We left Fort Pierce two days after Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Mike and Carol at their home with members of their family and friends that have also become our friends over the years. Great dinner! It had been breezy in Fort Pierce for several days and the wind was mostly east which meant our crossings of the ICW going to our anchorage in our dinghy were semi-rough to very rough. This trend continued as we made our way to the Palm Beach area, our first stop. The next day continued breezy from a poor direction so we went to Fort Lauderdale on the ICW instead of the ocean. This isn't much fun because of all the bridges we have to wait at due to their schedules. A slow day. We found a spot in Lake Sylvia, Ft Lauderdale to anchor despite it being pretty crowded. This used to be a nice spot but it's hard to get into because, well, it's a nice spot. Form Lauderdale we have to go out into the ocean because a bridge was built in Miami well below the mandated height of 65 ft. It only has 56 ft. of clearance. We often wonder who it was that got paid off to allow this to stand. We know there had to be pay-offs, we just don't know who got them. Sigh. The ocean was not ideal due to the continued easterly wind direction but it was nothing we couldn't handle. Mostly 2-4 ft. seas with occasional 6 footers. Not fun. Not terrible. Our next stop was Key Biscayne, Baggs State Park. This is another very nice spot that can be very crowded, especially weekends. We got there on a Monday and the was only one other boat there. What a surprise! A total of five boats were there eventually. Room for lots more even though one boat cruised by complaining we all were taking up too much room. This boat showed up in Marathon and we overheard them bothering the marina staff. Some people should consider suicide, they're self-centered enough. Their boat name was (censored). Ha! Didn't think I was going to tell you, did you?
Anyway we spent one more night anchored out. At Matecumbe Key. Mostly an open area with protection to the east which is where the wind had been coming from for a week. Had a nice sunset over Florida Bay.
Our last ocean passage was also a short one, about four hours, that gets us to Marathon. The only issue was a nasty roll cloud that threatened severe weather for us but just missed us and gave us just some rain, semi-heavy, but no storm. Since it was Carol's turn on the helm, I stayed dry. This was the general pattern since we left Ft Pierce, the storms would cross our path behind us or in front of us leaving us to stay mostly, but not completely, dry.
So, we're here in Marathon just starting to get into the social activities. We know a lot of people on the moorings and on shore after all our times here. We still like it. In other news, as previously mentioned I been doing some writing and I had my first (of many, I hope) article published. It is in the December issue of Points East Magazine. It is the 'Last Word' column and is about the being a snowbird. What's a snowbird? Read the article. If you don't get down to shoreline marine facilities to pick up this free magazine you can go to www.pointseast.com and click on "read the issue". Hope you like it.
