Once in a "Blue Moon"

Well It's like this, We had the choice to sit and write blogs or enjoy the great weather and blue clear water of the Florida keys. That is really the best reason that we came up with for this long dry spell.
Boot Key harbor in Marathon Key is where Godspeed lies tied to a mooring ball. There is over 200 moorings here and it is a community on the water complete with a cruiser's radio net in the morning that keeps us up on organized activities, buy sell trade, trivia, stuff like that.
Ok, ok so you want the dirt do you? I (Pat) got to meet this great Caribbean gal in North Palm Beach on a bicycle trip back from Home Depot. There she was in her rather crappy mini-van waiting to turn into the four lane highway. I was pedaling along down the sidewalk and made eye contact with her, slowed down and proceeded to pass in front of her when Louis Jean proceeded to pull into the highway. It wasn't so bad while I was on the wedge shaped hood, or while the bike slowly was sucked under the front end, the terror started when the bike pulled me along. Luckily I managed to get a bent leg and a good stiff arm on the bumper which prepared me for the journey ahead. I was kind of glad she decided to find the brake after a couple of lanes and her exceptionally slow reflexes allowed me to kind of get untangled before she put it into reverse and punched it. Well the good thing was I was free of the van, the bad thing was my bike and I were one now and the traffic light had just turned green. There was no time for self pity but a massive adrenaline rush and a rather interesting and athletic dive for the curb with the bike in tow. Louis Jean never got out of the mini van but sat there and told me that I ran into her and she had to go see Jerome and did not have time for this. I kept turning the conversation to -I need my bike fixed or we are calling the cops. No you ran into me mister! I calmly explained to her that all the damage to the bike was in the back so therefore I had to have been riding my bike at about 30 mph "BACKWARDS" to have got the job done. She finally got the bike fixed and even added a new kickstand for our trouble. When she dropped the bike off and I told her "God bless you, you did the right thing" she smiled and said "I still don't think it was my Fault!"
We rented a car and went to Fort Laurdadale to buy a head sail for stiffer wind conditions that we were in great need of. David Jenkins and Justin Sandner of Alpine Wyoming called us up and said we are in Port Everglades. Well, it was like 5 miles away, so we had a great lunch with them at Jack and Linda's place right on the inlet. It was quite obvious that they were there on business, Bare feet, flip flops, fruit drinks, subtle clues like that made it clear so we bid farewell and headed back to North Palm.
"Mon Ammie" I hollered to Lorrie as We watched Dave and Mary on "Mon Ammie" motor in and set their anchor. We enjoyed having them in the anchorage and got to watch Dave climb the mast in record time one morning to change a bulb. We met them in Oriental and they are professional cruisers. We learned a bunch from them!
Down the ditch we went, During the stay in North Palm we finished prepping Godspeed to hit the Ocean. As it worked out we could not get outside for one reason or the other and the next thing we know we are facing a 56 foot bridge. Now in our preparation for this possibility we had made several measurements and concluded that the mast is 54', maybe, We think,we hope. So there she stood like a great judge with the final word. I slowed Godspeed to a crawl and just wanted to be on the other side. We crept up and I realized the current was pulling us into it so we pulled a u turn and let mother nature take her course. This allowed us to inch up to the bridge in forward gear and have the ability to escape in forward if we made contact. Bam, just like that we were under it and high fiveing each other. Now all we had to do was take a left into Government Cut (one of the busyist ports on the east coast) drive past all the giant ships turn into a side channel and toss over Bruce, Right? It was really neat turning into this super busy harbor to find that we were the only ones moving. Godspeed seemed kind of small in that huge channel surrounded by cruise ships and big shipy ships. "No traffic Lorrie", this is great just us and a fast moving boat with flashing lights, loud speakers, and big guns! These kind gentlemen told us the harbor is closed turn around now, they were very convincing, so we did! Homeland security closes that harbor when certain ships transit it, so now we know! It is now about dark and we can't get to our anchorage, so into Biscayne Bay we turned and cruised by the rather impressive Miami skyline. Right at dark we spotted some masts in what looked like a cove so we felt our way in and tossed Bruce. In the morning we figured out that we slept in the middle of the Miami water speed way, there were grandstands around us with all the cool racing stuff, so we weighed Bruce and raced on outta there!
Before noon we Raised all sails in the Hawk Channel and "We Be Sailin" Since we left the mainland, using the engine only to charge batteries, tight maneuvering, and anchoring. Godspeed loves the open water and slips along swiftly in light winds, reaches hull speed quickly and have not seen her heel more than 15 degrees. We are getting used to it but it seems strange to see the bottom most of the time. When we dingy up we can see the rudder and keel underwater. Shortly after we arrived in Boot Key harbor we spotted Friends from Oriental, Randy and Ellen On "Bella" and have enjoyed thier company. This morning just before the Cruiser's net radio show Dennis on "Majic" dingyed up, Knocked on the hull and asked if we Knew Peter Hatcher from Wyoming, of course we did and he too lives in Alpine. Then we met a Game warden and school teacher from Thermopolis WY just leaving the harbor. For those of you back home shoveling snow, don't think you have to rush right down, Wyoming is well represented in the Keys and after all somebody has to move the snow or it would melt on its on without being noticed!
Pictures:
Dave up the mast
Miami speedway anchorage
Great white heron that lands on the blone each night
Happy new year!
The "Blue Moon" on New years morning in Boot Key Harbor

the last Supper and Thanksgiving

It's been awhile so there is another post right after this one. We spent 3 days in Fernandina Beach tied to a mooring ball and decided to make a hard run south to Melbourne Beach for thanksgiving dinner with nephew Tyler Gustafson and wife Jess. Things went great until we passed the Port Orange Bridge south of Daytona. As we slipped under the bridge I looked back and smiled as I remembered catching a very large Pompano from that spot in 1978-good times. Then came the weather. We have rigged the GPS/Chartplotter to be taken forward under the dodger along with the autopilot remote for times like this and it works great, you can drive with your fingertips anywhere on the boat while ducking for cover or whatever but we still stay close to the wheel. Yea, it was blowing and carrying on-so what, right?
Well, we entered a big sound area after New Smyrna Beach that was "yee haa". Nice rollers off the port quarter in rapid succession that made Otto(autopilot)get confused so it was hands on and very busy for about 2 hours. Then Lorrie tells me it is about time to duck out of this sound and into a man made cut to the next sound. Oh by the way, and there is a low bridge in the middle with 25 knots of wind on the Stearn and a wicked current with very little room to do anything but pray that the bridge operator would not be too slow today. We have never seen such a great concentration of dolphins as in this cut, I was glad they were there to take some of the pressure off as we transited the bridge just fine and now comes the fun!
As we slipped into the next sound it was quite apparent that the first was merly training for what was to come. A narrow channel in 2 feet of water with big rapid rollers moving at a fast pace to the starboard quarter. It got worse as we progressed and that is when Lorrie put on her foul weather gear and all the trimmings and prepared the "last Supper". Cheese and crackers were great at the moment and I was very busy keeping Godspeed off the shoals and water under the keel while mother nature did her thang. We stayed in Titusville that night and slipped under the bridge at first light Thanksgiving morning, At high noon we sent Bruce to the bottom in Melbourne. Later on Tyler picked us up at a park we dingyed to and what a treat we were in for!
Jess and her sister Melanie made their first Thanksgiving dinner and it was as good as we have ever had, complete wih pie and ice cream. It was a great time seeing these guys and meeting Drew (Melanie's boyfriend) and also Jess's grandfather. The next day Tyler and Jess rode their bikes over to the park and we dingyed them to godspeed for a look. We dropped them off, said goodbye, and took off in the Blonde(that is the name of the dinghy because she is full of hot air and "just a little dingy"). The indian river was smooth and the Blonde wanted to run so I gave her all the rein and off we went. Tyler & Jess had quite a look on their faces as they biked down the bridge 20 minutes later to see us walking in front of them.
Pictures:
1000 miles
Tyler and Jess