Saturday, February 25, 2017

Florida Holiday - MokaKat Sailing

After closing on MokaKat in mid-December, we were really excited to head down to Florida and checkout the new boat and spend some time in warmer climates.  Blake, my youngest son, and I decided to go drive down from Arkansas, taking all of our water toys, tools, scuba tanks and other heavy items that we couldn't fly down with.  

We grabbed my fishing kayak from our Beaver Lake cabin.

Two kayaks, SUP, scuba tanks, tools all packed and ready to go!


It took about 18 hours of driving to make it to West Palm Beach.  Blake helped a lot in the driving, and after driving all night, we arrived at the marina mid afternoon.

s/vFeeby, soon to be s/vMokaKat was waiting for us!

The goal of the week was to have some fun, get to know our new catamaran and provision the boat for the trip to the Bahamas in February!  
 Holiday spirit was alive at the marina!!!
 Stone Crab Claws!!!  Yum!!!
Blake enjoying Stone Crab Claws

We took down the dingy out one day and took it out the pass to the ocean facing beach.  The wind was low that day, and we enjoyed walking on the beach.  The water was a little cold, swimming in from the anchored dinghy!



The next day, we decided to kayak over to Peanut Island and do some exploring.  It was about a mile Kayak paddle, but we had to cross the boat channel, dodging the many holiday boaters.  

 Blake taking a break.
 Heading under the bridge to Peanut Island
 We called this sailboat, Bird Boat.  I felt sorry for this boat owner
 We had to cross the busy boat channel, and this yacht isn't going to yield to a couple of kayaks
 Wait a minute, what is Blake looking at?????
 Blake was checking out the bow ornaments on the super yacht!
 Peanut Island on a busy holiday week

 SUP-TowUS....when you are too tired to make it home!


We then paddled over to a sandbar that was closer to the bridge.  There were tons of boats and dogs were running crazy everywhere!  It was far more exciting than Peanut Island!
 Blake making it to the sandbar
 Dog heaven!!!
Busy sandbar in West Palm Beach

180 Photo of the sandbar

It was about this time that three girls walked over and were checking out Blake's kayak.  Blake said, Dad, isn't about time that you get lost...and can I have $20?  I took the hint and paddled back to MokaKat.  He did make it back before dark!


While we had a truck in West Palm Beach we went to Sams, Walmart, FreeDivers, Lott Brothers, and West Marine.  We bought many of the items that we would need to travel to the Bahamas and all of the big or heavy items needed on the boat.  The boat was much lower in the water after our shopping!

 Sam's Club shopping
Packed shopping trip!
Blake found a coconut floating in bay while we were kayaking.  Some hard work and an electric drill, yielded a great snack!


The last morning sunrise on MokaKat for a few weeks!

Until next time, MokaKat!!!!

Next blog will be on the Gulf Crossing to the Bahamas!!!!  Happy Sailing on MokaKat!!!