Today is Thursday - March 2nd.
We left Miami and arrived in Bimini. The water is clear & beautiful. Amazing to see all the fish so clearly. We are planning our journey for tomorrow. We biked the entire island today. (7 minute bike ride) Think we need to move on. I certainly won't find any pilates here!
We were in South Beach for a week. Had a blast. Had some Miami friends over last night - was very fun. We have been traveling alone. Stef & Roy are still in Key Largo. They do not plan to meet us in the Bahamas.
Sunday, Feb 11th
Going to the Miami boat show on Wed. Hope we don't find a new boat to purchase. New boats are too much work! We will keep the boat in Key West and drive up to the show.
Saturday, Feb 4
Frank's comments:
Finally in Key West, our southern-most point of travel of the trip. One could say it's "all uphill from here", at least geographically speaking. Plans are to stay here until Feb. 20th and then start journeying again to wherever. We were down in the Keys about this time last year and it was interesting to see the area post-Wilma. Still some apparent wind damage to some of the buildings and a lot of left-over beached boats (see pix). But all in all the area seems to be recovering well. Always a never-ending reminder that Mother Nature is still the boss.
Donned fins and goggles yesterday and inspected La Nostra's underside. All running gear (props, shafts, struts, rudders, stabilizer fins, etc.) seemed to have held up well so far. No nicks, bends, etc. in spite of several encounters with mud and sand bars. That skinny water thing.!!!!! All in all La Nostra continues to perform flawlessly. Same can be said for her crew.
We've spent all of our time traveling down the coast running outside to keep in deeper water. Only downside of that has been encountering bigger seas (see pix also). But La Nostra has shown to handle anything we've encountered (up to 8' seas and 40+kts of wind) with ease. It's quite apparent Grand Banks builds a solid ship. The crew is glad for that.
Interesting event on Thursday when a 78' SunSeeker attempted to dock under heavy wind conditions. Boat got quite out of control; first rammed the pier in reverse, got sideways in the wind and struck two other boats, made for an exciting twenty minutes until things got under control. 100,000lbs of runaway boat can raise a lot of havoc. Fortunately we were on the opposite side of the pier and were pretty much out of harm's way.
Wednesday, Feb 1
We left Marco Island at 7 am - we are heading to Key West. Lew & Karen from Vagabond are waiting for us! Christopher & Sarah are coming to visit for the weekend. Chris is bringing our passports so I think we are heading to the Bahamas next week. If the weather permits. If not, then we might head back up to Marco Island and do some visiting! The seas are ok but certainly not the flat perfect day like the weather computer said. We expect to arrive in 6 hours.
Monday, January 30
Frank's notes:
Note the picture of the sailboat tied up directly behind us. This is one of the many reasons why our sailboat would NOT have been the proper vessel for this trip. The boat shown draws only 6" more than our Hunter did but you can see their predicament.....they literally could not get off their boat until the tide returned. We were actually sitting on the bottom as well but not to their extent. We've learned that the tide ranges are more acutely affected by a full moon or a new moon. We're now in a period of new moon.
Will be good to get underway tomorrow. heading for Marco Island for the day/night, then hopefully a good weather window for the 90mi open-water crossing to Key West on Wednesday. Reviewing the charts for the Key West leg; we'll be about 25mi offshore but hard to imagine that a good bunch of the leg will be in depths of 6' of water. That's only 1.5' below LaNostra's draft of 4'6". Actually the deepest portion of the voyage will be the "cut" leading into Key West itself which is 38' deep because of the cruise ships which enter/leave Key West harbor. I'll breathe a sigh of relief when we hit that water.
STILL can't get used to the "skinny" water down here.!!!!
Saturday, January 28th
We are on a flight heading back to LaNostra! The weather really was not bad in Wisconsin other than the rain today. The studio was participating in the Pewaukee Fire & Ice event......wonder if anyone came out to party in the streets in the rain? We had really cool balloons to hand out to the kids. Katherine was all dressed in her pilates clothes ready to hand out balloons. (Katherine is Frank's 11 year old grand daughter) Frank is bored on the plane again.
We will stay in Sanibel until Monday or Tuesday - weather permitting. Then head to Marco Island then to Key West. We hope to be in Key West by next Friday as Chris is coming to visit! Makes for a one week separation for mom & son! I have separation issues. Does anyone use Dreamweaver? I sure could use a Dreamweaver 101 lesson.
Monday, January 23, 2006
We are on a flight home right now. Will be in Wisconsin for a few days. Plans are to return to LaNostra on Friday or Saturday. Frank does not sit still very well. He's walking around the airplane. Here I will let him talk:
Yeah. Why walk around a DC9 when you can be typing recollections of the past week on the water. Still can't get used to this skinny water thing. I guess it's because boating in Lake Michigan (or any of the Great Lakes) doesn't require as much attention to the sonar. I'm simply amazed at the shallow water in this area. Another thing getting used to: salt water and tides. After a day on the water, it's necessary to hose the entire boat down to remove the salt residue from the spray. It gets everywhere. And you're paying constant attention as to HOW you tie the boat up to accommodate for rising/falling tides. Again, as fresh water boaters, we're not used to our water containing gritty salt and going away and coming back every twelve hours.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
We arrived in Sanibel Island after a long day on the gulf. We took our time getting into the island area due to shoals and little water. It still amazes me - these big huge beds of water look so big but sometimes have only 3 feet of water. We draw / need 4.6 feet. 30 feet is perfect! We are now positioned to be 2 days away from Key West. We plan to go to Naples, Marco Island then Key West by Thursday, Feb 2nd. We will stay for a week. Hey, plans in writing! Not like us - we typically change our plan 2 - 3 times a day! Does this sound like maybe we figured out retirement? Ha Ha!
Saturday, January 21, 2006
We had a sad day today. Frank's friend Carl passed away this morning so we decided to head the boat to Sanibel Island & head home for his funeral. Making the decision to move so quickly was stressful but it worked out and will make our trip back easier. We spent the night in Venice, Florida. Very cool place. Did not feel like we were in Florida. Great restaurant next to the marina. Wine Spectator choice....needless to say we had some fun with the wine list. Actually, did a little wine shopping & sent the boat a package. The town was adorable....lots of newer condo units, nice clean cars all over this town. Made my fold up, salt caked peddle bike look like I was from Florida.
Friday, January 20, 2006
We are finally in Clearwater! The gulf crossing is done! Today was quit uneventful. Calm seas, sun & warmth, what more could you ask for. The water is getting prettier. Certainly not looking at river water any more!
Thursday, January 19 2006.
This post was written by both Frank and Ronda:
Ok, I have not much to report - we are in Florida. Did anyone know I'm not fond of Florida? - it must be a childhood thing. I still have not figured out why anyone needs to live here. I really enjoyed the quiet basic life of the rivers. Ok, get over it, your in Florida for the winter. I thought I would be fine with Florida, we are on the water, it must be better on the water - really it's the driving here that makes me crazy. I always thought a q-tip is going to run me over.
We usually don't have enough water under the boat. This can be stressful. Frank hardly reacts to the melt down of the depth finder anymore. I still pace around allot - I'm checking the exhaust of the engines, do I see any mud or sand spitting out? What makes me as crazy is driving in this state.
We spent a few days in Apalachicola because a series of weather fronts prevented us from leaving. Very cute, small town, Up North feeling with a southern accent. Houses with porches, lots of great sea food. We left today - heading towards Clearwater but ended up making a stop in Steinhatachee. We are really Up North Now. We are tied to a pier without any cleats. Makes for a real fun docking.....I jumped off the boat with 2 lines, (talented hey) the tide was out so my "jump" felt like I was leaving the Sears Tower. After I hit the pier I noticed no cleats.....Little noise.....Frank finally "jumps" off the boat to help me. I need to take a picture of this place.....It's dark now but I will in the morning.
Oh, did I mention, we have no cell phone service or computers. I had phone withdrawals about 11 am today....oh, did I mention the trip here? 7 foot seas, 35 knot winds, spray over the top of the boat. I needed a seat belt for my chair upstairs. Lanostra did fine, Frank did fine, Ronda held on for dear life and got out the personal flotation devices. Thus the reason for the stop here instead of Clearwater. Hopefully we can head for Clearwater tomorrow. This is the longest open-water crossing of the entire trip.....it will be about 160mi across the open Gulf, most of it far enough offshore that land isn't in sight.
Did Ronda favor Florida today?
Well, there is always tomorrow.
John Q...did you call for your pilates session yet????????????? 262-695-2262!!!!
I had a good laugh last night. A friend sent me this e-mail:
So this should make you laugh - I went to Target and picked up a few birthday cards - I saw this particular one and doubled over laughing in the aisle - was still laughing when I left the store. I hope it translates well over e-mail, because I can't wait until August to send it to someone...
The cover is a 1950's picture of these two geeky looking kids with a magnifying glass, inspecting a huge brown rock. The caption under the picture reads: "Vern and Wally couldn't believe the size of the turd they found outside on the playground." And when you open the card it says: "Ah crap, another birthday".
Monday, January 16 2006
Lanostra has moved from Panama City to Apalachicola. We will wait here a few days until we find the perfect weather window to cross the Gulf Of Mexico to Tarpon Springs. (Clearwater area)
Wednesday, January 11 2006
We just arrived on the boat at 9:30 PM. Listening to the weather and starting to plan our trip to Apalachicola. I would love to say we are in Key West this Saturday, but I think we will slow down a little.
For any one who was following our TV saga - we have DishTV national channels!!!! Our NBC, CBS & ABC stations are from New York.
Hi John Q !!!! Say Hi to Jen !!!