fort lauderdale to indiantown

at least it isn't snowing. dave and the gang in p.g. hav reported two feet then another foot of snow this past few days. here in hollywood it's been rainy but warm. yesterday was a shopping day. of course there was a pile-up on 95 south and we had to get off amidst a mess of angry, impatient nobodies going nowhere. some americans don't cue well. off the freeway and into the second coming of noah's flood. at times it seemed we should be driving the jeep rather than the little corolla. our good old gps put us right in front of the west marine in hollywood where we didn't find any man overboard flags but did get a spot and renewed our towboat u.s. the gps must have been confused by the rain because the wal-mart we requested ended up being in the parking lot of a luxury hotel near the beach....?????
so, it was 'home' to the st. maurice and a quiet evening of the worst noisy jazz group assailing a warm on-shore breeze. the next door neighbors dog must have been really frightened by the din because he was up all night complaining in an agravating yappy little voice.
so, it's mid-morning and my poor polly is finally asleep. we may drive to indiantown this p.m. but that's yet to be decided....billie dancer isn't going anywhere without us.

we're most excited and almost ready. the forecast is for sun in ft. lauderdale. i had dreams last night about broken sailboats.............
the picture i posted today was taken at elliot key. the area was a weekend party destination for folks from southern florida but we were there during the week so we had the place much to ourselves. billie found a little plastic figurine of buzz light year in a couple of feet of gin water, we mounted him right out on the end of the bowsprit. anyway, the picture was taken from our dingy. it's one of my favorites and in many ways demonstrates one of the best parts of cruising.
stay tuned.

january 16, 2011
we're off to florida on tuesday. we're sad to leave the kids and grands but not sad to leave the winter. we've booked into the st. maurice inn in fort lauderdale for a few days to walk the beach and catch our breath. billie dancer will be moved to the maintainance area on friday, january 21. new bottom paint for her. we've forgotten much. i'm looking forward to looking up and checking what kind of palm tree i'm resting against.
i'm not sure how to get the dingy back up on its davits. last year there was a fifteen foot long alligator who hung around the marina so i won't be getting into the water any too soon.
all the gang, sans mike, was over last night for a last evening together. ian was in form so everyone had exhausted head muscles by evening's end.

Key West

key west and how did we end up here. we arrived at ft. lauderdale international stepped out of the terminal and began to perspire :> our first call was to the broker who was going to show us the bayfield 32 which turned out to be a good boat if you were a munchkin. moving on, we called jaye melanson who sent us down to key west to look at an island packet 31... it's a long monotonous drive through the keys...long...monotonous....long......mono........ we took a look at the boat and it made my insides tingle. thane gilliam was home and he showed us around. being responsible shoppers we drove back to ft. laughterdale and took our turn at the old buy a time share grilling. we did the cruise to nassau. no comment. except.... alex the salesman told us about hollywood, fl. it's and anachronism in today's world of build a big resort on every squared inch of beach to can buy. we parked near the 'broadwalk' and paula found wade, a charming, chubby, tourettes patient, gay guy who directed us to the st. maurice guest house. it was a throw back, a remnant of a gentler, easier time when little one story motels sat at the edges of wide stretches of coral sand. the guests were a delightful, for the most part, gang of charming drunken jockies, ex nhl players and an pair of midnight mad women who would keep us up with their drunken fowl language, threats and smashing of windows. the tatoo girlfriend beater told paula her was sorry if his workouts frightened her. he said his workouts sometimes scared people. paula told him she had seen workouts before. he received his remittance cheque from his mother the morning we moved to key west. more of key west later.

the search for a sailboat began at about $20,000. boats of that ilk usual float but little else. $25,000 boats are a little better but are usually covered in bird poop. $30,000 boats are a little better still but most of the work done to them is at best shoddy. $35,000 boats look great from the dock but as soon as you board them you notice that the new paint runs all over everything and the joinery is held together with rusty nails and duck tape. now, $40,000 boats are okay but one wonders why the new chain plates are crushing the wood on the bulkhead and why there is so much new paneling on that same bulkhead....... $45,000 will buy you a decent boat but we didn't want a 37' boat. so, we go right by $50,000 to the $54,000 boats. now we're talking. a nice little 31 tartan. sweet boat, lots of room, nice woodwork, lots of sails and stuff.....but wait a minute, why does that deck have a fold in it and why won't that door close and why is there a lake of oil under that new engine...........

so, alpha and omega, it was back to the island packet that was the first boat jaye sent us to and the only boat to really tickle my fancy...... we now own her. we're just waiting for thane and tami to move to their new home. (google saltysailor.com or heart of gold island packet 31 for some history on our boat. they did a great job on their website.

whoa, whoa
for those not in the know
paula is billie
and jack is me
so don't be confused
by the things that your read

billie at the tiller

i think it started when i was taking an environmental course in vancouver sometime in the late 80's. the class went out on a fifty foot ketch and i said to myself, "paula would love this." well it only took twenty years but when she took the tiller on that little mcgregor on west lake it was clear that i had been right. not that being right is what it's all about. that was in sept. 2008. we spent the next ten months studying, researching, web searching, talking and dreaming. this summer past we took a five day cruise and learn course from cooper's yachting in vancouver. billie went despite a broken foot and scored ninety percent on the written portion of the test.