Tuesday December 30: Anchored in Biscayne Bay

We left Hollywood this morning - on the water and moving by 9 after stopping at the fuel dock for a pumpout.

For the 3rd day in a row, the wind is almost non-existent. I don't think we could ask for a better day to travel!

Yesterday turned into a fiasco - called at 7:30 for Enterprise to pick us up (my bone density scan was scheduled for 10 am) only to be told - oh, sorry but we don't have a car this morning. What??!!!

Fortunately, Steve was on the phone and not me as I'm sure my head was close to imploding :-) But we made the reservation over a week ago. Yea - sorry about that. Overbooked. No cars.

So I start looking for cars elsewhere. Nothing at all around except for the airport - a $25 cab ride away. Mmmm.... not sure what to do.

Enterprise came through in the end. Darien - the same guy that picked us up last time we rented from them - somehow produced a car and picked us up at 9 am - just enough time for us to do the paperwork and get to the Cleveland Clinic in Weston (about 30 miles away).

Ahhhh ... arrived 10 minutes to spare. Only to wait for 40 minutes to just register - which means you sign 3 papers. Weird thing? The guy finally calls for Linda Franko. So I get up - as does a lady sitting nearby. We BOTH go up to the guy. He's looking for Linda Franko - we both say "that''s me"! Except she's Franco with a C and I am Franko with a K. What are the odds???

Anyway, in the end we decided to just wait until today to get going .... it was a good decision for sure :-)

Back to today: the wateways were only for us apparently as there were no other boats traveling.

It was so calm it was crazy. The only breeze what what we made by traveling 8 mph. Otherwise it was just dead calm.


Uneventful except for the bridge that was closing as we passed underneath. I knew we could clear the bridge when it was closed but it was weird having it coming down seemingly on top of us!


Traffic picked up as we approached Biscayne Bay. It was so calm we could see the bottom a good part of the way through.

We were no sooner anchored (after a 42 mile day - about 7 hours) than Steve was off to check out the area.

Not much to be found. The water was very clear but just nothing around.

But the sunset was really nice. It's now dark, Steve is cooking dinner and we hope to see some stars tonight!

Tomorrow we're off to Treasure Harbor to see our friend Pam and stay a couple of days.

Sunday December 28: Last Day in Hollywood

The weather has been almost perfect the last couple of days - which is really nice for those northerners that have come to southern Florida for the week between Christmas and New Years.

They're pretty easy to pick out as they are either quite white or quite burnt - depending on how long they've been here!

The boardwalk along the beach has been packed over the weekend. So much so that we've avoided riding along the beach bikeway - too easy to get run over or to run over.

The beach itself has been packed as well with quite a few people in the water.

Steve was in yesterday and today - he tried to convince me the water was fine. I wasn't buying it.

Besides, someone had to guard our stuff on the beach, right?


And even though I swore off of wasting my 3 hours on a Sunday listening to the Browns game via the internet, I was once again sucked in. And of course we lost ..... again. 5 in a row but whose counting?


There was a nice 5 mile ride to the grocery store this morning so it wasn't totally a veggie day - just a lot of it was.

Sunset was nice - it was rainy and cloudy on Thursday and Friday so no sun - it was good for a change.

And Yesterday's Dream is still lit up in the Christmas spirit. If you look closely, cactus guy is sitting in the front window just waiting for someone to walk by so he can sing Feliz Navidad!

Tomorrow we will hopefully leave. I'm having a bone density scan done at 10 am at the Cleveland Clinic center in nearby Weston. Makes it very easy - all of my records will still be in one place.

If we are able to leave by noon or 1 we can still make it past Miami in the daylight. Otherwise, if I get hung up, we'll leave Tuesday morning.

Goal is to be in Marathon shortly after the New Year (of course we need to find some place to watch the college bowl games on the 1st!).

Friday December 26: Back to Warm Weather :-)

Thanks to Rebecca for the great card which we could really identify with over the past couple of weeks.

You know the feeling - traveling for extended periods of time and not sure where you are in those first few seconds of wake up time ...

Travel to Ohio was enjoyable - 3 days at the farm with a gathering of three of my four brothers (along with spouses + Donna :-) ) and seeing Loudonville friends.

Cleveland for 4 days for more gathering with friends and visiting with Steve's sister Julie and husband Jim (our home away from home when we're in Cleveland).

Then off to Rhode Island to gather with Wendy, Matt and Rebecca.

All in all a great time was had!

If you are interested in pictures from the trip, click here.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday December 9: Packed and Ready to Go

How does that song go? "My bags are packed, I'm ready to go ... leavin' on a jet plane" or something like that. Written by John Denver as I recall in the mid 60's but really made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary.

Ha - you are showing your age if the song is stuck in your head now!

But it's true - our bag is packed and we head off tomorrow for northern Ohio. We practiced today with temps in the 60's and wind.

We did take advantage of nice days Sunday and Monday to prepare the boat for sitting for two weeks and for our return in late December.

First on the agenda was to change the engine and injector pump oil. Both were a bit past due.

Second major project was to get the mast back up. We'll want it up so we are able to use the dinghy and there really aren't any more bridges between here and the Keys that restrict us whether the mast is up or down.

It's pretty manageable with the two of us but since our neighbor Scott was around, he came over and gave us a hand getting it up.

Of course the stainless steel stays needed to be cleaned and polished. Steve does them as high as he can reach when the mast is up but with the mast down it's much easier to do the tops as well.

There were a few spots at the top of the mast that needed some attention with a dap of paint.

NOW the boat looks complete :-) Something about the mast being down just never seems right!

Not all work though. Yesterday was really the nicest day we've had since we've been here in Hollywood. The beach along this shoreline just goes for miles.



And the pier is always a favorite place to visit. New gates since the last time we were here!


But the same old pelicans hanging around - just waiting for the unsuspecting fisherperson to leave bait laying around or not being careful about a fish on the line.




Except for this one guy who appeared to be just sleeping out a bit from the pier. It wasn't until I looked at a closeup of the picture that I could see his eye was wide open!

Just bobbing along on the water tops :-)

Blogging to take a break until we return to Yesterday's Dream in late December!! (We packed lots of warm clothes - we hear it's cold up there in the north :-) )

Saturday December 6: Hanging Around Hollywood

This doesn't really qualify as work but since it's the only constructive thing I've done in 4 days, I figure it counts as work :-)

The speakers on the flybridge (one in particular) had bit the dust some time ago. Bass had to be scaled way back to avoid any kind of not so good sound coming out of the speaker.

So thanks to Amazon, new waterproof speakers were here awaiting our arrival. Same size but the screw holes didn't match up of course. No problem. Drill new ones, install, sit back and enjoy. Easy :-)

Wednesday we made an evening bike ride (with our lights taped to the bike of course) to the boardwalk. Things around here are decorated for Christmas but for the life of me I can't get into this holiday that isn't snow related here in the land of warm weather.

Just isn't the same. Maybe when we're back in Ohio.

Anyway, the concert at the Hollywood Beach Theatre was ok but not (for us) all that great. It was a tribute band to Billy Joel. Not our favorite artist but pleasant enough for us to stay for a while.

There is entertainment at the theatre on the beach 5 nights of the week - except tomorrow night (Sunday) is the Candy Cane Parade down the boardwalk. Not sure what that's about.

Yesterday (Friday) was Steve's birthday. He has once again finally caught up to me in years: 65. He knew it was going to be a good day when he spotted the rainbow to the north.

We celebrated his introduction to Medicare with lunch at the Thai place nearby.

The duck soup he ordered was "excellent" :-)

Somehow we never seem to be in the same place to celebrate birthdays each year (or anything else for that matter!). I'm thinking that's an ok thing :-)

One difference between spending the holidays here in the south and in the north: in Cleveland, we would have poinsettias in a pot.

Here they just are planted in the yards :-)

The weather along the coast continues to be windy, warm and alternating sun and clouds. But some very strange cloud formations. Not sure what that's about. Just strange.

Sunsets near the water are continuing to be super nice.

This is a good place to be for a while :-)

Wednesday December 3: Close Encounters of the Large Kind - Ft. Lauderdale

So the 60 miles from Lake Worth south to Ft. Lauderdale (on a sunny, Sunday afternoon) were quite interesting. EVERYONE with a boat was on the water!

Remember this is one of the lands of the rich, right? Very large yachts with fairy tale looking bridges (this bridge even had spiral staircases up to the towers!).




 This was the largest one we saw tied up at a private dock in front of a huge home. Pretty big with three decks above water and one below.

Then we spotted the on on the left that has 4 decks above water and one below.

The guy washing windows circled in red on the 3rd deck should give some perspective on the size of this one!

And the ones that weren't at marinas, homes or on the waterway were on a ship waiting to be sent?? I'm assuming across the ocean to Europe?

Who knows. But the huge yachts are definitely still living in this area!

Of course these yachts are nothing compared to the cruise ships (3 of them) that were leaving Port Everglades just as we arrived at the intersection of the Intercoastal and Port Everglades (which leads to the Atlantic).

The security boat told us we were in the way of the 3rd ship which was going to back into the space in which we sat. So where should we go????

The instructions were to go behind the cruise ship on the left (it was moving forward so no problem there) and BEHIND the cruise ship on the right that was BACKING UP. Really? Go between the two cruise ships - as the one is backing up toward me? Does this guy know how slow we go??

But we followed instructions (along with half a dozen other boats) and cut between the two - watching the ship as we slid by it's side.

Man - it sure looks huge when you're not all that far from it! No problems though - we were just glad to be able to continue on.



It was getting close to 5 pm and we had 30 minutes to the marina yet.

Close to 5:30 and definitely dusk by the time we arrived.

Long 9 hour day - we were both wiped out ......

That was Sunday. Monday and Tuesday it rained and blew (East winds 15 - 25 mph so at least it was a warm wind :-) ) - just generally nasty out.

We hunkered down in the boat with short runs to the grocery store when there was a lull in the rains.

The "good" grocery store is 2 1/2 miles away and it's a nice ride through residential neighborhoods. Good exercise (I have to keep telling myself that!).

Today was finally  a nice day - still plenty of wind - so we rode to the beach for breakfast. The boardwalk here is really nice - lots of folks out walking and riding and using the beach.

It's a short 1/2 mile ride across the intercoastal to the beach.

Easy to do and the bridge isn't too steep :-)

Steve spotted this telephone booth - London style - on his ride to the park earlier today.

Guess we don't have to go to England now ...... one more country off the list :-)