Season ONE on Seabreeze: January 2023

Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Life in Golden Isles Lake

Lazy day on SeaBreeze

Today is January 25th and we are still contently anchored in Golden Isles Lake. We are among a handful of boats with only one other sailboat where the people are living aboard…like we are. This anchorage is perfect as far as being walking distance to grocery stores, shops and the beach. It’s quiet and a good spot to hang out until we move to our next destination which is Stuart, FL to get our stack pack sail bag and then to Lighthouse Point for the hard top bimini installation. THEN…we can head to the Bahamas!!!!

Morning Sky

Daily we do projects on the boat. Rick has been fixing all kinds of things that weren’t operational and the most important item he has fixed is the auto pilot (a very important item..no fun hand steering for hours and hours or for overnight sails)! In between projects I ask Rick to dinghy me to shore, which he obliges, so I can get in my daily walks. Some days, he even goes with me.

Hallandale Beach

My happy place...

Tarpon swimming underneath the boat looking out from safety hatch window

On two separate occasions we have gone out for day sails. It’s a bit of a pain getting out of the Waterways to the ocean with our 70’ mast because we have to call each bridge, by name, on the VHF radio that we have to go under and request an opening… AND… you have to time it just right. Some bridges open on the 1/2 hour and some open on the 1/4 hour. If you don’t time the arrival at each bridge just right, you have to bob around and dodge other boats fighting sometimes strong currents and wind if there is any at the time. It can be a little nerve-racking.

Along the Intracoastal Waterways

Our first day finally making it out to the ocean was a very clear, enjoyable, calm day. It actually started a little rough as we left the Waterway and through the harbor channel out to the ocean. It was super choppy from the wake of other boats coming in and out. I happened to be driving at this particular time, gripping the wheel tightly as the boat was ‘hobby horsing’ forwards and backwards and rocking side to side. Not so fun. But once we made it out beyond the sloppy mess, it turned into a beautiful day on the water! We later returned back to our anchorage through the Waterway and five bridges.

The second day we ventured out was actually going to just be a two bridge journey away, to the Hollywood Marina where we planned to pull up to the gas dock to get some water and pump out our black water tanks. But after that stop we ended up going all the way out and to the ocean. But first…just after we pulled up the anchor, Rick informed me that I would be the one driving the boat up to the dock. I said WHAT?!! I was completely frozen, my heart was racing, I felt faint and tears were filling my eyes. He repeated slowly and firmly…YOU have to drive the boat because I need to grab the lines to tie us up to the dock. You might be thinking what the big deal is…well…first of all I have not driven any of our sailboats since our first sailboat we had 13 years ago. It was our Erickson 35’ and it had a fin keel which was very easy to maneuver. The Rifiki was a full keel and weighed 16 tons so I never attempted driving that one and our last 46’ sailboat which was also a heavy full keel boat. Rick didn’t even like driving either of those boats into a marina or dock slip! So if he was nervous..there was no way I would ever attempt it. And THIS 44’ Catamaran is huge and 2 times as wide as our other boats. To remedy my nerves, Rick said that we’d do a quick tutorial in the anchorage. I still was wanting to get out of this job (thinking who can we find to help us). But after some practice, using a mooring ball as a pretend dock, I felt like maybe I could do it.

So out we go, headed toward the Hollywood Marina. When we got right in front of the dock I nervously took the wheel. Rick made his way to the port side of the boat lining up our fenders, gathering lines and directing me in. I was nervous as could be. Oxygen seemed to be scarce. Not only was I trying to remember to breathe or which engine did what and worrying about smashing into the dock or the boats that were parked next to me and in front of me… a ski boat with music blaring, and a bunch of rowdy young people on it, were trying to push themselves around and in front of me! They apparently wanted to get fuel…and NOW! Rick saw that this was a distraction for me and told me to just keep doing what I was doing. And by some miracle, I DID IT! I pulled up to the dock with no problems whatsoever! This was the proudest moment I can remember besides giving birth. I could breathe again! I was soon light as a feather, walking around on the deck helping do what was needed which was filling up our water tanks. Unfortunately we were unable to pump our black water tanks because we weren’t sure if the suction would somehow turn our tanks inside out and those tanks are a very pricey item to replace! Better to be safe. We heard later that this would not be the case…the tanks are made of a sturdy hard plastic and emptying the tanks would not be a problem. Wish we’d known that sooner. But, we still had to dump the tanks so that meant we had to get 3 miles offshore to do so.

After filling the water tanks, Rick backed the boat out and away from the dock (at my request) and I untied the lines and pushed us off the dock. I let Rick do the driving because I was not sure I would have the same luck getting out as I did getting in. So three bridges later (we already went under two) and lots of boat traffic, we were out in the ocean! Same washing machine effect making our way out even more so than our first day out. It dawned on us what all the boat traffic was about… it was a weekend…everyone with water vessels was out! But getting further and further out, the waters were calmer and the winds were light. We went further than the intended 3 miles after dumping the tanks and just enjoyed the day. It was getting late by the time we turned around to head back. Probably should have headed in sooner because as we got closer to the harbor entrance an enormous Cruise Ship was attempting to leave blocking the channel in all directions. We had to wait before we could continue. We weren’t the only ones waiting and the water was sloppy, choppy and congested with fishing boats, jet ski’s, tour boats, pleasure crafts large and small. The Cruise Ship caused quite the traffic jam! Rick fortunately was driving at this time and I was out on the bow being his ‘eyes’…making sure he wouldn’t hit anyone. As I was standing there on the bow, a stealth looking US Coast Guard RHIB zipped up along side our boat at a fast rate, shouting at us incoherently. All the men on the boat were wearing military garb, which was a bit intimidating. But NOT as intimidating as the man standing at the bow pointing a mounted 50-caliber straight at us! Rick asked what they were saying… and from what I could make out, I told him they said to STOP and back up!! Rick told me…he wasn’t moving and that he was fine where he was. I sharply said…I think you better, they have a GUN on us! Rick didn’t seem to think that was a big deal and told me not to panic. Well, we complied and waited and waited and waited for the ship to leave and get out of our way. It seemed to take forever. After 5 bridges in choppy water with a strong current and wind through the Waterway we made it back to our anchorage just after sunset. I was so glad to be back to our safe haven…our quiet little anchorage.

Good night and thank you for following along....Maryalice and Rick

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

A month away from departure....

Florida

Found this cute guy living on the aloe vera plant on our boat

It is January 4th, 2023 and we are currently located in Hallandale Beach, Florida in an anchorage on our Catamaran, SeaBreeze. What happened on the days leading up to this day I hope to convey in this blog entry.

Idaho

On November 29, 2022, we left chilly Idaho with 4 large bags of luggage, two back packs, and arrived in sunny Puerto Vallarta, Mexico late afternoon. We were greeted at the airport by our friend Larry who lives in Mexico full time. He drove us to our hotel which was our home base for the five days we spent there. During our time spent in Puerto Vallarta, we met up with good friends Jean and Jacinthe from S/V Arcane on two separate occasions. One of the days I was able to squeeze in a visit to my acupuncturist, Tatjiana, and to spend an afternoon with my friends at my Naturopath’s office…Dra. Sophia, Dra. Yusemi and Carolina. All so special to me…happy to see them all and get a long awaited ‘tune up’.

Me with large reptile

Larry, me, Jeff and Rick breakfast at Mr. Cream

Dinner out with Jacinthe and Jean

Dra. Yusemi and Carolina..mis amigas!

Carolina and Dra. Sophia

Puerto Vallarta Marina

Miss you already ...

But our main reason for being there was to get our things from our previous sailboat, Solastra (which is currently for sale) that were in storage and to pack them up and get them to Florida to where our new boat was located. We thought we could just box them up and take them with us on the airplane along with our other luggage. Well it wasn’t that easy. It would have cost us a fortune to do it that way. So we had to send them by way of UPS. This was not cheap either but we didn’t really have any other option. We were able to take a few on the plane with us but the other 7 were shipped separately. So on December 3rd, the day we left Puerto Vallarta and after a lengthy flight with a long layover in Dallas which actually turned out to be just enough time to get through customs with all of our stuff, we made it safely to Florida late evening. Unfortunately our bags did not make the journey with us and there was no sign of them on the luggage carousel it when we got to Florida. They did arrive a couple of days later and were delivered, slightly tattered, right to our doorway at the Airbnb.

Itemizing and boxing up our boat parts

Very patient young woman that helped us at UPS

Our partial baggage that arrived in Florida. 6 parcels missing.

We stayed in a cute little Airbnb in Hollywood Florida which was about 5 miles from where our boat was docked. The next day after arriving in Florida we went straight to our boat to see her. We were happy to finally see her since our purchase a couple of months prior. But we did feel a little overwhelmed with all of the work and TLC that she needed before we could even think about leaving for our sailing adventure to the Bahamas.

Just one day's clearing out. We had piles like this daily to get rid of.

We immediately went to work, clearing out all of the items we did not want or need. Threw out a lot of garbage and junk and gave a large donation to the Goodwill. Next we started cleaning the entire boat inside and out. Mostly using vinegar and water on the inside to eliminate the sight and smell of mold. Rick who suffers with asthma came down with a horrible cough later in the day…which we thought was from the mold and thought maybe using a stronger mask like a respirator would solve that issue from here on out. Well that night and the next few days we realized this was not solely from the mold…it was the flu! We both tested for Covid and were both negative. So our conclusion was that it was the flu. A brutal flu at that! I hadn’t been stricken with the flu yet and was feeling good enough to get some things done while he was in the Airbnb resting and coughing up a storm. I did a lot of food provisioning, purchased home goods such as towels, bedding, pillows, pots and pans, and other miscelaneous kitchen gadgets… to make our boat feel comfortable and to make it ‘ours’. Sadly I did not escape this flu. It was then my turn to be sequestered to the room nursing a bad cough, headache, sore throat, dizziness, lightheadedness, bouts of nausea, vomiting and throbbing achy muscles. Rick went back to the boat to work even though he wasn’t feeling great. He would have rested longer but we had so much work to do by the end of the month. He was able to get so much done which was super impressive considering. He worked each day, all day. I was down for about a week but I still felt horrible for a week or two more but got back to work on the boat. Rick and I both agreed this flu was a lot worse than when we had Covid in January ’22!

Some other things we had done on the boat, were having the windows tinted (which helps with heat and gives us a bit of privacy), had the boat hulls washed and waxed, had the upholstery cleaned in the salon, owner’s quarters and all of three mattresses. We had a new mainsail made by Mack Sails who are based here in Florida. We are thrilled with how they turned out! But..now the stack pack (which holds the sail neatly in place) is too small for our new sail. We now have one on order though and it should be ready for installation at the end of this month. We also felt that a hard top Bimini would be sturdier and safer than the canvas one we currently have (for when we have to maneuver the mainsail into it’s place). It will give us better footing which will be nice when we are underway. And that should be ready around the same time as the stack pack. We added one more important item which is also on order and that is Starlink (RV version). This will be great for using the internet to get weather reports and to have a way to communicate in case of emergency. It will also be great to stay in touch with our family! I also will have no excuse not to keep up with our blog. In the Bahamas, Internet and cell service are sketchy and uncommon next to impossible to find. One especially cannot get any type of service off shore whatsoever, but with Starlink we will be able to. Another plus, we will be able to take the dish back home with us to Idaho and use it there too.

These Stanley Steamers guys first time cleaning a boat

We had to leave our dock space on the 31st of December, which was docked in back of a private property owned by a very nice man, Mr. George. He leases dock space to boaters for a much more reasonable price than the marinas around here. You can hook up to power and water also. Only downside is that you cannot sleep on board. That is why we had to stay in an Airbnb. Right before our time was up, the owner of the trimaran docked in the space in front of us told us he was heading out to the Bahamas for a few days and if we wanted to, we could stay in his space until he returned on the 4th of January. He said he’d keep us posted on the time of arrival but he didn’t see it being any earlier than 9:00a.m. We were so grateful because we weren’t really ready to leave. We had a bit more to take care of on the boat. So once he left we scooted our boat up into his space. We still had the dilemma of where to sleep at night. We had already checked out of our Airbnb so that wasn’t an option. We decided to ask Mr. George if we could possibly sleep on the boat for the next few nights fearing that he’d say no. But him being his kind self, said it would be ok. Such a relief! Things were falling into place.

For those few extra days, we were able to get a lot more done. Many trips to West Marine, Hardware Stores, Grocery Stores and the laundromat. We were up late getting everything put away for our travel the next day to search for a nearby anchorage. We made it to sleep around 10:00 feeling so exhausted. We were out when our heads hit the pillow. While in this deep sleep we heard a knocking on the hatch over our bed. It took us a while to figure out what was going on. Was this real or was it a dream? I sat up to see if I could figure out where the knocking was coming from. Then I nudged Rick and blurted, Robert (the owner of the trimaran) is here! Rick comes-to and says, WHAT?! We heard Robert’s voice telling us we needed to move the boat while at the same time apologizing for not warning us sooner. I told Rick we have to move the boat… now! He said, no we don’t….it’s 12:30 in the morning. Come to find out we absolutely did have to move the boat. Robert apparently had some crew members that needed to get off the boat. We throw on our clothes, jump up to the side of the boat where Robert was standing. We talked with him a bit while starting the engines and untying dock lines...trying to make heads and tails of the instruments in the dark. This was our maiden voyage. We had no rhythm or routine of how things work. But by some miracle, we motored the boat in the dark, down a narrow channel and found a nearby anchorage. We pulled in not having a clear focus on the other boats in the anchorage. It was hard to tell how far away they were and how close we were getting to them. We managed to find a safe spot, dropped and set the anchor. After all was said and done, Rick said I could go back to bed if I wanted and he would stay up just to make sure the anchor did not drag. I took him up on the offer and tried to sleep. I was pretty wound up so I didn’t get much sleep. In the light of day, Rick gave sleep a try but he too could only sleep a few minutes. We stayed here all day on the boat except for a dinghy ride to land so we could get to a store to buy more water and to fill two jerry cans full of diesel.

Sam's Club

West Marine Fort Lauderdale...one of the largest!

Our plan now is to head out tomorrow morning and make our way out of the Inner Waterways to the ocean where we can do a little sailing. We need to go under maybe 5 bridges to get there. Which means we have to call ahead and plan our timing just right. This makes me a little nervous just thinking about it. After we come back from our sail, we plan to move to another anchorage not too far from here. We will be looking at nice homes instead of big high rise apartments and

condominiums.