Marker 1 Marina
“Life is a tide; float on it. Go down with it and go up with it, but be detached. Then it is not difficult.” -Prem Rawat
We had another long but beautiful day on the water. Most of todays travels was through very populated areas, so there were a lot of slow zones. We passed St. Pete, Clearwater and several other places we enjoyed on our way south in 2011.
CONTINUE READING HERE…»
Archive | The Pearl RSS feed for this section
Oct. 17 – Dunedin, FL
Oct. 16 – Nokomis, FL
Blackburn Bay – Anchorage
“There are times when we stop, we sit still, we listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.”―James Carroll
A front has moved through and though it was a little windy today the temperature was wonderful…nice to be comfortable for a change. The area past Fort Myers and around Pine Island Sound is a very busy place…even on a Thursday morning it was a zoo.
Oct. 15 – Cape Coral, FL
Glove Bight – Anchorage
“What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” —Robert H. Schuller
The eastern half of the Okeechobee seems prettier to us, a little less remote, but still very rural. The first part of the day we saw lots of farms and ranches, but the closer we got to Fort Myers the more we saw large beautiful homes on the water. Our last two locks went smoothly and before we knew it we were in Fort Myers and back to familiar cursing grounds. We stopped for fuel at the yacht basin but decided it was too earlier to stop for the day…we’re on a mission to get this boat home. We usually enjoy having a few hours or most of the afternoon to explore an area, but this is a delivery cruise not a sighting cruise. We spent almost a month on the east coast of Florida in 2011 and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are lots of places we’d love to see again and even more we missed, so we’ll need to come back again one day and spend more time in the area.
Oct. 14 – Moore Haven, FL
Moore Haven City Dock
“The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” —Carrie Jones
Today we headed across the state of Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway. We’ve done a lot of locks, but I was a little nervous when we entered our first lock today on Texas Pearl. I worried for nothing because we did just fine on all three locks…just like old pros. We crossed Lake Okeechobee with a little wind, but our ride was still comfortable and it was an uneventful day. We even got docked, lines tied and electric connected, before the rains started. The Moore Haven City Dock is nice with picnic tables and grills with the city hall and library right across the street, but it didn’t look like there was anything else around. So we had a peaceful evening on the boat.
Oct. 13 – Port St. Lucie, FL
Tarpon Bay Yacht Club
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”―Mahatma Gandhi
We had another short day planned so we had time to enjoy coffee on our aft deck again…this could become a nice habit. Today we went down the ICW and took a right into Stuart and the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway, from here to Fort Meyers will be all new cruising ground for us. When we came through in 2011 we went down to the Keys and back up the east coast.
Oct. 12 – Ft. Pierce, FL
Harbortown Marina
“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.”–Wyland
We only had 40 miles to travel today so we enjoyed a slow morning with coffee on the aft deck while the sun painted the sky in beautiful pastel colors. It’s moments like these that we really love being on the water. We are back in Ft. Pierce docked just down from The Pearl. The last time the two boats will be together…I wish we were close enough for a group picture.
Oct. 11 – Melbourne Beach, FL
Hog Point Cove
“It’s not about time, it’s about choices. How are you spending your choices?” – Beverly Adamo
The weather was so nice today that we decided it would be cool enough this evening for us to test out the anchor on Texas Pearl. After a beautiful day on the water, being entertained by dolphins most of the day, we dropped the hook in Hog Point Cove just south of Melbourne. There wasn’t anything special about the anchorage except it gave us plenty of room if the anchor dragged. The anchor held on the first try and we had a nice breeze to keep is cool.
Oct. 10 – New Smyrna Beach, FL
New Smyrna Beach City Marina
We had another successful day on the water and the boat ran well, we really are enjoying the comforts of the larger boat. There isn’t a lot to report on today…we were just here a week ago. The only unusual entrainment we had today was
Oct. 9 – St. Augustine, FL
St. Augustine Municipal Marina
“You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” –Christopher Columbus
Today was day one of a new adventure. We pulled away from Lamb’s Yacht Center this morning after spending almost seven months in Jacksonville. It was a great place for what we needed this summer, but it felt wonderful to finally be on the move. It’s about 1700 miles from Jacksonville, FL to Rockport, TX so we have a lot of time to get to know this boat.
Oct. 8 – Refrigerator Replacement
Lamb’s Yacht Center
The refrigerator replacement became an even bigger job than we expected and we can see why the previous owners just used the nasty, smelly, rusty, energy sucking one. On Monday we moved the boat to a face dock near the parking lot, so the refrigerators would be easier to exchange.
