We headed up the east coast of Florida in early June. We were lucky enough to catch a night SpaceX launch from our slip in Vero Beach. They are always so impressive at night...I won't bother posting the blurry pics, just trust me. The next day we continued north and stayed at an new marina for us very near the cape. Too bad we weren't here the night before! We got secured just before we started getting weather warnings on our phones. Luckily the marina had a nice safe bar for us to take cover in. Note the 50 foot version of our boat to the right in the picture. That's us at the end.
Next day we were in Daytona and got to visit a bit with Jill's cousin who lives there. Hopefully we'll get to catch up more on the trip south. After a few more travel days we were in Jacksonville on the St. Johns River. They have a free city marina right by the football stadium and a brewery (go figure).
The trip upriver (south) from Jacksonville starts out with a very wide river but narrows dramatically after Lake George.
There are not many marinas for bigger boats the father upriver you travel but we found a couple in the towns of Palatka and Welaka before we landed in DeLand. In Palatka we found Angels Dinner reported to be the oldest dinner in Florida.
When we got to the St. Johns Marina in DeLand we found it to be a nice secure spot where we felt comfortable leaving the boat for a couple of months. It seems many of the boats there don't get out of the marina much but the people were friendly and the price was great!
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| Spanish Moss on the anchor |
DeLand is only about 3 1/2 hours from the house so we were able to travel to the boat every couple of weeks and get some projects done like waxing. We also found they have a Central Florida Ale Trail with lots of brewery's close by for after work....how nice! One of the projects was brightening up the sun on the back of the boat. It's amazing how much it's faded here in the Sunshine State.
Back at the house we have had some projects too. Jill agreed to help out our friends who are opening a Brewpub in Naples called Southern Latitudes. They will have 72 beers on tap and each sign is hand painted by Jill...
Below is a shot after we test hung them but before all the trim is installed.
My little artist also decided we needed something to hang our pool towels on and came up with a creative plan...I got to build it but she did the painting! I think she has a future!! (Any advice Tim?)
So that's been what we've been up to the past couple of months. This morning my sister Kathy flew in to join us for her retirement cruise while bringing the boat back to Ft. Myers. We plan to start moving on Sunday the 2nd so check out the tracker. As always, dependent on weather....wait...the Atlantic is starting to wake up now?? This should be fun....
And finally, from the "you don't see that everyday" file. While enjoying a brewery stop in Sanford Fl these fellas popped out of the restaurant next door!!
Till next time....
