CORAL GABLES

Yesterday was just beautiful so we drove over to Coral Gables for the first time. We walked down Miracle Mile passed all the shops and neat restaurants. One thing we noticed is that there are many, many, many bridal shops along the way. What's with that????? It was like the mecca of bridal dress shopping.
We ended up at the Coral Gables Blues Festival. Of course,we sat down, ordered a nice cold beer, and listened to some great Blues played by various bands.
We are starting to meet a lot of people on our dock now. It's like a small neighborhood.
The dog stroller is working out very well for Dorsey.  She gets rides to some very nice grass areas.

EXPLORING THE HOOD

Top news of the day down here was the arrest of Justin Bieber in Miami last night. It was a huge news
event !! We are amazed at the attention this got.

We drove to the Brickell area of Miami today. Supposedly a real trendy hot spot. We had lunch at
Tobacco Road......oldest bar in Miami. Neat place! Tried to post a pic from Google Images, but couldn't get it to work. Google TOBACCO ROAD MIAMI for more info. It is has a lot of history.

OBSERVATION: There are not many SUV's or pickup trucks here....mostly sedans....so different from Texas!

SETTLING IN

It has been a busy week so far. Yesterday, I took a tennis drill at the Grove Isle Resort and Spa. It felt wonderful to get out on the court. Sure was tired last night, though. I signed up for a series where I will take a drill there 1x week while we are in town. It will also be a good way to meet some other players.
While I was out , John began his boat waxing task. He waxed and buffed for 5 hours. He also was one tired and sore pup last night.

VIEW FROM TENNIS RESORT

37 YEARS AGO TODAY....HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTI

Yup, 37 years ago today I was giving birth to Kristi, listening to Jimmy Carter get sworn in.
 Today, I rode my bike to a yoga class in the morning. This afternoon we drove over to Key Biscayne and did some sightseeing. It was a wonderful, warm day for it.

NO NAME HARBOR, MIAMI IN BACKGROUND

KEY BISCAYNE BEACH

FLORIDA CAPE LIGHTHOUSE 1826

Movie and Panoramic View!

Yesterday, we walked to the movie theater in Coco Plum, about a 15 minute pretty walk. Afterwards, we went up to the Panorama Restaurant on the 8th floor of the Sonesta Hotel. The view was spectacular.

LOOKING OUT ON OUR MARINA IN DINNER KEY

LOVIN' IT !

Thus far, we are loving being here in Coconut Grove. We can walk to just about everything and it is all so beautiful . Yesterday, we went to the grocery store. That was an interesting experience with all the unusual foods, etc. It is kind of like being in a foreign country, at times. The Miami Area is heavily Cuban, and by the end of 6 weeks here, we'll be speaking Spanish, I'm sure. 
We rented a car and another observation we've made is that everybody honks at anything all the time. It is really amazing. No one is hostile, but they just honk at the least traffic issue. 

Today we took Dorsey to the opthamalogist and got some more drugs for her ulcerated eye. She seems to be doing better tonight.
This afternoon, we drove over to Grove Isle.....a gorgeous resort and spa. The grounds are spectacular. They have a marina, as well. Tonight, we took in the happy hour at a couple places. We sat at the bar and enjoyed talking to some real friendly bar tenders that filled us in on all the fun things to do here.  We ended up at the Sand Bar Sports Bar.There were lots of young people and the big deal was team trivia... teams of tables competing for prizes. All participants had to put their cell phones in a bucket so as not to cheat. Not only was the food good, but the energy of the younger group was a lot of fun!

WE'RE HERE!

Happy to say , we made it to Coconut Grove this afternoon. We are ready to relax for a while. Yesterday, we had 14 bridges, today 23. We made it under about 1/2 of them, but required an opening on the other 1/2. Some only open at certain times after the hour. It is a lot of waiting around doing circles in the water. We only had 38 miles to go today, but it took us almost 7 hours....very slow going.
Just north of Miami, a police boat came over to us and told us we had to hold up for about 10 minutes. A movie was being shot at a home along the ICW and we were not allowed to pass by. See the pics below. you can see the big lights and all the crew waiting around.

MOVIE CREW

NOTICE BIG BLUE LIGHTS

THE BIGGEST JERKS ON THE WATER!

We are at Old Port Cove in North Palm Beach tonight...some very nice boats all around.  We always enjoy the area we cruised through today. It was Jupiter and Hope Sound. Lots of McMansions with manicured lawns.
Up until now, we have had great disdain for the huge SportFish Yachts that always like to speed past us at full power. It creates a huge wake and we really rock with objects flying around our boat. Today, we decided to add Delivery Captains (sorry Ken) to our list of jerks on the water. They go flying past, full throttle with no regard for other boaters. They are going as fast as they can to deliver their boats to their destinations at the owners expense. Dollar signs float out their exhausts. Anyhow, I feel much better having vented.

Dorsey's new ride

A fixer upper

FORT PIERCE CITY MARINA

Good trip to Ft. Pierce, but the captain is not real happy with this marina. We have not been to this one before. It has fixed wood docks,short finger piers and huge boats are crammed in everywhere. I'll bet we retied our dock lines 5 times before John was satisfied with it. There is a cute Tiki restaurant on the property,where we will go in a bit for some attitude adjustment.
As we head south, we were wondering when we would start to see the manatees. Well, as we were walking around the marina, we saw several in the harbor. That means, from here on down, we'll have to be watching out for them. Such huge but gentle giants.

FYI...OVERNIGHT UPDATE
This place was lit up like a stadium last night! Good thing we had window covers, because it was like daylight outside! ALSO, trains ran through the area about once an hour blaring their horns. We will not be returning there.

EAU GALLIE

After a good cruising day, last night we ended up at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club(south of Cocoa. It is a reciprocal club to the South Carolina Yacht Club in Hilton Head.  There was another couple there on their boat that we had docked next to in New Smyrna Beach the night before. Come to find out, they are from our marina in Hilton Head. We enjoyed a glass of wine on their boat and had dinner together at the beautiful Eau Gallie Clubhouse.
Yesterday was my FIRST day of wearing SHORTS. The weather was warm and wonderful! I have put our jackets, sweatshirts and gloves away for good!!!!
The interesting event of yesterday was: There was a pon pon alert issued on the VHF radio from the Coast Guard. It mentioned 2 people in the water just south of Titusville. All boaters were to be on the look out for them. Just about then, a helicopter took off from shore. We saw it hover several yards from our boat. I picked up the binoculars and saw the 2 people in the water and what looked like a capsized canoe. This was on the Indian River and the seas had a moderate chop. John and I discussed whether we should head over in that direction, but outside our channel was very shallow. If we ran aground, we couldn't be much help. Fortunately, 2 Coast Guard boats arrived on the scene, and we watched the rescue. All was well.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH

very old fort across from the marina....dates back to pre Columbus

Dinner at the Dolphin View ...great burgers

Bet Ken Sherwin has eaten here on a delivery trip

Buddy outside our window

Bet you can see, I figured out the photo thing...FINALLY!
We had a short day today. Overnight, Dorsey had some balance and walking issues, so we all lost a lot of sleep. She is doing better now.  Instead of our original plan, we only did 16 miles today and got in about 1:00PM.  We are in New Smyrna Beach tonight. After we had a much needed nap, we walked the town. Observation....many hearing aid shops. Hmmmmm???

Daytona

Uneventful day. Arrived in a drizzle, but it was warm :-) Ate onboard.

LACK OF PHOTOS

I am having trouble loading photos to the blog. I'll keep trying.

ST AUGUSTINE

Left FB about 8 this morning. We did not do our homework and check the tides. We went through the first couple hours in very low tide :-( That is not much fun and requires constant vigilance. This is exhausting. As the day wore on, conditions improved, and we got to St. Augustine about 3 this afternoon. The temp on arrival was 57 degrees! We are very happy to be leaving the frigid weather  and extreme low tides behind us Tides and temps from here on should not be an issue!!

Continuing South to Fernadina Beach

After 2 nights in Brunswick, we were chomping at the bit to get going again. We were a little uneasy about departing yesterday, worried about the conditions on St. Andrew Sound. We checked with a couple sources and decided to go about 11 AM. It was an uneventful trip to Fernadia Beach, and we were so happy to continue South.
Friends, Mark and Maridee drove up(by car) from their boat in Jacksonville with another couple from their dock. We had Happy Hour on Knotugal and went over to Amelia Island for dinner.

POLAR VORTEX

We got to experience the PV in Brunswick, GA. We stayed here for 2 nights as the front blew through. The temp got down to 21 degrees. ..a record breaker. For a person in Chicago, this is not big deal, but being on a boat was a big deal. Thankfully, our heaters worked just fine and we were toasty the entire time, except for dog walking duties. That was a "boy" job I am happy to say. In preparation for the freeze, we turned off the water at night, closed the thru hulls, and turned on the engine room heater. Because all the boats on our dock were using heaters, the voltage went down to 100 from 120. The power did stay on,,,hallelujah!

HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!

YEA!!! We are back on the water. After being home since October 1, we left Windmill Harbour in Hilton Head yesterday. Since arriving back to the boat, we had oil changed, all new filters, new belts, the heaters fixed, new alternator,new TV,the valves adjusted and rudder seal leak fixed. Dorsey is back onboard, as well. We didn't think she would ever make it back, but she has rallied. We think she had a stroke when we got home this Fall. After many doctor visits, she is now on some good drugs and is walking a lot better. She is like an elderly person, and we cherish our time with her. We dropped the lines at 8AM yesterday and had a wonderful first day. We were both so excited to get going and were full of anticipation of the adventures ahead. We stayed at Kilkenny Marina last night...very rustic but a good day's run and a fine stop for a night. Tonight we are at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, GA. It is a great spot with an historical, cute town within walking distance. We had a Thai dinner there, complete with half price drinks. I had a super tasty Blood Orange Martini...worth repeating on our next visit! The conditions were great today....glassy seas and temps up to the 70's. We also saw many dolphins welcoming us back on the water. We will probably stay here 2 nights, as there is a major cold and blow forecast for tomorrow. That's OK, because there is more town to see, little jobs to do onboard AND free washing machines here. This is a big deal, as washing clothes takes many, many, many quarters.