It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

"This is the BEST!", we all exclaimed as we pulled into the marina in Key West. It was a swanky little hotel marina village lined with a collection of adorable shops and just a few steps from Duval Street. We scored.

You see yesterday we called nearly every marina in Key West looking for a slip only to hear "We're full - this is New Years in Key West- good luck" Val was sad because she really wanted Ben to experience Key West; Tommy just accepted it and said, "Let's go straight to Naples. It's warmer there anyway" I have always been one of those people who gets super motivated by the phrase, "You can't have or do that" So armed with my iphone I sprang into action and found us perhaps the last available slip in Key West and here we are.

We all hopped off the boat and scampered off in different directions to explore Hemmingway's favorite island. Then we met at Sloppy Joes for a Hurricane (specialty drink of the house) to share tales about what we saw. We got back to the boat and it was rocking a little but we figured once the ferry boats stopped running it'd be fine. So we decided to wait it out at a lovely Bistro where we had a decadent dinner.

The ferry boats are at dock, it is midnight, and we are pitching side to side at a feverish rate. Our shore power is intermittent so while we rock back and forth, our air conditioning keeps cutting out making for a nice warm berth. Added to the ambiance is the rythmic slapping of waves against the bow. No one is sleeping except Baby Ella. Actually if they'd pipe in "Old MacDonald" or "Twinkle Twinkle" through the PA system, it would be like we were in a big giant baby swing. It's not so much the rocking that is keeping me awake, it's how loudly I can hear Tommy thinking "We should have gone to Naples"

This is the worst.

Who's having fun? We are... yes we are.. yes we are...

Imagine that in a high pitched, happy tone and you have the sounds coming from our boat fairly regularly. It's called boating with a baby and a doting family that likes to see Ella giggle. I'm sure that people passing by our boat in the marina think we are all nuts but...

And Tom and I need to step it up a bit because at Ocean Reef where the average size boat is probably 100 feet, Tommy and Kelle trolled the docks with baby Ella in an attempt to trade up; and they were almost successful. This lovely old couple on a 130footer came off their boat twice to get a little play time with OUR Grandbaby. As lovely as Ocean Reef is, we thought we'd better move on.

The guys really wanted to do some sport fishing so we figured Holiday Isle on Islamorada was the next stop. What a major step down from Ocean Reef. One night here will be sufficient. While Val, Ben and Tommy fished, Tom, Kelle, Ella and I lunched at the Cheeka Lodge and it was great. Not a cloud in the sky so lunch on the beach was dreamy. (Did I hear something about freezing temps in Michigan?) No fresh fish dinner tonight. They scored 1 sailfish and 2 barracudas but nothing to eat. Had a lot of fun though. And returned in time for us to set off to Marathon Key. Farewell dumpy old Holiday Isle that badly needs some maintenance.

We're in Marathon now and while planning the remainder of our trip, we realized that we all somehow lost a day. I hate when that happens. So now we have to decide between Key West or heading directly to Naples. Val is pushing hard for Key West but this close to New Years everything is booked. She and I are not giving up though and we are finagling a way. Finding a secluded anchorage is out after reading about increased crime and pirate (yes pirate!) attacks on boats anchoring out. We'll see...

Baby Ella loves the boat. The motion and the humming of the engines puts her into lala land. It doesn't hurt that she has four extra people around who are happy to play with her, feed her, hold her and for the most part spoil her non-stop. I don't envy Tommy and Kelle when they get home.

As an aside, we are keeping up with the news and I took great satisfaction in learning that the terrorist who tried to bomb a flight in Detroit may well have burned his privates off. A bomb in your underwear? A lot of good 12 million virgins in heaven will do a guy with no wiener. What will they think of next?

Christmas Uncorked

We celebrated my parents golden anniversary with a party upnorth and then headed back to the boat. Christmas onboard seemed unconventional but was actually quite fun. Christmas Eve our friends J and Lynn treated us to a delicious dinner in Palm Beach at Renato's. They too were in town waiting for family to arrive. Then Tom and I ran the boat from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale and prepared a lovely prime rib dinner for two at Pier 66 to celebrate Christmas.

We joked with fellow Club members (Grekins) who are also down here on their 70 Lazzara that we will no doubt pass one another at some point. Well we did! Passed their boat in Boca right before one of the many low drawbridges along the way. That's their boat 3rd from the left in the top photo. On our way to Pier 66 we saw a couple of familiar boats that we'd seen in NY and Annapolis; My Marilyn, Gallant Lady and Linda Lou. I'm just guessing that they weren't looking out their salon windows saying "Isn't that Uncorked who we saw back in Maryland?" Beautiful ships - Linda Lou is that one on the left in pic 2. This place is a yacht spotters dream - we had so much fun just walking through the marina looking at the gorgeous ships. One stunner, Natanya 8, blew me away. I said to Tom, "when Obama redistributes the wealth, I would like that to come in our direction please"

We now have a fully loaded boat. Val, Ben, Tom, Kelle, and baby Ella have joined us. It's tight but really fun to all be together. We ran to Miami today and are going to Ocean Reef in Key Largo tomorrow. Tommy got a digital video cam for Christmas and Val is working for a super internet savvy marketing firm so I'm guessing that my little blog is going to get kicked up a notch. The final pic for this entry is our sweet little Grand-daughter who seems to love the rocking of the boat. Good nautical genes in that little gal! You can expect at least one Ella pic per day.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...

does not always make one healthy, wealthy or necessarily wise. I know that most boaters swear by "getting an early start" but we've been retired now for two years and have taken to sleeping in. Today we had over 100 miles of intercoastal to run so we set the alarm. Within the first couple of miles we had a bridge to deal with. Tom says check the bridge height on the chart - so I oriented myself on the chart and found the Addison Bridge with 29 ft vertical clearance. We need 21.5 ft so we were good to go and I could go back to getting my coffee. Except the Captain sees the bridge in the distance and says, "I don't think that's 29'" Just to confirm, I call the bridge master on the two-way radio: "Addison Bridge this is power vessel Uncorked. We are approaching the bridge and were wondering what the clearance is?" He replies, "29' Uncorked" There. But as we got closer I also thought it looked tight. I scrambled with the chart. WRONG BRIDGE! This one had about 7' clearance. I had to get back on the radio and call this bridge master and ask for a drawbridge opening. About 1/4 mile after clearing the little bridge we approached the 29 footer and the smartalec Bridge Master says "Well, Uncorked - we've been expecting you" Bastard.

Tom wasn't without challenges this morning either. I know I've been hard on sailboaters in previous blogs but c'mon some of the names they come up with I swear are just to screw with the powerboats who will inevitably have to call them on the radio to request a pass. For example, Tom comes up behind sailboat "Lagniappe" and ends up saying something like "Sailboat Long Leap this is powerboat Uncorked looking for a slow port side pass" What was he supposed to do - really? I can deal with the Greek mythology names as we all should have been paying attention in sixth grade and should know that Persephone is not pronounced Purse Phone but the ones that really ticked us off were those damned Irish names hailing from Boston. Today we passed one named "Gra Mo Chroi" - turns out it's Gaelic for "Love of my life" Ironically, Tom called it "Grab My Groin" I completely understand now why Tom was so vehemently opposed to my suggestion that we name the boat Laissez Faire. I can just imagine a southern accent calling out on the two-way, "Southbound Lesbian Powerboat..."

We ran for eight hours and made it to North Palm Beach before dark but not before the sky opened up. I scrambled to get lines and fenders out in the down pour and was really irritated that in spite of plenty of notice, the marina had no one on the dock to so much as grab a line for me. Finally a guy came up after I had snagged the cleat with the spring line and secured us. I snapped, "Oh just get the stern line, I've got the bow myself" as I threw the stern line to him. Come to find out, he wasn't the marina dock hand but was our boat neighbor! I was mortified!! Turns out that when the marina staff asked via radio, "Captain, need some help getting in?" Captain replied from his cozy little inside helm chair, "No, we have it" Love that royal "we".

Tomorrow is a relaxing day. "We" are going shopping and meeting friends for lunch. We head home on Sunday and the blog will go quiet until we return on the 22nd. Thanks for following along with us.

The Daytona Project

That's what we not so affectionately call our little beach house in Daytona - The Daytona Project that never really ends. When we docked at the local marina I said, "maybe we should just NOT go to the house and never reaaly know how much damage those 26 days of continuous rain caused a few months back" But we went to look; then we went to Home Depot. So basically, we lost 5 days of cruising to wall and window reconstruction at The Daytona Project. Thank you bro-in-law Paul for the use of your truck for the first material run, and thank you niece Mary for the use of your VW Bug for material run two, which included about ten 8 ft. long 2 x 4's. That was a picture that I wish I'd taken. And additional thanks to Paul for the use of his Motor Scooter with a double seat so that we had transportation to and from the boat. I'm sure I looked stunning in that little Harley Davidson Half Shell Helmet that I easily could have lived my whole life without ever donning and not regretted. (Yet another photo NOT taken) It's perhaps the closest I'll ever get to being a "biker chick" - so not me. Tom liked me holding on tight, except that our helmets kept knocking together. Handyman Hubby saved the day again and the little house is back in order.

So today we high-tailed it out of Daytona at about noon and ended up in Titusville just in time for what appeared to be a wine tasting of sorts at the end of E-Dock - right where we were docking. Evidently there was supposed to be a rocket launch at the nearby Military Base and so everyone brought their bottles of wine to gather together and watch. Well the launch was cancelled but our little dock party lasted regardless and we all had a pretty good time. We had a lovely pairing tonight for dinner - Rodney Strong Cabernet (gift from the LaBelles) with a Bison Steak. Mmmmm. In hindsight it was probably really clever of us to name the boat "Uncorked" because when people visit us, they bring us wine!

Captain says he wants to get an early start so that we can get at least to Jupiter tomorrow so until then,I'm blogging off.