St. Augustine in Pictures

In other words I'm not feeling very creative tonight....OK just kidding but the pictures tell a better story.

We spent last weekend in St. Augustine and it is definitely a town worth a few day's visit. The first day we rented a car and did some shopping as well as taking a trip to Green Cove Springs to pick up our mail and find out where we live. On the way back we found (wait for it).....a brewery!!!

Once back to the boat we spent a bit of time walking around town. The marina is right downtown and the original plan was to take a mooring ball for the weekend, until we saw the weather forecast. They were calling for winds up to 40 mph and that wouldn't be fun. The marina is next to the famous Bridge of Lions.

Note the difference?

Saturday was visit day. Jill's cousin Lynn came up from Daytona for a lunch visit. Jill hadn't seen here in at least 15 years and I had never met her. It was a very nice visit and Jill really enjoyed catching up. Later in the afternoon my niece Ashley and her partner Aly came down from Jacksonville. Unfortunately they got away before I got a picture of them on the boat...I tried to Photoshop us in but it didn't work.

Jill & Lynn

Aly & Ashley

Sunday we spent the day doing the tourest thing and walked all over St. Augustine. We saw Flagler College and had to get some pictures for Mark (and Matt if he follows).

Uncle Henry

Campus

Rotunda

Castillo de San Marcos

We are now in Brunswick Ga. heading toward Savannah tomorrow and should be in Hilton Head mid week. Stand by for the next exciting blog where I'll detail what can happen when you loose an engine in a busy seaway!!! It'll be riveting I'm sure.

Ft. Lauderdale to St. Augustine

After close to 6 months in our adopted state of Florida we've almost made it to the Georgia line. We left Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday April 5th with the hope to make Cape Canaveral by Friday for a rare rocket launch. We covered a lot of ground in a few days but had the anchor down with 45 minutes to spare before the launch.

When we left Lauderdale we were running in mostly concrete lined canals with more mega yachts or high dollar real estate for about 40 miles. After that the ICW opened up a bit and became more wooded and scenic.

One thing we noticed as we headed toward North Palm Beach that day was that the palm trees had disappeared from the shore line and been replaced with pine again...looks like we're finally moving north. We began to see more Osprey also and most nests had young being tended to.

After a long day we made it to North Palm Beach and Old Port Cove marina. This place had a good rate on slips and even gave a bottle of wine with their welcome kit. We were probably the smallest and oldest boat on the "big boat" dock. After getting tied up and washed down I went for a walk and noticed a boat a few slips up called Sunday Money...previously owned by Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his wife. Next to that one was the smaller of 2 boats named Hi Banx owned by the France family who own most of NASCAR...we were in the high rent district for sure.

HiBanx & Sunday Money

 
Another boat in the marina was on the "really" big boat dock named Honey. This one was owned by Tiger Woods. Good to see he has someplace to relax since he's not golfing so well.

Honey on the far dock

After 2 nights in North Palm we moved on to Vero Beach mooring field for one night and then anchored in a spot just off the ICW with a perfect view of the NASA complex and the launch pad for the SpaceX rocket on a supply mission to the International Space Station. The launch was really great to see in person and impressive to "feel" the rocket about a minute after launch.

After a bumpy night at anchor due to winds we moved a few miles further to the city of Titusville mooring field for a couple of nights. Titusville was a busy little town during the heyday of the space race and is trying really hard to make a comeback. They have a few "downtown" blocks with some nice restaurants and even a brewery...we always look for the brewery's.  There is also a park dedicated to the space industry.

Brewery in the old hardware store

After Titusville we headed to New Smyrna city marina for a couple of nights to re-charge. We had been on a mooring or anchored for 4 nights and our house batteries need a good charge and I sleep better tied to a dock!! New Smyrna is one of the hidden gems on the east coast of Florida. The old downtown is bustling with shops and restaurants (and a brewery). We didn't even get over to the newer side of town near the beach and easily could have stayed there longer. One surprise while at New Smyrna was a visit from my Nephew Jeff and his wife Caren (Niece-in-Law??). They had just returned from a weekend cruise that went out of Port Canaveral and decided to stay in the area an extra day.

He's not really that short.

After New Smyrna we headed further up the coast to St. Augustine where we are spending this weekend. Just before passing Daytona Beach we spotted our first Bald Eagles of the trip. I expected to see them more in the river system and was surprised to see this one just hanging out on the beach...I guess that's what you do in Daytona.

We also passed by the bigger and newer Hi Banx as we were passing through. As they say...must be nice. I still prefer to have our smaller boat that doesn't need a crew or a small fortune to operate.

We'll save St. Augustine for another blog but will say this is a really cool town with a ton of history. The "plan" is to leave here tomorrow for Jacksonville before heading up to Fernandina Beach and Brunswick (as in Georgia!!) by Wednesday or Thursday. After that we have no real schedule, just follow spring as it moves north.

I've had some gentile reminders that we're not blogging often enough. I have no real excuse except that we're having too much fun to sit down and write something. It's a lot of work being this creative!! We have added a new feature for those of you that can't get enough of our adventures...we now have a Twitter feed!! I'm trying to get out a little blurb on the days we are traveling so you can go to the blog and follow along if interested. we are @mvchasing80

That's it for now....next post from Georgia....or South Carolina....

Key Largo to Fort Lauderdale

So we last left you heading north (east) back up the keys and toward southeast Florida. We spent a few nights back at Faro Blanco in Marathon before hitting uncharted territory. Our plan was to be in Key Largo for a few days but it turned out our friends from Green Turtle Bay, Michele & Russell, were going to be staying at a condo nearby so we stuck around a bit longer. The condo was at the famous Ocean Reef Club and even came with a fishing boat so we gave it a bit of a try....no luck but fun none the less!

It was fun to see how the "other half" live and even more fun to know this place was started by a poor insurance salesman from Cincinnati...go figure!!

After Key Largo we finally headed back toward the "mainland" with a night anchored off Sands Key in Biscayne Bay where we visited Boca Chita National park on Easter morning before heading up to Miami.

It was a pretty easy run up to Miami where we were able to set the anchor before 2:00 and relax for the afternoon. Along the way we passed Stiltsville which has a pretty colorful history if you care to check it out.

Once in Miami we anchored for the night in the old Miami Marine Stadium where they used to have boat racing and concerts in the 60's-80's and there is talk of bringing it back to life. This year the famous Miami Boat Show was held there. It's a well protected anchorage with a great view of the Miami skyline.

The old grandstands

Something you don't see everyday...

Miami at night.

After a peaceful night in Miami we were on the move Monday morning for Hollywood City Marina where we would be staying until Friday. This was a stop we had been looking forward to as it was the first chance to rent a car and do some major re-provisioning at stores we didn't have in the keys. We put a bunch of miles on that rental in 3 days but managed to have some fun in Hollywood as well.

One stop was to check out the new Margaritaville Resort which is like a big Disneyland for Parrotheads...I think Jimmy is doing alright!! There were several nice spots to dinghy to along the wall in Hollywood and I think we could have spent more time there but they needed the slip back...

Margaritaville Resort

 On Friday we left Hollywood for the grueling 8 mile run to Fort Lauderdale. Most loopers bypass downtown Ft. Lauderdale but this was a great stop and we were able to avoid traveling the AICW on the weekend when the crazies come out!! This stop is right downtown where there seems to be something going on every day.

It's amazing how they move the mega-yachts through this narrow waterway as they go upriver to the big boat repair yards. The biggest ones have a tow boat front and back to get them through the twists and turns of this tiny river.

High Priced Yachts.

 I won't say we have the smallest boat in this stretch of the river but I don't worry much about other boats hitting us with the big cats above and below to protect us.

Even with all the Mega Yacht traffic on the river here people have no issues heading out in small boats and taking their chances....I just hope they're not drinking and driving!!

We were also lucky enough to stumble into a Crawfish and Blues festival at the Downtowner restaurant not 100 yards from the boat...what are the chances!?!? I was even talked into entering the mud-bug eating contest which I lost miserably but had fun at and ate well!!

 
Well, it was nice to get an urban fix after 3 months in the keys but tomorrow (4/5) we will start making our way up the east coast moving a bit faster and spending less time hanging out...well, that's the plan anyway. We've lost our chance to get to the Bahamas this year due to weather so we'll head toward the Hudson river without much of a schedule. Tune into the tracker tomorrow to see how far we make.....