Getting ready for the seasonal transition(s)

We've scheduled to splash Raconteur from Branford Landing Marina the week after next.  It will take two days because the high tide is at 1030 so by the time we are in the water it will be much too late to make it through the heavily silted inlet at Guilford Yacht Club were we keep her in summer.  We will splash on the 20th, overnight on the river or maybe in the Thimbles, and then head to GYC on the 21st.

This is her at Branford Landing in November, with cover installed:

We had kept her nearby at a different marina last summer but it took way too long to get the engine replacement project done and we didn't splash until sometime in late July!  Branford Landing is a little bit more of a "bring your own" (contractors) kind of yard, so we'll see if it turns out to work better for us.

Float plans are - floating?  Susan is doing less labor-intensive gardening this year, in theory - at least, no tomatoes this season, which is a full time job - but we do seem to have a few things scheduled: Third Flight haul out in June; Reese and Kayla (niece and BFF) visit to Guilford in July, followed by Leigh's 50th high school reunion; ten days in the Galapagos in early August.  We'd like to get to the Maine coast this season, even if just to the southernmost bays (Kennebunkport maybe?), so that will likely have to wait for mid-August to mid-September (ahead of BRRRRR season).

Between the Europe trip and some less than cooperative weather we didn't get much more Third Flight time after the excursion to the Jupiter area in March.  I don't remember if I posted this after we got back from that trip: Many Small Bags!

We will haul out for the 4th? year to Banyan Bay, south of us and west on the Dania Cutoff Canal.  They have been great to deal with; we basically give them a list of projects and they do estimates and bring the contractors.  We're lucky to find a yard that still wants to deal with small boats in South Florida.

Still no game plan to bring boat #3 back into use - Baladin (the 19' daysailer) is at Susan's sister's farm in Bowie.

Sad news from Grenada today: Patrick "Shademan" the taxi driver and guide and cruiser support go-to from our time there, has died.  I had some inkling that his health wasn't great.  He wasn't that old...he was a memorable character, and he will be missed. I'm trying to find a photo.

Quick trip on Third Flight

 We had a couple of days with no particular commitments so on Thursday we decided to take Third Flight for a short excursion north; our target was anchoring somewhere around Jupiter Island.

We did a short hop from home to the marina at Lighthouse Point on Friday; we set off around 1230 so Leigh could take her last memoir class on Zoom and be in port in time to read her essay out loud.  Worked perfectly - seven or eight miles up the ICW, only a couple of traffic jams on the way.  This is Third Flight, all 30 feet of her, sandwiched between two big yachts - we thought we might be at the wrong dock - we look like a tender for one of them!

The marina is really nice, only a couple of minutes off the inlet at Deerfield Beach, and we had a swim at the pool and an early dinner at Nauti Dawg, the onsite restaurant.  Leigh tested the new air mattress (the old one was leaking and we didn't have the patience to find it or repair it) and found it worked well.

Saturday morning we had breakfast at the Nauti Dawg (such a treat not having to cook the first night or morning) and then decided to try going outside for the trip north.

It was a little bumpy at first but smoothed out some; we had yet another dinghy adventure (the cover we had recently installed was maybe too slippery, and the strap may have needed tightening) so Leigh steered (ineptly) while JP and Susan tried first to recover Passepartout and then decided it was best to tow her instead.  All was well, and we came inside again at the Lake Worth Inlet (aka the Port of Palm Beach) instead of overshooting Jupiter Island to come in a the Jupiter Inlet.

We got to the anchorage, marked on the charts as Hobe Sound R40, a very pretty spot between Hobe Sound to the west and Jupiter Island to the east - the party on the sandbar was in full swing, but we know from experience that the day boats go home before sunset, mostly, and none of them stay overnight.

JP and Susan made a Passepartout excursion (rowing) and arrived back at Third Flight ahead of sunset cocktails with Murray's Smoked Gouda dip and rotisserie chicken and dal for supper.  It really felt like we were in a watery campground - on the Hobe Sound side, in the background here, there are no houses, though Federal Highway isn't far away and you can faintly hear the traffic.  The Jupiter Island side has some very nice homes (don't ask) and it's a nice surprise that they haven't banned anchoring there.

This is roughly the same distance from home as Elliot Key (a bit further, thus the interim stop) so it makes a very nice excursion for us.

We considered a stop on the way back; after a morning swim and breakfast, and knowing it would be ICW all the way (too much wind from the south, too much wave action to be outside), but we may have hit something at speed so decided better to aim for our home dock.

Three people, two nights on board, Stooges style; safely tucked in.

Chartering a house (I mean, a catamaran)

A year ago, Leigh proposed to JP and Susan that we charter a catamaran with our (only current) friends who sail, Pam and Jim.  Both are Navy vets (Jim was on ships) and in recent years have chartered a few times.  They were all in - Susan especially has wanted to test out a cat - and though we targeted our 20th wedding anniversary in February this year, the first workable date for the Exumas turned out to be 1-9 March.  The weather in the Bahamas, as in Florida, has been cooler and windier than normal this year, so later might have been better but we got pretty lucky.  We flew into Nassau on Friday the 1st, and were picked up by a driver sent by the Moorings.  

Captain JP and his two first mates - Jim and Susan - stayed behind and Pam and I went with the driver to provision.  I completely missed key ingredients for the two dishes I planned to prepare, but overall we did pretty well.  There were some good things remaining for the housekeeping staff the next week, but we consumed all of the perishable proteins, one way or the other, and most of the other fresh produce, not to mention a copious quantity of snacks and booze.

We motor-sailed to Highbourne Cay on Saturday the 1st, a little more than half way to our southernmost target, Staniel Cay.  The marvel of that turquoise water in the Exumas never gets old.

The yacht is unbelievably comfortable, as one might expect.  Livin' The Dream is a Moorings (Leopard) 400, so the same length as Raconteur, but...Raconteur has a beam of about 13.5', Livin' The Dream? 23'!  One of the two pods contains the primary (owner's) cabin and head; the other contains two full-size cabins and two heads.  The galley is really a full kitchen; the table and banquette inside big enough for the five of us, the table and banquette just outside, below the helm, even more generous. 

 Above that outside space, just above the helm, another seating area for enjoying happy hour and sunsets. 

We left Highbourne for Shroud Cay (in the Exumas Land and Sea Park) on Sunday.  We lucked into the one free mooring ball and wound up enjoying the tranquility so much we stayed two nights before heading on to Warderick Wells on Tuesday.  Warderick was a challenge - I should have called the day before to reserve a mooring, and we wound up anchoring a bit of a ways from the Park office and therefore the hiking trails of Warderick.  So many boats there!  

Jim had a GoPro and he is in charge of producing the video record of the trip - I've already seen the first preview, of this guy, but underwater and moving and it is sensational.  I'll do a follow up and post a couple of his offerings, with permission!

This is a nurse shark who came to investigate the very minute we dropped the hook at Big Major, around the corner from Staniel, on Wednesday.  We had seen several on our 2011 visit to the Exumas on our way south with Raconteur; this one stuck around quite a while, until the rest of the party headed off to snorkel the Grotto (think Thunderball, the Bond film with Sean Connery) and I went to take a dip, shark-free.

We dined out for the first time since setting off (we ate at the Pink Octopus at Palm Cay, the Moorings base, our first and last nights), at the "fancy" restaurant at Staniel.  They do a nice job, though we were a little disappointed in the drinks at the bar.  The setting is so perfect - tucked into the palms - but the drinks could be better.  Only game in town, perhaps. Dinner was excellent, however.  You have to reserve and pre-order, which is funny, but I'm sure it cuts down on waste in a place where absolutely everything has to be brought in.

On our last night out - we had decided to head back to the base on Friday, with a mid-day stop for a final swim and snorkel en route - we stopped at Norman Cay, totally ready for "cheeseburger in paradise" at MacDuff's.  It's been spruced up a little since our last visit in 2011 - perhaps with the help of a hurricane? - but it was a great way to (almost) end our week.  You have to land the dinghy on the beach (wearing a linen dress is always interesting) and sink an anchor into the sand.  There are now some very nice rental "cottages" at MacDuff's (you can check out the very nice photos at  http://www.sanctuare.com/portfolio-item/macduffs/)

As for the catamaran experience?  For living: A+.  For sailing: C-.  In fairness, the wind was from the south when there was enough of it, and when we were heading back north, the airs were too light for the 400.  JP says sailing cats that go to the weather exist, but of course - the living space would not come close at the same length.  Still, for chartering in turquoise waters (some of it pretty darn thin, even for a cat), it was a terrific experience and one we would happily do again.  

It's more or less the first time we've sailed with anyone else - we could never entice visitors all those years Raconteur was in the Caribbean - and we can't think of anyone we would have been more comfortable sailing with!

When we were hanging out at Shroud, we went on a dinghy excursion through the mangroves, from the west side to the east (sometimes called the Dinghy Highway?); these were my best photos.  It's hard to believe that turquoise can be present in the roaring surf, but here's the proof.

Pam and I were abandoned for a bit while the others went back to the boat to shut off the generator (oops). Pam went for a swim (it was full sun, and pretty warm on that desert island).

The mangroves along the route are flourishing, it seems.  The waterway is very shallow, and we were there on a rising but still pretty low tide.

This was the view looking back just before we arrived at the place you can pick up the path to the beach.

Doesn't this look like Robinson Crusoe might be just around the corner?  In fact, that brown stuff in mid frame had a quicksand kind of quality.  I went ahead to find a way from the dinghy to the walking trail to the beach, and nearly panicked when I hit some mud and felt stuck.  I backtracked and found firmer ground and it was fine.

Our reward - no temptation to swim that day, but so gorgeous.  We walked the beach a bit, picking up some of the flotsam or jetsam that washes ashore there and taking it above the tide line - you can find a few piles of it and we are guessing the Park service comes by from time to time to take it away.
 

The Exumas are mostly inaccessible except by boat or by very small planes from Nassau - at Staniel we met a guy at the bar who had left his home in Maine at 1 am, flew from Portland to Atlanta to Nassau and then on a puddle jumper to Staniel.  It means that they are pretty unspoiled, protected by the Land and Sea Park, and a treasure.  We hope not to stay away quite so long next time.

Pooh also had a blast; here he is, ready to assist at the helm.

Doing the FLoop

Yes, the requisite anchorage sunset photo, all by ourselves on the Shark River in Everglades National Park.

We set off from Marathon after a very enjoyable two-plus weeks (it's an easy place to wash up and never leave) to do the so-called Florida Loop (about 450 nautical miles the way we did it, clockwise from home to Marathon to the southwest coast, across the Okeechobee Waterway including the Lake, to Stuart and back down the ICW to home).  

The first night we camped out at an anchorage in the Shark River, which is in the bounds of the Everglades National Park.  In theory, there is a small anchoring/overnight charge in the Park.  In practice, this is so remote (from Flamingo, the Park HQ) that no one came around (on a Sunday night) to collect.

We headed to Marco Island on Monday (12 February); it's just too long a trip for us to get there from the Keys in one go. Not a very inspiring stop; nothing pretty to look at, very busy "harbor" with no accessible services - we were happy to be off in the morning - and we weren't first.  Our overnight neighbors were clearly of the same mind. 

Our Naples friends weren't around, so plan A was to to on to Fort Myers Beach, but Neptune had other ideas.  The two anchorages were SO quiet, we were fooled - we knew it would be a little rough and windy but it was very rough, very windy, and generally awful.  Even getting to Naples took some serious focus - and, when we got inside - quiet again.  We got a berth at Naples City Dock - just lovely, in Old Naples - and treated ourselves to Bleu Provence just outside the marina - a truly excellent restaurant with very well prepared French classics with a Florida flavor, and fantastic service.  It was "Valentine's Eve" and they were flawless.  On Valentine's Day we ate at The Dock, a no-reservations pub/seafood place, also very well executed.  We had walked around Naples a bit and could totally see why our friends moved there from the Florida east coast a few years back.

We took a short hop on the 15th to a tucked-in marina at a big mixed use complex in Cape Coral, ate about 100 yards from the boat, and then started our west-to-east trek across the Okeechobee Waterway (a series of rivers and canals that allows some boats to transit the peninsula - we couldn't do it in Raconteur unless we took the mast down).  We overnighted on the 16th at the Labelle Yacht Club.  We had a great tiki bar cocktail and lunch, and then it was so popular we couldn't get dinner in the tiki bar - 

we went inside instead, rather less charming - and then had a less than quiet night - and less than a dark skies experience as you might hope.  That sign you see in the photo is neon, and lit all night.  Ah, well. We made our way off the dock on the early side, with the intention of making thorough to the other side of Lake Okeechobee and, we hoped, through the Port Mayaca Lock on the east side of the  Lake.  In the end, we managed to transit Ortona, Moore Haven, Lewiston (twice, in and out for fuel), and Port Mayaca (some of the coming rain had started to appear) and it was early enough that we decided to keep going.  We were able to get through the St. Lucie Lock, too, right at 4:30 (the last of the day) and with a little luck to find a marina in Stuart that we could reach before their 6pm closing.  It worked out well; it poured starting Saturday night the 17th, and all day into the evening on Sunday the 18th, and we could meet our Hobe Sound friend for dinner on Sunday night in downtown Stuart.

The last leg is too long to do in one go unless you can go outside (which is what we did when we brought Third Flight home two years ago), and the storm meant the the winds and seas were anything but fair.  This is the hardest stretch for finding marinas; those that have survived the real estate development of recent years have turned themselves into superyacht centers - minimum boat lengths 50', clearly not interested in little boats like ours - but JP and Susan pushed hard to make the Delray Harbor Club Marina, with the nicest dock master ever, where we tied up for the night on the fuel dock, had showers in their nice pool bathrooms (it's a condo complex with a full service marina)  and could walk to Phat Boy Sushi on Linton for dinner.

Fueled up before heading home on Tuesday the 20th.  Here is Third Flight back at our home dock, with her name and hailing port now stenciled to the bottom of Passepartout, our new dinghy.  Our dinghy storage method blocks the name and hailing port on the boat herself.

Next up: chartering a sailing catamaran with our Ohio-based friends Pam and Jim in the Exumas 1-9 March.

Different....everything

 

In December, JP suggested we might spend a few weeks of our Florida winter on a long(er) excursion with Third Flight, the Mainship 30 Pilot II that's a motorboat cousin to Raconteur (same designer). We found her in Stuart in February of 2022, and have done a few day trips and some overnights.  She's smaller - one cabin, one head - but there's a generous and fully enclosed cockpit and we acquired a luxury air mattress and featherbed combo for added sleeping space.

JP and Susan headed south from our dock at the apartment in Lauderdale, where we keep Third Flight in winter, on Monday the 22nd of January.  Leigh followed in the car and we met up at Safe Harbor Marina in Marathon, in the Middle Keys, on Wednesday the 24th.  We did a couple of excursions from the marina, but it's an El Nino year so Florida weather has been cooler and rainier than usual, so we've had a lot of marina time and a chance to explore the Keys by car while staying on the boat.  It's a fun change of pace.  We came home to the apartment for the first few days of February and then headed back down on the 7th; we've hatched a plan to do what is jokingly called the "FLoop" - to continue it really - which will take us from here up to the Shark River, Marco Island and Naples on the Southwest coast of Florida, then across via rivers, canals and Lake Okeechobee to Stuart, before we head back to the apartment.  We will take ten or twelve days for it, starting tomorrow - Super Bowl Sunday, the 11th of February, with a goal to be home around the 20th or so.

I took the sunset photo at the marina on the 8th - our 20th wedding anniversary - before our excellent fish dinner at Castaways.  We can get there on foot, by car, or in the newly-christened "Passepartout", a Takacat dinghy with an electric engine.

I will try to report back from the trip, Internet access permitting.

PS Raconteur, after a much-shortened sailing season brought on by the installation of a new engine (!) last summer, is on the hard in Branford, Connecticut for the winter.  We will hope to splash her in May, and return her to Guilford Yacht Club, controlling depth problems notwithstanding.