The Ancient City

 St. Augustine bills itself as "The Ancient City", the oldest city in America, founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers. We arrived here at the Rivers Edge marina yesterday about 12:30 after a 30 mile cruise up from Daytona. The waters around here are know for heavy currents and big tide swings. Add a little wind and a narrow little fairway at the marina and well... glad to be in the slip safely.

Left at day break from Dayton hoping to reach the dock at slack tide to take current out of the equation.

Lots of Spanish colonial architecture here.

 

Racing Up To Dayton

 "the Bles-sing!" made the 87 miles to Dayton in about 10 hours. There was great scenery and one adventure along the way. The ICW was pretty busy. We are renting a slip from another boater in Charleston, who is boating south until July, and just happened to pass them. We hailed them on 16 and talked for a few minutes! 

We got a face dock at the marina, very welcome after a long day. We just slide right up to the dock and home for the night!

During the trip we happened up on a sad sight, like passing a car wreck on the highway. We noticed boats were stopped ahead of us and when we slowly passed it was because of a dead manatee that had probably been struck by a boat's prop. They are such gentle creatures ... makes us want to heed those "slow speed manatee area" signs even more. Out of respect for the family we didn't take pictures.

Adventure of the day. As we approached a known shoaling area at Ponce de Leon inlet on the Indian River we were being extra cautious about our depth. Just as we got to the crucial spot a big sailboat ground and stuck in front of us. There was just enough room to slide by off her port side so we kept moving. The sailboat, in the effort to get unstuck, put up another sail and started moving toward us. We gunned the engines and narrowly got by her. The sailboat ended up stuck again and we heard the crew calling tow boat US for help later on.

Big open waters and heavy wind made for a  bumpy ride most of the way to Daytona.

Ponce de Leon inlet

 

Melbourne Florida

Travelled about 30 miles from Vero Beach Marina to Melbourne Harbor Marina on the Indian River/ICW. Short day and very low stress. Docking was a little tight but no biggie. We were safely in our slip by 1:30 which gave us time for a walk and some work.  The marina is very nice and well run.

Tomorrow is a big day around 90 miles to Daytona!

Boy did this make us think of home. Nice little sandy beach on the Indian River.

Wabasso Bridge

Vero Beach

 We are at the Vero Beach City marina and are staying until Monday the 26th. Vero Beach is a great little town with a pretty beach and nice downtown area. The marina and surrounding neighborhood are very quiet.  People at the marina are very nice and extremely helpful. It has been a great place to do some planning. Several loopers have stopped in the marina on the way north. Even had a chance to catch up with people we met along the way.

A couple stopped by as they were strolling down the dock. Turns out they lived aboard their boat for 10 years! Most of it in the Bahamas where they owned a marina in Marsh Harbor. We had a great little visit. When we told them we were doing some planning he just chuckled and said, "We plan and God laughs". How true! Can't wait to see what the future holds for "the Bles-sing!" and her crew.

Nice homes here in Vero. Starting to look a bit more like the deep south as palm trees give way to stately old trees like these.

Hutchison Island to Stuart, Ft Pierce and into Vero Beach!

Storms were predicted so we had to violate the looper warning of "don't boat in Florida on the weekend" in order to get into Vero Beach on Sunday ahead of storms starting Monday. We made pretty short work of the 33 miles up from Hutchison Island because we easily got under all four bridges along our way. Busy, busy traffic day but no problems. We arrived into Vero Beach city marina about 2:30 and filled up with fuel and pumped out.

And Halleluiah! Best slip in a while and easily backed in. Dockhands are true pros and helped tie us off and hook up our electric.

Everyone looked like they were having a great time on the way up. Sandy beach ... ICW style!

  We are going to ride out storms here for the week and we are happy to do so. We need a break and are resting up, watching it rain and planning our next adventure!

Lantana to Hutchison Island

We lost count of all the bridges.  We think we went under a total of around 28 bridges. Guessing about half we had to request an opening. Anyway, on Saturday April 17 we went 46 miles (long day) to what we were hoping was going to be a wonderful Marriott resort and marina. Wan wa... not so nice but ok. It featured an over the hill hotel, a tiny pool full of drunks who never got out of the pool (and you know what that means) and a totally exposed marina. Winds blew between 20 and 25 as we docked. We got pinned against a piling as we tried to tie off. On this day... we were the show.

Several people on the dock came out to help and we eventually got her tied off. Boating folks are so nice and always eager to help. Next door lady tried to make us feel better by telling us we worked together like a well oiled machine. Right. One guy even offered us his personal slip in New York on the Hudson. Looking out for the public safety at local marinas I'm guessing.

No pictures... not worth it.

Lantana Florida Anchorage

 We moved 33 miles on Friday April 16 to a nice anchorage near the Lantana Florida bridge just south of West Palm. Happy to report that it was an uneventful night! We were anxious to make another push north to Hutchison Island and were up and out of there by 7:30.

Beautiful sunset in Lantana helped make for a peaceful night's sleep, along with this...

That is an image from our anchor alarm on Jane's phone. The black dot is our anchor and the gray part is tracking of our boat as it swings around the anchor. If it goes out of the circle an obnoxious alarm goes off telling you your anchor is dragging. Then, you get to jump out of bed and see what is going on. This was from the morning after and we were never close to the boundary! 

42 Years Later...

 ... and we are back at Ft. Lauderdale Beach for spring break! Why do all the spring breakers look so young?

We arrived at the city marina in Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday April 13 and enjoyed 3 nights in the glitz and glamor of one of south Florida's hot spots. Seems like every boat is a center console with 3 or 4 engines on the back. All of them blaring Latin music with wiggling youngsters on the bow. And there are humongous yachts everywhere. In marinas, in front of mansions, cruising down the ICW. 

This is one of the smaller ones... 

We even got to go to dinner with Uncle Ben Goebel who was in town on bidness.  He treated us to a great meal at Roco's Tacos complete with a pitcher of margaritas! Thanks Ben!

Looking for Poor People

 Boaters can skirt Biscayne Bay and go north off the coast or take the ICW through Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. We chose the ICW to see the sights and are glad we did! From our vantage point there are only millionaires and billionaires the entire run. Not a poor person to be found as papa Charles would say. The yachts and homes are indescribable. Unbelievable really.  On our way from Boca Chita to Las Olas Marina (Ft Lauderdale City Marina on Las Olas Blvd.) we travelled about 41 miles on Tuesday April 13th and went through 14 bridges! On the river system you wait for locks and dams. On the ICW you wait for bridges to open for you.

Just one of many breath-taking homes along the ICW. What do these people do for a living?

Boca Chita State Park

After the night before and facing a 4th night on the hook we were looking for a secure place to hunker down and feel safe. We planned on reaching an anchorage with a beautiful view of  the Miami skyline but storms were predicated to hit about the time we could get there, not a great plan. So... what to do? Jane to the rescue. In her research she noticed a place called Boca Chita State Park that has a very small harbor with a wall that boats can tie off on. No power, no problem. Bingo! It was about an hour short of Miami so it looked like we could make it before another round of storms. Turned out to be perfect!

Our little shelter from the storm had its own little lighthouse! 

Sunday Was Not Fun Day

 We decided to move on from Shell Key on Sunday April 11 and went about 33 miles to Barnes Sound south of Biscayne Bay for our 3rd night in a row at anchor. Great trip to a pretty and secluded setting.  We were aware of a storm to the north and thought it would miss us... it did not. Just as we were finishing pork steaks on the grill and enjoying Sunday night jazz all hell broke loose. Driving rain, thunder boomers and 50 mph winds hit us out of nowhere. We started our engines and eased the boat up on the anchor to give a little help because we didn't want to risk it dragging and ending up in the nearby mangroves. So we stood there together at the helm with rain and hail in our face for a couple of hours and all was good ... and wet.

Ripped the isinglass out of the front and yanked this baby right off our roof. We feel lucky though.

It was scary and made us appreciate our time in marinas!

Batten Down The Hatches! 

Wish we would have seen this sooner. See the last line? The part that says 50 knots? That equals 57 mph.

On The Move

We had a wonderful 5 weeks in Marlin Bay! Yesterday we headed north on the ICW for 32 miles to an anchorage off of a little island called Shell Key just off of Islamorada. Our plan is to work our way up the ICW staying 4 nights  on the hook as we approach Miami. That will take us through Miami on Monday so we can avoid the crazy boating that goes on there during the weekend. Winds are around 15 knots so we are blowing around a bit but the scenery is wonderful.

Going to go for a dinghy ride today to a nearby state park on Lignumvitae Key. We may stay here another night or go up 10 miles to Buttonwood  off of Key Largo.

Channel 5 Bridge - one of the few ways to go from the Gulf to the Atlantic along the ICW

The ICW up through the Keys  is very shallow. We passed through this channel yesterday. It is no more than 6 feet deep and around 40 feet wide. No problems though.