Boca Chita to Vero Beach

The ride from Boca Chita to Vero Beach is not one of my favorites. You are meandering though the concrete canyons on the Intracoastal with many speed zones and many discourteous boaters that will wake you as they pass. There are a few highlights along the way though. Ft. Lauderdale has a lot to offer as far as entertainment, beach and restaurants. We stayed a week at the Las Olas City Marina. This is in a great spot convenient to everything. Our friend Rich who is buddy boating with us is an avid runner and joined the St. Patrick's Day race, a very festive event culminating with a dish of green eggs and ham. As we headed north we anchored out one night and stayed another night at Old Port Marina in North Palm Beach. I would say we were the smallest boat in  the marina.

We are now in Vero Beach, also nicknamed Velcro Beach because it is such a nice place that when people come to visit they never leave. We are at the city marina which is conveniently located near the beach and shopping. Being near shopping is a luxury when boating. While here, since we will be here a week, Rich and I decided that it will be a good time to do some periodic maintenance on the boats. I cleaned my heat exchanger, changed my impeller and the belts. On boats access is limited and makes easy tasks difficult. You need to have long arms and be a contortionist. I usually hurt for a day after and am covered with black and blues. It is alway a good opportunity to convince the authorities that Jess beats me. 

Today is March 23rd and we will be celebrating Jess's birthday. 

We are hoping to tour the Piper Aircraft  facility on Tuesday as well as meeting up with a past business colleague, Dave Coffin and his wife Susan for lunch. Wednesday we leave for Stuart and that will be the start of our trip west through the Okeechobee.

Till next time!

Sunset over Miami

Andy and Anita Ragona visited us while in Ft. Lauderdale. We always have great times with them.

Before the race. I think I should go on a diet!

Notice the shadows on the mural. Besides the trees it looks like someone is painting with a roller.

 Some people have bad luck. We passed this boat just before Delray Beach. I think he needs a big bilge pump!

Our neighbor in Ft. Lauderdale must get lonely and carries this chap along.

And the neighbors get even more creative as we move north!

Rich and I working on the engine. Is Rich dozing here!? In the picture above you can see our set up for pumping Rydlyme through the heat exchanger so that we can remove all of the calcium deposits. 

That little small Boat is Roam, Rich and Cheryll's boat, doing a test run after our maintenance. 

Always time for fishing and fun. We have a manatee thing going on with Rich's sister Tanya so we thought we would send her a shot of me teaching "Manny" how to water ski.

Always time for a birthday celebration! It isn't just a birthday it is also time to collect Social Security. 

Marathon to Boca Chita

We spent a week in Marathon at the Blackfin resort. Hardly what one would call a resort, but a real nice convenient place. The people are nice, it is within walking distance to the food store, Home Depot and other facilities one may need. When traveling by boat certain things one takes for granted be come special. Being close to a store is a special treat. A simple task of getting groceries can take several hours depending on where you are. Planning food and supplies depending on where you are going to be is critical. We always carry canned and dried food in case we run out of fresh food. 

Our buddy boat friend, Rich Odendahl is a runner and saw there was a run at Key Colony, a nice section of homes and beaches in Marathon. So we went with him and watched the race. He won second for his age group and received a medal! We also got to meet Rich's father  and a friend who flew down to meet us for the day. 

After Marathon we worked our way up to Key Largo anchoring one night in Islemorada on the way. We visited the Pro Bass Shop there by dingy and then scooted over to Loreli's for a drink and then back to the boats for dinner. 

The next day we made it to Key Largo mid afternoon. We stayed at Pennekamp Park, which is a state park that offers, snorkel trips to the reef, swimming and camping. It is also we situated for stores and supplies. We stayed for 5 days and are now at Boca Chita. This is a real nice spot, but can get pretty crowded and loud on weekends. We planned it to get here late afternoon, but it was still somewhat crowded and we had to wait about 20 minutes to get a spot at the sidewall to tie up. As the sun set the majority of people left and we had the place to ourselves for the night. Today we head to Miami to anchor our again and then on to the Lauderdale area for about a week.

Stay tuned.

Sombrero reef. Some of the best snorkeling and diving around!

Looking across the way while at Boca Chita. 

Drinks at Loreli's

In Key Largo "Keysing" with Cheryll Odendahl having a drink at our usual happy hour.

Every place we go this guy shows up! We are being stalked! 

You can see military helicopters in the distance. Obama was visiting Ocean Reef club. We suspect they were security circling the area.