We've traveled a lot of miles from the last posting a little over a week ago, but it only really warmed up over the weekend when we paused in N. Palm Beach.  Short sleeves feel foreign, but it's a relief to shed all the layers!

We stopped in the Space Coast area to visit friends and to check into a marina for two nights since the nighttime temps were in the low 30's.  Normally we prefer to anchor, but sometimes it's nice to have plenty of electricity for heat all night long!  We cruised down to Ft. Pierce to anchor for the night and ran into another DeFever 49 that we last saw in the Chesapeake in late November.  We had a beautiful week of traveling weather with light winds, and we made it to N. Palm Beach by the weekend.  We visited with two DeFever couples while there, and had a grand time and lots of laughs.  Everyone is getting excited for the DeFever Rendezvous next month.

After two days of visiting, we got a good weather window to run outside from Lake Worth down to Key Biscayne, avoiding the many bridges and heavy local boat traffic in the relatively narrow ICW.  I think this was our 6th trip through the area, and it was the first time we've been able to get good weather and avoid the bridges.  We have to wait for 18 bridges to open on the ICW just between the Lake and Ft. Lauderdale, so it's a real treat to go outside!  We traveled on a Sunday so there was a lot of small boat traffic - fishing and diving - but it was an easy day.  Here's a photo of Port Everglades and some of the Ft. Lauderdale skyline - notice the huge cruise ship.

We're finally on the doorstep to "paradise", anchored in Bill Baggs State Park at the bottom of Key Biscayne.  It's a very pretty park and the anchorage is surrounded by mangroves and highlighted with white ibis and the occasional dolphin in the harbor. 

We got a great view of the Miami skyline and the reefs off Key Biscayne, as well as the famous Stiltsville - some old homes out in the water with no external power or water that have survived many hurricanes and storms.

We survived about a month traveling around to visit our families and friends for the holidays, putting lots of miles on the car and having a lot of laughs with everyone.  It was very nice, but we were glad to get back home to the boat after so much time away.  We stayed in Palm Coast for almost a week after we got back so we could catch up with some friends there;  "the girls" spent some time at the bead stores and "the boys" went to the HAM Radio store.  We still hadn't finished putting everything away and catching up with all the mail, but it was time to get the boat moving towards the Keys so we left on Sunday.  The tide has been unusually low lately, and we had to wait for the little bit of rise to escape the Palm Coast neighborhood canals so we made a relatively short run down to Daytona Beach where we anchored and settled in to watch the football playoff games.  It felt very good to start moving again!