January – February 2015
Yes we are back in the swing of things.
We left Green Cove Springs on the last day of 2014 for our
shake-down run. We find some minor
things but Gary sorted those out lickety-split!
We spent the night on a free dock at The Outback Crab Shack
on a little creek off the St Johns River. After a great meal of deep fried
everything (fish, shrimp, clams, scallops and calamari) we enjoyed the
fireworks from our fly bridge.
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| A lot of food at the Outback Crab Shack |
The following day it was on to Jacksonville, where we found
ourselves in the midst of a football rally. Being from Canada and not knowing a
thing about football we kept a low profile just in case we offended anyone.
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| Go Orange! |
The weather had turned cool as we headed down the St Johns
River. Another night at a free dock and we continued on past St Augustine to
anchor at Fort Matanzas.
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| Tied to the free dock at Three Sisters |
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| Cool foggy mornings |
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| We got buzzed by a little Ultra Light Float plane |
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| Slowing down means you see things like this on the side of the waterway |
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| Snuggles while we travel |
So the trip from Green Cove Springs to St Augustine took 3
days. Being back on the boat forces you to SLOW down. We were used to
travelling by car and getting where ever we wanted to be, fast, now we are back
to travelling 7 mph. Lots of time to
think and talk.
After a great visit with the crew from
MV Wild Goose, we were hit with bad news. Otto, our autopilot died. To replace him cost us a pretty penny. We spent a week in Dania beach waiting for the new autohelm to be installed and for a new pump to arrive from Canada.
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| Those are people , in big bubbles.... |
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| Dania Beach |
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| Jacob is getting very old :( |
My nerves started to kick in as we were waiting for a crossing window to the Bahamas. We anchored in No Name Harbour in Biscayne Bay and set off early the morning of the 21st.
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| This is how I like to cross the Gulf, oblivious. Our poor bench took a hard knock over the summer , so we have since had it recovered. |
We had a great crossing and when we got to the banks we could see the fish in the water from the fly bridge. The waters remained flat calm till about 20 miles from Great Harbour. The winds picked up and soon we had waves crashing and spraying over our 17' high fly bridge. White knuckled, holding on for dear life I was so happy to see the cut into Great Harbour. We had left Miami in the dark and
arrived in the dark. The captain did an excellent job and backed us into our slip smooth as butter. Here we were met by my brother Vic and sister in law, Iren.
They left Nova Scotia on their sailboat Solveig in August and we finally caught up to them.
We were back in paradise. This place feels like home to me. So good to see all the friendly faces and beautiful familiar spots.This year there is a larger amount of boats here. The marina is almost full , where as last year there were fewer boats. It is understandable that a gem like this place would not long go undiscovered by today's pleasure cruiser.
We have been here for almost 3 weeks and yet every day is magical, even the cold blustery one, of which we have had a few.
Iren has been taking lots of pictures thanks to her for sharing them with me for this blog update.
..............to be continued
Found your blog this morning and read from beginning to end. It took all day and evening to catch up to this post, your most recent! We hope one day to do the loop, starting at TSW Lock 32 where we live. Thanks to people like you who share the experiences for the rest of us still dreaming. Lots of great advice and lessons to heed for our trip one day. Love your blogging and will check in often!
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