Sunday, March 25, 2012

Since it was raining on Sunday morning, we decided to just relax & enjoy the day.  By the time it was 'cocktail hour', we all were pretty relaxed, as you can see from the photo, even Misty enjoyed some wine.  What a trooper!

Friday, March 23

On Friday we took a trip comfortable 3 hour trip to Ft. Pierce taking us along Hutchinson Island a barrier reef extending from Stuart to Ft. Pierce (Capt Bob's note - this was a good test for the new transmission coolers).  Enjoyed the Atlantic ICW with lots of beautiful homes lining the shore, a few bridges, & lots of boaters enjoying the perfect weather.  Ft. Pierce was founded as a military base during the Seminole War. Today, it is the center of the Indian River citrus industry.

One of the best reasons to visit Ft. Pierce is to enjoy the Farmers Market Festival & the Seafood Festival that happens every Saturday morning.  The Farmers Market is known as one of the best around, with lots of  really tasty treats, in addition to a wonderful array of fruit & veggies. They serve breakfast right there & everyone sits along the seawall to take in the sites of the Atlantic ICW.  As you can see from the photos, they also have lots of arts & crafts for those of us who always enjoy a 'shopping fix'!  We must keep Admirals happy!

BONNIE STORY ALERT!  Okay, before I continue on with the rest of the day in Ft. Pierce, I have to tell you this story.

As we headed to the festival, we forgot our waters, so I went back to the boat, picked up the Capt's bottle of water & filled my empty bottle with water & proceeded back to the festival.  After sipping my water for awhile, I noticed an odor that smelled like diesel fuel & it was so strong that I even thought I was tasting diesel fuel.  I asked Capt Bob if he smelled the same thing & he grabbed my water bottle & the color drained from his face. At that point, he informed me  "OMG", that's the bottle I used to drain diesel fuel from the racors."  I said "what happens now, do I drop dead, do I vomit,  convulse, or what!" He  kept asking me how I felt!  I said, "my mouth tastes like fuel & it smells like fuel!"  Since he is so good at solving problems, he gave me a glass of Crown Royal Black to gargle!  I don't know if it worked because I was drunk or it actually dissolved the oily taste, but who cares, I was happy - happy & didn't taste a thing!  END OF STORY- &, I HOPE, NOT THE END OF ME!

After we saw every single booth at the Farmers Market Festival, we walked to the opposite end of the Ft. Pierce City Marina, where we were docked, we ventured into the Seafood Festival, where we enjoyed live entertainment & chowed down on some coconut shrimp & frozen margaritas!
 

As we were walking to the Seafood Festival we saw this fabulous motorcycle & sidecar parked.  That little side car made me think of Capt. Bob sitting in that tiny little 'clown car' when we were in Sarasota. In case you missed that gem of a photo, I've included it again for your enjoyment!

 

We will return to Stuart on Monday, March 26.  Capt. Bob is planning to take us to St. Augustine the end of next week.  Will keep you posted.

Thursday, March 22

We met up with our neighbor, Ralph, who drove to Stuart to check on his boat.  He kindly brought Capt Bob's spare props for our boat. We ate at Sailors Return that evening (it was Prime Rib night, enjoyed by all).  Caught a few pic's of the sun setting.

The Capt & Admiral topped off the evening listening to our favorite sax player, Ronnie.

Monday, March 19, 2012

I'm baaaaack!  So, when I wrote last, we were dealing with a broken holding tank. Capt. Bob was planning to head to League City on the 11th, so we needed to get the rest of the crew loaded up & moved off the B & B so that we could begin to correct the 'head' problems.

Thanks to our VERY good friends, Cherrill & Jerry, who graciously opened their home to the Long's (cats too), we got to enjoy cable TV, a king size bed, free liquor & food, & best of all - a bathroom that was only a few steps from our bedroom!!!!! 

So Capt. Bob headed to Texas & Admiral Bon decided to spend a lot of quality time with the kitties.  Here I am teaching Misty how to play games on the computer.

 

We did have to adjust a few things during our stay at Cherrill & Jerry's place.  That was to keep the cats in their den & keep their 2 labs, Buddy & Sydney, out of the den!  This first photo is the 2 labs looking through a sliding glass door, not understanding what the 2 furry little things were doing in their den, let along lounging on their couch!!!!

Here, Sasha was napping on the labs couch while Buddy was glaring at her from the other side of that big glass door.   You can just see Buddy thinking "if I could only get my nose through a crack in this glass door, I could show that little red head who's the boss in this house - & it's NOT her!!

After a few days, when everyone settled down a little, we decided to let the labs into the den with the cats & see what would happen.  Misty hissed at Buddy (sitting next to me) & Buddy thought that was a sign it was time to play!  He was pacing around the couch, not getting too close until Misty hissed & then he leaped up onto the couch next to me & was attempting to go over my lap to give Misty a big sloppy kiss!  Sure he was!!!

In this 2nd shot I imagine Buddy is thinking "I'll pretend that I'm going to stay right here next to Bonnie & lean as far as possible to get as close to that funny looking black & white thing with the funny looking blue collar, then I'll pounce on it's head!"  "That'll teach her to hiss at me!"

                                                                                                                                                                                        
  Later in the week, we had dinner with Kate & Chris, friends of Cherrill & Jerry.  These are some shots of their view of the beautiful sunsets from their condo.

So, on Sunday evening we were ready to head back to the B & B, with a fixed holding tank! Whoopppppeeeeeee! Notice how I emphasized the "peeeeepeeeeee" part of whoop. So for now, things are back to normal & we are planning our next destination.  Per Capt Bob, we do have a few more repair issues, e.g. replacing the transmission coolers after an oil analysis on the port transmission reflected a high sodium content.  Will keep you posted!

March 8

Karen,  Regan & Hank  Giese arrived mid afternoon at the Sunset Bay Marina to join us for dinner at the marina restaurant - Sailor's Return.

We enjoyed the evening's entrainment - Ronnie - who is a real expert with his saxophone.  Totally loved every jazzy tune he played.

                                                                                                                                                                                                

Here's my baby girl, Misty (collar et al, wondering why we took Hank with us to the restaurant & not her! She also enjoyed the entertainment on the dock being acted out by Karen mimiking my experience of having no 'head' facilities for more than 1 1/2 months!

 

 

 

Earlier that day I took some pics of the area.  This is the Roosevelt Draw Bridge & the St. Lucie River.

In this shot you can see the B & B snuggled in between some docked boats.  I took this shot standing in front of the marina restaurant, it is quite a distance from our dock. The next pic is showing the view of the Sailor's Return Restaurant, then you see a very long walkway that shows how far we have to walk to the Harbor Master, restrooms, laundry, showers, & lounge. What you can't tell, is in addition to the long walk from the restaurant, we have quite a hike from the boat to the restaurant.  The reason for this info is to set the theme for Admiral Bonnie's next story! 

For the past THREE WEEKS, we have had no 'head' (bathroom) availability on the B & B.  That means we have had to make many, many trips to the restrooms, starting back at Hawk Cay Marina located close to Marathon.  We also have to use 'other means' while we are in transit!!  I will leave the 'other means' to your imagination.  Are you getting a good visualization now?  I don't dare drink my coffee every morning on the boat, because I can't make it to the restrooms without running full speed! I have now figured out that if I drink it & walk to the restrooms at the same time, I can make it just in time.  The real challenge is needing a restroom at 3am in the morning.  I am so not awake, I'm afraid I might fall into the water before I reach the stupid bathroom!!  So I have devised the use of a 'bucket' for those occasions!   I don't think the term "bucket list" will ever have the same meaning for me - ever!

Every port, Capt Bob has frantically been trying to find the problem, let alone fix it!  Poor Bob, he is handling my frustration quite well!  Will keep you posted on this latest saga!

      

   

Friday, March 2

We will be staying in Stuart through March 21st & spending time with our former neighbors from Texas, who now reside in Stuart, Cherrill Kipple & Jerry Patterson.  We are also going to meet up with our neighbors, Karen & Reagan Giese this Thursday for dinner.  Since, we missed several opportunities of meeting up with other neighbors, at different locations along the way, we are really excited to have a chance to 'catch-up'.

We finally arrived late afternoon at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart Beach & as we docked we looked across to the next pier & were surprised to see our neighbor's (Carlotta & Ralph Poole) boat .

A boating play ground in Jupiter complete with a swim up refreshment stand, so while we waited for yet another bridge opening, I took a few more photos.

Tiger Woods has one of his homes in Jupiter, if anyone cares!  Caught a pic of the Jupiter Lighthouse for Capt Bob.

This trip took us about 8 hours all together because we never changed speeds from slow to idle mode the entire day.  But, it was the most impressive ride we have had to date. As you will witness in the next set of pictures.  These few pics don't even make a dent in the number of ridiculously large, privately owned, yachts & mansions we saw all the way to Stuart Beach.  Owners of these 'toys' & homes obviously have way too much money!

We had about 15 minutes to get to the 1st of 23 draw bridges we went through as we headed up the ICW to Stuart Beach.  Most of the bridges open on the 1/2 hour, but with so many so close together we encountered quite alot of boat traffic.  This bridge was one of the most unique we saw along the way, Boynton Beach Bridge, it looked like a castle.  It was interesting trying to communicate with the 'bridge operators' along the way.  Some of them, were very friendly & helpful, but others were - let me see what word I would use to describe them without using profanity - they were total 'jerks'!
It almost appeared like they enjoyed not helping boaters who were asking logical questions regarding their bridge.  We even heard one of the operators actually scolding a captain for using the term       "10 - 4".  The operator yelled back at the boater that "he had never heard the term "10 - 4", saying "what's 10 - 4 mean?" He told him to learn the correct response if he wanted to communicate!! Geeeez, good thing it was not Admiral Bonnie that dude was talking to, we probably would still be sitting at that bridge waiting to go through! I guess it takes all kinds!

                                  

Thursday, March 1

 We made it to the Key Biscayne area, but could not get into the state park marina in Key Biscayne, so we stayed 1 night at the Rickenbacher Marina located directly across from a beautiful view of the Miami skyline. Enjoyed a great meal at the Rusty Pelican Restaurant at our marina.  Left on the 2nd heading for the Sands Harbor Marina located in Pompano Beach.

Wednesday, February 29

Made it to Key Largo, enjoyed live music at the Pilot House Marina restaurant.  Scouted the area via a bike ride.  Took this sunrise pic before we headed out Thursday morning, trying to keep ahead of some iffy weather reports heading our way.

Tuesday, February 28

We decided to take advantage of the weather, so we are heading to Key Largo, the Pilot House Marina which will take us about 3 hours traveling via the Hawk Channel.  It was not the smoothest ride, but really not too bad, or maybe I'm just getting used to it. This is a shot of the Pilot House channel entrance.  Note from Capt Bob, if you bring your boat to this area, the channel on the right is well marked, but is the wrong channel, look for the small light house behind the trees.

Tuesday, February 28
 Some parting shots of Hawk Cay Resort, quite an impressive place & expensive.  Fuel here was $5+ per gallon. I thought I would get a pedicure - changed my mind when they said it would cost $75 + a 20% gratuity! My toes look just fine - slap on another coat of polish & we're good to go!  Good thing I learned to cut & color my own hair, can't imagine what that would have set me back!