Keeping up with the Joneses'-- statues by the pool

January 17-20

Cruising along the ICW from say, Stuart to Miami, the houses are bigger, the boats are bigger and the outdoor statues by the pools are bigger than the next guy’s.

This is a congested, over-populated area along a stretch of fairly narrow water that’s awash with all manner of trash and bobbing coconuts. Even though the houses are within a few feet of one another, they’re in the $15 million range. It’s conspicuous consumption at its best. Some of the architecture is stunning; others tasteless. Some of the outdoor art is worthy of any museum. Others, ah, not so much. And, yes, there are a lot of “for sale” signs in front of many of the McMansions and McYachts.

We made the quick trip from Lake Boca Raton to Pompano Beach and anchored out in Lake Santa Barbara for several days. Philip and I celebrated my birthday on Monday with lunch at the Cove in Delray Beach and had a lovely dinner that evening at the home of Philip’s friends in Pompano. Jim Ellis is the former president of BoatUS and succeeded Philip as chairman of the American Boat & Yacht Council. Jim’s wife, Lori, is a consultant and a fantastic cook. When they’re not in Pompano, they’re at their home outside of Annapolis or on their Fleming 55, Seaworthy. Like the Lovings in Stuart, they kindly loaned us their car for a grocery store run (this time for fresh food), a hair appointment and, of course, the required stops at West Marine.

Our plans also have changed.

Instead of heading immediately to the Bahamas, we’ve decided to first spend a month in Marathon in the Keys. Philip thought that waiting until later for more settled weather made more sense. So we’ll likely cross over to the islands at the end of February when the winds and weather normally have improved. 

Before leaving Pompano on our way to the Keys, Philip pored over the wires he had nicked KO’ing the radar while installing the XM weather satellite service. His goal was to teach himself to solder and repair the wires. Success! He was one happy guy and Epilogue is now radar ready.

We’ve had the first luscious taste of warm weather this week. Today, we went on the “outside” in the ocean, which was amazingly dead calm and the color of turquoise. We(and a dozen other boats) are anchored out tonight in a protected state park south of Miami called ”No Name Harbor.” We saw our first manatee and relaxed on the flybridge after a not-so-hard day with a margarita and homemade guacamole. Life is good. 

There's no recession here

January 10-16

Two  cottages along the ICW between Delray Beach and Boca Raton, Florida.

There are few “houses” along the ICW from Palm Beach, south. They are mansions, villas, castles and estates that are such orchidaceous behemoths they put some hotels and museums to shame. The yachts at their docks often are equal in size to the homes. 

Even though it was a beautiful, warm Sunday afternoon, few people were outside. We figured they were either working 24-7 to pay for the bungalows or were out west skiing.  

Leaving Vero (aka “Velcro”) Beach after eight days was like leaving home. We had met a lot of great folks, some of whom we hope to see in the Bahamas, depending on who leaves when and which Bahamian islands they’re heading to.

We had our first en route get-together on our boat in Vero (or “Zero Beach,” as Linda Lane said the county folks call the area, deriding their big city cousins.) Bob and Nancy Anderson from Puffin, Gail and Gene Knight from Nightingale, and Gayle and John Crowley from Sirens Call joined us for a couple of hours of cocktails and -- what else -- boat talk. It’s fascinating to learn where everyone is from, where they’re headed and where they’ve been. The Andersons hail from Vermont and keep their boat in Maine. The Knights are from Ohio. 

John Crowley built his 50-foot boat over five years in their Port Townsend, Washington, driveway, sold their home and they've been cruising for the past two and a half years. And cruising.

They’ve been to Alaska, the coast of California, Mexico, Central America, the Panama Canal and Florida, with Bahamas as their destination for the winter. Gayle, when asked which countries they had visited: “Well, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, and Honduras (I think that's all of them...) Also, all over Pacific Mexico and Cancun.” In the summer they’ll point Sirens Call north to Maine. Next year? They plan to cross the Atlantic to Gibraltar.

Gayle, whose parents live in Rocky Mount, N.C., talks a mile a minute and everything she says is fascinating. She figures (conservatively) that she has 160 pairs of shoes on board and multiple sets of dishes (my kind of gal). She said something about returning an item to Macy’s because she knew it was going to be discounted the following week. She’s such a skillful shopper that her husband (who is as quiet as she is loquacious) calls it Gayle’s “catch and release.” 

He also allowed that Gayle is a home wrecker because she puts other boat cooks to shame. An example: she makes homemade ravioli onboard. To get the crab to stuff the ravioli, Gayle got a crabbing license and caught her own crabs. She bakes her own bread and makes her own desserts. We were the recipients of her largesse -- yummy homemade peanut butter balls (“They melt in your mouth,” Gayle said) and homemade caramel and chocolate turtles. 

After leaving Vero Beach, we motored 35 miles to Loggerhead Marina in Stuart. Pam Loving, whom we met at the Krogen Rendezvous last fall and saw again when they were in Edenton by boat, was waiting at the dock when we pulled in. Pam and John, who also have a 42 Krogen, graciously let us use their car for two days -- we ran errands (oil to change the motor and generator, a new XM radio for the Garmin that covers the Bahamas, extra belts for the engine and nearly $400 worth of canned and dried goods for the trip, or enough to have in the event of war, whichever comes first.) Pam also treated us to a great dinner on their boat, Compass Rose, on a chilly night. 

John took us to the weekly Krogenite breakfast on Thursday where we met or renewed acquaintances with more than a dozen other Krogen owners and talked about boats. Get togethers with any boaters, of course, are wonderful because we pick up so many tips. Thanks John and Pam!

We headed out first thing Saturday morning. Destination: Boca Raton. The windlass, however, had a mind of its own so as we were motoring, Philip noticed a West Marine on the GPS and within minutes, he had called the store to see if they had a new switch for the windlass and had pulled alongside a pier at the E&H Boatworks in Palm Beach Gardens on a narrow stretch of the ICW. It’s amazing how deftly (and quickly) he can maneuver into a slip, at a mooring or an anchorage. He makes it look easy.

Philip telephoned the boat yard. Would it be OK to leave Epilogue there while he got a taxi to West Marine?

“Oh no, I’ll take you over there,” said Chris Hodge, a weathered 58-year-old whose mother owns the boatworks and two other boat facilities. 

We talked briefly at the dock with Jim Harlan. He was unloading his trawler, “Slip Away,” from Jupiter, Fla., to go to his mother’s house. She had died a couple of weeks earlier at the age of 90.

“It was time,” she told him. Jim said he’s a true Floridian -- his grandmother moved from Alabama to Florida in the 1800s. He doesn’t know why. “Now I’ll never know,” he said.

That afternoon we anchored out just past the bridge, south of Lantana. It was a dinghy’s ride to the Old Key Lime House, billed as Florida’s oldest waterfront restaurant. The original dates to 1889. A lot has changed since then. Today’s open-air restaurant (and its multiple bars) has no fewer than a dozen TVs, including one worthy of a drive-in movie. All were tuned to the Steelers-Ravens game. “No one’s from Florida,” said one fan, explaining why the patrons were nosily cheering on either Pittsburgh or Baltimore.

Tonight we’re docked at Lake Boca Raton -- really a cove --off the ICW surrounded by high-rises and the Boca Raton Resort and Club. (Literal translation of Boca Raton: Mouse Mouth.)

The fun part about being here is that there’s a city cam and we could see our boat and the scores of others that flocked here on a warm (80s) sunny Sunday afternoon to party, sunbathe and mostly to be seen. Ego Alley is a better name for it as high-speed boats with big engines and loud radios strutted their stuff. Thankfully, most left at sunset. A nearly full moon and lights from the high rises illuminate our fish bowl and it’s quiet.

Of possums and palm trees

Larry Brown and his pet possum, "Odie" at a Vero Beach oceanfront street party Friday.


January 4-9

Left Cocoa at 8 a.m. headed for Vero Beach. Dead calm on the Indian River. It’s easy to see why Vero Beach affectionately is known as “Velcro Beach” -- once you get here, no one wants to leave. The marina and moorings are great. Gretel the African gray parrot (who will live  up to  100 years) is at the marina office and has quite the vocabulary (and a nice whistle!). The city has a free shuttle bus for its residents, which conveniently swings through the marina. Take one bus and there’s a Publix, a West Marine, a dive shop and a TJ Maxx. Another bus goes to the  oceanfront with sandy beaches, parks, and upscale shops and boutiques.  

Our second full day at Velcro Beach was cool and rainy -- a perfect time to do chores around the boat and to have the “honey wagon” pay a quick visit. We took the dinghy to shore and walked to the oceanfront. We were back in time for the 4 p.m. “happy hour” at a picnic area in the marina. Lots of boat talk and guitar strumming. The sky was so vividly red at sunset that if we hadn’t known better, we all swore there was a blazing fire in the west. 

Sunset at the Vero Beach Marina

Four other Krogenites are here - three on trawlers (Nancy and Bob Anderson on a Krogen 39, “Puffin;” Greg and Lena from Toronto, who came in for the night on their Krogen 48 “Traveler,” and Wayne and Carol, who live here but have a Krogen 48 Whalebody “Fluke” nearby. They came down to the dock and we all talked about going to the Bahamas. Carol and Wayne had been there many times and shared some of their tales. There’s another Krogen, a sailboat. We didn’t know Krogen even made a sailboat -- apparently there are about 80 of them. Bob and Nancy are going to the Bahamas, too, so we’ll talk more in the next couple of days. Philip ordered three Explorer charts of the Bahamas and is waiting for them to be delivered by UPS.

We’ve met a lot of interesting people on our voyage. 

George, who has been spending winters here for 31 years, said boaters often don’t talk much about their professional careers. He said he’d known one man for nine years before recently learning that he was one of four people who mapped the moon before Neil Armstrong made his “one giant leap for mankind.”

Toby, another boater, is retired from the State Department where he was in charge of audits for AID in more than 20 countries in east Africa.

Maybe the nice weather is a magnet, but Vero Beach seems to attract some rather odd characters, as well.

Larry Brown is one of them.

He was walking through a crowded, city-sponsored oceanfront street party that we went to Friday evening. His corpulent pet opossum was draped around his neck like a scarf.

Its mom was road kill and two babies were rescued from her pouch. Larry fed the pair kitten formula with an eye dropper; one didn’t survive, “Otis” did. That was two years ago and when it turned out that Otis was a girl, she was renamed “Obie.” 

Larry said Obie is docile and “very socialized.” She thinks he’s her mother, Larry said. No matter how many people came up to pet her, Obie -- who wasn’t on a leash -- seemed content to ride on Larry’s shoulders and nuzzle his ear with her pointy snout. Her brown fur is soft as a cat’s and her white, hairless tail is as rough as a lumberman’s hands. 

Larry also has two other rescue pets: a 4-year-old fox, “Bo,” (named, he said, for “fox” Bo Derek) and  “Merlin,” a raccoon who’s about 3. 

Each has its own personality. Bo the fox was raised around children and wags his tail whenever he sees little kids. Merlin gets into a snit if someone takes away his food, toys or is made to go to bed. Merlin also likes to wrestle with Larry’s nine-month old Australian shepherd.

Larry pays $50 a year for a state license to legally keep the critters. Fortunately, his wife loves animals. A chemical engineer, Larry said he had his own company in Philadelphia for many years before moving to Florida. 

He works for the Indian River County public utilities department. Larry said the county administrator isn’t fond of him or Obie; he thinks Obie scares people. 

January 3

We again left at daybreak, bound for Cocoa. Dolphin were everywhere. We passed by Mosquito Lagoon, Haulover Canal and Titusville. No rocket launches on this day. The Titusville Bridge (aka Max Brewer) swing bridge opened on demand and the bridge tender told us she’d be retiring when the new, 65-foot fixed bridge opens next month. 

We spent the night at the Cocoa Village Marina and had an all too short get-together with our Edenton friend, Ann Rosenblatt. Dinner at a Thai/Japanese restaurant -- the sushi was even better than Joss’ in Annapolis, and that’s saying something.

January 2

We left our mooring at St. Augustine, bound for Daytona, at daybreak. Dick and Carolyn had warned us about shoaling on the Matanzas river and inlet and we timed it to avoid kissing the bottom. The tides and currents pushed us along so fast that we bypassed Daytona and at the end of a 60-mile day, anchored out at New Smyrna Beach. 

This was the Florida we had expected -- palm trees, warm breezes, dolphins and pelicans everywhere and wall-to-wall houses. And given that it was Sunday, pleasure boaters were in abundance, enjoying the break in the cold spell that had swept through most of the East Coast. The mercury climbed to 80 and for the first time since our trip began nearly a month ago, we could shed fleece jackets.

We caught up with Judy and Bill Chappell on their Island Packet 40 in New Smyrna and walked around the charming town that features remnants of an old fort. There is no fencing and we were amazed that you could walk all over it without even a “climb at your own risk” posting.

 

Happy New Year!

Well, shiver me timbers -- a pirate ship in St. Augustine harbor

Just when we wondered how we so quickly got to 2010, we’re beginning a new decade. We’re sure it’s going to be a fabulous year.

We’re in St. Augustine; at 8:30 a.m. it was 57 degrees, on its way to a projected high of a sunny 74. 

A train/trolley tour of St. Augustine on Thursday took us through downtown. While there are lovely areas of the historic district, the city that bills itself as the oldest in the country also is one big theme park. T-shirts, pirate hats and any other kitschy items abound in store after store along St. George street and its narrow alleyways. This is the season for the Night of Lights, though, and the same historic district twinkles with white lights at night.

We’re at a mooring at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, just off the Bridge of Lions, and within sight of the lighthouse and just past the Castillo de san Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the country, begun by the Spanish in 1672.

We dinghyed (who knew it was a verb?)easily to the historic district the first time, but then the equally historic 9.9 Evinrude gave out. Philip tore it apart, hoping it was a fairly quick fix to replace the impeller - no luck. He figured we needed a reliable motor for the Bahamas anyway, so a new motor would be our end-of-the-year purchase.

We were so fortunate that Peter Sabo, one of Philip’s former boat yard owner-colleagues, lives here and still owns and runs the Camachee Yacht yard and marina. He called him early in the morning and Peter had not only located an inventory-clearing 9.9 Yamaha at a dealer in Jacksonville, but he and his wife, Susan, zipped over in their center console and took us back to their lovely home at Porpoise Point at Vilano Beach. (They live next door to a house bought by Fijian golfer Vijay Singh for his girlfriend; Singh’s wife lives about 20 miles away).

Peter loaned us his truck, we drove to Jacksonville, bought the motor and made a grocery run. Peter brought us back to Epilogue by boat and helped Philip haul the new motor to the flybridge. We were so thankful -- Peter gave up a large part of his day to help Philip. Wow.

Capping off a serendipitous New Year’s Eve day was a six-course dinner at an incredible little French restaurant near the waterfront. Bistro de Leon is owned by a couple from Lyon and meal was one of the best we’ve had -- mussel saffron soup, escargot and porcini tart with arugula salad, flounder stuffed with scallops, fresh lemon sorbet, beef tenderloin with porcini and trio de gourmandises for desert. Heavenly! We watched fireworks from the flybridge and uncorked a bottle of champagne to toast the new year, via telephone, with Lisa and David in Portsmouth, N.H., and our friends partying in Black Rock. All the boats in the harbor blasted their horns at the stroke of 12 to welcome 2011.

Wishing you all a healthy, joyous, prosperous new year, brimming with life’s adventures -- be they on land or sea!