Day 175 – 185
Thursday morning, 3/4/21, dawned cool and clear with bright sunshine and NO ROCKING IN OUR SLIP! SO novel and enjoyable. Perfect weather for cleaning Legacy – inside and out. Steve washed the outside while I vacuumed and then wet-cleaned the boat carpets. It’s good to have a dry day with very low humidity when cleaning the carpets, so I can open the boat completely up and run fans all afternoon to help speed up the drying process. We enjoyed brunch at the Nautidawg Café, Lighthouse Point Marina’s onsite restaurant. We sat outside on the back balcony to enjoy our meal and check-out our completely new surroundings. After breakfast we walked the docks at the marina and explored adjacent properties – one of which is a condo complex called Tillotson Square. The buildings were all painted in coordinating pastel colors that practically shouted the word, “Beach!” I found one of the condos for sale online and was not shocked to see it listed for more than $1 million. Still in the land of Location, Location, Location!
Lighthouse Point Marina did not offer a courtesy vehicle (as we’re finding to be the norm in Florida, unfortunately), but there is a community shuttle that runs throughout the day. One of its stops is right in front of Tillotson Square, in fact. Or, we could also Uber or Lyft, although the rides were more scarce in this area, which meant the wait for them was longer and their prices were higher. Which is why we were so lucky to have the Rochats available to haul us around.
On Thursday afternoon, we were sitting around admiring our now cleaner boat, when I got a text from Anna that she and Phillip and Maggie were out in their dinghy that afternoon and were soon to cruise right through our marina and by our boat. We were out on our bow when they arrived and I got to see Maggie in person for the first time. She was so pretty and proudly standing at the front of the dinghy like she was posing on the bow of the Titanic, with the wind rippling through her fur. Luckily, the Rochats’ dinghy has plenty of room, so at their invitation, Steve and I climbed into their dinghy with them to ride back to their house, via the canals. With Maggie as his very close first-mate, Phillip drove us around what seemed like 15 different corners and turns before we finally reached their dock behind their house, where their beautiful, new-to-them 54-foot Offshore trawler is tied! This time we got to see it up close, rather than off in the distance like we’d seen it a few weeks earlier off the coast of Marathon Key. We all managed to safely climb up onto their dock (myself included, amazingly), and then Phillip hoisted Maggie up before he left the dinghy. I could tell Maggie wasn’t real excited about that 5-foot hoist over water, but she handled it well. Maggie is just 6 months old, though, and soon she is going to be too big to be lifted up like that, so not sure how they’re going to manage in the future. They do have a hydraulic lift at their dock, which raises the dinghy up out of the water until its level with the dock, so maybe they can teach Maggie to ride up with the dinghy on the lift(?) Phillip and Anna have a beautiful home right on the water with their own, private sea wall and dock, which is perfect for their gorgeous new boat. Between the house and the canal is a lovely pool with surrounding patio and landscaping. Palm trees and potted tropicals abound in their backyard paradise. When they originally purchased this house, they updated and remodeled it, removing walls to make it open-concept. Steve and I received a tour of the house from Anna and Maggie, then we all went out for Phillip to give us a tour of the new boat. Oh my, is it nice! Anna served us some evening cocktails to watch the sunset, then Phillip chauffeured us back to our marina for the night.
Steve had called the manufacturer of Village Marine Water Makers, which is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, and scheduled a technician to come to our boat once we arrived to see if he could repair the water maker, which hasn’t worked correctly for months. Luckily for us, the tech was able to repair it quickly and inexpensively on Friday morning, 03/05/21. Hooray, we now have a working water-maker! Later that morning, Anna drove over and whisked us away to their house for a fun afternoon ride on their new boat. We spent several hours with Steve and Phillip up at the helm, while Anna and I lounged out on the sundeck, talking, viewing all the beautiful homes on the ICW, and enjoying some wine. I truly felt like I was hobnobbing with the rich and famous that day. The weather was fantastic, the breeze perfect, and company outstanding. Maggie didn’t ride on the boat with us that day, as (like I stated earlier) she is 6 months old and still pretty much a wild-child. It is the Rochats’ intent to eventually familiarize her with the boat and turn her into a cruising dog, so she can accompany them on trips. When we returned to their dock and got the boat tied back up, Anna and Phillip proceeded to grill us filets for dinner. Before dinner, I attempted to get a backyard selfie with Maggie, which was haphazard at best. Even though Maggie wasn’t at all interested in posing (only jumping up and licking me in the face), I just clicked and clicked my camera, hoping to get at least one decent shot. Because I was squatting down to Maggie’s level, it was no time before she knocked me over onto the patio and started trying to wrestle me around! Phillip saved me by calling Maggie off before she sent me straight into the pool. (NOTE TO SELF: A person with no sense of balance should NOT squat down beside a 6-month-old Golden Retriever puppy. Especially right next to a swimming pool!) 😐
We ate a delicious dinner out on the patio in that perfect weather and watched Maggie run all around the backyard, trying to eat anything and everything she could fit into her mouth – even rocks! She is puppy, through and through. As our evening wore on, Anna decided we needed some after-dinner drinks and proceeded to utilize us to help her clean out their liquor cabinet of almost empty liquor bottles. We enjoyed Kahlua, which I’ve not had in ages, but LOVE, as well as a peanut-butter flavored whiskey that Steve liked so much he took a picture of the bottle so he could buy it for himself later. We had several other sipping liquors, but for some reason I can’t recall their names – LOL!
The next morning dawned cooler and cloudy. Within several hours, Legacy was deluged in her slip by a flood accompanied by lots of lightning and thunder. Fortunately there was little wind, so we weren’t bounced around heavily. This was the first real rain we’d seen since arriving in south Florida. We ventured out during a calm spell to walk over for lunch at Nautidawg.
The following day was a true Chamber-of-Commerce day, with bright sunshine, a light breeze, and humidity-free air, following the rains of the day before. The weather was so stellar, it begged for a field-trip, so I got online to search for things to do in the area. Being all about plants, I soon found Deerfield Arboretum at Constitution Park over in adjacent Deerfield, FL. Score! 😊 Steve is not a lover of plants… more like a “tolerator” of plants, since he’s married to me, but is never anywhere near as excited about them as I am. When I told him about the arboretum, he looked it up on Google Maps and found a lackluster description, which he read out loud to me. “A quiet backdrop for unusual trees.” Any arboretum is SO much more than this, but it seemed to fit Steve’s view of plant-life just perfectly. Just cracked me up! Nevertheless, he treated me by agreeing to Uber over there with me for the afternoon, so I could get a huge plant fix. The Deerfield Arboretum is located in the rear of Constitution Park and calls itself a “tree zoo”, with nine acres of approximately 200 different trees from five different continents. While I walked slowly around the park, oohing and ahhing and taking scads of pictures, Steve walked around looking at his phone. At least he was physically with me, if not there in spirit. The only drawback I saw to this park was that half of the ID plates, so securely mounted in front of each plant specimen, were so badly faded it was impossible to read the information printed on them. Nothing frustrates me more than coming across a spectacular new plant and then not knowing its identity! ☹ I noticed several signs indicating the park was largely maintained by area volunteers and loudly exclaimed that if I lived in that area (which means I would of course volunteer at the arboretum), my first project would be to replace all the missing ID plaques. There were others at the park – some couples with dogs, grandparents with grandchildren, and others simply enjoying lunch in that idyllic setting. We stayed for about two hours until I decided I was pushing the envelope with Steve, and then called an Uber back to our marina, where later that evening the Rochats drove over to have dinner with us at the Nautidawg. We came back to Legacy for after dinner conversation and laughter.
On Monday morning, 3/8/21, we decided to be more independent and do some shopping via the Lighthouse Point Community Shuttle. We had obtained one of their rather vague route maps and found where we thought the Tillotson Square stop was. The shuttle was scheduled to stop there at 11:14 am (not 11;15, but 11:14), so we arrived in plenty of time to await its arrival. The map did not pinpoint an exact spot and we could not find any kind of sign to confirm we were even standing in the right place. After waiting about 10 minutes, we spotted the shuttle bus up ahead, coming in our direction. I waved at it as – instead of stopping for us – it zoomed right past us down the street, then made a hard left into oblivion. We walked down to where it had turned to see if maybe it had stopped on that road, but the shuttle was nowhere in sight. It was then that Steve happened to see the very small and insignificant Bus Stop sign out on the road – PAST Tillotson Square. Obviously, if the shuttle driver sees no one at the stop, he doesn’t even slow down – just flies right on by without noticing the nautically-dressed woman standing nearby frantically trying to flag him down. UGH! The next shuttle wasn’t due for another hour, so we called an Uber instead. (Have I mentioned how much I dislike being without my own vehicle?)
When we arrived at our shopping center, we immediately walked over to the Red Fox Diner for a meat-and-three meal that hit the spot. After lunch, Steve went his way and I went mine, of course winding up at a TJ MAXX store! Steve said to shop to my heart’s delight, and he would meet me later at the nearby Bonefish Mac’s Sports Grille afterward for an afternoon beverage. Once I’d finished shopping, but before I could finish my walk to Bonefish Mac’s, the wind picked-up, the skies darkened, and it began to rain on me. Lovely. Fortunately, I did not melt, found Steve at the bar (really?), and enjoyed a nice gin and tonic. And, get this – we WERE able to catch the Lighthouse Point Community shuttle back to our marina afterward!
We returned to the boat that afternoon to finally tackle an un-fun job we’d discovered that morning, but had of course put off cleaning it up. Somehow a pancake syrup bottle with a loosened cap had fallen onto its side in the flybridge refrigerator/freezer upstairs, coating its entire bottom, and every item between it and the leaking bottle. JOY. Many rags and Windex squirts later, followed by a complete hose out, then drying each item before putting it back into the refrigerator, we were done. Oh, the pleasures of boat life.
Even though Phillip is less than 10 months from retirement (yes, he watches a countdown clock), he’s still working at his job as a pilot for FedEx, which meant he reported back to work on Monday evening. On Tuesday morning, 03/09/21, Anna (my private chauffeur) picked me up for a ‘girls’ day out’ of shopping and merriment. We went to Home Goods (where I found some better, acrylic cocktail glasses for Legacy, as well as a woven, fabric floor basket into which we throw our shoes when boarding the boat), then TJ MAXX (a different one from where I’d last been), and then one of Anna’s favorite restaurants, The Fish Shack, for lunch. I had followed the hostess all the way back to our table before I realized Anna was not behind me – she was talking with someone in the front of the restaurant. When I went to see who it was, it was Steve, having lunch at The Fish Shack’s bar! What are the chances, right? But it does show how unobservant I am, as I walked right past him, so that Anna was the one to spot him! Steve carried his food down to join us at our booth. He said it was a good thing he wasn’t messing around with someone, or he would’ve been caught! But only by Anna – I would’ve walked right past my husband carrying on a torrid tryst right in front of me! After lunch we went to Michael’s so I could buy some more yarn to feed my new crocheting for charity addiction, and then to Parfait Nails where we each got a nice pedicure. (We’d dropped Steve back at the marina when we finished at the restaurant.) It was some much-needed girl-time, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you, Anna!
On Wednesday, 03/10/21, the dock master at Lighthouse Point Marina asked us to relocate Legacy from our slip, N4, down to slip N9. We had no problem accommodating this request, IF ONLY there weren’t gale-force winds blowing at that very time! Still, we had to do what we had to do, since the previous boat that had been in N4 was supposedly returning and needed his slip back. The dock master sent a line-handler down to help us with our move, and Steve did an excellent job, despite the strong, wind-driven current he had to fight. Everything went refreshingly smoothly, until Steve noticed that the protective top cap for our stern-thruster was missing, and he was sure it had been there when we left slip N4. ☹ There was a dive-service at our marina that day, so we asked a diver to go down to see if he could locate the top cap on the bottom and to also clean Legacy’s bottom, as it was time. (In saltwater, the bottom must be cleaned more often than in fresh, because of the constant encrustation of barnacles and other sea growth.) Unfortunately, the diver did not find the missing top cap, so Steve had to order a new one online to be shipped to our next stop, Cocoa Village Marina. (Steve should be able to snap the new cover in place by himself.) We have no idea what knocked the top cap off in the first place, but we’re on a BOAT, and have learned that anything is possible, whether it’s logical or not.
That evening, Anna drove over to the marina, where the three of us boarded the touristy ferry that carried us a short distance across the water to Cap’s Place Island Restaurant for drinks and dinner. Recognized as a national landmark, Cap’s is Broward County, Florida’s, oldest restaurant. With roots as a 1920s casino and rum-running speakeasy, it sits on an island right off Lighthouse Point, FL, and can only be reached by Cap’s motor launch. I took pictures of the old Florida-style atmosphere in the bar and restaurant, then Anna and I both ordered Cap’s famous Hearts of Palm Salad, which was absolutely delicious, even though I did feel guilty eating it, since an entire palm tree must be killed in order to harvest its heart. ☹ (I decided one time wasn’t so horrible – I just wouldn’t make a habit of ordering Hearts of Palm in the future.)
The following day was another fun shopping one for me, with Anna. This time we hit Ross, Marshall’s, and a HUGE Tuesday Morning. I somehow refrained from making any purchases this time, but the hunt was very fun, regardless.
We had originally planned to leave Lighthouse Point Marina on Friday, 03/12/21, but another strong blow changed our plans. Even though we are traveling on the ICW (and not out in the Atlantic Ocean), high winds are still a factor in that it can cause problems as we’re trying to “thread the needle” going through multiple, narrow bridge underpasses whose drawbridges are on strict schedules. Add in the very real chance of some bozo in a fast, center-cockpit boat who decides at the last minute he’s going to cut in front of us going under those bridges, and it’s no fun dealing with the added effects of brisk winds during those times! So, instead, Anna picked us up and took us to a highly-touted burger restaurant in the Wilton Manners area. Anna had heard good things about Burgers and Beers, and it turns out those good things were well-founded, as we all very much enjoyed our meals there. After lunch we ran some errands, one of which gave me the opportunity to stop at the largest TJ MAXX in the area, where I scored another top!
On Saturday, 03/13/21, Steve and I ate brunch again at the Nautidawg Café, this time seated next to a table with two men and a cockatoo named Emma! Emma sat on her owner’s shoulder and serenaded all of us. One of the songs she knew very well (and even danced to) was the theme from the show, Cops, “Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad Boys, Bad Boys.” That was the cutest thing we’d seen in awhile and cracked up all surrounding restaurant patrons. I even took a picture and posted it on Facebook, captioning it with “Where else but south Florida…” As the two gentlemen waited for their meals, Emma’s owner gave her a drink out of the table’s creamer, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Who knew? Birds like cream! Ever so stealthily, Emma climbed off of her owner’s shoulder and onto the back of the booth they were sitting in. Then, when a young woman and her daughter came in to take the booth directly behind Emma, she promptly jumped down onto their table, walked right over to the young woman and perched herself right on the woman’s forearm! Emma’s owner asked the woman and her daughter if they were okay with that, to which they readily responded they were. Emma entertained these two ladies with multiple renditions of Bad Boys, and also told them her name was Emma about 50 times. I was enamored the entire time, as were the woman and girl. Eventually, Emma hopped up on the woman’s shoulder, and then onto the back of her booth, which faced the front door of the restaurant, where Emma boisterously greeted every new arriving guest. When the woman and young girl’s meals arrived, Emma’s owner came and got her and placed her back on his own shoulder, where she stayed.
That same evening, Anna picked us up and drove us to a brewery called Dangerous Minds for beer and pizza, and also to enjoy some live music by a band called North End Rockers. The evening weather was incredible, with only a slight breeze blowing through the patio where we sat. We ordered a large mushroom pizza for the three of us to split, but when the pizza arrived, it wasn’t much larger than a personal-sized pizza?! We soon learned the brewery only serves one size of pizza, our waiter just failed to mention that when we placed our order. So, we promptly ordered a second tiny pizza to go with the first one, which was the exact right amount. The pizza was tasty, but the band was not that great. In fact, at one point, Anna described them as sounding like karaoke! 😊
The plan for Monday, 03/14/21, had been to drive to the beach with Anna and Maggie, but I woke up feeling sub-par, so I stayed in bed for most of the day, while Steve planned our upcoming cruising routes up the east coast. You might’ve noticed I’m overdue for my monthly urgent care visit, but I’m trying to spread those out a bit. The next morning I felt better, so I hoped I’d dodged a bullet.
Position: N 26° 16.047, W 80° 05.070
Total marina nights: 163
Total nights at anchor: 21
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27