Boot Key Harbor – FL

Boot Key Harbor Florida

This last week we have been in BKH – (Boot Key Harbor). The week was made extra fun due to Susan’s visit. Right off the bat, Susan & I decided to do some snorkeling out at Sombrero Reef. We took the dinghy out via Sister’s Creek. Here are a few photos of the homes along Sister’s Creek.

As you exit the mouth of Sister’s Creek, off to port you’ll find Sombrero Beach.
Sombrero Beach is both dog & dinghy friendly.

Sombrero Reef is marked by a tower approximately 4 miles offshore.

Chart out to Sombrero Reef

Tower at Sombrero Reef

The dinghy ride out to the reef was a bit wavy but the water was nice and clear.

Upon arrival we tied to one of the free buoys provided by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Buoy Program . Anchoring is prohibited due to possible damage of the living coral below.

While Susan has snorkeling and SCUBA experience, it all new to me. It’s not easy getting into all that gear in a small dinghy. Once suited up we snapped a quick pic.

The only underwater camera I had was an actual Kodak disposable film camera (not digital). So much for being a tech-guy. The film says it expired in 2006 but it was still in the packaging. Anyone know where to find a fotomat booth in the Keys 😉

Kodak Film Camera — Film inside expired in 2006 but the best I had to go underwater

I was amazed that the fish completely surrounded me. Attempting to swim, I had to avoid touching the fish. Below us we could see two scuba divers and their bubbles racing to the surface.

[ Insert snorkeling photos once developed ]

Back at the BKH dinghy dock (one of the largest dinghy docks I’ve ever used). They have some great dinghy dock rules that separate the hard dinghys from the soft (inflatable) dinghys. Dinghy etiquette demands that you leave your engine down and tie with a long enough painter line that when other dinghys approach the dock for offloading persons and gear they can push your dinghy out of the way and contact the dock directly.
Once offloaded you simply tie your dinghy with a long line and push it back off the dock. I wish everyone knew to do this. I can’t tell you how many times I have landed in Block Island’s Boat Basin at the Oar restaurant and had to climb over many dinks that were “short tied”.

7 Dingy Dock — Dinghy Dock at Boot Key Harbor

Now it was off for a drive to Key West. Our drive down Rte. 1 was lined with colorful water and dark ominous clouds.

We saw many of these lizards that I’ll call it a Bearded Dragon. Reptilian experts chime in please.

We arrived at Key West for some shopping for the kids back home and a few drinks. We started our walk at the Harbor Walk end of Duval St.

Walking Duval you see many great sights.

We stopped in Irish Kevin’s for a little music and an IPA. Check out their webcam

We also grabbed some food & drinks at Willie T’s which is an interesting bar as the walls are covered in money with written quirky sayings on them like “Show me your pineapples”.

12 Willie Ts — Susan & I enjoying apps and drinks at Willie T’s

Lastly, it was time for some dinner & drinks at Lazy Days South.

13 Lazy Days South — Kelly & I enjoying happy hour at Lazy Days South bar

Key Largo South

We awoke early in the AM and took one last look at downtown Miami before departing from our anchorage off Key Biscayne.

This fine yacht was next to us when we left.

The Border and Customs Patrol boat passed us like a bullet.

We passed through narrow cuts in the mangroves.

There were many hazards to watch out for. This broken daymarker piling was snapped off at the waterline. Someone attached a green pole to make it a bit more visible. I can only imagine what it must be like to slam into one of these pilings so hard that you shear it off. Ouch!.

The bigger challenge in the Keys is water depth. It’s so shallow that you have to vigilant about staying out of the ‘skinny’ or shallow water. At times we saw depths in the 5′ range just inches below our full keel.

I think a captain wiser than I would say… “Thou’s Speed Over Ground shall not exceed a water’s depth”.

As we arrived into Key Largo we past the Anchorage Yacht Club to port

and a bar to starboard.

As we continued.. the water was an amazing shade of bright green.

Kelly enjoyed the breeze as the temp was somewhere in the 80s. Just a great day.

We originally thought we’d stop and anchor somewhere mid Key Largo but we instead did almost 10 hours South. The wind was blowing hard and we needed to find somewhere to anchor that would offer us some protection from the wind and waves. We picked a little shallow cove that we found a good spot to drop the hook. It was so shallow that as I backed down on the anchor @800 RPM and the sandy bottom was being kicked up by our thrust.

Tonight as we await the moon’s rising we are making plans for Boot Key tomorrow.

Miami and Key Biscayne

We enjoyed Fort Lauderdale and especially having family come to visit.

We hit some of the local restaurants like…

Tarpon and Jack Fish

15th Street Fisheries

Flip Flops Dockside Eatery

Shooters on the Waterfront

Southport Raw Bar

One night while on anchor a fellow cruiser from another boat came to visit and him and I chatted about the Bahamas and where to go. At 80 years old he and his wife had crossed over to the Bahamas countless times and he was nice enough to give me a map of interesting places to visit. I enjoyed that time and had a great selfie of the two of us to post here but unfortunately, I locked myself out of my phone and had to wipe and restore it losing the pics 😦

Our anchorage in Lake Sylvia had some amazing homes to look out at.

Cool Breeze

Home Values

Lake Sylvia or Silvia?

Just Off Our Stern

Nighttime View of Hilton

Occasionally we would see a floating tiki bar go by…

Next we anchored in Maule Lake in North Miami Beach.

Maule Lake Map

Maule Lake Photo

We were enjoying the 80 degree days and cool breeze at night. We took the dink out to find more fun restaurants like Duffy’s.

No Idea What or Why This Is?

Dink’ing Around North Miami

Duffy’s Poolside Bar

There was a great abandoned park where I was able to land the dinghy. Time to do some re-provisioning.

Dingy full of required stuff, it was time to get back to the mother ship.

We keep waking up every morning and deciding to stay a bit longer till we realized that we need to be halfway down the keys in a few days so it was time to weigh anchor and get underway. The trip down the ICW took us past Haulover Sandbar.

Haulover Sandbar 1

Haulover Sandbar 2

Haulover Sandbar is a popular party spot in Miami and with it being Spring Break down here it is sure to come alive. We’ll have to stop on our way back from the Keys.

Random Haulover Sandbar YouTube Video

Tonight, we anchored in Key Biscayne Bight just as the sun was setting

The full moon made for a great night sitting in the aft cockpit and enjoying a few drinks.

Boca to Fort Lauderdale

We had so much fun on Lake Boca Raton watching the “Boca Sunday Funday” that we decided to stay for 3 nights. Some weird Boca facts by Movato.com (Disclaimer: I have no idea if they are true). Just a few listed below.

#11. Boca Raton is home to the Boca Bash, one day a year when party-goers wake up early, throw on their bathing suits, and grab whatever boat, float, or paddle board they have for an all-day, music-blaring, police-tolerated massive party on the Boca Inlet.

#12. Boca Raton is a homestead for the rich and famous. Just a couple of major names that have or had homes in Boca include John Henry, who owns the Red Sox, Donald Trump, Sheryl Sandberg, Rush Limbaugh, Jon Bon Jovi, Marilyn Manson, Maury Povich and Connie Chung.

#16. The IBM computer was invented, not in Silicon Valley, but in Boca Raton.

#20. The beloved novel and recent film adaptation “Marley and Me” takes place in Boca Raton.

#33. The highest point in all of Boca Raton is 24 feet above sea level, and it’s located in the guard shack at Camino Gardens

We arrived in Lake Boca Raton on Friday night and found the anchorage almost empty. early Saturday morning the boats started to parade in and anchor pretty much anywhere they could find space. Up North there would have been blood spilled if people anchored so close to you but alas the crowd here was very friendly and I did not see a single argument.

anchor Close — Peak out the side window to see how close boats anchor to each other

In Lake Boca we got to see the Fire & Rescue boat testing their pump.

Fire Dept1 — I just washed the boat where did all this salt spray come from?

Lake Boca is the party spot on the weekends. We had lots of fun dinking around the anchorage and people watching.

This group seemed to be at the center of the commotion

80 degrees and sunny

Tall buildings on ICW

Sunday is for relaxing

Florescent Pink bottoms double as SOS flag if in distress

Sunday Funday

Ladies on the bow

I think she forgot something

At one point there was a guy flying around our boat in what I call an Iron Man suit but maybe you might call it a jet-pack or aqua-pack or fly board?

See videos here:

We were also surprised when the boat next to us starting playing “Here comes the bride”. We got to invited to a wedding!

54′ Bertram makes a great wedding venue

Groom in Cowboy hat with arm around new wifey

But alas it was time to return to Simple Life and get a refill.

The next morning we were underway/making way South down the ICW. It was all beautiful homes, bridges.

Motorcycles hate these bridges

Waiting in line for the next bridge opening

It’s Open

Las Olas Blvd https://lasolasboulevard.com

YAB – Yet Another Bridge

Love seeing the gears as you go by

Jim Moran’s Gallant Lady

Sporty

Private sub anyone?

More giant yachts everywhere

Huge Trumpy Yacht

Pirates

5 Engines

The Duchess

The first boat named “Gallant Lady” is Jim Moran‘s. We stopped at Lighthouse Point Marina for some fuel, pumpout, water and ice and chatted for a bit. The dockhand mentioned that Jim had a boat in their marina and pointed to a $159M mansion just across the ICW which was Florida’s most expensive real estate.

Le Palais Royal mansion in Hillsboro Beach

We passed several watering holes but we wanted to arrive in Lake Silvia in Fort Lauderdale while there was still space to drop anchor.

Shooters of Fort Lauderdale

T-Dance, I had to look that one up

We finally arrived at our anchorage in Lake Silvia in Fort Lauderdale.

Lake Silvia Fort Lauderdale

This sailing yacht anchored just after us

Nice Kadey Krogen

It’s nice here I think we’ll stay a bit.

Boca Mocha

We left Palm Beach in the morning and continued South down the ICW. I had plotted a short leg and that turned out to be a good thing as we were getting a late start and would encounter many ‘restricted’ bascule bridges that only open at set times after the hour.

Come on bridge.. open

Just starting

OK go quicker before we trim off the flybridge

We past several bars that looked like fun places to tie up for a bit.

No signage on restaurant but still packed

Banana Boat restaurant in Boynton Beach

There was lots of traffic on the ICW and we watched many boats pass us.

More wave runner ladies

What you don’t want to go 6 knots?

Bluefoot pirate boat

We also saw many boats just tied up in front of amazing homes.

MV Checked Out a 96′ Westport

Who needs 5 Outboards

Cabochon – a polished but un-faceted gem

MV Sexy – I’m not sure about the red painted electronics

Can you put a whale tail on my yacht?

And I could have snapped 100 pictures of just amazing homes and beautiful architecture.

Just the right amount of palm trees

Love the open air arched structures

Corner lot anyone?

I’ll take my ceilings vaulted

amazing wall of windows with the blinds pulled. Solarium anyone?

Nice iron work

Then there was this.. Hey Mom & Dad can I have a water slide setup in the back yard for my 8th birthday?

The flag below @ half mast reminded Kelly & I that we are only 12 miles or so from the school shooting in Parkland, FL. When will this new form of violence cease? I believe that all human consciousness needs to communicate. We all need to look after each other to remain healthy. Example: when a child is bullied/alienated in school (or a coworker @work) that is the time that people need to reach out with kindness and listen. We are all connected via social media and it will either save us or tear us apart, be kind.

As we sit in the aft cockpit and take in the day the sun is setting between two high-rise buildings.

sunset between — Sunset between the high-rise buildings

and we watched as the sun climbed high on the tall buildings before disappearing.

sunset highrise — Sun’s final disappearing act

Palm Beach Here We Are

Along the ICW:

The route leg from Jensen Beach to Palm Beach was beautiful but crowded with boat traffic. This section of the ICW is lined with expensive homes.

Some of the homes are situated on “fingers of land” that have these straight water fairways lined with docks.

Chart Plotter — Fingers of land, flat bottom surface and a close pass by the red daymarker

The speed along the ICW changes back and forth between “Idle – No Wake” in manatee zones and “25MPH in Channel” zones where boats are allowed to produce more sizable wakes. With exception of only a few homes the standard solution for docks is to use boat lifts. Kelly & I wondered if M/V Simple Life is too large/heavy for a boat lift. I joked that anything it “technically possible” even if not the norm. As we travelled South we saw boats almost as heavy on lifts.

Boat Lifts:

Viking model/size unknown

Stern Heavy — Hinkley – supported by stern only. I dare you to stand on the bow.

Then there are those folks who need a boat that is just a bit to big for a boat lift.

We even saw Grand Celebration moored as we made our way around Peanut Island Park in Rivera Beach.

Celebration Cruise Ship — The Grand Celebration is a Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line cruise ship, originally built for Carnival Cruise Line

Stumpy mast — Not sure what you call this type of boat?

We saw many wave runners enjoying the great weather.

Sandbar People:

These ‘Sandbar Girls” were having too much fun taking selfies on one of the many sandbars that line the ICW channel.

Maybe this crew should have paid more attention to the sandbars?

Grounded — I love that while they are coming up with a plan the trolling motor is spinning away on the bow

We almost stopped early in the leg to anchor at Peck Lake but many of the anchorages were crowded along the way.

Peck Anchorage — Peck Lake anchorage just South of Port Lucie Inlet

As we approached Palm Beach where I planned to anchor I wondered if my pre-selected anchorage would be full like many we passed along the way.

Catamaran — Catana 431 with a hard catamaran dingy in North Palm Beach

Tight Anchorages:

My concerns we justified when we arrived and struggled to find a spot with enough swing room for us with the strong reversing currents. The captain on the catamaran made a face at me as I noisily lowered my 90# anchor and all chain rode. I don’t agree with making faces at people when you think they anchored too close to you. I have always thought … Everyone is free to anchor in a free anchorage. Fairness is whomever gets there last should pickup anchor and leave if swing room becomes an issue. Barring that some idiot has not let out twice the recommended scope to be “extra safe from dragging”. While I have been known to let out more rode than needed in an empty anchorage, should it get crowded, I’ll be the first to shorten scope before dinghying over to that boat which anchored after me asking them to shorten scope or weigh anchor.

Anchored:

Once on anchored, we had a great view of the high-rise buildings during the day

as well as at night.

The bridge was something to gaze at as well, being lit with glowing lights.

Next stop Boca Raton

Jensen Beach – Stuart, FL

We left the marina in Vero Beach and started heading South again. We enjoyed the marina and the gated Grand Harbor community of which it is a part.

Suntex Marina in the Grand Harbor community

We will be closing on our old home tomorrow. Good bye home.

95 Sheldonville — Home for the last 13 years

The plan is to sell the home and cruise the East coast till we find an area where we want to settle down. Vero Beach was nice but it was also the first location that we stopped at for an extended time.

We plan to be in the North for Spring, Summer & Fall with our family and friends. However, the question of “do we buy a place up North and live aboard while fleeing winter down South or vice versa?” We don’t know the answer yet. We plan to cruise the South looking at different locations and imagine what it might be like to live there.

Maybe we should use Ben Franklin’s Pros vs. Cons style of decision-making?

The North has a king & queen:

King Snow

Queen Ygritte

Wait… this king & queen

The South has

Beaches

and boating

trawlerbahamas — a trawler enjoying the clear blue water

We believe North or South will figure itself out as we explore more locations.

Yesterday’s trip down to Jensen Beach looked something like this:

Jensen Beach

Jenson Beach North of Stuart & St. Lucie Inlet

Once anchored, it was time to put our feet up,

watch the sun set,

and the bridge light up.

Other notable stories this week was the story of a young couple who were chasing the simple life. After dropping out of work, selling everything they owned and buying a $5,000 1969 Columbia 28′ sailboat similar to this one.

6295120_20170902122323566_1_XLARGE — 1969 Columbia 28′ sailboat yachtworld listing

They sunk another $5K into the boat, a few sailing lessons from a one of the couples’ Dad and they set sail. Only two days into their quest to sail the world, they ran aground in John’s Pass near Tampa, FL and sunk her loosing everything they had.

Social media is alive with people calling them idiots. I don’t feel that way however, I will slam them for creating a GoFundMe page to cover expenses that they alone are responsible for. Was their plan risky? Could they have benefited by gaining more experience? Should the boat have been more seaworthy? Should they have saved more money? Yes, of course but life is about experiences and if we wait till everyone tells you you’re ready, you’ll never leave the dock. Boating couples come in two varieties:

Couples who buy huge million dollar seaworthy boats only to leave the dock once a year on the fourth of July to make a safe loop around the harbor
Couples who buy a decades old boat with a few dollars and want to sail the world.

Most boaters are somewhere in the middle but I don’t see a problem with either of the extremes. Life and boating are pursuit of happiness. It’s your life and nobody else is going to live it for you so do what you like and do it soon.

Click on the picture below to find Nikki Walsh’s Facebook page here and see their pug that was rescued along with them.

Click on the picture below to read the full story

What are your thoughts on their story? Leave your comments.

Home Be Gone

“Sell everything but the boat and have the simple life”. We did it. We sold our home in North Attleboro! Well almost. The closing is only days away.

The listing

When Kelly & I met we each sold our own homes and purchased this home together. We loved the home from the moment we saw it. We joked that … “if the current residents had ever seen us driving by each night after work they’d declare us stalkers”. Not having kids (of the 2 legged kind), it was more home than the two of us needed yet over the years we spent a lot of time updating the home & landscaping.

When you own a home, everyone conspires to trick you into believing you need to be doing “projects”. Projects like, installing a new irrigation system, wall-mount TVs, recessed lighting, new countertops, hardwood floors, a new shed, lawnmower, snowblower, leaf blower, surveillance system, smart home additions, and so on…

You’ll be standing in the lonely isles of Lowes or Home Depot reading some marketing display listing the PSI of a gas-powered pressure washer. You’ll spend countless nights searching the far reaches of Amazon to find the perfect WiFi connected smoke & CO detectors. You’ll open innumerable boxes and have to cut them up into ridiculously small squares to keep the town’s recycling from skipping over your barrel. You’ll do all these things during those precious moments when you are home from work. We finally asked ourselves…why?

We loved boating and we found ourselves getting depressed every year when it was time to put the boat on the hard. The boating season in New England is insanely short. We’d spend a month getting the boat ready for boating season and then hope Mother Nature cooperated so we could enjoy those few precious weekends during the summer. Then before we’d know it….it was again time to prepare her for winter and put her on the hard.

Well, we finally decided to do it! To really do it! We embodied the name of our boat, “The Simple Life” and sold everything! The last thing keeping us somewhat tied to terra firms was the house and that is soon to be gone too.

We’re back in Vero Beach (where we left our boat) after clearing out the house for the buyers. Now we think it’s time to start checking off items from our bucket list and the Florida Keys is on that list!

This is going to be quite the adventure!

Vero Beach with Friends

Well we made it to Vero Beach just in time for Christmas.

We had not decorated for the holidays and with it being almost 80 degrees and sunny it was not feeling quite like the Christmas for us Northerners. What to do? Put up a Christmas tree. OK, the boat is not that big so we settled on a small Xmas display instead.

We are staying in a Suntex Marina (formerly Loggerhead Marina). Suntex’s HQ is in Texas and they recently purchased 11 Loggerhead marinas in Florida. The marina here is surrounded by high-end condos in a gated community. They have a beautiful pool and waterfall as well as a captain’s lounge where the captains enjoy coffee together each morning.

The trip South down the Indian River from Melbourne Beach to Vero Beach started with a beautiful sunrise.

Followed by large homes and the occasional trawler passing by.

The highlight of our stay was getting to spend time with Kelly’s Auntie Lori and her husband Jim who have an amazing home here in Vero Beach. Thanks Auntie Lori & Jim for being such great hosts! Here is a selfie from happy hour with our waitress Savannah (whose personality matched that beautiful smile).

The weather has been warm and sunny but Chief Martin Brody and Happy don’t seem to mind.

PS. Don’t tell them it’s not real grass in the cockpit.

We have been hearing about the 8 degree weather back home so we hope all our friends back home are staying warm.

Μelbourne Beach @ Sunset

Well we got up with the sunrise in New Smyrna Beach, weighed the anchor and got underway. Our trip today looked something like this.

We passed other boaters like “Sweet T” who had not quite arisen.

We passed several homes that still had the “Blue Tarp” on their roof possibly from hurricane damage?

The birds were either acting like gargoyles or slowly peddling by us.

We were reminded as we passed under the NASA causeway Bridge that Merritt island and Cape Canaveral were off to the East.

There where power poles that crossed the sound and you had to be careful not to run into the guide wires.

Chief Martin Brody found a sunny spot on the grass in the cockpit. Don’t tell him it’s not real.

We passed a “blow boat”. Reminds me how much I miss sailing at times (not Kelly).

Several power boats roared past too.

However, after being glued to the helm from sunrise to sunset. Now it’s my time to enjoy an IPA and take in the sunset on anchor.

Oh. I almost forgot. Danny & Wendy, this one is for you… Merry Capt. Christmas..