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.
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.
We weighed anchor in the AM and headed out of Toogoodo Creek. We followed the sinuous path that was spotted with shoals. During a VHF communication with a passing boat, the captain warned of shoals of only three feet ahead. We quipped back that MV Simple Life has a 4’10” draft (actually 4’8″ dry but after filling the tanks she sits a bit lower in the water) and that out to make things interesting. There were times when we were down to 3 kts as we hunted for deeper water but we made it to the Coosaw River as planned. What I had not planned on were the 25 knot wind whipped waves. Making matters worse, the current was flowing against the waves making them steep and breaking. Happy, our Boston Terrier, was not “happy”. She hates a lumpy ride. I had not bothered to check the weather in the AM. I was proceeding with the belief that while we were on the ICW, I could simply check the weather periodically. Even though I was aware of the Small Craft Advisory, I figured we’d never feel the full force of it while running “inside”. I was wrong. The Coosaw River runs West directly into where the 25 knot winds were coming from. We were forced to slog our way 8 miles in about an hour as the windshield wipers washed away the spray off the pilothouse windows. Not a bad ride thanks to the pilothouse.
Once we turned to port into the Beaufort River the tree-lined banks offered us some wind protection. Though even in the Beaufort River, the flags on the banks were out-straight.
When we hailed Downtown Marina in Beaufort, SC. Dockhand Troy gave us our slip assignment and caught lines as we neared the dock. We slipped just in front of the beautiful sport-fishing boat pictured below.
Without hesitation we hopped off the boat and ran for some refreshments. We found Luther’s to be an amusing bar where the locals were.
First IPA of the day and it put the smile back on my face.
We decided to check out a few more places so we hit up a fancy place called “Saltus River Grill” and while Kelly was eying their filet mignon, the only IPA on tap was terrible so I cleverly talked her into a restaurant called “Plums” that was two buildings away and served Stone IPA. Plums had amazing food and when we could not eat another bite, it was time to stroll back to the boat and check on the dogs. On our way we walked through Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park. I snapped the pics below as the light got low.
The next day I used the “courtesy car” to run to a local liquor store to stock up on Captain Morgan & some local IPAs
Precious cargo secured and it was time to replenish the fuel I used and get back home. For my brew-night pals, here is the list of local IPAs that I will be sampling and then reviewing using the Untappd app.
YCWe awoke while it was still dark. Checked the forecast one last time. Active gale warnings withstanding, we decided that there was a short weather window. A few hours in the early morning to make our passage South down the Jersey shore.
Small Weather Window Early Sat Morning
We left NYC @ Sunrise. I returned our dock key, untied our lines and crept out of our slip before anyone knew we were gone. There was a beautiful sunrise over NYC Harbor.
Manhattan Skyline @ Sunrise
We quickly headed out of NYC Harbor which was littered with commercial traffic (tugs, barges, tankers, cruise ships, etc).
Passing a Tanker Entering NYC Harbor
Under the Verrazano Narrows bridge and out to sea.
Passing Under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge
This was Leg 4 of our journey South looked like below
Leg 4 of our Southbound Journey
The sea conditions were great but as early morning gave way to late morning the sea state started to deteriorate a bit as the winds backed around to the South.
We made a steady 9 kts down the coast and arrived @ Manasquan River Inlet just in time for max ebb.
Max Ebb 11:31AM
Entering an inlet off the Atlantic ocean can be hazardous due to currents, standing waves, shoaling, etc. The best time to enter most inlets is during slack current but max ebb is better than max flood. It’s better to have the current rushing under your bow and pushing you backward than running under your stern and pushing you forward.
Every boater has had that nightmare where the currents are pushing you fatefully towards a narrow or too low bridge! Piloting can get tricky.
Manasquan River Inlet Satellite
We chose a North Pacific Yachts raised pilot house 43 for many reasons but the one I’ll talk about now was the full keel. North Pacific 43 Pilothouse
A full keel is reassuring when you run the Manasquan River channel that at times almost dragged our keel on the bottom. While offshore boaters would be horrified at the though of “running aground”, in the ICW it’s simply a fact of life. Dredging the channels to keep a controlled depth of 6′ is costly and difficult to keep up with. MV Simple Life has a draft of
4’6″ dry but closer to 5′ loaded the way we are. If you must run aground, do it with a full keel and skeg like ours to protect the running gear (propeller and rudder) from damage.
That said when the current is pushing you the full keel can get caught in the current and cause the boat to veer to port & starboard. Our Raymarine auto pilot has a “response” setting that when set to “9” will turn the rudder as fast as it can to keep the bow pointed straight ahead. Switching to auto pilot to standby (off) in favor of hand steering can be even more harrowing. As we passed through the Manasquan River Railroad bridge @ max ebb we were forced to throttle up to avoid an untimely bow swing that could bring the boat close to the bridge abutments.
Manasquan River Railroad Bridge
While the river is full of passing traffic and shallows we made it to Crystal Point Marina and Dockmaster Todd caught a line for us as we pulled into our slip.
Kelly joking that she would likely fall in the cold water
Right away we spotted the Captain Morgan behind the bar and knew we had landed in the right place 😉
Kelly’s Down with the Captain
There was a local artist playing acoustic guitar in the corner and they had Sculpin IPA on tap! We had a great dinner & drinks and made it back under the bridge to retire for the night.
We left Morris Cove Anchorage at 5:30AM. It was dark, very dark. We had woken up around 4 AM. Â I had pulled up the anchor, spun the boat around and MV Simple Life started going bow up, bow down. Â I thought… the winds were not supposed to increase until Thursday afternoon (per the NWS – National Weather Service Gale Warning). Â In the words of Gordon Lightfoot, “The winds of November came early”. We used our searchlight to spot the buoys on our way out of New Haven Harbor’s channel.
Jay Marques, you asked for video in addition to photos so these links are for you.
Sorry, that video is the lightest of the three I recorded. With the winds out of the south it meant that the 16 mile fetch of water from the NY side to the CT side was making the CT side of the sound lumpy. I heard the VHF radio crackle alive with a tugboat captain complaining that the winds had been honking all night long. Here is a video after the sun came up and we were slogging our way South across Long Island Sound from New Haven, CT to Long Island’s Huntington Bay area.
When Kelly & I first met I had a 1998 35′ Beneteau 352 Oceanis ,S/V Saltyhacker, (I’ll upload a pic of SV Saltyhacker later) that had only a dodger (the see-thru plastic and canvas that covers the companionway opening into the boat. We sold her to a great couple from Canada and bought a 2001 45′ Hunter 450 Center Cockpit. (I’ll upload a pick of SV Skull & Swords later, promise). The Hunter was owned by friends of ours who were living aboard her in Exuma Key, Bahamas and ever since we’ve said someday we’ll spend a few months on anchor there. Â We loved the Hunter for it’s liveaboardness; Â for it’s fully enclosed cockpit and interior space but Kelly would often quip that unless we are sitting in the outside cockpit you don’t get to enjoy the scenery. So we decided to buy a new boat that met our mutual demands. Kelly wanted a boat that was easier to move around in (Kelly has a habit of twisting / breaking ankles when underway or simply aboard). After spending 10 hour days at the helm outside and often cold, I was fancy on an enclosed pilot house. In the video above you will just have to imagine as the cold sea spray is hitting the pilothouse windows that I’m sipping my coffee in my PJs at the helm (smile).
Todays trip looked something like this..
As you approach the East-end of LIS you enter into the East River that takes you from the Bronx to the Statue of Liberty. As many times as we have made this trip we still find ourselves taking pictures of the scenery as we go down the river. Below are some of the photos we snapped along the way…
After going by Riker’s Island Jail you pass the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center. This is a 47,000-ton, five-story barge with 800 beds spread over 16 “dormitories” and 100 proper jail cells. At 625 feet in length and 125 feet wide, it also holds a gym, a basketball court, a library, three chapels, a rooftop exercise areaBrooklyn Bridge – built in 1870Whirly Birds buzz the East River and land just North of Battery MarchWater Taxis are everywhere and as a captain you must be alert and ready to dodge them
We timed our trip down the East River to make sure we caught favorable currents that saved us easily an hour during our transit. After arriving in NYC harbor we hailed Liberty Landing Marina and requested our slip assignment. The wind was gusting but an attendant met us at the slip and caught the lines that 1st Mate Kelly threw to him.
MV Simple Life tied off at Liberty Landing Marina
Tomorrow we’ll take the water taxi and find somewhere to grab a IPA & Capt-Pepsi -NFL (No-Flipping-Lime) & a bite. Tonight we’ll just relax 😉
MV Simple Life 
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