2-27-2015 Moved on to Palm Beach

We passed West Palm Beach first with all marinas full and found a nice marina in Palm Beach area.
Very friendly and Fran really liked it because when we checked in they gave her a bottle of wine as a welcome present. It has nice wide docks, visitors center, captains lounge, good internet for a change and about half the price of most marinas we have found. We figure we will stay here for a few days and relax before moving on again. We still don't know which way we will go as the wind keeps blowing and the crossing to the Bahamas we had planned would have only been possible 1 or 2 of the days in the past 3 weeks but we were not ready on those days. With all the North winds the Gulf Stream has been at 5 - 12 foot waves. Right now there doesn't seem to be any days coming for a while so we may continue along the coast. All our plans are up in the air and changing our thought process, as Ray is having a good time but it seems like even more work taking care of him on the boat with just the 2 of us. Showering and toileting out on the back deck makes us the center attraction at the high end marinas, but everyone seems to make the best of it! Most people can't believe that we can do all we do on a boat and love to see him using the elevator getting on and off the boat to take buddy out for a walk. I think even Buddy is starting to get used to the boat all except the rough water then he starts shaking again, but everytime he gets a little better!

2-26-2015 Ft. Lauderdale to Delray Beach

Moving on today further North up the ICW as the wind continues to blow but at least it is still warm. We left Ft. Lauderdale and traveled about 20 miles to Delray beach. Still finding lots of lower bridges so the going is slow and easy. We spent the night at a small marina as it was the only one that we could find open. It appears that this was a good year for most Florida marinas with many people bringing their boats down and spending a month or 2 at the marinas, the bad part is that it makes it very difficult to travel through the area. The marina was small and very difficult to get Ray off the boat at but we got him off and went up for some groceries and found a Chinese restaurant for dinner.
I don't understand but Buddy was nervous while he was in there and the cook  kept looking at him but said there wasn't much meat on those bones anyway! When we got back to the boat Dad saw the swimming pool right next to the dock and went for an evening swim.

2-23-25th Ft. Lauderdale Beach

We are now at Ft. Lauderdale Beach at Bahia-Mar Marina, If you look close at the middle picture, we are about one of the smallest boat in the marina (all the way to the right) but they treated us very well and friendly. Most of the boats had full time crews and they were all busy polishing their boats all the time. I told Fran that I thought maybe she would want to do that too, but instead I went out and rinsed the salt off again. Seemed like some of the rough days we rinsed 50 pounds of salt off per day as it crystalized on everything. Especially the windshield making it difficult to see through on those days until we washed them when we landed. We found lots of restuarants there and a nice walkway along the beach that Ray and Buddy enjoyed!

2-23 Continuing on from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale

As we past Miami and decided to move towards Ft. Lauderdale up the ICW, very slow going but lots of scenery from tall Hotels, Marinas, Condos, Houses and some little boats ( Twice the size of ours).
We also stopped in Hollywood Beach to visit cousins Charles & Linda Lissow but only got to see Linda as Charles was up in NY enjoying the nicer weather (Single digits). We then moved on past Port Everglades where again there were Cruise ships and Cargo ships coming and going.

2-23-2015 Leaving Key Bicayne headed toward Miami

We left Key Biscayne today headed North up the Intra coastal waterway toward Miami Harbor, nice bright morning with Ray up at the bridge again. The Harbor was very busy with both boat and ship traffic also about 4 Cruise ships with restricted areas all over. As we proceeded we are now running into to a lot of lower bridges that only open about every 30 minutes so we all wait for an opening.

2-22-2015 Key Biscayne

Today we moved from Key Largo North along the inside passage through Biscayne Bay with about 2 footers and NE winds of 20+ MPH and the Ocean Side had 5-6 footers. It was about a 4 hour run and we got there just about closing time to get the last dock available after calling all around. Ray enjoyed the trip as he could ride up on the bridge and it was sunny and about 77. It was Sunday night and the marina was quite so we had dinner on the bridge and watched the sun down. Notice all the sailboats were anchored out, I guess they won't let them into a marina? The marina was very large at about 275 boats and a large launching ramp area, as we aren't far from Miami.