Thursday, Februaqry 5, 2009

Monday, February 1, Nelson and I stayed on the boat all day. The weather was stormy looking; however, it never rained until late afternoon. We took the day to do some cleaning in land outside of the boat. I held the dinghy close to the hull and Nelson washed it using a brush and scraper to get under the bottom. He later dove under the boat to check out the zinc and prop for barnacles. He said there weren’t any but he did have to tighten the zinc on th4e prop. Yes, he said the water was freezing cold. As you can see, on the last day at Vero, Nelson Chris, and Marie went swimming at the beach. I was still getting well, so I had a good excuse not to get in the water. It was very cold and they did not stay in long. We had a couple who are from Key West and were anchored next to us on a catamaran over for afternoon cocktails. It was nice talking to them about Miami and the Keys as they frequent these areas most frequently. We watched some of the Super Bowl after they left and fell asleep so did not see the best part of the game.
Tuesday, February 2, we left the mooring ball and Ft. Lauderdale and headed out to the ocean inlet and into the ocean for a sail down to Miami. The weather was beautiful, the winds were 10-20 knots, and the sun was shining bright. Yes, we did wear light weight jackets. It was a wonderful trip as we sailed all the way. There were tall condos from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami. No, we did not get out of sight of land. We were out five miles from the beach. This was our longest ocean trip and we liked it there was a bridge that we could not get under so we had no other choice than to travel the ocean.
It was a calm day to be in the open seas.
We arrived in Miami around 3:00 that afternoon and found a good anchorage and realized that Dean and Susan on Autumn Bourne were already here where we anchored and we also had Spirit still with us. Marie and Chris had us all over for a delicious dinner of roasted chicken on their boat that night.
Since Autumn Bourne had been here for several days, they told us how to take our dinghies over to another canal close to the shopping areas. We all went downtown yesterday and had a great time just walking around a neat outside shopping center and eating area. We ate lunch at a McDonalds. No, Nelson did not choose the place. But, the other couple who we were with, wanted to eat at a cheap place.
Chris said he did not believe he came all the way to Miami and ate at Mickey Ds. We went over to the beach and there was a girl lying in the sun with no top on. The boys were excited to see such a sight. I am sure we will be going back when the weather gets warmer. The weather here today is very cold. I think it was in the 30s when we got up this morning. It may only get to the 60s today.
As you can see, there are many people here who have so much money, the big yachts, and huge homes on the waterway are unbelievable. Some homes also have the huge boats out in front of their homes. I understand you are having colder weather than us. I hope we all see warmer temps soon. Stay warm!
Nelson & Ondra