NEW ADDRESS FOR THE BLOG

Please use the following address for the continuation of the blog.

http://pdqvitabella2blogspotcom.blogspot.com/

Ross

Key Largo

I have tried to upload photos for 3 days and there remains a problem, sorry.

We left Miami, picked up some fuel and made our way south. We arrived in Key Largo and have decided that we will be staying here tonight and tomorrow night. I am in need of a rest and we have landed at a nice place.

I will attempt to get the photo issue resolved, as we have some really good shots of the Matt/Wayne duo ;-).

We will head North on Thursday and have Matt & Wayne in Ft. Lauderdale for their flight home on Saturday.

More later

Ross

with Joe, Matt & Wayne

Miami Vice

I am having troubles uploading photos. Hopefull this will be resolved soon, Sorry.

We are in Miami. We left Ft. Lauderdale and slippd by Port Everglades, where the boat will be put on the ship in early December. We pulled into the MiaMarina right next to the American Airlines Arena. This is a happening place. We had lunch and then jumped into a cab and went to the grocery store.

We are planning to head to Key Largo tomorrow. This will be fun, and there should Blue Water and good snorkeling.

We plan to eat ashore this evening and get a fairly early start. We will need to add fuel before we make the tranist to the Keys.

More later

Ross

with Joe, Matt & Wayne

South = Slow

We slipped the lines in West Palm Beach , at about 10:15 and we arrived in Ft Lauderdale at 4:45. We only made 40 statute miles!. It seems that on the weekends the speed limit on the ICW in Florida is NO WAKE, or Idle Speed. We had a great time last night in W Palm Beach. We found a great Fish restaurant. We enjoyed oyster shooters, shrimp in a garlic saute, as appetisers. Joe & I had Salads and Wayne & Matt had Jambalaya Pasta.



We tied up after the office to the marina closed for the day, so we are taking showers on the boat and will take a walk to hopefully find a restaurant for dinner. If we fail,m I have enough food for dinner on the boat.



We will check out the local marinas tomorrow as well as add provisions. We will then look at the charts to see where we will spend the balance of Matt & Wayne's time aboard. Joe will be with me until the boat goes aboard the ship on the 6th or 7th.



Aboard Vita Bella,



Ross

with Joe, Wayne & Matt

Nettles Island to West Palm Beach

I was up at 0445 and into the shower, I had a date with Joe, Wayne & Matt at the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport at 0710. We were northbound by 0745 and stopped at an IHOP for a little breakfast and continued North. We got to Nettles Island and were on the water headed South in less than 30 minutes. We stopped for fuel about 3 miles south of Nettles and we pumped out the holding tank. I wanted all the room I could get as I am sure there will be a bunch of stuff dealt this week that should be in the holding tank, but we won't go there. I am doing a little laundry, Joe, Wayne & Matt are stowing their belongings and when we are through, we will be heading out for dinner.



This is the 3rd crew change has happened and the Trip South continues.



More later



Ross

with Joe, Wayne & Matt

"Black Friday" stay out of the stores, OK!

Friday 11/23/07 4:41 pm EST Temp 80 degrees.

The winds last night were from the East, and this 11 ton boat bounced like a cork in a dishpan. I was grateful that the winds let up about 1am. I poured a diet Pepsi into a short glass and the Pepsi had whitecaps!

Since the boat survived the "storm" ;-) & as I was listening to the radio, there was great discussion of all of the sales going on at the local malls and speciality stores. I have been wanting to get a printer to leave on the boat, and I got my giddy-up on and drove to Best Buy. Well, it would have taken 45 minutes to see if there was a really cheap one available, so I drove to Wal-Mart. I was able to buy a Lexmark printer, with a scanner for $25.00. It works well and I am now able to copy, scan and print. I will store it in it's original box, as I am sure it would not be working in 30 miles if it were not really well secured. I even got a haircut. I now know why I pay Ralph $20. a $9.00 haircut is really scary!

I am looking forward to picking Joe, Wayne & Matt up at 0710 tomorrow morning ( ;-( . I am not sure why I volunteered to drive 2 hours ( that means I get up at 4:45 am ) to pick them up! I have planned a short day for t0morrow, 44 miles, but we will be in West Palm Beach with many great restaurants and some fun stuff close to the marina.

Once we are all awake, they are flying the red eye & I am getting up a zero dark thirty to shag them, we will have a planning session tomorrow night.

I am sure that the posts of the following week will be filled with pictures that we will all regret, stories that may or may not be true and lots of good fellowship.

BTW, I am sitting at almost 5pm watching the Texas/ Texas A&M football game on ESPN in Hi Def. Pretty cool!

There are 3 other PDQ 34's here at this funky marina. It's really been a good learning experience for me to be able to lean on the owners for information. I really want to thank Henry & Nancy Clews for all of their help.

The picture I am posting tonight was taken by Henry on Tuesday, just before Mike left.

More from down the ICW.

Ross, on a much calmer evening.

Happy Thanksgiving to all

Well so much for sleeping in, I decided that rather than sitting here at the dock all day, I would get up early and drive the 2.5 hours north to Disney World. I was off the boat and in the car by 0700 and arrived at the Parks at about 9:30. They have over 15,000 parking spaces and 26,000 acres within the 4 parks. The Magic Kingdom is much smaller than Disneyland, but Epcot is Very Large. I think that everyone in Northern Florida had the same thought, as the place was absolutely wall to wall people. The wait time for most of the rides was over 2 hours and at 10 am, the fast pass return time was after 6pm. It began to sprinkle at about 2pm so I started the return trip.

Mike Murphy called to tell me that when he got home he found that he did get a picture of one of the dolphins that played off our wake. I am sending it as well as several shots I took today at Disney World. If you look over Minnie's shoulder, you will see the turkey that the President pardoned. It will live at one of the Disney Parks. Lucky Bird!

More tomorrow

Ross

Bob leaves and the Bimini is on

It felt great not to be up before 6am, I actually stayed in my bed until 6:45! You see Bob had to get into his rental car and head to Orlando to fly home. The long days and extra fuel was all worth it when both Bob & Mike could make it home for Thanksgiving.

The project today was to get the bimini, outside window coverings, flybridge seats and the stern bench seat installed. We now have shade on the flybridge and the seating will be much more comfortable. I also made a trip to West Marine for the shurflo water pump and to the Win-Dixie store for some provisions. It was also time to do some laundry. We were very fortunate that the guys at the marina office have an in with Avis rental cars, Mike, Bob and I were all able to get a rental when the major car rental companies had no cars available. Mike flew out of Ft. Lauderdale and Bob out of Orlando, so they both needed a car.

Weather permitting, I will drive to Orlando tomorrow (Thanksgiving) and spend some time at Disney World. I have been to Disneyland many times, however I have never been to the Florida Cousin.

Have a great Thanksgiving, and remember you can always reach me at 650-465-1501.

Ross

We made it to Stuart, Florida

We left Daytona Beach at 0700 and this is the last morning that we will need to be up at 0545 and hit the road. Bob & Mike were champs for the early mornings and long days.

I want to thank all 4 of the guys that have been with me for a month getting Vita Bella home. Larry & John were real troopers, braving really cold mornings, delays and my getting familiar with the boat.

Bob & Mike were the guys that have kept me on track, and getting the boat to Florida.

We had a major problem with the pressure water pump today. I made calls and there is a replacement pump waiting for me at West Marine in Stuart, however there are 4 PDQ's here in the marina & Henry Clews on "Snow Dog" had a spare pump, and Bob is the hero by getting it installed and working. Yeah Bob! I will pick up the replacement tomorrow and get it to Henry.

Today we passed the Kennedy Space Center, and again it is Great to be an American!! We had lots of photo ops of the shy dolphins playing off the bow of the boat as we made our way South, but we were unable go get anything on film. we passed many Manatee Zones as well without seeing one.

Mike has left the boat and as we are rocking at the berth tonigth, I again want to thank Larry, John , Mike & Bob for their help in Bringing Vita Bella Home.

I look forward to having the odyssey continue with the arrival of Matt Martell, Joe & Wayne Weathers on Saturday. We are going to play between here and Key West.

More later

Ross

with Bob and the departed Mike

Daytona Florida, and it is heating up

For the first time we have the Air Conditioning on. What a change from the first couple of weeks of the trip. We left Jekyll Island at 0700 and had a reasonably easy day. Long stretches of straight going, no little twists and turns where one can get twisted around. We passed into Florida early in the day and the temperatures just kept going up. We actually moved to the fly bridge and stayed there until we pulled into Halifax Harbor Marina. We fueled the boat and while Mike & I ran to West Marine to pick up yet another Chart, Bob stayed with the boat. While he was chatting with the Harbormaster, he discovered that the fellow is the nephew of one of the agents that worked for Fox & Carskadon for years, Mike Alteri. This just proves that it's a small world, No Disney World pun intended!

Early in the day we passed a sailboat that was aground, and later we thought we had spotted another. To our amazement, the skippers mast was to tall to make it through the bridges. He rigged two very large bags that he filled with 1000 lbs of water in each bag. He then suspended the bags off the mast and healed the boat over allowing him to slide through the bridges. Pretty Cool.

We passed through St. Augustine and slid down the ICW with ease. The lighthouse is in St Augustine harbor, and while we did not see any manatees, we did have a dolphin playing between the hulls while we were doing about 16 knots.

Mike and Bob are on the flybridge enjoying the warm weather. We will be eating aboard and up early for the last time for a while.

Ross

with Mike & Bob

Bouncing Bob & the Internet

While Mike & I were checking our e-mails, Bob wanted to check his, like he gets lots of e-mails. He told me that he has someone in the office that does most of his internet stuff and when he wanted to in fact check his messages, he wanted to know where the www thing is.

God help us!

Elaine you are a princess!

Jekyll Island, Georgia

We booked it 9 hours today to reach Jekyll Island, Georgia! This was the playground of Rockefeller, Mogran, Vanderbildt, & Pulitzer. Quite a Place. We had to wait almost an hour to get fuel as we are on a major stop off to reach Florida.We have reservations in Daytona Beach tomorrow evening and then we should reach Stuart on Tuesday.

We spotted Dolphins today dancing off the bow of the boat, but we could not get a good photo. We passed Hilton Head, South Carolina and the Spanish Moss is beautiful hanging from the tree limbs. We are most certainly in the South! I also took another fun sunset pic. Hope you enjoy, and yes Ingrid, I did buy the boat ;-).

We had dinner ashore. We all had the Georgia Shrimp Boil dinner. It was really good, Shrimp, Sausage, and corn on the cob. Life in the South is fun.

More form Florida tomorrow.

Ross

with Mike & Bob

Beaufort, South Carolina

Today was a great day! We made 133 miles from Georgetown, SC to Beaufort. The best thing was that we were able to view Fort Sumter, the home of the Star Spangled Banner, in Charleston Bay. What a wonderful experience. Since I left Toronto, we have traveled by two of the three Military Schools, West Point and Annapolis, the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, and several other US Military Installations, and Ground Zero! It is great to be an American.

We had dolphins playing across the bow and unfortunately we were unable to get any photos. We were also plagued with a depth sounder problem, the darn thing didn't work for 20 minutes. We restarted the Chart Plotter several times and it kicked on. I called James Powers and he told me that in dirty water the transducer may not pick up the bottom. All is well as we progressed.

Bob & Mike have been great. I took over the helm for a while and ended up in a small channel, I will let Mike and Bob drive and I will sit and read the Waterway Guide, not really;-). I did back the boat into the marina this afternoon, down a 250' dock. Mike was great standing on the port stern steps telling me the distance between the dock and the boat. It would be really tough to do this alone or with one other person.

Bob's Sister, Linda and her husband Jim have joined us this evening on the boat. They recently bought a house in Ladson,SC. They drove an hour and a half to see us.

Tomorrow we will reach Jekyll Island Georgia, then on to Florida.

More later

Ross

with Bob,Mike and tonight Linda & Jim

Gerogetown, South Carolina

We are tied up in Beautiful Downtown Gerogetown, South Carolina. Yes we have made it to another State, without having to show our passports! Today's trip was lots of fun and full of sunshine. We were again out of the slip by 0715, and pointed the bow South. We had to negotiate two low bridges, one a pontoon bridge, one of the last in the Country. We had to go flat out at 21 knots to make the opening. These bridges only open either every hour or on the half hour. It is a real drag to sit and wait for a bridge to open for 59 minutes, when you missed the opening by just 60 seconds.

The Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) is a highway of boats going South this time of the year. In the Spring, the migration reverses and all of the folks going South now head North. I thought that a trip to the Delta was a long way to spend a weekend!

We arrived and gave the boat a real scrubbing, we are still looking for the bottle of boat soap that we have not seen since we left Whitby, Ontario. We walked into Georgetown and had dinner at the River Room. I had Grouper, a flaky white fish that was absolutely great. We are now back at the boat and deciding what we are going to do after I get the post up. Friday Night in Georgetown is not like hanging out at home, but should be fun regardless. We went to the Big Tuna for a cocktail and then Bob found the SPCA board, offering dogs and cats to any takers. No we did not pick up a boat animal, Bob is enough for us, just kidding!

We are off to Beaufort, SC tomorrow morning and we will shoot up another post from there.

Ross
with Mike & Bob

Dinner Aboard

The weather is much better and we are looking forward to another long day. Georgetown, NC is our goal. The winds should be off our stern and the tides favorable. We are just getting the hang of getting to the bridges as they open. We missed one yesterday and had to hover for 30 minutes to wait for the next opening. We were able to get through several bridges today by slipping under with 2-3' of clearance. As long as we can get through it is good!

We were treated to a beautiful sunset and Mike got a great picture of the sunset as well as one of the three of us as we were finishing dinner, thanks to Mike.

More later,

Ross

with Mike & Bob

Surf City to Carolina State Beach Park

The top photo was taken last Monday as we transited the Great Lock South of Norfok. It shows the mileage to Cities on the route. All of the ICW markings are in Statute miles, not nautical. So we need to do the conversions as we plan our days.

ICW mile marker 297.1
We debated last night and again this morning about leaving Surf City. Weather was telling us that there was a Cold Front carrying gale force winds. We decided that we should not move unless we had a place to land. I haven't tried to call marinas for a reservation until we were underway. Big mistake. We got a call back from a marina in Wilmington with room, so we got the boat underway in less than 15 minutes and headed South. The weather went south as we did and I found a marina run by the State of Carolina. We arrived at 11 am, just ahead of the Cold Front smacking us. We did a 50 mile run, which will give us a better shot at Georgetown for tomorrow night. We will then push on to Beaufort South Carolina and then to Jekyll Island SC before making it into Florida.

I made a big pot of soup for dinner, did some laundry and we Mike & I watched a movie. Bob started to watch, but we lost him to a nap. This may be a double feature day.

If we have time, I will send up another post this afternoon with photos of the marina. Not much here, but the boat is warm, we will have a good dinner and be able to scoot tomorrow with a West wind and a sunny day.

Ross
with Mike & Bob

We are in Surf City, North Carolina

We put the peddle to the metal today and ran 126 miles, a long day. We are on the normal schedule, up at 0600, off at 0700 and we were at the fuel dock at 3:45pm. As we pulled into the marina, I was surprised to see another PDQ tied up. Tumbleweed 1 was here. She is owned by Erika Bosch and Roger Boe. We had time to visit each others boats and learn from them. They suggest that we store less fuel in the forward tank and store as little as possible there to improve the running configuration. They are from Canada and are heading for warmer weather.

We are hearing that the weather is going to deteriorate over nigth, and we need a few more long days to get Bob & Mike back before Thanksgiving.

I will again attempt to upload more pictures, however the Internet connection is running very slow and the pics are iffy.

The two I am attempting are of the sunrise this morning in Belhaven and one of Tumbleweed next to us in Surf City

Ross
with
Bob & Mike.

Coinjock to Belhaven, NC

We were away from the dock at 0700 and headed toward Albemarle Sound. We had hoped to NW winds but were not so lucky. We entered the Sound and we had the winds from the SW, exactly what we did not want. We backed off and ran at about 10 knots and made the Alligator River / Pongo River Canal right behind a tug pushing a barge. We had to sit behind him for about 5 miles before he was able to move to the port and let us pass. He really paid for his kindness as it took him about 1/2 of a mile to get back on course. The rest of the day was easy and we arrived at Belhaven at about 1:18PM. Once we got into the slip and fuel added, we took one of the marina golf carts into town and went to the grocery store.

Tonight we will be eating on the boat, life is good as we have cable TV, all 10 stations, but we will be able to catch up on the news as we plan tomorrows leg of the journey.

I will be trying to upload some pictures, but the Internet connection is running very slow.

We are hoping to make Wrightsville,NC tomorrow. I am hoping to get Mike and Bob to Florida in time for them to make it home for Thanksgiving. If not, I am sure that I will be buying the Turkey Dinner.

We had heard on the VHF radio about a dog that had been pulled from the water on the ICW. The boat that rescued the dog pulled into Belhaven just before we arrived. After speaking with the folks on the boat and eventually the owner of the dog, here is what we know. The dog and her owner were hunting bears yesterday. The dog chased a black bear through the NC woods and followed the bear into the water along the ICW. The dog went into the water early in the morning and was swimming most of the day. The folks on the sailboat spotted the dog in the water and were able to pull her out after hooking her collar with a boat hook and pulling her aboard by the scruff of her neck. The reunion was most pleasant and Bob Borg is in his glory that the bear & the dog both won.

Ross
with Bob & Mike