Ahoy! After our “Great Western Loop” road trip this summer we settled back in Florida back on Pura
Vida and started preparing for another sailing season. We also did some catching-up
with our old friends at Cocoa Village Marina for BBQ’s and golf with Joe
& Margaret.
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| Back on Pura Vida |
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| Joe & Margaret Barnes |
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Basheers in New Smyrna
We also drove up to New Smyrna Beach to see Jay & Pam our friends from Kansas
City.
Off course when we were ready to set sail for southern waters we couldn’t leave until the
Royals had completed their baseball season and what a great one it was. This probably
wasn’t our best decision because that placed us going down the coast with a
little bad weather. So we took the
intracoastal waterway (ICW) down to Vero Beach then outside to the big blue at Fort
Pierce but the weather turned ugly so we went back in ICW at Port St. Lucie and
stayed in the ICW all the way to Lake Worth.
It was the first time we’ve been through all those bridges. The next day wasn’t better and it didn’t look
good for awhile so we headed down the ICW all the way to Middle River in Fort
Lauderdale. We won’t ever do that again, I think we went through at least 19 bridge openings.
WOW. We probably would have
waited for better weather but we had a schedule. Boaters
all know how that can get you in trouble.
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Boca Chita Island
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We had to meet up with Michael’s brother John and his wife Cindy, the “Omaha Kings” in Fort Lauderdale. They came down
for Michael’s big 60 B-day! We all sailed down to Miami once the weather cleared. John & Cindy really enjoyed our stops at Boca Chita
Island, No Name Harbor and other anchorages in and around Key Biscayne . We kept the nighttime dancing on the boat to
low roar and enjoyed a great visit.
After the Omaha Kings left we met up with my cousin and her
family Megan, Scott, Jayden and Tegan.
We always have a great time with them and their girls are great sailors. They remind of us when our kids were babies.
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| Omaha Kings in Boca Chita |
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| John & Cindy in Middle River |
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| Full moon on King's 60th! |
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| Maddie Kammerer |
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| Barrows in Marathon |
We finally arrived down south in Marathon and stayed on the mooring ball at first
and met up with friends Alex, Andrea, Hillary and Charles as well so many more
at the Tiki Hut parties. Eventually we ended up at Dockside Marina so King could have a TV hookup for football. There we met up with our “Dock Dynasty” friends coming down for the winter. Plus caught up with those living permantly down in
Marathon now.
The following week we went down to Key West to see our nephew Pete and his better half Pong and their daughter Maddie. She is a cutie. Good thing we got to Marathon early this year
because the northerlies set in and the wind blew stiff for weeks. We know our friends Mike and Twyla were caught in it for
a while up north but they finally made it down in time for Thanksgiving!
We had a great Thanksgiving Day thanks to Karen who hosted the celebration at her house this year. Nice day!
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| Dock Dynasty Bash |
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Ladies night quarter beers. Anything for a cheap beer!
Then the Christmas celebrating came up fast with the boat parade
and Dock Dynasty BBQ parties with Rick smoking some good pork butts! Before we
knew it we were off to Miami to meet the girls but not before the Barrrow’s
once again had a visit to Marathon.
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| Boat parade elves |
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| Marathon Boat Parade |
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| Dancing the night away in Marathon |
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Part of the Dock Dynasty gang!
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| Sunset in the Keys |
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| Thanksgiving with our host Karen Just |
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| Thanksgiving Rick & Terese carving the turkey |
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| Great Food! |
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| Working off all that turkey with Patty & Karen |
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| Turkey Coma |
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| Sunset off Rodriquez Key |
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| Miami |
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| Stilltsville |
The night the girls came it was going to blow about 25 knots so we decided to get a slip for the night and set sail the next day for No Name Harbor which was Christmas day. On Christmas eve we picked them both up a
two different airports then settle in for a great dinner at the Cabana Beach
Club on Miami Beach. The time flew by when the girls
where down here but it was one of our better Christmas’ on the boat. We went to No Name Harbor, Boca Chita as well as off Elliott
Key to anchor. Lots of beautiful
sunsets, paddle boarding, and making merry, we sure miss them since when they left.
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| All together again! |
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| No Name Harbor |
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| Boca Chita |
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| Human or Animal??? |
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| Boca Chita |
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| Cubana for lunch |
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| Cousins in Miami |
Michael & I rang in the New Year with a 360 degree fireworks shown the water off of Miami at Dinner Key and now we are provisioning to go over to the Bahamas by the end of this month.
We hope you all have a very good 2015 and we will post again after we get wifi somewhere in the Bahamas. Bon-voyage!
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| New Years Eve fireworks from the boat in Miami |
