Our Second and Third Days in Delray Beach

December 12-13, 2015


For our second day at Delray Beach, we decided to check out the Cabana Club portion of The Colony Hotel and Cabana Club.  The hotel owns a portion of the beach where they set up cabanas for the hotel guests.  There is a restaurant on site as well as bath houses and a swimming pool.  Dogs are welcome, so Jake and Kimi got to spend some time at the beach and relax in a cabana.  Sharon and I spend some time in the cabana as well.

For lunch, we ate at the on-site restaurant overlooking the ocean.  The waiter even brought a water dish for Jake and Kimi!

After a very nice day at the beach, we had dinner at an English/Scottish themed pub downtown.  They had several hand-drawn ales on tap as well as a number of authentic English and Scottish dishes.  The front of the Blue Anchor is actually from a pub by the same name in England.  After being in business in London for over 150 years, the pub was shut down and the entire facade was disassembled and shipped to Delray Beach and reassembled.

That evening we visited the 100 foot Christmas Tree and walked the beautifully decorated streets.  I'm not sure why, but there was a bar across from the park where the tree was that had a banner saying we were in Ravens Country.  It caught my eye since I'm from Baltimore and the Ravens are my team.

Later that night the city was still celebrating our arrival and threw us a parade.  Santa even stopped by to say hello.

On our last day we went back to the Cabana Club for a couple of hours and then we headed back to Stuart.

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.

1000 Miles on Our Boat - Stuart, FL - Day 66

Day 66
11/18/15

I just realized as we pulled into Stuart, FL today that we have now logged over 1000 miles on this trip on our boat.  We exited the ICW into the St. Lucie River at mile 987.8 on the ICW.  ICW mile zero is in Norfolk and from our marina in Hampton, VA to mile marker zero is 15 miles, so as we exited the ICW we already had our 1000th mile logged.  Add another 12 miles up the St. Lucie River to our marina here and we now have logged 1015 miles on our trip, not counting a couple of accidental detours.

We will be here in Stuart for a few days before we fly home for Thanksgiving.  We will spend it finding a good kennel for Jake and Kimi while we are gone, meeting a group of boaters for lunch, and setting up some maintenance work to be done on the boat while we are gone.  I don't plan on making any more blog posts until we get back, so have a good Thanksgiving!

Vero Beach, FL - Day 52 through 57

Day 52-57

11/12/15 through 11/17/15

On the way from Cocoa, FL to our next stop in Vero Beach we had some excitement.  We were pulled over and boarded by two Florida Fish and Wildlife officers.  They pulled alongside and told us to keep moving at slow speed, and then one officer boarded while the other one followed in their boat.  He checked the usual things like registration, life jackets, fire extinguishers, etc.  Then he asked to see the head.  He put some type of dye in the head and had me flush it three times.  I suppose if the head were flushing directly into the water instead of the holding tank the dye would have come out in the water and be observed by the officer following in the boat.  Everything was OK, so they went on their way.  

About a half hour later Sharon went down from the flybridge and then came back reporting that the bathroom was flooded.  I went down and found that apparently the solenoid that allows fresh water into the bowl when the head is flushed got stuck in the open position allowing many gallons of water to drain from our fresh water tank into the head, then overflowing onto the floor.  Under the floor is a compartment where the shower drain pump and a couple of valves are located.  It was full of water right up to the floor boards.  After we got into the marina at Vero Beach I bailed it out using a manual bilge pump and a bucket, emptying about 40 gallons of water before it was all gone.  Someone had just told me a few days before that cruising on a boat meant doing repairs in exotic places, so I'm starting to get the picture.  I do have a spare solenoid, but the existing one seems to be functioning now, so we'll just watch it closely.

Once we got situated in the marina we checked out the free bus service that picks up right at the marina and makes a loop around the island (Vero Beach is on a barrier island) and the beach, and also goes to the mainland for grocery stores, and just about other type of store you may need.  We took the bus to a nice beachfront restaurant where we had Sharon's birthday dinner just a few feet from the 80-degree ocean.

There is a Catholic church about a 20-minute walk from the marina.  We checked on Mass time for Saturday evening and found that they had a 4:00 pm and a 5:30 pm Mass.  We were told that they get so busy during the winter time that they have to add Masses to accommodate the visitors.  The priest who said our Mass was almost as fast as Fr. Bruse in Madison, VA, having us out in less than 45 minutes.  The church had just opened their store in the parish hall selling Christmas items, so Sharon stocked us up with holiday items that we will not be able to bring from home for the Christmas season.

One day we just spent on the beach, sunning and enjoying the water.  That day (November 16th) the surf temperature was 82 degrees!

Right next door to the marina is a very large dog park.  We took Jake and Kimi there almost every day for some rare off leash time.  On Sunday, they had an event at the dog park call Bark and Brew.  There were vendors, including a beer stand, and some games and other events for the dogs to enjoy.  There was a lure coursing area set up and as soon as Jake and Kimi saw the equipment they knew what it was and that was all they wanted to do.  They both love lure coursing and have each previously earned their AKC Coursing Ability titles.  They both got to lure course four or five times, making multiple circuits of the course each time.  We would try to give them a rest after each run, but they would keep dragging us back to that area so they could run again. They were a couple of tired dogs that night!

Vero Beach was a very nice stop.  With the nice winter climate, the beautiful beaches, the dog park, and free bus transportation I can see why this city has been nicknamed "Velcro Beach".  People come here and they don't want to leave!

Cocoa, FL - Day 51

Day 51
11/11/15

The passage to our next free dock stop was uneventful.  We saw many dolphins along the way, and went through several manatee zones, but we saw no manatees.  We could see the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral for many miles while we seemed to be making a huge semi-circle around it.  This is the building where rockets and space shuttles are assembled prior to being moved to their launching pads and is one of the largest buildings in the world.  We could also see a space shuttle on a launching pad across the water, but it was too far away to get a good picture.

We reached the free dock in Cocoa, FL while sweltering in the record breaking heat.  Many boats were anchored out, but no other boats were tied up at the dock.  We walked into the nearby town shopping area and ran into someone we had met at St. Augustine.  It's funny how we keep running into the same people in our travels.

After suffering through another hot and humid night of record breaking Florida heat and humidity without power and worrying about the homeless people we had seen around the park, we decided that free docks are just not worth it.  We'll be staying at marinas from now on barring any really unusual circumstances.

New Smyrna, FL. Manatees! - Day 50

Day 50
11/10/15

We left St. Augustine after a nice week there.  Jake and Kimi were as ready to travel as they ever are.  Kimi gets so anxious due to the unpredictable motion of the boat that we have to medicate her to keep her from driving Sharon crazy on each trip.  Usually, she will relax then and keep a sharp lookout for dolphins and dogs on other boats.

We were in the southbound sailboat brigade most of the day, and when we weren't going slow for sailboats we were going slow in manatee zones.  You know you're in manatee country when you have to go slow and they paint the bridge pilings with pictures of manatees.

 We finally arrived at the free New Smyrna Beach Courtesy dock where there were two boats already docked, and two more joined us later.  The docks were a little tricky to tie to since they were built in a curve.  It took some creative fender and line work to get us tied alongside in a way that the boat was secure and protected and at the same time we could get on and off.  As soon as we docked someone walking in the park there told us he had been watching a manatee and pointed out where.  We walked there and sure enough, there was the first manatee either of us had seen in the wild!  Several times that evening one or two would surface near our boat, but before I could get the camera out to take a picture they would be gone, not to resurface anytime soon.

Temperatures had somewhat moderated today so the stay without shore power and air conditioning was not too terrible, but it was still very muggy.  We're starting to rethink this free dock idea.