All done house sitting

We had a wonderful month house sitting in Skip and Harriet's lovely new home. Oliver really liked spreading out on the tile floor and meeting the new dogs in the neighborhood. He had a new girlfriend Winnie, a Weimaraner. Oliver also decided he was a lifeguard by the pool. He loves to swim, but we did not want to teach him to go in a pool as he is not allowed in the one here at Loggerhead Marina. My sister, Mary came for a visit, so we did some shopping, trips to the beach and eating too much.

Our days here are getting a little cooler. We do not get above 90 now. We are in a stormy tropical weather pattern right now, so we time our walks around the storms. Oliver has been walking a mile to a mile and a half twice a day.We have to get his weight down. He gets lots of attention here from fellow boaters and those that live in Grand Harbor. I am having knee issues again, so running is at a stand still for longer distances.

Not much to report as we are waiting until after hurricane season to travel. So far we have been lucky with the tropical storm outlook, so keep praying. Love to all. I will post when we know what we are doing and where we are going. Our main goal is to keep Ollie healthy.

Oliver the lifeguard for Mary.

Making sure Dale doesn't fall off the float.

My crab friend at the beach.

Lifeguard 

Trying to get Ollie to leave the house. 

Vero Beach 2

Our days here in Vero at the Loggerhead marina are into a pattern. It is hot and humid here, so I try to get Oliver up and moving early so he can get some exercise (me too).

We went to a nice vet here for his shots and heart med prescription. He still loves going to vets. Vets down here are basic vets, so to deal with Oliver's pericardial effusion we need a specialist. All we wanted was an ultrasound of his heart to look for fluid and they called back that the traveling radiologist would be in and we could have it done for $425. I went cold and explained that was crazy as the specialist in Ft. Lauderdale charges less or not at all. We had been taken to the cleaners by a vet in Ft Lauderdale before we got to the specialist, so we were not going to fall for that again. They tried to explain a cardiologist would look at the echo cardio gram and write a report. I coolly explained we do not need that, just an ultrasound. Needless to say, I may have burned a bridge there. Anyway, I called the specialist in Ft Lauderdale and they remembered Oliver and said come on down. Luckily we have a car, so we took a road trip 115 miles to see his internist. It took them 5 minutes to check his heart and NO fluid was noted. We went to pay and there was nothing at the desk for charges, so the receptionist went back to check and they did not charge us a penny. So, for the price of gas, we ended up way ahead. I think in my discussion with the vet here I used the "scam" word, but that is what it is here, especially when I have tons of medical paperwork on Oliver from Cascade Animal Hospital and subsequent vets on our trip. We do have a weight issue with him, that we are working on (oops, 7 pounds from all those treats). I have also gained a few, so Oliver and I are trying to get back in shape. Unfortunately it is so hot here, you run a mile and are so sweat slimy you only want a shower.

Oliver is known around the docks as the "manatee hunter". He can hear a snort from across the lagoon. We wander the docks and boardwalk everyday in search of the beasts. Lately we have seen them mating, which is not something I enjoy. Oliver, on the other hand, thinks all the rolling and snorting is for his benefit and he stares at them and sometimes barks. Needless to say, anyone that is walking by is alerted to the fact that these manatees must take Viagra.

On to better things. A woman, Jackie who lives at Grand Harbor in a condo took me on a tour and to lunch. It was great hearing the history of Vero and places to go during our time here. Then we had a dinner with our new ICW friends, Skip and Harriet from Baltimore that relocated to a beautiful home down here. We met fellow cruisers, some that have given up there cruising life and settled here. This was our second dinner at their home and they are having fun decorating in a Florida style.

After our first time at their house they emailed us wondering if we would like to house sit for them while they go on vacation for a month. Well, thinking of space, toilets that flush, not pump, a pool, kitchen, not a galley and laundry, we said "yes". We moved into their house a week ago Monday and will be here until Labor Day.

Oliver loving a real sofa in the house.

More photos follow of Loggerhead. Love to all!

At Mr. Manatees restaurant.

Birthday party in the Captain's lounge for Terry

crab on a ledge as we walked by

Oliver hiding because I need to clean his ears, poor baby

Vero Beach

May 13 we took off from North Palm Beach. We took the intercoastal to Jensen Beach where we anchored for the night then continued to Vero Beach. Arrived the 15th in the afternoon.

This is where we have stopped. We had planned to stay at the municipal marina for a while to check out Vero, but looking at other options we found a Loggerhead Marina that is hurricane "safe". Safe is a relative term as a category 5 direct hit is not a good thing anywhere. We should do okay with the usual variety. We have spoken with people here who went through the 2004 and 2005 direct hits and things were scary but everyone made it fine:, some torn canvas and scraping on pilings which we got in Lake Macatawa with a storm. Our plan for a storm is to spider weave the lines, take down the genoa and canvas and run to a hotel that allows pets. I have already researched that one. We had tropical storm Andrea already and it was very mild in this lagoon. The scary part is my iPhone alerted us to a tornado warning and again we were on the boat saying "oh sh...". The tornado hit where we were in North Palm Beach. Missed that one luckily. We had 2 tornado warnings in Ft Lauderdale and were lucky, so keep praying.

The Loggerhead marina is nice and very vacant as most people have headed north. We have since had 2 more sailboats come in and the people are friendly. We plan on Friday happy hours by the pool. We also had fellow ICW sailors Skip and Harriet from Baltimore here for a while, but they have since bought a house here . We did share a lovely dinner out with them. The marina is surrounded by expensive homes, condos and golf courses. The wildlife is amazing. We have seen every bird imaginable, alligators, a Florida panther, manatees, barracudas and other fish, a dolphin and others have seen black tipped sharks. Sunday morning, early, I get on the bike to grocery shop and get a Sunday press. A new store went in right past the Grand Harbor neighborhood. I have to get there by 8:00 or all the papers are gone. This past weekend, I saw an alligator sunbathing. I stopped the bike to get a picture, but by the time I dug out my phone, the gator had gone into the water and ate something. Oliver loves the walks around here, but I keep him on the roads so he isn't gator bait. Dale on the other hand is no see-ums bait. When it is still, they are relentless and prefer him to me. Ollie is protected of course with his Vectra. Why can't they come up with something like that for humans? The Skin So Soft stock should rise.

We took the dinghy out for a spin yesterday. It goes 15-20 miles an hour which Ollie loved. He came back to the boat with a wet head and paws from leaning over the side.

Anyway, we plan to make this our base. We signed a year's lease and it allows us to stay at other Loggerhead marinas for free, except for electricity. There are quite a few on the east coast and one in St. Petersburg . We would still like to make it to the Bahamas, so we shall see how Oliver is next Fall/Winter. Then we can play the weather game again. Dale is headed home at the end of June for his physical and will drive the SUV back so we have transportation. We did rent a car for a few days and my bike is great if ride in the early morning. Florida in the summer is pretty hot and humid. Luckily we get some ocean breezes. As my friend Laura said, even her eyeballs sweat. Thank goodness for AC. We had Ollie shaved which is helping him and the long walks are at night. He has made many new friends, 2 legged and 4 legged and seems to like it here as long as he can have "off the boat" time. Love to all!

Oliver on the move again in May

going through our last bridge, yeah

manatee that came to visit us by the boat at Loggerhead

Oliver saying "hello" with Dale ready to grab his collar.

Loggerhead turtle sculpture by marina clubhouse

Oliver looking down the 10th tee for the panther. The gators are at another pond. 

Oliver looking for fish in the marina.

Bird of Paradise. My Mom loved these!

at the beach

Ollie's report from the groomer, see I am not making up what a good dog he is.

Ollie with his shave.

Ollie before the shave.

In North Palm Beach

We decided we better get a move on and the weather looked favorable for an outside run from Ft Lauderdale to Palm Beach on May 9. It is about a 50 mile trip which takes us a day. I know, in a car we would be there in an hour. It was a sunny day, fishing boats out and we saw one catch made, waves 2-3 feet, but not much wind, so we kept the motor going. We are at the North Palm Beach Marina where we have stayed before and liked. We are plugged in so our AC is working non stop. It is 86 and humid now. Not pleasant at anchor, so we are spoiling ourselves. Squalls keep forming in the afternoon, so we have stayed put and plan to leave tomorrow, the 14th.

We will miss Bruno and Ft Lauderdale. He told us slip 10 is ours and hopes to see us back next Fall. It was fun talking with him about the Tulip Festival as he went to Holland Christian and was required to learn the Klompen dance. He remembers the music and dance to this day! He also went to Hope College before switching to Western Michigan to get his pilots license. He flew for Braniff Airlines, the South American route for many years so he went from Holland, to Dallas and then Ft. Lauderdale.

We had some excitement in Ft Lauderdale. On April 24 a 45 foot powerbat on the canal just behind ours blew up. The man was badly burned, but his wife and child got off Okay. The sailboat next to him also burned totally and neighbor boats had minor damage. We saw the smoke and heard fire and rescue, even saw a fire and rescue boat go top speed by our slip, but had no idea until we saw the news, LIVE! The next day we took the dinghy and saw the destroyed sailboat which they had not towed yet. Our hearts were sick for the people. A few weeks later, my sister Phyllis sent me word that a boat in Marathon also caught fire. Yikes, I am glad we are diesel.

Anyway, not much news. Oliver was not happy to travel again and he had to settle in. He is now taking a nap and enjoyed walking around last night. I had to see an eye doctor the 26th  and have a lymphanglectasis. It is a blocked lymph and the bump is on the white of my eye. It is not painful, but scratchy to blink. They don't know what causes it and I had a choice of draining it or wait for it to go away, which they usually do. Since the needle in the eye did not sound appealing and not sure if would come back, I opted to take prescription allergy eye drops and it is better. One sight mentioned cancer patients can get funny lymph things, so we will watch.

That is our update. We plan to head North tomorrow to check out some new places and revisit the ones we liked. We plan to stop in Vero Beach by Wednesday. Love to all.

Oliver at Bruno's. He misses looking for cats and lizards.

Part of the air show in Ft. Lauderdale. Wonder if it is the one we saw in Charleston?

Look close and you can see a formation of plans.

new showing the boat fire

Bird that visited frequently.

going by Galt Ocean Mile where we stayed as kids. 

Coming into the Lake Worth inlet

North Palm Beach Marina

Staying put

Yes, that is right, we are staying in Florida. Many reasons:  weather squalls keep popping up, waves are okay to cross, but then get higher if we try to leave West End on Grand Bahama to go to the Abacos,  prices at most all marinas went up substantially this month so we would be anchoring in iffy weather and dinghying Ollie to shore, winds remain coming from the East right on our nose, we do not have a buddy boat to go with anymore and we only have a month before hurricane season begins and we would not like to be stuck there. We found out rates went up due to fishing season and tournaments occurring. Plus , you have to pay $300  to get into the Bahamas and I want my money's worth being Dutch. Luckily, we traveled often to Caribbean islands and don't feel like this is our only chance. So, we will stay put,  not feel rushed to get somewhere or try to push it. That is when "stuff" happens. If the dog remains healthy, we can try again next year when we would have more time. Soon, we will head north to look for places to spend time this summer, hopefully safe from hurricanes. We also would like to check out the west coast of Florida even though we are told it is shallow.

Ft. Lauderdale has been hot and humid. We are in a summer weather pattern. We get storm cells popping up. Oliver takes his long walk at night when the sun goes down. Luckily we are plugged in at a dock running the air conditioner. There was the Tortugas festival here last weekend at the beach. We could hear Kenny Cheasney from the boat. Not sure what it was all about, but between rain, it was 2 days of concerts. This weekend is an air festival. We saw some planes practicing today. 

Anyway, that is our little update. Oliver is glad we are not traveling in rough seas for 10-12 hours. Our buddy boats that went had 3-5 footers on the nose with waves breaking over the bow for 13-14 hours. Yuck! They love it there now. Oliver prefers watching the cats, chasing little lizards and being lazy. We even got to watch the Master's tournament as we had local TV channels here. Now, with the Boston Marathon incident, we are praying for all those affected. 

Oliver couldn't find the cats

our view down the river

The 5 airplanes practicing sky writing. 

Marathon to Ft. Lauderdale

We have come full circle. We are waiting in Ft. Lauderdale at Bruno's for a weather window to go the Bahamas or head North for the summer. Before we left Marathon, we went to Key West to get our Local Boater Option cards which means with a phone call we can get back in the US in certain parts of Florida. They invited Oliver right in the customs and immigration offices. They fingerprinted Dale and I and took our boat info and passports.They teased about taking Oliver's paw prints to make sure he wasn't a felon. Also as many of you know, we were going to wait until next year for the Bahamas but Oliver has been doing so well and the vet in Marathon checked twice for pericardial effusion and did not see any fluid. The weather is suppose to be calmer this time of year too.

Our trip from Marathon on Easter was exciting. We had 2-4 foot seas, lots of wind and a rollicking ride about 50 miles to an anchorage by Rodriquez key. We were pretty heeled over and Oliver was not happy until about noon when he found a good place to lay without crashing. We keep him in the cockpit as things below can fall if a large wave hits us funny. It has happened before, so we do not chance it. You think you store stuff away, but something always gets missed by me.

Anyway, we anchored there and got Oliver ashore. It was a windy night , but OK. The next day, April 1, we headed up to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne by Miami, another 47 miles. We were about 25-30 miles north and the sky looked a touch dark to the north. The iPhone did not show much, but Dale turned on this weather program, Sirius, on our chart plotter. It showed a real strong cell hitting the Miami area. We talked with our buddy boats and tried to be patient and wait it out. It was April Fool's Day, so of course the storm grew and grew and a tail came south, right at us. We all turned south and motored as fast as we could south. The other boats are bigger, with bigger engines, so we were behind, trying our best to outrun the storm. We did and regrouped at Rodriquez Key. With a dog needing to go to shore the only other place to anchor would not have worked because of mangroves, plus we would have been hit by the storm had we stayed farther North. We got dinner at the Mandalay grill that night and then went to bed. Age is catching up with us.

The 2nd we headed North again and made it to No Name Harbor. While there, we did some wash, Brian and Judy got on bikes and went shopping bringing us back bananas and salad, Judy and I walked to the lighthouse and the beach, lots of dog walks between those storms which persisted on and off for a few days and watching boats crash into each other, or nearly as anchors dragged during high winds. We dragged one night during a storm and had to reset the anchor 3 times. We found our anchor had hooked on to a submerged dock ladder, so our hold was not good when the winds picked up. Sweet Escape went to a larger anchorage as they were by a large ketch who put out so much chain, no one else could anchor near him as he swung around. They also were dragging as well as most other boats. Most boaters play it safe.

Wednesday, dolphins came to visit and put on quite a show. They swam around our boat and even flipped there tail flippers on their backs at Oliver. He was ecstatic, running around the boat following them and barking. Many tourists took pictures of us and the dolphins. I was watching that Ollie would not jump in so I could not take pictures, but Dale grabbed a camera and tried.  Thursday, we had more storms and the weekend is a zoo. All the locals in 80 foot to 8 foot boats come here to party. They squeeze between boats at anchor trying to get in, take up all the wall space to get ashore with Ollie and party like most 20-30 year olds do. The music choice is not my taste, but they seem to enjoy dancing and yelling at each other over the music. Many boats have children which will all be hearing impaired as adults.

So we sat in No Name Harbor for almost a week waiting for a weather window to cross to the Bahamas.  We were buddied up with our friends from Wisconsin, Brian and Judy on Sweet Escape and new friends Ron and Dee on Ursa Minor that also wanted to do a spring crossing of the Gulfstream. The Gulfstream is like a 2-3 knot current that is 20-30 miles wide that you have to cross between Florida and the  Bahamas. It runs north, so you do not want to cross when the wind is opposed to the current or you get big waves and lumpy seas. From what we have studied, you want a slow moving high pressure with winds more southerly, but not too strong or you get big waves. So, the prudent thing for us newbies is to wait and watch. Unfortunately hurricane season begins in June and we don't want to delay too much longer.After much discussion, we decided to go to Ft. Lauderdale and our buddy boats left at 10:00 Monday night for the crossing. We had issues with crossing in rough seas at night, the weather not being great for the the end of week when we would transit to the Abacos area and anchor out plus we have a slower and smaller boat. We are glad we made the decision to wait as we had the biggest  2-4 footers and rolly seas just between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. It was uncomfortable for 5 hours let alone 10. We did hear the other boats made it but it was very tiring and rough. Dale and I have been caught in enough junk to play it safe now.

Anyway, that is some of our excitement. All is calm here. Oliver thinks he is at his second home.  I will let you all know where we end up. I stay in daily contact with my sister Mary. Love to all.

Oliver looking for dolphins in Marathon to say good by

Last look at the Marathon Viking

Oliver at the Customs office

Sweet Escape heeling over on the passage to Rodriquez Key.

Radar on nav station that made us decide to turn around. Black dot south of storm is our boat. 

Storm we ran from. This is Sweet Escape. 

Oliver sites land, thank goodness!

Iguana at No Name Harbor

Lighthouse at Florida Channel

Lighthouse keeper house. 

No Name on the weekend. Loco as they would say. 

Ron and Susan on Mandate took this of us leaving Marathon. 

My Christmas cactus finally bloomed, a little late. Oh well. 

Here are a few pictures of the dolphins hanging around Oliver and our boat.