April 10, 2006



Hello to all our dear family and friends!

I guess that it’s time for us to let everyone know where we are and what we’re up to.

Since the last time we did an update, we have traveled a lot of miles. We were in Ft. Myers Beach at that time and were about to travel up the West Coast of Florida. Shortly after the update, we moved a very short distance to Cape Coral. We had made arrangements with a canvas maker in the area for him to come and measure our doors on the boat and make insect screens for us. We knew that we were about to get into mosquito country, and we were having trouble finding someone who would even talk to us about screens. We ordered the screens with the understanding that they would be finished the next week. So we took off to meet some good friends that we hung out with in Ventura who now live in Punta Gorda. We traveled up through the Pine Island Sound and met them in an anchorage called Pelican Bay on the island of Cayo Costa. What a beautiful place; very well protected with a ranger station and a trail to the other side of the island and the Gulf of Mexico.

After spending time exploring, we were off to their house. We had to time the tide in order to get up the canal to their house. Well, no matter that we waited, we still couldn’t get into their canal with only 4’ of water at best. So they made arrangements for us to leave Diamond Girl at a friends dock for a couple of days so that we could visit. We had a wonderful time. We ended up spending three days, and then we returned to Cape Coral to retrieve our new screens and be off across the state via the Okeechobee Waterway and a whole different world.

We stopped for one night in the city of Ft. Myers and then started across the OWW. It is really different. There are spots with beautiful homes setting on 5 or 10 acres fully landscaped, and then there would be a rundown mobile home with cars and refrigerators everywhere. The river that we were on was anywhere from a couple of hundred yards wide to a ½ mile wide. We even saw alligators!!! And we had our first experience with locks. We traveled through 3 locks and found out that they aren’t really a big deal, it just takes time.

Our first night on the OWW we spent in the town of La Belle. We had heard that it was a little town still living in the 60’s and everyone was right. We tied up to a rickety old dock at the Rivers Edge Motel. It really reminded us of the “Bates Motel”. The people were very nice and the dock was very cheap so it fit us well. We walked into town and had dinner at a little restaurant named Flora and Ella’s. It was great! Chicken and dumplings, greens and cornbread ($7.00) how could you go wrong.

After two days there, we traveled to Clewiston which is right at the edge of Lake Okeechobee. By the way, did you know that Lake Okeechobee is the second largest lake totally within the United States? There isn’t much to Clewiston, so we only stayed over night and were off the next morning to Indian Town. Again, not much there to see so we only stayed one night. We did walk to the grocery store and only saw a couple of houses. When we got back, we asked the lady in the marina office where the town was located. She asked if we had walked to the market. We answered yes, and she said “then you walked through town”. Really not much in Indian Town!

Stuart was our next goal. After about a 3-hour run, we anchored in Manatee Pocket, an anchorage recommended by the cruising guide books. Very nice, very protected. We anchored in about 6 feet of water behind some very nice homes. There were only 3 boats anchored there with a lot of room. We explored around and found out that there is a much better place to be. The next time we are down in that area, we will anchor in a different spot with more things to do. We did stay for 3 days and then started our trek north.

Vero Beach is an area that all of the boats talk about, so we decided to give it a try. It’s great. You can’t anchor there, but they have mooring buoys for only $10 a night. We signed up and stayed for a week. The marina has all of the things you need; dinghy dock, laundromat, and fuel. The city buses come right into the marina every 15 minutes and take you almost anywhere you want to go (for free). It’s great. We could see why everyone talked about it so much.

We wanted to go to the Kennedy Space Center so we left Vero Beach and went to Titusville. We decided to stay in a marina this time. We rented a car and went to the space center for a day. What a great place. If you haven’t been there, it’s a must see. It takes at least a whole day to see it. We decided that we would do it again next year and see then what we didn’t see this time. While we were in our slip there, I decided to fill our water tanks. When filling our tanks they have a tendency to drip. Four manatees came over to the boat and were drinking the fresh water. Elaine was actually able to go down onto our swim platform and pet them. They are very friendly and huge!! Great experience.

Meeting up with friends in Palm Coast was our next desire. So we traveled to Melbourne for an overnighter and then on to Daytona Beach. It is a very nice town, but for some reason when we got there everything in town was closed. We still don’t really know why, but it was almost deserted looking. It was April Fool’s day, but that shouldn’t have anything to do with it….very strange. We moved on to Palm Coast and met up with friends. We had a wonderful time visiting with them.

After spending two days with our friends, we left and traveled to St. Augustine. WOW, what a great little town! We saw buildings that dated back into the 1500’s. It was amazing. We took a tour and saw a little bit of everything. It is a very nice place to stop and see.

Now we are anchored out in the Tolomato River just north of St. Augustine. We are waiting out a big cold front that is supposed to move through the area tonight. Strong winds and rain are predicted, so we thought that we would just sit tight and wait it out here. After this, we move on to Jacksonville. After a couple of days there, we will be continuing our trek north.

For those of you who might be curious, we have traveled a total of 730 nautical miles to date since we left Ft. Lauderdale and started our East Coast cruising adventure.

We will keep you updated in the future. Please know that we always look forward to hearing what you are doing too, so keep in touch.

February 27, 2006

Hi to all...

Here is another update starting where we left off before. Previously, we were anchored in Miami and had just set out a big blow with 40-knot winds. Well, things finally got better, and we were able to scout out the area and find a few things that were fun to do. We visited the Miami Yacht Club and had drinks and good conversation with some of the members. It is a very small club house and has a bar and a snack bar. The grounds are very simple and open onto the bay where we were anchored. We found the markets and did some last minute provisioning because we were going to head down into the Keys and didn't know where or how long it would be before we could be in a supermarket. We ended up staying in Miami for a week waiting for a good weather window, and then headed about 40 miles into the Keys; destination Key Largo.

On the way to Key Largo, we learned a lot about cruising in Florida waters....IT'S SHALLOW!!! Or down here they refer to it as "SKINNY WATER". For 40 miles, we never saw more than 9 feet of water! I repeat…9 feet of water. In California, we would consider ourselves aground in 9 feet. Well, that’s about as deep as it gets around here. We made it to Key Largo and anchored in 5 feet of water. That might sound ok to non-boaters, but consider that our boat draws 4 feet so you can see why we were nervous. We stayed in Key Largo for 3 days and found that there wasn't really a lot to do unless you were into scuba diving or fishing. There was a great TIKI Bar on shore called Snook's that had a great happy hour so that kind of made up for the lack of sightseeing.

After 3 days in Key Largo, we decided that we would move down the Keys again and stop in Islamorada which is on the Upper Matecumbe Key (about another 35 miles). We found that the water was even shallower on this trip. We had to power through some 4-foot deep water which was unavoidable in the channel. We made it ok, but “Diamond Girl’s” keel is very clean now because of the “scraping” on the sandy bottom. We stayed in Islamorada for another 3 days and found that there was a little more to do. Not much, but a little more. The one thing we did notice is that there was still a lot of damage from Hurricane Wilma. There were a number of boats still sunk with only their masts sticking out of the water, and still a lot of boats that were blown up into the mangroves. Not a pretty sight.

While I'm describing the Keys, I should say that the Keys are very narrow strips of land that probably aren't more that 1/3 to a 1/2 mile wide. There is a highway (U.S. Hwy. 1) that runs in the middle of them and goes the entire length of all of the Keys. It ends in Key West. All of the little islands that make up the Keys are linked together by bridges. One of them is 7 miles long.

Also, we want try to explain how much of a team effort it is to navigate through some of the areas. While Bud is driving the boat and trying to stay within the marked channels, Elaine has the binoculars, charts and the cruising guides laid out and is studying them continuously. She spots all of the markers and checks the depths. It truly is a two-person job. Some of the marks, particularly in narrow channels, are very close and you just don't stray out of the channels because you will be aground instantly. You really have to pay attention and study the charts.

Enough of that! We left Islamorada and decided to make a run for Marathon which is on Vaca Key in the Lower Keys. It’s only about 45 miles from Key West. Marathon is a very interesting place. It's a little more picturesque than where we had come from but not a lot. However, the entire area is very boater friendly. When we got there, there were probably 150 boats anchored in the harbor with another 100 on moorings. There was still room for a few more. It's a holding area for boats that are waiting to go on to the Bahamas or Cuba. The Canadians can go to Cuba for a 6- month period of time, so there were a lot of Canadian boats there waiting for a weather window.

Marathon has a little of everything. There is a morning "Net" which is on the VHF radio where you can buy, sell, get information and help for just about everything. It is a fun thing to do every morning. One of the marinas in town, The City Marina, has a dinghy dock, showers, water, laundromat, mail service, library/book exchange, pump-out service and bike storage all for $25.00 a week. A great service! And there is a fellow who has started a service called "The Smorgasboat". If you call him on the VHF radio, he will deliver the newspaper, gourmet coffee, fresh pastries, serve as a water taxi or just about anything else you might want or need. One of the things that we needed to get done on the boat was window screens. Bud finally made them himself. With those done, we needed to wait out another weather window in order to cross the Florida Bay and start heading up the West Coast of Florida. While waiting for the weather to improve we rented a car and drove to Key West for a day. We had been told by several people that Key West still had a lot of damage to boating facilities from Wilma. We spent the day and toured the Hemingway House and had a great time.

Something that we have found while we are out cruising is how easy we can make friends. We have met some really great people. While in Ft. Lauderdale, we met a couple who were in the slip next to ours who have been cruising for a year. We are planning on seeing them again this summer. While in Marathon, we met 3 other interesting couples. One is now in the Bahamas, and we will see them when passing through North Carolina. We also met a couple who have been out cruising for the last 14 years, and we traveled with them for the last 4 or 5 days. They are headed to Texas. It's amazing how you make friends, and then in a few days you leave and will possibly never see them again. It's sad, but on the other hand, you never know when you might cross paths again.

Well, after 3 weeks we finally left Marathon. We had a fairly good crossing of the Florida Bay. It was a little choppy and we took a lot of water over the bow, but all in all it wasn't too bad. We stopped for a night in the Little Shark River which is a verrrrry remote spot surrounded by nothing but mangroves; surprisingly pretty and very quiet. We had a delightful night there and left first thing in the morning for another 40-mile run up to Indian Key, another very remote place. We did a little scouting out of all of the little islands in the area, again it was very quiet. We couldn't believe all the stars at night. With no city lights in the area, it was extremely dark so all the stars were brilliant. This was a very nice place to anchor.

After one night at Indian Key, we were off to Marco Island which is about another 30-mile trip. Boy, what a sharp contrast to the places we've been so far. Marco Island is a very upscale community with high rise condos and hotels everywhere. We anchored in Smokehouse Bay and were treated to a stunning view of multi-million dollar homes (much like Newport Harbor, CA). We have friends, Clay and Debi, who live on the island so we were anxious to see them. They were the couple who came to Ft. Lauderdale to help us unload “Diamond Girl” from the ship. We had a wonderful day sightseeing with them. We ended up staying at Marco Island for almost a week. It was hard to leave such a great place, but we had more to see and do. Off to Ft. Myers Beach.

After a 40-mile run up the West Coast, Ft. Myers Beach loomed ahead. With all the high rise buildings along the beach, it wasn't hard to spot. We rounded the sand spit that sticks out from the land and found a wonderful little harbor. This little town is on Estero Island and like all of the other little Keys, it’s only about 1/3 of a mile wide. There are a lot of eateries and t-shirt shops and a bunch of tourist traps. The beaches are great. They are white sand that is the consistency of powered sugar. We have only been here for a couple of days but have already decided that this could be another place that we should revisit.

I think that brings you up to date so far. We will be here for a couple more days, and then we will be off to rendezvous with some friends from Ventura, California who we haven't seen for a number of years. They now live in Punta Gorda, FL. We can't wait to see them!

January 14, 2006



Hi to all of our dear family and friends,

Our last update ended with Diamond Girl being loaded onto the ship, and we were going to Portland for Christmas and then New Jersey for New Year's. Finally, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale and were able to unload the boat on the 6th of January. Our friends, Clay and Debi, drove over from Marco Island and gave us very needed extra hands. The unloading went fairly smooth, and it was incredibly exciting. We're here now and we can start our trip.

Before we could do much with the boat, we needed to do a lot of clean up and scrubbing. We moved Diamond Girl to a marina about 4 miles up the New River which runs right through downtown Ft. Lauderdale. Well....we just thought that loading the boat onto the ship was nerve racking. The trip up the river was its equal. It was very narrow with mega yachts in the 100' range parked everywhere. We also had a number of bridges that needed to open for us to pass under. It felt as though we had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. But with a lot of help from Elaine, Clay and Debi we made it to the marina. We had a great experience!

We stayed in the marina for 6 days so we could get all of the chores done and put the boat back together. We needed to reinstall all of the canvas, put everything back on deck and do 2 full scrub downs. Before we left Ensenada, we had to get rid of all of the items in the refrigerator and all of the perishable food that we had on the boat. Elaine made a couple of trips to the market and re-bought everything.

The marina that we were in, Marina Bay Marina and Resort, was very nice. There was a little of bit everything available to us; workout facilities, pool, sauna, laundry facilities, restaurant and bar. Also, we spotted a Manatee in the marina right in the area of our boat. It was a great spot to stay, and we met some very nice people who had been doing for the past year exactly what we were about to do. So we got a lot of great information from them about what and where to go. We hope to meet up with them again in the spring, if possible.

Well, on Friday the 13th of January, we left the marina and officially started our trip on the ICW. We decided that our first stop would be Miami. We entered the ICW on the south side of Ft. Lauderdale and traveled 31 miles to a great anchorage right in the middle of town. The weather was beautiful for our first trip, and we were very excited to start moving. Friday night everything started to change. First, we had a lightning show that was interesting, then the rain came and boy did it come. It rained like hell for about a 1/2 hour and then quit. But then the wind came up. Since about 4 AM this morning it has been blowing 20 to 25 knots with gusts up to 40 knots. That's not cool!! We have been hunkered down on the boat all day and staying in out of the wind. It's supposed to die down tonight. We certainly hope so. The weather for the next couple of days doesn't look as though it's going to be great so we will probably just stay where we are and wait for a better weather outlook. That's why we say, "Our plans are cast in jello."

We think that we will be headed for Key Largo next. And then down to Marathon. We probably will stay in Marathon for a week or so. Everyone says that it is a great place to hang out. We will see for ourselves.

That's about all for now. We will send another update when we have something else to report. But for now, we hope that this finds everyone in good health and happy!