3/2/14:  Yesterday the wind picked up dramatically so we made an early stop at the Titusville Marina.  Highlight of that stop was getting to see our friend Jim. He is a great guy so it is always nice to visit with him.

Up early this morning with winds 5-10 knots and a light chop. Hope to get past Daytona Beach today.

As we were plugging along Russ said here comes another Great Harbour. It was ‘Mother Ocean’ a Great Harbour GH47 southbound. It was pretty exciting to see our bigger ship sister. She is impressive on the water.

3/1/14: We spent the last 3 days at the Melbourne Harbor Marina, Melbourne Florida. 

The day that we arrive about 7 miles south of the entrance WE LOST OUR STEERING! Now that’s what you call a pucker moment.

During our 2013 retro-fit we had Mirage the manufacture of our boat install new rudders with a new steering cylinder & steering pump. It appears they forgot to tighten a jam nut resulting in the cylinder becoming disconnected from the rudders. We were in the channel dead in the water with no way to steer. Russ sprang into action, got down into the bowls of the boat & made emergency repairs to get us to the dock. Once at the dock Russ was able to address the problem and fix it.

Now here is the God moment with this story. As Russ was downstairs working to get our steering back I was upstairs at the helm watching for boats & watching our depth and I have to admit I was stressed! We drifted out of the channel & landed EXACTLY on a spot I had marked on our chart. It was a spot we had anchored at in November 2013. When I saw we were dead on that spot I just looked up to the heavens and thanked God for His protection. We serve an amazing God!

We had already made arrangements for AMC Electronics to meet us at Melbourne to fix our autopilot. Again during our 2013 retro-fit we had Mirage install a new autopilot & the thing never worked right. Of course the guy at Mirage said we really didn’t need an autopilot & would never use it. WRONG AGAIN! Dave the owner of AMC came aboard, we took Twelve Stones out and he got the autopilot working perfectly. We are underway as I am writing this & the autopilot working correctly has been like night and day from before. Russ is very happy.

We have learned a lot since we first bought Twelve Stones but perhaps the most costly ($$$$) lesson we learned is …. Just because someone says they know how to work on boats doesn’t mean its true.

The highlight of our Melbourne stop was the time we got to spend with our friends Denny & Linda McGovern. Also Kay & Al on Knot Home came in for a night as they head north.

Life on the water is good. 

2/26/14: On Saturday 2/22/14 we left Islamorada, Fl headed for our home port.  In 4 days we have traveled 176 Nautical Miles (NM). Our 1^st day we anchored at Thursday Cove in Barnes Sound. The sunset view was amazing.

Left Marina to R84 then headed north.

Anchor view Thursdays Cove, Barnes Sound

The next day we traveled through Biscayne Bay, Miami, & anchored in Ft. Lauderdale. What a difference! We shared the water with Cruise Ships, sailboats (big & small), fast boats from a poker run,  a sea plane doing touch & goes, as well as slow trawlers like us. Russ said he had never had so many people try to run over him at one time. 

Sea Plane doing touch & go...

We could hear these boats coming before we saw them. 

Poker run that was from Miami to Islamorada on the Gulf side.

This guy has a helicopter on his yacht. WOW!

Ft. Lauderdale is a cruise ship port. We got right up next to these guys.

Miami

It was Sunday so the locals gathered to party. 

Our anchor view in Ft. Lauderdale. Beautiful sunset & million dollar homes view.

After leaving Ft. Lauderdale traffic calmed down making it a good travel day. We anchored at Old Port Cove with a view of mega yachts.

Tuesday 2/25/14 we anchored out near the Ft. Pierce Bridge.  Another night of calm winds and good hold on anchor.  As we drifted off to sleep, God provided us with a spectacular view of stars through the open deck hatch.

Ft. Pierce Bridge Anchor View

Today we push forward. ICW is calm this morning but expected to change by afternoon.  

2/21/14: The weather window is perfect so tomorrow we leave Islamorada, Florida & head north. We will miss our friends Kaye & Al on Knot Home, Marsha & Joe on Morning Star, who have traveled with us since we left Ft. Myers in December 2013. Lots of good memories and we hope our wakes cross in the near future.

We aren’t looking forward to the cold weather we are headed into but excited to get to our home port, restock, and head out on our Great Loop Adventure.

2/16/14:  Everyone that owns a boat is familiar with the ‘it worked when we went to bed but was broke when we woke up” phenomenon. Lucky for us have had only very minor occurrences of this until this last Saturday morning when we woke up to a broken hot water heater. (Darn it…we knew we should have replaced that old thing when we did the retro-fit…ugh!)

The weather window to move north was this coming Tuesday/Wednesday with it closing shut Thursday. No sure when the next window will occur so leaving this week would be our preference. But our plans to leave Islamorada on Tuesday are probably on hold. Of course all of this depends on if the Marina we are at can get our hot water heater fixed in a timely manner so we can be on our way. If they can’t we will have to move north with cold showers in our future.

Okay…okay.. I can hear my snowed in northern friends firing up Facebook to remind me that we are stranded in the FLORIDA KEYS… so if you have to be stranded count your blessings that you are in the warmest part of the US. Believe me we are. While we are enjoying the warm weather here in the Keys we really need to get headed north so we can start the final preparations for our big Loop trip. 

February 5, 2014:  Its hard to believe in just a few days we will have been in Islamorada, Florida for 2 months. We are having such a good time and the weather north is so cold we just don’t want to leave.

Our favorite swimming spot is a sand bar located on the Atlantic side near Wahoo Restaurant.  At low tide the water is ankle deep which provides a great place to beach the dingy and spend some time in the water. 

We have taken in the Key Largo Seafood Festival, found a great Cuban restaurant and continue to have amazing dinner views. As always the Keys serve up breathtaking sunsets. 

A stingray by the dingy

Here we are enjoying the sun, water, and company of good friends.

Nice & relaxing

Ready to jump in!

Clear Atlantic Ocean Water

Cuban Food.. so good...

Super Bowl Sunday - A pig roast on the beach.

Another beautiful dinner view.

The Keys offer up amazing sunsets.

1/19/14 DINGY ADVENTURES- Islamorada, Fla what a way to start the new year.

Our new dingy has proved to be just what we needed here in the Keys. It is big enough and has the power to get us far from the dock. 

Riding the waterways up and down the Gulf side.

Atlantic Side Waterway - Indian Key, Florida

Russ just might take to this fishing thing....

Storm coming in. Good thing our dingy is fast.

What an amazing journey we are on.