Marathon, Vero Beach, St Augustine, Ft Frederica, FL

We left Book Key Harbor Marina on 2/24/13 and proceeded north up past Rodriguez Key, Miami, FL to Lake Sylvia anchorage the end of February.  Headed on to Vero Beach Municipal Marina for several weeks, where we conducted some business as well.

Headed on to Titusville, FL anchorage in some winds.  Moored out overnight but did not go ashore, too windy.  On to Halifax Harbor Marina at Daytona Beach, where we visited with some boating friends from s/v Current Jumper and s/v About Time.  Was kinda nice to exercise our "land legs" and catch up.

On to St Augustine where we moored out and dinked in to check out the former Ponce de Leon Hotel, now Flagler College.  After entering thru gardens and enjoying whimsical fountain, we proceeded to enjoy an official tour by a current student of several covered areas.

 We especially enjoyed the fancy re-furbished
ceiling of the front lobby with many fine details
of symbolic representations.

Later, in the dining hall we saw many L.C.
Tiffany windows and original vs reproduction
chairs still in use.


When we left St Augustine and headed north we followed the s/v Black Raven, the local pirate
vessel.  They appeared to be filming a video.

We also stopped at Beach Marine in Jackson-
ville Beach to meet and visit our friends from
s/v Black Pearl.

Then we headed in to the anchorage at Cumberland Island, south of the Kings Bay Submarine Base.  We love this area, dinked shore to explore another of the local hiking trails.  It is incredible to see the Spanish moss dripping off the live Oak trees that shade the trails and access roads.  We were even able to find a few medium-sized shells and even a live jellyfish on the beach.

Left Cumberland Island and headed to Ft Frederica National Monument in Georgia to duck some nasty weather and high, stormy winds.  There was only one other boat with us, s/v Possessed, we visited on the mildest, fourth day.

Ft Frederica one huge live Oak tree & Spanish moss

Ended up at the powder magazine remnant

Don't fire!

December - January - February

Hi all, no, we did not sail over the horizon and fall off the world!  Lots been happening but I shall try to be brief.

After we got to Vero Beach Municipal Marina and set up on a mooring, we spent some time exploring the town, shopping, etc.  Catherine even got a bad case of shingles with Rt eye involvement that necessitated not one, but two Indian River Health Dept Clinic visits & numerous, expensive meds!

We finally got underway again after Christmas, but when visited the truncated landing zone at North Lake Worth, Garry threw his back out trying to get up the slippery slope!  Needless to say, all of this took some recovery time!

Visited Boca Raton anchorage, waited out one weekend and met s/v Catcall, nice folks David & Margo.  We then proceeded to buddy-boat together all the way down to Lake Sylvia and Ft. Lauderdale.  Then hopped outside to go down to to Government Cut, to avoid that nasty 56' Julia Tuttle bridge.  Good highlights included trying "The Fork" restaurant in Miami on the waterfront.  It is an Argentinian Steakhouse, very unusual and worth a try.  We enjoyed it, especially the beer, wine, filet mignon cooked to order and fabulous deserts.  What more could a boater ask for?

Finally got into Boot Key Harbor Municipal Marina, Marathon, FL about January 25, 2013.  We have tried to fix our Verizon Wireless damaged SD card (that's why no pix lately) and hope to transfer back picture files manually.  We are trying to tie up all loose ends: laundry, trash, recyclables, water buckets, computer, etc, etc.  before we pull out of here tomorrow, Sunday, February 24, 2013.  We will be out of touch a couple days, traveling north past the Florida Keys.  Will be in touch.

We enjoyed a GREAT Thanksgiving at Garry's sister Vicki's house in Summerfield, FL.  Good neighbors, friends & family, including cousin MaryJane Buckman.  They & Jules came and picked us up from Daytona's Halifax Harbor Municipal Marina one day after we got in.  It was a little hairy getting there: the seas/water was up so much from constant NE blowing that the bridges were much "lower" than the preferred 64-65 feet.  But we made it through ok.

Helped Vicki finish preparing her dishes for the holiday feast, including fabulous mashed potato casserole, made more cornbread, ran for a few fill-in groceries for recipes, and helped touch up house and table settings.  Festivities started promptly at 3 PM on Thanksgiving Day with Wine and spinach appetizers, followed by homemade soup course at the table.  After a suitable pause, we cleared that course and helped set up main dish and all sides on the large table in the kitchen/smaller dining area. Then people cycled in to serve themselves.  All and all, it was a "feast fit for a king" or queen.  Even multi-course desserts.

Enjoyed several days of visiting with relatives before returning to Daytona for last day of laundry, more boat cleaning and put-away groceries from shopping.  Even visited friends Deb & Dan Skidmore of sv About Time at their new house in Orange, FL along with Kim and Gordon of sv Current Jumper.

Pulled out early the next morning and proceeded south at a pretty good clip.  Water was still high but not impossible.  Eventually, arrived at Vero Beach City Marina on Wednesday November 28th after couple more harrowing bridges.  It was blowing a bit and traffic was piled up at the fuel dock, but we perservered and got to our "new home", Mooring #28.  We were next to sv Undine, who we had met back at Osprey Marina in SC.  That day we saw sv Narsilion, ms Valkyrie and sv Orion, not our friends or NSHSA boats, but named-a-likes.

After we got settled down a little, we proceeded to contact a real estate lady we know to look at some houses in Vero Beach area to serve as a new homebase.  Did this over 3 or 4 trips until we found one we really liked and made an offer on it.  It's a "Short Sale" so may well take some time, 2-3 months to learn our fate.  In the meantime, Cath fought a tiring battle with the Shingles, which she somehow got.  Very painful, annoying and almost disfiguring while fighting it.  Also expensive!  Almost recovered now, thank goodness!  I would strongly suggest you all get the Shingles Vaccine, especially if covered under your medical coverage.

Last weekend we enjoyed the local Light UP! boat parade right near the marina.  We had a front row seat from our dink.

Now we are finishing up small boat and provisioning details.  We've been here so long, we emptied our our big water tank of 100 gallons and started on one of the smaller ones.  Garry made 4 dink trips of 6 buckets to replenish.  Cath helped him back at the boat.  Have some provisioning to do:  groceries and Rotella engine oil, mostly before we get ready to pull out this coming Thursday, December 20th.  We have decorated the boat with wreaths, lights outside and in, little tree, etc.