January 31, 2009 – Marathon, Florida Keys

Wow - it's taken a long time to get this post done! For the longest time there wasn't anything to write about, and then we seemed to get busy and didn't have time! Anyway, here goes....

We had to wait until Thursday Jan 22 for the weather to improve enough that we could leave Cape Coral. In the meantime we continued on with school and regular daily life. On Sunday Jan 18, some new friends, Paul and Roseanne, that have a boat in the marina and a condo in Cape Coral took us to Sanibel Island to explore the Ding Darling Wildlife sanctuary. It was a great place with lots of birds and beautiful mangroves. There is a guided drive through the park and we spent 2 or 3 hours looking at the birds and walking around. We saw Roseated Spoonbills for the first time – like flamingos they turn pink because of the food they eat. After we finished at the park we drove to the north end of Sanibel and watched a spectacular sunset. We finished the day with supper at Doc Ford’s restaurant.
On Thursday Jan 22 we finally said Goodbye to Cape Coral. We left around 10:00 so that the tide had a chance to come up a bit. It was still really shallow going out the channel and we touched bottom, but we didn’t get stuck. We pulled into Glover Bight and Tarpon Springs marina to get some fuel and were on our way again by about 11:00. There was a light wind and it was a lovely day although the wind was chilly. We headed north up Pine Island Sound and were accompanied by lots of dolphins swimming alongside of us and in out bow wave. It was an uneventful trip and we arrived were anchored off Cabbage Key, near Cayo Costa around 4:00. We set off to explore in the dinghy – we’d heard about a neat canal and lagoon on Cayo Costa and we thought we’d see if we could find it. We think we found where it was, but the water was really shallow. There wasn’t even enough water to row the dinghy, let alone use the motor, and around 5:00 we decided to give up and head back to the boat. It was really pretty cold going back in the dinghy. On Friday we headed back to Cayo Costa, but this time we decided to go to the dock. Cayo Costa is a state park and the only way to get there is by boat. There are campsites and cabins on the island, but no power. There is a trolley that takes you about a mile across the island to the beach on a sandy trail. We had a great walk on the beach and found lots and lots of shells and sand dollars. We caught the 12:00 trolley back to the dock and then dinghied back to the boat. The kids had a quick swim while Dave did a couple of things to the engine. The water was really cold! We weighed anchor around 1:30 and headed south again down to Fort Myers Beach. We picked up a mooring in Fort Myers Beach and dinghied to shore with Rudder to watch the sunset. We walked around town a bit and looked for a place to go for supper but in the end we went back to boat instead of eating out. On Saturday we left Fort Myers Beach and went to Naples. It was our first time off shore in months! Fortunately it was a beautiful calm day. The Gulf of Mexico was beautifully smooth. We got to Naples early in the afternoon. The waterway around Naples was really busy with lots of people enjoying a sunny weekend. One boat passed us going way too fast and sent us really rocking. We went to the City Dock in Naples and got tied up. Kristen and I took Rudder for a walk and watched the fishing guides filleting the fish they had caught in the morning charters. They are amazingly quick! The pelicans have a great time catching the scraps the fishermen through away. We had a great walk in Naples and then went for supper at the Dock restaurant right by the marina. On Sunday, Annie and I went for a long walk to the grocery store to get some snacks and something for supper. We had decided that the best way to get to the Florida Key from Naples was to go overnight and arrive in the morning. This whole coast is very shallow and there are very limited placed to anchor. We had a quiet day and pulled away from the dock around 3:00. Once again it was a beautiful day with light winds and calm seas. We had supper as the sun went down and the girls and Dave saw some dolphins jumping in the distance. The overnight went really well. Biggest problem was when we did a shift change at 3:00am I could see all kinds of red lights flashing in the distance. This would have been fine if we had seen red flashing buoys on the chart, but we couldn’t find anything anywhere to indicate what they were. We were still 20 miles or more to shore. It was really strange and very disconcerting Florida Bay is very shallow and subject to shoaling. After watching the lights together for half an hour or so, we decided they weren’t getting any closer and Dave went down for a rest. Eventually we figured out that the lights are towers on the Keys and we were seeing them from over 20 miles away. We arrived at the shallow channel that leads to the high point under the bridge around 6:00am as planned. It was still pretty dark but we were able to find all the channel markers. Good thing too as we were seeing as little as 6’ on the depth sounder. We went under the bridge that put us on the South side of the Florida Keys and then headed a little East to get to Boot Key harbour and the town of Marathon. Marathon is about 50 miles from Key West.
We had to pass under an opening bridge, and the bridge tender was really nice. He wasn’t sure if there would be any moorings available – this was a real surprise to us as we knew there were over 200 moorings in Marathon. We called the marina, and after they checked, they were able to find one for us. We had planned to meet Chris and Penny from Carpe Diem (the folks we crossed from NS to Maine with) in Marathon, and the funny thing was that the mooring they assigned us was right in front of Carpe Diem!
We had a quiet day after a long night. Dave and I walked through Marathon to the grocery store but it was a pretty uneventful day. We had a quick visit from Joe and Mary Beth on Pot of Gold that are from PEI. Hopefully we’ll be able to get together with them again. We took some pictures of Chris and Penny to accompany the article that Chris is having published in Cruising World in May!
On Tuesday it was back to school. Chris and Penny had to take Carpe Diem down to the marina to be taken out of the water as they had hit a rock (quite hard). After school the girls and I dinghied down to the marina to see Chris and Penny and to go to West Marina to exchange the light for the dinghy that wasn’t working. They found a great motel with an efficiency unit and invited us to come down for a swim in the pool.
On Wednesday we spent the morning on school, and in the afternoon we took the dinghy to the beach. It is a great beach and the water was warm enough for swimming. Finally we found a beach where Rudder was welcome and that was great too! The kids found pieces of coral on the beach. Unfortunately the water wasn’t all that clear as it has been quite windy and stirred up a lot of sand. We ran out of time and didn’t make it down to Chris and Penny’ for a swim. There was a potluck at the marina so we went down there for supper and met some more travelers. This is a very busy place!
On Thursday we did school again. Dave finally adjusted the motor mount that has been worrying him since November (some things he did in Cape Coral helped him to figure out how to do it…) In the afternoon we went down to the motel and had a swim.
On Friday it was school again. Dave went snorkeling off the boat to see if there was any damage from the few times we dragged through the mud. Everything is fine including the anodes that protect the boat from electrolysis. Things seem to be a getting a little boring! The weather is always nice, there’s school in the morning and adventure in the afternoon. Today I loaded one of the bikes into the dinghy and took it to shore so I could ride the mile to the grocery store. I bought quite a few groceries, planning to leave some at the store and make two trips back to the dinghy, but when I finished shopping it was pouring out!! Oh my – but "when it rains it pours" must have been written about the rain in Florida. I ended up loading up the bike and making one trip back. I got soaked!
While I was gone, and before the rain started the girls had a great time swimming off the boat. The water was really warm. Now we have to wait for a series of cold fronts to pass through before we can head to the Bahamas.

Christmas in Cape Coral

We had a lovely time staying in the house in Cape Coral. We were able to swim every day, and there was only half a day of rain the entire time we were there (there was some rain over night a couple of times, but that didn’t bother us any). The kids got a big surprise on Sunday night when I left around suppertime and came back with Doreen (their babysitter for the past 10 years!). Doreen stayed with us for a week and we had a busy time with a trip to Busch Gardens in Tampa, lots of shopping, and a trip to Sanibel Island Beach for some sun and sea shells. The second week in the house we decorated for Christmas (we found a 4’ tall live “table top” Christmas tree which was just a great size for decorating!), and did some Christmas shopping. We also had two long “park” days – the first was a trip to Sea World in Orlando. The highlights for me were an interactive ride on the “Polar Express” – We were buckled into our seats and sat in front of a movie screen. When we took off, the seats moved in concert with what we were watching on the screen! It was amazing. When we arrived at the North Pole, Santa was there, as were the Beluga Whales, Penguins and the Polar Bears (no kidding). I also really enjoyed the night time Christmas Shamu whale show with great lighting and sound and Kristen and I fed the Dolphins. Annie and Dave went on Kracken one of the top 10 rated roller coaster in the world (twice). Kristen found a roller coaster that was just right for her in the Shamu fun park (and I had to agree that it was pretty fun too.) Later in the week we went back to Busch Gardens and had a great time on all the water rides (even Kristen!) and re-doing some of the fun things we had done with Doreen. On Friday, Dave and the girls drove back to Tampa to pick up Dave’s parents. It was so great to have them with us for Christmas. Christmas week was a busy blur of last minute shopping combined with lots of time around the pool and a visit to the Ford/Edison Winter Estate. It was especially nice as it was all decorated up for Christmas. After our first tour through in the late afternoon we went for supper, with a plan to return to look at the Christmas lights but it was a really cold evening and we rushed through the second time. Santa was able to find us in Cape Coral which was a relief. I think it was the eggnog and cookies that Kristen and Annie left for him… On Boxing Day (the day after Christmas for all you Americans) we had to take Dave’s parents back to the airport and we were alone once again. One day we went on an exciting kayak adventure. At the place where we rented the kayaks they warned us that it was really shallow at low tide, but I had looked at the tides and felt we would be through the shallow place an hour before low and I figured we’d be okay. They also said it was really narrow in the canals and that made it challenging to steer the boats – I’d seen the canals in Cape Coral, they were really wide – what did they mean?? They said it wasn’t for beginners… But we aren’t beginners – we’d had that extensive training back at the zoo in Melbourne! Anyway, off we went. Narrow! Oh my gosh we were going through this little tunnel in the trees that wasn’t three feet wide. The paddles are about 6 feet long. We had to keep ducking not to hit our head on the overhanging branches. We had to keep backing up the kayaks when they got caught up on the wrong side of little sticks poking out of the water. It took us about 40 minutes through this narrow canal to get to the portage. There you had to pull the kayaks out of the water and drag them over a long twisting boardwalk and then relaunch them on the other side. When we got to the other side we saw there was only about 3 inches of water – oh and the map had gone missing-- and the double kayaks were so long they didn’t fit around the corner in the canal… But we persevered… we found a old tattered map on the portage and then we dragged the kayaks through the mud when they wouldn’t float – it really wasn’t that far – I’m sure was glad that there weren’t any mosquitoes though – that would have been the end of me! I knew that by the time we got back we would be well past low tide and there would be more water and we wouldn’t have to do it again. Shortly after all this the canal got deeper and wider. Then it opened out in to the most wonderful wilderness, full of birds. At one point there were 7 egrets fishing in the canal right in front of us. At every turn in the canal we would see more birds. It was beautiful. We got to the end of the canal and decided it was too windy to go out into the river so we pulled the kayaks up on a little beach to have a snack. Just as we were thinking about leaving we saw this reptile swimming down the other side of the canal (probably about 35 or 40’ away). First we saw it’s head and figured it was a small alligator. They Annie turned away and Dave and I saw the distinctive slithery kink of movement you only see with… snakes…. And this was not a small snake – probably about a 6-8’ boa constrictor that someone could no longer deal with as a pet. Anyway, Dave and I decided it was probably about time to leave… so we kayaked back up the wonderful winding canals towards the portage. Unfortunately, the tide was still going out, so there was actually less water than when we came through the first time. We got covered in mud. The kayaks got covered in mud. Surprisingly our spirits remained intact and we stayed pretty cheery about it all. We pulled the kayaks out at the portage and pulled them back to the other side and relauched into inches of water. It was so nice to float again! We made it back safely to the rental shack and hosed off all the mud. We asked what happened to the father and son (probably around 12-13) that left right after us… “Oh – didn’t you hear him screaming?? They didn’t make it 10 minutes before they were back here”. Funny thing is that was one of the most fun days I had on the whole trip!! Guess I must be a little bit crazy!
Our last week in the house was pretty quite. I bought lots and lots of dry groceries (enough for 8 weeks in the Bahamas) and stored them away in the boat. The kids went to a day camp for two days put on by the City of Cape Coral at the Yacht Club. They had a busy time with fishing, bowling, swimming, tennis, kayaking (yes they did try kayaking again J), and a trip to Mike Greenwell’s where they have games, paint ball, go-carts etc. They were so tired they didn’t even want to do anything for New Years Eve so we stayed home. There were lots of fireworks and firecrackers set off all around us at midnight so we didn’t miss much that way.
We got safely moved back on the boat and spent the next week getting back into the routine of school. The marina is great with the pool on one side and the tennis courts on the other. We’ve been making use of both each day – the girls even bought tennis racquets and have had a couple of tennis lessons. We returned the rental car and are using the bikes to get back and forth to the grocery store. We are busy planning the next leg of our adventure to the Florida Keys and beyond.

Dec 7 - Cape Coral

Nov 30 - Clewiston – LaBelle
We woke up fairly early and decided to leave right away as high winds were forecast and we thought it would be pretty difficult to get off the dolphins if it was windy. As we went along the water way there was this wonderful smell like someone baking porridge bread. We figured it must be the sugar factory. We went through the first lock of the day before the rain started, so it was pretty uneventful. When the rain started it really started and it poured rain! Fortunately we didn’t have too long a day and the rain was a warm rain. It came in bands so it was off and on. We thought we were going to get through the second lock of the day during a dry spell, but it was not to be, the rain started again as we were locking through, but it wasn’t as wet as some of the showers we’d had. The wind was piping up too, and when we got to LaBelle we decided to tie up to the face dock at the old motel rather than try to dock Mediterranean style at the free town dock. (To do that, you have to drop your anchor out in the channel, and then back into the dock and tie your stern to the dock.). There was a pool at the motel (unheated) so the kids went for a swim and I got the laundry done. Mid-afternoon we thought we’d walk to town to see if we could find a restaurant where we could watch the football game. It started to pour rain again so we got pretty wet. All the restaurants we found were closed on Sunday. We went to the movie store to see if we could rent a movie, but it turned out that we could actually buy pre-watched movies for less than the rental of a new release – so we bought a few. We went to the grocery store and got a roast chicken for supper and went back to the boat.

Dec 1 – 2 – LaBelle
We planned to spend a couple of days in LaBelle, so when it was calm in the morning we moved across the river and did our med mooring to the town dock. It actually worked out pretty well as the dock was a great height for getting on and off the stern of Bird. It was nice to see the sun again. The kids got some school work done, and I took Kristen to the library to do some research for her Bird Watching badge for Girl Guides. In the afternoon we walked back up to town to get some groceries. We spent quite a bit of time in LaBelle 15 years ago and really liked it, and it was pretty much as we remembered it. It is still very rural. Unfortunately, hard times have hit to some extent and some of the shops are closed. It doesn’t have the same charm as some of the towns we have been to like Fernandino or Beaufort SC, but there is something kind of nice about it. After we got the groceries put away we walked back up to town and went out for supper. On Tuesday the kids got their schoolwork done and Dave did chores around the boat. Kristen and I went back to the library to get more info on birds. In the afternoon we went for a walk/bike ride through town. Kristen made a yummy desert for supper – no bake key lime cheesecake!

Dec 3 – LaBelle to Franklin Lock
We left LaBelle around 8:00 and travelled about 20 miles to the Franklin lock where we tied up at the state park – very similar to the one at the St. Lucie lock. It was an uneventful trip, although it was pretty cold. Overnight there were temperatures in the 30’s along the coast. We were all tied up by 11:30 so it was a really short day. After lunch I took Kristen on a bike ride and we saw all kinds of neat wildlife. In addition to the herons and egrets we see everyday, we saw a turtle, two sandhill cranes, and a huge flock of woodstocks. We also passed a goat farm and stopped to pet some really friendly horses. In the evening we walked out on the fishing pier and watch two guys that caught a Tarpon that was over 5’ and 100lbs. It took them about 45 minutes to get the Tarpon tired enough to get him close to the pier that they could cut him free. They did all that on a light weight (although expensive) fishing rod with 20lb test fishing line. After that we lit a campfire and roasted marshmallows.

Dec 4 – Franklin Lock to Fort Meyers
We puttered around the campground in the morning. Dave waxed the hull on the boat and the girls got their schoolwork done. We left around 11:30 and went through our final lock for this leg of our adventure. We went through the lock with two manatees, they were pretty hard to see, but the lockmaster had seen them. We saw lots of manatees as we went down the river to Ft. Meyers. They aren’t as much fun to watch as the dolphins as you only see their noses and their backs. When we got to Fort Meyers we picked up a town mooring. As we prepared to go to shore a manatee came right up to the boat and swam along the length of the boat – unfortunately I was in the dinghy and I didn’t get much of a look L but the kids and Dave got a great look. After that we went for a walk in town. There wasn’t much to see. There is a really nice little restored district with restaurants and art galleries, but it was pretty much deserted. When we looked through the Misty log our comment about walking around Ft. Meyers was " we had a great time walking around the non-existent downtown of Ft. Meyers" and that pretty much sums it up.

Dec 5 – Fort Meyers to Cape Coral
We left Fort Meyers at 6:00 to try to get to Cape Coral by 8:00 – as close to high tide as possible -- with the hope that we might be able to get the boat up the canal and into the dock at the house. We really had no idea how much water there would be but we knew it would be tight. A number of people we talked to thought we could probably do it at high tide (there is only about 1’ of tide here so not a lot of difference between low and high). We gave it a valiant effort and made it up to the house. We could feel the mud sucking against the keel a couple of times as we went up the canal and we were seeing readings on the depth sounder less than 5’ (and we need 5.5’). When we were off the house, Dave got in the dinghy to see if there was water at the dock, and by the time he got back to the boat we were stuck in the mud. There really wasn’t much water at the dock so that wasn’t going to work. We got the boat unstuck once by putting out the anchor and pulling towards the anchor. By this time we had several neighbors come out to say "hi" and see if there was anything they could do to help. We tried to get up to the neighbour’s dock, but we got stuck again. Finally we called TowBoat to come and pull us off (fortunately we had insurance for just such an occurrence). By that point the anchor was so stuck there was no way we could pull it out. When TowBoat arrived, he didn’t think he could get us out until the tide came back up, so he didn’t even try. He did help us get the anchor back.
At that point we all piled off the boat and into the dinghy and went to the house. The house is great! It was probably built in the 60’s and it’s really funky. It is huge too – probably more square feet than our house at home – all on one level. There are four bedrooms, a living room, dining room, family room, playroom and three bathrooms. There’s a great pool that is lovely and warm. We got ourselves organized in the house and waited for high tide.
At supper time we called TowBoat again and arranged to have them meet us at 8:00. We went out to the boat at 7:00 and were able to move it a little, but we were still stuck. At 8:00 TowBoat arrived with a different operator. He pulled us off, no problem, and we had him tow us the 2 miles back down the canals to the marina. Bird was all settled safely in her new home by 9:30 and we dinghied back "home".

The weekend was uneventful. We did normal things like rent a car, checked on the boat, bought groceries...

The girls got a huge surprise on Sunday night when arrived back at the house from a "trip to Walmart" with Doreen! She is here to visit for a week which will be great.

Now that our travels have stopped for Christmas I won't be boring you with the details of our life here in Cape Coral. You can look back for a summary in early January when we get "back on the road"

We'll be thinking of you all, as we dream of a "bright" Christmas instead of a white Christmas - it's a little sad to be missing the snow and the lights twinkling in the cold crisp air. It's really weird to see palm trees dressed up with Christmas lights and blow up snowmen sitting on these lawns. So from all of us to all of you we wish you a very happy holiday!

Nov 29 - Clewiston

Pictures added around 7:30 on Sunday...

Nov 23 – Banana River to Vero (mile 951)
We left Gotta Life and Sandpiper in Banana River and headed out on our own for Vero Beach around 10:00. It was an uneventful day on the waterway, although you can certainly tell the difference between traveling the waterway on the weekend and traveling during the week. There is so much more boat traffic on the weekend, and the boaters are far less polite and going blowing past without slowing down, so you end up rocking and rolling in their wake. We arrived in Vero around 3:30 and picked up a mooring. We were lucky to get one on our own as most have two or three boats rafted together. Gotta Life left Banana River too late to get here today so we are on our own. We went to shore and found out that the bus service doesn’t run on Sunday, so we couldn’t get Annie to the mall today. Instead we walked about a mile East to the beach. There are some shops here, but they were all closed because it is Sunday. We were able to find an Ice Cream shop that was open though! It finally feels like Florida with lots of sun and warm weather. There were pineapples growing in the garden by the beach and there are coconuts growing in the palm trees!

Nov 24 – Nov 27 - Vero
It was nice to have some time off from travelling everyday! We stayed 4 full days in Vero. Gotta Life arrived around lunch time on Monday. Sandpiper decided to keep going on to Fort Pierce where Bob and Ilene have some friends. Gotta Life rafted up with us so we were tied together which was great for the girls. There was school every morning. On Monday Annie Kristen and I caught the bus with Sheryl, Geneva and Erin and went to the mall. Annie was anxious to get a birthday present and she had her heart set on a cell phone. Surprisingly this actually made sense as we could get a pay as you go phone that is a lot less expensive to use in the US than the Blackberry we brought from home. So Annie got a cell phone for her birthday. It took a while to get to the mall and back, so we didn’t get back to the boat until around 6:00. We BBQ’d steak, hamburgers and chickenburgers for everyone for supper and ate on Gotta Life with the folks from Blue Heaven who was also rafted with us. On Tuesday afternoon we went back to the beach and the kids got bathing suits. They went swimming off the arch on the back of Gotta Life when we got back.

On Wednesday afternoon we took the bus to the closer mall to get some food for the Thanksgiving potluck on Thursday – we decided to take brownies. We did a trial run on the brownies on Wednesday night just to make sure they would be okay! (they were). On Thursday morning we got school done quickly and then went down to the Boater’s flea market. Miakado (with the twins) arrived yesterday and they came to the flea market with us. After the flea market we went back to the boat to get ready for the potluck. It started at 1:00. It was a real spread -–there were probably over a hundred people and the food was wonderful. We spent most of the afternoon there and then we went for a sunset dinghy cruise. We didn’t need any supper after the big feast at lunch time.

Nov 28 – Vero Beach to St. Lucie Lock
There were some long faces today as we pulled out of Vero and left Gotta Life. They are heading to Miami and then the Bahamas, and we are turning west today to go through the Okeechobee Waterway and across Florida to the West Coast. The day was saved when we had to wait for a bridge and we had two dolphins come right up to the boat. The water was clear enough that we could see them swimming under the water all around the boat. It was great! We traveled about 35 miles further down the ICW to Stuart and then left the main ICW and turned into the OCW (okeechobee waterway). We went another 15 miles west to the St. Lucie Lock. We locked through and were raised about 14 feet. There is a campground on the other side of the lock and we had a reservation there for the night. After we got tied up we went across the lock to the other side and had a walk on the nature trail. Didn’t see any animals, but we saw three badger tortoise dens. These tortoises burrow under the ground that is kind of different. We saw lots of animal tracks too. We were just as glad not to run into any alligators! It was getting dark so it was kind of spooky walking through the woods.

Nov 29 – St. Lucie Lock to Clewiston
It was another beautiful morning when we got up. I took Kristen down to the lock so she could read the display on manatees and make some notes for a project she would like to do. The lock master came over to talk to us – he was really friendly. He talked to us about manatees and then he took us out on the lock and showed us where one was. We also found a beautiful moth. We left St. Lucie Lock around 8:30, ready for the challenges that lay ahead. We have to go under a 49" bridge, and while we measured and re-measured our mast and we’re sure it’s about 47’ it will be nice to clear through that and know we fit. We also have to go across Lake Okeechobee today. This whole waterway was closed for two years because of a lack of water. Apparently now there is a minimum of 8’. It is also supposed to be windy today and it can get pretty nasty when it is windy on such a large, shallow body of water. In the end we had a great day. We made it under the bridge, we went through the Port Mayaca lock and out into the lake. The lake had only a light chop, and the wind never really materialized. We were across the lake to Clewiston by about 4:00. It took us about half an hour to get Bird tied up to the pylons (aka dophins – don’t know why…) beside the waterway. It was a challenging experience and there was lots of creosote but while we offered lots of entertainment value to the folks in the picnic park across the way, all was fine in the end. We all went to shore for a walk around Clewiston. Clewiston is the "sweetest town in America" because of all the sugar produced and refined here. It also has a huge bass fishing reputation. The Christmas lights on the light posts are of a large mouth Bass catching a dragonfly. There is an entirely different feel to Florida here than on the East Coast. It is a rural, agricultural community. Homes are small and there are numerous trailer parks. Entertainment includes shooting the drag through the picnic park on Saturday evening. We found a grocery store, but all the labeling was in Spanish and we didn’t recognize any of the things we needed. We did recognize the Pizza shop and we ordered a pizza for supper. We were a little concerned walking back to the boat at dusk that we wouldn’t have enough light to see the combination to unlock the dinghy. We really hadn’t planned to be out after sunset. We got back to the dinghy and got it unlocked. The kids got in and put on their lifejackets, and then the Florida Fish and Wildlife Patrol boat came by. He was really glad we all had lifejackets, but was concerned that we didn’t have any navigation lights on the dinghy. He escorted us back to Bird and asked for our boat registration papers. He called them into the office, but apparently Canada isn’t on the same computer system, so they weren’t getting a response back on our boat registration. He was a really great guy, but it was kink of nerve racking wondering what was going to happen. In the end, he gave us a written warning on the navigation lights for the dinghy (rather than the $90 fine) and said he would follow up with us tomorrow if there was a problem with the registration. We felt really fortunate. When we went below on Bird she was full (I mean hundreds) of bugs. We don’t think they were of a biting variety, but we sure wanted to get them cleaned up. We had to keep the pizza box closed so they wouldn’t fall into the pizza!!

Nov 21 - 22 - Banana River

Finally - here are some pictures -- added some to the last posting too!

Nov 20 – Titusville – Eau Gaille (mile 914)
Mark and Brendan wanted to go exploring in the morning, so we had breakfast and were thinking about taking Rudder to shore when we heard Mark and Brendan coming back from shore. Apparently the causeway is owned by NASA and we weren’t really supposed to go to shore there. Oops. We left around 8:30 and had another uneventful day. Nice to not have things break for a day or two. We anchored in behind the Eau Gaille causeway around 1:30. Sheryl and Brian have friends that live near here, so they went to shore to check things out and to give them a call and they took Annie and Kristen with them. We went to shore shortly after them and there was a great park with a playground and tennis court. As we were going in the dolphins were corralling fish and doing all kinds of splashing around. There are also lots of birds – pelicans, egrets, ibis and wood storks. Were pretty sure there are manatees around as you can see them swimming out in the channel. The kids had a great time playing in the playground. Sheryl and Brian’s friends Brian and Linda came to meet us and they started shuttling us all to a restaurant for supper. There were 14 of us all together and it was a really fun time. Sheryl arranged for the waiters to sing Happy Birthday to Annie!
Nov 21-22 – Banana River
It’s Annie’s Birthday! In the morning we all went to the park. The guys walked up to the Discount Marine store; Erin and Geneva showed Annie and Kristen how to play tennis. We stayed there until about 11:00. Then we dinghied back out to the boats and moved across the Indian River and up the Banana River a little ways to the Telemar Marina. The Brian with a car was there to meet us and he began to shuttle us all to the zoo. Sheryl took the girls in the first trip, and Dave and I went in the second trip with Mark and Brendan. We had a great time at the zoo. One thing that was cool was the kayak trip. We paired up and filled up 4 kayaks, and then had a guided kayak tour around this island that had animals on it. That was pretty neat. The other thing that was really cool was feeding the lorries. We went into the aviary with all kinds of birds flying around. There were cockatoos, a koorkaburra and the lorries. The lorries look like some kind of small parrot, are mostly green but really colorful. You could buy lorry nectar and then the lorries would come and perch on your head, arms, or wherever they could find a spot. The birds were really excited and they would fight over the nectar. A couple of times a hawk flew over the aviary and the birds all got really scared and would all fly away. It was really neat and we stayed there quite a while. Around 4:30 we got a ride to walmart to try to find a birthday present for Annie. We had a list of quite a few things she wanted, but do you think we could find any of them at that Walmart today?? We got a giant birthday cookie and a card and then got a ride to Brian and Linda’s where they had made a wonderful turkey/thanksgiving/birthday dinner for all of us. We had a lovely evening. The kids swam in the pool and watched movies. All in all Annie had a great birthday even though she didn’t get any presents from us!
On Saturday we had planned to leave Melbourne ahead of Gotta Life and Sandpiper and go to Vero, but in the end we decided to stay here another day and get some chores done around the boat. The girls had a great day with the scooters and rip-stiks. They spent the entire day outside. In the afternoon Dave and I went for a walk to the grocery store. On the way we walked through a little park and saw three baby raccoons. They were really cute.

Nov 20 - Eau Gaille Fl.

Nov 16 – Jekyll Island to Fernandino Beach FL!! (Mile 716)
We had a leisurely morning and finally pulled away from the dock around 9:30. It was still pretty windy and it was a challenge getting the boats away from the dock. We left last as we were at the end of the face dock and we got blown sideways into the little cove at the end of the dock. Dave had quite a time getting turned around and out of there, but all was fine in the end. We had to cross St. Andrew’s Sound, and in order to get around the shoals you have to almost go out into the ocean. It can kick up quite a bit in a high wind so we were cautious about going across it, but that too was fine. There was definitely some sea, but nothing like what we’re used to up north. We had a hard time deciding whether to stop at Cumberland Island or to go a little farther and get to Florida. Cumberland Island is a beautiful state park with wild horses and great walking trails, but given the cold temperatures, we decided to press on to Fernandino Beach. After some challenges in finding a mooring in Fernandino Beach we did find one and got tied on by 1:00. We had a great walk in this beautiful little town. It has great brick buildings and wonderful stores full of antiques. We got a few groceries at Fred’sa 5 and 10, and ice cream at the treat store. The folks on Gotta Life and Sandpiper went out for pizza, but we decided to stay on the boat for supper tonight.

Nov 17 – Fernandino Beach to St. Augustine (Mile 778)
We planned an early start but when we tried to start the motor at 6:30 the starter motor was making really strange noises. After a couple more tries, the starter wouldn’t work at all. Dave went to investigate and discovered that one of the two bolts that holds the starter in place had fallen out, and the other one was half way out. He was able to find the bolt and put it back together, but it took half and hour and we didn’t get away until 7:00. We expected to have a long day to St. Augustine as it is 68 miles but we had the current with us and we actually arrived at the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine a couple of minutes after their 3:00 opening. There were a few boats anchored on the north side of the bridge including Serenus and Miakado (with the twins that we met in Oriental) so we spent some time talking to those guys as we waited for the 3:30 opening. At 3:30 the bridge didn’t seem to be opening, so I called the bridge, and they said they weren’t opening as no one had requested and opening. That was pretty frustrating as we had talked to them at 3:04 when we asked them to keep the bridge open for us and they wouldn’t. Anyway, we had to wait another 30 minutes until the 4:00 opening. When we got through the bridge we went to look for a place to anchor. The anchorage is a little tricky as there are shoals in the middle of the anchorage, so Dave was watching the chart plotter really carefully, and then it started to get really shallow, even though it wasn’t showing shallow on the chart. To make a long story short, we ran hard aground and couldn’t get the boat off. Fortunately for us, a few minutes later a big power boat went by and rudely did not slow down. He created a lot of wake – I mean a lot of wake – probably 18-24 inch waves. Anyway, it was enough to raise us of the bottom and we were able to back off the shoal. Unfortunately, we also had to deal with the valleys between the waves and those kept slamming us into the bottom. We were hitting so hard that things were bouncing of the shelves down below, but in the end I was both glad to have a steel, full keel boat, and glad to be off the bottom. We were able to find another spot to anchor and had the hook down around 4:30 after a really long and tiring day. By the time we arrived in St. Augustine the bolts had loosened up again on the starter, so we took another crack at getting them tightened up with a different Allan key that Brian had on Gotta Life.

Nov 18 – St. Augustine to Daytona Beach (Mile 835)
We really weren’t sure where we were going to end up today as there are very few good anchorages on this stretch of the waterway. When we listened to the forecast, they were predicting that another front was going to come through so we decided to make a reservation at the Seven Seas Marina, just passed Daytona Beach. We saw lots of dolphins today. When we were waiting at one of the bridges, Dave tried the bow thruster and it didn’t work – at all… After we cleared through the bridge Dave went below to see if he could figure that out. After some trial and error, he was able to get it to work one way, but not the other way – there was a problem with the electrical connections. He spent quite a while trying to fix it, but finally had to give up. Just before we got to the marina we went under another bridge and it was really beautiful – each one of the supports was covered in a mosaic of dolphins and manatees. We had a hard time getting into the marina slip without the bow thruster, but eventually did get tied up. Shortly after we were settled, the wind really started to pipe up and it started to get colder. We were glad to be in a marina. We went for a walk across to the Beach and it was really beautiful. The waves were rolling in and the beach was so flat and smooth with fine white sand. The kids couldn’t restrain themselves and it wasn’t long before they were all soaking wet playing in the waves. They said the water was really warm, but the air was cold and we got them back to the marina so they could get a warm shower. Dave spent a long time trying to get the bow thruster to work with limited success. He finally took apart the connector and discovered that the wire wasn’t tinned so it was all corroded. He didn’t have the parts to fix it so he left if for tonight and we went over and had supper on Gotta Life.

Nov 19 – Daytona Beach to Titusville (Mile 876)
First thing in the morning Sheryl, Eileen and I got a ride with the marina owner to the grocery store. It was interesting to talk to him. They had owned the marina for 30 years. A few years ago they were offered a lot of money to sell the marina, but when he thought it over he said to himself, "if I had that kind of money I’d take it and buy a marina in Florida – I already have one of those, so why would I sell it!" By the time we got back, Dave had the bow thruster fixed! We left around 10:30. It was a reasonable uneventful day, although at one point Dave realized that he had followed a power boat through a bridge and took the wrong turn. Fortunately it wasn’t a dead end and joined back up with the ICW and it wasn’t really any farther. We had dolphins with us all day and the kids had a hard time concentrating on school. It is very sad to see so many boats that have been abandoned and are partially submerged. We saw one today that didn’t even look that old. We were anchored a little north of Titusville by the Jay Jay Railroad Causeway. Turning off the ICW to anchor here it was very shallow, and it was really distracting to have a dozen dolphins swimming around the boat, surfacing and breathing loudly through their blow holes. After we anchored we had a quick trip to shore with Rudder on the causeway. It was a little difficult getting to shore as the water was really shallow and it was hard to get the dinghy to shore. I made lasagna for supper so we had the girls over from Gotta Life.

Nov 20 – Titusville – Eau Gaille (mile 914)
Mark and Brendan wanted to go exploring in the morning, so we had breakfast and were thinking about taking Rudder to shore when we heard Mark and Brendan coming back from shore. Apparently the causeway is owned by NASA and we weren’t really supposed to go to shore there. Oops. We left around 8:30 and had another uneventful day. Nice to not have things break for a day or two. We anchored in behind the Eau Gaille causeway around 1:30. Sheryl and Brian have friends that live near here, so they went to shore to check things out and to give them a call and they took Annie and Kristen with them. We went to shore shortly after them and there was a great park with a playground and tennis court. As we were going in the dolphins were corralling fish and doing all kinds of splashing around. There are also lots of birds – pelicans, egrets, ibis and wood storks. Were pretty sure there are manatees around as you can see them swimming out in the channel. The kids had a great time playing in the playground. Sheryl and Brian’s friends Brian and Linda came to meet us and they started shuttling us all to a restaurant for supper. There were 14 of us all together and it was a really fun time. Sheryl arranged for the waiters to sing Happy Birthday to Annie!

Nov 15 - Jekyll Island

Lots of anchorages and not much internet - finally a place to post this!

Nov 6 – Thoroughfare Creek to Georgetown – Mile 403
We left a little after 7:00 so we would be in Georgetown early and hopefully get a place to anchor. It was a beautiful morning. The scenery is wonderful, and the early morning light and a little mist on the water made a beautiful start to the day. We were able to find a little spot to anchor of the town of Georgetown and we dropped the hook a little after 9:00. We went for a walk through town. Then Dave took Rudder and Kristen back to the boat and Annie and I looked in some of the little shops until lunch time. Later in the afternoon we walked to the grocery store and got them to give us a ride back to the boat when we were done. The girls made Peanut Chicken stir-fry for supper with Key Lime Pie for dessert.
Nov 7 – Georgetown
We decided to spend another day in Georgetown. The girls got their schoolwork done in the morning. We went in the dinghy to see if we could find any alligators but we couldn’t find any. We did see family from PEI with a girl on it so we went to go visit. The girl was Annie’s age. They left PEI in October in a van and had bought just bought their boat and were heading to the Carribean.
After lunch we went back to wander around Georgetown and later in the day we went to sit in one of the little restaurants over looking the river to have some nachos. On our way back to the boat we picked up Sheena (the girl) so she could come over for a visit. She stayed until suppertime and then we took her back to her boat. Kristen made Shrimp Creole for supper.

Nov 8 – Georgetown to Graham Creek – Mile 439
We left around 7:00 and had current with us most of the day so we were anchored in Graham Creek by 12:30. It was a warm and sunny day. It is a beautiful anchorage with marsh grass all around. There is a little oyster shell beach near the entrance to the creek were we could take Rudder to shore. We had arranged to meet Gotta Life here. We had been emailing back and forth with them since we were in the Dismal Swamp because they are also travelling with two girls. Sure enough, they arrived and were anchored a little after 1:00. It was great to meet them – Brian, Sheryl, Erin and Geneva. They are travelling with another boat, Sandpiper, with Brian’s parents and two of Brian’s nephews. The girls got a long great and were invited back after supper for a sleep over.

Nov 9 – Graham Creek to Tom Point Creek – Mile 495.7
We left a little after sunrise this morning. It was a beautiful morning and the sunrise over the marsh was spectacular. We had current against us most the day, and had to wait quite a while at two different bridges that only opened on the hour so we didn’t arrive at our anchorage until a few minutes after sunset. We had lots of dolphins swimming around us today so it helped to make the day go faster. Dave and Annie took Rudder to shore and found a huge horseshoe crab shell that measured 2’ from tip to tail. We were invited over to Gotta Life for potluck supper along with Sandpiper. It was a full boat with 8 adults and 4 kids. The adults ate in the enclosure in the cockpit and the kids ate below. It was a fun time.

Nov 10/11 – Tom Point Creek to Beaufort – Mile 536
We had another beautiful sunrise this morning and were underway a little before 7:00. We arrived at Beaufort a little after 1:00. Beaufort SC is pronounced Bew-fort while Beaufort NC is pronounced Bow-fort – it is a little confusing! We decided to go and stay at the marina, while Gotta Life and Sandpiper anchored off. We got tied up and were able to get diesel and water at our dock. We had a busy afternoon getting tidied up. I had ordered a math book for Kristen and had it sent to the marina -- when we arrived it hadn’t which was a bit of a pain. Fortunately it arrive on UPS about 30 minutes later so we had it in the afternoon. After we got organized and cleaned up, Gotta Life came in and met us and we all walked up to the post office. We were able to pick up the stove burner that Dave ordered and put a couple of parcels in the mail. After that we went for a long, long one mile walk to a grocery store. It was such a long walk we didn’t want to carry much back to the boat, and besides it had gotten dark. We picked up enough stuff for dinner and went back to the boat. Geneva and Erin stayed for supper. We got the laundry done in the evening.
We all planned to spend another day in Beaufort and planned to meet again in the morning in time for the Veteran’s Day parade.
In the morning I took Rudder for a nice walk along the waterfront in Beaufort. Beaufort has the most beautiful and gracious antebellum style homes along the waterfront. There are lots of beautiful trees that are covered with spanish moss and there are lots of palm trees too. We watched the parade and tried to borrow the courtesy car from the marina to go and get some groceries. The girls stayed in the waterfront park with the Sandridges and learned to ride on Rip-Stiks – they are like skateboards except they swivel in the middle and only have one wheel front and back. You can wiggle them back and forth to move them along a flat sidewalk. Kristen took a bit of a tumble and hurt her wrist so switch back to riding her scooter. We moved the boat out to the anchorage and then went back to town to walk around and look in some of the stores. We were back to the boat by supper time and we had a simple supper of hamburgers. Everyone went to bed early.

Nov 12 – Beaufort to Herb Creek GA – Mile 584
We’ve made it to Georgia! We had a challenging time pulling up our anchors this morning – in these waters there is a lot of current so you set two – about 180° apart. Normally we are able to pull up the little anchor first in the dinghy, but this morning it was the little anchor that was holding us so things were a little different. There were also quite a few sailboats around us and every one is moving into different places as they pull up their anchors. Anyway, we got away a little after 7:00. It was a little chilly but a nice sunny day. We were able to pull out the head sail and do some motor sailing. Shortly after we left Beaufort the engine started acting up and Dave figured out that there was a problem with fuel. He was able to turn the motor off and change the fuel filter while we were under sail. Unfortunately it is our last fuel filter and it looks like there is probably a problem with the fuel in the tank. We arrived in Herb Creek around 4:00. It is another little creek that winds off the ICW through the marsh and we couldn’t find anywhere to take Rudder to shore. I did try though and I found a little muddy patch in the reeds. He got all covered in mud but I’m sorry to report the mud patch apparently did not meet his high standards and we returned to the boat with lots of mud and some unfinished business.
The boys off Sandpiper met up with some friends in Savannah so there was extra room around the supper table on Gotta Life so we went over for supper. The next day we learned about the big adventure that Mark and Brendan had trying to get back to the boat at 1:30. They had arranged to leave their dinghy at a private dock and had the name, address and phone number of the owner of the dock. They didn’t realize that the gated community had a guard and when they arrived there on foot in the middle of the night the guard didn’t want to let them in. After leaving photocopies of their id at the gatehouse they were let in to walk the 1.5 miles to the dock. After about 20 minutes they were approached by 3 police cars! The guard had called the police to have them escorted to the dock! Anyway one of the police cars took them to the correct address and walked them all the way out across the dock to make sure they got into their dinghy and left the subdivision.

Nov 13 – Herb Creek to St Catherine’s Island – mile 619
It was really foggy in the morning so we stayed put in Herb Creek and didn’t leave until 10:00. I tried again to find some shore for Rudder and went quite away in the fog in the dinghy and didn’t see anything so finally I went back to the boat before I got lost. The fuel continued to give us problems today, but when we ran the fuel pump it seemed to keep the engine going. When Dave tried to clean out the old one it wouldn’t work at all. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it going until we reach Jekyll Island. We got to Walberg Creek around 4:00 and the girls and I quickly got the dinghy down and set off to go the beach we’d seen a mile or so back. We have made our way back down to the Atlantic Ocean and we could see the ocean as we crossed a Sound before the anchorage. We didn’t have time to go all the way up the beach to the Atlantic, but it was great to see sand again – Rudder was impressed. The shoreline was really neat too as the sand had eroded away about 2 feet from underneath all the trees. There were lots of dead trees that had fallen down, and some were still standing with a couple of feet of roots showing about the sand. The beach was really flat and the tide was coming in so we weren’t there very long before the dinghy started to float off the beach so we had to cut our adventure short to rescue the dinghy.
We made pizza for supper and the girls from Gotta Life came over too.

Nov 14 – St. Catherine’s Island to Dalphin River – mile 649
We knew we had a short day today as we couldn’t go through the shallow Little Mud River at low tide, and low tide was mid afternoon so we knew we’d have to anchor before we got there. Gotta Life took Annie and Kristen for another adventure to shore and then we left around 10:30. We continued to struggle with fuel problems, as well as high winds and nasty currents but finally arrived at the Dalpin River and Sapello Island around 4:00. We wanted to take Rudder for a walk so we quickly dropped the dinghy and headed towards the ferry dock. On the way we picked up Geneva and Erin from Gotta Life. When we got to the ferry dock there were signs saying that there was to be no unauthorized use of the dock, but we decided to risk it and tie up anyway. We went for a bit of a walk, but dark was fast approaching and we didn’t want to be getting back to the boat after dark. Sapello Island has an interesting history and apparently has a really nice house that was built in the 1900’s and renovated in 1925 but we didn’t get a chance to see it.

Nov 15 – Dalphin River to Jekyll Island – Mile 685
We got an early start this morning and were heading down the river before 7:00. Little Mud River was no problem with the high tide but we were glad we hadn’t tried to do it at low tide. We finally had to take out the primary fuel filter and run with only the secondary filter. We spent the day hoping and praying we’d be able to get more fuel filters when we got to Jekyll. We got to Jekyll around 12:30, and we tied up at the Jekyll Harbour Marina. Shortly after we arrived the wind piped up and the rain started and we were glad to be here. The transient dock filled up really quickly as about 10 other boats all decided to come in here as well. We were so glad to hear that they do have our fuel filters here! Dave bought 4 and some fuel conditioner so hopefully we’ll be able to resolve the fuel problem. We were also glad to find that our WiFi antenna had arrived here safely so now we should be able to get internet below on the boat and not have to do all the computer stuff in the cockpit (and sure enough it works!)
After lunch we walked over the historic district and looked at all the mansions that were built by the American elite in the late 1800’s. There are a whole series of cottages with names like JP Morgan, Vanderbuilt, Crane, and Carnegie. There is a beautiful old building that was called the Millionaire’s Club where all these folks at their meals. Amazing to think of the business deals that would have been conducted here. There was talk that the Germans were going to bomb Jekyll Island during WWII as it would have had such an impact on the US economy.
While it is wonderful to be here in Jekyll we hope this storm front will pass through tonight so we can be on our way tomorrow.