WE ARE HOME

We boated through the keys today.  Once again dodging crab pots and some very shallow waters.   Then we arrived at Marlin Bay Resort in Marathon.   It’s a small resort with a marina, and oh so beautiful.   We got settled into our slip and went for a walk to a local coffee shop for some Lattes.    After a cocktail by the pool, we relaxed and are having dinner on the boat with a beautiful view of the ocean.   This is a very different way to spend the holidays.    🎄

We travelled from big cities to a small rural area yesterday.   We left Fort Lauderdale and travelled on the Atlantic Ocean to Miami.   Passing by Fisher Island and Biscayne Bay.   Then on to rural Key Largo.  
We woke up to colder weather this morning.    Time for Jeans and a sweater!
Tomorrow we leave for Marlin Bay Resort in Marathon.  We will spend Christmas there. 🎄🧑‍🎄

It was a beautiful but slow boat ride from Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale.   We took the Intercoastal Waterway which has a lot of no wake slow zones and a number of low bridges where we had to wait for an opening.  
We are now the “baby” boat at the marina.  Most boats at this marina are very large yachts.  We took a walk into town to get oriented to our location.   We have been here before so we are familiar with the surrounding area.
The seas to the Bahamas are not calm and the prevailing winds are from the North.   This causes the Gulf Stream to be very difficult to cross.   With the holidays near, the marinas are getting busy so we needed to make the decision not to go to the Bahamas.  Now we will book some marinas in the Florida Keys.  We have Marlin Bay Marina in Marathon booked for Christmas.   We are still working on where we will be for the next few days.   These are the adventures of boating!   
The not so nice adventures of boating - a boat tried to dock next to us and hit our boat.  Graham was on the bow and was able to push him off to prevent more serious damage but we still got gouged.   ☹️.
It was a warm day in Fort Lauderdale tokay.   We tested the ocean water and it was surprisingly warm.  Tomorrow we head further south to Key Largo.

This is our last full day in West Palm Beach.   We had drinks at Spruzzo’s on the 18th floor of the Ben Hotel.  Great views of our marina. Then out for dinner at Elisabetta’s.   A beautiful Italian restaurant close by.  

The winds are still really high.   It’s not looking good for the Bahamas run.  
We leave tomorrow for Fort Lauderdale. 

We are enjoying beautiful Palm Beach.   We walked over to the Palm Beach island.  It’s one of our favourite places.  It is so beautifully maintained.  And the colour of the ocean here is breathtaking.  It is still very windy here.   We are watching the weather and we don’t see a weather window to scoot over to the Bahamas.  We may have to change course and head to the keys.  

We had a great day of boating to West Palm Beach today.  We are staying at the Palm Harbor Marina.  It’s located next to the bridge to the Palm Beach Islands and downtown.   Palm Beach is decorated for Christmas and there is lots of activity here. We had a fun day walking to all the cool places nearby. 

We're rocking and rolling in Stuart.  The winds are high and the rain has started.  We are loving Happy Ours IV - nestled cosy inside until later today.   It rained on and off all day.   We walked into town to a great bagel shop.   The tree lighting happened tonight in between some heavy down pours of rain.   We are leaving here tomorrow and go to BEAUTIFUL West Palm Beach.

It’s Friday and we are still at the Sunset Marina in Stuart.   We explored the town and Jensen beach today.  We are going to a Tree Lighting at the Marina.   I will add some photos later.

We had an easy crossing over Okeechobee Lake.  The waters were a bit choppy entering this lock.   We went through an  total of five locks.   Raising us a total of 18 feet, then lowered us a total of 18 feet.   We arrived at Sunset Marina in Stuart, Fl  This is a large marina with a large variety of boats.

The winds are high for the next couple of days.   We will explore this area for the next few days.

After going through the locks, our first stop along the Okeechobee Waterway is Moore Haven.   A small town in the middle of the state with not much around.   We made dinner on the boat and enjoyed a warm, quiet evening on the river.

We met up with a good friend in Fort Myers.  Bob took us on a tour of the area as well as Sanibel and Captiva.   All of these areas have been hit hard by the hurricanes and are in recovery mode.

None the less, people are positive and happy.

After two nights in Fort Myers, we throw the lines and are off to the Okeechobee Waterway.  Based on the wind forecast for the next few days we opted to take the Okeechobee route instead of Key West/Miami.   This is our optimal route.   

Happy Our IV is loaded and ready for our adventure.   On Day 1 we travelled around Anna Maria Island and headed south on the Gulf of Mexico.   The weather was perfect.   The waters were a little choppy at first and after dodging many Crab Pots, we stopped to enjoy the scenery and have lunch on the Gulf.  Onward we went and popped into our first port at Fort Myers.