Lantana to Ft. Lauderdale (or, A tour of new mansion on the waterway)

January 10, 2007


*Jan. 13--*Happy Birthday Roger!!* (Hans' dad)

I finally got a connection long enough to load pictures!*

We left Lantana, Florida this morning at 7:45 AM, ready for our day of 14 bridges, the majority of which are restricted in their opening times. We calculated our speed and the distance between the bridges so we could avoid circling around just north of bridges waiting for the next opening. We got most of the timings right, with an exception 7.5 mph push from Boris to make the last bridge and we dropped our anchor at 2:30 PM in Middle River, on the north end of Ft. Lauderdale. Snow Day (and two other cruising boats arrived) shortly thereafter. We hope to stay here until the next weather window when we can cross to the Bahamas, probably in one week, although we’re unsure if there are anchoring restrictions here. I guess we’ll find out when the police boat pulls up alongside!

Our trip today took us through a highly developed section of the ICW. Below are some photos displaying the architectural styles along the way. Not exactly our cup of tea for a house, but probably pretty comfortable inside. Kristen approves of most of the pool/tiki bar/lounge chair area/tropical garden landscaping. Some of the houses were so big that they we couldn’t tell if they were hotels or single-family compounds. Matthew, on Snow Day, was trying to guess how long it would take to walk from one end of the house to the other.








It's not just the houses, the condos are massive too!

Before we leave we still have a few projects that we’d like to finish and also a little shopping to do. On Friday we’re planning on going to Bluewater Charts to stock up on guide books and charts of the Caribbean that we think we’ll need in the next year or so. We’re both very excited for that shopping expedition, Bluewater Charts will be excited to see us no doubt, however our checkbook will groan!


The Goodyear Blimp!




Kristen and Hans hamming for the camera while steering. Hans in his favorite hat and Kristen in her new John Deere t-shirt.

Lantana, Florida

January 9, 2007



Some scenes from manicured Palm Beach. Lots of Palm trees, lots of big houses, lots of fancy cars.

We’ve been spending the last couple days in Palm Beach, Florida where we’ve met quite a few letters and packages in the mail. Snow Day joined us on Saturday, however we were kicked out by the Palm Beach Police yesterday afternoon for anchoring in a “unmarked, secondary channel, not on all charts but, nonetheless, still a channel where anchoring is prohibited.” (read: bogus). Well, the riff-raff was kicked out of Palm Beach and we’ve relocated to Lantana, which has a great tiki bar and a key lime pie which was written up in the January 2007 issue of Bon Apetit magazine. It was delicious. Not too rich, not too sweet, perfect. We’ll arrive in Fort Lauderdale tomorrow afternoon where we’ll do final outfitting and work on all those pesky projects. On Monday we’ll rent a car to go back up to Palm Beach to get our final mail and also run around town to the grocery store and various marine chandleries.






drum roll...everyone make their appointments at Salon Ericsson. After 2+ months of dealing with tangled, knotty hair, Kristen was very brave and let Hans cut off a good 4 inches. It came out fairly well, just a little uneven in places.

Last night we invited Matthew and Abbie over for hot dogs and a sleep-over. We pigged out on hot-dogs and nachos and then played a game of pictionary. Around 10PM we were all worn out so we turned out the lights and went to bed. Both Abbie and Kristen woke up once in the night to the sound of sirens, but besides that, everyone slept well. Breakfast by Hans was stellar: hot chocolate, toast with Nutella and pop-tarts. He wanted to make sure everyone got their USDA recommended daily allowance of sugar!

The sleep-over funnies:



Matthew & Abbie jammed their faces in the mainsheet block & tackle to look scary.





The sleepy crew trying to wake up in the morning. Here's an idea: sugar will help!

Palm Beach, Florida

January 6, 2007

Is there such a thing as a perfect anchorage? Probably…probably somewhere in the south Pacific. But we’ve found a great anchorage here in Palm Beach. We’re the only boat here, it’s in a no-wake zone so it’s pretty calm, we row the dinghy about 3 minutes to land it on a small beach and tie off to a palm tree, and then it’s just a 5 minute walk to the grocery store, 7 to the Post Office and 10 to the beach! We’re only protected from South and East winds, so when the wind turns to the north on Tuesday, it will probably be a little rough.

Palm Beach is exactly how I (Kristen) imagined it to be: huge houses, fancy condos, luxury cars, clean streets, manicured lawns, etc. Yesterday we walked to the beach, picked up some mail at the PO and then returned to the boat to start on the list of projects. Hans installed speakers in the cabin (yippee!), Kristen replaced the leaky fresh and salt-water faucets with new, hopefully dry, faucets, Hans started working on new lines for the outhaul and Kristen started working on the new preventer system (both jobs required eye-splicing double-braid line which is a skill neither of us are close to mastering!). Our project list doesn’t seem *too* long, and we’re steadily working our way down the list. We’ll be looking out for Snow Day today in hopes they arrive in Palm Beach this afternoon.


Yet again, kitkat hard at work.

Kristen dancing to the music coming from the new speakers.



Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream! KC & Dan sent us an ice cream making ball--our first batch was raspberry. It was sooooo good! Then, for good measure, we made rum/pineapple juice slushies.

Meow meow, MEOW! (part 2)

Greetings from purgatory. Yes, I was able to get my mitts on the computer again while they were motoring through bumpy seas. Didn’t they know I was trying to get my daily 23 and 1/2 hours of beauty rest? Oh well, at least I get a chance to vent my many frustrations. They’ve taken to locking up my food by duct taping the locker shut, which seems very inefficient since I was doing a very good job at opening the lockers and feeding myself before. I’m still very hungry all the time and seem to get in a lot of trouble when I decide to enrich my diet with calcium from the stick of butter that is sometimes left unattended. If my food woes aren’t enough to keep me unhappy, we spent the last week in the company of two, yes TWO, dogs and a cat. Humph. The dogs seemed to be rather unthreatening and stupid (typical canines), but the cat, however, was much larger and male and had a way of yelling at me that I did not appreciate. The only good thing that has happened in the past week, is that they have decided to leave the boat open while they are away so I can explore my dominion as I wish. They are threatening me with an ocean passage but the only way this furry body is crossing any oceans is in first class on a 747. Negotiations are underway. Please, if you get this message, send food. I’m hungry.

Palm Beach, Florida

January 4, 2007

Greetings from Palm Beach, Florida! We’ve made it to our jumping-off point for the Bahamas after a full day of motoring from Fort Pierce. Since we have a shallow draft, we were able to anchor in a spot which doesn’t seem to be used by other people, but is perfect for us. There are a couple sandy beach areas to dock the dinghy, and it is only a couple blocks from the Post Office and the downtown Palm Beach area. Today’s trip was rather rough as we were motoring directly into 10+ knot winds with an opposing current, creating rough seas. Our trusty Beta engine, Boris, kept on chugging and we arrived in Palm Beach shortly after 5PM. Snow Day will be a couple days behind us as they weren’t entirely ready to leave Vero Beach yesterday, but we’ll all meet up again in Palm Beach in a couple days. Our trip today took us through highly developed portions of the waterway with massive houses and equally impressive yards and boats docked alongside. The boat traffic picked up and we had to contend with the wakes of many passing and overtaking powerboats and “mega-yachts.” We also passed under at least five opening bridges which was tricky at times with the strong currents and heavy boat traffic. We’ll make a run to the PO tomorrow and start our preparations for the Bahamas!



Here is a selection of monstrous homes (and a yacht) along the Florida ICW








The lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet


Kristen on our new ratlines

KitKat hard at work

Kristen hard at work (at making the new ratlines)

Sunset in Palm Beach, FL

Vero Beach, Florida

January 3, 2007

We're finally ready to leave Vero Beach and will be heading out later today. The last couple of nights the wind has died down completely and we've been swimming in little bugs called "no-see-ums." They seem to have a special affinity for Kristen's blood, and she is covered with dozens of bugbites from head to toe.

Yesterday was spent running errands, getting groceries, etc. We'll head down towards Ft. Piece today and then go to Palm Beach tomorrow where we'll hang out and wait for weather and complete some projects on the boat. Hopefully we'll be able to cross over to the Bahamas from Palm Beach in the next week or two.

Blogger is having issues today, so no pictures.

Vero Beach, Florida

December 31, 2006

Happy Birthday Helen! (Kristen’s mom)

We left Titusville on Wednesday morning together with Snow Day. The weather was a bit blustery but the wind was coming from the north so it wasn’t too bad since we were heading south (always south!).

We planned on making three short day hops to get to Vero Beach, also called “Velcro Beach” by some who can’t get themselves to leave.


Hans and a gelaming Boris. Cleaned with a toothbrush! (see, cruising isn't *all* fun & games).


Day one we went about 20 miles to Cocoa, Florida. When we arrived we spent a couple of hours at what is reputed to be the East Coast’s best and biggest hardware store, S.F. Travis & Co. and we went out for dinner at a biker bar/restaurant where the waitress left some of her own blood on our table…. Biker bar indeed…

After pulling up our sea-weed laden anchor rode, we were able to give Boris a well deserved break and hoist our sails for a reach down the Indian River. Snow Day also put their sails up and it was so much fun to be going along with another boat on such a beautiful day. We were healing to 20 degrees and moving at about 5 knots with no waves on the water!

Snow Day sailing along. They're a little bit faster than us under sail, which they happily gloated about and talked about longer waterline, bigger sail area, etc. Technical details. The next time we're under sail together, Whisper will be a speck on their *forward* horizon.


Whisper sailing along.


Whisper & Snow Day at anchor after a day of sailing.

We anchored on the eastern shore of the Indian River with the hopes of finding out way across the barrier island that separates the Indian River from the Atlantic Ocean and the beach. After one failed attempt at the Miller Bushwhacking tour of the alligator and who-know-what-else-slithers infested, dark, wet, jungle that is the eastern shore of the Indian River, we made a second attempt and landed our dinghies on some unsuspecting retired Floridian’s back yard and scurried across to the beach.

Although it was dark and only about 50 degrees (15 C) Abbey and Mathew from Snow Day went swimming. The two crews feasted on rice and beans and watched the surf and such.

Day three saw us arriving in Vero Beach where we are now rafted together sharing a mooring ball (there is no anchoring allowed in Vero Beach).

Kristen braving the torrential downpours and hour-long rain storm that accompanied us on our way to Vero Beach.

We spent the last two days going to the beach. The water is warm and swimmable, but the surf is huge and we’ve both gotten tossed around quite a bit.

We’ll spend New Year’s Eve here and then head south to Palm Beach on Wednesday.


Two happy boogie boarders.

Hans playing frisbee at the beach.



Guitarist Abbey.

Hopefully we didn't keep the whole anchorage awake with our music-making. The band consisted of a guitar, washboard, harmonica, penny flute and many voices. The nail on the coffin of the singing was "Blue Suede Shoes" which turned into the "Never Ending Song" which Rob successfully ended by singing about "Smelly Suede Shoes." Abbey & Matthew went wild!

Mailing address

We're on our way to Palm Beach, Florida and we'll be there for a week or so before we head to the Bahamas. We've gotten in touch with the Postmaster there and he'll hold General Delivery mail for us. This is the last (non-complicated, easy) chance for us to get mail, so if there is anything you just are dying to mail us, the address is:

Kristen Miller
c/o General Delivery
Palm Beach, FL
33480
*please hold for pick-up*

Let us know if & when you're going to mail us something so we know what we need to look out for at the PO.

Titusville, Florida, Part IV

December 26, 2006

We hope everyone had a wonderful, happy Christmas with family and friends!

We spent Christmas in Titusville, Florida as multiple thunderstorms passed overhead. We spent the 23rd shopping for food and presents and we went to see the Night at the Museum with the gang from “Snow Day.” On the 24th we hunkered down in Whisper and spent the whole day preparing food, eating cookies, drinking glogg, opening presents and eating all the food! It rained on and off throughout the day with a couple big thunderstorms, so we didn’t go off the boat which was fine since we had plenty to do with all the food! The weather worsened throughout the night and neither of us got much sleep as the wind howled outside and it downpoured a few times. Looking at the trimetric (the little electrical panel which tells us how much electricity we’re using or making), at times the gusts were “10 Amp gusts!” So after a bumpy Christmas morning breakfast, we weighed anchor and tied up to a T-dock at the marina. After spending 2 hours cleaning up an ice-box spill (the gravy from the Swedish meatballs, ugh), we relaxed for a couple hours, read, took naps, etc. Everyone from Snow Day came over in the evening to share a Christmas chicken with us, and to help us get through the leftovers from the 24th! We still have some meatballs to make some sandwiches, and plenty of ham! The forecast is for rain today, but we’ll probably push out of Titusville either this morning or early afternoon just to go a couple miles. This is the longest we’ve stayed in one place so it’s definitely time to move and get ready to go to the Bahamas.


Hans looks at the many pepparkakor waiting to go in the oven.


We started a small woodworking project (building a little storage box for kitchen utensils & cookbooks), until the ominous clouds in the background opened up and we had a massive thunderstorm.


Kristen rolling Swedish meatballs as Hans fried them up.


The Swedish Christmas spread. Yum!


Santa/Tomten paid us a visit!



There are approximately 60 manatees living in the harbor at Titusville. These two came over to wish us a merry Christmas as we were hosing off the cockpit with freshwater (they love drinking freshwater!). Kit Kat also wanted to make some new friends.