May 16 - Englewood FL

  Last Friday we left St. Petersburg, anticipating a 2 day trip back to Fort Myers.  Along the way are many bridges over the Gulf ICW that open on a schedule (every half hour or 20 minutes.)  We were waiting for a bridge to open, spinning the boat around in a narrow section of the Waterway, when a gust of wind came along and blew us slightly out of the channel.  As luck would have it, it blew us right into a rock that was about 2 feet under the water.  We eventually had to be towed off the area.  Once we were underway again we could tell, by the vibration, that we had some propeller damage.  We were able to hobble our way to Palm Island Marina. 

The next day (Saturday) we had a diver go down to look at the props and, sure enough, both of them were damaged.  Unfortunately, he could not get them off, so we had to wait until Monday when the service department was open.  Then we had the boat hauled out of the water, had the props removed and drove them to a place in Bradenton (about an hour away)  for repair. 

 

 

 Of course, repair takes a few days, so here we are still. Since we couldn’t run air conditioning with the boat out of the water and it has been in the high eighties, we had to find other accommodations. Fortunately the marina also had some condos attached to it. So we have rented one for 4 days. 

The only good part is that the marina has a nice pool, and during the week Carol was the only person in it.  It also has a very good restaurant. 

The props are scheduled to be brought back today, and we hope to get back underway tomorrow to Fort Myers, then back across the Okeechobee Waterway to Fort Pierce.

April 28 - May 7 Fort Myers, Placida, Sarasota, St. Petersburg FL

We have enjoyed our time in Fort Myers - the marina is right downtown so we can easily walk to shops, restaurants, farmers market, grocery stores, library. etc.  Every weekend there is either an art walk, music festival, race, or some other activity.  The beaches of the Gulf of Mexico are quite a bit further away so we have to rent a car to get out there, but they are quite beautiful and well worth the effort.

Fort Myers Marina Sunset

Guess who's been working on his tan??

One of our favorite visits in Fort Myers was to the Edison-Ford Winter Homes.  Thomas Edison and Henry Ford both spent several months during the winter in Fort Myers living next door to one another along the Caloosahatchee River.  And Harvey Firestone would visit them as well.  There is a very cool statue in Centennial Park of the three of them sitting outside talking.

 The end of April our friends Roger and Barbara Garcia joined us and we traveled north from Ft Myers to Sarasota via Placida Fl.  Sarasota is another beautiful city and quite famous for its art museums.  Again the Municipal Marina is right downtown so one can easily get around.  It is also the home of the Ringling (of circus fame) Museums.  On a lovely setting along the Sarasota Bay there is a large complex (http://www.ringling.org) that includes the Circus Museum, the Ringling Mansion and a fabulous Art Museum.  Who would have thought that the owner of a circus would be such an avid collector of art?  If you ever get a chance, do pass up the opportunity to see this venue.

In St. Petersburg one can travel throughout the downtown by trolley.  We visited the Dali Museum,

which has the largest collection of his art in the world, as well as the Museum of Art.  The Chihuly Collection is right next to the City Marina as well.  We found a great Italian restaurant, Bella Brava, that we could not stay away from. 

Once again, the authors of this blog have been derelict in their attention to it.  We apologize.  Guess we’ve been having way too much fun!

Dinghy fun!

Sunrise in Fort Pierce (Carol is not usually awake to photograph sunrise!)

We enjoyed our time in Fort Pierce, had some excellent family (Carol’s sister Maureen and brother-in-law Fred) visits, and took care of all the necessary repairs (injection pump, port engine throttle cable, dinghy’s motor.)

Twilight Time at J Dock, Fort Pierce

Fred at the wheel

It had been our plan to go to the Bahamas, but after giving it considerable thought and for a variety of reasons (Maui no ka oi) we decided to go to the west coast of Florida instead.  Mal had never been there and Carol had only visited briefly in Tampa.

So, along with Carol’s sister Joan, we took off across the Okeechobee Waterway.  For those not familiar with it, it cuts across the middle of Florida, so one doesn’t have to go down south and around the Keys to get to the west coast. 

The Okeechobee Waterway

It’s a 3 day trip,  with some very narrow canals connecting the St. Lucie River to the Caloosahatchee.  The new experience for us was the 5 locks we had to go through, because Lake Okeechobee is higher than either coast.

Locking through

It is also the second largest lake in the US (740 sq miles) , second only to Lake Michigan.  The interior of Florida is very different from the coasts - much more rural (cattle ranches, cowboy country and sugar cane fields.)

Crossing Lake Okeechobee

Joan in dinghy of TT (best view is on top.)

We arrived on the 6th in Fort Myers.  We drove Joan to her daughter’s in Tampa and on the way back stopped in St. Petersburg and Sarasota to look at a couple of marinas for future reference. We will be heading north (on this coast) in a couple of weeks, with our friends Barbara and Roger Garcia, from Arizona.

Twilight Time Adventures

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Once again the authors of this blog have been derelict in their attention to it.  Guess we’ve been having way too much fun!

Dinghy fun!

Sunrise in Fort Pierce (Carol is not usually awake to photograph sunrise!)

We enjoyed our time in Fort Pierce, had some excellent family (Carol’s sister Maureen and brother-in-law Fred) visits, and took care of all the necessary repairs (injection pump, port engine throttle cable, dinghy’s motor.) 

Twilight Time at J Dock, Fort Pierce

Fred at the wheel

It had been our plan to go to the Bahamas, but after giving it considerable thought and for a variety of reasons (Maui no ka oi) we decided to go to the west coast of Florida instead.  Mal had never been there and Carol had only visited briefly in Tampa.

So, along with Carol’s sister Joan, we took off across the Okeechobee Waterway.  For those not familiar with it, it cuts across the middle of Florida, so one doesn’t have to go down south and around the Keys to get to the west coast. 

The Okeechobee Waterway

It’s a 3 day trip,  with some very narrow canals connecting the St. Lucie River to the Caloosahatchee.  The new experience for us was the 5 locks we had to go through, because Lake Okeechobee is higher than either coast.

Locking through

 

 

 

It is also the second largest lake in the US (740 sq miles) , second only to Lake Michigan.  The interior of Florida is very different from the coasts - much more rural (cattle ranches, cowboy country and sugar cane fields.)

Crossing Lake Okeechobee

Joan in Dinghy on top of TT (best view)

We arrived on the 6th in Fort Myers.  We drove Joan to her daughter’s in Tampa and on the way back stopped in St. Petersburg and Sarasota to look at a couple of marinas for future reference. We will be heading north (on this coast) in a couple of weeks, with our friends Barbara and Roger Garcia, from Arizona.

 

Preview

 March 1- 3 St. Augustine, New Smyrna Beach, Melbourne, Fort Pierce FL

We had a great time in St. Augustine, a beaautiful city.  We docked at the municipal marina, just under the Bridge of Lions.

Dock Bird

Twilight Time at twilight.

Next stop was New Smyrna Beach, where we decided to take a chance on  the Smryna Yacht Club, utilizing our reciprocal agreements from the Lahaina Yacht Club in Maui.  We will skip it next time.  Not much to it, including the fact that the docks had no cleats, only pilings.  Took us by surprise, as you don't find that a lot.  Nice restaurant though.

Coming in to Melbourne we made a navigational error (the wrong bridge)  that put us into a small creek in which a boat of our size does not belong.  But no harm done, except to our egos, particularly since we both made the mistake.  The stop at Melbourne is necessitated by (of course) a restaurant, The Mansion.  Not only does it have great food, but it also contains a huge wine and beer store (room after room), as well as a nice coffee bar, deli and catering services.  As the name implies it is located in an old home and has a lovely rooftop dining area overlooking the Indian River.  On a milc night in FL it is perfect.

We arrived Monday in Fort Pierce and reunited with our "J Dock" friends.  It was great to catch up on each others comings and goings during the last 8 months. We met some new boaters as well.   Another Saturday night party is happening tonight.

Fort Pierce City Marina

Saturday morning was beautiful, bright, clear and cool.  We stopped by the farmers' market early, picked up some tomatoes and beautiful citrus.

We have been settling in nicely in Fort Pierce.  When we are cruising there is little time for making repairs.  So of course we have many small items that need work - gauges not working properly, grill that wants to fall apart, some electrical issues , and some engine problems, coolant leakage, outboard motor to the dinghy in need of repair or replacement, etc.  Always something on a boat! It keeps Mal quite occupied. 

The new Garmin charplotter

Those of you less familiar with boating may be interested in understanding our chartplotter.  Basically it is just like the GPS in your car, except that instead of roads and street names you have markers and waterways shown.  Perhaps you can see the little boat on the screen?  If you are on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, the screen shows a magenta line.  You can ALMOST just follow that line north and south.  The chartplotter is one of the great 20th century technological advances in cruising.  While it does not make paper charts obsolete (one never knows when the power might go out) it does make it much harder to get lost!  And just like in your car, you can choose a destination and have the chartplotter route to it.  For backup to that we also have the Navionics app on the IPad, but that requires wi-fi.  We have a 4G hotspot that almost always can pick up a signal. Most marinas have wi-fi and some sort of rudimentary cable.

March 1, 2014
Fernandina Beach FL to St. Augustine FL

Our day started off very chilly but steadily improved.  We came in to St. Augustine City Marina in our long underwear and it was 70 degrees.  But everyone was overdressed,  including the dockhands.

Both of us had been to St. Augustine before, but didn't feel that we had a good look at the whole town, so decided to stay over an extra day.

We docked right next to the Bridge of Lions

which is right downtown.  Nice marina.

It is a beautiful, old (settled by the Spanish in 1565) city, and is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the US.  It is extremely well preserved, with beautiful 19th century Spanish Renaissance architecture.  We visited the old Spanish fort, the Castillo de San Marcos,  where volunteers dressed in Spanish uniforms (and speaking Spanish) demonstrated cannon firing.

We spent quite a bit of time at Flagler College, the site of the once luxurious but now defunct Ponce de Leon Hotel, built in 1888 by Henry Flagler, the founder of Standard Oil.  This is one of the first great hotels in Florida and really opened the state to tourism.  Prior to that time the only people who went to FL were those suffering from tuberculosis.  Flagler also built a railroad that ran from New York City to St. Augustine so tourists had a convenient way to get there.

 In the college's dining hall, once the ballroom for the hotel,  is the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass in the world.  Quite a sight.  Amazing murals and ceiling frescos are painted throughout the public areas, and it only took 18 months to build!

We are presently cruising down the Matanzas River, almost to Flagler Beach, on a beautiful, 70 degree Florida day. We are on our way to New Smyrna Beach and the Smyrna Yacht Club.

February 23-26, 2014
Beaufort SC, Thunderbolt GA, New Teakettle Creek, GA to Fernandina Beach FL

Well, so much for the rule about doing the blog update before happy hour each day!  Our only excuse is that we were busy sightseeing in Savannah.

For the first 2 days our weather was once again just about perfect.

Beaufort SC Sunset

A Savannah Pirate wannabe

 The next day we docked in Thunderbolt, GA, (supposedly named by the Indians after a giant (guess what) struck the area.  I think the settlers (Oglethorp and crew) arrived shortly thereafter and probably took credit for it.

Thunderbolt is really a Savannah suburb and only about a 10 minute drive into downtown.  Savannah is really easily toured by one of the many trolley tours that go round and round the historic district.  But it is amazingly a difficult city to capture in photos, as the whole is so beautiful.  Even the professional postcard photographers don't come close.

The most important part of Savannah may be the food.  We both fondly remember from years past Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room.   then there is the LONG meal, served family style:

Then there is the LOOOONG meal inside, served family style!  The fried chicken is the best we have ever had.

Thunderbolt Sunset

 Last night we anchored out at New Teakettle Creek, same place we stopped last June. 

Sunset at New Teakettle Creek

 If we had been docked somewhere we would probably have stayed put today, as we woke to rain.  However, we wanted to get to a certain spot (Little Mud River) by high tide at 8am so we hauled anchor and moved out early.  Unfortunately it rained (lightly) all day so ruined our good-weather record. 

 It is very wet, cold and dreary behind the wheel, as the isinglass curtain (window) has to be open in order to see out.

But Carol can be very inventive when it comes to her comfort, (note the plastic bag covering her legs) not to mention trying to protect a new and very expensive chartplotter.  Mal is too proud a mariner to resort to such a thing.

We are now in Fernandina Beach, one of our favorite hangouts, and looking forward to dinner at South 29, a hit last year.   Weather looks somewhat better tomorrow but not perfect.  We shall see.