In the morning, we were ready to leave. We pushed off from Riviera Beach Marina a bit apprehensive since we had difficultly docking a few days ago. Locals said that incoming tide is not as rough as going tide so we planned our departure time accordingly.  We also had to wait for a cruise ship to come in from the Bahamas it blocked the whole ICW channel. We could feel a current as we left so we powered up the boat more than normal – Better to rock a boat than to hit a boat! Varoooom, we were out of there and one our way to the lands if bridges.

We have 14 bridges to go under or have lifted for us today.  We decided to break up our trip to Hollywood into two days since you do not know if you can time the bridges that must be opened.  You may have to wait 30 minutes or so.  More beautiful houses and the ICW is really a canal with small lakes you go through.

The marina we stayed in was Lighthouse Point Marina.  They had a Tiki Bar (finally) and a pool.  It was nice and had pretty good food. Live music on Sunday night.

We decided to stay an extra day due to weather.  We were then treated to a double rainbow. One photo we got looks like our boat is at the end of the rainbow!

The cruise from Stuart to our next landing point was beautiful.  Last year we had driven through a nature preserve just north of Jupiter, FL.  Now we are seeing it from our boat.  Lots of mangrove trees and birds. There are also many beautiful homes on the waterway here. We saw a cute little tug boat that would look good at Boone’s Landing.

In Jupiter, we got to see the lighthouse and experience the first of many bridges we will need to go under or have raised for us.  We also saw a few Steeler fans along the way.

We had checked the weather and the winds were going to pick up again so we were looking to spend two nights at our next stop.  We tried to get into one marina that had a few restaurants and pool but they were full.  So, we journey farther south to Riviera Beach City Marina.  It was a bit windy and there was a strong out bound tidal current.  It took us two attempts to get into the slip.  We bumped one of the posts a bit, well a lot, but landed OK in the end with only a couple scratches. Any landing is a good landing. Now time for a beer!

Riviera City Marina was a nice place.  However, we expected a Tiki Bar or something nearby.  It appears that the facility is under development.  The marina and surrounding area has been upgraded and there is a “Marina Village” that is just being developed.  We were lucky to get a local pizza place to deliver and then there was market on Saturday where we were able to get a rack of ribs that were very good.  We also found a couple boating discount stores to mill through.  We were parked by a fishing boat named “Right Hook II”.  They went out twice a day drift fishing.  We thought this would be fun with a group. One day they really hauled in a load the other two days not so much.

Next couple of days we moved on south.   It was a bit cloudy out but we had a rainbow behind us when we pushed off.  We had our first set of dolphins play in our boat wake.  Our first stop was in Vero beach at a private club marina that allowed transient boaters.  It was nice but no shops or restaurants within walking distance.

We headed out the next day and watched a women’s rowing team practice.  We tried not to wake them.

We had a nice day to cruise.  We passed Stuart, FL and were now in “New Waters”!  We found another small private club marina to stay at.  It was very nice and in a private community so it was quite and good for a one night stay over.  We saw a beautiful moon one day before full moon but the photos do not do it justice.

We headed out from Titusville with only 20 miles to go before we docked in Cocoa Village, FL.  We only traveled 7 mph and it was a nice sunny day.  We could see the NASA launch building for many miles. The Indian River is wide here and it is like cruising a lake.

There is a front coming through over the weekend so we decided to spend a few days.  Since it was nice out we found a roof top restaurant for dinner. Then we found a great ice cream shop for desert.

The next couple of days were rainy and cloudy, but we got out and visited the shops and antique stores in Cocoa Village.  Chris found a new addition for the boat.  It was strung for a left handed, so he had to re-string it since he plays right handed.

It was amazing how windy it got (approx. 25 mph sustained) the boats in the marina were bouncing all over. After a couple days the winds calmed down a bit and we enjoyed one last happy hour on the boat!

It started out as a cloudy day when we left Daytona heading to Titusville, FL.  But as we traveled along it became nice and sunny.  We reached Titusville Municipal Marina just after lunch.

We had stopped here before on our way north and had to go back to the Tiki Bar under the bridge which is a short walk away. They have the best jalapeno poppers.  They are homemade and very delicious! We ordered a second round because they were so good. While we were there, we noticed a crowd hanging around waiting by the fishing pier  and asked what’s up?  We were told that they were part of a Shrimp Lottery.  Every night during shrimp season they draw numbers to determine who gets to go onto the pier first and pick their spot.  Apparently, there had been some knock down drag out fights last year so the bar came up with this lottery. We walked the pier and talked to some of the folks to learn a bit more about what they were doing.

There were a couple boats up on the ground at a nearby park.  We noticed them during a walk we took.

Happy New Year – Daytona!

It was another nice day for cruising, after a week in St. Augustine.  Along the way to Daytona there were several docks we saw damaged and boats up on the banks.

We arrived early afternoon and it was time for Happy Hour!   There was a small bar outside at the marina that we had a couple of drinks at.  We saw a dinner cruise boat come in while we were there.

We spent New Year’s at our friend’s, Tommy, winter home over in Leesburg, FL.  Of course, you have to start early if you are going to drink all day!  There was a nice party at his community club house. We had a good time and once midnight hit they all scattered.

Tom’s daughter sent him a fire stick.  Chris helped him install it and we could watch a couple of movies on New Year’s Day after we went to a flea market.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­The cruse to St. Augustine was a beautiful one.  Lots of nice homes and sunshine along the way.

We arrived at the marina and fueled up and got right to our slip.  The city was all lit up for Christmas!  We made sure that Paraiso was also decorated a bit for the season. We put up a large stocking (thanks Linnea!) for Santa to fill.

Two days before Christmas, we decided to hike out to the grocery store which we thought was only 1.2 miles away.  It turned out to be 2.2 miles away.  We were thankful to have the rolling cooler Chris’ mom, Shirley gave us.  It made the trip back a lot easier as well as the stop at the local watering hole about half way back to the boat!  On Christmas Eve, St. Augustine was till buzzing.  We strolled around and stopped at a few outside bars to eat, drink and be merry!

The day before we planned to leave it was amazing the fog that came in and stayed all day!  We hoped that this would not be how it looked the next day.

Florida – Finally!

With groggy heads, we left our new friends, Scott and Connie (Easy Living) and continued south to Florida.   We had to time our departure so that we cruised on the up waters of the tide.  The marina we were heading to needs to be dredged and so you must go in at high tide. It started out rainy and cloudy with a small amount of fog but then cleared a bit.  We passed more damage created by Hurricane Matthew.  The Fernandina City Marina was closed to all boat traffic.  This was sad because we only spent one night there on the way north and had planned to spend at least two nights here.

Amelia Island Yacht Basin was next on the ICW.  They have a nice bar/restaurant on site so we could grab a few drinks and something to eat.  We met the general manager and he is from Kentucky!

They were not kidding when they said that they need to dredge.  Low tide was at 9:00 AM and there was only 2 feet of water under our boat!  We had to wait 2.5 hours before there was enough water to get out of the marina.  They are supposed to begin to dredge in a few weeks.  Since we had a late start we only cruised 30 miles to The Beach Marina.  We wanted to refuel but they ran out of diesel.  They had a nice restaurant and we could see our boat from inside.

Heading South!

Our push off from Beaufort had to be timed so that we reached an area called Fields Cut at high tide or close to high tide. A troller Easy Living followed us on rising tides.  It was cloudy and a bit chilly.  We are chasing 80 degrees! We saw our first “River Boat”.

We arrived at Thunderbolt Marina with no issues.  A second boat (Easy Living) pulled in behind us.  We met Scott and Connie who are also doing the loop.  They are traveling south before they head north in the spring.  They said they were glad they followed us through the Fields Cut area. Connie was a bit worried about the passage. Scott was a navy ship pilot and we picked up some good nav tips if we ever get a chance to pilot a 1000 footer or run a landing craft aground!

The next morning HELL’S GATE, we again had to time our departure.  Hell’s Gate is  where we got stuck last year because we did not pay attention to the tides. This passage is only a 100 yards long. We made a scary 5 mile detour outside to the Atlantic only to arrive on the other side of the pass, a distance a NFL punter could make. This time we wanted to arrive at Hell’s Gate at high tide.  We traveled with Easy Living and pushed off at 9:10 AM.  It was cloudy and some fog was present but you could see about ¼ mile. High tide was at 11:25 AM.  We arrived at Hell’s Gate at 11:20AM. We followed Easy Living and had no issues.  Amazing how easy it is to do when you pay attention to tide tables!  We arrived at a marina called Killkenny and it was nice and quiet. In our stays, this is the second worse docks. There was a tree that had several white birds in it. Pretty cools since it was right near our boat.

Both Easy Living and we headed out about 8 AM.  It was rainy and foggy the whole way to Brunswick, GA. Not much to see during this day trip.  We arrived at Brunswick and found out at check in that they have free beer in the club house!  It was Pabst on draft but we had to try it out.  It was 2:00 AM before we decided it was time to hit the hay!

Finally, we dropped the boat into the water on December 15^th and found all our batteries were dead. It took 24 hours to recharge so we began to head south on December 16^th.  It felt great to be back on the boat and cruising.  We had to get use to watching channel markers and watching out for crab pots!

We saw some damage from hurricane Matthew as we cruised along.

Our first stop – Beaufort, SC.  This is a great little town to stop at since the marina is in the historic downtown area.  The shops were all decorated for Christmas.  We stopped by the Common Grounds to see if our neighbor, Jan had any new paintings up for sale.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that she had more paintings in the café than the last time we were there. Jan is very talented and worth a stop to Beaufort  just to review her work! We will head out for Savannah, GA next.  Our goal is to be in St. Augustine for Christmas.