Cruises of the "Bucket List": Miami to St. Augustine

After dropping Pat and her luggage off at the dock, we filled with water, emptied the holding tank, and Cindy used the opportunity to use the fresh water to rinse some of the salt off of the boat. Hopefully we will not be busting through 4 ft waves in the Intracoastal getting salt spray on everything.

Since it was already later in the day, I had decided that we would not go very far today. I wasn't sure just how fast we would be traveling going through Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Besides, there was a marina in north Miami that would call a fuel truck and you could buy fuel a lot cheaper. We had come home from the Bahamas with a minimum of fuel onboard. I did buy a small amount of fuel in Bimini, just enough to have a little extra to cross the Gulfstream. I usually keep the tanks full and fill at every opportunity when the price is right. While in the Bahamas the price was never really "right". The average fuel price there was around $6.00 a gallon for Diesel. So, I needed around 250 gallons to bring us back up to full. I called the Palm Bay Club and he arranged for a fuel truck to be there. That was pretty amazing considering it was Easter Sunday!! We got a good deal and bought all we could hold at $3.80 a gallon including tax! What a difference!

Cindy’s Observations: Miami has a never ending concrete coastline. Twenty miles out to sea you can see city after city skyscrapers lining the shore. The city is very diverse in culture. Seminole natives settled here 2000 years ago and were the first to trade with outposts.

Miami is known as the gateway city to the Caribbean and Latin America. In Little Havana “Calle Ocho” is the largest Hispanic street party.

Julia Tuttle is the founding mother of Miami. She, with help from William Brickell a trading post owner and John D Rockefeller who enlisted friend Henry Flagger, incorporated the city. Considering the city is a little over 100 yrs old, it is a world know business and financial Mecca.

Lush gardens are dotted within the mass of concrete to soften the landscape.

In comparison, Coral Cables’ first skyscraper and the present day structures.

We left Palm Bay Club on April Fools day headed for an anchorage at Lake Boca Raton. We only planned to go 30 miles that day. I had gotten a text from "Betty L" one of the boats that we had traveled with coming down the river system before we got to the gulf. We were going to cross paths about halfway between Miami and Lake Boca Raton. They had gone home for the Winter to do some skiing. They left their boat in Florida and had gotten back and had come across Lake Okeechobee to Stewart and were headed South to Miami on the way to the Bahamas. We stopped at the Marina where they were moored and temporarily hooked up to a mooring ball. They already had their dinghy in the water, so they rowed over to visit and we spent a couple of hours catching up. We left them and continued to Lake Boca Raton and anchored.

As we navigated the ICW we passed through Hollywood.

Then through Dania

Next Fort Lauderdale

Upward through Pompano Beach

Betty L was a delight to visit with. The last time together was November. Stories were exchanged about how we spent our winter months and what our future held. Their plans were to follow the same path we had just come back from, Bahamas. Bob was sporting a new look, winter facial hair. When you ski in zero degree weather the extra insulation helps. Madeline looked great. We wished each other well and continued on.

Boca Raton was a place I had pictured to be luxurious. It did not let me down. Every home was just that.

We anchored at Boca Raton Lake. We had passed a continual line of beautiful homes for 30 miles. This is just day 2 heading north with much more to come.

Tuesday we got a later start (9:00) and headed for another anchorage. Florida is overrun with bridges over the Intracoastal. We went through 15 bridges today in 52 miles. We only needed 4 of them to open though. They open on a schedule so you need to adjust your speed to get there at the proper time. Some of them open on the hour and half hour, others at a quarter after and a quarter till the hour. There was even one that opened every 20 minutes. If the bridge has a clearance of 18 ft or more, we can get through by lowering our antennas. Anything less, I need to consider the tide. If the tide is out, I can gain a foot or so. The boat needs 17.5 feet to clear the light on top of the Radar arch. We arrived at Peck Lake at around 4:30 and anchored there.

Cindy’s Observations: Overrun is an understatement. I felt like a jack-in-the-box every time we approached a “questionable” bridge as to whether we would clear or not. I would pop up and unzip the back glass and climb 1/2 way out to drop the antenna.

Pompano Beach, homes are fewer in this stretch. Yachts are becoming the norm.

Palm Beach is were the yachts started to grow. What do these people do to own such toys?

This is more like river life. What happened to this redneck “house boat”?

Jupiter, home of the St Louis Cardinals spring training camp. Americas most expensive zip code. Jupiter Island is a private equity ownership called the Island Club. Tiger Woods’s 38 million dollar home stretched from the ocean to the ICW.

Lighthouse on Jupiter inlet.

Osprey nest with mom.

Peck Lake where we anchored just past Jupiter. We dinghyed ashore and walked to the beach.

We went another 40 miles the next day, anchoring again, this time at Pine Island passed Vero Beach. We anchored on the back side of the island for an undisturbed evening.

It was about time to spend a night in a marina. We had anchored 3 nights in a row and needed to get the holding tank pumped, filled with water and top off fuel if the price is right. The weather was also going to turn bad with wind and rain for a couple of days according to the forecasts. We decided to stop at Titusville, spend an extra day and rent a car to Visit NASA and the Kennedy Space Center.

While we were there, Cindy got some good Manatee pictures. They were washing the boat next to us and they were taking turns drinking the soapy water running off of the boat. At no time did anyone give them fresh water from the hose (against the law). I did pull the plug on the dinghy after I washed it and some fresh water did run out. And they found it!!

Cindy’s Observations: It was an awful day traveling in the rain. The wind was starting to blow just as we approached the marina, of course. I put my rubber rain coat on to prepare for dockage. We did have help with tying up, thank God. The manatees were having a blast drinking the fresh water running off the boats. They were in sea cow heaven. I took lots of pictures to send to Coleen on Gemini Dream. She is a big fan of manatees.

Next!!

Kennedy Space Center has grown tremendously since my last visit in the 1980’s. What we enjoyed most was the IMax theatre complete with 3-D glasses. Featuring how solar systems form and the evolution of space exploration. The Hubble telescope pictures were phenomenal.

Observation lookout shows the track for the shuttle transport from the hanger to the launch pad.

For your visit to Cape Canaveral, plan on spending an entire day or two.

That evening we had another gorgeous Florida sunset .

Cindy’s Observations: Titusville was founded and named after Confederate Col. Henry Titus as a reward for winning a game of dominos. It is a good location for viewing a shuttle launch or driving to the KSCenter as we did. Cape Canaveral, meaning “the place of cane or reeds”, was named so by the Spanish.

We were contemplating staying another day because the weather was still not what we like to travel in. I was on the bridge putting in a course for the next day when I heard a familiar voice say "Not Bucket List, do we have to stay here with them?" I turned around and Matt and Coleen from "Gemini Dream" were standing there. That decided it! We were staying another day! We had not seen them since we went home for the Holidays in December. We had traveled many miles with them on the rivers since the Rendezvous. They were the ones who stayed along with us when we were having problems keeping the Port engine running and running slow, because of the "wrinkled" prop. We spent many nights together both in marinas and anchored. They had continued on and gotten way ahead of us. We had been following in their footsteps and had come close to where they were a couple of times, but never quite connected. They had spent more time in the Bahamas and we had actually gotten ahead of them. We had a nice reunion and even went out to eat together. They still had their youngest son with them so we got to meet him. Truly a mixture of both of his parents. You could see a bit of both of them hiding in there somewhere.

Cindy’s Observations: Oh no, we have to stay here with Bucket List, was the most wonderful phrase I heard that day. We were all surprised to meet at that marina. Larry and I had been traveling hard the last week and I wasn’t too fond of having to leave with the winds that were predicted.. Settled, we’re staying another day!

Outside the Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant we took our group shot minus Daniel their son, he took the picture.

Known for their rock shrimp which taste like mini lobsters an order was imminent. We have shared some of the best seafood meals with these guys.

After dinner Larry helped Coleen with some technical issues she was having. Always ready to help a fellow tech. Then a shot of “white caps” or some refer to them as “little beers”. Cuarenta Y Tres with cream poured over the top. Yum

We both left the same day headed for the same area, so we traveled together again, just like old times! I had planned on anchoring just across the ICW from the Marina where they were going to stay in New Smyrna Beach. As we approached, I noticed all of the anchorages seemed to be full, so we called the marina and docked close to them for another night. We even had snacks and drinks on the dock in spite of the cool weather.

Cindy’s Observations: Docktails were especially meaningful that evening. We had met our first day under way at Hoppies on the Mississippi river in Sept Matt was a character from day 1. Coleen is the best. The Hostess with the mostest.

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A Bascule bridge opening for the sail boats behind us. No Jack-in-the-box this time.

The next morning we left together again. We had planned to go as far as Palm Coast and stay at a marina there. As we were getting close to Daytona Beach, Matt called on the radio and said he was going to have a mutiny on board if he didn't stop in Daytona Beach for the night. We really needed to keep moving and make up for the days that we lost due to weather in Titusville. So we parted ways again, this time for probably quite a while. They are putting their boat up for sale somewhere in Georgia. They had bought this boat specifically for doing the loop, and they had completed that in December. We promised to stop by when we get to New Jersey and visit.

Cindy’s Observations: It was a sad morning passing Gemini Dream for what might be the last time. We made a deal that we would stop in Jersey later this year for another reunion.

Daytona Beach bridge piers

The next two pictures will be familiar to anyone in management in the FAA. The FAA Management Training Center is in Palm Coast, FL. All managers go here to get their initial and recurrent management training. I spent many hours walking the paths along the ICW dreaming of the day that I would go thru here by boat. That day finally came!!

Palm Coast

Management Center at the other end of this path.

We went by Palm Coast and were making such good time that we decided to continue on a few miles to Marineland Marina, home of the first marine Seaquarium. It was originally built for filming underwater scenes for the movie industry such as LLoyd Bridges “Seahunt”. I quickly became a tourist attraction and kind of changed course to become a tourist Mecca. Of course it has been renovated a few times since then thanks to Hurricanes.

Cindy’s Observations: Everything you need to know about dolphins can be learned here. If you feel ambitious, you can go in the tank and assist a dolphin paint an acrylic abstract painting. And take it with you. How cool is that!
Hand made miniature dolphins are painstakingly modeled and named after each resident dolphin in the gift shop.

Just on the other side of the seaquarium is the Atlantic coast line. We took a few moments and beach combed.

What the beach looked like before they moved the Coquina rock to make it look like a “beach”. Coquina rock is limestone formed of cemented shells and sand.

We stayed overnight at the Marina, and visited Marineland in the morning before making our way on to St. Augustine. We left the marina at 11:30. It would be a short trip, it’s less than 20 miles to the marina.
We arrived in St Augustine at around 2:00 and hooked on to a mooring ball next to the old part of town. We dinghyed to shore to pay for our mooring, and went sightseeing.

”Bridge of Lions” at St Augustine, Florida.

I finally managed to get my free parks pass at the fort in St Augustine. I had been trying to get it for months, but every other national park that we had gone to was not staffed for giving out passes. The way to pay was to place money in an envolope and drop it in a box. Finally a national park with an attendant. Trouble is, I left my disability letter on the boat. After looking at my VA card and my retired ID, they gave me the pass without it.

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Looking toward the Atlantic

View of entire fort from the mooring field

Must have been very short people, hate to try and swing a musket in here!

Built out of Coquina stone

An authentic replica uniform for the era was worn by the fort’s narrator. He explained about the 8 different flags that Florida had flown during all the wars.