The Voyage to Nowhere 
of the Sterling Lady and Crew
or
the Delivering of the Lady to the New Owners
Venitian Causeway, the bridge nearly everyone waits for.
Condo's condo's everywhere. Approaching Hollywood Florida. A lot of cruisers by pass the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale ICW because of all the no wake zones and bridges.  I love this part of the ICW. Great Vista's.
No windows, no gun ports, what kind of a military ship is this ??? In Ft. Lauderdale.
Yes, that a helocopter on top of that mega yacht. 

The ultimate dinghy.
9/22/10
Up early , departed the Sands Marina headed up the ICW.  Nice color.
Except for the occasional MEGA yacht, there was very little traffic today.
And in the stupid sign department,,,

My personal favorte is # 3.
Approaching West Palm Beach. 
Since we are deliving the Lady to her new owners, we are hauling. Long days, no dinghy, so marina's every nite pretty much. 
Even with the new definition sign, it still a mystery as to exactly what  SLOW SPEED is ???
9/24/10
Anchored in Pecks Lake , just south of the  St. Lucie inlet. Awoke to this vista.
Stuart Fl. is the home of Evenrude Outboard Motors, and this is their test boat, passing us. 
9/25/10
They are replacing the 9 ft. clearance swing bridge at Cape Canaveral.
Got a slip at Tittusville Municipal. They have a pet swan who seemed to succesfully beg for food.
The marina was loaded with mullet.  At nite the waters glowed from all the fish movement, with green phosphorescence. It was beautiful, but I was unable to capture it with the camera.
Another dawn departure, another long day to Palm Coast.
Lots of dolphins in Daytona.
If you think a canvass wench and anchor cover is a good idea, make sure it does not make your boat look like a  snoopy dog.
We will spend two days at ST. Augustine  for R and R , and on Wed. take the Lady to Jacksonville Beach Marina to her new owners.
OH yeah, the marina has installed mooring balls. $20 a day, shower, laundry, and dinghy privileges included.
As you can see from the empty slips, we are the only cruisers in the marina.
Tonite will be our last nite on Sterling Lady the 3rd. Tommorow we hand over the keys.
Our friends whom we met while doing the loop, Pete and Linda, who are living on their boat "Where's Linda" in St. Augustine for the summer, took us to a really neat Keysey bar, hard to find but worth the hunt.
This is the bar, Hurricane Pattys, which trust me, it's well worth finding. (kinda hidden, way off the beaten path, and tourists traps)
The Admiral, had a number 3, she got a little happy.......
She started seeing huge lobsters and shrimp..
The next day was a very short, and oddly enough, very quiet ride to Jacksonville Beach Marina, to hand over the keys of the Lady to the new owners. It was the fastest 3 hours I have ever experienced.
Here I am signing the title over.
Yep , that's me , handing over the title to the Sterling Lady the third, to Ray, which will be renamed the Lady to Lady K. Very appropriate I think.
But fear not, the Sterling Lady the 4th is under contract, and based on a good survey and sea trial , will be in Key Largo just in time for the end of Hurricane season.
Dam, the thought of starting over , redoing a boat, getting her ship shape,,, kinda exciting!
On the way home, the first mate was teery eyed,,but this Rainbow came up, promising better cruising.
10/25/2010

What's been happening since the sale of the boat? Let me tell you.
Bought a 38 Marine Trader Tradewinds (the one we pictured earlier). Picked her up in Punta Gorda, got about an hour out and lost a tranny! Came all the way home to Key Largo, the long way thru Okeechobee Waterway on one motor.

Turns out , the boat actually cruises much quieter, less vibration, and tons less fuel at the same speed on one motor!
That's the good news. Your already know the bad.
Got the Sterling Lady IIII home, and now the fun starts.
Teak (see the blue tape),transmission, intercooler, loading all our "stuff' from the 3 on the 4, etc. etc.
Today, we finally sanded the teak enough so we could treat it.
Dang I have a LONG list of things to do to get the Lady ready to cruise!
This is the "new" to me boat leaving Punta Gorda, heading to her new home in Key Largo.
11/1/2010
Went for a backcountry boat ride in the Flamingo Boat, and came across this Cuban raft, less Cubans of course. Your basic Canvass wrapped around welded rebar, with Styrofoam stuffing boat. Hell, I hate a crossing in a trawler!
12/15/2010
Since bringing the new boat all the way home from Punta Gorda on ONE ENGINE, we have been doing the traditional "now we gotta put a lot more $$ in the Boat" thing, and get her ready for cruising May 1St.

This seems to be my year for eating my words, and even though I swore I would NEVER have an inflatable boat, I broke down and bought one from West Marine.
I know they always leak, however , this one has a 5 year warranty,and all I have to do is take it to West and they will fix it. Good news is it is rated for my 15 HP yami, from my Carolina skiff.
Any one want to buy a J14 Carolina Skiff that did the loop twice??


<----The new 310 dink from west..
The aft deck needed repainting, I have found it easier and cheaper to carpet the aft deck, with Home Depot outdoor carpeting. Lasts for years and for $80 you can recarpet.
Got a pretty good deal on a used but nearly new follow me TV. 
Installed it on top the aft deck , with the thought in mind come July it will hopefully have to come down for the Erie Canal.
The boat came with Isinglass for the bridge and aft deck. We removed it all, stowed it under a bed in the house, and had these sun screens made.  Much better idear here in the tropics.
Had two Sunscreen panels made for the aft deck than can easily be moved ,depending where the sun is.  Also made on for the bridge side that can be moved from port to starboard.
Took of this small Bruce 25 anchor, and .........
Put this really ugly but very functional and much bigger anchor on the pulpit.
12/26/10
Yep, we captured Santa, so if you din't get what you wanted this year..... twas us!
I waited till after Christmas, caught a good sale at BJ's, and got this 25 inch led flat screen for the aft cabin. Looks like a HUGE BIG SCREEN in the aft cabin.
Santa Admiral Judy got me this nifty omni directional high def air TV antenna, so I can get the HD TV broadcasts. 
And for my self, I bought this very special, custom made, intercooler for the Starboard engine. It was that or a new car, I went for the intercooler. In other words, it was $$$!
1/8/11
Today we drove down to Marathon, (50 miles) to boot key marina, and Sombrero's Dockside bar, which was unfortunately closed for remodeling. But they did have this very correct sign there at the bar.
1/16/2011
OH look, another very expensive part to put on the boat. When I got the starboard engine running with the new, very expensive intercooler pictured above( which was a good fit by the way) I noticed an exhaust leak coming from the riser on the engine. So here, $1,300 later,  a nice new aftermarket shiny stainless steel riser. 
Guess it's official.  Apparently our cold air here in Florida DOES come from Canada , Eh!
1/28/2011
This is how you remove the Totally rusted out elbow, that is 4 inches from the wall. You remove the entire turbo assembly and then use a cutting wheel on the bolts.  The truth about cruising, unless you have a bucket load of $$, bring your tools! Your gonna need em. And I haven't even started on the starboard engine yet,, scary.

<----The rusted out $600 elbow, discovered when I installed the $1,300 riser. God I love boating!
2/1/2011
This is NOT your ordinary 36 ft. Grand Banks Woodie. This boat sailed from Seattle Washington, through the Panama Canal, to here, Key Largo,via way of Mexico. That's not all that is unusual. She cruises under sail at 2.5 knots! Look at the two 40 foot masts the owners have installed!
Looking into the Salon, you can see the two masts.
On a different note, the owner used Home Depo's Marine deck paint on the upper part of the mast, which performed much better than the 2 part epoxy paint on the bottom half.
Yes, they sell it, for $12  a quart, I know , I just bought it there in Marathon last week.
2/12/2011

It's been over 4 months of fixing one thing, and then because of that repair finding two more things broke, or wrong, I have , what I hope to be , the final MAJOR repair item on the starboard engine.
<---------After installing this $1300 riser......

Discovered this $849 elbow also needed replacing  --------->

Long and short of it, after nearly $10,000 in parts (and I did all the labor)Started the Starboard engine today!!!
Better news is the port engine is in much better shape, but I am not starting on that till next week.
These are the things you seldom hear about, yet true.

May 1st departure date is getting closer!

I thought cruising was fixing your boat in exotic places, not at home!

2/26/2011
Since I have what I HOPE to be all the parts I need to fix the port engine, we went out and bought some rum............
Just kidding, packing up some stuff so we can rent the house., needed boxes.
2/27/11
Bout this time every year Key Largo's Rotary Club put on their annual Nautical Flea Market, and it Great! Picked up the $200 grill with a $40 mount for $80!
Put the name on the side of the boat, in reflective lettering. Helps me sleep better at nite at anchor.
3/17/2011
Happy St. Pattys Day!Two wierd things happened today. first this hover craft pass by Gilberts while we were having lunch, and  the blonde lady on the right is teaching these Japanese how to eat shrimp. 
They didn't know.
Did the loop twice, earned the Decal!
3/12/2011
Installed a used set of davits I got on the list for $400.