Blog of the Day Award

With the Sea as our Livingroom; the Chronicles of life aboard sv Mary Elizabeth has received the blog of the day award! Cool!

Boca Club and Resort

Here are a few (OK, more than a few) pictures of the Boca Club and Resort where sv Mary Elizabeth is currently docked. It is quite a fabulous place....

For even more pictures.... click here.

Amazing Christmas on the sv Mary Elizabeth

(Enjoying Christmas Eve dinner on board while watching a Christmas Story)

(relaxing post-dinner Christmas Eve)

Christmas on the sv Mary Elizabeth was great. Mary Alice, Bill and I slept in and, after enjoying Pamela's delicious banana bread, had a lazy morning and afternoon. After opening presents we enjoyed the sunshine and played with our new gadgets. Bill and I received Kindle from Mary Alice. What an amazing idea for two people who live on a boat and read a ton. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kindle, it is an electronic book reader from Amazon. You can go online and download books (there is a library of 20,000 books to chose from and they are a lot cheaper than new hardcovers [each Kindle book is $9,99]). The screen is big enough to comfortably read (and you can change the font size) and it is very easy to use and navigate. Since Kindle was recently featured on Oprah's "favorite things" they are on back order. But Mary Alice's friend Monika lent us hers for the weekend so we could check it out and learn the ropes. It will be the perfect thing for the boat so we won't have to spend money on books that we end up having to leave at book swaps when we run out of room to stowe them.

(presents, presents, and more presents)

Bill and I gifted each other a Nikon D60 camera with a super duper lens. It is complicated and we are still learning, but it is an amazing camera. Since we take dozens of pictures a day, it is something that we will certainly be using a lot.

(Bill goofing with the new Nikon)

Our Christmas dinner here at the resort was delicious and fancy. We had a multiple course meal at the top of the tower. The three of us came back to the boat stuffed to the brim.

(Christmas dinner)

Friday we "left the compound" and went to the movies. There are SO many movies out at the moment; we saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which we all gave 'two thumbs up' -- despite the almost three hour run time. Doubt, Valkyrie, Marlie and Me, and the two Kate Winslet movies are next on the list. There is a really nice movie theater close by. After the movie we ate at the Whales Rib, a restaurant in Boca on the water that three different people suggested. It was very crowded and after waiting 45 minutes + for a table we decided to eat at the bar. It was as good as everyone said it was - and we all overate (again). We came back to the boat and Mary Alice taught me Skip-O - one of the five new games that we got for the boat (which we are both very excited for!!!)

(Mary Alice and Lauren enjoying the sun on Christmas day while playing with Kindle)

Today we took the resort shuttle over to the Beach part of the resort, which is under renovation but has recently opened on a limited basis. The resort is very crowded right now - I guess for the upcoming New Year holiday. We ate lunch by the pool and walked on the beach. The Atlantic was choppy today and two small boats capsized trying to get in/out of the Boca Inlet. We dropped Mary Alice off at the airport a few hours ago and we are enjoying an early evening on the boat.

(Bill doing his magic tricks for Mary Alice)

The weather has been great. It is warm but windy so it isn't hot. The clouds come and go but the rain has held off for the past few days. Tomorrow I have plans to go to the adults only pool (this place is crawling with lots and lots of kids.....) while Bill golfs. We'll pick Cindy and Boyd up at the airport on Monday and then find a different marina in the area until after New Years. We are really treating ourselves here.

So it was a lovely visit with Mary Alice and we had a very nice Christmas and hope that everyone else did also.

For more pics, click here.

Merry Christmas

We wish all of our family and friends a very VERY Merry Christmas. Hope everyone has a great day filled with loved ones, good food and great conversation.

Boy have we been enjoying ourselves here in Boca. Mary Alice and I enjoyed very relaxing massages this morning. Bill was supposed to golf, but because it was windy and raining decided to postpone for another day.

Tonight, Christmas Eve, Bill is cooking his 'famous' beef stroganoff. We have a game of scrabble planned for later. Tomorrow Bill, Mary Alice and I will have a lazy day and then an early dinner here at the Boca Club.

Bill spent a long time on the phone today finally convincing the AT&T folks that our air card (how we have access to the Internet on the boat) really is broken. They are shipping us a new one so we should be back 'online' and able to upload pictures soon.

Merry Christmas.

Hanging in Boca

So, Boca continues to be fabulous. On Sunday we went to Cindy and Boyd's house for the best turkey dinner I have ever had. They both outdid themselves with a perfectly roasted turkey complete with bay leaves, stuffing with pecans, Cindy's homemade bread, green beans, Yukon mashed potatoes. And Cindy's yummy home cooked apple pie for dessert. What a treat to have a home cooked meal and hang out with friends in their beautiful home.

Cindy and Boyd have also very generously offered us their car for the week while they are out of town visiting family. So yesterday, after dropping them off at the airport, we did lots of errands including the Laundromat (6 loads, a new record), food shopping, last minute Christmas shopping, etc. We finally got an extension cord so we could plug in the tree -- and it looks great.

Today Bill's mom flies in. It is very windy here today, which is unfortunate because we need to move the boat to get a pumpout. We'll figure something out though.

The resort is truly amazing. They have one of the nicest gyms I have ever seen and Bill looks forward to golfing tomorrow. Mary Alice and I have massages planned (a Christmas gift from Bill).

Our computer is not working at the moment (I am at the FedEx Kinkos at the resort) so I don't have any pictures to share. Stay tuned....

We made it to BOCA RATON, FL

Today was another perfect day on the water. We motored past West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Riviera Beach, Del Ray, Boyton, etc. And again we saw many simply incredible homes on the water. As a bonus today we saw two manatees! Today was a day full of bridges. We had 12 bridges to go under and only one was fixed. The rest either opened on signal or opened on the hour and half hour or at 15 and 45 past the hour. Bill's timing was perfect (meaning we didn't have to wait long for the next opening). But it did take us about 7 hours to go 38 statute miles because of all of the bridges.

When we got to Boca we were amazed. We are staying at the Boca Raton Resort and Club. It is a small marina (20 +/- slips?) in a large resort located on the ICW. We are the only sailboat here and most of the boats are huge yachts. Some of the same boats that we saw at Yacht Haven Grande in St. Thomas are docked here -- including Carbon Copy, the boat that our friends Amy and Juan were on. We are docked right in the middle of the resort; our stern looks over the pool (awesome!) Bill and I look forward to exploring a bit more tomorrow.

When we got in we cleaned up the boat a bit and decorated the tree. It is perfect for the boat. And we love it -- although we weren't able to find the extension cord so we haven't exactly plugged it in yet... but it still looks great (if we do say so ourselves) all the same. We recieved a package from my mother so we actually have wrapped presents under the tree for the full effect.

And we got to see Cindy and Boyd!!! They live in Boyton Beach and drove over to Boca - and brought goodies -- including our first Christmas card. It was so nice to see them and hang out for the night.

Tonight was the Boca boat parade (another awesome thing that we stumbled upon!) Out of the three boat parades that we have seen this Christmas (Thunderbolt, St. Augustine, and here) this was the coolest. There were probably 25-30 boats and all were decked out. There were 30+ boats anchored directly across from us (which is a show in and of itself) and the parade literally went right by across our bow. Cindy and Boyd were here to enjoy also. Because we are staying at the marina we got 'passes' to the dock party. There were lots and lots of (mostly older) 'club members' viewing the parade and partaking in the festivities. There were a ton of food stations (shrimp, sushi, pasta, seafood, etc.) and an open bar. Cindy, Boyd, Bill and I hung out on the boat for a bit and then went up to the party and feasted.

So it was a fun night -- sort of the culmination of our trip so far. Boca has been 'the' destination for so long and we are finally here and enjoying ourselves -- and very much looking forward to the next few days.

For more pictures, click here.

Jupiter, FL

We had another nice day. The weather was perfect (not to rub it in to all our friends and family in snowy New England) and the water is green. There were a lot of people on runabouts fishing and water skiing throughout the day.

We stayed at Admirals Cove Marina in Jupiter Florida, which is a private club. They do have some transient dockage so we were able to "get in." They even let us eat at the restaurant (OK, so it was the bar and not the dining room since I had jeans on and Bill wore shorts...but we still felt special) It was a very high falutin place to say the least.

So today's big news is that we have traveled over 1000 miles!!!! We left Annapolis on November 1st.

We are excited to be in Boca on Saturday. We were originally going to stay at the Boca Resort and Club through January 7th, but we think we'll move the boat again sometime between Christmas and New Years. We are thinking Ft. Lauderdale since we want to have the teak done. We are also having a problem with our stuffing box again. It is dripping way too fast (it is supposed to drip once a minute and instead it is basically a steady stream of water) and the bilge is going off three or four times a day. Lauderdale has lots of marinas and facilities and sounds like a good place to hang out for the two weeks or so it will take to get ready for our jump over to the Bahamas. In addition to the repairs and waiting for a good weather window, we have to change the filters, fill the propane, and do other boat chores.

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good weekend (snow and all). Christmas is only a few days away! We'll put up the tree today or tomorrow in time for Mary Alice's arrival, which we are looking forward to!

Vero Beach, FL

After a great dinner last night with my Aunt and Uncle, we left the dock this morning at our 'standard' time; 8:00. We were unsure if we would be delayed again today because of the fog, but it was fairly clear when we woke up.

So today was a pretty uneventful day except for two things. First, we saw lots of dolphins and on two different occasions several came over and played in our wake for a long time. They jumped almost all the way out of the water, flipped on their sides, played with us! So amazing. The second thing about today was that we actually covered more statute miles than we have since we left Annapolis. Vero Beach, our destination for tonight, is at statute mile 953.

It was a quiet day (I read 3/4 of a book and Bill remained rather bored at the helm) with straight channels and 10 - 12 feet of water for the majority of the day. The Indian River is (a few miles?)wide but the channel is (a dozen yards?) narrow. The dolphins, pelicans, and occasional boats were welcomed companions on an otherwise desolate waterway. We had a few bridges to go under and today we ping, ping, pinged the antennae at the top of the mast each time we went under.

As we got closer and closer to our destination for the night, the homes got larger and larger. As the sun started to set, the mangroves and trees on the shoreline were again illuminated and looked absolutely amazing. Pictures really don't do justice to how beautiful the scenery was.

We pulled into Vero Beach Municipal Marina around 5:00 and saw several familiar boats that we have met up with along the way. We are at the fuel dock tonight (with cable, yeah!) and will have dinner on board.

On another note, Bill and I are happy to learn that after 6 days my grandparents power has been restored and they are again back in their home in NH.

Titusville, FL

We ended up in Titusville, FL for the night at the Titusville Municipal Marina. We just couldn't get through the bridges before they stopped opening during (an early) rush hour.

Once the fog cleared we had a great motor. The weather was warm. We saw lots of dolphins today; some played, some were too busy fishing. No manatees today though.The shoreline was full of RV parks, beautiful homes, and boat ramps. Everything looked really "Floridian" to me.

These pictures are all of a small canal that we went through. The sun was perfectly shining through the trees and mangroves onto the shallow water. Everything was so green. It was one of the prettiest parts of the ICW so far.

We went to dinner tonight with my Uncle Matty and Aunt Carolyn who live in Chulauta, FL. They drove to Titusville and we had a great seafood dinner out and then coffee back at the boat. It was great to see you guys.