The Window is Open

And I don't mean at the Polar Treat.

All systems are go for a Gulf Stream crossing to the Bahamas tomorrow.  We plan on leaving early (3am) headed for Memory Rock landing at Mangrove Cay by 3pm.  Depending on how we feel, we'll either anchor at Mangove or press on to Great Sail Cay (which would be an ambitious 75 nautical mile day).  Great Sail will offer the best protection from the north blow scheduled to move in on Tuesday.  Today, the West Palm Beach harbor filled up with boats loaded with provisions, all with the same (or similar) float plan.  We took the dinghy around to several of them to discuss details and gather information. The excitement and nervous energy in the air reminded me of the start of a marathon. Conversations were easy; "Where are you from?", "Is this your first time?", "What's your hull speed?", "What do you draft?", "Let's try and stick together for as long as we can..." The seasoned veterans were so willing to take newbies like us under their wing, and offer advice and encouragement.  They all had the same glint in their eye as they spoke; the same misty stare as they gazed over our heads towards the open ocean. They had seen the blue water and white sand beaches of the promise land.  They had been to the "Isles of Perpetual June".  They knew.

Gulp.  Deep breath.  Here goes!

Sea-sun's Greetings!

Well, Santa found us alright.  The cookies were gobbled, the milk was gulped, and the reindeer made a mess of the cockpit with their messy carrot chewing.  There was a definite water theme this Christmas.  Santa always seems to know what is needed. 

Munyon Island fun

We had a great day relaxing and not doing any work at all.  Scott didn't even fix anything (although, I know he wanted to).  We ended up moving  anchor to North Palm Beach on Christmas Eve day to escape some bad weather that was coming out of the North (probably from Maine, eh?).   I know I shouldn't be talking to most of you folks about bad weather...  Sorry.  It was just a little windy.  No snow.  No ice.  Just a very stiff warm breeze.  Our new location was within a short dinghy ride/walk to a Publix supermarket , so we were able to stock up on all the holiday trimmings.  It was the first year I ever "bought" pies (apple and mince).  It was also the first year we had a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken (steamed to re-heat it) for Christmas dinner.  Our oven is not working right now (it's on Scott's list, but we decided it's not a high priority item), so baking pies and a turkey was out of the question.  It turned out to be a great meal.  I think I'm onto something!  There was much discussion about what we should do for a Christmas tree.  At home, it's a big event to slog out to the back-forty and cut the nicest balsam fir we can find ("nice" always being relative to how cold it is outside).  It seemed strange not to do the same here.   We all agreed we had some serious space limitations on the boat so whatever we dragged home was going to have to be small.   As we walked to Publix, the girls and I had our feelers out for any appropriate vegetation.  They had their hearts set on a tiny palm tree, but all the palms were huge.  There were no "baby" palms (they surmised that palm trees must grow very fast).  There were many nice options in the plantings in front of the gated communities we wandered by, but we found the iron bars and armed guards to be a little intimidating.  We ended up purchasing (wince) a fake (gulp) little 12" tree (complete with tiny little colored ball ornaments) that was in the 50% off bin at Publix.  It was perfect!  And cheap.  I had some tiny battery operated lights stashed away that really livened it up.

The offering

The stockings were hung by the white board with care...

Christmas Eve dinner

Nama's stockings

Gifts from the Duffys

Ivie's card

Scott - Captain and breakfast chef

We spent most of Christmas day exploring nearby Munyon Island, a tiny little state park, half of which is the result of deposited dredgings from the construction of the ICW during WWII.  It's been planted with native vegetation and is like a little mini everglades.  There's a board -walk that turns into a dirt trial that winds through the dense hammocks.  Judging from the number of spiders who constructed webs across the trail, most folks turn around when the board walk ends.   

We persevered.   Having Scott lead made the most sense seeing ask he offered up the most surface area.  He accepted the challenge, armed only with a palm frond.  We followed the leader, ducking, wincing, and screaming at every near miss.  The spiders here are huge!   It was very exciting.  The millipedes are also big, and much less intimidating to hold.  

Spider dodging

Exploring the intertidal zone

Strangler fig

My turn?

Giant millipedes are so cute!

After our hike, Scott took the girls fishing, while I went for a run.  They had some luck and we were able to supplement our steamed poultry with fresh Spanish mackerel (yum!) and Corvelle Jack (yuck).  We are looking forward to catching some real game fish soon. 

Today, after a final provisioning at Publix, we sailed back to Peanut Island to prepare for a possible weather window opening up late Sunday night into Monday.  We'll keep you posted.

It has been so great hearing from you all through the blog and email.  I wish we could respond individually but internet connections are spotty and fleeting.  Perhaps the biggest limiting factor is keeping the laptop and ipad charged!  Right now I have a great connection (thanks to a pirated code to the yacht club we are anchored next to) but I only 10% battery left.  With that, I'll sign off.

Stay well, everyone.

Waiting

From Hobe Sound, we proceeded down the ICW to Palm Beach, parting draw bridges in our path.  Kiawah is 58' tall and most of the bridges are 65' or taller, but many are too low to fit under.  After the 6th draw bridge, I was still amazed that there was a draw tender up there, sitting in a little booth, willing to open the bridge just for us; stopping all kinds of traffic (4 lanes in some cases) while we sauntered under, the girls waving like mad on the bow. 

Open sesame!

Okay, maybe we weren't the only ones they stopped traffic for

We arrived in West Palm beach and anchored off Peanut Island.  Being anchored here is the boating equivalent of camping in an RV in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Lots of condos, mansions, and development.  The Downeast Maine coast, this is not.  

The view

Achoo!

It's good holding though while we wait to cross to the Bahamas.  And we're in good company, as there are many other boats here all waiting for the same weather report (SE winds, 10-15mph, calm seas).   We've met two other families from Maine (Blue Hill) and spent some time hanging out with them on the beach.  Riley and Wren were even invited to their first boat sleep-over with 10 year old Fiona Guinness (yes, of beer fame!). 

Mer-Wren and Fiona

Suppin' with Montana

Heading to the sandbar for low tide (Scott on the SUP with the girls)

Despite all the development, Peanut Island has turned out to be a fun little oasis to explore.  Luckily, the city of Palm Beach had the foresight to set aside this tiny parcel of land for conservation and recreation instead of turning it into a peanut oil shipping terminal.  There's a snorkeling lagoon, sand beaches, camping, and a great walking/running trail that encompasses the one mile perimeter of the tiny island. 

Our reflection in a yacht

Pelican feeding frenzy

Yellow fin snapper (not our catch - yet)

Black fin tuna and Mahi-Mahi

First time snorkeling

All I could hear were muffled screams of delight through the snorkels

Lake Worth inlet looms behind the protected snorkelers in the lagoon

It seems that the same cold front that dumped a pile of snow on you all in Maine, is coming to pay a visit here, bringing with it some pretty unsettled weather.  So, unfortunately, our chance to cross the gulf stream will not come until after Christmas.  Today, the wind died down to a reasonable 15 to 20mph, so we decided to venture out of the inlet into the open ocean to go for a sail and maybe do some fishing.  If you've been following our ”Spot" link (click "where are we now" off the main page and follow the link) you'll see how long we lasted out there...   6 to 8 foot waves persisted, even after we cleared the shallows near the inlet where we expected them.  NOT fun.   Of course,  that's my perspective.  The kids had a blast.  They must get that from Scott.  We turned around, very carefully, and headed back to calmer waters and spent the afternoon sailing laps around the bay.   According to Scott (and Wren), Kiawah sails like a dream.   And she's fast.  7.5 kt upwind, with a double reef in the main. 

Wren, at the helm

Ri, winching in the jib sheet

Good instincts

Well, I never thought I'd be spending Christmas in Palm Beach Florida!  But alas, here we are. Nonetheless, spirits are high  We bopped around the boat this morning listening to Christmas music on the radio as we did our boat chores.  Personally, all I need is a dose of Johnny Mathis and I'm in the spirit.  I broke out the girls' stockings tonight that I brought from home, and there has been much discussion about whether Santa visits boats or not.  To up their chances, the girls sketched a fireplace on the white board tonight.   So now, all we can do, is wait.   Wait for Santa.  And wait for our weather window to open.

Perserverence

Bill, sending us off.  Thanks Bill!

When we left the Cracker Boy dock, the Intracoastal Waterway quickly turned from feeling like a large bay to feeling like a narrow river in the everglades. 

The bird watching was spectacular.   A Peterson's Field Guide was all we had to go by but we did our best to put a name on some of the beauties we were seeing. Great blue herons and osprey are common here, as they are back home, but in much greater abundance.   I never tire of seeing them.  And turkey vultures abound here!   We also saw many new faces;  little blue heron, snowy egret, white ibis, great white heron, and yes, our beloved pelicans!  Mangrove forests crowded the banks on either side, providing amazing and essential habitat.  And yeah, there was as a mansion or two. 

Riley, scouting birds

Moon-rise over mansion

We had a steady following wind and were able to kill the engine, unfurl the jib, and sail for much of the afternoon.  I saw Scott finally relax for the first time since our arrival. 

Down wind on the jib

Scott, on auto pilot

Well... sort of.   He was as relaxed as he possibly could be considering our depth sounder was on the fritz He'd been tinkering with it a bit and had it working intermittently.  But intermittently just doesn't cut it around here.  The ICW (in this part of FL anyway) is very narrow and quite shallow.  If you veer too far off the channel, it shoals up to 2- 3 feet pretty quickly.  Kiawah drafts 5 feet with her centerboard up.  A working depth sounder is really an essential piece of equipment in these waters (and will be even more so when we get to the Bahamas).   We dropped the hook in Hobe Sound with plans to stay there a few nights so Scott could worked the bugs out of the navigation system, and the girls and I could go to shore and blow off some stink!  We'd been in Florida almost 3 weeks and the girls had yet to dig their toes into the white sand of a real beach!   And I hadn't run in two weeks.  The next day, we all took the dinghy ashore to explore.  Small stretches of sandy beach dotted the dense mangrove shoreline.  We followed a trail inland and by sheer serendipity we found ourselves at the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge Nature Center.  What luck! 

The interpreter welcomed us and introduced us to the resident animals (see Ri and Wren's blog for more on that). 

baby croc and alligator

Afterward, we went for a hike on the trail system through a really unique sand pine scrub ecosystem to look for some of the same animals in the wild.  Finding a gopher tortoise in its burrow was certainly the highlight of the afternoon. (the mushrooms were pretty cool too).

Gopher tortoise, caught by the flash

Russula?

color coordinated

Hiking in the pine scrub sand

That, and finding a coconut.  The girls were thrilled with this exotic find and became obsessed with opening this unwelcoming fruit.  If you've ever tried to open a coconut, husk intact (without access to a machete), you know what I mean. 

coconut #1

Team effort

Scott and I were  justifiably alarmed when we saw them heading to Kiawah's fore deck, one carrying the coconut, the other carrying a hammer and chisel.   After much effort (and no apparent damage to Kiawah), coconut #1 turned out to be dry and empty inside.  They were disappointed but remained optimistic. The empty shell was determined to be "a perfect fairy house".   

Coconut #2 was procured the next day on another beach excursion but turned out to contain only rancid milk.  They were getting closer! The hunters were even more determined.  

coconut #2

In no time, they were in possession of SIX coconuts.  They chose the best candidate from the lot (after bowling on the beach with it all afternoon) and cracked it open...  a splash of milk... a flash of white...  Success!  They guarded the sweet flesh as if it were Halloween candy and gorged until it was gone. Victory was theirs.  If I'm ever stranded on a desert island, I want to be with them.

The chosen one

Strike!

:)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....  After a day of tangled wires and careful note taking, Scott experienced his own success.  He was able to re-route the depth sounder (bypassing the defunct digital display which would only show part of a number - is that 13 or 3 feet?  Hmmm...)  to the chart plotter at the helm.  Voila! It was a great moment when it worked.  I'll take him on my desert island too.

Red to yellow.  Green to white.  Purple to orange.  Gray to blue.

The navigation station at the helm.  Fully functional.