Day 12 – Thursday – 12/13/18

“What a fun day” said Henry as he sat on the couch at bedtime.  What a difference visitors and a pool can make!

Today we were joined by Greg and Susan from back home in Colorado.  They were staying in Boynton Beach for the week helping care for family members and were able to take a vacation day on the water. They got shuttled to the boat in the morning, boarded with big smiles during a rainstorm. 

We enjoyed a great visit as Amel motored south through the drawbridges of the Palm Beach area. They generously treated us lunch with homemade cookies and early Christmas gifts for the kids. The rain cleared and the sun came out giving a good view of the passing scenery, which included 100+ft megayachts and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, though Mar-a-Lago’s luxury is marred by multi-year bridge construction and nonstop pounding from piledrivers audible for a mile or more.

After anchoring in Lantana next to the bridge came the best part.  Greg and Susan treated us to amazing boater luxuries: hot showers, laundry, a dip in their complex’s pool and hot tub, topped off with burgers and ice cream.  The kids were in heaven, and we adults were very thankful for their generosity a second time around. Thanks guys!

Tomorrow, Friday, we’re off to downtown Fort Lauderdale and likely the Lake Sylvia anchorage.  The next weather window keeps changing shape, but it appears that sometime Saturday/Sunday will mark the start of a few days of favorable winds, with strangely calm wind speeds for the better part of a week.

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Up at dawn.

Motoring, motoring, motoring

Shopping, shopping, shopping

Analyzing weather & routes until our heads hurt!

That’s about the sum of today.  Woke up to 49F….seemed so balmy compared to yesterday’s 44F…until we started motoring at 6:45am and realized Mike needed almost every layer he owned including Reid’s foul weather jacket too!  The kids stayed in bed at first (Henry slept through the engine starting and pulling up the anchor! ), then got up stayed warm under cozy blankets (the salon couch turns into a “bed” for trips underway).

4 hrs of motoring and 7 bridges later we anchored at the North end of Lake Worth just south of PGA Blvd.  On a land-lubber’s map, that’s the town of North Palm Beach.  This is a convenient location as there is a Publix grocery store 1 block from the dinghy dock, and a West Marine just 2 blocks.  We did our last shopping – mainly fresh veggies and fruit and a little more fresh meat – then got to experience a dinghy trip back to Amel with 10 bags of food (including eggs)…. that all somehow made it back to the big boat safe and sound.

Lots of talk around here about a weather window opening up to head to Bahamas – we spent too long pouring over weather data, wind charts, sea height charts, looking at various departure points from US (West Palm? Could we dash to Ft Lauderdale through a maze of drawbridges?) and investigating best places to check into Bahamas.  Both adults were feeling underslept and a bit on the headachy side of things.  Dinner was late.  Kids somehow took care of themselves for 2 hrs.  They read some literacy books, had endless fun with a new $5 calculator we bought them at the store.  They’ve never played with a toy so much.  Lots of quizzing each other on math equations then checking their answers.  They were self-entertained.

I think the song goes: Should we stay or should we go now……..

Kids asleep. Decision made.  We’ll motoring south in the ICW – easy day Thurs, big day of bridges Friday.  Will keep an eye on weather window for the weekend.  Tomorrow, Colorado friends who happen to be in town will join on board for our day-trip south…. can’t wait!

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We are officially at anchor for the first time on Amel!  Dropped the hook at 1pm today at Peck Lake, just off the ICW marker G19 (just south of Stuart) at mile marker 992.  It was a cold, cold motor in arctic winds gusting to over 25knots.  We were wearing winter hats, long johns and even mittens!  Kids and I got brief respite as we came inside for lunch but Mike was at the helm the entire time.  It was a gorgeous sunny day.   We had to follow to Okeechobee waterway north to Stuart then met up with the ICW (Inter-Coastal Waterway) and turned south.  The ICW is a 3000 mile long inland protected waterway, consider it a narrow “highway” with land close on either side, that runs parallel to the coast of many states including Florida.  When seas are too big or wind too high, boats can still make progress north or south.  We need to get as far south as we can before we cross to Bahamas since the Gulf Stream flows north and will push us off track.

Our morning started with the excitement of finally going through the St. Lucie Locks  – after having watched other boats go through day after day.  Here is a description by Henry of how it works:

“It is so much fun watching the boats go through the locks. First the boat radios the lock and gets permission to go in the lock. Next the people throw lines to the boat then the water goes down 14 feet. After the water goes down the second gates open. And the boat goes through. Then the boat is at the other side of the lock.”

We had many bridges to go under – some tall enough for us to fit – others we had to call on the radio to have them stop traffic and open the bascule bridge (draw bridge).    We saw some fabulous birds early this morning including a HUGE Great blue heron.  Impressive!  Peck Lake is part of the Hobe Sound National wildlife Refuge – it was neat to walk the beach this afternoon  – with not another person, condo, store, car…just nothing but beach, ocean and us (oh yes…and the cold wind!).

Yesterday we said goodbye to Dubby and Grammy.  They showed up at the Locks with surprise ice cream and got a tour of the somewhat organized boat (without unpacked bags everywhere!).  They have been so much help over the last week whether shopping, helping with kids, doctor visits, cardboard parties….hard to say goodbye as we head south.

Tomorrow morning is planned to be an early start to keep motoring south. Forecast is for a warmer day…here’s hoping!

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Today was spent ticking off more minutia on the pre-departure to-do list and is hardly worth chronicling.  So…..

Would like to start tonight’s post by introducing Reid and Rheta White, the amazing owners of S/V Amel. We met 13 yrs ago while we were sailing on Mandolin and they were on Alibi with their 4 children ages 12 through 20.  While we only had 5 months together sailing along the south coast of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, we formed a friendship that has continued through the years. When we got married in 2007 they and their very talented children Jaime, Christine, Scott and Michael, drove down from Smithers, BC to be the musicians for our wedding – it meant so much!

Jumping forward to recent years, we were invited to join Reid and Rheta on S/V Amel this past January for a vacation in the Bahamas.  It was a fabulous trip and very generous of them to share their floating home with us, not to mention for a trip that lasted 3 weeks.  Henry and Emma loved it all and brought home so many memories.   It was great to spend time together again on the water after so many years apart.

This winter, Reid and Rheta were not planning to sail the boat but rather work in the boatyard to upgrade some major boat systems and then spend time with the growing crop of grandkids up north.  They were crazy enough to change those plans a bit and let us sail the boat ALONE… with them staying behind in Canada.  Reid came down to help Mike prepare, and together they ticked off as many of the smaller upgrade/repair items as practical before Reid headed back home.  We miss their presence on the boat so much and think of them every day.  Emma still looks around corners expecting to find Rheta there! 

We owe Reid and Rheta a huge debt of gratitude and are blessed to have them and their family in our lives.  

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Our plan for the day changed as a result of weather…which is quite the norm when one lives on a boat.  We were going to move a few hours further along the canal, but the weather was calling for rain, squalls and wind gusts to 35knots that didn’t sound fun to move in and would end up in a direction that would make the anchorage area uncomfortable.  So we opted to stay put at the Locks for one more night.  (of course the storm petered out and we just got a little drizzle!!). Good chance to finish stowing all the cans, get a bit more organized.  Kids are happy to participate – today they worked on storing the carrots (you dry them then wrap a few each in tinfoil – prolongs their life in the fridge) and storing the eggs (buying refrigerated eggs – you dry them, then coat each egg in Mineral oil and then you can store at room temperature).  Mike had a big list of little projects to work through – fixing small fans (now Henry and Emma both have their OWN in the aft cabin to sleep on hot nights), he went up the mizzen mast to add 2 running backstays, and climbed up the main mast (while Henry belayed him with the safety line) to adjust the genoa furler and reran the genoa halyard.  He also added some permanent stainless bolts to the new solar panels to secure on the davits (metal arms that go off the back of the boat to lift the dinghy).  Mike and Emma filled up our water tanks with another 100 gallons (we have about 250 gallons of fresh water in total).  Henry and I spent some more time in the museum (it’s the only place to get 30min of free wifi)….he finished a huge life size wood puzzle of  a manatee…hard doing a puzzle when every piece is painted grey with no designs!  The kids have now listened to all the interactive displays so many times they are ready to teach it to their classmates in their next ACES class!

Emma, as I predicted, jumps at doing school work any chance she gets.  I started unpacking the BES school books this morning and she grabbed one from Ms. Dew’s literacy class  – “ I know what to do with this one” and proceeded to open it up and complete an assignment.  Totally self-directed.  This afternoon, she saw my clipboard of holiday art ideas and helped herself to a Christmas tree outline, decorated it, found the stickers of ornaments, cut it all out and had it posted on the wall when I got home from the museum.  That is a girl that knows what she wants to do and does it!  Henry has found a Sudoku book on the boat and has fallen love.  Between that and having me write out math equations on our whiteboard “for fun”…he’s certainly getting some math practice in.

We treated ourselves to lovely long hot showers in the campground after dinner….that is hardest thing for me to say goodbye to on land!!

Off to sleep feeling so clean, humidity down, storms have cleared the air, and no bugs tonite.  It’s a good evening.

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Wow – one week ago we left Colorado. So hard to believe.  Feels like a lot longer with so much that has happened.  Today was a tidy-up/ last errands day as we returned the rental car.  I was at the boat with the kids which, as busy as it was, was still a lot more relaxing then shopping!! Nice to get a few more things put away.  Kids on their own accord, each wrote an email to their classrooms.  Great way to sneak a literacy class in without either of them knowing it!  Mike did another 4hr crazy shopping expedition to get all the last minute odds and ends.

 Mike got the dinghy outboard hoisted from Amel down to the dingy.  Woohoo – it worked on the first try!  Henry is very much looking forward to being dinghy captain (under supervision!).  This was an important step as once we leave the land tie up we will be staying in harbours on the hook (or mooring ball) but the only way to get to shore will be using the dinghy.

 The Fridge.  Ahhh how one must keep reminding oneself “just be grateful to have a fridge” as many boats don’t, no matter how challenging the fridge may be! Let me introduce Amel’s fridge to you.  Firstly, it’s a top loading fridge (See that little square that looks like a counter…yes – that’s the fridge).  Once open, there are layers inside to help organize.  When you need something in a lower level – you must empty the fridge’s top layer first (this is why the cover over the stove is useful – it turns that area into another temporary counter space).  Once the plexi glass shelf is removed, you get access to the 2nd layer, then once you remove the white wood shelf you get to the belly of the fridge (which is about a foot deeper then my arm length while I’m turned upside down).   So – it does become very important while cooking to get all ingredients out prior to starting the meal – since it could take 10mins just to get it all out!

Not only do we have a fridge, this year – we might actually have a COLD fridge! This has been a challenge on Amel in recent years. In November, Mike plugged some vents, added seals, doubled the capacity of the alternator and also increased the solar from 75 to 400W.  So that should allow us to run the fridge more often and hopefully keep everything cold. Stay tuned on this one….

 As I sat on the settee tonite, too tired to put away more endless bags of canned food, needing a moment of still and quiet, all of a sudden a FROG jumps at my feet from one bag of food to another.  AHHHHH I scream – there is a frog in my food!!   “Oh” says Mike “oh that’s the boat frog” he states very calmly and quietly.   “WHAT?” the boat frog?!?!?!?  Mike says “well yes, he’s been on the boat.  Reid and I caught him, took him away and he returned.  Apparently they are territorial – or this is a new one that moved in!”

And so this frog was caught, again.  And walked a long way away….hopefully not to return while I’m on board! Frogs are cute and all…but just not on my boat! (or in my food).  🙂

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What an endless shopping day, 8am – 8pm.  Wow. Made full use of that last rental car day. The kids were awesome troopers.  Thought we had planned well – doing it all on a workday and avoiding the weekend….however it appears in south florida that doesn’t make a difference.  At 10:30 on a Friday morning, Costco was PACKED.  Check out the line up just to depart the store…..crazy!!! Every single store was like that.

Felt good getting it all done…only to realize once we drove home that now we had to move, single bag by single bag, everything across the grass field to the boat, up the finger pier, onto the boat….and then it all had to be de-constructed (some cardboard again)…and then put into locations in the boat.  Have I mentioned that boat’s do not have normal cupboards like a house.  There are a few accessible areas to slide open a door and store some small items.  However, to store 3 months of food, one has to do more work.  There are odd shaped triangular cubbies, there are compartments underneath the settee (couch).  To get to the compartment you have to remove all the cushions which are large and take up space, then lift up the lid to access the space to store food.  Amel actually has some fabulous somewhat squarish type compartments.  On Mandolin, I used to maintain a spreadsheet of the 39 various sized compartments to keep track of what food I had where.  It can be quite the project.

Henry and Emma maintained their sanity during all this and were great helpers to run all the bags from the car to the boat.  They had fun “spying” on me as I dove upside down to store food in the fridge.  Henry escorted Emma on trips to the bathroom (facilities are located on land – like a campground in a centralized area).  They love running to the lock viewing platform whenever a boat is going through.  Good local entertainment! It’s a 14 foot drop in water.

Emma got a lovely surprise with an email from her 1st grade class and a photo of all the kids.  Thanks Ms. Ioffredo – she loved seeing everyone!  Glad the class has been enjoying the email updates too.

We had our next boat ‘learning event’ when Emma announced at 5:10pm she was hungry.  No problem – I would get dinner on early.  I had an easy dinner planned for our first night cooking on board.  I knew how to start the stove…but it wouldn’t start.  Hmmmm.   I can figure this out…follow the path of lines to the propane tank area…..Ah yes….mike was currently off the boat filling all the propane tanks. ARGH!!!  Called Mike – as it turns out there was one tank left on the boat.  I just had to get it from the aft lazarette.  Well – there were only about 30 bags of food between me and the aft lazarette – but no problem doing that – then navigating while carrying large tank back to cockpit, through bags, to hook up.  And Voila…stove is working – 5:35.  Where are the pans?  Oh yes…first time they are used in  6 months…pans are dirty.  No problem, I can clean the pans, start the water boiling for pasta, another pot for steamed broccoli and the third pot for the sausage…..oh wait.  That’s right! Amel only has 2 burners….so….we eat dinner in shifts….sausage, then pasta followed by a Broccoli dessert!! Will get used to this…just need to re-set brain to new ways of cooking!

We must have worked the kids hard in recent days because at 6:10 while chewing their last bite of dinner they both asked “can we put our jammies on now – we’re sleepy!”.  So off to jammies, stories and a very ontime bed!  Out cold in minutes without poking or bothering each other!

Quick update on Emma – last day of antibiotics and she appears to be 100% normal after that ear infection and strep from Sunday/Monday.  She’s actually been pretty darn amazing this whole week.

It’s also my grandmother’s 88^th birthday today.  Happy Birthday to GG/Alison up in BC, Canada!

G’nite folks!

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I had such grand intentions of waking up this morning and ‘dashing’ out for quick morning shopping expedition but you know there are some daysthat you just need to go with your gut, not with ’the plan’.  My limit for living in chaos apparently had been met, and instead I handed over priority for the rental car to Mike, and I did some ‘nesting’.  Some days, when you want to find clean underwear, you just want to find clean underwear!! You don’t want to have to look in 5 bags and lift several other bags and climb over more bags.  You just really want the clean underwear. On the first try.  And the warm fuzzy socks too. On the first try.  So unpacking, my clothes, became the priority. And how lovely it felt once it was all done!   Emma was next on the list (Mike and Henry had been done yesterday).  Mike and Henry did some messy jobs this morning of filling gas tanks for the dingy in multiple car trips and mixing with oil.

We had planned the afternoon as a pre-Christmas with my Dad and Lorraine (Dubby and Grammy) who live about 1 hr north of the boat.  While it was a lovely sunny day, and warmer then yesterday, it was still only 70F.  Never the less,  the kids were hardy and still wanted to jump in the ocean waves.  I was more keen once we got to the hot tub soaking stage of the afternoon!  Christmas #1 was celebrated with much excitement and Emma got to try out her new mermaid tail floatie in the pool.  A delicious steak dinner finished off the nice afternoon and back to the boat we came.  Very refreshed, and so clean after wonderfully hot soapy showers wearing clean clothes!

Another reality of boating life.  When your child falls asleep in the car on the drive hoe, then you have to support a sleep walking child up the skinny finger pier and help her climb over the lifelines onto the boat….over water that has alligators….it’s a very different experience then transferring them from car to house!

That’s it for tonite.  It’s time for an early night to bed.  The week of adrenaline is starting to wear off….this body needs sleep.  All is good.

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First thought is – glad I’m writing these posts otherwise I would have no idea what day it is!  Wednesday? Really? Time goes by with no thought for days of the week.  It’s a very odd transition.  Days instead of being labeled as Wednesday, are labeled in the brain as splash day (yesterday) and “move day” like today!

Yes, not only does she float, but Amel also can motor!  [Side note – this is something we are very thankful for!  Anyone that has sailed enough has had engines die at the most inconvenient times like entering a harbour or docking!  When we splashed yesterday – of course the engine would not start for us!  Mike had run it the day before…but not when we needed it.  Luckily for us, Mike went ahead and gave it another bleed – then Voila – it turned on! Mikey’s magic knack for making broken things work came to the rescue again!]. 

For anyone that has checked out a map, Indiantown is actually inland – almost to Lake Okeechobee.  “Odd place for a boat?” you say?  Yes….a tad.  However it makes for a very safe hurricane hole all summer for many boat owners that live other places from June-Nov each year.  There is a skinny canal that goes all the way to the East coast….and that is what we traveled on today.  Goodbye Indiantown Marina…..hello St. Lucie lock and Dam run by the army corp of engineers.  We weren’t ready to be anchoring yet still with so much provisioning to do, so this was a good ‘inbetween’.  Not as expensive as a marina, but at camping rates of $30/night it still allows us to be tied up to land and not yet need the dingy.

Henry was excited to be at the helm and often asked to take over.  Was a really good first day on the move – safe, quiet easy day of motoring – not another boat around, flat calm canal, nice sunny day. No water depths to worry about.  Took 2.5hrs to travel approx. 15miles (yes – you can drive that distance in 19mins).  Life on a boat moves at a different pace…..

We all had the nerve racking excitement of going under our first bridge on Amel.  There are a lot of these in Florida.  We knew it was fine…. Our mast height is 49’, you can see by the water height chart posted the bridge height was over 56’…it still freaks me out though to watch the top of the mast!

Remember the heat and humidity I may have mentioned yesterday?  Well today we got a taste of the other side of Florida in the winter….a cold front.  As I write this I am wearing 4 layers of clothes including my skiing long johns.  It’s going to be 48F tonite and we are sleeping in an unheated boat.  Thank you Rheta for the wonderful comforters on the beds!   Time to think like camping in a tent!

We got another provisioning trip in tonite before dinner…..so I’m off to find places for another 10 bags of food….wish me luck…..

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Tuesday – Day 3 – Another whirlwind of an action packed day.  Non stop activity in the full heat and humidity.  Set wake-up alarms for before school bus time (promised kids it was the only day!!)…..time to move from Dad’s house to Amel.  Arrived by 8 am to see her “on the hard”.  Owners Reid and Rheta store the boat on land during hurricane season.  Today was the day to “splash” the boat!!

After so much hard work by Mike and Reid in the boat yard inNovember, she was ready to go.  After climbing that huge ladder up to the deck, I was very grateful for all their hard work and that the kids and I were NOT a part of it!  Can’t imagine the heat, humidity, no A/C, bugs…..and then while on the hard boats have no working toilets, no sinks, no running water.   It’s not very pleasant.  Brought back memories ofMandolin (Mike  and I worked 14hr days for 6 weeks straight before we departed our previous trip).

We happily explored the boat and then looked forward to watching the travel-lift strap under Amel’s belly and in no time had her ‘flying’ in the air on the way to the water. After they lower her down, Mike does a dash around the inside of the boat to inspect all the thru-hulls and ensure nothing leaking….then the straps are released and Amel is on her own in the water!

That was done by 10:30am…then the hard work began.  The sails had to be put on (has to be down in the water – boatyard doesn’t allow you to climb the mast while on the hard).  All sails are stored inside during hurricane season so they have to reattached and then re-furled.  It was a hot sweaty job in the full sun (and sometimes sun/showers) that my Dad helped Mike with while I attempted to make sense of the chaos inside the boat once we dumped all our bags, clothes, boat schooling books (30lbs of them!) and all the food I had been buying.

The realities of life on a boat in a hot humid non air conditioned place became apparent as both children wilted and melted for the afternoon – both physically and emotionally. We had some good highs and some impressive lows too! I was very impressed with them for about an hour they eagerly opened of various school projects and got to work doing different assignments, happily helping each other while I got endless cans of food organized.  There is some hope!

Bedtime was a challenge (first we had to find a bed under all the bags!)…then we realized how the boat holds it’s heat…even though it was70 outside it was still 85 inside.  2 hot sticky children were not falling asleep….but then the rain storm from the cold front arrived.  Perfect timing…2 naked children ran into the cockpit to cool themselves off in fresh rain….finally off to bed they went…late at 8:30pm…but asleep and as comfortable as can be.

That wraps up a busy day. It’s bedtime!

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