Because we picked up many days on our passages from Cape Charles and we never stayed more than one night in any harbor we got to Vero Beach with several days in hand before our scheduled flight out of Miami. As noted in my previous posting we travelled more hours most days and by the time the weather window opened for an offshore passage out of Charleston we were already through Georgia. When we got to Vero we actually had time enough to get all the way to Marathon except the weather for an offshore passage was not very good. Awful actually. Plus we had cancelled our rental car reservation down there and didn't know if someone could watch the boat and Cleo. So we relaxed a bit in Vero. First time in a while.
We went to the Saturday farmers market by bus, watched the UConn women on the marina TV on Sunday, took the bus for a few groceries on Monday and did the oil changes and other maintenance. Then went to Mike and Carol's home in Fort Pierce for lunch and a good long visit on Tuesday. Great catching up!
Renting a car the day before our flight let us get gas station diesel instead of buying marina fuel, saving $1.50 per gallon. Getting our boarding passes and going through security in Miami was surprisingly easy and relatively quick. The flight to JFK was a bit lumpy on a 737 but the middle hour was smooth enough. We spent one night at our daughter's house then drove our own car to Connecticut for a medical visit for Carol and a stop at our storage unit to get my suit for the wedding. We got an AirB&B condo for 3 nights for the 6 of us and went to the wedding rehearsal, rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself. On our extra day everyone went to the Science Museum in Hartford except me. I went to see my drug dealer (Walgreen's) and went to visit Mystic Seaport Museum to see what was new, visit fellow volunteer friends and just to absorb the atmosphere I like so much.
Our return visit to JFK was amazingly quick and easy. TSA was very efficient. Our flight back to Miami on a B-777 (first time) was smooth except for a kid kicking the back of my seat for 2 out of the 3 hour flight. What fun! Miami airport was a zoo and the road traffic was bad until we cleared the Lauderdale area. Before we returned the car we got more diesel and really restocked the fridge and lockers. The weather while we were gone was very, very bad but it improved much sooner than originally forecast so after our one day of shopping we got underway.
Our 1st day on the road had good, if breezy, weather. The wind and current against us slowed us most of the day and the bascule bridge schedules slowed us even more. This made it a long day and we anchored in North Palm Beach after 9 1/2 hours. Pushing past an intermediate anchorage gave us more options for our 2nd day. Our 2nd day had us go offshore out of Lake Worth Inlet (the Palm Beach area) and head to Miami. Another long day. Especially because of the Gulf Stream current against us. We were not actually in the stream being only 1 to 1.5 miles off the beach but the northbound flow drags adjacent water along with it slowing down southbound vessels. It was a nice day with high thin clouds and warm temperatures except for the early morning period when we were a bit cool. We ended up in the Marine Stadium Basin at Virginia Key, Miami 11 hours later. We had kind of a Thanksgiving dinner and went to bed.
Our penultimate day started off not as rainy as the forecast. The rain delayed about an hour or so. It started off misting, then light rain, before the deluges started. It poured. Zero visibility at times. We each went through several changes of clothes as most everything got wet. Soaked. Wrinkled fingers. Soggy feet. What fun! We haven't had a rainy day passage in a long time as we try to avoid them. Just as bad as we remember. We ended up in Barley Basin near Islamorada and Upper Matecumbe Key. A 9 hour day. 7 wet hours. Yuck. 🌧 My cold symptoms got worse as Carol's slowly improved. It took her 2 days of coughing and sneezing before she infected me. Thanks. She probably got it from Kaia and not someone at the wedding. We have vaccines for every other old people disease but the common cold is not one of them. Sigh. 🤧🤢🤬
Our last day on our southbound season started off cloudy and breezy but improved. It warmed to the 80s and the breeze eased once we were off the ICW into the ocean. A nice passage and only 5 hours. The City Marina was full up as expected so we went on the waiting list for a mooring. There are actually more empty moorings than boats on the waiting list but they are out of service due to maintenance issues. Not an apparent great business model. Maintenance and repairs might be done in the slow season (summer) not the busy winter season. Sigh. Government bureaucracy. The anchorages looked full and unsafe so we were glad we arranged to borrow a couple of pilings of friends who live on the harbor. The pilings are in back of their house, in the water, and made a good, safe tie up for us until we get a mooring ball. Thanks Dale and Vesta! Carol has been playing Mah Jong at the house with Vesta and Gwyn for a few years now. Gwyn helped out with the arrangements, too. We got the chance to visit then go to the marina to register and pay for dinghy dock access as well as showers and other marina amenities. Other boating friends dropped by to say hello but we are holding off on meeting up with other long time friends here until our colds get better.
I should start pickleball as soon as I'm well and start being a tour guide at Crane Point again, also. The usual stuff. We also have to start organizing and cleaning the boat for potential buyers. Hard to do when there is no external place (like a house) to store things. We'll get by.
I will likely post a midwinter blog at some point and by the time we are scheduled to leave in the spring we may have a better idea of what our future might look like. Maybe. Maybe not.
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