We awoke to a cool, beautiful morning at anchor between Key Largo and Rodriguez Key.  Soon after we left Boca Raton, the wind shifted to the south and we’ve been fighting both the wind and the gulfstream current for the last couple days.  The going was getting pretty slow off of Key Largo and a cold front was forecasted to come through later in the day so we came in to anchor and let the front blow through.  We now have a cool NNW wind that should allow us to sail the rest of the way to Key West.  We’ll post a blog with details of the trip and pics once we get to Key West…

Not a lot to report from yesterday.  The wind was blowing strong out of the south again so we motored down the ditch from north of the Jupiter Inlet to Lake Boca Raton, where we had another beautiful night at anchor.  There were about 15 bridges we had to pass through on the way.  One or two of them were tall enough for us to pass under, but the other ones were opening bridges with bridge tenders that monitor VHF channel 09.  About half would open on demand and the other half opended on a set schedule (every 30 minutes), so we spent a couple hours of the day just standing by waiting for the next scheduled bridge opening.  The bridge tenders had a wide variety of personalities, some gruff and seemingly annoyed at times, but all were very professional, and Tom, at the George Bush bridge was very friendly and funny as well.

We saw more mansions on the water and megayachts than we can count in the Lake Worth / Palm Beach area.  There doesn’t seem to be any end to it in the south Florida area — just mile after mile of mansion on the water and megayachts.

We tossed the bikes in the dinghy and Lauren and I went ashore last night to make a grocery run.  The bikes are great.  We still have my Blackberry, so we know right were the grocery store is for now.  Things will be more interesting once we get to a foriegn country.

The wind is weak out of the north this morning and we’re talking over the various options for heading south today…

The big news is that the autopilot and rigging repairs are done and we’ve left Ft. Pierce.  We’ve had lots of e-mails asking if we’ve left yet and finally the answer is yes.  The e-mails are great; we’ve been surprised at how many people we’ve heard from already.  The autopilot installation was more involved than we’d expected but it was finished on Sunday and we’ll try to sea trial it Friday offshore.  The rigging work completed as expected on Sunday but we decided to replace one more rigging item and couldn’t get the work done until Thursday morning.  The good news for us was that in order to expedite the work we moved from Ft. Pierce down to Manatee Pocket in Port Solerno, near Stuart.  Manatee Pocket is only a mile and a half from the Mack Sails so it was easier for them to get over and finish the work and we got to move 25 miles or so south, so we were happy.  Because the rigging wasn’t complete and the wind was on the nose, we motored down to Manatee Pocket Wednesday afternoon and spent the night at anchor.  It was actually our first night at anchor on the boat and it went surprisingly well.  Our bridle, windlass, and anchor all did great, though we’ve added a long-handled deck brush to the anchor gear to clean off the mud when we’re anchored in a muddy bottom.  There isn’t a lot of water depth in the pocket and the first place we tried anchoring left us aground in the mud instead of swinging on the anchor so we moved right at sunset to a different spot with a little more water.

On the Hook at Manatee Pocket

This morning we got up early moved the boat over to a day dock, Rich & Jay from Mack Sails finished up installing the new rigging and tuning it up, then I spent a couple of hours up the stick sewing on spreader boots (leather wraps that keep the sail from being torn on the rig), putting rigging tape in some other areas the sail might chafe, re-installing the radar reflector, and doing a couple other things to finish up the rigging repairs.  Once we’d finished things up there we headed for the fuel dock to top the tanks off and then into a protected area in the pocket where we raised the jib back onto the roller furler and stowed it for the move south.  We hoisted the anchor around 8:30 am and finally motored out of Manatee pocket around three in the afternoon.  The wind has been pretty stiff and out of the south, the direction we’re trying to sail, so we motored down the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW, or “the ditch”) until about a half hour before sunset when we anchored in a nice spot just north of the Jupiter inlet. 

Pura Vida anchored by the "Ditch"

Tiffany’s parents are visiting for a week or so (Tiff will post a blog with more details later) and her Mom Brenda, who is an avid boater, took the wheel for a lot of the way down.  Her Dad Mike has been pitching in with repairs, helping with the anchoring, and treating us to some fun meals out.  During the motor south I worked on some small boat items and then laid in the trampoline with Lauren, who’d just put a four-flour bread into the oven.  After sunset she and Tiff treated us to a dinner of fresh warm bread, olive oil and rosemary dipping sauce, farfalle arrabiata pasta, and cabernet in the cockpit under clear night skies.

Wes, Tiffany, Brenda, and Mike

Tomorrow (Friday), we’re planning to head offshore if the winds seem reasonable and try to make Ft. Lauderdale or Miami to get Mike & Brenda back to land in time to make their Sunday flight home.  We’ve just been in the ditch the last couple of days, but it feels great to be moving again.