Tax Office Visit 12/27/2013

I visited the tax office here in Marathon today to ask some pertinent questions about Florida taxes for cruising boats......The tax office is not far from the City Marina and since we just had a meeting in Boot Key with the FWC I just wanted to get my facts straight.
     1.  A boat that is stored on the "hard" in Florida does not have to register.
     2.  A sailboat that is in Florida for more than 90 consecutive days must register and title in Florida
     3.  When we return to New York in 6  months then we have to re-register and title in New York
     4.  If we decide to stop in another state and stay for several months then we have to register there too
     5.  If we leave Florida after 90 days and come back then our 90 days starts over....
     6.  We could just forget the rules and sail to the Bahamas where we'll encounter other rules and regs.....

Key West 12/18/2013

Everyone visiting the Keys wants to visit Key West so the four of us set out to explore the southernmost tip of Florida today.  I took a few photos that represent the lifestyle down here....relaxed!  There were plenty of Tarpon swimming under the pelicans in the old harbor.  Walt and I took the afternoon bus back to Marathon to attend the three hour meeting with the Florida Wildlife Commission.  Boot Key Harbor sailors have been harassed by the younger members of this group.....dinghies checked for lights, fire extinguishers, mildew-free life jackets, whistles, and original registrations.  The meeting went well and hopefully the harbor will again become hassle-free!  There is always a fine line between safety and government meddling.

Cousins visit this week! 12/16/2013

Danny and his daughter Ali arrived yesterday to spend the week with us here in Boot Key.  We played tennis, biked to the beach and visited the 7 Mile Bridge today. They are impressed with our warm weather and sunny skies.

The Beach 12/14/2013

Sombrero Beach is one of the highlights here in Marathon. It is at the junction of Hawk Channel, oceanside, and Sister's Creek which flows into Boot Key Harbor where we are in the mooring field. The beach is beautiful and is a great place to kayak to from our boat or to pedal to on our boat bikes. It also has beach volleyball, playground, picnic pavilions and bath houses. What a treasure! In addition we saw a huge manatee (is there any other size) at the dinghy dock. She had the fresh water hose in her front fins and was trying to bite the hose to get a taste.....We are all prohibited from petting manatees or giving them fresh water which they love.....It was a great to see one so close.

Key Biscayne to Marathon 12/12/2013

We had an exhilarating 96 mile motor-sail in Hawk Channel today for 12 hours. We normally stop near Key Largo and anchor at Rodriguez Key but very strong winds from the NE were predicted for tonight so we decided to do the trip in just one day. We anchored just as it was getting dark opposite 7 Mile Bridge right outside of Boot Key Harbor. The water was turquoise-blue today, with partly sunny skies and warm breezes....this is why we come here! We started the day with this beautiful sunrise south of Miami and saw this sunset as we spotted the 7 Mile Bridge.

Vero Beach to Lake Worth 12/10/2013

Winds from the south again so there was no advantage to ocean sailing today......8 bridges to Lake Worth but we made great time and anchored at 4:45. The ICW really is pretty here.....We did hit some skinny water near St. Lucie's Inlet. Jupiter Lighthouse is still quite a sight as you make the turn before the Jupiter Federal Bridge.

New Smyrna Beach Boat Parade 12/7/2013

Today we traveled 64 miles south on the ICW, past Ponce de Leon Inlet to the anchorage in New Smyrna Beach. We just made the last opening of the George Musson Bridge at 4:00 as it was closing for 2 hours from 4-6 for the boat parade. We anchored and put up our Christmas lights....at 6:00 a boat parade went right past the anchorage! It was a nice ending to a day that started with me running the boat aground about 2 minutes out of last night's anchorage....how humiliating! But I backed off and all was well...the charts are not up-to-date. One minute I was in 12 feet and the next minute I was in mud. But mud is SOFT so Waves of Grace lives to sail another day....

Leaving snowy New York for Florida! 2013

We enjoyed one of the snowiest Thanksgivings ever with our family this year in New York. Of coarse, this was a VERY late Thanksgiving! We took Anna and Ryan sledding and everyone enjoyed taking the Bad Boy out for a spin on our trails. The aggressive tires made going through the snow no problem at all. Steve and Juliann stopped by on their way home to Texas from a Taylors' Maine Thanksgiving. Stacey, the Jensens' and Walt and I all departed on Sunday, Dec 1st. We drove all night to Green Cove Springs, FL where our boat was waiting for us in the work yard. We had a major mold and mildew problem which we spent hours, days cleaning up.....A mechanic pulled our cutlass bearing on Tuesday and replaced it. Our shaft is misaligned and Walt is still trying to fix it. Sailing is WORK!

We went in the water on Wed, Dec. 4th and today we did the 21 miles to JAX Landing. The railroad bridge here is broken and it only opens four times a day so we had to be here at 2:00. We went through the bridge with 6 other boats and pulled into JAX Landing for the night. Tomorrow the bridge closes for a week and we would have been stuck in the St. John's River.......if we had not been here today.