April 2019

By aaron.axvig, Mon, 04/22/2019 - 03:00

We both ended up going to Crook and Crook for fins, and also some plain old snorkel/masks. Fun scooter ride there, but Anna found a scooter for herself first and then it took Aaron about 15 minutes of walking to find one for himself. We think the scooters might be a better buy than the folding bicycles that a lot of cruisers get, but we are fine renting for now.

Then Anna's friend Cassie arrived and we took her out to the boat. After some chatting and lunch we moved 1/2 mile from the mooring ball to our favored anchoring spot and then decided to test out our snorkel gear. For about two hours we swam around the boat, looking at the anchor stuck in the ground, cleaning the hull, testing the GoPro, and just looking around. Aaron saw a ray of some sort with about a three foot wingspan. There were a few 8" fish around. Visibility was only about 10 feet as the wind had come up, creating a little churn.

Then Aaron sat on his mask and shattered the glass. He will be up early tomorrow to go get a replacement before we leave.

We went to Monty's (well known local seafood place) for supper. Aaron forgot to put the plug in the dinghy so while we ate, it too ate...about 6" of seawater (2nd time we have done this, thank goodness it is an inflatable dinghy so no harm done). We borrowed a bucket from a neighboring dinghy at the dock and got most of the water out before heading back to the boat.

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By aaron.axvig, Mon, 04/22/2019 - 03:00

Watched the sunrise and now I am off to ride the rentable scooters to a marine shop called Crook & Crook ("We don't aim to live up to our name") to get some fins for snorkeling.

Anna's friend Cassie arrives today. Yesterday we moved 1/4 mile from anchoring to stay on a mooring ball. Paying for one night of the mooring ball allowed us to use the marina's laundry facilities rather than paying for a ride to and from a laundromat.

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By aaron.axvig, Thu, 04/11/2019 - 03:00

We arrived to Dinner Key in Biscayne Bay yesterday around 4:00. We sailed "on the outside" (in the ocean) from Port Everglades near Ft. Lauderdale to Government Cut in Miami. The AICW was not an option for any significant part of the trip due to a low bridge in Miami and a low cable over the first inlet north of Miami.

Anchoring here was pretty cool as we found a spot just one foot deeper than our boat and could see the bottom. This morning we went for our first swim around the boat. There was negligible growth on the hull but quite a bit on the propeller shaft and propeller itself. We will get that cleaned off soon.

We recorded a quick video of a swim around the boat, enjoy!

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By aaron.axvig, Sun, 04/07/2019 - 03:00

We are on the move today! We left Stuart, FL (our home for exactly two months) at 7:00 this morning and are sailing on the ocean for the first time since sailing school about a year ago.

We have the sails about 1/2 up so that we don't heel too much in the 20 knot winds but want to go a little faster so have the engine going too. As we get more experience we can get crazier with the sails!

We anticipate arriving in Lake Worth around 3pm.  Also, we saw a couple cool boats today:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_(yacht) Entered the inlet about an hour before us, 290 feet long, 47 feet wide (compare to our 37 foot length!), and holds 74,000 gallons of fuel


http://brooklinboatyard.com/sonny-2018/ Drove past us about an hour after we anchored.

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