Southern Florida

2/4/19- We are on the move after a six week layover in St Augustine which included a three trip north for my dad's 89th birthday and visits with all our kids. The three weeks were wonderful, and all our friends and family were very gracious providing us beds (a total of eight!). But after three weeks, we were ready to get "home" to Skylark. The past week we did some additional provisioning for the upcoming crossing to the Bahamas, got to know our neighboring cruisers better at the Marker 8 Hotel & Marina, and enjoyed a bit more of what St Augustine has to offer. We have really enjoyed this city and the cruiser nickname of "the Velcro city" is well deserved; it's hard to pull away and leave. Visit this city if you get a chance, it's lots of fun with good food, breweries, live music, sights, and history. FYI for our local NH and Maine friends: Frontier Airlines just started flying from Portsmouth to Orlando and last I looked they were offering rates as low as $29 each way. I highly recommend booking a flight today and enjoy a long weekend getaway in St Augustine!

Thousands of birds fly in each evening to spent the night and nest at the Alligator Farm in St Augustine since the alligators have eliminated most predators. That is of course with the exception of alligators, but they can't climb trees!

You know you have been sitting at a dock too long when the bottom of your fender has built up growth like this.

2/5/19 - It's 3:30AM and we are 5 miles offshore motorsailing towards West Palm Beach/ Lake Worth. The seas are calm, there are no other ships or boats in sight, and the stars fill the dark sky. Venus just rose to the SE and is so bright it's reflection streams across the water. Jupiter is also bright just above Venus adding to the display. This is what makes an overnight passage in favorable weather conditions so wonderful, the dark expanse of water all around, and the stars and planets above. On these overnight passages one of us will go to sleep relatively early and the other will stay alert on watch as long as possible until needing to be relieved. For instance, tonight I nestled into the berth around 9:30PM and Diane stayed on watch until 2AM. Then I take over and carry on  until dawn when Diane awakes. When on watch we check our position on the iPad navigation App, do a 360 degree scan of the horizon for the running lights of other ships or boats, and check the AIS transceiver. AIS (automatic identification system) is vessel tracking and an accident avoidance technology relatively new on recreation vessels, primarily due to the cost. Most commercial vessels have been required to transmit and receive AIS signals which identifies the vessel name, speed, course, bearing, and much more including the closest point of approach (CPA) and time to CPA; i.e.: how close will the vessel come to Skylark and in how many minutes.  On Skylark we have an AIS transceiver which means we transmit both an AIS signal and we receive signals from other vessels. Fortunately, many VHF radios are now equipped with AIS receivers so for relatively little additional cost a recreational boat can at least receive AIS signals. This of course is not a substitute for remaining alert and using your eyes and a good pair of binoculars to do regular 360 degree scans of the horizon. 

The eastern sky is now brightening easing the darkness aside. This is another magical part of an overnight passage, the sunrise. It reminds me of the name of our former sailboat Kuivato.  Kuivato is a Hopi Indian term for a morning ritual of greeting the sun which brings light and life to the land, and being thankful for the return of the sun every day. TS

An extra large photo for an extra large yacht in West Palm Beach. Note he's being towed by a rather tiny towboat. Multimillion dollar boats everywhere, also a daily massive cruise ship ferrying tourist to and from Freeport, Bahamas, and even cargo ships. It's all quite a sight from our anchorage immediately south of the Lake Worth inlet.  

We took advantage of the favorable conditions on the leg from Lake Worth to Miami to try out an old spinnaker we had been carrying on board for possible use on dead downwind passages. While it's a bit small, it adds a few knots to our speed, looks darn good, and it's better than having the jib flopping around.  It gets a thumbs up.  

2/13/19 - We have been enjoying anchoring off Key Biscayne for the past few days swimming, snorkeling, relaxing a bit and provisioning. Throughout the weekend we have been involuntarily entertained by large powerboats with oversized sound systems blasting music day and night with no regard for anyone else in the anchorage. Weekdays have been relatively quiet here off of "Nixon Beach" since Richard Nixon's winter Whitehouse was formerly located here. The buildings have been replaced by McMansions, but his floating helipad still remains (check out Google Earth)!  It is reported that he retreated here during the Watergate days when all was tumbling down.

Entering Biscayne Bay and Miami at Sunset.

The view of Miami from our Key Biscayne anchorage. The water temperature is 74 degrees, quite agreeable.

We are currently in No Name Harbor, a hurricane hole and jump off point for boats waiting to cross to the Bahamas. The small harbor is packed  with both power and sail boats all waiting for the weather window for the Gulf crossing. Anchoring was a scene with Diane at the helm weaving through all the boats attempting to find the perfect location for Skylark. Tim was at the bow giving hand signals, forward, reverse, neural, etc. as we have been diligently practicing on this adventure. It's kind of fun, quite humorous and keeps the sometimes stressful process lighthearted. I was hoping for at least an applause once the task was complete but everyone close around pretended to be reading in their cockpits acting as if they were not worrying I might bump into their yachts.

Key Biscayne Lighthouse

We're looking forward to the crossing  to the Bahamas in the next couple of days, till then...DK