Were so bummed the kids had go to back home. Was wonderful having them.

While we were in Cocoa, my cousin’s mother in law June picked us up and showed us around where she grew up. Had lunch at a cool joint along the St. John River. Airboats and gators abound.

Later that day, June and Russ hosted us again at their lovely home. (We came through here last here.) Wonderful seeing them and Robin.

Departed from Cocoa and had a beautiful trip ~50 miles north to New Smyrna Beach. We were super excited to rendezvous with Penny and Sergio, so much so that we crashed Penny’s mom’s 75th birthday party!

New Smyrna Beach is a cool community with lovely beaches.

The next night, Penny, Sergio, Tina and Bill came to FF for pizza. We consumed a good amount of champagne, wine and whiskey, and broke out the party power ball.

While in NSB, I found out a dear friend’s dad passed away. So, I took a road trip to Alabama to be with my crazy Southern family and attend the funeral. It was a beautiful service with military honors. I was so humbled by the Veterans of War who set up American flags and stood outside in the cold during the viewing, rosary, funeral mass and burial service. God bless our military. RIP Robert.

While I was away, Mike took our boat south. (We are having Forever Friday shipped from Port Everglades to Victoria, B.C. at the end of this month. We initially had a departure window of the entire month, then March 10-25, and most recently March 20-30.) He had some pretty crappy weather and bouncy nights at anchorage while I was away.

Because my home had moved south, my drive back from Alabama was over 600 miles. I wanted to do it in one day, but was too damn tired. Mike found me a motel on the beach in Ormond Beach, just north of Daytona. Was good to be back to the ocean.

Next day, I got back to the boat which Mike brought back to the Lighthouse Point Yacht Club. Since I was gone for Valentine’s Day, we splurged on a swanky dinner at the YC restaurant. Mike had a 3 pound lobster boil. Was a LOT of food!

Prior to yet another band of storms and wind, we ventured south to Sunrise Anchorage which has kind of become our base down here. It’s well-protected, and has a great dinghy dock from which you can walk anywhere. Crazy weather, but beautiful rainbows.

Once we got somewhat of a break in the weather, we pulled anchor and crossed Biscayne Bay to the north part of Key Largo. You always hold your breath traveling through Miami and Fort Lauderdale because there are so many boaters, and a good percentage of them are utterly rude. Mike almost lost his cool at this one. Please forgive my profanity.

***Insert by Mike…The “Colregs” (“Collision Avoidance Regulations, aka” “The Rules of the Road”) lack any ambiguity regarding the passing of other vessels. The burden of responsibility is always on the “passing” vessel, and requires that any passing is done safely. The captain of the vessel is responsible for his/her wake, and is liable for any damages caused by said wake. Sometimes this occurs when a boat zooms through a “no-wake” area & damages docked boats with a large wake–or, in the above case, by simply being a bone head while passing. A courteous captain will call the boat to be passed by name & ask for a slow pass. It is not fun being down in the galley with pots on the stove when somebody passes right off your beam and sends a 6 foot wall of water your way. It happens everywhere–but mostly here in south Florida. Rant over.

The weather wasn’t ideal, but the seas were mostly behind us. ~50 miles south, we dropped the hook at Long Arsenicker anchorage where we knew we would be protected from the brisk north winds. Spent a couple nights here with only 2 other boats.

The wind was going to shift to East, then South, so we hit a couple different anchorages that would protect us best. Key Largo has some epic sunsets.

The water here is beautiful. It’s very shallow and sandy, so pretty colors.

At our last anchorage, we hopped in the dinghy and booked around Card Sound, cutting through Angelfish Inlet and through the awesome homes at Ocean Reef. We hadn’t been off the boat in 5 days. Buzzing through the mangroves is so cool.

We had a weather window to head north after about a week, so we weighed anchor and sailed back north across Biscayne Bay. The weather, for once, was actually better than the forecast! Had a beautiful trip north across the Bay and past Miami.

Although not our favorite place to boat, the water really is beautiful here.

Went to Bahia Mar Marina so we could do laundry and pump out. This is the place with the mega yachts everywhere. Super fun boat porn here.

Took off yesterday morning from the marina and are back on the hook awaiting our ship date. A cool boat is here. I’ll let my nerd husband tell the story:

***Insert by Mike…”Nerd?” Well, ok…I resemble that remark a little…

This odd looking ship was built in Syria and is a re-creation of a 6th Century Phoenician ship. The Phoenicia departed Syria in August of 2008, sailed through the Suez Canal, around the Horn of Africa, up the west coast of Africa, through the Straights of Gibraltar, across the Mediterranean, and back to Syria. The purpose of this trip (according to Wikipedia) was to prove that ships built by the ancient Phoenicians could withstand the conditions around the African Coastline. Apparently they could; because–fast forward to now–here it sits behind us at Sunrise Bay Anchorage after completing a 6,000 mile transatlantic voyage. Who knows…perhaps we’ll invite them aboard FF for some homemade pizza–they’ve got to be tired of gruel by now.

See below link

httpshttps://tinyurl.com/wmrjr

Expecting another blow the next few days. Our friends have been stuck in the Bahamas for a while (woe is them) as there have been no weather windows to cross. Fingers crossed for a window next Wednesday/Thursday. Hoping to rendezvous with them before we trek West.

In closing, we’ll leave you with a neat compilation of vids & pics from 2019. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Weekend! And, happy birthday to our nephew Brenden! Cheers! M&M