Delray Beach - Finally it feels like Christmas in Florida!

December 11, 2015

Since James needed to work inside of the boat to try and track down the source of the fuel leak, we needed to be off of the boat for a few days.  We decided to rent a car and drive to Delray Beach, about an hour south of Stuart.  I thought it might be nice to visit somewhere that we would not be traveling by boat.  We were planning to cross Florida to the Gulf Coast via the Okeechobee Waterway after the boat was repaired so we would not be going any further south on the east coast.  After doing some internet research, it appeared that Delray Beach might be nice to visit since they had planned some events for the Christmas holidays.

We arrived in Delray Beach to streets decorated for Christmas, and soon found our hotel.  The Colony Hotel and Cabana Club was designed and built in 1926. From the outside, the twin domes are an example of the romantic Flagler era of Florida Mediterranean architecture. Inside we saw what decades of family care and dedication can preserve and improve. The interior of the hotel included the 1926 staff operated elevator and the original telephone switchboard. In the lobby, is the original hand-woven Fixx Reed wicker furniture and is lit by six wood skylights. The lobby terrazzo floor, the porch Cuban tile floor and the red oak floor in the music and former dining rooms are original.  We stayed in a historic room which was still furnished with original furniture.  There was a beautiful Christmas tree in the lobby and even the halls leading to the rooms were very beautiful and well maintained.  As a bonus the hotel was dog-friendly, so Jake and Kimi got to go as well!  We felt as though we had been transported back to the Roaring 20's.

That night they were so glad we were there that the hotel had a jazz saxophonist playing on the front veranda for us.

Then the town threw us a lighted boat parade on the Intracoastal Waterway!

After the parade, we went for a bite to eat at a nearby restaurant and they were so glad we were there that they had a live band playing for us.  I have to admit that it is the first time I have ever heard Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" being played in a reggae style.  All in all, it was a very nice welcome to Delray Beach and we were finally starting to feel like it was Christmas!

Thanksgiving and the PDQ Owners Rendezvous

I have not updated the blog in over a month and people are starting to check on us to make sure we are OK.  Yes, we are, thank you very much for checking!  Here below and the next couple of posts is what has been going on with us.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is "our" family holiday.  As our children began having families of their own it was very apparent that they would not be traveling with small children to visit at Christmas, especially since they would need to be home for Santa.  Early on we decided that Thanksgiving would be our family holiday when everyone would gather at our house for a good meal and fellowship.  This event has evolved to be every other year rather than every year at our house as our boys got married and other families and in-laws entered the mix.  Well, this year was "our" year when we would normally have our three boys, our three daughters-in-law, and our six grandchildren at our house for the holiday weekend.  We did not want to give that up just because we were traveling on the boat, so we left our boat in Stuart, FL went home to Gloucester, VA.  We had planned to do this since our travels began, so since we were going to be off of the boat for 10 days or so we also had some routine maintenance and some repairs scheduled to be done on the boat by the PDQ expert, James Power, who was also in Stuart during this time.  Being the former Commissioning and Warranty Manager at PDQ when they were in business, there is nobody who knows these boats better than James.

PDQ Owners Rendezvous

One of the reasons we stopped in Stuart was the planned PDQ Owner's Rendezvous planned for December 5th.  After getting back from Thanksgiving, we attended the rendezvous at Stuart Yacht Harbor.  This was a great day of meeting other PDQ owners, exchanging stories and experiences, and attending some very helpful seminars specific to the PDQs.  We had a very nice owner's docktail party and dinner afterward.

While the men sat through seminars on 12 volt systems and diesel maintenance, the women went on a PDQ MV34 like ours to learn some tips from each other about interior storage and maintenance.  I've always wondered how many people could fit in a PDQ MV34 salon, I think the picture below may help to answer that question.

After the rendezvous, Sharon received her boat handling class from our broker, Beth.  Beth had promised Sharon this class when we purchased the boat so she could learn boat operation from another woman rather than from her husband.  It's much better that way!  Since we were in Stuart where Beth is located, this was the perfect opportunity.  After the boat handling class, Sharon and Beth moved the boat from the Loggerhead Marina where we had been staying to the office of Rhumbline Yacht Sales in Palm City up the St Lucie River from Stuart.  We were leaving the boat there for a few days so that James Power could get back on the boat and try to track down the source of a small diesel fuel leak we had discovered, so moving the boat there gave Sharon some further boat handling experience.