Week 16 We have a schedule.... of sorts

sunset in Fort Pierce
That was a mighty big fish
big fish still moving around

So, if you are a member of the AGLCA one of the first thing they advise, schedules while boating are meant to be broken due to all the unknowns. While we have never been people to schedule much of anything, we thought maybe some type of time line would give us some focus. So here it is, tomorrow we leave Fort Pierce and travel to Stuart (a whopping 25 mile trip) there we shall tie up for a month and consider our southern bound trip complete for this winter. From there we will have 2-3 weeks to travel North back to Jacksonville where we will have some work done to the boat (that's about 250 miles). We will then go home for a couple of weeks while the boat is being hauled out and work done. Once we return, we will then have 4 weeks give or take, to travel to the AGLCA rendezvous in Norfolk VA (2nd week of May) that is a 720 mile trip to ICW mile marker 0. We are also planning to do the Dismal Swamp this time around. We will be in Norfolk for 1 week (scheduled). From there we continue north. The only other stop we really would like to do is Washington DC. While there are many other stop overs we hope to hit, these are the big ones. We figure we will be at NYC or on the Hudson River sometime in June.

So this seems to be the goal, for now, and the immediate one is Stuart tomorrow! We shall see how this works for us, stay tuned.

Fort Pierce great stop over plan on a Friday/Saturday stay

And entertainment as well
all kinds of fruits,vegies,pastry and breads,plants and flowers
lots of food mostly mexican, cuban and BBQ cooked to order
AHHH crusty bread

WOW more than just a farmers market (Sat-8am to 12noon) Lots of crafters with unique products. Food galore! very nice day, traveling with a pet? you will blend right in. Its an easy walk right into downtown many resturants and stores. If your looking for a supermarket its a taxi ride away. We will be here 1 more day, tomorrow we will look at the charts to plot out where where we will head to next, looks like it will be Stuart which is a jump off for the Bahamas. We will not be heading there this year, that is the plan for next winter though.

Melbourne to Fort Pierce

This is an island complete with firepits and picnic tables for boaters to enjoy
got 3 of them there now if i can catch them out of the water
Cocoa beach Pier

We headed out of Titusville on Thursday traveled 50 miles to Melbourne it was a beautiful day to travel. Spent the night at Melbourne Harbor had a late lunch (meal of the day) at Ickabods right at the marina great food! Went back to the boat for drinks and met up with a very nice couple from California who spent a couple of months at Pope Island in Ma. we ended up on their boat (named 5 o'clock) for docktails it was a pleasant evening. We both left the next morning, us heading for Fort Pierce and they are booked for a month in Stuart.

Traveling today we had dolphins playing in our wake on and off most of the day, they are so fun to watch and very difficult to photograph.

We will be here for 3 days and then on to Stuart/Jupiter area not sure where yet we will just take it day to day.

Week 15 Titusville Tornados? & Kennedy Space Center

Yesterday we visited the Space Center it was a nice day spent with Ashley and 68 degrees! But today sadly, we went to Orlando so Ashley could fly back home. We had hoped to do a bit more with her but timing her departure due to incoming storms in New England cut her trip a bit short. And as luck would have it was in the upper 70's today however a storm was brewing and by 6pm it was very windy very rainy, thunder and lightening and the threat of tornado's eekkkk! as it turned out no tornado's turned up here but it was still a bit scary! They did spot some tornado's 1 was in Cocoa Beach and we had been there earlier in the day. It is still raining but we hope to leave tomorrow heading to Melbourne then to Fort Pierce, we have reservations at the City marina for 3 days as they have their Seafood Festival on Saturday and the Farmers Market on Sunday along with crafters selling their wares. From their who knows where we shall land next. Pictures to follow once we move as downloading here is much to time consuming.
A special thank you goes out to Chip for taking care of the house and dog and to Ron and Nancy for the special time spent with Ashley and transporting her to and from the airport. Thank You all!

Daytona Beach

Ashley enjoying some sun.
Leaving St Augustine behind
Memorial Bridge entering Daytona Beach


What was to be a 1 day stop over ended up 3 days do to an issue with oil pressure gauges 1 day and wind the next. Sunday we head out to Titusville to visit the Space Center.

Week 14 St Augustine Fl

Ashley is now aboard she got into Jacksonville on Sat 15th we spent some time at Jacksonville Landing had lunch shopping etc. The due to weather and the florida coast RR bridge we didn't leave until Tuesday. We (especially ME) were more than ready to move on southward. We hooked up with another boat while waiting for our 1st bridge opening and since we were going through that problem area we had on the way in, Jim asked them if they would like to take the lead. (Figuring they would be more familiar with this area than we are.) Funny, they ended up being from Massachusetts too (Barnstable) and they are gold loopers. That means they have completed the loop. We ended up following them the whole day as we were both scheduled at the same marina in St Augustine. It was a very nice traveling day still cool, low 60's but mostly sunny.

We will be here for 2 nights as it looks to be a great town to spend some time. Tomorrow we will leave here and head into Daytona Beach.

Week13 Jacksonville Ortega River

Installing new heat/AC pump

We are still in Jacksonville and our wait for our daughter just got longer. She was due to arrive tomorrow (wed) however as in most of the waiting we do, yes its weather related. Providence is due to get 12-18" of snow tonight and into tomorrow, her flight has been canceled so we rescheduled her to arrive here (hopefully) Saturday. Its unfortunate her birthday is Thursday but she has been spending a good amount of time with her aunt and uncle in Barrington RI and today my sister took her for a manicure and pedicure, something she really enjoyed. We will see you in a few days Happy Birthday Sweetpea!

We are at the Ortega Yacht Club and luckily we booked it for a week as we got a great deal on it. And the extra day is only .90/ft including electric, can't beat that!

Today since we had rented a car we had a chance to check out the area a bit and do shopping for boat supplies. Jim also wanted to do an oil change and install a new pump for the heating and air conditioning, the other one was original to the boat and just wasn't performing as it should. So having a car to pickup the 10 gallons of new oil needed made it way easier. And of course its not an outing without that trip to West Marine, we needed a ChartKit for the Florida East Coast and the Keys. So tomorrow while jim has the floor apart working on the engines and doing the oil change I shall make myself scarce.....laundry and provisioning.

Oh, I almost forgot, to anyone planning on staying here the dockmaster puts on a cookout on the 2nd Saturday of the month which was the day after we arrived a nice meet and greet.