Titusville - Water strainer work

See, there are flowers up north too at this time of the year (from Marie)

I had two Vetus raw water strainers on board, one for the main engine and one for the genset. In my haste to ensure they were air tight so they would draw water properly (they are put under suction by the water pump) I had used a waxy compound to seal the threads. Well, they were certainly air tight but also impossible to unscrew due to the high viscosity wax treatment. So I ordered two more and replaced both today. Once off the engines (Volvo and genset) I could work on them with more leverage and I eventually got both undone. They are now my spares. The moral of the story is to use teflon or silicon to lubricate the screw cap and not something that will cause high friction when trying to remove the cap when debris piles up inside the strainer. Such are things you spend your days doing on a boat.

Egyptian iris - in Marie's house

Ann did the wash while I puttered around inside the cabin, taking five hours to do what any mechanic could do in less than one! We had missed our mail drop in Vero but John Kwak knew that his cousin, Hans Kwak and his wife Thea, were coming to Titusville on Monday so he volunteered to bring our mail north and we got it today. I now have everything I need to do that dreaded task, taxes! We had Hans and Thea over for happy hour on our boat at 5:00.

Hans and Thea Kwak, Happy Hour Time!

Meanwhile, my flower photos inspired some friends up north to show that they also had flowers, albeit, inside a hothouse so I've included two photos from Brian and Marie in Connecticut. Brian McDonnell is head of McDonnell Marine, the premier parts supplier for Volvo engines in the northeast. Brian also does warranty work for Volvo up north. If I ever have an engine problem, the first person I call is Brian!!

Let's see, "Red sky at night, sailor's delight", right?

Now we're aiming for a Wednesday departure for Rockhouse Creek. The weather looks good and we're hoping to meet up with friends at St. Augustine on Friday, still not certain yet.

Titusville - We explore the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge

Too numerous to mention - flowers everywhere

When NASA  bought Merritt Island for their launch operations, there was a lot of empty land left over that they did not need - but wanted as a buffer zone to their launch pads. Out of that happenstance was born the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. It's a major stopover from migratory birds along the Atlantic flyway. Initially, the biggest crop was mosquitoes, 2 billion an acre! The first thing they did was install mosquito control dikes to beat down the worst of the insects and then tailored several of the habitats to accommodate the widest variety of wildlife possible.

Another example, growing wild in the forest

Over the years they've installed many walkways through the woods and marshes and provided areas for research on native species. It is a real treasure for central Florida and one we always try to see on our ways north and south.

The wildlife was on parade for us

Today we visited the revamped the Visitors' Center and the associated trail. To me it's always been magical walking through the dense woods on a trail with wilderness all around me. It's like you're in an enchanted forest. With today's temperatures of low 70's with blue skies and no rain, it was just perfect.

A typical walk through the forest, just beautiful

Further down the road was the Oak Hammock trail (a hammock is a small area that raised 1 to 2 feet above the surrounding marsh, just enough to dry out for hardwoods). After that was a trip along the Black Point Wildlife Drive, a drive for your car to see the migratory birds.

You had to look up to enjoy the view

It is all breathtakingly beautiful. I took a few photos I hope you'll enjoy but they don't do justice to the experience of being there. We'll continue here until Wednesday when we plan on leaving for Rockhouse Creek, an anchorage north of here. We now hope to meet up with our friends at St Augustine (they originally planned on meeting us at Titusville).

Titusville - A storm comes through

Almost like an abstract painting - we're the blue dot, red square is the tornado warning, just missed us

We were due for a change of weather this afternoon but  before that we hit Walmart and the nearby stores with not much success. Titusville is not the center of shopping for Florida. Today was not the day for sightseeing due to the approaching front. We got back to the boat just in time to watch the front approach. There were tornado warnings posted on the weather channel with two tornadoes spotted. There were also two severe thunderstorm watches posted but one was north of us and the other was south. However, we got lots of wind and rain but we were secure at our dock being tied off to multiple pilings.

All is calm after the storm

Today was the first heavy rain we've had almost the entire trip. Sunday is predicted to be cooler (high of only 73) but dry. With that we'll visit Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, one of our favorite places along the coast. With our Golden Passport, there's no charge for entry. The area is noted for being on the southern border of many species and at the same time being on the northern border of other species - it's just where diverse species meet!

The Titusville Municipal Marina is about 0.3 miles out of town but right at the edge is a CVS store with a Redbox kiosk, so for the next few days we plan on catching up on movies we've missed. We'll see Gravity tonight.

Titusville - We provision

The main thoroughfare - calm now but it was blowing to 25 kts this afternoon

We rented a car for the weekend to make provisioning easier and to do some sightseeing. We were hoping to view a launch from nearby Cape Canaveral but it has been delayed for three weeks, far longer than we'll be here.

So I picked up the rental car this morning went off to visit the nearest Walmart. Say what you will about Walmart but they have the best prices and biggest selection of any store around. All the cruisers love Walmart. After amazing some of the shoppers on the amount of groceries we bought for just two people, we packed everything into the truck and headed back to the marina.

The main office - bicycles are very popular with the cruisers, we don't have one

We took advantage of the weekly rate of only $6/ft and will be here until next Thursday. The monthly rate is only $10/ft but we won't  be staying that long. We had intended picking up crew on Monday but it looks like that will not happen due to illness. Perhaps we'll meet up in St Augustine, at least we're hoping for that. Meanwhile, Hoolie reconnected with all his friends at the dog park and Ann sat down at the table for the 3:00 pm chat hour with the usual suspects. We do enjoy Titusville.

Titusville Municipal Marina - at a dock

As proof, we do see sunrises once in awhile

Titusville was 57 miles north of Vero Beach but a southeast wind was predicted which would aid us north so we let go of our mooring at 7:00 am, first light this time of the year. I took Hoolie into shore in the dark, came back, put the outboard back on the rail and took off.

It's hard to figure the direction of the current on the ICW. There are no current tables so you try to figure the current via the tide tables. High tides were earlier at you went north so you would think that the current ought to be going south as experienced on the Hudson River. However, the opposite was true. We had a north flowing current all the way to Titusville.

The same gorup of people gather everyday - now Ann rejoins the group at the dog park

The challenge was to reach the Addison Point Bridge which opens on request except between 3:30 to 5:30. If you miss the 3:30 opening, you wait 2 hours! It was at the 50 mile point so we had to average better than 7 kts to make the opening. However, with the modest current of a couple of tenths and the following wind, we made the bridge in time!

Coming into the marina, Ann guided Fleetwing beautifully into the slip despite the 12 kt following wind. As usual, Titusville Marina had dockhands on duty to help us out. Ann took Hoolie to the dog park to run some excitement out of Hoolie. The usual crowd was there so she caught up on happenings since she was gone. It seems we know more and more people along our ICW route, it's fun.

Vero Beach - Cold weather!

Nice boat, nice people - Hans and Thea Kwak's boat

The wind came up around 5:30 am this morning, around 20 to 25 kts and we swung around a bit on our mooring. It was a cold day for Vero with a high of only 62 or so. It's 57 right now at 7:30 pm. However, it's supposed to warm up over the next few days. 

Vero is still crowded with most of the moorings having 2 or more boats on them. It's a very popular marina with both moorings and docks. We met a cousin of John Kwak this afternoon, Hans and Thea Kwak on their motorboat Scylla. We learned that they had even visiting the Poughkeepsie YC on one of their trips up the Hudson River. 

Maybe tomorrow will be warmer

We plan on leaving Thursday morning at first light for Titusville with the big challenge of making the Addison Point bridge before 3:30. It does not open during rush hour traffic to and from the NASA launch center from 3:30 to 5:30. So even if we're 10 minutes late, it's a two hour wait until the next opening. It's at the 57 mile point from Vero Beach and at 7.3 kts, we could just barely make it. However, with even a little adverse current, it's a no go so we're hoping for the best.

Vero Beach - We have a reunion

Dick and Barb Burns from Maine - they now spend the winters in Florida!

You are always dealing long distance with various companies via the Internet. My experience today was trying to sign up with UPS for help in package delivery (I wanted to redirect a package to another marina). First you had to register with them and part of the procedure was to verify your identity. It started out pretty innocently by checking your address against their records. After a minor error on their part which I corrected, I was asked three questions to "verify who I was". I thought they were going to ask me for security questions that you typically see from bank registrations (mother's maiden name, etc.). So the first question was a list of five cars, which one do you own? Humm, they got one of my cars right. Next was the model year of my other car - they got that right too. Then they asked which person do you recognize in a list, one was my daughter. But the real clincher was the question to name the month she was born! Where do they get all this stuff? BTW, they also knew the name of my son and doubtlessly, the month he was born too. So I called and asked, well "It's a matter of public records". Which records? "The Public Records". Now I'm not a stickler for privacy but I was a little taken aback for such questions in merely signing up for package tracking! Just be assured that there is no such thing as privacy anymore, it's an illusion if you believe there is any.

I never did get registered, the "Public Records" for my phone number (which I had never given, it's a cellphone") did not match the address where the bills are sent - I have no idea why. They suggested I correct the "Public Records".

John Kwak dropped by too for a visit - he's on a mooring here too

After that entertainment, we had friends arrive that Ann knew from her days at the University of Maine, Dick and Barb, who are going to stay overnight. So we're catching up on past events and who should drop by but John Kwak from the Poughkeepsie YC, it's almost turning into another PYC south meeting. So we spent the afternoon and evening swapping stories. Ann prepared her usual outstanding dinner enjoyed  by all.

It looks like we'll head north now on Thursday for Titusville, the winds look right and we'll get the boat in shape for our next crew due Monday who will be with us for a week, nice to have friends along.

Vero Beach City Marina - at a mooring

Not very pretty but then it's a manatee, loved by its mother...

When we first looked at the weather report, it was predicted to be 15 to 20 kts of wind out of the north, not good! The next day it changed to 10 to 15 and this morning they further reduced it to 5 to 10, excellent! So I topped off the forward water tank and naturally some water spilled over when the tank reached full which attracted the manatees in the marina. We had three by the side of the boat. For some reason they love fresh water!

We were tucked into one corner of the marina, against the bulkhead facing the street with only a narrow alleyway out of the marina. So Ann just backed Fleetwing about 1000 ft to the turning basin and then headed out. Fleetwing backs very well but you still have to pay attention to the wheel since it's unbalanced in reverse.

A simple tie-up at Vero Beach, just one line that's already attached to the mooring

All the storms that were predicted for today went either north of us or south so we had calm winds as we headed to Vero Beach. The boat ahead of us headed into the mooring field and the office said there was one last mooring free which they took. We thought we were destined to raft up for the first time at Vero Beach but on the way in we saw one other free mooring that the office was not aware of and we claimed that one. All boats after us had to raft up with boats already on a mooring (the procedure is to put out fenders in case you are assigned a boat to raft with, it's not voluntary, it's part of mooring in Vero Beach). But we were happy to have a mooring all by ourselves, at least for today. We like to run the genset to charge the batteries and, of course, we have Hoolie who may or may not be compatible with critters on visiting boats.

Most of the moorings had more than one boat tied up, Vero still charged by boat, not by mooring, doesn't seem fair

We'll have visitors on board for Tuesday and Wednesday that Ann knew from her days at the University of Maine, the aft cabin is all ready for them and I'm sure they'll be much discussion of days gone by. We plan on being here for several days before heading north to Titusville to pick up old friends from our days in Colorado while in the Air Force. It will be fun! 

Ft Pierce - We meet up with the Fitchetts

I still enjoy the plantings in Florida - this time in a park next to the marina

Bill arrived home from his commute from his day job on Saturday and he and Sharman came over to the marina around noon. They have a condo south of here in Stuart and we retreated there for lunch (delicious!) and some afternoon bridge, I think we had some wine too...

Sharman Fitchett and Ann Sherer enjoying wine at 121 Tappas On the Water

Their condo is beautiful and very spacious. We played bridge on the back porch. One odd thing about the complex is that they do not allow pickup trucks to be parked at the condo, you must have a car or minivan to own a condo there. I really can't imagine the reason for that but it's the rule there.

Sharman is doing fine and I think they plan on spending 7 to 9 months of the year in Florida. For dinner we had reservations at 121 Tappas On the Water. It had high ratings on TripAdvisor and we found the ratings to be accurate, very good and reasonably priced. If you're ever in Ft Pierce, it's worth a visit.

We plan on heading north again on Monday morning to Vero Beach City Marina for a mooring. Hopefully we'll have a mooring all to ourselves but most probably we will have to share a mooring this time of the year, we'll see. The last we heard from John Kwak, he was in Vero Beach but we haven't heard from him for a couple of weeks now.

Ft Pierce - Farmers' Market Day and the Seafood Festival

Beautiful fruit

Ft Pierce had two events happening today: the weekly farmers' market every Saturday morning and the once per year seafood festival also on this Saturday. Wanting some fresh produce, we first went to the farmers' market and found a wide assortment of fresh items. As you might imagine, the grapefruit is just wonderful down here so we picked up a 10 pack of fruit. Like at any fair, there were a wide variety of booths that had nothing to do with a farmers' market but made for interesting browsing nonetheless. There were well over 100 booths and we wondered what the seafood festival could have that this market did not since the market also sold hot lunch items. In the middle of the morning, the heavens opened up and rain poured and everyone headed for cover but it was short lived.

That's Ann hiding in the corner

Heading over to the seafood festival, we saw an even bigger collection of booths with everything imaginable for sale. The difference here being the abundant seafood available. We had attended the seafood festival at Marathon but didn't want to wait the hour or so it took in line to reach the food. Here it was much better, no more than a five minute wait at most. They knew how to serve food, the secret being having many, many food vendors - not just a few like at Marathon. So we had our first taste of fried clams in a year but they were the strips and not the full belly clams we like but clams nevertheless. I splurged and bought Ann a lobster roll, nothing like in Maine but when you've been without lobster for over a year, it's a good substitute.

Every morning we have fresh grapefruit - Adams' is okay but this is fresher

It is definitely heating up here, 86 here today - time to move north to escape the heat... We'll spend Sunday with the Fitchetts and then head to Vero Beach on Monday for a week.

Ft Pierce City Marina - at a dock

Bill and Sharman's condos as we passed by on the ICW

We passed by Fitchett's condo this morning on the way to Ft Pierce, right on the ICW. We'll meet up with them on Sunday for exploring the area. We are going to their place for lunch and then out to dinner later that evening.

Once again we came in with 15+ kt winds behind us but did much  better this time, Ann docked perfectly

Meanwhile, we discovered that Ft Pierce is having a seafood festival on Saturday and supposedly Maine lobster although I'll believe it when I see it. At any rate, we'll head to the fairground and see what they have to offer. We also discovered that there's a farmers' market every Saturday morning right by the marina and we'll check that out too. We are always in need of fresh vegetables. We can keep frozen vegetables and some amount in the refrigerator but fresh vegetables are another story.

A variety of sculptures around the area

The marina here is huge. We had wanted to visit the marina to compare it to Titusville as a spot to keep our  boat while we're up north in November and December of this year. However, not only is it more expensive, it's also noisier and there's no dog park for Hoolie to run free. Also, running paths are along city streets instead of out in the country as in Titusville. Mostly though, it's more expensive at $13/ft compared to $10/ft per month in Titusville. So I think we're going to repeat our stay at Titusville in the fall.

I think this guy is about to take a dive...

We'll be here through Sunday night, leaving Monday morning for Vero Beach. We'are on our homeward leg.

Hobe Sound - We move north Friday

Notice how tall and skinny the palm trees are... Yet they survive many a hurricane 

We're having guests aboard over the next few weeks so that requires cleaning out the aft cabin! It seems like a labor of Hercules. Everything seems to gravitate to the aft cabin when you're cruising. Why put anything away when you can just toss it aft? After awhile you have to pay the piper so today was us doing just that. After a couple of hours (!) the aft cabin is now once again inhabitable.

The area here is next to a deserted area, a state park actually so there's nobody on shore west of us. To the east are all the high priced homes of Jupiter Island so we have the best of both worlds. With winds of 5 to 10 out of the east, it's like lake at night - and impossible to drag.

Just a typical home on the ICW by Jupiter Island

We'll be here tonight and on Friday head north to Ft Pierce where we've never been before. We'll freshen the boat up some and prepare to meet up with Bill and Sharman Fitchett on Sunday for another PYC South event!  

Hobe Sound - at anchor

A park is nearby for Hoolie relief

We had eleven bridges today but they were not as coordinated as the 15 further south. The separation on several of the bridges required 7 kts but with a 1 to 1.5 knot adverse current, we couldn't meet the speed required to make the bridges, often missing by less than 5 minutes. So we spent a lot of time practicing "hovering" which involves moving slightly fore and aft (reverse) to maintain position, it's not as easy as it sounds, especially in a sailboat.

Eventually we reached Hobe Sound and dropped anchor in 7 ft of water. The anchorage here is very well protected and the winds are only in the 5 to 10 kt range, like a lake. Presently it's 73 outside at 7:30 pm and it won't get much below that for the night. Every morning upon waking up, one of the first things we do is look at our webcams at home to see how much of the 21 inches of snow has melted. It's not gone yet but now we can see some bare ground is spots. Hopefully by the end of May when we return, it'll be gone.

A peaceful anchorage, nice houses nearby

We plan on spending another day here and then move on to Ft Pierce to meet up with Bill and Sharman Fitchett on Sunday. Ann has friends coming by the following Tuesday that she knew in Maine and then we'll have Lee and Maryann on the boat for a week, folks we knew from Colorado when I was in the Air Force. We have a full calendar! 

Palm Beach Yacht Center at Hypoluxo - we provisionT

Joe Mastri says, "Hi" - he's the same as ever...

Ann got a good report from her doctor today, the same doctor she saw last year that said she needed to two puffs of QVAR in the morning and two at night! The regime worked and Ann is doing fine.

We had wanted to eat lunch at the Banana Boat but we couldn't find a place to park so we wound up at a place where all the locals go where they make all their food in-house and we found it very good. The outside is no indication of the quality of food inside so there's no tourist action around.

There are always flowers around in Florida

Next was a trip to Wal-Mart and Ann provisioned for the next leg of the trip north. We found a recipe for Sloppy Joes from the restaurant of the same name in Key West so Ann will give it a try. The Sloppy Joes we had in Key West bore no resemblance to the ones we remembered from our high school days of runny hamburger served from the cafeteria! I'll report back on the results.

Setting sun behind a palm tree, much calmer today than yesterday

Meanwhile, we refilled our water tanks and did a superficial wash of the boat, well enough to pass a cursory look and we're ready to move on to the Hobe Sound anchorage on Wednesday (after 10 more bridges!)

Palm Beach Yacht Center at Hypoluxo - at a dock

Lots of sharp things to bump into - 25 kt winds on the aft

Today we had 15 bridges to pass through starting at 8:15 am. In this part of the ICW, Florida has it well organized. All the bridges can be made in sequence without waiting provided you can average 7 kts. Some open at the top of the hour and 1/2 past, some at 15 til and 15 after and some every 20 minutes. The times are coordinated depending upon the distance between the bridges. This coordination contrasts with the poor timing of bridges farther north, especially in North Carolina where several open only once an hour.

As we proceeded northward, the wind started to pick up to in the 20's and as we rounded to head for our slip at Palm Beach Yacht Center, we saw gusts to 28 kts. Our slip faced southward, directly from where the wind was coming from, not a good sign. As usual Ann was at the helm and she turned the corner into the slip just right and shoved it into reverse and rev'ed it up but I forgot about our trailing dinghy. The wind pushed it between the boat and the dock that had lots of sharp looking oyster shells on the pilings! After a few anxious moments, we managed to free the dinghy and the rest of the docking was fine.

We met Joe Mastri who came to pick us up for dinner which we ordered over the internet (Papa John's Pizza) and had it delivered right to Joe's door at 6:00 pm (you can schedule for a future delivery date and time, up to two weeks in the future). They have an impressive website, it's all automated and there's always a Papa John's Pizza nearby.

Joe will pick us up Tuesday morning for Ann's doctor's visit and then we're off to the Banana Boat for lunch. Meanwhile, we're supposed to get thunderstorms tonight with lots of wind, oh boy. 

Ft Lauderdale - last day

If the mooring balls are all taken, there's an anchorage available just north of the bridge

On the ICW you come to appreciate some very mundane things. This particular marina has the best laundry facilities on the ICW. It is air conditioned and they have eight washers and dryers which are never hardly used. Pair that with a huge, flat table for folding and it's great.

Rent-A-Bike, popular in Florida, self serve, note the solar power

So after we got over the excitement of doing laundry...We took another walk among the crowds. It is spring break time in spades. The parking lot next to the marina has cars circling constantly, looking for an empty space - but there are just not any. Outside the city lots (which are usually full) the parking goes for $20 per entry (not per day). If they are full, and we've seen them full several times, then there's always the $30/entry lots under the hotels if you can find one willing to rent out a space. It's definitely a seller's market during spring break.

We plan to make the 8:15 bridge opening on Monday morning, heading north to the Palm Beach Yacht Center by Joe Mastri for two days. We need to provision, visit with Joe and Ann needs to see her doctor from last year for a checkup. She's hoping for a much better score card than last year on the breath test. 

Ft Lauderdale - at a mooring

Sunrise! We usually get up later...

We got an early start, around 7:30 off the anchor and headed out. We were concerned that the Coast Guard might close Government Cut to small boats, the major inlet to Miami. They do that often during the day whenever two or more large ships come in at the same time. We lucked out and make it out okay and shortly thereafter, the Coast Guard did close the inlet for a period of time. We've never encountered any other inlet where the Coast Guard closed it to cruising boats, Miami is the only place we've encountered that problem.

The beach at Ft Lauderdale was packed with spring breakers

Once out past the inlet, we turned north and found lumpy seas. However, it was only 20 miles to Ft Lauderdale so we preserved and did okay. Coming into Ft Lauderdale we wondered if all the moorings would be taken on a Saturday afternoon. Once we rounded the corner we found that there were four moorings still available, no problem. The last mooring was taken by 2:30 this afternoon so they all went, even at $45/night.

It was very warm!

After taking Hoolie ashore, Ann and I took a walk to the beach. It was packed with Spring Breakers! The place is rocking! We did a circle of the area and headed back to the boat. Everyone seemed to be having fun but the police was out in force. They even had police mounted on horses on the beach. Everything seemed to be calm and orderly, at least in the afternoon.

It really is a beautiful beach

We'll be here Sunday and leave on Monday for Joe Mastri's place in Boynton Beach, staying at Palm Beach Yacht Center Monday and Tuesday. Ann has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday for a checkup scheduled from last year when she had her breathing problem which has now been under control ever since she started following her doctor's advice (!)

Marine Stadium - Nice place to run in the morning

What an inviting trail!

Marine Stadium anchorage is located on Virginia Key and the surrounding area is part of the Virginia Key Park. The city maintains running and hiking trails and a beach area on the other side of the key. For us, the best part is the paved running trail right along the anchorage, it's great for a morning run.

Grass by the side of the road

This time I took a camera along so I could show Ann how beautiful it was. The trail has a canopy of overhanging trees and tall grasses along both sides. In the morning light it's beautiful and also deserted. I found a place to access the road by lane 4 (the lanes for shell racing are marked).

The sun lit them up like fireworks

Tonight we had Michael Taylor over for dinner. We met him last year in Marine Stadium and he anchored yesterday. He's from England and served in WWII and during the jewish migration to Israel shortly after the war. He is single-handing his boat (for the last several years) and used to cross over to the Bahamas from here but this year he stayed in the Florida Keys after the monthly fee in the Bahamas was raised to $300/month for his size boat (31 ft catamaran). He's a wealth of information on the war, very enlightening. It's always good to get first hand information from someone who was there! He turned 86 this year (what are you doing sitting at home?)

Here you can see the overall plant

Well, we're casting shells, rolling dice, looking at the clouds - and it looks like Saturday is still the day to go north from Miami to Ft Lauderdale. Ann has a doctor's appointment on Tuesday in Boynton Beach so we are aiming to make that date and meet up with Joe Mastri to do some provisioning. 

We're tucked into the northeast corner of the anchorage but we still get a good view of Miami

The winds certainly blew last night, in the 20 kt range at times but we were secure in our protected anchorage with a 66 lb Spade anchor. We have now circumscribed our anchor, it's in the middle of a circle on the chartplotter, we've been on all sides of the anchor as the winds have shifted from day to day.The anchor hasn't moved at all. 

I used the paved trails that parallel the anchorage for running in the morning. The park is in the process of being renovated which includes removing non-native plants to be replaced by plants native to the area. Unfortunately, there's no dinghy dock so you have to climb over rocks to reach shore or else land on the beach. I prefer the rocks since you can usually keep your feet dry (i.e., running shoes) but you have to be careful on the slippery rocks.

There are two, four and eight person shells going all the time around the anchorage

We observed a rather loud conversation between a boater that was determined to pull a sled behind him, right through a flotilla of racing shells! There were numerous signs out posting the area as a no wake zone but that assumed the boater could read, obviously he could not. He was converged upon by three boats shepherding the shells, explaining what the strange markings  (English...) meant. After 15 minutes of much hand waving, he eventually stopped circling the shells and settled down to an idle. We figured his IQ was lower than his age...

I love these weather forecasts, they change every day. Now Saturday looks better than Sunday - but then that could change once again tomorrow! Who knows? Certainly not the weatherman! We'll watch and make our decision on the morning we leave.