Days 88-94 - St. Augustine to Beaufort, S.C.

Beautiful peacock at Fountain of Youth

Drinking from the Fountain of Youth - See any difference?

We hated to leave St. Augustine because it's such a great city to visit but the time came and we departed heading north.  The last several stops have been uneventful including one marina that was listed on the Active Captain website as "rustic".  Mike said if you've ever seen the old movie with Burt Reynolds called "Deliverance", that's what it looked like.  We arrived at the Port Royal Marina near Beaufort, S.C. yesterday, June 28th and were anticipating using the loaner car and driving around the area for awhile today but have unexpectedly discovered a water leak that needed attention.  Mike has been working on this all day and the ordered part won't be in until Friday so we'll be here for several days.  I guess we'll begin our sightseeing tomorrow.  We were stationed here in 1970-71 when Mike was in the USMC just home from Vietnam and we hated it then.  He was a lowly lst Lt. and we had no money to enjoy the area and were homesick.  Also the bugs were awful.  We returned about 5 years ago and fell in love with it so we're anxious to get out and explore.

This marina is about 2 miles from the city of Beaufort but we decided to stay here vs. the city marina due to the critiques we read from others who have stayed there.
Beaufort was the city where several movies were filmed, such as "The Great Santini", "Forrest Gump", "The Big Chill" and "The Prince of Tides" where the final scene of the movie was filmed at the bridge right next to this marina.

Stay tuned...more to come.

Days 77-87 Cape Canaveal to St. Augustine

We spent 3 great days in Orlando with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaugter at Disney World and were totally worn out by the time we left.  That is one active place!  Also, the weather here in Florida is hotter than Texas if that's possible. 

After leaving Cape Canaveral, we headed to New Smyrna Beach for one night and decided to go bike riding to the Publix grocery store which was quite a distance.  About half way there we noticed the clouds were getting very dark and once inside the store, the storm hit.  We had to stay there for about an hour until it let up enough for us to ride back to the boat.  Once we got back, it took the rest of the night to clean up the mess from the storm.  We hadn't protected anything and it was all soaked.

We left the next morning and headed to St. Augustine which was a very long day but we didn't want to make an additional stop along the way.  This will be our third night here and we've really enjoyed seeing this city which is the oldest city in America founded in 1565.  The first morning we were here I went to mass  with Mike at the local Catholic Church which is the oldest church in America.  Today we walked through the narrow streets of this old colonial city trying to absorb the history of this area which is quite interesting.  Mr. Henry Flagler left his mark here as well as in the keys.  We bought tickets on the red trolly train and rode around the city getting off and on as we saw things that caught our attention. 

We made a stop at the Fountain of Youth and of course I had to partake in a cup of the water to see if it would make a difference (ha ha).  That area was inhabited by the Timucuan indians for a thousand years before Pedro Menendez founded his first colony in 1565 and Ponce de Leon discovered the water that he believed was a fountain of youth.  We really enjoyed this tour.

Tomorrow we plan to tour the beautiful building which is now the Flagler College but was a gorgeous hotel build by Mr. Flagler and it contains the most extensive collection of Tiffany glass windows anywhere.  We will probably leave here on Thursday morning heading north.

Days 73-77 Ft. Lauderdale to Cape Canaveral

We left Ft. Lauderdale on Monday morning and went to Palm Beach and stayed at the Palm Beach City Marina.  The smallest slip available was 50 feet and we were parked next to a 100 ft. yacht called Sea Filly.  Our boat was the smallest in this marina.  We decided to bike ride around the area and discovered Worth Ave. which is the Rodeo Drive of Palm Beach.  As I mentioned previously, it's the off season and most of the locals are gone for the summer.  All the shops had closed at 4:00 and even if they were open, there's no way I would have gone into one.  Mike and I know the country is in a recession but we have come to the conclusion that anyone who has money is in this part of the country.  It's amazing!

We left Palm Beach the next morning and stopped overnight at an anchorage area near Jensen Beach.  This wasn't very protected and we bounced around a bit overnight.  We left early and had a short day to Vero Beach where we tied up to a mooring ball at the Vero Beach City Marina.  This is a very well protected, deep water marina right off the ICW.  We explored by dinghy and then walked about 1 1/2 miles to the beach and had a nice lunch/early dinner at Waldos which is on the beach by the Driftwood Hotel.  This hotel is located right next door to the Casa De Esta which is owned by Gloria Estefan.

Today was a long day as we left early and arrived here at the Harbortown Canaveral Marina off the Canaveral Barge Canal on Merritt Island.  It's a little isolated and out of the way but we're renting a car on Sunday and driving to Orlando where we're meeting up with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter for a few days at Disney World.  Even though it's been rather hot here in Florida, we've been blessed with good cruising weather.  Sure hope it continues.

Days 67-72 Islamorada to Ft. Lauderdale

We dinghyed to shore at Islamorada and enjoyed a great dinner overlooking the beautiful clear water and left the following morning for Boca Chita Key.  As we were entering the key through the narrow markers, a couple of very fast small boats passed us and proceeded around the island.  They were followed by a Dade County officer with his light on going very fast.  He was followed by a coast guard boat going the same way.  We knew something was up but weren't  sure what and asked around when we got ashore but nobody knew anything.

We decided to go snorkeling and after returning to the boat all those boats started coming into the little harbor which is all there is at Boca Chita.  Our curiosity got the best of us so we walked over and talked with one of the officers.  It seems that there was a small boat off the reef and one of their divers went missing.  He was spear fishing and had quite few large dead fish with him so it's amazing a shark didn't find him.  They were able to recover him and it all ended up on a good note.  The officer said it usually ends up the other way so it was a good day.

We left Boca Chita early and cruised through Biscayne Bay to Miami and followed the intercoastal waterway through the most amazing condominiums I've ever seen.  We arrived at Ft. Lauderdale late afternoon and have been in the Las Olas Marina since then.  Since it's off season, the prices are way down which is a good thing for us.  We've enjoyed seeing the beautiful beaches and all the energy and activity since there is an incredible amount of young people
here.  Our plans are to leave tomorrow and continue heading north.

Days 64-66 Ft. Myers to Islamorada

Welcome back - We ended up spending several more days in Ft. Myers due to the fact that we had paid in advance for a month as they would not rent for a week at a time.  As it was, we left before our month was up.  Today is Wednesday, June lst and we left Monday morning about 10:15.  Since it was Memorial Day we should have waited another day.  We got onto the boat freeway again and I have never seen so much boat traffic in my life!!  At many points you have to go at idle speed because it's so narrow and shallow and it took a lot longer than we anticipated.

 The first night we made it to Marco Island and anchored in Factory Bay which was very nice although once again we had a little trouble finding the way in.  Fortunately, we asked a sailor for help and he led us all the way to the Bay. The second day I could have done without.  The wind had picked up and since we were several miles offshore, the ride was very rough.  Then after cruising about 9 hours, we came to the Little Shark River in the Everglades.  While approaching we noticed a huge fire on shore and were concerned that it would prevent us from entering the river to anchor however,  we were able to get inside and the anchorage was beautiful.  Once inside, it reminded us of parts of the intercoastal in Alabama.  Skipper Bob warns you of the mosquitoes and let me tell you - IT'S TRUE!!  They come out in force at dusk!  We stayed inside  with the windows open (screened) and enjoyed a very quiet night except for the many Everglades sounds.  (I was glad I was inside).

Entry to Gulf

Fire on Shore near Shark River

Anchored on Little Shark River in Everglades

Beautiful Water in Keys

"Boat Freeway" out of Ft. Myers

This morning we left quite early at 6:30 and arrived at Islamorada at 2:30.  This was a much better day as we were closer to land and the water is just gorgeous.  You have to pay strict attention to the charts and GPS because there are lots of extremely shallow areas.  But we made it and are getting ready to dinghy to shore for dinner and walk around the area.  This is part of the upper keys and it's really beautiful.  Tomorrow we start heading up the east coast of Florida.