Misc. photos from the return trip up to Miami....

March 9, 2010
Hi 74, Lo 59
Lat/Lon 25 44.4 N, 80 13.5 W

We are still stranded in Miami, but we're not complaining, there are certainly a lot worse places to be stranded!

We’ve FINALLY had some nice weather! Yeeehaw! Three days in a row without rain, and two more expected! We’ve made good use of the time and nice weather. I’ve sanded and refinished all of the teak, and Sid has put new zincs on the propeller, resealed all the chain plates, and we’ve actually gotten to work on our tans a little. We were beginning to think we were going to have to go back to Washington with white bodies, but maybe not! :o)

We’ve also taken some nice walks around the area and had a drink or two is some cute open air bars. I have to say, Miami is actually quite pretty, well at least this area of town.

Here are a few random pictures from our ‘return trip’ up here, such as it has been.

This was from our anchorage off East Sister Rock at Melbourne. A rainbow after a really heavy rain and the subsequent moon rise afterward.


















The men on board had a brutal fight regarding feeding schedules and rum rations!
Oh, it was a hideous, bloody battle!!!


Here's an example of how comfortable Gracie is with living the sailing life. She has not problem with taking a bath while under way on fairly choppy seas. She takes turns, dipping her head, and then each foot into her water dish. In between dips, she grabs on to the cloth that is bungied there, to keep her balance.




























Here's Bo, checking out what's happening below deck. We must have been mistaken about his breed. He must not be an Aussie,... clearly he must be a Heeler, because he is very sure-footed and has no problem walking or standing when the boat heels.

Finding The Pony In The Pile Of Horse Shit

March 6, 2010
Hi 69 Lo 50
Lat/Lon 25 44.4 N, 80 13.5 W

Sid and I have both learned so much on this trip.

One thing that Sid has taught me is that, "Sometimes, life drops you in a big pile of horse shit. But you have to figure that if you've got that much horse shit, there’s just bound to be a pony in there somewhere. You just have to look for it!"

Here is today's Pony In The Horse Shit: We don’t have a cracked head and we don’t have to stay here for two weeks. We DO, however, have a blown head gasket, which still requires major surgery to repair. It’s still going to be fairly spendy, but what the hell, it’s only money. Anyone who’s ever owned a boat knows, it’s just a hole in the water where you throw money, right? B.ring O.n A.nother T.housand. (or two, or four). :o)

So we will only be here until about Thursday, which will still cause us to have to change our flights back to Seattle by at least a few days, because we still have to get Quest up to Indian Town to the haul out yard and get all of her canvas stripped off.

But here's another Pony: Sid’s friends, Jay and Sarah, happen to be in the area on vacation and are going to come help us sail Quest up the coast and get her ready to be stored safely for the summer and hurricane season. From what I hear, Jay’s pretty good at this stuff. I also hear he plays the bassoon! (Gee I hope he’s got it with him, I haven’t heard any good bassoon music in – geez - it’s been weeks now!)

And one more Pony: Since we’re kind of stuck here, I am sanding and refinishing the bright work, (the teak wood work), because it has worn in several spots and we were worried about water getting into the wood over the wet season. And Sid is re-sealing the chain plates because that is another weak area where water can get in. Now we won’t have to worry about those things.

See? Ponies! In the horse shit!

We have had an interesting turn of events,...

March 4, 2010
Hi 64 Lo 49
Lat/Lon 25 39.7 N, 80 9.4 W

Coming into the Key Biscayne area yesterday, we began having engine trouble.

After sailing most of the day, we'd furled the sales and began motoring toward Key Biscayne. The engine alarm came on,... uh, oh,... we'd overheated. So we added some coolant and cautiously carried on.

After a while, the alarm came on again. So we killed the engine and put the sails back out and sailed to the nearest anchorage, which was No Name Harbor on the southern tip of Key Biscayne. We added more coolant, checked some thing-a-mabob, drained some doohickey, (pardon my technical terms there,…) and waited ‘til morning, hoping that we’d catch a lucky break and everything would be fine, just fine.

Well, no luck,... and no engine.

So after contacting a few mechanics, turns out we think we have cracked head! (And I don't mean Sid fell down the companion way.)

So, we are getting towed over to Dinner Key Marina, where we have a mechanic coming tomorrow morning to check out the motor.

We may be here a while. We don’t know if it will be 2 days, or 2 weeks, but needless to say, we won't make our flight back to Anacortes on the 11th. We don’t know for sure what we’re going to do, or when. We should know more after the mechanics visit tomorrow. But one thing we are pretty sure about is that “it ain’t gonna be cheap!”

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

The Bird-nerd Chronicles

March 1, 2010
Lat/Lon 25 5.2 N, 80 26.8 W

I am a bird nerd.
When I was a little girl, my father would point out different types of birds to me. He’d set up his spotting scope on nests so that I could watch the feathered families grow. Since then, I’ve been fascinated with birds.

All my life I’ve kept track of all the different species of birds I’ve seen. This trip has been great because I'm in an area I've never really been before, so I’ve added over 20 new birds to my ‘life long list’. Most of them have been ocean/shore birds because that's where I've been hangin' out, and it's a bit too early for songbird migration yet.

Yes, I am a bird-nerd. What I am not is a wildlife photographer, so all of these photos have been taken from the internet. I greatly admire, appretiate, and thank all those amazing photographers with the ability, equipment and mostly, the patience to take these beautiful photos.


This bird, the Northern Gannet, was my favorite new find. What beautiful birds! I saw 2 of them in the Dry Tortugas.







Other new birds I saw out in the Dry Tortugas:


lft- Brown Booby,
(yes that’s a bird, not a naked
lady with a tan).


Sooty Tern - rt






lft - Magnificent Frigatbird






Black Skimmer - rt





Some of the new birds I’ve seen in other areas on this trip:

lft - Masked Booby



White Ibis - rt








lft - Green Heron









Little Blue Heron - rt




lft - Ruddy Turnstone








Laughing Gull - rt



lft - Gull-billed Tern









Eurasian Collared Dove - rt


Other new birds not pictured here:

Red Footed Booby (shown in earlier post)
White Pelican
Great White Egret
Fosters Tern
Royal Tern (shown in earlier post)
Least Tern
Boat tailed Grackle
Northern Mockingbird

Dancing Dolphins

March 1, 2010
Hi 70 Lo who cares...
Lat/Lon 25 5.2 N, 80 26.8 W

One of the best, most beautiful things about this area is the bottlenose dolphins. Our very first day at the boat, up in Brunswick, GA, we saw one in the marina. He swam right up to us, clearly checking us out. It was like he was saying, "Hey, there hasn't been anybody at this boat, who are you guys? Well, I'm sure you're fun, so welcome to my home."

We've seen several dolphins since. Both sets of visitors, Sids' kids and Rob and Apryl got to see dolphins during their visit. Despite seeing lots of dolphins, I haven't had much luck getting photos of them. I'm usually too mesmirized to run for my camera. And if I do manage to have my camera, I usually just end up with lots of photos of blue water! But here are a couple of things....

This video was taken with my cheesy little digital camera. It was a visit from about 5 dolphins that swam along beside Quest one day. Again, I got LOTS of pretty blue water, but there is a small amount of dolphin too!

On the way back from the Dry Tortugas, the swells were really large, 7 to 10 feet high. As Quest was going up over a really large one, we saw about 3 little dolphin heads sticking out of the wave. They were surfing the waves and having great fun! As we went over it, we turned to watch them. There were 5 to 7 dolphins, leaping incredibly HIGH out of the back side of the wave, having a wonderful time. Then they'd swim up close beside us again, ride another one, and then LEAP out the backside and come back. They did that a few times.

I did some cropping and tried to play with the lighting, but those two black blobs are dolphins.

Sid and I were both hootin' and cheering, and loving it! We watched a long as we could, until they disappeared from sight behind us. They were having such a great time playing in those big waves! They didn't care that it was windy and snotty. It wasn't such a great day to be sailing, but it was sure a good day to be a dolphin!

I love dolphins.

A few more assorted photos...

February 28, 2010
Hi 65 Lo 56
Lat/Lon 25 5.2 N, 80 26.8 W


As I mentioned earlier, we are on the downhill side of this leg of our journey. All of our guests have come and gone, and it's back to just the 4 of us, Sid, Bo, Gracie and I. We are currently in Key Largo. Yes, we returned to the scene of the biggest dinghy escape attempt. But that baby is lashed down, clipped on, strapped to, and clasped tightly. That sucker is going NOWHERE!


We have 11 days left on the boat. We are heading back through the Keys, and will go up the east coast of Florida to Indian Town. There, Quest will be taken out of the water, and strapped down on 'the hard'. We will have to take all the sails, canvas and most of the rigging off her, to prepare her for the next hurricane season. We will be back after the hurrican season has passed, to take her to the Bahamas.


Here are some more random photos from Key West:

Me showing off my best side, while doing some 'mining' for cold beer in the very bottom of the refridgerator. Boat refridgerators are made to be efficient, NOT convenient.


Linda, Sid, Apryl and Rob at Bo's Fish House in Key West.



I am soooo paintin' my car like this when I get back. And check it out, those bouys on the side are 3 dimentional, baby!

Also coming soon,... Dancing Dolphins and The Bird Nerd Chronicles.

A few assorted photos from the Dry Tortugas

February 28, 2010
Hi 65 Lo 56
Lat/Lon 24 44.0 N, 80 54.0 W

Here are a few pics from the Dry Tortugas, Garden Key and Fort Jefferson.

Fort Jefferson was started in 1846. Construction continued for 30 years. It was never fully completed, and it never saw battle, but it did house over 1,000 soldiers, and was used for a prison for a while too.

The salt air and the sea take a great toll on the bricks, and you can see where the fort is constanly crumbling.

The fort encompasses 17 acres. The architecture is beautiful.

The curved dome you see just beyond Apryl was the powder magazine for the cannons.

There is only one cannon left at the fort, all the others have been removed. This is one of the cannon ports, and some of the cannon balls they used.

The light house was added around 1900. It has been carefully maintained and is still used.

Sid and I ,... and Apryl and Rob,... having evening cocktails on our 'tropical' vacation.

Rob and Apryl ready to do some snorkeling.

Oh, and me too.

The beaches in the Dry Tortugas were absolutely 'chuck a block' with treasures. But because the area is a national monument, collecting was a no-no.

Look at this wonderful little piece,... 3 kinds of coral growing on a rock, with a perfect little shell, intact and open. Soooo cool!

Dry Tortugas is also a bird santuary. Many birds use it as a stop off during migration. It is the breeding ground for the many birds, including the Sooty Tern and the Magnificent Frigatebird, seen here soaring over the fort.

Fort Jefferson from the top of Quest's mast. (While we had Rob here, Sid went up and did the rest of the stuff that needed done up there.)

Here is a picture of Quest, and Sid's kneed, from 54 feet above the water.