December 1-12, 2021 cruising south on East Coast/Lake O/north on Gulf Coast

 Our first stop after leaving JAX was St Augustine, a city we always enjoy.  Our friends on KK Invictus left Ortega right before we did. They too stopped in St A. We both moored in the south mooring field.  Doug & I took our dinghy in and walked around a bit. We met up with Sue, Don and their friends Steve & Deb at Harry's Restaurant. They have a great patio & there was live music which we all enjoyed. We stayed late enough to be able to see all the pretty Christmas lights shining brightly.

The next morning, we left and enjoyed a nice run in cool sunny weather on the ICW. We anchored @ Rock House Creek with a few other boats. We kept moving south to anchor on the south side of Palm Shores bridge. Grateful that it's getting warmer as we move south. Today, KK Invictus passed us and we both took pics of each other's boats. Actually, I could use the term Yachts instead of boats because we both fit the definition of a yacht-Invictus more than Day Dreams. 

While underway, I have been busy editing the Krogen Cruisers Newsletter. My second newsletter and much improved if I say so myself. I published the fall/winter edition Dec. 4th. It received many nice reviews-I'm so glad & relieved. 

We anchored in Ft Pierce across from the City Marina. This anchorage has become quite crowded and I think many of the sailboats are not lived in. Sad to see and it makes it tougher to find a safe spot to anchor because it is also silting in a tad. We often like to stop and get a slip at the Ft Pierce City Marina especially if it's a Saturday because they have a great Farmers Market right at the Marina. There also are a few good Restaurants to dine in within walking distance. This time through, we are on a mission to get to St Pete as soon as we are able-it was tough to get a slip confirmed at The Harborage in St Pete. We finally have one confirmed so we would like to get there before they change their mind. 

We were hoping to snag a mooring at Sunset Bay in Stuart so it would be easy in and out but all the moorings were taken and they are first come. So we took a slip @ Sunset. There are a few Krogens docked here and Invictus has stopped here too. We caught up with Good Life, Last Mistake & Jeremiah. Doug has developed a cold, we were worried it might be COVID but we used a home test and he was negative. He took it easy while I visited and took some walks to downtown & Publix. The COVID pandemic is still ongoing and my good friend in Ohio just came down with it-she had been volunteering to administer the vaccine at Health Department Clinics and must have contracted it there even though she is vaccinated. She is sick but not seriously-thank goodness. Here in Florida, you wouldn't know we were still in the midst of a pandemic-not many are wearing masks except us. I went out to dinner with Sue & Don and her brother & his wife @ Spritz downtown on their patio. Food was good. 

When we left Stuart, we planned on stopping for fuel @ American Custom Yachts which is now called Willis Custom Yachts but their Diesel fuel pump was broken so we were unable to get the best priced fuel around-Darn! We locked 13 feet up through the St Lucie lock and then anchored for the night on the west side of the lock near the campground. Always a quiet pleasant stop. 

Our trip through Lake O and the other locks were uneventful but we did get stuck for awhile at the RR bridge east of the Mayaca lock. It came down, we waited, a pickup truck went by, we waited some more and then the bridge finally lifted. We had some fog as we cruised along the west end of the Okachobee waterway and we did have a Manatee ride through the last lock with us. We were the only boat for most of the locks. The lines and the walls of the locks were relatively clean and the lock masters nice.

We had made a reservation at River House Docks in Moorehaven because when we went through last spring the City dock & the River House docks were full. Of course, this season, we could have done our usual and just stayed on the City Dock. We were the only transiting boat on either dock today. 

When we got near Ft Myers, the boat traffic increased. We continued on and anchored in one of our favorite anchorages in Tarpon Bay. The anchorage is among the mangroves and the birds fly by @ sunset and as long as you look towards the Mangroves you have a pretty, peaceful view. 

Fog the next day, started out pretty heavy, so we waited till a bit later in the morning. Invictus passed us again so we both had another photo opportunity. We anchored in Lemon Bay near where our friends used to live. This anchorage has gotten more shallow over the years but still is fine and right off the ICW. We always see lots of Dolphins along this stretch-makes it a fun day!

We stopped in Venice at Fishermans Wharf for Diesel @ $3.70/gallon.  We took on 350 gallons. Lots of boat traffic of center consoles which is the norm for this area on a Saturday. The weather has definitely become warmer. We had made a reservation for a mooring @ Marina Jack's. The mooring line on Ball #5 was gross this time, glad I had my Playtex Living Gloves. Christmas spirit is growing. We were lucky enough to witness the gathering of the boats for the Annual Christmas Boat Parade. We took our dinghy into the Marina and missed the actual parade because we had dinner reservations @ Classico. Which was delicious as usual. Downtown Sarasota was packed with cars and people. 

Our final cruising day to St Pete took us under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge-always a pretty sight. We arrived to Harborage Marina, we stopped to use their self serve pump-out before docking in our slip #D-21 side tied, which will be our home for 3 months.