Two Pots of Gold?

At 7:30 this morning we had a very light sprinkle of rain here in Vero Beach, followed by an incredible rainbow. We could see the whole arch end to end. Unfortunately it was too big to get all of it in one shot but it was a lovely way to start our day!

Just another day at the beach

Yesterday was an absolutely perfect beach day so we went. You can get there by catching the free (my favorite word) bus at the marina, or walk to it in about 15 minutes like we did. These pictures were taken today. The waves yesterday were actually much bigger and the rip currents were pretty bad so we played it safe and didn't get into the water past our ankles. Took a nice walk along the beach and just sat back and enjoyed the sound of the crashing surf. What a treat!

Royal Poinciana Tree

This is just one of the prettiest trees you'll ever see! We saw this while walking to the beach yesterday and had to go back today with the camera. The homeowner, Dan, just happened to be outside and we chatted for a while. What a nice guy! This tree is about 50 years old. The Royal Poinciana tree is frequently seen in paintings done by the Florida Highwaymen, a group of black artists from the l950's who traveled around selling their paintings for next to nothing. They are known for their use of vivid colors. Today these paintings are famous. We went to a showing at the Backus Museum in Fort Pierce and saw some for sale for $500 or more.

Dolphin Orgy

We had about 10 Dolphin show up in front of the boat yesterday. After watching their antics for a few minutes we finally figured out what was going on. Several of them were mating. We have heard of this and have seen Manatees mating but this is the first time we have seen Dolphins mating. A little trivia: Dolphin and humans are the only two animals that have sex for fun! Enjoy the video!

Meet Bob

We meet a lot of people who travel with their pets on board. This weekend we met Bob, the Great Dane. I have no idea what his master's name is because as usual, I was only interested in the guy's dog. Bob is three years old, weighs in at 165 lbs and looks like a small horse. The guy on the boat has had eleven Great Danes. I just love the way he names them. This one is Bob, Bob's dad was named Mike, and Bob's grandfather's name was Arnie - what great dog names!

And if you think this guy's crazy to travel with one Great Dane, we met a couple last year that had three Great Danes cruising with them to the Bahamas. Hope none of them got seasick!

Fishing Dolphin (by Jim)

These two dolphin visit us almost every day between 5:15 and 5:30pm. They spend at least two hours chasing the mullet and getting dinner. These guys move so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up with them, this video is actually 4 video's edited and put together. Hope you like it!!

There goes the neighborhood!

Yep, that's the Sea Eagle tucked in behind that little 100' boat. Boat's name is "khakiblue". The captain is very nice. That's an 18ft dink up top and a 32' Boston Whaler alongside that it tows. It is a 100' Hatteras and is really a beautiful boat.

When we arrived here in Vero Beach the marina had to figure out how to get extra power to the dock because the big boat uses 200 amps (vs. our 50 amps) and they were using all the available power poles.

Wild Parrots

There are 358 species of parrots. These guys are Blue Crowned Conures. There are apparently tons of wild ones in the southern half of Florida, but this was the first time we've seen any. These two, along with several others just like them, are hanging out in the trees on the grounds of Vero Beach City Marina. They can make a racket, but what a treat!

A little side story - this particular species was featured in the 1998 film "Paulie", which was always my dad's nickname for me.

New Type of Warning Sign

At a glance this picture may not mean much but take a closer look. It's actually an old overturned boat in the north Lake Worth anchorage. Someone has "decorated" it with pink plastic lawn flamingos and a plastic Halloween pumpkin. We always appreciate someone making the effort to mark obstructions and just loved the sense of whimsy in this.

Look Who We Ran Into Today!

This is Tiger Woods yacht, "Privacy." It's 155 feet long and cost $20 million dollars!! We saw it leaving the North Palm Beach area and heading out to sea, but we don't know if it turned north or south. According to the news he's getting in some practice at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, right now, so it's probably just the captain and crew taking it up there. (Maybe Tiger should be taking some time on board to mentally regroup after missing the cut at Quail Hollow last week :)

On the move again

We are on the move again, headed south. We left Stuart this morning at about 11:30 am. We got a late start because we had both the tide and a 15 mph wind pinning us against the dock. By waiting until 10 am at least the tide changed. We had to have the Dock Master pull us off the dock with one of the Marina work boats, what a real pain that was. Then we had to go to the fuel dock, dock again and top off the fuel tanks. It took 250 gallons to get us back to our normal 800 gallons.

We left the fuel dock only to find that the bridge couldn't open because the rail road bridge right next to it was fixing to close. This caused another 30 minute wait before we could finally actually leave!

Paula took this picture of the Jupiter light house as we passed it. We are currently anchored at the north end of Lake Worth (North Palm Beach). We are planning on leaving early in the morning and head out of Lake Worth inlet then south towards Miami.

Jim, Paula and The Sea Eagle

It may sound strange, but many boaters will tell you that it's kind of rare to get pictures of you and your boat actually in the same shot. We had family visiting the other day and, naturally, we all started snapping pictures as they were leaving. So here we are, in living color!!

Of course, our little family album would not be complete without a picture (one of probably hundreds taken) of Blazer the Boat Kitty, seen here licking her chops as she helps her momma put away groceries .