Boom Times Sailing!: Living la Vida Boca

They don't call it the Gold Coast for nothing! We've spent the last four days & nights on the hook in Lake Boca, a small lagoon surrounded by mansions, high rises and mega yachts! Last night there was the 36th annual Christmas boat parade, an hour of yachts big & small (& enormous) decked out in lights, Santas and reindeer sleds (and trophy wives as Mrs.Clauses). The lead boat launched a sustained barrage of fireworks. While our anchor spot was only about 500ft from the parade route we decided to get a closer look in the dinghy. Of course friends were made and other boats were partied on.

Boca has been a very productive stop. As usual, with the help of friends and family we have made significant preparations for our imminent departure to the islands. A trip to Costco with Cassandra's friends Zoe & Scott netted the bulk of dry food provisions for the coming months. For the last two months they have been receiving our packages. It was like Chanukah opening all the packages. Oh wait it was Chanukah!

We also got together with my cousin Richard, Anna and their budding baseball star son Mathew. Richard shuttled us to a myriad of local stores to get the wide variety of stuff on our list. After a tour on the boat we had a little pizza party for Anna's birthday!

A real treat was getting together with my Uncle Norman & Auntie Leonore. Long time snowbirds we brunched with them in Century Village, a retirement community here in south Florida. I liked what I saw and since Uncle Normy is on the board I got on the waiting list early. Hello shuffle board!!

Boca proper is very ritzy and well manicured, so well as to be almost plastic. Sometimes I felt like I was back in Disney World.

We bought two folding bikes off craigslist. Slightly older models, they both came with protective bags for a total of $100! Delivered right to the dinghy dock too! These will be very useful and allow us to see and do A LOT more. Even though they fold up now we need to find space for them. Sigh.

Here in the anchorage we've met many other great cruisers;
Swedes Hakan & Anna on Unicorn - very experienced (crossed the Atlantic 8 times) and on the perfect boat (18 years in the making, for anyone wondering that's how long it takes...)
Trevor & Tim on Knotty Boys - 18 year old Ontarians on a 28ft sailboat
Alan & Brenda on Haven - from British Columbia via Ontario headed south for the first times as well.

While here we've been shopping around for solar panels. Cassandra would like to have the luxury of refrigeration on board and our current electrical reserves are inadequate. More to follow in the coming days. I think it's bad luck to use the sun's power to keep things cool but alas.

Working all day is rewarded with a swim in the lake (after checking there are no jellyfish). It's great to finally be swimming. We're only in 15ft of water and it's so clear you can see the bottom. Our neighbours on Brin de Folie lost a dodger window panel overboard but the boys from Knotty Boys found it snorkeling. Pretty hard to find something transparent underwater but they go it it!

Yesterday was 29 degrees Celsius here. That's 32 degrees warmer than Montreal and 60 degrees warmer than Winnipeg. Just sayin... ;-)