Our Great Loop Adventure

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Our second day in New Smyrna (Thursday, March 13) was spent washing, cleaning, and buying groceries. We had entertainment as we sat on the back of the boat having a beverage. There were several pelicans having a feeding frenzy while the fishermen were cleaning their catch and throwing the scraps to the birds. Friday we docked at Halifax Harbor in Daytona. It is bike week and there were large gatherings of motorcyclists all over the city. We rode our bikes into town, which really only consists of four of five blocks on the Halifax River. Since we did not have a car, we did not cross the river and see Daytona Beach. On Saturday we left the marina after tossing our bathroom keys into a net held by a dock attendant at the office. We continued north passed Ormand and Flagler beaches before entering the Fox Cut, a narrow channel with communities of homes interspersed among marshes. Docking at our next marina, Marineland north of Palm Coast was an adventure because of the short docks and the need to toss stern lines onto posts as you bring the boat into the slip. Leon, who had his boat the marina, hopped on the Summer Recess after we got a pump out and did the honors. The short docks also posed a challenge to me when I got off and on the boat. We walked to the beach. We were to surprised to see lines of large boulders perpendicular to the beach. We figured there were placed there to prevent erosion. We also took a hike in the Matanzas River National Preserve.While walking, we came across a turtle sunning himself, we were able to get close for a picture before it decided to move back into the underbrush. On Sunday again Leon and our dock neighbor, Chuck, helped us to back the boat out. Thank God for good samaritans. We made our way to St. Augustine where, with gusty gusty winds, I successfully caught the mooring ball the first time. We took the dinghy to shore and checked in at the marina. We then began the first of three days exploring this historic town. St. Augustine was founded in 1565 as a Spanish military outpost and is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States. Spanish Renaissance architecture can be seen all over the city. We started by walking down St. George Street where for blocks there are many shops and restaurants. We, of course found The Bunnery, a great coffee shop. For our first tour we went to the Colonial Quarter, which traced the history of St. Augustine from the 16th through the 18th Centuries. We saw a Spanish caravelle being built, a blacksmith shop, an armsmith shop accompanied by a musket demonstration, a soldier's home, a print shop and other interesting exhibits. We then visited the museum in the Government House and passed the oldest wooden school house, made of cypress and cedar. Finally, we saw the Cathedral of St. Augustine. The interior is filled with beautifully carved wood, frescoes, and beautiful stained glass windows. Sunday night was filled with storms and we awoke to rain on Monday morning. There was a break in the rain late Monday morning so we ventured, complete with slickers, to shore again. The rains came and went all day. Our first stop was Flagler College. The buildings are absolutely beautiful. The central building was once the Ponce de Leon Hotel, which was built by Henry Flagler, one of the founders of Standard Oil, as well as a railroad pioneer with a great interest in Florida's east coast. The hotel was completed in 1888 and the college was founded in 1968. A female dorm as well as a cafeteria and administrative offices are housed in the hotel. Again there are great examples of woodwork and stained glass windows. Fifteen buildings were added to the campus in the same style as the hotel. Across the street is the Lightner Museum. It was the Alcazar Hotel, which was also built by Flagler as an annex to the Ponce de Leon containing ball rooms, saunas and a pool. The Alcazar was purchased by Otto C. Lightner, a Chicago Publisher, in 1946 to house his extensive collection of Victoriana. Everything from buttons to matchbox covers, to cut glass, to furniture, to cigar labels and on and on and on. When we got back to the dinghy it began pouring rain and by the time we got the dinghy back to the boat, drained and covered it, we (mostly Tony) were soaked to the skin. Monday night agin was stormy, but today we only had intermittent rain. We moved the boat from the mooring ball to the marina. Our sightseeing began with a four mile walk to and from the St. Augustine Lighthouse. (We had been lead to believe it was just a short walk.) The original watch tower was built by the Spanish in 1737. However, the present lighthouse was completed in 1874 as an aid to navigation with a beacon visible 25 miles away on a clear night. It is 140 ft. high and 219 steps to the top (Tony climbed up to take two photos). The grounds also has a keeper's cottage. However, the lighthouse was automated in 1955. After returning from the lighthouse, we toured Castillo de San Marcos, the Spanish Fort in St. Augustine was started in 1672 and completed in 1695. One of the most interesting things about the fort was the construction material. It is called coquino, which is a form of limestone containing millions of small shells. The coquino occurs naturally on Anastasia Island, which is across the river from St. Augustine. The rock was a wonderful material to build the fort from because it absorbed the shock from cannon balls striking it without cracking or collapsing. We have thoroughly enjoyed our visit. This has been a highlight of our adventure.

Bike Week in Daytona

Downtown Daytona

Pelican Feeding Frenzy

Large boulders on the Atlantic

Matanzas River Nature Preserve

Government House in St. Augustine

Coffee Shop in St. Augustine

Blacksmith Shop in Colonial Quarter

Musket Demo

Print Shop

Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine

Oldest Wooden School Houise

St. Ausgustine Cathedral

Baptismal Font imported from Spain

St. Augustine Archetecture

Ponce de Leon Hotel (Flagler College)

Flagler College

Lightner Museum

Lightner Musem

Bridge of Lyons

Ocean view from top of St. Ausgustine Lighthouse

View of St. Augustine from Lighthouse

St. Augustine Lighthouse

Lighthouse keeper's home

Fort in St. Augustine

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The morning (Saturday, March 8th) we left Sunset Bay Harbor in Stuart was cool but sunny. Unaware of the current in the harbor we had a difficult time turning the Summer Recess. After a few nervous minutes we were on our way. At 10:00 we officially left the Okeechobee Waterway and entered the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway, AICW for short. We were travelling on the Indian River. About an hour later as we made our way north, we were entertained by a group of Sun Fish, a small one person sailboat.which are used to teach racing to novices to sailing. The boats in groups of five or six, were being pulled by dinghies across the river. We assumed they were going to a regatta. After passing the Ft. Pierce Inlet, we docked at Vero Beach. We discovered Island Time was here. We took a walk to the Atlantic Coast and walked along the beach. We left Vero Beach on Sunday. Again a tricky departure from the dock. As we traveled by the Sebastian Inlet, we saw our first Ice Cream Boat. We also had several dolphins enjoying the bubbles of our wake. We anchored for the night north of Melbourne. The wind shifted to the northwest during the night and so we experienced some bouncing. By Monday morning the winds calmed and bring up the anchor was easy. We followed Island Time into the Cocoa Village Marina. Do you remember which 1960's TV show supposedly to place in the more famous Cocoa Beach? (Hint: the main characters were an astronaut and a genie) We walked into town and toured the S.F. Travis Company, which is a multi-leveled multi-building hardware store. We purchased a step stool to make for easier getting on and off the boat. We have discovered no two docks are the same. We had docktails with Steve and Gina from Island Time. Our destination on Tuesday was Titusville, which is across the river from Cape Canaveral. We went into the harbor of the municipal marina for fuel and watched several manatees swim around the basin. This day we were not docking but making our first attempt at attaching to a mooring ball. I picked up ring the first time but had a little difficulty attaching the lines to the bow cleats of the boat. After a couple of attempts and with the help of the captain, we were secure. We dinghied to shore and walked into town. We discovered a park dedicated to the Apollo space program and also took pictures of the Anne Pritchard Historical House, which is an example of Queen Anne architecture. As we were walking, we talked to a lady, who had a blow up doll of a soldier on her back. She is in the process of walking to Washington D.C. Her purpose is to draw attention to the plight of serving service men and women as well as veterans. Had a great mocha freeze and strawberry smoothie at Caffe Chocolat and bought some great Rosemary rolls at the Sunrise Harvest Bakery. Tony ran into Pete from Humbug. We hadn't seen them since Joe Wheeler. Loopers are starting to head north so we hope to see more and more of our friends as we move on. Again we had docktails with Steve and Gina on Island Time. Wednesday brought a drizzly rain. We had no trouble leaving the mooring ball in Titusville. We continued up the intercoastal and came to a narrow canal which goes through Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. We had to travel at idle speed due to the presence of many manatees. We then entered Mosquito Lagoon, whose name comes from the fact that it is shallow and the mosquitoes provide food for fish. About ten miles south of New Smyrna Beach, the Indian River is very narrow and we again had a long period of minimum wake. We docked at the New Smyrna Municipal Marina. The downtown is very small but we had a lovely lunch at a restaurant called Jason's Corner. As late and afternoon wore on the winds picked up with gusts we figured measuring 30 knots. This morning we awoke to 48 degrees with northerly winds. We will remain here today. Friday we will continue going north. My next post should be from Jacksonville.

Sun Fish

Atlantic Seashore in Vero Beach

Ice Cream Boat

Cocoa Village Park

Summer Recess on a mooring ball

Pritchard House

Mmmm, mocha freeze!

Friday, March 7, 2014

Our journey on Saturday, March 1st took us from Legacy Harbour to LaBelle. We had a beautiful day for cruising. At the beginning of the day we encountered many manatee zones which made for slow progress. Along the way we saw cattle drinking from the river as well as horses grazing. We locked through the Franklin Lock about 12:25 and arrived at the LaBelle free docks at 3:00. We bowed in. As we sat on the back deck we were visited by some manatees. We also witnessed the passing of the space station in the southwestern sky around 6:55pm. Sunday brought another beautiful day. We carefully left the dock due to the narrowness of the slip and continued on the Caloosahatchee River. We went through the Ortono Lock and entered the Caloosahatchee Canal. After clearing the the Moorehaven Lock, we started the rim route of Lake Okeechobee. At this point you cannot see the lake because of a large berm along our port side. The Clewiston Lock was open and we came to our next dockage, the Roland and Mary Ann Martin Marina. The dock attendant is known as Little Man and it is very important that you follow his directions on pulling your boat in and hand lines in a specific order. Roland Martin was a famous bass fisherman. This is very obvious because we were surrounded by fishing boats, whose crews cleaned fish at the station provided and grabbed their favorite beverage at the large tiki bar. (Oh, yes, we were docked right in front of the tiki bar.) For most of the afternoon we were serenaded by group of country singers and then taped music. We had to stop in at the bar and have a beverage. The people walking the docks were interested in the Summer Recess and our story. We were the largest boat there until late afternoon. As Tony finished grilling dinner, we were invaded by mosquitoes. I received several bites. On Monday we continued the rim route. We had heard that it was the best way to see alligators. Along, the way we saw a lot of smoke. This is caused by the burning of the sugar can fields. We also experienced a lot of soot because there was little wind. Another thing we noticed were large completely bare tree trunks. The trunks are what is left of the Australian Pines. These trees were deliberately burned by the Army Corp of Engineers because they were an invasive plant species. We also encountered a very interesting swing bridge at Torrey Island. We called ahead to the bridge attendant to open the bridge. He said it would be a few minutes. He came across and manually put down the gates to prevent traffic from crossing. Then he went to the middle of the bridge and took out two metal poles which he inserted into the turning mechanism and proceeded to swing the bridge open by hand. We were amazed. At mile marker 55 we left the berm behind and traveled along the coast of the lake. We did not see one alligator. Tony was very disappointed. The Mayaca Lock was open and we entered the St. Lucie Canal. We docked at Indiantown. We were stern to stern with Island Time. They just started the loop from Cape Coral on March 1st. We walked to Indiantown to see the Seminole Inn. It is an example of old Florida architecture. On the second floor inside were murals of the Seminole Indians. Upon returning to the marina we had docktails with Gina and Steve of Island Time. Tony officially passed on the the title of "Newbie" to Steve, because they had just begun the Great Loop on Saturday March 1st. We are no longer the "Newbees on the Loop. While we were preparing to leave on Thursday morning, we were greeted by a rather large turtle swimming next to our boat. We left the marina and traveled with Island Time. As we approached the St. Lucie Lock there was a dredge boat and tow in front of us. According to lock protocol, they would go through first. We waited for about 50 minutes before locking through. We have now entered the North Fork of the St. Lucie River. Summer Recess left Island Time at Pendarvis Cove. This is where we would anchor for the night. After pulling up anchor on Wednesday morning, we had a very short run across the river to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. It is a lovely marina with all the amenities and close to Publix as well as downtown Stuart. After checking in we were greeted by Jim and Carollee Fenner, friends from Michigan. They have a winter home about six miles south. We went out for lunch and planned to see them Thursday for dinner. We expected a storm to come in, but it passed south of us. Thursday was muggy and cloudy. The morning was filled with washing, cleaning, and shoppping. In the afternoon we walked into Stuart. It is a small boating town, but the main block has been spruced up with shops, restaurants, and the Lyric, which is a theatre that has been restored and features plays and concerts. We took the River Walk back to the boat. Also, the replicas of the Nina and Pinta are docked at the marina and it was interesting to see them up close. Late afternoon brought tornado warnings as well as a rain storm. The first wave went through quickly and we were still able to go out to dinner with Jim and Carolee. We bid them adieu and went back to the boat. Bands of rain came through during the night. Today, Friday, March 7th, we had planned to leave Stuart. However, we woke up to winds that have been building all day. We decided to stay one more night. Tomorrow we will enter the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and begin our journey north. We figure we are now half-way through the loop.