Day 205

A short travel day in store for us on Saturday, 04/03/21, from Palm Coast Marina in Palm Coast, FL, to St. Augustine Municipal Marina in St. Augustine, FL, we departed Palm Coast later than usual, at 9:45 am.  Although sunny, the weather was still very windy and COLD.  We realized that the weather forecasters were one day ahead of reality.  They had forecast high winds on Thursday and Friday, then calming on Saturday.  Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), those forecasts and reality did not sync-up.  ☹  Thursday turned out to be fairly calm, with the winds becoming high on Friday and Saturday, then calmer on Sunday.  So, we had a short but WINDY trip up the AICW on 04/03/21.  Dressed in our winter boating clothes, we left Palm Coast Marina in Legacy’s wake.  Our looping friends on Radian Journey, the Parrishes, own a house in Palm Coast to which they eventually plan to retire once they’ve finished traveling.  From what we saw, Palm Coast is a nice, very pretty, and affordable part of coastal Florida in which to live.

As we traveled north up the ICW, we were still on the Matanzas River.  Just as before, we cruised out of “civilized” areas and into wilderness, through Washington Oaks Gardens State Park.  Even though we were fine (just a little bumpy), we couldn’t get over the strength of the winds this day.  When you are seeing white-caps INSIDE the ICW, that’s never the best sign.

We cruised (blew) past the Summer Island Community, on a narrow strip of land where houses face the Atlantic Ocean and back up to the ICW, where we were traveling.  Imagine living where water is visible out your front door AND out your back door, simultaneously!  Wouldn’t that be dreamy?  😊  Periodically, we were able to see between some of these houses over into the Atlantic.  The size of the waves we saw out there in the ocean made us realize just how fortunate we were to be traveling on the protected ICW, rather than battling the big seas just east of us.

Legacy cruised past the location of the Fort Matanzas National Monument, but we were unable to see the monument itself from our vantage point.  On such a windy day, the idea of trying to anchor Legacy and take the dinghy over to tour the monument was out of the question.  So we had to miss it and cruised on up underneath the Crescent Beach Bridge, past Crescent Beach, Butler Beach, and into St. Augustine Shores.

We passed by St. Augustine South to our west and Anastasia Island on the ocean (east) side.  Once we passed Lincolnville, FL, we were into St. Augustine proper.  St. Augustine Municipal Marina is just south of the Bridge of Lions, which crosses the ICW.  After obtaining marina entry instructions from the dock master, we “blew” over to our slip and got into it without too much difficulty at about 12:45 pm.  It’s never fun or easy entering or leaving a marina in too much wind, as we learned the hard way down at Stock Island Marina Village in Key West, back in late December! 😐

Once we were all tied-up and connected, we set out to visit the beautiful city of St. Augustine, which was right there next to our marina.  We’d not been too upset about cutting our time there short, since we’d recently visited St. Augustine by car back in June of 2020 when we’d driven down to change our state of residence and gotten our new FL driver’s licenses.  BUT, what we didn’t realize is that the portion of St. Augustine we’d seen on the earlier trip had been along the beach – a different side of St. Augustine than this lovely downtown area.  We crammed as much walking and sight-seeing into the afternoon and evening as we could, but both lamented we could’ve used another full day to more adequately explore the area.

We walked to the very busy La Herencia Café for drinks, ceviche and empanadas.  YUM!  It suddenly dawned on me that dogs are EVERYWHERE now.  Restaurants, shopping areas, tourist attractions, you name it.  I looked it up online and it’s not just my imagination.  Things definitely have gone to the dogs. The sites I saw online indicate it’s due to everyone now thinking their dog is a “service dog”, but I think it might also be due to COVID running everyone outside, where it’s easier to have your dog with you(?)  Who knows – maybe all the stresses and inconveniences of COVID regulations have convinced people that they NEED a service dog(?)  As stressed as the whole mess has made me, if we weren’t currently living aboard a boat, I think having a service dog of my own would be in order!  😐

Later that evening, we walked to Forgotten Tonic Tavern and Bottleshop for happy hour drinks and snacks that would suffice as our dinner, before more walking around and eventually returning to our boat for the evening.  Much as we hate to admit it, we’re finding we’ve apparently reached the age that eating dinner earlier in the evening (like 4:30 or 5:00 pm) makes for much better sleeping that night.  UGH…  I used to make fun of my mom and stepdad for eating that early!  Paybacks can be hell…

Position: N 29° 53.515, W 81° 18.539

Distance traveled:  25 SM

Total distance traveled: 2879 SM

Total marina nights: 183

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 202 – 204

We slept in on Wednesday, 03/31/21, and then while I added to this blog, Steve ordered more groceries to be delivered to our boat by Instacart.  Later in the afternoon, I walked over to the European Village to check out the shops by myself, then Steve met me there later at Moonrise Brewing Company for some afternoon beverages.  The weather changed our plans (as it so often does) and made us stay in our slip at Palm Coast Marina for several additional days.  As a result, we shortened our stay in St. Augustine, as we were trying to meet up with our friends on R&R, the Spykmans, in Jacksonville, FL, before they left there.  We had reservations at The Marina at Ortega Landing, south of Jacksonville, but wouldn’t arrive there until Sunday afternoon, which meant we might miss seeing our friends.  We sure hoped not!

After our drinks, we walked across the Village to Vida – A Latin Experience restaurant for an early dinner of Latino appetizers, which were quite tasty.  This time, we CHOSE to dine outside on their covered patio and people-watch.

Thursday and Friday, 04/01/21, and 04/02/21, were cloudy and much colder, as the cold-front we’d been expecting passed through.  We had already thoroughly explored the European Village, and couldn’t get anywhere else without calling an Uber, which were becoming harder and harder to get the further north we progressed in Florida.  So, we opted to stay onboard and catch up on boat chores.  The high on Friday, the 2^nd, was only in the mid-50s, with overcast skies and horrendous winds.  NOT the Florida weather one expects on the coast! (Or anywhere in the state, for that matter!)

On Friday evening, we bundled up (yep – long pants, long sleeves, and jackets again…) and walked back over to the European Village for dinner at La Piazza, a very nice Italian restaurant.  I ordered the halibut special, and Steve had the sea bass special.  We enjoyed a delicious meal (dining INSIDE, thank you very much) with excellent service.  We both decided La Piazza was too nice for the rest of European Village.

I’ve made a point of checking our Nebo (boat location) app for fellow Loopers each time we come into a new marina. If we find any, we might reach out to them to get together for lunch, docktails, or dinner, since we have the Loop in common. When we got to Palm Coast Marina, we noticed right off a boat named September, which we had run across back on the Tennessee River system, last fall. I was going to go knock on their boat, but soon realized they had a boat full of company (looked like kids and grand-kids), so decided not to intrude. Their company left several days later, but before we could connect with them, they threw off their lines and took off from Palm Coast Marina early one morning. D’OH!

Position: N 29° 34.630, W 81° 11.587

Total marina nights: 182

Total nights at anchor: 21

Day 201

Another calm and peaceful morning, with glass-like water, Legacy left her wall-tie at New Smyrna Beach City Marina at 8:05 am on Tuesday morning, 03/30/21.  Thank you, Weather Gods!  😊  The temps were a bit higher and more humid, with the sun trying to emerge from behind the clouds.  As we traveled northward up the ICW, civilization disappeared again, with the river banks changing over to more palms, sand, and mangroves.  In fact, mangroves, mangroves, and more mangroves!

Sometime yesterday afternoon, the ICW stopped being the Indian River North and became the Halifax River.  One short portion of the Halifax is known as the Ponce De Leon Cut, which is where we were when our morning took a sharp nosedive, when a US Coast Guard Cutter, filled with 18-19 year old officers, put an end to our serenity and decided to – quite deliberately – come from behind us at full throttle and wake the SH-T out of poor Legacy, for NO reason!  Steve had almost no time to turn our bow to port – into the giant wake – to keep from being fully slammed up against our port side.  The massive waves sent us (and all the contents on our boat) reeling with its force.  I thought at the last minute to grab my coffee cup, but, for those of you who saw my earlier Facebook post of my beloved pet plant, Heidi Hibiscus, riding up on the table with us in the flybridge, I’m sure you’ve already guessed what happened to that poor plant when the Coast Guard pitched us immediately into “high seas”.  The pot flipped right over and plummeted to the flybridge floor, breaking that poor hibiscus into pieces and covering the floor, seat cushions, and most of the table itself in rich, dark potting soil!  GRRR!  I already know you’re thinking, well my goodness – who keeps a potted plant on a boat, let alone up in the flybridge of a boat, while it’s underway?  Having plants along with us is my last ditch attempt to hold onto my previous life, so I was taking the risk and living on the edge with Heidi.  Welp, I got my just desserts.  In rough sea conditions, I often stow my plants below on the floor of a shower stall in one of the heads.  Today was a perfectly clear, mirror-like water day, so my plant was out.  We had no idea someone was going to be this purposefully mean to us, or Heidi would’ve been stowed below this morning, too!  I spent the next hour and a half cleaning dirt out of the flybridge, which is not easy to do while we’re underway, since I had no access to a hose, plus we needed to pay attention to our route as we continued on.  Why didn’t we pull off to the side of the channel and drop anchor to clean up the mess, you might ask?  Well, first of all there was no space deep enough for us to do that without running aground, and if the only water I could’ve used to wash-out the flybridge would’ve been salt water coming straight out of the ICW (since we try not to use our drinking water to wash off the boat).  So Steve helmed while I swept and moist-wiped the flybridge as best I could.  I put what was left of the pitiful plant back into her pot and tried to recover her roots.  We were both really upset that our own government would deliberately treat us so rudely, and all just for an 18-year-old kid’s laugh.  Right after this happened, we passed a Coast Guard barge doing some work in the ICW.  They hailed us on Channel 16 to ask us what “the water conditions back in the Ponce De Leon Cut had been”.  They were laughing at what their counterparts had just done to us!  Steve responded that water conditions had been just fine until their cutter just waked the SH*T out of us.  I’m glad we could provide that morning’s entertainment for those kids!  Thinking back on it, had I not had that plant sitting up there so precariously, the whole situation wouldn’t have been nearly as bad, as we were fortunate that nothing inside the boat had fallen and broken during the debacle.  SO, I know I was madder at myself than I was those coast guard officers, but still – the whole thing sure put a damper on our morning! 🙁

Once our mess was as cleaned-up as possible, we continued northward, giving all Coast Guard vessels an extra-wide berth.  As we traveled past the Daytona area, we saw another rash of sunken and derelict boats.  We even passed a bona fide hoarder living on a sailboat!  After we passed Daytona proper and were north of that city, the luxurious, multi-million dollar homes started again along the river banks.  We passed Port Orange, Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, Ormand-By-The-Sea, Flagler Beach, and Beverly Beach.  The further up the ICW we progressed, we noticed that the inside bank of the ICW became mostly wilderness and the outside bank (the one that holds the Atlantic beachfront homes) was covered with gorgeous home after gorgeous home.

As we traveled, we noticed a profusion of yellow butterflies crossing the ICW all around our boat, apparently migrating back south for the spring, as the last time we’d seen so many of them was last fall when they seemed to be migrating north along the Tennessee River.  They seem so small and fragile, it amazes me they are able to travel the distances they do.  We continued through Tomoka Marsh Aquatic Preserve, passed Flagler Beach, and went through the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area.

We began seeing strong storms to our north on the radar, which was why we were trying to reach our marina at Palm Coast before we caught up to those storms.  Just then, we passed a small, de-masted sailboat, motoring along beside us in the ICW, and recognized it to be Esther B, whose crew we’d met last fall at Island Cove Marina, outside of Chattanooga on the Tennessee River.  Of course I got very excited and we conversed with each other back and forth over Nebo, sending each other pictures of our respective boats underway, as we’d passed.  Esther B moves much more slowly than Legacy, but we knew we’d most likely catch up again down the line.

We traveled up the Matanzas River at the noon hour, fighting a pretty strong current that slowed us down from 10 mph to 7 mph for the final leg of today’s journey, but we arrived at Palm Coast Marina at 12:50 pm that afternoon, and found it to be a lovely, nice area.  Once we were tied-up, connected to power, and showered, we walked over to a nearby shopping area called European Village to look around and have some dinner.  The shopping area is a large, enclosed area that you walk inside of, with all shops/restaurants facing inward onto a large nicely-appointed courtyard.  Stores and eateries from different parts of the world inhabit the village, which explained its name.  I was starving and immediately caught a whiff of Indian food cooking, so I gravitated toward 5^th Element Indian Cuisine.  Much to our dismay, this particular restaurant was still serving take-out food only, thanks to my old pal Covid.  We had to stand at the front door and order everything in take-out boxes and bags, where we had to spread it all out ourselves on one of the outdoor tables to eat it.  We were expecting to dine al fresco, but at least hoped for normal tableware and cutlery.  WRONG!  The food took forever to arrive, but was delicious in spite of the fact that we had no wait staff.  We found that other restaurants in the village were not as strict as this one, so we patronized them in the days to come, since they didn’t treat us so much like lepers.

The village itself was attractive, but appeared to have been more so back when it was first constructed.  Many of the shop-fronts were empty because of COVID, and it looked like the exterior was past due for maintenance and a face-lift.  The areas surrounding the village were very nice, well-maintained and upscale, so it was odd seeing a place like this right in the center looking bedraggled.  Still, it was something to do within walking distance of the boat, so we took advantage of it!

Position: N 29° 34.630, W 81° 11.587

Distance traveled:  43 SM

Total distance traveled: 2854 SM

Total marina nights: 179

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 200

In perfectly still waters, with only slight, but humid breezes, we left our slip at Cocoa Village Marina at 7:45 am on Monday, 03/29/21.  Skies were overcast and up ahead of us, on the far side of the upcoming bridge, appeared to be a low-hanging fog bank, which we hoped was only an illusion.  We cruised along slowly in the gray, gloomy morning, but – even though it looked like it could any minute – it didn’t rain on us.  We continued northward, past Sharpes, Port St. John, and Titusville, FL, that morning.  After Titusville, we turned to starboard and cut east underneath Courtenay Parkway near Allenhurst, FL, out into Mosquito Lagoon.  This point began the Indian River North portion of the ICW.

On into the morning, the wind began to pick up and we could see rain falling over to our west.  We had to completely zip up the flybridge because it suddenly got COLD.  Within moments, the rain began to fall on Legacy as she cruised.  NOT the most pleasant traveling weather.  Several days earlier, a strong cold front brought some big, flooding storms through middle Tennessee.  It dawned on me we were now moving right through that very same cold-front, but fortunately it had calmed by the time it reached us down in middle Florida!

As we motored along in all that gloom, we saw the Kennedy Space Center off to our east.  I wanted to take my usual 4,320 pictures that day, but I knew from experience that the dim light and haziness just does not make for good photos.  One true upside was that we were traveling straight into the increasing winds, which made for much smoother cruising than if those winds had been hitting us on our beam.  The winds rose all the way to 27 knot gusts.  From what we could tell, that cold-front was stalling out right over our heads, which meant several more days of less than stellar traveling conditions.

Late morning, we passed through the narrow Haulover Canal at Allenhurst, FL.  The sun teased us by peeking out here and there as we traveled.  Once past Allenhurst, civilization ends along this portion of the ICW.  Just tiny islands, sandy beaches, and tons of palm trees.  Actually, rather than islands, they were more like sand BARS, connected by never-ending mangrove beds.  The whole area looked extremely Gilligan’s Island-esque, appearing so isolated.

Slowly, but surely, civilization began to reappear.  We passed Oak Hill, Eldora, Bethune Beach, and Edgewater, FL.  This area of the Indian River North contains many fish camps/RV parks just west of Turner Flats.  It was odd now, seeing all those RVs setup right on the water’s edge.  A sharp contrast to the multi-million dollar residences to the south, in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area! 

All of these RV developments have pilings, piers, and boat-docks extending out into the water from them, which means one, long no-wake zone for those of us traveling along side on the water.  So it was a slow cruise toward and into the New Smyrna Beach area.  (When you consider that “full speed ahead” for us only means 10 mph, you can imagine JUST HOW SLOW those no wake zones can get!)

We arrived at New Smyrna Beach City Marina at 1:45 pm.  The air was so much cooler here, it was obvious that front had already passed through New Smyrna.  (Yes, we were once again dressed in long pants and long-sleeves. UGH!) Once we got the boat tied-up and plugged in, and showers taken, we walked over to the small town area of New Smyrna Beach, directly adjacent to the marina.  We had already researched that the Corkscrew Bar and Grille was definitely the place to be.  They seated us outside for dinner, where I enjoyed the tastiest quinoa salad!  It was so yummy that – if I was the type to snap and post pictures of my meals on Facebook (aren’t you glad I’m not??) – this one definitely would’ve made the cut.  We noticed the clientele consisted mostly of very elderly patrons and dogs on leashes.  The outside tables were closer to each other than is common for these relentless COVID times, which would’ve been fine, had the seating staff not continuously crammed parties with dogs into tables right next to each other.  Much growling and whining accompanied our meal, and several canine scuffles broke-out.  A most amiable elderly gentleman (86 years old, he told us) and his daughter were seated right beside us, with their Blue-Tick Hound, named Ben.  Ben was NOT thrilled with his plight, being relegated to lie on the hard pavers beneath the couples’ tiny, aluminum bistro table and chairs.  Ben would rather have sauntered over to the table next to them, where a petite little Peekapoo or Lhasapoo, or Snickerdoodle dog was sitting and making moon eyes at him.  Ben’s owner kept pulling Ben back, but to no avail.  When Ben was not allowed to flirt with the other dog, he would let out a long and forlorn hound-dog howl that had everyone around him laughing.  Finally, the older man decided to tie the end of Ben’s leash to the base of the rickety bistro table at which they were seated, which I found to be an alarmingly dumb idea, as Ben was large and strong enough to actually pull their table right along with him, should he choose to!  Once the couples’ meals were served, the precariousness of the situation increased exponentially.  As I’d mentioned, the older man was very friendly and struck up a conversation with Steve about our boat and our travels.  So in between bites, and talking to Steve, and grabbing hold of their teetering table, we all ate our meals.  I felt kind of sorry for the man’s daughter, who had just flown in that day to visit with him and instead was monitoring the determined, nefarious activities of her dog-brother, Ben, and listening as her father gave all his attention to the complete strangers next to him.  Being the obsessive control-freak that I am, the whole scene drove me nuts.  Especially when the seating hostess placed yet another dog-laden eating party right next to poor Ben!  Thankfully, all went well – at least up until we left anyway – and we didn’t all end up in a restaurant calamity scene fit for an episode of The Carol Burnett Show, or that old restaurant-based sitcom called Alice!

We were only spending one night at New Smyrna Beach, so since there was still plenty of light after dinner, we strolled around the quaint little town. New Smyrna Beach might’ve been small, but we both agreed we wouldn’t mind returning there for a longer visit, next time we travel through the area.

Position: N 29° 01.645, W 80° 55.214

Distance traveled:  52 SM

Total distance traveled: 2811 SM

Total marina nights: 178

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 195 – 199

Last night, at dinner, Ray Parrish reminded us there was an early-morning scheduled launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, at 4:30 am, on Wednesday, 03/24/21.  Since the launch would take place right next door at Cape Canaveral, FL, it only made sense that we wake up in time to watch the launch, since we’d practically have a front-row seat out on Legacy’s bow.  Steve set his alarm for 4:15 am, so we’d have time to wake-up and splash our faces before creeping outside into the predawn darkness.  We spread out one of our large beach towels on the deck of the boat to sit on, and patiently waited while we listened to the launch countdown on Steve’s phone.  The weather was just right – not too chilly and not too humid, with just a whisper of a breeze against our skin.  Steve had gotten dressed, but I was still in my pjs – who was going to see me at this hour of the morning?  As mission control droned on about launch specifics, sprinkled with interesting space travel factoids, the countdown finally began in earnest.  I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, but was very amazed when just as we heard the count get to “ONE, ZERO, IGNITION!” on Steve’s phone, we saw a brilliant explosion on the horizon just to our north.  The glow lit up most of the sky for a few seconds, and we could hear a deep and low rumbling moving toward us from the launch pad.  The rocket shot straight up into the sky, still glowing brightly, like a gigantic, moving Christmas Star going up, up, and up.  I was mesmerized, standing up on the bow with a lump in my throat.  I have always been interested in the space program, but it’s been off the media’s radar for so long now, I’d forgotten how thrilling it can be.  Steve has had a healthier interest in space travel, and has kept up with our progress much more closely.  We sat for at least a minute (maybe two) watching the glowing ball move higher and higher into the atmosphere, until it got so high it was no longer visible to the human eye.  Everything else around us was dark, still and peaceful.  The whole scene was surreal.  Falcon 9 carried some sixty new satellites up into the sky for future commercial uses that morning, alone.  Steve had told me he’d heard that when the satellites are released, it’s quite a sight, with tiny white lights bursting forth in multiple directions from the launching rocket, and can look like an invasion of UFO’s if the units are released at night, and you happen to be standing at just the right time and place when the release takes place.  I got confused and thought he meant the rocket would launch, blast high up into the sky, and then suddenly burst like a firework when the satellites were released.  I misunderstood and was disappointed when the rocket completely disappeared from view and that was the end of our show.  What I didn’t understand at the time is that the satellites would not be released until the rocket was much higher above the earth, in a particular orbital position, and at a prescheduled release time, that would happen much later, and most likely on the other side of the planet.  Well, BOO!  Once the show was over, we came back inside, went back to bed, and tried to get some more sleep.  I think Steve was successful, but I was too keyed-up to sleep anymore.

Later that morning, we walked across the street from our marina and into Cocoa Village for brunch at Ossorio.  When we arrived, we saw they were not providing dine-in service; we had to order at a window with several layers of plastic and netting hanging down between the restaurant employees and its clientele.  There was also a rigid plastic panel in place that prevented the waitress from being able to hear the guest, and vice-versa.  Ugh!  Lots of Covid paranoia in this little village.  We had been told that Ossorio has the best breakfasts, but ours didn’t seem any tastier than previous brunches we’d eaten.  We sat outside at little bistro tables to eat our meals, and people-watch.  Most people were sitting or walking around wearing various stages of Covid protection, which starkly contrasted with the two older gentlemen at the table right beside us that were both smoking like freight-trains, wearing no masks, and hacking and coughing hard and loudly enough to entertain all of us guests.  Lovely.  We finally tired of breathing second-hand smoke, so we disposed of our trash and headed in separate directions.  Steve to tour the historical Travis Hardware Store, which is famous for its status as the oldest and largest hardware stores in Florida.  S. F. Travis started his hardware business in 1885, carrying most of his wares up and down the eastern Florida coast aboard a boat.  In 1892, he purchased 35,000 square feet of warehouse space in Cocoa, FL, and eventually turned that warehouse into a gigantic hardware store, which is reputed to carry absolutely any hardware item anyone could need at any given time.  The Travis family has served the Cocoa, FL, area with old-fashioned customer service for more than 136 years, and are considered founding fathers of their community.  While Steve was occupied with the hardware store, I walked around the pretty, waterside Cocoa Village Park, and stopped into several interesting boutique shops.  Cocoa Village Marina is right there next to the town, so we could come and go as we pleased on foot, without need for a rental car or Uber rides.

One afternoon, Steve walked over to Pub Americana for a beer while I stayed aboard Legacy, updating this blog.  After about an hour, I received a text from Steve containing a picture of an Ibis that had tried to pick him up in the pub’s outdoor dining area!  He even posted a picture of the brazen hussy on his Facebook page.  After checking him out for several minutes Miss Ibis decided to hop right up onto the table top, walk to the other end, and then relieve herself right then and there!  Fortunately, Steve was just about finished with his beer, so he used that opportunity to depart.

One exciting morning, we got around early and met our Uber driver out in front of the marina to drive us over to Cape Canaveral for a day at the Kennedy Space Center.  Our early-morning rocket launch had rekindled an interest in both of us to return to this place we had visited almost 30 years earlier, upon multiple recommendations that – with all the time, progress and updates – it was a completely different place now and should not be missed.  While in route, our very friendly Uber driver pointed to some large, round metal rings mounted high atop various poles along the street, right there in town.  He explained they were actually man-made osprey nest supports, to help encourage ospreys to nest in more populated areas, where trees are scarce.  Reportedly, ospreys mate for life and return to the same nesting spot every year to breed. Aside from pelicans and seagulls, we have spotted quite a few osprey during our coastal travels.  After about 40 minutes, we arrived at the Kennedy Space Center, where our Uber driver dropped us off in a special parking lot not far from the entrance gates.

Much to my delight, there was a good-sized crowd waiting for the gates to open this morning. We all waited in multiple lines to enter the center, while I walked around snapping pictures.  While we all waited, a voice came over the loudspeaker, welcoming us to KSC and advising us of how happy they were to have us all there.  I would estimate easily 1,000 to 1,500 people were standing in the rows of multiple gate-entry lines.  The loud voice reminded us all that we were on Federally-owned property, and because of our newest president’s ruling, we were all mandated to wear face-coverings while anywhere on their grounds.  After the mask and social-distancing speech, he proceeded to loudly recommend that we “all avoid gathering in large groups or mass-gatherings.”  Wait…  He was advising a large group of rather tightly-packed crowds waiting to patronize his place of business NOT to gather in large crowds…??  How did they expect us to await entry if not in a large group, since the entry area was barricaded on all four sides…?  I swear, the longer this craziness continues, the more illogical it becomes.  Virus frustrations aside, the weather was spectacular and could not have been more perfect for an extended day outside!

The comments we’d heard about the space center being much larger and more impressive were well-founded.  The familiar Rocket Garden still stands near the entry-gates, but its grounds and exhibit have definitely been updated from our last visit.  I wandered all over the place, taking picture after picture, while Steve checked the map to plan our day’s route.  (He’s all about route-planning now – whether on or off the boat.)  There were now all sorts of Mars exhibits that were new to us, and many more buildings had been constructed.  There was even current, ongoing construction on a large building in the center of the park.  We strolled around the grounds, visiting the Heroes & Legends exhibit and presentation, the Nature & Technology section, NASA Now and NASA Central, the Imax theater and then the Journey to Mars exhibit that was both intriguing and exciting.  I noticed there were many, many families with children visiting today, which I kept exclaiming I thought was an excellent idea!  What better way to get your kids interested in the space program early on? 

One of the downsides that I found particularly disappointing were all the food stands and shops that were “CLOSED DUE TO COVID”.  The Constellation Plaza was like a dead zone because of this.  ☹  Fortunately, we were able to purchase lunch at the Orbit Café, but that was basically our only choice for food and drink.

I was impressed at the private, commercial space companies that have joined forces with NASA, such as SNC (Sierra Nevada Corporation), Moon Express, SpaceX, and Boeing.  These private, commercial businesses are why the space industry is progressing by such leaps and bounds nowadays.

After lunch, we walked over to my favorite exhibit of the entire day – the Atlantis West Pavilion and exhibit.  I had been told it was moving, but was downright overwhelmed when we got to see it.  In case any readers have yet to experience it, I won’t describe the program or the way in which the exhibit is first revealed to the audience, for fear of spoiling it.  All I can say is that it was an emotional moment for me and – for once – I was grateful I was wearing that stupid mask, because it helped to camouflage the tears streaming down my face.  Judging from the crowd’s reaction, I’m pretty sure we were all equally awed by the presentation and everything before us.  Seeing it all in person is so much better than viewing it on a screen.  The excitement in our group was palpable.  What an amazing experience that I am so glad we enjoyed!

The Space Mirror Memorial and the Forever Remembered exhibits (showcasing the Challenger and Columbia disasters) were also extremely moving to witness, and I spent most of my time in those areas with Kleenex at the ready.  It was a long, full day, ending with a comical taxi driver that entertained us animatedly through out the whole journey back.  (We took a taxi back, rather than another Uber, because neither Uber nor Lyft had any cars available for us.)  Our taxi driver was – quite clearly – NOT a fan of Uber and Lyft, and talked them down every chance he got.  In fact, he’s convinced they are both “going out of business”.  (We tended to think that was more wishful thinking than actual fact, but we certainly understood the guy’s point of view.)

One day for lunch, we decided to heed all the recommendations and walk over to Cryderman’s Barbecue and enjoyed a wonderful meal.  This place is family-owned, housed in a converted filling station, and is so popular we had to stand in line for more than 30 minutes just to place our order.  We both got so hot and tired from standing there in the late March sunshine, we hated to imagine how torturous it must be during the hot summertime.  Steve said he knew this place was going to be good when he heard that they only stay open for as long as they have freshly-cooked product available.  In other words, they close when they’re sold-out each day.  Cryderman’s has a large covered outdoor eating area with long, national park style picnic tables and benches that are large enough for multiple parties to share.  The place was crowded, but we found a spot at one of the tables while waiting for our food to arrive.  And we were not disappointed when it DID!  Cryderman’s serves the best coleslaw either of us has ever eaten, and had an actual smokey flavor.  I ordered a pulled-pork sandwich that was literally mouth-watering, and Steve’s brisket was cooked so perfectly, we deemed it every bit as good (if not better) than Steve’s famous ‘Texas Brisket’ he used to prepare and smoke every summer on his Big Green Egg!  After reading Cryderman’s story, we understood why it was so delicious.  It was basically the very same Texas rub recipe that Steve acquired while we lived in the Houston area. We literally stuffed ourselves and then waddled back to the marina.

Position: N 28° 21.470, W 80° 43.532

Total marina nights: 177

Total nights at anchor: 21

Day 194

The ridiculously high winds finally having calmed down on Tuesday morning, 03/23/21, Legacy left slip C84 at Fort Pierce City Marina about 8:00 am, with little fanfare.  We continued northward up the FL ICW past the Fairlane Harbor Homes development, just south of the FL Hwy. 656 bridge, and continued north past Royal Palm Pointe.

North of Vero Beach, FL, the ICW (which is also the Indian River in this area) becomes really wide, even though the cruising channel stays fairly narrow, due to rapidly shallowing depths on either side of the channel.

Steve spotted our friends on Radian Journey, Ray and Diane Parrish, cruising about 20 miles south of us on the ICW, via the Nebo app!  We hoped to rendezvous with them that evening at Cocoa Village Marina, if they could score a last-minute transient slip for the night.  Diane and I texted with each other throughout the morning to monitor progress.

About mid-morning, we cruised past a motoring sailboat with a familiar boat name, Luna Sea.  I immediately recognized the boat as belonging to Nicole, one of my former yoga instructors at the Marathon City Park Amphitheater!  As we were traveling right beside them, I rushed down from the flybridge to the starboard side of the boat and asked the man at the helm if this was Nicole’s boat.  As soon as I said her name, she stepped up into the cockpit of their boat and we waved ecstatically at each other.  😊  Sure enough, just as we’d told each other at our last yoga class together, our paths had indeed crossed again!  It’s crazy how excited you get when spotting another boater you know along the way.  I mean, back when we lived on land and drove cars, we’d often spot friends and neighbors in the grocery store parking lot or at the gas station, but that was usually only a mild pleasantry at best.  But wait until you’re traveling on a boat and passing people you know on the water.  It’s a whole different thrill, and I have absolutely no idea why!  WHY I didn’t think to snap a picture of Nicole and her fiancé aboard Luna Sea, is another idea I don’t have…

For a little while we followed and passed what appeared to be a lone, female sailor on a sailboat named Mer Sea, which I thought was very clever.  It reminded me of the name Phillip and Anna plan to christen their new boat, which will be Sea La Vie, so I immediately sent Anna a text about Mer Sea.  (Yeah, well traveling for miles and miles at 10 mph or less, makes for quite a bit of free time when you’re not at the helm…😊)

FINALLY, we had some dolphins (porpoises – not sure why we all call them dolphins…?) riding our wake again today!  Apparently, Ray and Diane on Radian Journey had been hogging all of them that morning, since Diane kept posting dolphin video after dolphin video on Facebook of them riding along side their boat 20 miles to our south, where we had seen not a one until late-morning today.  My mood immediately escalated ten-fold, as it always does when I spot these beautiful creatures!  On really calm days with glassy waters, we can actually HEAR the dolphins riding our wake before we see them sometimes, as they leap high out of the water, which sends their glistening bodies back down onto the water with an audible SLAP!  As soon as we hear the slapping, I’m running down out of the flybridge to get closer to them.

As we passed Vero Beach, Sebastian, Roseland, Micco, Palm Bay, Melbourne, and Palm Shores, and arrived at Cocoa Village Marina, it dawned on Steve that as of today, we have cruised Florida’s Emerald Coast, the Forgotten Coast, Paradise Coast (Naples area), the Treasure Coast, and the Space Coast!  Pretty impressive (to us, anyway 😉).

We arrived Cocoa Village between 1:30 and 2:00 pm that day.  Just after we passed underneath the Florida Hwy. 520 Bridge (aka Hubert Humphrey Causeway), we found a narrow, skinny (shallow water) channel into the marina, that was well-marked.  We had already hailed the marina on the radio, they gave us our transient slip number, and were there on our dock finger ready to catch our lines.  Lynn, the dock master, was very kind, knowledgeable and helpful which is always appreciated by us transient boaters!  Cocoa Village has fixed docks, but fortunately easily accommodated a port side railing exit and entry, even with a stern-in tie, although we did have to step up kind of high from our boat onto the dock finger, when the tide was low.

We all lucked-out and the Parrishes were able to obtain a transient slip at Cocoa Village Marina, so we were once again dock-neighbors, even if for only one night.  Diane called me when Radian Journey came under the 520 bridge, so we walked over to their assigned slip number to wait for them and catch their lines, since the marina was supposed to be closed by the time they arrived late that afternoon.  Turns out, one of the marina dock-hands was still there upon their arrival, so we had line-catching assistance.  We were very happy to see them again!  (Like I said earlier, running into people you know on the water is just on another level, for some reason(?)  Once the Parrishes were settled in and showered, we all walked into Cocoa Village to Ryan’s Pizza for dinner.  (The Parrishes were already familiar with Cocoa Village, and – in fact – had recommended we stay there, back when we’d first met them at Marlin Bay on Marathon Key.)  Cocoa Village is a lovely little town with lots of shops, restaurants, pubs, and historical sites.  (Are you starting to sense a trend here?)

The four of us laughed and caught-up with our boat stories like we hadn’t seen each other for years, as we ate dinner.  As the Parrishes had promised, Ryan’s had great food and even better service, so our time there that evening couldn’t have been more enjoyable.  After we finished stuffing ourselves (and picked-up TOGO boxes – my serving of Stromboli was large enough for 3 people!), we walked around town a bit and Diane decided she needed to stop for some ice cream.  The guys weren’t interested, so of course I joined her, because who wants to eat ice cream alone, right?  We were all tired after our travel days, so we called it a night fairly early, with promises to meet back up again as soon as possible.  We had planned to help them with their lines when they departed the next morning, but they slipped out before we knew it.

Position: N 28° 21.470, W 80° 43.532

Distance traveled:  69 SM

Total distance traveled: 2759 SM

Total marina nights: 177

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 188 – 193

As I mentioned earlier, we wound up staying at Fort Pierce City Marina for five full days, rather than the two we’d originally planned.  Thank you, strong March winds! On St. Patty’s Day we walked (were blown) around downtown Fort Pierce, which was just two blocks from our marina.  We stopped at Café Azteca Mexican restaurant and sat outside at one of their bistro tables that was protected from the wind.  We each enjoyed a humongous, top-shelf margarita while we people-watched.  The weather was sunny and warm, just accompanied by gale force winds! 

During our stay in Fort Pierce – an area we both really like and do recommend as a great Looper stop – we did a lot of walking, drinking, and eating.  Imagine that!  One afternoon, Steve walked to a nearby barber for a haircut and then texted me he was stopping off at Sailfish Brewing Company for an afternoon beer on his way back to the boat.

For the last week or so, my intestinal tract was not at its best.  Some days I felt fine and others I didn’t want to leave the boat.  Just when I thought it was time to catch a ride to the nearest urgent care, my symptoms would subside.  Steve did very well at being patient with my roller-coaster health. 

Of all things, I received a Clay County, Florida, jury summons in the mail!  Good grief…  How was I going to swing that in this new vagabond lifestyle of ours?  In this goofy new Covid-19 world, the summons was requesting I get online and join a Zoom meeting the morning of 03/19/21, at 8:30 am.  That would be fine except for the very iffy internet service we almost always encounter nowadays.  I knew the chances of even connecting to a call like that – let alone keeping it up – would be slim.  So I called the juror help number at Clay County and explained my plight.  The girl I spoke with was very understanding and said she would mark my absence as excused.  Hooray!  I was thrilled with how easy that was.  😊  Hopefully, neither of us will receive another jury summons while we’re still traveling.

Another evening, I took a chance with my iffy GI tract, and we walked back to Café Azteca for an early dinner.  Fortunately all went well and we had a good meal, even though I brought about half of it back to the boat as leftovers, since the serving was gigantic.

One morning I walked over to the west side of the marina complex and found a craft-fair type setup.  I strolled around the grounds, but found nothing I couldn’t live without, which is good since we have very little room for anything new in our tiny home.  I did feel sorry for the vendors frantically working to design elaborate, make-shift tethering systems for their tents and tables, at the mercy of all that wind!

We finally completed pulling all our 2020 tax information together to send to our CPA, Gerald Clark, up in Arkansas.  That chore kept getting put off or lost in various stacks of paperwork before we just bit the bullet and completed it.  In the meantime, I had also completed two charity crochet projects – two full-size afghans – to send off to my charity group, Warm Up America.  (I’ve really gone whole-hog with this crocheting.)  One morning I tried to request an Uber ride to the USPS to mail off our taxes and afghans, but was unsuccessful, so I switched over to Lyft, which also came back with “no cars available at this time – please try again later.”  We’ve noticed that the further north we’ve gotten here in Florida, the fewer the Uber or Lyft rides have become, for some reason.  I rode with one Uber driver about a week earlier who told me that – for some unknown reason – a large portion of drivers in southern Florida quit the industry at the first of 2021.  That made for more work for those who stayed on, but due to driver scarcity, Uber is having to raise their rates for rides, which is causing more people to stop using them.  Kind of a Catch 22, it seemed to me…  So, the morning I needed to go to the USPS, I wound up calling an honest to goodness taxi ride.  How novel!  Refreshingly, the taxi driver arrived 15 minutes earlier than Uber drivers had been arriving, plus his fare for a round-trip (including waiting for me in the USPS parking lot) was noticeably less than Uber or Lyft!  Granted, his vehicle wasn’t as nice as most Ubers I’ve taken (older Toyota Camry that was due for a cleaning inside and out), but it got me safely where I was going and back, which is the main thing.  My taxi driver was an older gentlemen who I first mistook for Bernie Sanders!  He wasn’t wearing woolen mittens, but his white hair was wild and stuck up all over the place.  He was wearing not one, but TWO, Covid masks, and talking a mile a minute.  He was chock-full of information he readily shared. Whether that information was relevant or not, he repeated it multiple times in pretty much the same sentences, which was a bit unnerving, considering he was behind the wheel of the car in which I was riding! But, to be completely fair, he took me straight to the post office, waited for me, and brought me back without a hitch.  And his constant talking helped make the time fly!

On Saturday, 03/20/21, the wind was so bad that we could barely walk, let alone hear ourselves talk or even think!  The weather was playing tricks on us, though, as it was clear and sunny and gorgeous out, if you didn’t mind constantly tensing every muscle in your body in order to stay upright.  We walked over to Sailfish Brewing Company for lunch, where Steve ordered pizza and I ordered a Caprese Flatbread that they must’ve had to plant, grow and harvest the tomatoes and basil for, as Steve was almost completely finished with his pizza before my lunch finally arrived(?)  Not sure what was up with that, but it was delicious, so I was appeased.

Steve walked up on Saturday morning to the weekly Farmer’s Market, only to find it wasn’t happening.  I’m betting it was because of that ridiculous wind!

Late in the week, Steve sat for almost three straight hours planning a new travel route for Legacy, as his original plan was literally “blown” off course!  Planning these routes is not the easiest thing, as a tentative route must first be established, then multiple calls must be made to multiple marinas (if we’re not going to anchor-out) to check transient slip availability and then make reservations for the specific dates planned, if space is attainable.  Steve will get something all setup for the next four to five days, then a danged cold front will blow through, forcing us to stay wherever we are until it passes, which means changing all of the previously-made plans and reservations!

 Our last night in slip C84 at Fort Pierce City Marina, we walked over to 2^nd Street Bistro for dinner.  I ordered a delicious Veggie Stack, which was literally a stack of sauteed vegetables (squash, zucchini, Portabello mushroom) with melted cheese on a Brioche bun.  Very tasty AND healthy!  Steve had grilled, smoked salmon, which was equally delicious.  One of the things we’ve noticed about dining at all these restaurants with outdoor seating, is that we’re often asked to don a face-mask to enter the restaurant, only to be led to an outdoor table where we are allowed to remove our masks to enjoy our meal.  But then, when we go to leave – even though we’re outside and our exit is also outside, we’re expected to don our masks again to leave the premises(?)  What logical good can that possibly do?  SO crazy and frustrating.  Our oldest daughter told us that since the mask mandate in Arkansas was lifted on 03/31/21, far fewer people are wearing masks, and even WAL-MART has removed their “mandatory face-covering” signs.  Hallelujah!  She said it is so freeing to be able to BREATH when walking around Wal-mart now.  However, down here in Florida, we’re still very paranoid.  Masks are definitely expected and some shops are actually still closed to inside patrons, and restaurants closed for inside dining. 

Position: N 27° 27.035, W 80° 19.283

Total marina nights: 177

Day 187

At 8:40 am, on the calm morning of Tuesday, 03/16/21, we pulled out of our slip at Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, and headed down the short channel back to the ICW, where we turned to port and continued northward.  Warm, sunny weather accompanied us with only a slight breeze.  We passed Jupiter, FL, with its lovely estates, and I perused each one to see if it might possibly have been the one Burt Reynolds and Sally Field shared back in the day, when they were together and resided in Jupiter, FL.  We proceeded in the Indian River, which makes up the ICW that runs west of Jupiter Island, with the Atlantic Ocean just east on the other side.  The Indian River is really wide in many spots – seeming more like a lake than a river.

Legacy steadily cruised onward (at her standard, break-neck speed of 10 mph) through the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge, north into Peck Lake.  We had transitioned out of civilization, into a much more natural and wilderness-like environment.  Very few houses in this area – mainly the endless mangrove beds and scrubby palm trees of “old Florida”.  We cruised into a waterway known as Great Pocket to meet the St. Lucie River and pass Jensen Beach into Jupiter Inlet Aquatic Preserve, which is a huge, pristine waterway that continues on for miles.

We passed the notable Island Princess tour boat, which was packed with sight-seers, as it was going the opposite direction – southward on Peck Lake.  Just north of where the Great Pocket meets the St. Lucie River, we entered into the Jensen Beach area and into Jupiter Inlet Aquatic Preserve, where civilization began to reappear, the houses became more numerous, and the waterway widened again and got much shallower.

Back in Lantana when we passed our friends, the Conways, on Pearl, they had advised they were headed for a marina on Nettles Island.  We got our first look at Nettles Island where it is located on Jensen Beach on Hutchinson Island South.  From our western vantage point on the ICW, I thought Nettles Island looked like hundreds of homes built on floating docks that extended for blocks out into the waterway, but it was actually a development on an extremely low, flat piece of land.  The whole place looked very susceptible to flooding in my opinion, but I supposed the developers had to be smarter than I was and so – hopefully – took precautions for that when first designing and developing Nettles Island.

We arrived that afternoon about 2:30 pm at Fort Pierce City Marina, just in time for the wind to start picking up.  Higher winds always make for challenging docking, which is not a favorite of ours.  Steve expertly wound us around hairpin turns into the marina and up to the fuel docks for a top-off.  As we neared the docks, Dean, the Fort Pierce dock master, had to shout to be heard over the wind, which made him bark instructions in my direction as to which lines he needed me to throw him first to most quickly and easily tie Legacy up in that wind.  Just then, I looked around and about three other boats were also entering the marina in that wind and simultaneously hailing Dean on the radio.  Several of them needed fuel (where we were already tied) and several of them were requesting directions to their transient slips.  I could see Dean’s stress-level going up and up, right along with the intensity of the wind.  Dean was short-staffed and kept having to abandon our fueling process (which is time-consuming under best conditions) to help other boaters.  I could see he was nervous about boats crashing into the docks or into each other in all that wind.  (Even the most experienced boat captain has only so much power when battling Mother Nature.)  Once we finally finished fueling, Dean gave us directions to our transient slip, which was C84.  Dean untied and threw our lines back to me, as Steve maneuvered us out of the path of the other boats and entered our slip bow-in (easiest in high winds), where another dock hand was waiting to help us get tied-up.  WHEW!  As I’ve mentioned before, slipping bow-in always makes for trickiness getting off and back onto the boat.  Therefore, early the next morning, before the winds got going again, Dean came out and helped us turn Legacy around to a stern-in tie.  (No need to deliberately give Gilligan a reason to slip and fall off the boat again!)

We’d planned on spending only two nights at Fort Pierce, but when we went to check in, we discovered they’d reserved our slip for us for a full week, which meant we were getting a weekly rate, which was less expensive than a nightly rate, so we decided to stay a little longer.  That turned out to be an excellent decision, because the fierce winds of that afternoon were only just getting started, and wound up staying very high until 03/23/21.  Gotta love those March winds!

We did a little exploring of our new home that evening and found all kinds of fun amenities to peruse during our stay.  We walked over to Cobbs Landing for an early dinner and decided to leave further sight-seeing for the next few days after we’d gotten some rest from our long travel day.

Position: N 27° 27.035, W 80° 19.283

Distance traveled:  45 SM

Total distance traveled: 2691 SM

Total marina nights: 171

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 186

We left Lighthouse Point Marina at 7:50 am in calm, sunny weather.  Because of the large population, there are still continuous no wake zones, so we cruised slowly north on the ICW.  Paradise continued as we passed waterfront mansion after waterfront mansion, sprinkled with multi-million dollar boats.  Everything was bright and shiny and in tip-top condition.  If looked like a movie set… for MILES. 

About 8:30 am, we crossed underneath Hillsboro Blvd drawbridge, upon its scheduled opening.  Now, instead of crab-pots littering the waters around us, it’s coconuts! Steve did his best to avoid them, but they were not nearly the threat of those danged crab-pots.

We continued north past Hillsboro Beach and Deerfield Beach, and into Boca Raton Lake, where we’d ridden on the Rochats’ boat earlier that week.  Boca Raton Lake is surprisingly small, and absolutely chock full of every size boat imaginable – especially on weekends.  It reminded us of Arkansas area lakes on summer weekends.  So many boats, it’s basically impossible to do anything but drop your anchor and float, talking to the other boaters floating all around you.  The day we cruised the Rochats’ boat to that lake, Anna told me it made her uncomfortable to be crammed in so tightly with lots of other boats, which I understand.  Boating should be more of a back-to-nature experience – not that of sitting in rush-hour traffic…

We had to wait until 9:30 am for the scheduled raising of the Palmetto Park drawbridge, and after that we felt like we were making some tracks.  We passed through Boca Raton, Del Ray, and Boynton Beach, still surrounded by beautiful homes, gleaming high-rise condos, and the occasional nicely-maintained waterfront park.

Steve was monitoring Nebo (boat-tracking app) and saw that our friends the Conways, on Pearl, were either anchored or tied-up at a marina near Lantana, FL.  (Nebo will place a boat on a map, but doesn’t give you specific information, like marina names.)  So, as we cruised, we kept our eyes peeled for our sister Ocean Alexander, Pearl, somewhere in the waters ahead.  Sure enough – just south of the Lantana Bridge, I spotted a familiar looking vessel anchored just outside of the channel to our west.  Steve confirmed it was indeed Pearl!  I have no idea why we didn’t just hail them on radio channel 16, but I ended up texting Connie that we had just cruised past them.  I’m really not sure why we didn’t make an attempt to stop and visit with them – it was like we were on some sort of liquid conveyor belt that kept us moving, no matter what.  So, we just cruised on by, texting (rather than speaking to each other in person) and wishing each other well in our travels.  This whole Looping life is kind of confusing, to be honest.  Loopers are supposed to naturally gravitate to one another when we spot the familiar flag that shows we have something big in common, but at the same time, many of us don’t want to just force ourselves onto others.  We didn’t turn Legacy to port and cruise toward Pearl, but then the crew of Pearl didn’t invite us to stop, either.  So, it’s a conundrum.  A strange dance we do to be friendly, welcoming and outgoing, but – at the same time – not over-bearing and intrusive.  We hoped we’d see Pearl a little bit later, perhaps at a common marina.

After passing the Lantana anchorage and going under the Lantana Bridge, we passed through Lake Worth, just south of Palm Beach and West Palm Beach.  Next it was on into the North Beach Waterway, through Juno Ridge.  So many beautiful homes and gorgeous scenery!  Far too many to photograph them all (though I tried).  Right before we entered the North Beach Waterway, we passed Riviera Beach with all of its amazing, mammoth boats.  Anna had advised us to keep our eyes open through Riviera Beach, and we could certainly see what she meant!

We arrived at Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, that afternoon, just before 3:00 pm.  We have a routine, when nearing our destination marina for the day, where we call the marina when we’re about 20 minutes out, to obtain entrance instructions into that marina, to find out our reserved slip number, whether they have floating or fixed docks, and on which side we’ll be tying-up, when slipping stern-in.  This tells Gilligan (Moi) what needs to be done on the decks prior to arrival.  If the docks are floating (which means they rise and fall at the same level as the boat during tidal changes), I will hang out three fenders – the bow, the mid-ship, and the stern, for hull protection against the docks.  If our reserved slip has a dock finger to Legacy’s port, once she backs into her slip, that means I need to get lines ready on the port (left) side, which means a bow line, two spring lines (which keep the boat from drifting backward and forward once it’s in the slip), and a stern line (for floating docks).  If the docks are fixed (which means they’re stationery while the boat rises and lowers next to them with tidal changes) we will most likely have a stern cross-tie, so I’ll need to have stern lines ready on both sides of Legacy’s stern.  These lines are then crossed by the dock assistants (you always hope that dock-assistants are available upon arrival!) behind the boat, so that each stern line is tied to the opposite cleat on the dock.  This also helps to keep the boat stationery in the slip.  When the docks are fixed, it’s more trouble than it’s worth to try to hang-out fenders in advance, as they will invariably not be hanging at the same level as the slip’s dock fingers, and can hinder with backing in the boat, if they get hung-up on said fingers.  Many fixed docks have protective rubber rails mounted along the edges of the docks and associated pilings, so if the boat’s hull makes contact with them, there shouldn’t be any damage.  Unfortunately, not all docks are this well-maintained, so extra care must be taken when entering or leaving them.  Once we have the information we need, we don our headsets, and I set to work hanging and tying everything appropriately.  The very large, buoy-type fenders we have for Legacy are almost as big as I am.  They’re way too wide to carry inside the rails on the boat’s decking, so I have to dangle them over the side as I walk to the appropriate position.  If the water is at all rough while I’m doing this, I lose my balance and ricochet between the rail and the side of the boat (like a pinball), which are thankfully close enough to at least keep me upright during my walk (stumble) to either end of the boat.  Obviously, if our upcoming dock finger will be on Legacy’s starboard (right) side, I will need to hang and tie everything on the starboard side before we arrive at the marina.  We prefer floating docks to fixed, as they invariably provide for easier boarding and de-boarding, since floating docks stay even with the boat continuously.  The main reason I fell off the boat back at C-Quarters in Carrabelle, is because those docks were fixed, rather than floating. ☹

We were only booked for one night at Loggerhead Marina in Palm Beach Gardens, which was a shame since it was a very nice marina, with top-notch facilities.  The only downside was that it wasn’t really walkable to anything and had no courtesy vehicle, so we had to Uber.  On the way up the ICW, just prior to arriving at out marina, we passed an inviting waterfront restaurant called The Waterway Café, so once we were settled in our slip and freshly-showered, we called an Uber to drive us there for dinner.  At this restaurant, we noticed, again, what our friends Brenda and Mike Wehrle have always told us about south Florida.  There are a LOT of extremely elderly residents there, especially during this time of the year, known as “Season”.  We were the young whippersnappers in The Waterway Café that evening, which you would think would be a good feeling, but instead it was rather melancholy, which is how the Wehrles have described it.

Position: N 26° 52.806, W 80° 04.365

Distance traveled:  43 SM

Total distance traveled: 2646 SM

Total marina nights: 164

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27

Day 175 – 185

Thursday morning, 3/4/21, dawned cool and clear with bright sunshine and NO ROCKING IN OUR SLIP!  SO novel and enjoyable.  Perfect weather for cleaning Legacy – inside and out.  Steve washed the outside while I vacuumed and then wet-cleaned the boat carpets.  It’s good to have a dry day with very low humidity when cleaning the carpets, so I can open the boat completely up and run fans all afternoon to help speed up the drying process. We enjoyed brunch at the Nautidawg Café, Lighthouse Point Marina’s onsite restaurant.  We sat outside on the back balcony to enjoy our meal and check-out our completely new surroundings.  After breakfast we walked the docks at the marina and explored adjacent properties – one of which is a condo complex called Tillotson Square.  The buildings were all painted in coordinating pastel colors that practically shouted the word, “Beach!”  I found one of the condos for sale online and was not shocked to see it listed for more than $1 million.  Still in the land of Location, Location, Location!

Lighthouse Point Marina did not offer a courtesy vehicle (as we’re finding to be the norm in Florida, unfortunately), but there is a community shuttle that runs throughout the day.  One of its stops is right in front of Tillotson Square, in fact.  Or, we could also Uber or Lyft, although the rides were more scarce in this area, which meant the wait for them was longer and their prices were higher.  Which is why we were so lucky to have the Rochats available to haul us around.

On Thursday afternoon, we were sitting around admiring our now cleaner boat, when I got a text from Anna that she and Phillip and Maggie were out in their dinghy that afternoon and were soon to cruise right through our marina and by our boat.  We were out on our bow when they arrived and I got to see Maggie in person for the first time.  She was so pretty and proudly standing at the front of the dinghy like she was posing on the bow of the Titanic, with the wind rippling through her fur.  Luckily, the Rochats’ dinghy has plenty of room, so at their invitation, Steve and I climbed into their dinghy with them to ride back to their house, via the canals.  With Maggie as his very close first-mate, Phillip drove us around what seemed like 15 different corners and turns before we finally reached their dock behind their house, where their beautiful, new-to-them 54-foot Offshore trawler is tied!  This time we got to see it up close, rather than off in the distance like we’d seen it a few weeks earlier off the coast of Marathon Key.   We all managed to safely climb up onto their dock (myself included, amazingly), and then Phillip hoisted Maggie up before he left the dinghy.  I could tell Maggie wasn’t real excited about that 5-foot hoist over water, but she handled it well.  Maggie is just 6 months old, though, and soon she is going to be too big to be lifted up like that, so not sure how they’re going to manage in the future.  They do have a hydraulic lift at their dock, which raises the dinghy up out of the water until its level with the dock, so maybe they can teach Maggie to ride up with the dinghy on the lift(?)  Phillip and Anna have a beautiful home right on the water with their own, private sea wall and dock, which is perfect for their gorgeous new boat.  Between the house and the canal is a lovely pool with surrounding patio and landscaping.  Palm trees and potted tropicals abound in their backyard paradise.  When they originally purchased this house, they updated and remodeled it, removing walls to make it open-concept.  Steve and I received a tour of the house from Anna and Maggie, then we all went out for Phillip to give us a tour of the new boat.  Oh my, is it nice!  Anna served us some evening cocktails to watch the sunset, then Phillip chauffeured us back to our marina for the night.

Steve had called the manufacturer of Village Marine Water Makers, which is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, and scheduled a technician to come to our boat once we arrived to see if he could repair the water maker, which hasn’t worked correctly for months.  Luckily for us, the tech was able to repair it quickly and inexpensively on Friday morning, 03/05/21.  Hooray, we now have a working water-maker!  Later that morning, Anna drove over and whisked us away to their house for a fun afternoon ride on their new boat.  We spent several hours with Steve and Phillip up at the helm, while Anna and I lounged out on the sundeck, talking, viewing all the beautiful homes on the ICW, and enjoying some wine.  I truly felt like I was hobnobbing with the rich and famous that day.  The weather was fantastic, the breeze perfect, and company outstanding.  Maggie didn’t ride on the boat with us that day, as (like I stated earlier) she is 6 months old and still pretty much a wild-child.  It is the Rochats’ intent to eventually familiarize her with the boat and turn her into a cruising dog, so she can accompany them on trips.  When we returned to their dock and got the boat tied back up, Anna and Phillip proceeded to grill us filets for dinner.  Before dinner, I attempted to get a backyard selfie with Maggie, which was haphazard at best.  Even though Maggie wasn’t at all interested in posing (only jumping up and licking me in the face), I just clicked and clicked my camera, hoping to get at least one decent shot.  Because I was squatting down to Maggie’s level, it was no time before she knocked me over onto the patio and started trying to wrestle me around!  Phillip saved me by calling Maggie off before she sent me straight into the pool.  (NOTE TO SELF:  A person with no sense of balance should NOT squat down beside a 6-month-old Golden Retriever puppy.  Especially right next to a swimming pool!)  😐

We ate a delicious dinner out on the patio in that perfect weather and watched Maggie run all around the backyard, trying to eat anything and everything she could fit into her mouth – even rocks!  She is puppy, through and through.  As our evening wore on, Anna decided we needed some after-dinner drinks and proceeded to utilize us to help her clean out their liquor cabinet of almost empty liquor bottles.  We enjoyed Kahlua, which I’ve not had in ages, but LOVE, as well as a peanut-butter flavored whiskey that Steve liked so much he took a picture of the bottle so he could buy it for himself later.  We had several other sipping liquors, but for some reason I can’t recall their names – LOL!

The next morning dawned cooler and cloudy.  Within several hours, Legacy was deluged in her slip by a flood accompanied by lots of lightning and thunder.  Fortunately there was little wind, so we weren’t bounced around heavily.  This was the first real rain we’d seen since arriving in south Florida.  We ventured out during a calm spell to walk over for lunch at Nautidawg.

The following day was a true Chamber-of-Commerce day, with bright sunshine, a light breeze, and humidity-free air, following the rains of the day before.  The weather was so stellar, it begged for a field-trip, so I got online to search for things to do in the area.  Being all about plants, I soon found Deerfield Arboretum at Constitution Park over in adjacent Deerfield, FL.  Score!  😊  Steve is not a lover of plants… more like a “tolerator” of plants, since he’s married to me, but is never anywhere near as excited about them as I am.  When I told him about the arboretum, he looked it up on Google Maps and found a lackluster description, which he read out loud to me.  “A quiet backdrop for unusual trees.”  Any arboretum is SO much more than this, but it seemed to fit Steve’s view of plant-life just perfectly.  Just cracked me up!  Nevertheless, he treated me by agreeing to Uber over there with me for the afternoon, so I could get a huge plant fix.  The Deerfield Arboretum is located in the rear of Constitution Park and calls itself a “tree zoo”, with nine acres of approximately 200 different trees from five different continents. While I walked slowly around the park, oohing and ahhing and taking scads of pictures, Steve walked around looking at his phone.  At least he was physically with me, if not there in spirit.  The only drawback I saw to this park was that half of the ID plates, so securely mounted in front of each plant specimen, were so badly faded it was impossible to read the information printed on them.  Nothing frustrates me more than coming across a spectacular new plant and then not knowing its identity!  ☹  I noticed several signs indicating the park was largely maintained by area volunteers and loudly exclaimed that if I lived in that area (which means I would of course volunteer at the arboretum), my first project would be to replace all the missing ID plaques.  There were others at the park – some couples with dogs, grandparents with grandchildren, and others simply enjoying lunch in that idyllic setting.  We stayed for about two hours until I decided I was pushing the envelope with Steve, and then called an Uber back to our marina, where later that evening the Rochats drove over to have dinner with us at the Nautidawg.  We came back to Legacy for after dinner conversation and laughter.

On Monday morning, 3/8/21, we decided to be more independent and do some shopping via the Lighthouse Point Community Shuttle.  We had obtained one of their rather vague route maps and found where we thought the Tillotson Square stop was.  The shuttle was scheduled to stop there at 11:14 am (not 11;15, but 11:14), so we arrived in plenty of time to await its arrival.  The map did not pinpoint an exact spot and we could not find any kind of sign to confirm we were even standing in the right place.  After waiting about 10 minutes, we spotted the shuttle bus up ahead, coming in our direction.  I waved at it as – instead of stopping for us – it zoomed right past us down the street, then made a hard left into oblivion.  We walked down to where it had turned to see if maybe it had stopped on that road, but the shuttle was nowhere in sight.  It was then that Steve happened to see the very small and insignificant Bus Stop sign out on the road – PAST Tillotson Square.  Obviously, if the shuttle driver sees no one at the stop, he doesn’t even slow down – just flies right on by without noticing the nautically-dressed woman standing nearby frantically trying to flag him down.  UGH!  The next shuttle wasn’t due for another hour, so we called an Uber instead.  (Have I mentioned how much I dislike being without my own vehicle?)

When we arrived at our shopping center, we immediately walked over to the Red Fox Diner for a meat-and-three meal that hit the spot.  After lunch, Steve went his way and I went mine, of course winding up at a TJ MAXX store!  Steve said to shop to my heart’s delight, and he would meet me later at the nearby Bonefish Mac’s Sports Grille afterward for an afternoon beverage. Once I’d finished shopping, but before I could finish my walk to Bonefish Mac’s, the wind picked-up, the skies darkened, and it began to rain on me.  Lovely.  Fortunately, I did not melt, found Steve at the bar (really?), and enjoyed a nice gin and tonic.  And, get this – we WERE able to catch the Lighthouse Point Community shuttle back to our marina afterward!

We returned to the boat that afternoon to finally tackle an un-fun job we’d discovered that morning, but had of course put off cleaning it up.  Somehow a pancake syrup bottle with a loosened cap had fallen onto its side in the flybridge refrigerator/freezer upstairs, coating its entire bottom, and every item between it and the leaking bottle.  JOY.  Many rags and Windex squirts later, followed by a complete hose out, then drying each item before putting it back into the refrigerator, we were done.  Oh, the pleasures of boat life.

Even though Phillip is less than 10 months from retirement (yes, he watches a countdown clock), he’s still working at his job as a pilot for FedEx, which meant he reported back to work on Monday evening.  On Tuesday morning, 03/09/21, Anna (my private chauffeur) picked me up for a ‘girls’ day out’ of shopping and merriment.  We went to Home Goods (where I found some better, acrylic cocktail glasses for Legacy, as well as a woven, fabric floor basket into which we throw our shoes when boarding the boat), then TJ MAXX (a different one from where I’d last been), and then one of Anna’s favorite restaurants, The Fish Shack, for lunch.  I had followed the hostess all the way back to our table before I realized Anna was not behind me – she was talking with someone in the front of the restaurant.  When I went to see who it was, it was Steve, having lunch at The Fish Shack’s bar!  What are the chances, right?  But it does show how unobservant I am, as I walked right past him, so that Anna was the one to spot him!  Steve carried his food down to join us at our booth.  He said it was a good thing he wasn’t messing around with someone, or he would’ve been caught!  But only by Anna – I would’ve walked right past my husband carrying on a torrid tryst right in front of me!  After lunch we went to Michael’s so I could buy some more yarn to feed my new crocheting for charity addiction, and then to Parfait Nails where we each got a nice pedicure.  (We’d dropped Steve back at the marina when we finished at the restaurant.)  It was some much-needed girl-time, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  Thank you, Anna!

On Wednesday, 03/10/21, the dock master at Lighthouse Point Marina asked us to relocate Legacy from our slip, N4, down to slip N9.  We had no problem accommodating this request, IF ONLY there weren’t gale-force winds blowing at that very time!  Still, we had to do what we had to do, since the previous boat that had been in N4 was supposedly returning and needed his slip back.  The dock master sent a line-handler down to help us with our move, and Steve did an excellent job, despite the strong, wind-driven current he had to fight.  Everything went refreshingly smoothly, until Steve noticed that the protective top cap for our stern-thruster was missing, and he was sure it had been there when we left slip N4.  ☹  There was a dive-service at our marina that day, so we asked a diver to go down to see if he could locate the top cap on the bottom and to also clean Legacy’s bottom, as it was time.  (In saltwater, the bottom must be cleaned more often than in fresh, because of the constant encrustation of barnacles and other sea growth.)  Unfortunately, the diver did not find the missing top cap, so Steve had to order a new one online to be shipped to our next stop, Cocoa Village Marina.  (Steve should be able to snap the new cover in place by himself.)  We have no idea what knocked the top cap off in the first place, but we’re on a BOAT, and have learned that anything is possible, whether it’s logical or not.

That evening, Anna drove over to the marina, where the three of us boarded the touristy ferry that carried us a short distance across the water to Cap’s Place Island Restaurant for drinks and dinner.  Recognized as a national landmark, Cap’s is Broward County, Florida’s, oldest restaurant.  With roots as a 1920s casino and rum-running speakeasy, it sits on an island right off Lighthouse Point, FL, and can only be reached by Cap’s motor launch.  I took pictures of the old Florida-style atmosphere in the bar and restaurant, then Anna and I both ordered Cap’s famous Hearts of Palm Salad, which was absolutely delicious, even though I did feel guilty eating it, since an entire palm tree must be killed in order to harvest its heart.  ☹  (I decided one time wasn’t so horrible – I just wouldn’t make a habit of ordering Hearts of Palm in the future.)

The following day was another fun shopping one for me, with Anna.  This time we hit Ross, Marshall’s, and a HUGE Tuesday Morning.  I somehow refrained from making any purchases this time, but the hunt was very fun, regardless.

We had originally planned to leave Lighthouse Point Marina on Friday, 03/12/21, but another strong blow changed our plans.  Even though we are traveling on the ICW (and not out in the Atlantic Ocean), high winds are still a factor in that it can cause problems as we’re trying to “thread the needle” going through multiple, narrow bridge underpasses whose drawbridges are on strict schedules.  Add in the very real chance of some bozo in a fast, center-cockpit boat who decides at the last minute he’s going to cut in front of us going under those bridges, and it’s no fun dealing with the added effects of brisk winds during those times!  So, instead, Anna picked us up and took us to a highly-touted burger restaurant in the Wilton Manners area.  Anna had heard good things about Burgers and Beers, and it turns out those good things were well-founded, as we all very much enjoyed our meals there.  After lunch we ran some errands, one of which gave me the opportunity to stop at the largest TJ MAXX in the area, where I scored another top!

On Saturday, 03/13/21, Steve and I ate brunch again at the Nautidawg Café, this time seated next to a table with two men and a cockatoo named Emma!  Emma sat on her owner’s shoulder and serenaded all of us.  One of the songs she knew very well (and even danced to) was the theme from the show, Cops, “Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?  Bad Boys, Bad Boys.”  That was the cutest thing we’d seen in awhile and cracked up all surrounding restaurant patrons.  I even took a picture and posted it on Facebook, captioning it with “Where else but south Florida…”  As the two gentlemen waited for their meals, Emma’s owner gave her a drink out of the table’s creamer, which she thoroughly enjoyed.  Who knew?  Birds like cream!  Ever so stealthily, Emma climbed off of her owner’s shoulder and onto the back of the booth they were sitting in.  Then, when a young woman and her daughter came in to take the booth directly behind Emma, she promptly jumped down onto their table, walked right over to the young woman and perched herself right on the woman’s forearm!  Emma’s owner asked the woman and her daughter if they were okay with that, to which they readily responded they were.  Emma entertained these two ladies with multiple renditions of Bad Boys, and also told them her name was Emma about 50 times.  I was enamored the entire time, as were the woman and girl.  Eventually, Emma hopped up on the woman’s shoulder, and then onto the back of her booth, which faced the front door of the restaurant, where Emma boisterously greeted every new arriving guest.  When the woman and young girl’s meals arrived, Emma’s owner came and got her and placed her back on his own shoulder, where she stayed.

That same evening, Anna picked us up and drove us to a brewery called Dangerous Minds for beer and pizza, and also to enjoy some live music by a band called North End Rockers.  The evening weather was incredible, with only a slight breeze blowing through the patio where we sat.  We ordered a large mushroom pizza for the three of us to split, but when the pizza arrived, it wasn’t much larger than a personal-sized pizza?!  We soon learned the brewery only serves one size of pizza, our waiter just failed to mention that when we placed our order.  So, we promptly ordered a second tiny pizza to go with the first one, which was the exact right amount.  The pizza was tasty, but the band was not that great.  In fact, at one point, Anna described them as sounding like karaoke!  😊

The plan for Monday, 03/14/21, had been to drive to the beach with Anna and Maggie, but I woke up feeling sub-par, so I stayed in bed for most of the day, while Steve planned our upcoming cruising routes up the east coast.  You might’ve noticed I’m overdue for my monthly urgent care visit, but I’m trying to spread those out a bit.  The next morning I felt better, so I hoped I’d dodged a bullet.

Position: N 26° 16.047, W 80° 05.070

Total marina nights: 163

Total nights at anchor: 21

Locks today: 0

Locks Total:  27