After spending six months in Denmark, we’re now once again back on the boat and ready to engage in new cruising adventures! In late November, we returned to the boat, which had been on the hard in Indiantown near Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida. Florida is within the hurricane belt, but luckily for us none of the hurricanes this year went as far north as Florida.

We were happy to find Capibara where we had left it in May. We had been a bit nervous, though, about how the boat had managed being in the hot and humid Florida summer, but it wasn’t at all as bad as expected, and after a couple of days of cleaning the inside and out, we were ready to leave the marina.

For the first time in our three years as full-time cruisers, we’re not running on a tight schedule, so we’ve been enjoying a slow start. Our first stop was at the St. Lucie Lock in Lake Okeechobee, only about 10 nm from the marina. Here we happened to meet Mr. Big Alligator only a couple of hundred metres from where the boat was anchored. Coming from Denmark, we don’t know of many dangers in the nature, so we made sure to keep our arms and legs well inside the dinghy going back and to shore!

The signs around the lock said No Swimming!, but we hadn't been much tempted anyway. Two years ago, a boy had had his arm ripped off, because he went swimming at night. We made well sure, when we pulled the anchor, not to get the retrieval line in the propeller!

Before we left the Lock, a cruising friend had asked us over email how we were doing. I wrote back that the sun was shining, the weather was nice, and everything seemed to be working. In the world of the cruiser, life then couldn't be much better! But having only moved 10 nm, we had apparently forgotten, how real life cruising really is. Because barely a week later, we had
first been sitting in an anchorage in Stuart for days in rough winds and 48 hours of constant rain, without getting off the boat.

When we finally had better weather and decided to leave Stuart, the cooling system on the engine started pouring out water, where after the generator stopped charging, and lately there’s a weird gonk, when we’re running the engine. Welcome back to real cruising life! Luckily, Henrik has developed quite some skills in working with the old Volvo Penta engine, so it’s working again – or for now at least!

From Stuart we continued south to West Palm Beach, close to the boatyard, where we had been for a couple of months last year. We have both been a bit ambiguous about going back, both because we feel we might be jinxed there, but also because we had grown tired of the city last year. But nevertheless, we went there again, since it was a convenient place to stop
between Stuart and Fort Lauderdale – and how happy we were to do so! What a big difference it makes to arrive from the seaside, compared to arriving by car. When visiting by boat, you really appreciate the proximity of things, which of course is a lot less important, when you have a car.

In West Palm Beach, we were anchored right next to a big public dock, where we could tie our dinghy for free. By the waterside there was a small park (with free Wifi), and north of the park the main street for restaurants started which ended in an outside mall and supermarket. As a cruiser visiting, that’s a five star stop over!

We stayed in West Palm Beach almost a week, both to enjoy what the city had offer, but unfortunately also due to the everlasting engine problems! We then continued south to Fort Lauderdale and then further down to Miami, where we anchored right off Miami Beach, which some how seemed pretty cool! There’s been a lot of talk whether or not that would be possible any longer, since the home owners of their million dollar houses gets a bit annoyed with cruisers living in their back yard. But so far, there are no new regulations, and we stayed right next to the Police Station and could dinghy in to town. Fantastic!

Right now, we’re getting ready to continue south to the Keys. Yesterday, we had our Christmas Dinner in a marina south of Miami. We had decided to stay at an anchorage, but after two days of little sleep do to a very bouncing mooring field, we went into a marina to fully be able to enjoy our roasted duck – and we had a very merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Capibara and crew!

Signe Storr - Freelance Journalist & friend of Boatshed