Day 116, Year 11: Dreary Day with Lots of Wind and Some Rain
Date: Monday, February 15, 2016
Weather: Overcast, Wind E 20-25, High 70’s, Low 60’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

I gave it my best effort, but I didn’t set foot on land today. The morning was a bit calmer than last night and there were a few moments of sunshine. But the wind has been blowing 20 to 25 with higher gusts for more than 24 hours and I’m ready for some calm. But wind or not, after eating lunch, I got in the dinghy and headed to shore to take a nice long walk. The wind was blowing hard enough to stir up a chop in the anchorage area. I drove the dinghy carefully so as to not get splashed, but still I could feel dots of water on my face. When I got to the dock, I could still feel the little dots of water and finally realized that it was not water coming from the chop on the water. Rather, it was mist coming from the sky. Just as I got the lock in place (we lock the dinghy to the dock ‘just in case’) the mist became dibble-dopps of rain. Walking in the rain did not sound like fun, so I unlocked the dinghy and headed back to Windbird. As soon as I got back in cockpit, the heavens opened up. It didn’t rain for long, but there were three or four more periods of rain in the afternoon. I never made it to shore.

The overcast skies, wind, and periods of rain made for a dreary day, but I certainly managed to keep myself busy. I did make that prioritized To Do list, but that was more depressing than the weather. After filling one page with things that need to be done, I quit writing. If I ever get everything on this list done, I’ll make another. But for now, one page of jobs that need to be done is enough for me! Tomorrow’s ‘To Do’ list has me taking the TriRail to Fort Lauderdale and to meet Tom Porat for an early dinner. We decided on Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami as it will be a much shorter ride home for me tomorrow night. The threat of rain should end by noon, so hopefully the sun will come out, this intense wind will settle down, and we can enjoy a nice afternoon in Fort Lauderdale.

This morning Mark sent me a photo that Heather or Jed must have taken. When I was talking to Ollie via Skype last night, I suggested somewhat jokingly that he sleep with granddad to keep him warm. Ollie looked at me and said, “I’ll do that.” And he did. The photo I received was of Mark and Ollie sleeping together in the guest bed. It simply said, “Eat your heart out.” And Oma is doing that. I miss all my guys—big and little.

160215 Day 116 Florida, USA–Keeping Warm

Day 115, Year 11: Happy Valentine’s Day
Date: Sunday, February 14, 2016
Weather: Overcast/Periods of Sun & Clouds, Wind E 20, High 70’s, Low 60’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

“Trust the current, trust the wind.
Trust yourself to find the way.
Reach for mountains, reach for stars.
Reach a little farther every day.”
from the song “Katie Raise Your Sails” on the “I Read Your Book” CD by friction farm

These words were written by Aidan Quinn and Cristine Stay, a modern day duet in the folk tradition of Peter, Paul, and Mary. In today’s concert at the library here in West Palm Beach, they sang songs inspired from reading books and this particular song was written after reading a used copy of Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. In the front of the book a grandfather wrote a note to his granddaughter when he gave her the book in 1961. Obviously the granddaughter’s name was Katie and when Cristine saw that dedication she was inspired to write the song. I loved that all of the songs were written by the performers. Great choice of an activity for the afternoon–much better than what everyone else in West Palm was doing this afternoon which was sitting in the outdoor bars drinking in excess to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Or at least I guess that is what they were celebrating. But the funny thing was that they all seemed to have dogs with them. I have said that there is always something going on in the waterfront park and today it was Paws in the Park with dog shows and jumping competitions. Everyone there had a least one dog, but most had two, three, or four! There were more dogs in downtown West Palm Beach today than I have ever seen in one place before. Ollie would have loved it.

I took Mark, Alan, and Helaine to shore this morning and walked with them to the parking garage. I then returned to a very lonely Windbird. Somehow today I never got that prioritized list of things to do while Mark is gone, but I did accomplish some of the things that I would have put on the list. In the morning I did a laundry, washing the guest bed sheets. I did it with very little water and the addition of ammonia. You don’t add soap, so you don’t need rinse water. The sheets and pillow cases soaked in the water and ammonia and then got hung out to dry. The smell of ammonia goes away completely leaving the linens smelling fresh and clean. I also wrote a couple of long overdue emails written to friends, Then I went to the concert. When I got home, I had a late afternoon and evening of communicating with family and friends. I talked on the phone for a long time to friend Detta Porat in New Hampshire. Her husband Tom called early this morning to say he will be in Miami all week. I’m hoping to get together with him on Tuesday afternoon when he arrives as he will be busy the rest of the week. His company, GP2 Technologies, is a book binding business and they have an exhibit at the Graphics of the Americas buyer’s show at the Miami Convention Center. I had planned to spend Tuesday in Boynton Beach with my sister-in-law, but will have to do that another day. So the calendar for the week is filling up.

I also had Skype video calls with Justin and kids and Heather and kids, plus Mark. It was great to see and talk to them all. Justin and Jo were driving home from a beach on the southwestern corner of Puerto Rico. They were stuck in traffic, so it was a perfect time to talk to Ziggy and Coco. Ziggy saw the photos we took of the launch pad at Cape Canaveral when we sailed by there three weeks ago. That got him started on a space kick and his newest dream is that he will get the Lego City Spaceport kit for his birthday in April. Coco didn’t have much to say as she was eating the pistachios we sent in a Valentine’s package, but she did mention that she is still in love with Peppa Pig. Peppa is a lovable little pig who lives with a brother named George and her Mummy and Daddy Pig. Each of her friends is a different animal and Coco absolutely adores watching the Peppa Pig videos. Justin is gearing up for a big conference the first of March in Phoenix and Jo’s parents are currently visiting from England. So they have all been very busy. Mark arrived in Boston this afternoon. Heather, Jed, and boys picked him up and took him back to the Cape with them. It was cold this afternoon and colder tonight, but he seems to be coping just fine. I Skyped with him and the Goldstones after dinner. The boys had the Valentine’s chocolate granddad delivered to them as desert and they were flying high. Their Grammy Goldstone is visiting in Boston this week and they spent the day with her in the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Their big discovery of the day was that dinosaur poop that turned to stone is now known as coprolite and that T-Rex might have had feathers on his body. I got to see Max and Mortimer, the guinea pigs, and hear all about the day’s adventures at the museum. After another very cold night tonight, the temperature is going to rise just a bit. It is going from 5 degrees F tonight to 50 degrees F on Tuesday. What a range!

Maybe I’ll get that prioritized To Do list done tomorrow if I don’t blow away tonight. The wind is raging outside. It is only 20 knots, but it sounds fierce. The wind will continue on into tomorrow, so I might just sit tight on the boat until things settle a bit.

Day 114, Year 11: Having Fun with Good Friends
Date: Saturday, February 13, 2016
Weather: Another Beautiful, Sunny Day, High 70’s, Low 50’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

Our good friends from New Hampshire, Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg, arrived this just before noon. They have been in Florida for about two weeks and when they arrived here today we were all praising the beautiful warm weather. It was time for lunch, so we walked through the Fresh Fest, a festival celebrating healthy living, in the park in search of healthy food for lunch. We didn’t find anything there. So we walked over to the Saturday GreenMarket and found Maryland crab cakes and shrimp salad. We walked down to the waterfront to eat our yummy finds and then headed back to the parking garage. Alan and Helaine had read about the Lego display at Mounts Botanical Garden in my log and wanted to go see it. This time we drove and arrived in 15 minutes instead of an hour and a half via bus. We enjoyed the walk through the garden but two things were different today—one good, one not so good. There were more people today, including lots of children, and the children made looking at the Lego displays more fun. But the prevailing winds today put the botanical garden right under the flight path from the Palm Beach airport and some of the take-offs were very noisy. Either the number of flights lessened or we just got used to the noise because eventually we didn’t notice it any more. I forgot to ask Alan and Helaine which Lego display was their favorite, so I’ll have to do that in the morning and report tomorrow night.

From the botanical garden we drove across to Palm Beach to visit the sculpture garden at The Society for the Four Arts. But we were met with disappointment. The sculpture garden was closed with a sign saying the site was being readied for a special event. When I check their website, I see nothing about this, but there sure were enough workmen laying what looked like a ballroom dance floor to convince me that something is going to be happening there. Since that didn’t work out, Alan suggested that we drive to The Breakers and take a look around. This imposing structure dominates the Palm Beach skyline and seashore as it is located right on the beach. It was built by railroad magnate (not to mention oil and real estate), Henry Flagler. The original hotel on this spot was opened in 1896 and was called the The Palm Beach Inn. It was a wooden structure and in 1903 it burned to the ground. Flagler quickly had the new hotel built in the Italian-renaissance style and it was open for business only a year later. It has weathered the years beautifully and is quite impressive. Alan and Helaine attended conferences at The Breakers back in the 1970’s and knew we would appreciate its beauty. Unfortunately Alan had to stay in the car as there was no general parking area, only valet parking for guests. But Helaine gave us a lovely tour. From The Breakers, we drove back across the waterway to West Palm Beach to visit the lovely ‘hotel’ Windbird. We enjoyed the late afternoon sunshine in the cockpit and then went below for dinner. Mark did a great job of grilling steaks and veggie kabobs which we all enjoyed.

Tomorrow morning Alan and Helaine are driving to Fort Lauderdale and will take Mark to the airport for his flight to Boston. I have thought up so many things to keep me busy during his absence that I have no idea how to decide which things to do first. So I think my first job will be to make a list and prioritize the jobs. That should keep me busy for at least an hour!

160213 Day 115 Florida, USA–Back to Mounts Botanical; The Breakers

Day 113, Year 11: Return of the Dinghy Outboard
Date: Friday, February 12, 2016
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day, High 70’s, Low 50’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

It is not as exciting as the Return of the Jedi, but the return of the dinghy outboard gave us both reason to cheer outloud. Neither of us wanted to buy a new outboard at this point, so we are quite happy to have it back. Dave, the Mechanic on Wheels, did a good job. He had to work hard to find parts–shaft seals, waterpump, gaskets—as we bought our Yamaha Enduro 2-stroke in Malaysia and they are no longer made in this country for environmental reasons. One part had to be FedX’d from Japan. We feel a tad guilty using a motor that is not environmentally friendly, but the new 4-strokes are so much heavier that Mark and I aren’t sure we still have the strength to handle one. So guilt-ridden as we are, we are very happy to have our ‘one-pull Yamaha’ back in service.

Today was a gorgeous day, much warmer with very little wind. At least two boats in this anchorage left early this morning headed for the Abacos in the Bahamas. This is the first opportunity for a passage in the last couple of weeks, so we hope everyone in the exodus had a good passage across the Gulf Stream. We are getting very anxious to hear what the doctor has to say about Mark next week. A good report would mean that we could leave for the Bahamas in March. We just have to wait and see if she (Mark’s oncologist) can isolate the reason for his stomach pain. It would certainly be a great relief to get that problem solved.

We are looking forward to the arrival of Alan and Helaine Kanegsberg tomorrow. When they leave on Sunday, they will take Mark with them and drop him at the airport. It is going to be very cold in Massachusetts when he arrives. The high temperature in Boston and on the Cape on Sunday is forecast to be in the low teens with overnight temps hovering around 0 degrees F. I might be lonely here, but I know I will be warmer!

Day 112, Year 11: Visit to Mounts Botanical Garden
Date: Thursday, February 11, 2016
Weather: Sunny!!! High 60’s, Low 50’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

We divided our day between work and play. We worked in the morning, Mark on his consulting job and me doing some boat maintenance. Then we worked together to go back and forth from the boat to the dock to fill our jerry jugs with water in order to fill our water tanks, five gallons at a time. We have known since last year that there are water valves underneath the dock, but we weren’t sure how to turn them on and whether or not we were allowed to do that. But our talk with other cruisers on the dock yesterday revealed the secret to getting water. Our tanks are now fully replenished and I can use the watermaker to keep them that way. Fantastic!

After eating lunch, we headed to shore to catch the free trolley to the train station. The local bus station is in the same location and today we were taking a bus to the Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County. It is only about six miles west of here, but it takes 45 minutes to get there by bus. So between rowing to shore, walking to the trolley stop, taking the trolley to the train station, waiting for the bus to arrive, and then riding the 45 minutes, it actually took an hour and a half to get there. But it only cost $1.00 for each of us. We can’t say enough good things about the public transportation system here. And the time in transit was definitely worth it. The botanical garden is lovely and the Lego creations interspersed throughout the garden were so impressive. These creations were all done by one artist, Sean Kenney, and they are not small. Some of the displays were life-sized—a gardening grandpa and his granddaughter, a wheelbarrow, deer (a buck, a doe, and a fawn), a peacock, and a birdbath. Others were larger than life. Mark and I voted a honeybee on a purple pansy as the most beautiful and I especially loved the monarch butterfly on milkweed. But the gardening grandpa and granddaughter (46,490 Legos) and the deer (84,442 Legos) were most impressive displays. Sunday is the last day of the Lego exhibit, but I hope to return to spend an entire day in the garden just looking at all the plants.

We got a call from Dave, The Mechanic on Wheels, this afternoon telling us our outboard motor is repaired and running great. He will deliver it to us in the morning. Sure hope it runs (and starts) as smoothly as he says. Although I’m a much better rower than I used to be thanks to my oldest grandchild Sam (a much better teacher than his granddad), having the motor as a back-up while Mark is away will be a comfort. And, by the way, Mark was feeling a bit better today, but still not his energetic self.

160211 Day 112 Florida, USA–Mounts Botanical Garden Lego Display

Day 111, Year 11: Quiet Day on the Boat
Date: Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Weather: Partly Sunny, STILL Cool with High 60’s, Low 40’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

For various reasons, we spent the entire day on Windbird and did not go to shore. For one, even though the temperature was not much different from the past couple of days, it felt downright cold outside. Secondly, Mark was hard at work at his consulting job. He was getting lots of phone calls as a result of all the emails he has sent out in the past few days. He is looking for applicants to be the general manager of a public radio network in Idaho. His last search was for a general manager for Hawaii Public Radio and due to the location, he got a much greater response for that position. But he is making progress on this one even though Idaho in February doesn’t sound all that appealing. The third reason we didn’t go ashore was that Mark was and is not really feeling all that great. His blood pressure is higher than normal, so we are watching it carefully. And lastly, I needed to do a laundry. I saved the rainwater we collected a few days ago and used that to do a fairly sizable laundry. So all things considered, having a quiet day on the boat sounded like a good idea. If Mark is feeling better in the morning, we are going to go to the Mounts Botanical Gardens to see the Lego display. It is still going to be cool, but it is supposed to be a sunny day. Sunshine always helps.

Day 110, Year 11: Read and Walk
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Still Cool with High 60’s, Low 40’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

Today we read, Mark did some work on his consulting job, and then we went into town for a walk. When we got to the dock, there were some cruisers sharing information on what’s going on in West Palm this week. I learned that it is Fat Tuesday and that one of the restaurants is offering $1 hamburgers this evening. Good deal but not one we wanted to stay in town for tonight. One couple we met on the dock is hanging out here in hopes of leaving for the Abacos on Friday. Evidently the weather guy, Chris Parker, is saying that Friday and Saturday of this week ‘might’ be a window for heading across from here, but not from further south as it will be too windy. So this couple sailed up from Miami in hopes of catching this window. Otherwise, there is no other window of opportunity in sight during the forecast period. Since we still don’t have our dinghy outboard back, it is a good thing we made the decision to stay here for now. After Mark knows the results of his scan next week, we’ll decide if we are going to the Abacos in March. If so, we sure hope the weather is a little more cooperative than it has been in the past few weeks. And speaking of uncooperative weather, today we had hoped to go to the Mounts Botanical Garden but it was too cool and dreary. Thursday looks like a sunny day, so we’ll hope to go then. Tonight we’ll listen to the New Hampshire Primary returns on New Hampshire Public Radio online. It will be fun to hear the voices of friends announcing the results.

Day 109, Year 11: Across the Bridge
Date: Monday, February 8, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Not as Windy, Still Cool with High 60’s, Low 50’s
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

You wouldn’t think just walking across the bridge to a different town would make such a difference, but it does. West Palm Beach is nice and feels normal. But when you walk across the bridge to Palm Beach, you can almost smell the money. It is obviously a very wealthy community. We are anchored between the city docks on the west side of the Intracoastal in West Palm Beach. At this point the Intracoastal is less than a half mile across and on the west side is Palm Beach. This morning we walked across the bridge to the Palm Beach side to go to the post office, bank, and drug store. After crossing the bridge we headed south along the water and immediately everything looks and feels just a little too perfect. The bike/walking path is fantastic, very wide with nice views across to West Palm Beach. When the path ended we were on upscale Worth Avenue. In 2013 it was voted one of the top three “Most Iconic” streets in America. We have driven down that street before, but never walked its length. You don’t realize that there are stores until you look closely. All of the buildings look similar and overhanging balconies and flowering vines disguise the real purpose of the buildings. The number of upscale clothing and jewelry stores is mind-blowing—all of the ones you have heard of and a whole lot of ones that you haven’t. I loved the one called Trillion. I’m sure you could spend that much buying a wardrobe in there. At the end of the avenue, we turned the corner to find a post office that was ‘normal’—except for the clientele. Both women in front of us were wearing obviously very expensive designer clothes, one with a mink cape and the other with a very fashionable, belted felt coat. I’ve stood in lots of lines in lots of post offices over the years, but have never followed women dressed like that! We walked back by way of Royal Palm Boulevard, lined on both sides with lovely royal palm trees. We stopped just before the bridge and to have a rest and snack on the lawn at The Society of the Four Arts and then headed back to ‘normal’ land in West Palm Beach. In total we walked four miles in the sunshine and it felt great. I’m sure we’ll retrace our steps many times while we are here as it makes a perfect walk with lots of ‘interesting’ sites.

Tonight we went back to shore and walked to the public library to hear local news columnist Frank Cerabino give his version of this week’s news. He was very good and very funny, but then he had a lot of great material with the political debates leading up to the Iowa caucus and tomorrow’s primary in New Hampshire. He supplements his talk with video clips and slides—informative and entertaining. We’ll certainly go to hear him every Monday night while we are here.

Tomorrow we are thinking of taking the bus to Mounts Botanical Garden, a little south and west of here, but still in West Palm Beach. They have a display of almost 500,000 Lego ‘bricks’ that have been made into quite sizable animals. The animals have been strategically placed throughout the gardens. Valentine’s Day is the last day of this exhibit, so if we don’t go tomorrow, we will certainly make it one day this week.

160208 Day 109 Florida, USA–Views from Royal Park Bridge

Day 108, Year 11: The Happening Place
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy, High 60’s, Low 40’s, On the Cool Side
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

Things cooled down here a bit today. After a night of rain, the sun came out today, but the temp only reached the 60’s. In fact, until next Saturday it looks like we will have days in the 60’s, maybe the low 70’s, and nights in the 40’s or low 50’s. I think we’ll have to break out the comforter. But I see that school is already cancelled for tomorrow in Falmouth due to another snow storm headed that way. So we won’t complain about the weather here.

Mark spent his day working on the watermaker while I read. We turned the watermaker on yesterday. It worked fine for a bit and then it started making a banging sound. That always means trouble. So today Mark took it out, took it apart, and put it back in. No go. He took it out, took it apart, put it back together again, and this time it worked. He thinks it was a stuck pop-it valve, whatever that is. But it is working tonight, so that is good.

Late in the afternoon we went to shore to take our daily walk. We walked north along the waterfront and came back through town. As we neared the main street, Clematis Street, we heard loud music . . . again. This time we found part of Clematis Street roped off for a SuperBowl Street Party. This town is the happening place. There is always something going on. I found out today that this coming Saturday there will be Fresh Fest in the park across from the dock. It is billed as a healthy living event and it is free. When Alan and Helaine get here on Saturday, we’ll check it out.

Day 107, Year 11: Quiet Day at Anchor . . . Until Mid-Afternoon
Date: Saturday, February 6, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Temp Upper 70’s F, Rain Tonight
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL

Just as we were getting ready to head to the dock to go to the GreenMarket this morning, we got a call from Lee. His dinghy outboard was being returned from the repair shop and he wanted our help getting it off the dock and onto the dinghy transom. Mitch of Journey also helped and we were successful in getting it onto the transom without dunking it in the water. As much as the repairs cost, that would have been a real disaster. Lee was a happy man to have his outboard back and running smoothly. Mark and I then continued our walk across the street to the Saturday GreenMarket. We got diverted, however, by something we have never seen before. A guy was being held in the air by strong jets of water from hoses attached to a jet ski. The water jets were strong enough to keep him suspended in the air while he did aerial acrobats. This guy made it look easy, but later in the day we saw jet ski operators teaching people new to this sport. They spent more time in the water than in the air. It looked like fun, but I think it is something I surely don’t need to try. We continued our journey and did a lot of ‘window’ shopping at the GreenMarket. They have a bit of everything there, but the price tag for most is more than we are willing to spend. We did get some organic veggies and a new basil plant and then we walked on. We probably walked about 2.5 miles before returning to Windbird. Once back on the boat, we were having a nice, quiet day at anchor until mid-afternoon when all of sudden we were bombarded by very loud music from shore. Lynda and Lee are anchored closer to shore than us and Lynda sent a text saying it sounded like they were in the middle of a bass drum. It was making Lynda very cranky so Mitch sent a text reminder her that we were getting the music without having to pay admission to the affair. But the heavy bass was vibrating everything on Windbird and was definitely a little overwhelming. We just held our heads and tried to enjoy the music as we read. When I went down to fix dinner, we turned on the engine and started the watermaker. That fixed the music problem for a while. But they are still going strong at 9 pm. It is a Tropical Rum Festival and it will end at 10 pm. Lee is a rum lover so I think it would have been less noisy to be at the festival drinking rum. A couple of hours ago it started pouring the rain, but that didn’t deter the music. Maybe tomorrow will be a quieter day.

Jane Woodin sent a correction to last night’s log. I misunderstood what she told me on the phone. Falmouth got 5-6 inches of heavy snow yesterday, not 3-4 feet. Big difference. Thanks for keeping me honest, Jane.

160206 Day 107 Florida, USA–Sea Turtle's Outboard, GreenMarket, Views of Anchorage