2006.12.21 Lantana FL

I started the day by calling my grand daughter Kaitie bright and early to wish her a very happy birthday and am most pleased and embarrassed to report that I was indeed the first one to do so and for a very good reason… her birthday is on JANUARY 21!!! Another senior moment!

We are now docked in Lantana Florida … “I don’t even know where that is!!!” says my friend Cynthia… it’s just south of Palm Beach and we now truly feel we are South.
This “Loggerhead Club & Marina” is really a condo building with docks, not truly a marina. It had a very nice pool, billiard room, gym with all the machines you want (just like the ones I don’t use at The Fort) but no laundry room…what self respecting marina does not have a couple of Maytags!!!

We arrived yesterday after a fairly easy day from Lake Worth where we had anchored with a lot of other boats on their way to parts South … mostly the Bahamas.
It’s interesting to hear people talking on the VHF about “the crossing” waiting for a “window” to cross the Gulf Stream, there is this one chap Chris Parker …the weather guru and he tells you when to go and when to stay put!

Some of our friends and family think we are crazy doing what we are doing, well I can tell you we are in very good company… there are lots of us out here… and most of them are pretty terrific people.

The other evening in Daytona Beach, we were having sun downers on L’Equipe and the man on the boat just astern of us lit the barbecue…so we started joking with him …how it was going to smell so good etc… next thing he says to us “ come on over ,there’s enough food” ...THERE WERE 5 OF US… I did not want to go…feeling bad for his wife but he insisted…. Jacqueline brought some chicken to throw on the barbie and some wine they had steak, fries and salad and we had the most pleasant evening with this great couple, Chris and Meg from California.. they have a blog too!

We had a very productive day taking care of Soli…. She has been taking such good care of us she deserved some TLC…

D coded some markers on the chain rode with white paint so he would know how much he has let out when we anchor and I stenciled the registration number with black paint on the dinghy so she won’t be as likely to be pinched … some people even “distress” new dinghies and outboards so they won’t look to tempting!

We then gave her a good cleaning …D did the deck while I tackled the inside…. It’s incredible how dusty she gets… and we are on water… I am starting to believe Allan who tells me dust is mostly human skin ….
It was very pleasant however to be able to do this on a lovely sunny and windy day…. It has been quite windy for the last couple of days, some front coming in .
It’s 2130… it’s howling about 30 knots outside and I have just been told it is past our bed time so I’ll say g’nite and will go up to the office tomorrow where I can hopefully get on line and post this.