s/v Nati: January 2015

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The Doctor is in the "house"!

Our few days in Marathon worked out fine and we were able to get out before the next cold front came through so we didn't even bother to try to anchor on the inside. The outside of Boot Key Harbor is actually nice since we saw the best sunsets, the water was clean enough to swim and we had plenty of swinging room. But time to head north to get ready for our Bahamas crossing.

As we had to go right by, it was easy to decide to hold up at the LoreLei for a couple of days to see our old friends from the "Hobie Days". The Tradewinds regatta was getting ready to start up so we got our anchor down and "hung" with our friends.

Rob, the lonely driver of 6 Hobie's showed up first and came right out to Nati. It wasn't planned but he spent the night and we were much lighter on the refreshment level than we were the night before.

From there the rest of the racers kept coming into town and when the Puerto Ricans showed up they didn't know we were there! What a great surprise! Pedro, Julio and Monica showered us with hugs and kisses and it was like we saw them just last week. It was just plain FUN!

The racers had 3 good days of sailing on the ocean side right off the beach at the Islander Hotel. The beach was flat and large enough for all the sailors. The ramp into the water was a little tight but the winds cooperated so not many folks hurt their boats launching or retrieving them.

At the Islander Hotel

Perfect conditions

nice butt doctor!

The Hobie 16 fleet was the largest fleet and the competition was terrific. Along with Pedro there were other top contenders including:

Mark Modderman
Bill Jeffers
Dan Borg
Greg Rayborn

The top two racers were separated by only 2 points after two days so the final day of racing was intense for the sailors. After all the other trophies were handed out the 1st place trophy, along with the "Carlton Tucker Award" was given to "Doctor" Pedrin Colon and his crew, Monica Cabrera!

Pedrin & Monica

Their names will go on this!

Stay thirsty my friend!

After the ceremony the work of putting all the boats and gear back on the trailer continued. We tried to keep "Mr $5.95" from doing much work since he popped his shoulder out on the last day but Rob just did a little less. That is good since he once again had to drive, all alone back the Syracuse in the cold and snow. We are glad we are sitting on Nati!

Rob used to be worth $6 million….not anymore!

All loaded and ready to head north.

Monday, January 12, 2015

The time is flying by!

Since the holidays we have had quite a busy social schedule. We sailed back to Miami from down south so we could pick up our friend Peggy, who flew in from Cajun country. It was great to get together again. How many boats have a professional chef on board? Nati did!

A moth flying along!

"Chill time"

We ate very well!

We had quite a first night back in South Beach. 3AM brought loud latin music really near us and when it didn't just go away I got up to discover a "mega yacht" right in front of us anchored! I mean RIGHT in front of us……maybe 75 feet! Just another day in Miami!!

I like the blue lights…

The weather gave us a window to go back south and we were able to do some swimming, sailing and hanging. It has been a few years since we have seen Peggy so we had much to catch up on. Since we had a front come through during the middle of the week we had two days of just hanging out in Snake Creek with the wind howling but Nati was just liking the flat, calm creek. No problems from our end. From there we sailed down to Marathon. We haven't been there in 3 years so it has been kind of a "old home week". There are many sailing friends here and we have already come across many of them. Nati is anchored on the outside of Boot Key so it's a long dinghy ride to the marina but the view is nice here and so long as the weather comes from the north --- east, it is fine.

Heading east through Snake Creek Bridge

A good sunset view

So our first dinghy ride into the harbor brought us right up behind a monohull going into the harbor and it was no other than sv "Distant Horizon"! It was wonderful to see Kevin & Grace. They just got back from their sail to the Dry Tortugas and ended anchoring right near us. Quite a coincidence…….from the same dock in Little Sodus Bay, NY to Marathon, FL.

We have a few things to take care of here and then we will start to look for a window to cross to the Bahamas. We are really looking forward to a good sail across the "Stream".

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Nati is saying………"Hi to 2015!"

May this be the best year ever!

We are anchored down in Key Largo after spending New Years Eve having an OK dinner at Gilbert's. The place has changed a lot since the last time we were here (3 years ago) and in many ways the "old Florida" motif is giving away to the faster paced "bigger money is better money" thoughts of many today. We elected not to order an expensive dinner and knowing that it comes with plastic utensils. Sandwiches, OK but for fine dining it is not the way it should be. But……..who are we to dictate to progress??!! So we had a veggie & hamburger to go with the snapper ceviche'. Tom would have loved the hard rock band that was playing. They were good and they were loud!

Since Stuart we have made our way down to Lake Boca where we had a chilly couple of days but the Christmas spirit was in the air.

Lake Boca

Presents for Nati

From there we pulled off a long motor - then motor sail right down to Miami. We caught the tide going down the last part of the ICW to Ft Lauderdale and then we had a damp, cloudy run on the outside to South Beach. We anchored to our normal anchorage and were able to once again see the cruise ships pass by on the way out. There appears to be many more than prior years.