Starting where we stopped

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Well, it’s time to hit the road to catch up with AQUAVIT at Lockwood’s Boatyard in Amboy, New Jersey. We’ll be picking up from where we left off last year to resume our cruise to the easternmost point of the U.S. in Lubec, Maine. Our plan is NYC for a week of museums and plays and then on to Boston Harbor for the 4th of July. Pending weather, we'll be rambling up the coast to New Hampshire and Maine before eventually returning to New Jersey to wait out the peak of hurricane season. If all of our waterfowl can be aligned, we will cruise back to SW Florida in November and December.
 Manhattan from our marina at
Liberty Landing. Where we ended
in July, 2018 is where we will begin. 




Last year, we made it to Long Island Sound after cruising about 2,200 miles from our home port on the Florida Big Bend Gulf Coast. In July, 2018, AQUAVIT was trucked back to Snead Island Boatworks in Bradenton, FL. We brought her home, with a stop in Crystal River, and kept at the evolving list of maintenance and improvements. Finally in May this year, we took a trip down to SW Florida for a brief cruise before landing at perhaps the best boat yard we’ve ever visited - Sailors Wharf in St. Petersburg. Their excellent crew punched out a few remaining details and now our Tiara is polished and ready for this trip.

The transport from St. Pete to New Jersey takes a few days. Lockwood's Boatyard will put a fresh coat of antifouling paint on the hull and reinstall the props. We will put the canvas back in place and reattach the antennas and radar dome that we removed to lower the air draft for trucking under the highway overpasses.Then, we'll go on to Liberty Landing Marina, across the Hudson from Manhattan.

Bay Breeze's hull is blasted and ready for an epoxy barrier coat.

Meanwhile, Bay Breeze is getting some improvements at Sailors Wharf. A bowthruster is being installed and carpenters will add a bead board fiberglass paneling headliner. Chainplates were replaced and an epoxy barrier coat will make the hull smooth. Since the work list expanded to take more time than we planned, we didn’t get to do our normal spring sailing from March to May. So, our sailboat will reside on the land in storage through hurricane season while we are power boating in New England.
Ernesto Reyes visited after attending a birding festival in Ohio.
Although we missed our window to sail  due to the boat yard work, taking AQUAVIT downstate for a few weeks was a lot of fun. Our friend Ernesto Reyes, Cuban bird guide, wildlife biologist, and extraordinary wildlife photographer, joined us for the trip. 

 Then Pete and Pam Scalco caught up with us in Boca Grande to revisit places they roamed when they worked at Cayo Costa State Park in the 80s. 
Pete and Pam Scalco lived on Cayo Costa when Pete first joined the
Florida Park Service as a ranger.  A few days cruising around Pine Island Sound
was a trip back thirty years.


Taking our dingy through the "Tunnel of Love," a tidal creek through a mangrove canopy, to land at the beautiful Cayo Costa State Park beach, was a little tricky. We crossed from the mangrove lagoon to a great beach with near-Bahamas-clear water. It was easy to see two manatees swimming by.



So our adventure continues. We look forward to seeing friends and relatives along the way in the northeast and experiencing the history and landscape. Stand by for updates on our travels north. Thanks for reading and signing up for this blog.





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