St Augustine

Another long day on the books, so again we were up before the sun. We had two bascule bridges (bridges that have to raise for us to get underneath) before the sun was even up, but then we were on our way! Unfortunately we were fighting a weird counter current for most of the day so we didn't make good time, but we were still in before dark. We opted to take a mooring ball at the city mooring field as we had had horror stories about the strong current through this area. And at $20/day, a mooring ball is hard to turn down!

We spent two days here while the mayhem of Memorial Day on the water was going down and we loved it! We had skipped St Augustine on our trip down because we didn't have a dinghy, so we were eager to see what we had missed!

Two days of sightseeing was just not enough - it is beautiful here and there is so much to do! We toured the Fort, visited the local brewhouse and distillery (!), walked through the quaint downtown streets, walked around Flagler College and most importantly, took in lots of the small local ice cream shops! We had perfect weather and we walked the whole town, at least twice.
It was a bit overcrowded since it was a holiday, but we were so close to the boat that when we got fed up with crowds, we headed back to our sanctuary and enjoyed some peace and quiet before going in again.

The nightlife here is fantastic as well - outdoor bars and restaurants everywhere. And lots and lots of live music. It was our kind of crowd - a bit older and more subdued, not lively college kids and with the weather being so settled we really enjoyed our evening in. And Koa loved that the area was so dog friendly. He accompanied us to dinner and for a drinks and loved smelling all the other dogs who had come before.



Touring the Castillo de San Marco:

And the new local distillery:

And of course we supported the cause!

We all enjoyed this stop and it was great to recharge our mental batteries after a long day on the water. Tomorrow, back to where it all started - Jacksonville Beach!

Daytona

After a long motor the day before, we were happy to take a day off and tour around Daytona. With dog in tow, we headed into town. We were welcomed with open arms here - the marina was happy to have our dinghy and let us tie up on their fuel dock for no charge and fill some of our water jugs. We walked a few blocks to the "downtown" strip where we cruised a few blocks worth of restaurants, odds and ends shops and antique stores. We were only window shopping mind you, but it was great! Koa loved it, there were plenty of parks right on the water front and we had a great morning just checking out the area. We also happened to notice a small baseball field right on the waterfront. A bit of research told us that this was a minor league team for the Reds and that they were playing that evening!

We all headed back to the boat to rest up and avoid the harsh afternoon heat and then Brad and I headed back in for the evening game. It was a perfect night for baseball! We gorged ourselves on hot dogs and crack jacks and, to top it off, it was Thirty Thursday! The best thing about minor league games is their affordability - food and drinks are regularly priced, not like going to the major league games! It was a great evening and I was so glad we had stumbled upon this opportunity! It made the whole stop worth it!

Tomorrow we head North to St Augustine. We didn't realize until yesterday that this was Memorial Day weekend and we had NO desire to be on the ICW for that, so we were hoping to make it to the safety of St Augustine where we would sit tight while all the weekend warrior boaters were out.

Space Coast

When we left Ft Pierce we headed inside up the ICW towards Melbourne, FL. It was a long day, but the wind was on our beam and provided some wind in our sails and a nice cool breeze throughout the day. We were able to jib sail a bit to help speed us along and take some of the strain off of the motor. We arrive in Melbourne around dinner time and were too tired to go in so we just enjoyed a peaceful evening anchored out in the ICW.

The following morning, we moved the big boat over closer to town and took Koa in for a much needed walk and to take a look around at "historic" downtown Melbourne. They have done a great job restoring the downtown area and there are many small shops and restaurants lining main street. The only problem was, unlike most Florida downtowns, there were no outside eateries. This meant that with Koa in tow, we were quite limited. After walking from one end to the other, we were ready for some lunch and so settled on this little casbah restaurant that had a guy playing some jazz on the saxophone on the patio. It was a perfect day for lunch outside and the ambiance was fantastic! We relaxed and stayed for quite a bit enjoying the scene and our delicious lunches.

After lunch and some lingering about, we headed back to the boat where we upped anchor and made our way just 10 miles North to Eau Gallie. Brad's aunt and uncle live here and we will be meeting up with them tomorrow for lunch.


Brad's aunt and uncle picked us up at a nearby dinghy dock and we all went out to lunch together - they are fantastic people and we always love stopping in to see them. And Carol always makes us delicious baked goods!! We had a great lunch together catching up on our travels and theirs and before we knew it, it was well into the afternoon. Time flies, and all that....
They were gracious enough to chauffeur us around to a few places so we were able to run a few errands before dropping us back off at the dinghy. Another fantastic visit in the books!
When we got back to the boat, we realized what a gorgeous day it was on the water and decided to take advantage of the evening wind with a sunset sail.

We upped anchor, threw out the jib and putzed our way North - not really sure where we would end up. We sailed for about three hours and decided just after sunset to stop and anchor, just South of Cocoa Beach. We hadn't made it far and we hadn't moved very quickly, but sometimes an evening with the sails up is just what the doctor ordered. And it had put at least a few miles dent into our trip to Titusville the following day.

The next day was just a motor - no wind, very hot high sun. But at least it was a short trip. We made it to Titusville in short order and went in with Koa to explore the area. A lot of boaters stop here because it is very affordable. And while we did find it to be affordable, we didn't find it to be cruiser friendly. The only anchorage has been turned into a mooring field (read: money maker) and there is a fee to tie up to their dinghy dock. The downtown is cute, but very small (2 blocks by 4 blocks) and there really isn't much going on. Perhaps there are more charming factors to this area if you have a car, but for the transient boater, it was a bust.

Up before the sun!

The following morning we were up before the sun to head North to Daytona. This was one of our longer days, at 50 miles of water to cover. Moving only about 5 knots, this is a full 10 hour day. It was a beautiful day though and there were manatees and dolphins everywhere!! And there was a shuttle launch from Port Canaveral that we got first row tickets for as we motored up the ICW. A bit disconcerting for sure as the Coast Guard was on the radio all morning warning mariners of falling debris!


Playful Manatees:

We made excellent time and anchored just South in Daytona around 4pm. Tomorrow we will head in to see what the area has to offer!

Spinnaker Sailing

So after five years of sailing, this is the first year we have attempted to use our spinnaker...and we love it! It is quite an eye sore with its brilliant colors, but we definitely stand out and it adds so much speed to an otherwise slow sailing, low wind day.

**Side note, for those non-sailors reading this blog: the spinnaker is a large, lightweight sail that billows out over the bow and catches more wind on the light wind days. It is mostly used for sailing with wind that is behind the beam of the boat. Oh, and they are usually bright and loud.

I have showered you with smalls photos of our spinnaker throughout this year's travels, but here are some photos designated to our days spent spinnaker sailing. I even had Brad go out in the dinghy on a particularly slow day to take some pictures of us underway! Enjoy!

Finally home!

The Gulf Stream crossing was a great day. When we got out at first light, we weren't so sure as the waves were much larger than predicted! The 2-4 foot waves predicted were in fact 8-9 foot Northerly ocean swells, coming right on our nose. Luckily, they were just swells - meaning they were large, rounded and had good spacing in between. Even though it wasn't too bad, it is still a bit daunting when you look ahead and only see a wall of water!

We mostly motor sailed the whole way home and were happy to make it in to West Palm around 5 pm that afternoon. The trip had taken longer than expected since the waves were on the nose and slowing us down quite a bit, but we made it in before dark and we were finally home!! What a relief!

We spent the next few days provisioning, catching up on laundry, getting together with old friends and just walking around the city and taking in the sights. It is quite the culture shock to go from almost barren South Bimini to the hustle and bustle of downtown West Palm!

It was great meeting up with some old friends from when we lived there a few years ago. And the best surprise of all was that we crossed paths with some sailing friends who were bringing their boat up from Key Largo to Ft. Pierce. We had met "Insatiable" on our previous trip to Georgetown two years prior and hadn't seem them in two years! They anchored right behind us and we enjoyed a night of sundowners and catching up.

The following morning, we both upped anchor and set out for Ft Pierce. It was a beautiful day sail and we even hoisted our spinnaker for most of the trip! We made it in well before dark and then got together with them again for dinner! Two nights in a row after not seeing them for so long was great!!

Tomorrow we head our separate ways again - us up the ICW to Melbourne and them to the Ft Pierce city marina, "Insatiable's" new home. But we have lots of other boaters that are also heading up to the Chesapeake and we are looking forward to crossing paths with many of them along the way!

**Side note: about 30 miles out from the Florida coast, we ran into a group of finches who decided they were going to hitch a ride with us. They landed on the deck and even in the cockpit, some of them even flying downstairs. We enjoyed our little hitch hikers and were happy to give them a lift!!

Marina = $$$

Unfortunately, due to a Low forming over us in the Bahamas, we had to spend the next few days, on and off in marinas. While we occasionally enjoy the luxury of being in a marina, we also know the toll it takes on our cruising kitty so we usually like to keep our stays to a minimum, but sometimes, due to weather or safety issues, you just have to bite the bullet and go tie up.

Our first stay was in Atlantis - a ritual we started on our first trip. We just decided to splurge and enjoy ourselves for a few days while the wind sorted itself out. We enjoyed the water park everyday, walking around and seeing the aquarium and the beautiful buildings. We even took in a comedy show and quite a few movies at the free movie theater! And of course the gambling....

And then, when the winds finally subsided enough to our liking, we had a bumpy sail over to Bimini. We were hoping to make it all the way to the States, but Subtropical Storm Ana had other plans. She was literally forming right over top of us. So while the winds clocked about four times, we pulled into a marina in South Bimini and rested up before the last stretch of open ocean.

While in Bimini, we enjoyed some beautiful beaches and soaked in the last few Bahamian sunsets. We walked Koa all over the island everyday and even took an afternoon to go on a tour of the Shark Lab, which is featured in Shark Week on the discovery channel!

We enjoyed our stay in Bimini, but were antsy to get back to the States. So as soon as the winds lightened and the Tropical Storm moved farther North, we headed across the Gulf Stream towards the land o' plenty.

Normans Cay

We have only stopped here once before and Brad still talks about how they were the best conch fritters he has ever had! Well it looked a bit different this time around. There are definitely big changes coming to Normans Cay. They have completely dredged out an area for a marina on the Southeastern tip of land and they have fenced in the entire air strip - which has been repaved, widened and lined.

It was sad for us to see these changes as we had really liked this island on our previous visit. A new marina is good for the economy and looks as if it will have great protection in all winds. But they have completely ruined the Bahamanian sense of the island. The air stop being fenced in has created quite the issue too with getting to the restaurant with the aforementioned conch fritters. And the restaurant does not have the same owner and we have heard rumors that the prices there are astronomical - try $25 for a burger!!

Needless to say we were not impressed with the changes and were happy we had experience the island before all these new economical big shots ruined it all....I mean, changed it all.

After the island tour, we jumped back in the dinghy and went out to snorkel the sunken plane that we had heard so much about. This island used to be the home of a famous drug runner, Leder, until the island was raided by the FBI. There are still bullet holes in the houses that remain on the island and this sunken plane is just one of the many victims of the drug war here. We thought it would be similar to the other planes we had snorkeled throughout the islands, just a small cessna or the like. But it was in fact, a much larger cargo plane. And it was sitting in only 10 feet of water! It was amazing! We were astonished with the size and the coral and fish around it were just the icing on the cake. This plane alone was worth the stop here!

Exuma Land and Sea Park

The next part of the Exuma chain is the protected Exuma Land and Sea Park. It is a no take, no kill zone where visitors can experience untouched reefs and a large variety of tropical fish. And the largest lobster you will see!! We went somewhat quickly through the remainder of the Exuma chain since we have experienced a number of times. We stopped at each of our favorite islands and spent a day snorkeling and swimming the beaches and then moved on.

First stop: Warderick Wells. This is the park headquarters island and has lots of great snorkeling sights as well as protected anchorages. One of my favorite snorkeling sights (a drift dive on the East side of the island) is here so this was a must stop for us. We waited until the tide was slack and then started our snorkeling adventure.

We were not disappointed - large parrotfish and grouper were everywhere. Beautiful, colorful coral and huge lobster - just leering at you from safely in the holes. Since this is a protected park, these lobsters have grown very large since there is no one hunting them. And they are brave, sometimes just walking about on the bottom, taunting the hungry snorkelers who come by. We also saw a couple of nurse sharks and some stingrays floating by us. It was a great day and by the time we headed back to the boat we were exhausted from fighting the current, our lips were cracked from all the salt water and we had permanently etched outlines of our goggles on our faces. But we were happy!

From Warderick we headed straight to Hawksbill Cay, our favorite stop on all of the Exumas. If you have read the blog before you have heard us talk about this little gem hidden in amongst all the more popular cruising stops. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was another boat in our serene anchorage! A very large yacht....taking up most of the small anchorage there. Of course these large boats don't mean lots of people and as it turned out, other than the 6 crew members we spotted there were only two people on the boat. So, even though we had to witness the "eyesore" of this mega-yacht in our anchorage, we still had the beach to ourselves.

Look how tiny our boat looks!

From Hawksbill, we made the short hour long sail up to Shroud Cay. We had never stopped here and had heard great things so were eager to try it out. We anchored in amongst the mooring balls and dinghied up to the Northern part of the island where there was a trail through the mangroves over to the East beach. We dinghied slowly through the mangroves, realizing that this island was similar to Conception, which we had visited only a few weeks before. Beautiful, pristine mangrove waters flowed over to an even more pristine ocean beach....all to ourselves! Unfortunately, as soon as we got to the beach side, we saw a large black cloud quickly approaching us and realized we had better get back to the boat before the squall caught up to us!


Brad enjoying the beach before the looming squall hits us

The mangrove dinghy path:

We made it back to the boat minutes before the squall, which only lasted for a half hour. It was a nice boat washdown and then we were free to enjoy the island for the remainder of the evening.

Tomorrow we leave the Sea Park and head to Normans Cay to check out the construction we have heard is going on...a new marina in the works?!

Staniel Cay

We love Staniel Cay! We always have such a great time here and there is so much to do. From the quaint little town to the beautiful beaches, there is something to fill every minute of our day.

Yesterday we headed over to meet up with friends of ours from Georgetown. From their boat, we swam over to Thunderball Grotto - the famous grotto where a scene from James Bond's "Thunderball" was filmed. It is a beautiful grotto, lit from above filled with beautiful coral and fish just waiting to be fed! The current really rushes, so we had to wait for slack tide to head in, and of course it's always crowded since there is such a small window to experience it. But we headed in, trying to avoid getting slapped in the head with someone else's flipper, swam to the middle of the cave where there weren't too many people and I opened up my bag of peas and let the fishes come to me! They are quick to swarm anyone that comes in bearing gifts of food and we were not disappointed. Such an amazing sight to see these guys swimming all around you!

After we had our fill of fish feeding, we swam back over to our friend's boat for some snacks and good conversation. Catching up with old friends while enjoying the sea breeze in the cockpit of their large catamaran is not a bad way to pass an afternoon!

Today, we headed over to pig beach to take on the infamous swimming pigs! We are always a bit leery of these mammals as their large hooves have come close to taking out our inflatable dinghy and they are not shy about attempting to take off your fingers while you are still holding that piece of lettuce. This time, we waited until there were other boats there on the beach and we landed our dinghy far down on the other end and walked over to the action. They immediately spotted us and came running. I freaked out! I threw all the food on the sand and backed up right in to Brad! When they still came over towards us, I walked a bit into the water hoping that would deter them....what a blonde moment - they are called the swimming pigs for goodness sake!!!

They finally realized we didn't have any more treats and were happy to just munch of the veggies I had strewn about the beach. We both finally relaxed and were able to get some great pictures of them and to get close to the little piglets that were running about.

We opted to fill our afternoon with one more fish feeding grotto adventure and then we headed back for a lazy afternoon on the beach with Koa. Tomorrow we head into the Exuma Land and Sea Park.