April 2-24, 2022 Marathon to St Augustine, FL

Part of the reason we headed south before heading north was to see our good friends David and Tricia in Marathon. They were in the process of selling their beautiful Kadey Krogen48 Lauryl Anne and trading it in for a new condo in Key Colony Beach. They are currently in Marathon Marina on their boat so we docked at the Marina for a week. We enjoyed our time with them: playing Pickleball, going out to dinner, biking and hanging at their great condo at the end of a pretty canal. Their water view is sweet and it's a nice place to stand up board and kayak. David & Tricia took us to their Beach Club where we took a dip in the pool & had delicious Mudslides made with real ice cream! 

Doug and I rode our dinghy out to the 7 mile bridge, it was hot enough that Doug took a dip in the Gulf and I jumped into the Atlantic. Not many places you can do that within 100 feet of each other. We had a surprise visit from KK Invictus, they anchored out for a day, brought their dinghy into our boat and all of us celebrated with drinks and dinner at Lazy Days Bar/Restaurant right on site. It was hot while we were in Marathon so we took advantage of the pool at the Marina. Our last night, we had cocktails aboard Lauryl Anne for the last time, watched the sunset and then walked next door to Isle a Bella where we sat at the beach bar sipping cocktails, dining and listening to live music with our dear friends who we will miss till we see them again. Sweet, sad good-byes in the morning as we pulled away from the dock. 

When we left Marathon, Doug had decided to take a different route for fun! HaHa! It was more stressful than fun. We stayed on the Gulf Intercostal Waterway which is known to be quite shallow. It lived up to it's reputation. We became used to our depth finder reading less than 2 feet under the hull but when we went through extended periods of reading 0.0 is when I was very uncomfortable. Luckily, we have a cushion of about 6 inches (we think) on our calibration, so we did stir up some sand, but never hit bottom! This route was scenic and we went through some narrow curvy channels along the mangroves. We anchored in protected Tarpon Basin across from John Pennecamp State Park which is located on the Atlantic and we were still in the Gulf but the landmass is pretty narrow in that spot. 

After staying in our Tarpon Basin anchorage for 3 nights due to high winds and waves. We cruised into Biscayne Bay welcoming the deeper water. We anchored near the Yacht Club and had a peaceful night after the day yachts were done playing and left. The Miami skyline can be seen from this spot and is always impressive even from a distance. The next day, we passed through downtown Miami which is always interesting to see what new creative buildings are popping up. This time, we marveled at the tall, skinny one. 

We had planned to stop and visit Jim and Elaine in their new condo in Pompano at Lighthouse Point but the Lighthouse Point Marina didn't have a slip for us. Gratefully, Doug read in Active Captain that Lighthouse Point Yacht Club a mile away will take transients if they have room. We called and spoke to the sweetest Marina Manager ever. Toni said she had a slip for us and welcomed us personally. It's a great club, with beautiful facilities: bar, restaurant and pool. Jim and Elaine picked us up, took us back to their newly remodeled very sleek condo for a tour and drinks. The four of us, then went out to dinner and celebrated my Birthday with cake and flowers! 

The weather wasn't cooperating, it's been a windy spring so we stayed in the ICW as we cruised north. We had never had to stay on the entire ICW from Miami to Stuart before. We have heard everyone complain about all the bridges. With our stop in Pompano, we split up the bridges, needing 7 to open from Miami to Pompano and then 9 the next day between Pompano and Hobe Sound. Doug is great at timing them so it wasn't too bad. We anchored along the ICW in the area called Hobe Sound for the first time. Our friends Jeff and Ellen on KK Sea Dweller were anchored a mile from us. As we were nearing their anchored boat, we heard someone whistling from the beach and it was Jeff and Ellen. They had taken their dinghy into the beach for a walk. After dinner, they came to visit us in their dinghy. Ellen played Happy Birthday to me on her Native American Flute. 

Our next stop was Ft Pierce City Marina. It's always a fun stop, usually some Krogens are docked here and there are some good restaurants. We missed the big Farmers Market because we arrived too late on Saturday. We had cocktails on KK Red Tail who were docked across the fairway from us. We lunched with Tom and Karen who are enjoying retirement and had just returned from French Polynesia. They shared some useful travel information with us for Italy. Melissa and Scott, KK Unforgettable drove from Stuart to have dinner with us-it was great to see them and catch up. 

Ric and Marianne on KK Renaissance Woman had invited us to join them at the Hole in the Wall anchorage just north of Vero. This was a new anchorage for us and it is lovely. KK Way to Go was also there. The 3 Krogens looked real pretty lined up among the mangroves. Ria and Bob had dinner for all of us the first night and then Marianne and Ric hosted Easter dinner for all of us on their boat. They all spoiled us with 2 delicious dinners. Another sweet/sad Good-bye because Renaissance Woman will be shipped over to the West Coast of the country in May. Not sure the next time we will see them. 

We planned on anchoring off Cocoa Beach for our next stop but they were working on their public dock/ramp area and it was temporarily off limits to anchor. We continued on with Way to Go following us. We ended up spending 2 nights anchored on the south/east side of the NASA bridge. We stayed 2 nights due to high winds. It has to be pretty windy not to travel the ICW and it was. 

The next anchorage was a planned stop for one last time in Rock Creek. We didn't go out in the dinghy though because the wind had picked up again. We like that area for the lighthouse and the sand beach but we only looked from the confines of our boat, this visit. 

This journey is the last we will do on the East Coast with Day Dreams so we are stopping at some of our Favorites. One fav is Hammock Beach Resort Marina. Our favorite dockmaster, Neil is still there and he welcomed us. We have good memories from here. On this visit, we found a Krogen with new owners, Greg and Lara on KK Karuna. We enjoyed meeting them and going out to dinner. Greg was generous and gave us his Updated Waterway Great Lakes Guide, (ours was 8 years old) and a booklet on the Welland Canal System. We also enjoyed swimming in the condo pool and walking the neighborhood, checking out the new houses that have gone up since our last visit. 

The ICW is very pretty in this stretch and we were trying to really pay attention and soak it all in. There was no way we weren't going to stop in St Augustine one last time so we grabbed a mooring ball. Way To Go beat us here by a day. We took the dinghy into town, walked around and met Ria and Bob for dinner. The next day, we really enjoyed The Floridian for lunch-a creative menu and their patio has great ambiance. This time it was saying Good-bye to Ria and Bobby, not knowing the next time we'll see them. This farewell journey is a bit tough with all these good-byes and not knowing when we'll see all these great friends again. 

Our temporary stop for a month is back to our base: Ortega Landing which has a new owner and a new name: Port 32 at Ortega Landing. 

March 14-April 1, 2022 Cruise from St Pete to the Everglades

 We left Harborage Marina in St Petersburg while our friends Martha & JR and their 2 adorable grandkids waved Good-bye. As we passed Sun Dancer, Mike and Sue were out on their back deck waving Good-bye and taking pictures. We really enjoyed meeting them and hope to cross paths again. 

Our first stop was a short journey away: Gulfport. We anchored in the bay, outside of the mooring field. We had called about grabbing a mooring ball but only sailboats are allowed on the moorings. Our plans were to meet both Doris and Jerry and Sue and Don. We used our dinghy to get in and tied to the dinghy dock on the pier. Doris and Jerry met us and we walked around the cute eclectic downtown and then enjoyed dinner at Pia's Trattoria on their pretty covered patio. Don and Sue arrived soon after we said our good-byes to Doris and Jerry. We enjoyed wine and dessert with them. 

Sarasota was our next stop and there we stayed on a mooring ball. As we got tied up and settled, a storm blew in with a wide waterspout sweeping through the mooring field, luckily missing our boat but we watched it knock down a mast all the way to the water, on a sailboat. After the storm, we took the dinghy into Marina Jack's dinghy dock. We walked into town and met Ed and Diane @ Boca Sarasota for a delicious dinner. The next day, we rode the dinghy in to meet Mike and Sue for lunch. They drove to see us from St Pete. In the afternoon, we walked to Publix which is much farther than the Whole Foods. 

When we left Sarasota, we took the ICW to Venice and than went out into the Gulf which got a bit "sporty" with us taking spray over our bow-hate when that happens and we get salt over everything. We came in the Boca Grande Inlet and hit the entrance to Cayo Costa near high tide which is the best time. We didn't see anything less than 2.4 feet under. Lots of boats anchored because it's Florida's spring break week. We still were able to anchor in our usual spot. We stayed 6 days and most of those days were windy and a bit stormy-it never fails when we are here. We still made the best of it; we took the dinghy in a few times to the park dock and walked to the beach and some of the trails. We worked & finished our Lake Superior jigsaw puzzle-it was a tough one but was fun because we knew where most of the places along the shoreline are located and we were able to reminisce about our visits. The weather's been hot. We were anchored near the small Manatee pocket and it makes me very concerned about the Manatees-many center consoles and pontoon boats, some quite large, go in there, sometimes 4 and 5 boats at the same time. There usually are many Manatees just floating and I worry that some of them get hit by these motors and props. There is barely enough room in there for that many boats. Also they zoom right up to the entrance and there are always Manatees out in the harbor and near the entrance. I asked one of the Park Rangers if they monitor the Manatees at all and he said no. So sad!

While we were chillin at Cayo Costa, a house went up for sale in St Pete in the Crescent Lake neighborhood we like, with a decent list price. We asked our Realtor, Tyler to go look at it. We also asked Sue, Don, Martha and JR to check it out. Everyone loved the neighborhood and the landscaping. The interior was good, would need a bit of updating but it had good bones. It was 3 houses from Crescent Lake and Park. We put in an offer over list price with an escalation clause. We still didn't get it. We lost it by a cash offer $5,500 over our conventional mortgage offer. That's OK, we would have been buying it without ever setting foot in it. Although, if they would have accepted our offer, we were going to leave the boat in Marco, rent a car and drive back to St Pete and look at the house. We would have had 5 days to back out if needed. Was very stressful on both of us. 

Our Forever Home

Jeri was sick with COVID-Jerry O is not. She had fever, chills, sore throat and cough. Ended up on antibiotics and steroids and was sick for 3weeks with the cough and chest congestion even though she is fully vaccinated and had her booster recently. We are still masking and not eating inside restaurants and are still healthy. Many have left their guard down because they are vaccinated and they are catching COVID. The vaccine does not protect against the virus enough to keep from having symptoms but it does protect from serious illness and death, most of the time.

Our next destination due to weather and waves was Tarpon Point Marina. They had a jazz festival right on site and our friends Mark and Mary Beth who live close by had tickets for it. They stopped by the boat and had cocktails with us before the concert. We didn't need tickets, we were close enough to hear the music from out boat, love the Sax player! We celebrated our Anniversary of 45 years-WOW, doesn't seem possible. Still happily in love! 

We left the Marina after 2 nights and went to the nearby anchorage which is pretty, more relaxing with dolphins visiting and flocks of birds flying by and not to mention, free. 

We made it to Marco Island the next day, when the Gulf had finally calmed down. The same nice guy, Joe is Harbor Master. We walked to Publix and then met Doug & Diane at Mangos which overlooks the Marina, for drinks & dinner. 

Another beautiful day with sun, warmth and only a slight chop for our cruise south into the Everglades. We anchored in Russel Pass, one of our favs. Dolphins led us in and then later came back for our cocktail hour, which is their feeding time. It's peaceful and the stars are amazing because there is no light pollution. We did end up having to move on our second day because the wind which had picked up considerably and the current were causing us to spin in circles. We moved up the closest tributary into better protection and we were fine. It was a bit tough pulling up the anchor in those conditions. 

Next, we moved a bit farther south but stayed in the Everglades into Little Shark anchorage. The water continues to get prettier and the crab pots more plentiful. We anchored a bit up the river, not as far up as we have gone in the past. There were no other boats. We saw a Manatee float by but nothing else because we had to go in early due to the Noseeums attacking before sunset. It's always a blast, (haha) pulling up anchor here in the mornings. I get swarmed by Noseeums-all over me and in my eyes and nose. Luckily I don't react to their bites. I can feel them biting me even through my clothes but I don't even get a red mark.