since we are not in the stores that over emphasize the holiday and the weather certainly doesn't feel like wintertime. Please stay in touch and let us know what is happening in your lives.