February 27-28 [wish it was leap year!]

February 27-28

I’m pretty sure I forgot to bog last night... oh, yeah, I did. We were “out”!

We got down to Boynton Beach the day was uneventful, unless you count all if the ridiculously HUGE boats and houses we passed. The amazing thing is: the houses can’t be all that expensive to build. The exterior is cement blocks with coloured parging or stucco. The interiors are wide open and I would think the biggest expense would be the enormous windows. There are no two alike My theory is each town has about 400 plans and you aren’t allowed to build one that looks like your neighbour’s!  The gardens are spectacular and we even passed a mansion with kids toys in the yard. See, if you can afford one of these AND kids, how expensive can they be?? Although we did see a few places where the outdoor furniture cost more than our house!!

Junk that sank They never remove debris?

A fixer-upper

Tanks at a commercial shipyard...neat graphics

Really?

An alien

See the yellow fag? means foreign boat not cleared by immigration yet. My entire family could live on that boat and not be crowded

See, if you leave too close together, they breed!

No idea what this is but its big!

pretty bridges down here

Steve and Nancy on the dock

Boat dock in the park, but the spiders were huge.

We ate on the swing, and it was windy

Cool lawn ornaments

Love the entranceway!!

Hey Jack lets buy this one. It continues down the bock!

Checking the bottom

Checking the anchor

More lawn ornaments

Think the dogs are having fun?

Do you REALLY need to go fishing in a storm?

Scrubbing the bottom

The jerk who was yelling at us. He quit when someone else came on the dock

Storm going past us over land

The boats are another story. I have a theory about that, too. They aren’t paid for: you pay the minimum amount on the loan and have fun with the boat. When you die, they take it back!

As we approached the last bridge yesterday, Steve (Virginia Lee from Lady’s Island) was yelling at us from the dock!! We had to go through the bridge since it was on demand, and we had ‘demanded” it.  We went into the park inlet and docked the boat. There was a guy in there who came over because his mom is Canadian and they own property in Lake of the Woods park area, so he was familiar with Thunder Bay. He wanted to tell us all about it. We had to spin the boat when he finally left. We went back to the bridge where the Two Georges Restaurant was and looked for them but they weren’t there. We sat down and had supper then went back to the boat. It was a really nice night... warm and quiet although we were expecting a thunderstorm.

Feb 28

This morning w went back to see Steve and Nancy. We caught up quickly as they were going shopping with their daughter and we had to get back to the boat to Face-Time with Liz and the kids. We had a good long talk although none of them was particularly interested in conversation. I guess we asked the wrong questions, like... how’s school? What are you doing? [Q]  What’s new? Is it cold there?  Anyway we saw them and they saw us. It was good!

While we were standing there a couple of guys on bikes came by [serious riders...cycling gear, helmets, cleats] and were asking questions about the boat so by the time we actually got away it was noon. We managed to get through 5 or 6 bridges...lost count...and we are now sitting at anchor in Hillsborough Inlet , on the ocean, in a howling gale and bouncing like a cork. There was a marina just past the bridge that we probably should have tried. They have a couple of transients slips [or not, depends which guide you read] but we didn’t.

As we were coming through the bridge and into the anchorage, some guy fishing on the dock starting yelling obscenities at the “stupid Canadians”.  I can’t imagine what set him off, but he kept it up for about a half hour while we were docking and getting stuff organized. I can’t even write some of the ugly things he was saying, but we ignored him... well, I did. Rick is deaf anyway. I was so tempted to flip him the bird, but it seemed to make him even madder that we ignored him, [which was my goal anyway :)] then some other people walked out onto the dock and he stopped. That’s the first time we’ve had anything like that happen and it’s very disappointing.

Anyway, we got the anchor down and then Rick dove on it to make sure it was set. Then he swam around the boat scrubbing off the underwater lights and the depth gauge and speed log. The water here is crystal clear and we can see the bottom. The underwater lights are cool here!

So, going to bed so we can get some sleep before the thunder starts! It may pass us to the north. If it’s a good day tomorrow we might be able to catch C-Soul. If it’s a crappy day we’ll just go slowly down the river.  Maybe Virginia Lee will catch up too!

Yesterday’s and today’s pics... J

February 26 North Lake worth aka North Palm Beach

February 26 so it must be...?

Liz, I hope you got home from NL last night without issues for the weather. I keep picturing you guys all driving, walking, working, in ice-coated houses, clothes, cars. I can’t imagine what the heating bills must be right now.

We had another boring day. It was nasty last night with the high winds and confused seas in the anchorage. We bounce around all night and I was worried that we would drag and hit another boat.

We went into the Customs and HS office to check out some information on our cruising permit. Jon suggested we see about changes and turning it in to renew it later and ... bottom line, the guy was bored, annoyed, didn’t understand my questions, and didn’t care. He basically said, “don’t worry until it expires and see what happens when you go to renew it... you may get another one for 6 months or you may get one for a week and you have to move the boat. But October [the renewal date] is along way away...go away and forget it until then.

As for our  6-month time limit, not a big deal. Don’t worry about it.”

Aaaaaarrrrrrggggggg!!!!!!!!!

This is insane!! No-one has the same answer!!! Or no-one knows the real answer. Just like Canada Customs: if you don’t know for sure, make something up and it will be someone else’s problem down the road! And this is supposed to be the HEAD OFFICE!!

So when we were on our way to the dinghy dock, we passed another cat who motioned us over. He handed us a tooney, a quarter, a nickel; said he’d been to Canada and came back with change! I said we probably owed him 75 cents. He is in a 42 ft Catalac [not a pun]. We will probably visit later when he comes back to hi boat.

It’s very windy/stormy today...not sure what the weather is going to do, so we will work on small stuff today., like putting “Todd’s room” back together since we took out the copper sheeting, and I am defrosting the fridge. That’s a great job, it’s nice and cool in the fridge! Sorry, sorry, sorry...not complaining about the heat!!

Rick hung up the light over the table and it sure gives enough light in here to see what we’re eating in the dark. It’s kind of glitzey but we couldn’t find anything that matched the decor so ... we’ll replace it when we find the right one!

Tomorrow we will leave at first light and see if we can make it to Ft. Lauderdale to meet up with C-Soul. The last25 miles of the ICW are brutal according to everyone we’re talked to; cement walls along the canal, choppy waters when the stupid boats go by, so we’re probably going to go outside to Miami, weather dependent as usual. Can't seem to load more than these 3 pics. In North Lake Worth anchorage... UGH!

February 25

February 25, 2015

Who knew those beautiful herons had such horrible voices!  This morning we watched a pelican dive on fish close to shore where a heron was fishing. The heron is waiting for the fish to come to shore and the pelican is scooping them before they get there!  So all we can hear is the heron screaming! And there is an osprey in the tree above the heron waiting for his turn! I guess they are all fishing for different things but the heron is NOT impressed with the pushy pelican. It finally moved down the shore and ended up in front of another one, so that one is screaming at him too, just further away.

the pelican left

Dolphin splashing to chase fish onto shore so they can eat them

*sigh* no words

Lighthouse at Lake Worth Inlet

This guy slowed to tell us he had been skating on the Rideau Canal last week.  We asked why! His wife is Canadian

NO idea what this is but it's cool, eh?

Oops

The sky is cloudy over us but south of us is clear, so we’re heading out of the anchorage early.  We watched the dolphins chase fish up on shore to eat them, and the pelicans came in to help [eat them]. Of course, the minute we pick up a camera, all wildlife disappears! Manatees are vegetarians, so they don’t care.  They are the natural dredgers in the ICW. They pull up and eat all the weeds so the channels don’t fill up with sand.

We got through the bridge maze... six bridges all of which open on the hour or half hour so, if you don’t time it properly, you have to hover until the next opening. We didn’t have to wait for too long at any of them, but we weren’t in a hurry either. We were avoiding running over manatees [they really are stupid old sea cows], and we were avoiding the huge mega yachts running up the river.

Today the Sheriff’s office Volunteer boat cruised the river beside us for awhile. That made the stupid fast boats slow down as they passed us. Handing having friends in high places. One of them was a retired law enforcement officer so I offered over my OPP mug from Thunder Bay. My RCMP mug has a chip in it so I kept that one.

We are anchored in the North Fort Worth Inlet. Joseph is coming to the dinghy to meet us and take a sheet of copper off our hands. We are also going to Publix and the Dollar Tree. Our bucket has a hole in it, and we need a few bits of fruit and cheese.

There is a Trader Joe’s here as well, yahoo!! They have a great gluten free section, I’ll be heading there!  I imagine we will stop for dinner at one of Joseph’s haunts and then come back to the boat

So we will sit at anchor here tonight.  I am so sick of watching the million dollar houses go by with the million dollar yachts parked in front of them. You could house the population of Hepworth in some of these places [or Kakabeka, for you northerners].  So I want to get through this area as fast as possible and out onto the ocean.

So here’s the pics from today.