Winds were on our bow for most of the trip causing a lot of spray so “Still Busy” and crew were pretty salty when we arrived at our anchorage destination in Long Key, 40+ miles from Key West. When we anchored, the winds had calmed somewhat (10mph) but really picked up after midnight (25+ MPH) so we rocked most of the night. However, we woke up on Sunday morning in the same spot without dragging anchor so we were much relieved. Late Sunday afternoon, we arrived in Key Largo tired after a couple of days of wind and salt spray so decided to spend two nights in this protected harbor. We both needed some respite from the wind and took this extra day for some much needed relaxing by the pool!
We left Key Largo early on Tuesday and arrived in Miami late afternoon, found a marina in Coconut Grove (with a Fresh Market close by), went shopping, and had dinner on the boat. We are now out of the keys and look forward to getting back into the protected Intracoastal Waterway as the wind continues to be a challenge. Our next destination, Ft Lauderdale was everything we had anticipated – big homes with even bigger boats! Our plans were to be at Bahia Mar Marina at Ft Lauderdale Beach a couple of days but Mother Nature once again dictated our agenda – heavy rains and winds on our expected travel day so we stayed an extra night, forcing us to travel on Saturday. We had hoped to avoid travel in this area on a weekend due to the number of local boaters that would be on the water. If anyone ever gets a chance to travel the ICW in south Florida try to avoid weekend travel. Local boaters do not slow down and are belligerent when asked to reduce their wake – we were rocked all day on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday evening, we stopped in Del Ray Beach and joined former neighbors Kristin and Ryan from Lake Norman that now live close to here, for a late lunch at a restaurant on the beach and drinks and desert back on the boat. Really good to see them both again.
Leaving Del Ray beach, we stayed at a marina in Hobie Sound (tried to anchor but the strong winds and the crowded anchorage forced us to look for a marina at the last moment) and Vero Beach before arriving in Titusville on Tuesday evening, March 16th – one day ahead of schedule. Wednesday was devoted to cleaning and minor maintenance on “Still Busy” in preparation for our final leg. Yesterday we spent the entire day at the Kennedy Space Center and will drive to Orlando this weekend to meet kids and grandkids at Disney. We will return to the boat on March 25th and depart the following day for our final 400 mile journey to Charleston with a planned arrival on April 10th where we will be met by the crew from Lake Norman that were there to see us off almost one year ago.
As most of you know, Pia has spent a lot of time on the trip documenting our journey via paintings. This last picture was taken in her “studio” on the bridge. When Pia is not driving the boat, she is usually painting and has completed over 20 paintings so far.
1 comment:
Looks like fun kids. We celebrated our anniversary in
Titusville at local restaurant that lost power. Car is almost all loaded up for us leaving Sunday for NMB.
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