Florida East Coast

After leaving Marathon, we leisurely cruised the bay North of the Keys.  The water is shallow, but well protected and waves are rarely large.  We had nice weather and smooth sailing.  Unlike this unlucky fellow who did not follow the charted path.

At one nice anchorage near Islamorada, Angie found a loose line that might foul our prop.  Upon pulling it in we found a crab pot attached, captured crabs included!  We passed on the opportunity of a fresh meal and attached a float to the end of the line and left the pot for the hard working crabber to find.

New Year's Eve found us at another quiet anchorage near Key Largo.  We celebrated early and were sound asleep when distant booms woke us up to a fireworks show not too far away.

 The next day looked good for travel, so we said goodby to our time in the Keys and aimed for an anchorage in Miami.  Here is a photo coming up Biscayne Bay towards Miami.

To avoid the bridge openings and crazy boaters, the next day we left the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) to go outside.  Out next stop was Lake Worth about 65 miles away.  The forecast was 2 ft seas, but they were 3 ft+ and the ride was borderline acceptable.  Any rougher and we would have turned around and went inside.  The Lake Worth Inlet is well used, even by larger boats like this one:

We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise before continuing our journey North.

We averaged about 65 miles per day and anchored out every nite for a week.  Our last anchorage near the NASA RR bridge was quite memorable.  Have you heard of the term "kedging"?  That is a boating term for using the anchor to move the boat.  The anchor and long length of chain is taken by the dinghy out to deeper water so that the boat can be winched forward.  It comes in handy when you try to anchor in shallow water  and your boat drifts back onto a sandbar.  Prior to that we verified that a dingy by itself can not pull a boat off a sandbar.  And subsequent to our kedging exercise it became necessary for one of us to swim after the errant dinghy that tried to escape from the whole fiasco!

Occasionally we were saddened to see evidence of recent hurricane damage.

St. Augustine looks so pretty and interesting from the water.  Unfortunately this time we just passed on by.

We arrived at Palm Coast Marina near Jacksonville on Jan 7.  Their slips were full, so they had us tie up to the long dock near the fuel dock.  Everyone seemed very friendly and we looked forward to checking the area out. The next day we rented a car and checked out Jacksonville Beach.

We were very impressed with the large size, clean sand, and sparse crowds.  A 2 hour walk was enough to prepare our appetites for a sumptuous seafood meal at Joe's Crab Shack.

The next day turned cold and windy, so we worked on preparing to leave the boat.  Laundry, clean inside and out, change fuel filters, cover dingy, double tie boat to dock, etc.

This allowed us to take all the next day for exploring.  We drove down A1A checking out beach sites as we went.

We stopped in St. Augustine, walked around the old part of town and toured Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fort in the US.

We turned inland then and drove along the St. John River back up to our marina that afternoon.  Much more developed than along A1A.

The next morning we said good bye to Happy Daze and drove to the JAX airport for our trip home.

Hello 2019 !

Here it is Jan 1, 2019 and we are on Happy Daze enjoying nice warm weather anchored in Card Sound off Key Largo, FL.  At the same time Durango is receiving the biggest snowstorm of the last couple of years.  Just makes it all the sweeter.

So how did we get here?  Our last blog had us perplexed not knowing what to do with Happy Daze.  A warranty upgrade on the Cummins fuel pump restored some confidence and a wax job got her looking good again.  We came back down in March for a couple of weeks exploring the ten thousand island area on western side of Everglades. 

Boat ran well and we enjoyed the quiet anchorages.  So we couldn't bring ourselves to just sell her, deciding instead to put her on the hard for the summer and reconsider in December.  What procrastinators!

In May we had grandson Aslan accompany us from Bradenton down to La Belle, FL. He was good company, even helped with cooking.

 It was an easy 5 day cruise, with one day of heavy rain and wind that we sat out in Venice.  So Happy Daze spent the summer on the hard inside a hurricane proof building at River Forest Yacht Center.

Meanwhile we worked in our yard, did some quilting, went camping, rode our bikes, and had a great hiking/biking trip in Austria.  In September we gave ourselves e-mountain bikes as 14 year anniversary presents....  and wow!, What a kick they are, but that is a whole nother story so I better stay on track.

Still undecided about long rang boating plans, we headed back down to FL on Dec 19 to put Happy Daze back in the water.  A nasty storm blew in for first couple of days keeping us hunkered down at  River Forest Marina.  We took that opportunity to taxi into LaBelle and stock up on provisions. Then we cruised 65 miles down river to Ft. Myers Beach and hung on a mooring ball for the night. Met a Looper couple moored next to us from Winnipeg, Canada. Next morning waves were from north, so we headed south. Easy 77 mile cruise in the Gulf took us down to Everglade City, a place we've never been before. Catching a 2 ft afternoon tide took us in the entrance channel over several shallow spots with nothing to spare. These pelicans enjoyed a temporary sandbar.
 


We stayed at a combination RV park and marina, with wonderful club house, pool, free laundry, etc.

We stayed there 3 nites, including Christmas day.  The town is small and quiet (only arouund 600 people) and we walked every street.

We watched the resident Osprey's; this one had a small rodent in his claws.

Eventually 3 other boats came in, all Loopers; one couple from CA, one from AZ, and another from TN.  The only negative was a lively and loud air tour boat operation that came right by our dock. 


We left with early light to catch as much tide as possible going out the shallow entrance channel.  Wind came up mid-day to around  25 mph causing a rocky and wet ride to Little Shark River some 49 miles away.  It is a well known and safe anchorage for those coming and going to the Keys and we've stayed here twice before.

We enjoyed 2 quiet days there, including a 10 mile dinghy ride through winding channels in the mangroves.  No cell coverage and saw only a few fishing boats come by.


Next stop was Marathon at the Marlin Bay Yacht Club, a 180 degree opposite of our wilderness anchoring.

Fabulous pool and club house, with exercise room, sauna, game room, and pool side bar. We took advantage of the pool to cool off and get a little exercise.

We got fancy and turned on our own lights to fit in.

Dinner out was at nearby seafood/raw bar, the Pickled Pelican and it was packed!

Well by now we are getting the bug to continue boating.  Weather is warm and sunny.  We met several other Loopers. Long story short, we decided to continue on our second Loop and are heading East up the Keys toward Miami.  Canada here we come!