The month of celebrations — we enjoyed the wonderful food served by Halifax Harbor Marina at the Christmas Party held in the Daytona Boat Club building on the extensive marina property and met some of the locals who keep their boats at the marina…
Palmetto Moon 2014-12-31 11:31:00
Su drove across the state the following week to visit her friends, Nancy and Joe, and Jim stayed with Alex. The drive was much different than in the past — interstate almost the entire trip versus a highway with no passing in some parts surrounde…
Palmetto Moon 2014-12-31 11:06:00
On Tuesday, December 16, Su drove down to her sister’s home in West Palm Beach to visit with Jane and their dad who had flown in the day before from St. Louis. He is doing very well both mentally and physically, and Jane and I hope we inherited l…
Palmetto Moon 2014-12-31 10:41:00
The month of celebrations — we enjoyed the wonderful food served by Halifax Harbor Marina at the Christmas Party held in the Daytona Boat Club building on the extensive marina property and met some of the locals who keep their boats at the marina…
Palmetto Moon 2014-12-31 10:31:00
Su drove across the state the following week to visit her friends, Nancy and Joe, and Jim stayed with Alex. The drive was much different than in the past — interstate almost the entire trip versus a highway with no passing in some parts surrounde…
Palmetto Moon 2014-12-31 10:06:00
On Tuesday, December 16, Su drove down to her sister’s home in West Palm Beach to visit with Jane and their dad who had flown in the day before from St. Louis. He is doing very well both mentally and physically, and Jane and I hope we inherited l…
Another Great Photo of Our Boat by Alan Aboard Aquila
Thanks, Alan! (View Post…)
Change of Latitude: A Beaut of a Boat!
This is a photo of our boat, taken on the way in to Egmont by Alan from Aquila. Great shot, Alan! Thank you!!! (View Post…)
Dec. 30 – Miami, FL
Marine Stadium – Anchorage
“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.” – C. JoyBell C.
We’re in the land of beautiful water now. Mansions, yachts, people and bridges…this part of Florida is filled with excess. They say everything’s bigger in Texas…well I’m beginning to think not. Some of the houses we went by today were huge compounds that took up a full block of land on the ICW. Beautiful homes and even more impressive yachts, and we could only see what was along the ICW. There are canals everywhere with more mansions and more yachts. There were a lot of boats moving around today but we saw no one outside any of the pretty homes or around their beautiful pools. In fact most looked like no one was home at all. I guess they were out working to pay for their huge homes. I think I like our simpler life.
Cayo Costa State Park anchorage
Tuesday, 12-30-2014: We only had about 12 miles to go for the day and it was a good thing because we woke up to dense fog and it hung around until about 11:00. We finally got going at 11:35 and had to wait 15 minutes for the Boca Grande Bridge to open at noon. This was our last bridge for a while. We crossed Charlotte Harbor/Boca Grande Pass right after the bridge. We started out with clear visibility but half way across it fogged in again; almost to zero visibility. The CO had to turn the radar on. Our anchorage for the next few day is at Cayo Costa State Park and it is a very popular anchorage; both for Loopers and local boaters. We always try to stop here. We put 50 feet of anchor rode out with 2.3′ of water under the props at low tide. After lunch, we put the dinghy back in the water and went for a ride over to the park.
I have always wanted to fish the Gulf and ICW for crab, lobster, snook, etc. It has been 5 years now and this year is the first time I bought a license. So, today, I put my crab trap out for the night and before dinner I fished for an hour or so. I loved every minute of it; didn’t catch anything, but I did get a few bits.
For the last two to three week we have been hearing popping and crackling sounds on our hull and we can’t figure out what it is. We just had the bottom painted and Keith thought it might be something to do with the bottom paint. We have checked with Dog River Marine who painted the bottom for us and we have also called the paint manufacture. Dog River thought it might be barnacles but didn’t know for sure. Keith checked the bottom and every thing is smooth. So far it remains a mystery.
In looking back to the first part of December; we always wanted to do the Big Bend instead of the all night Gulf crossing. We were looking forward to anchoring our way around the bend of Florida and exploring all the nooks and crannies. But, due to the weather, we were not able to do that. We are; however, anchoring as much as possible. Since leaving Mobile, AL, we have anchored 16 out of 20 days so far and plan to do a lot more. It has been great fun. We could never do this without our inverter.
CO’s comment: Always something; weird sounds, fog, etc. Always a challenge.
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12-30-2014: My very first “Selfie”
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12-30-2014: Dolphin in Charlotte Harbor
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12-30-2014: Kim Jo IV at Cayo Costa anchorage
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12-30-2014: Our anchorage at Cayo Costa
