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| Dinner out with Waterford & Sea Dweller |
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| Get-to-gether in the Boaters lounge |
For the last month, Doug & I have been completing chores, meeting new friends & reconnecting with former friends. The Marina @ Ortega Landings in Jacksonville is a really nice spot for many reasons: cleanliness, free laundry, pool, hot tub, people & the close proximity to a multitude of stores. We really do not want anyone else to know about this place-currently this marina is the fullest they have ever been-so the word is out!! Darn!
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| Impromptu Potluck with old & new fun friends |
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| A great dinner & view with good friends |
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| Sam's swim meet |
We have biked, enjoyed potlucks, went to a concert, farmers market, swim meet & sipped cocktails with friends @ the pool & hot tub.
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| Wendi, Tadd & Sam's community pool |
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| Family |
Thanksgiving was wonderfully delicious @ Wendi, Tadd & Sam's with fresh turkey, smoked turkey & my fav: smoked salmon. Wendi outdid herself! We were lucky enough to also spend it with one of my brothers: Bob & sis in law Karen. Wendi & family always make us feel welcome & loved-Thank you for everything!
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| Hammock Beach Resort |
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| Flocks of White Pelicans greeted us |
After Thanksgiving, we continued our trek south. Stopping @ an anchorage in Pine Island, just north of St Augustine for one night. It is a nice quiet place amongst the marshes. We then landed back to another of our favorite stops: Hammock Beach in Palm Coast. We stayed here for the month of March, 2015 & loved it. This visit we will only stay 4 nights, enough time to visit with Jill & Glen from Flagler Beach.
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| Get to gather @ Jill & Glen's |
Jill & Glen, who we met last March here in Palm Coast but then re-connected with up in Maine, planned a "Boaters Party" while we are here. Two other couples, who we also have met while boating joined us @ Jill & Glen's wonderful home. We were honored to meet 2 of Jill's beautiful daughters. The food was super delicious and the company was perfect-never a lull in the conversation when you get boaters together. Jill & Glen graciously let us borrow their extra vehicle while we were in town. Thank you so much!
Onto New Smyrna-we docked for one night; a great place with a restaurant & bar with a half off happy hour that we enjoy!
Now we enter new territory; going where we have never been before on a boat! First stop: Canaveral Barge Canal @ Harbortown Marina on Merritt Island. We had hoped to stay @ Cocoa Village but the Marina was totally booked. One of the couples that attended Jill & Glen's Boaters get together, who we had met in Maine: Judy & Bob, live on Merritt Island. So we stopped there, enjoyed dinner with them and they lent us a car so we could explore the area. We liked Cocoa Village Marina's boater's lounge & not surprising-we reconnected with someone we had met in Deltaville @ Dozer's-we just love our small boating community. Cocoa Village happened to be hosting an Artist & Craft Festival with some streets closed off. I found a Christmas present there & we sampled delicious pizza & chocolate potato chips. A rocket launch was planned to take off from Cape Canaveral while we were here, but it was delayed both nights due to high winds-darn!
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| The Rocket launched from Cape Canaveral |
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| Loving this weather! |
We continued south on the ICW and anchored across from Melbourne Beach, in the protection from the bridge. We were awarded with a view of that rocket which finally launched. Even though we were 30 miles away, we were able to see the Rocket & even differentiate between the Rocket and the blast. Very cool! The dinghy was brought down from the bridge after more than a month & we took her for a spin over to check out the Melbourne coastline. The public Marina is quite small but pretty well protected but there isn't much within walking distance. We did see 2 Krogens docked; one @ the public marina & one @ the Yacht club. The weather is great-80 degrees with mixed sun & clouds.
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| My Honey! |
After one night in the anchorage, we left for Vero Beach. I remember driving there many years ago in the days when we would drive our van straight through the night to Florida during the winter when we craved warm sunny weather. I remembered we liked it. This time we stayed @ the City Marina Moorings. The moorings are very popular due to location & price: $17.00/night with full use of the facilities-doesn't get much better than that! We were lucky, our fellow KK owners: Changing Course had left that morning & Lisa told me they had been on Ball #49, all by themselves. Many of the mooring balls had 2-3 boats sharing the same ball. I told the Dock Master, I did not mind going far north in the field and then they offered me #49 and we quickly snatched that up & were lucky enough to have it to ourselves for all 3 nights. This is a very busy protected harbor & Marina. Everyone is very friendly.
We took our bikes out & explored the surrounding area. A lot of money has been spent on houses, private communities and landscaping. It is a really nice area with a well laid out town of lovely streets, with many named after flowers or nautical themes. High end shops line the beach/shore but sadly the beach has suffered a lot of erosion. Our second day, we took the Free bus all the way to the mall and watched the latest James Bond movie: Spectre @ the local cinema. $4.00 Matinee tickets along with $6.00 for a small box of popcorn (which we didn't get).
Leaving Vero Beach, we continued south and stopped @ Fort Pierce to get some diesel fuel. We had been alerted to the fact that they had the best price for diesel in the area. When we called a few days earlier, the price quoted was $2.21/gallon plus a $.10 cent/gallon discount for Boat US, which of course we have. Today, when we stopped we were told the diesel had just increased the day before to $2.31/gal. Not complaining but we just had read that the price of oil had just dropped again, so why the 10 cent increase?
On December 10, we continued south on the ICW which led us to our new temporary home: Stuart, Florida @ Sunset Bay Marina. Many Kadey Krogen owners keep their boats here. We called way back in February & were told that they were completely booked. We were put on a waiting list. I kept checking back, which Sam, the Harbor Master said I should do. Finally in September, he had a cancellation for December, which we grabbed immediately. We will be staying at least one month. This place is very nice with many live aboards. There is a big laundry room, clean restrooms, a fire pit, free shuttle 2 days a week, a cozy boaters lounge, restaurant/bar on site and well maintained docks. Tonight, we attended the Tree lighting party & the management provided beer, wine & appetizers. We think we are going to like it here.
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We had our own tree lighting
ceremony. Doug's creation from
my wine corks |
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| Loving this Life! |
