Brunswick to Savannah

We spent 5 days at Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville Beach visiting Debby’s family, provisioning, and finalizing a few minor boat projects.  We got to spend some quality time with Debby’s mom, sister and nephew, but unfortunately her brother-in-law was out of town.

On Wednesday, May 21 we traveled offshore to Brunswick, GA.   Traveling the Georgia Intracoastal is a real pain with many switch backs and several shallow areas that can only be traversed at mid tide or above.  We wanted to avoid the entire length of the state, but windy weather only permitted this section to be done off shore.  It was a perfect day on the ocean.

St Simon Light from the Sea

On our last visit to Brunswick in 2008 we were underwhelmed .  This time things were different.  Brunswick Landing Marina was a treat: Free WiFi, Free Laundry and can you believe it Free Wine!  The marina has built a very nice club house, with library, lounge and excellent laundry facilities.  On Mon. Wed. and Fri.  they host free wine from 5-7 for slip holders.  Like Titusville and Daytona, Brunswick has spruced up the Old town historic district and revitalized the shops, clubs and restaurants keeping the old architecture, but adding trees and landscaping.  They have interesting things for sale at the local market!

Quite a Menu

Hernando de Soto first planted the Spanish flag here in 1540, the French established a colony after that until 1565 when the Spanish reclaimed it.  The British flag flew in 1735 until after the Revolutionary War when the American flag was raised.  The Confederate flag flew during the Civil War.

You can picture Matlock at this Court House

Impressive Live Oaks

We had a great lunch at Indigo Coastal Shanty recommended by a woman we met at the bar at Tipsy McSway’s.

Live Oak in the patio at Indigo

It is about 100 miles on the Intracoastal to Savannah from Brunswick with two areas, Little Mud River and Hell Gate, that require mid-tide or better to traverse.  For us this is a two day trip.  Day 1 May 23 was very windy (15-20MPH) making for uncomfortable crossings of the several sounds that are exposed to the ocean.  We anchored that night on the Wahoo River.  The tides at this location are 10 ft which provides a strong current, but the holding ground is good.  Day 2, May 24, we pressed on to Thunderbolt, a small town just south of Savannah. The local watering hole and restaurant is a short walk away.  Interestingly, the live oak trees grow in the middle of the street here.

 

Live Oaks in middle of road at Tubby's Tank House

Enroute to Thunderbolt our engine synchronizer failed.  Decided to get it fixed here.  Parts had to be ordered and made, so our planned one day stay in Savannah turned into four days.  The saying that “boat” stands for “break out another thousand” is proven once again. Nice thing about this marina they provide free Krispy Kremes delivered to your boat every morning.  

We have been to Savannah several times over the years both by car and boat.  Decided to take a tour this time which proved to be interesting.  Had cocktails at Debby’s favorite place, the 17 Hundred 90.  Great old building with lots of atmosphere and always interesting people.   Also had dinner one night at The Old Pink House.  Ate at the bar in the basement and listened to a good “open mike” session with piano accompaniment done by an older lady with large straw hat, evening gown and long black gloves.

On Tuesday Malcolm Farrel on First Light from LYC hailed us as he went by.  He too had equipment problems that he was going to get fixed at the next marina down from us.  He invited us for wine and cheese Wednesday night.  All-in-all we made the best of our extended stay.

Malcolm and Jim at Thunderbolt

Eau Gallie to Jacksonville Beach

Arrived at Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville Beach on May 16 after a week of perfect boating weather.  We will stay here for 5-7 days visiting Debby’s Mom and sister.

Navigating the intracoastal in Florida is like driving on I-95, boring.  The stops along the way however are interesting.   We overnighted at Titusville Municipal Marina and at Halifax River Yacht Club in Daytona.  We haven’t been to either place in 5 years and the transformation in the historic downtown areas in both is impressive.  The streets and sidewalks have been “greenscaped” the buildings  painted, and new shops, bars, and restaurants opened.  The dockmaster at Halifax is worth the trip giving us a good history of the club that started in 1896.

St. Augustine also proved to be a treat.  We have been there several  times before, but never enjoyed it as much as this visit.  Temperatures in the low 80s and fewer tourists have allowed us to enjoy our walks around this very historic city first settled in 1565.  We docked at the Municipal Marina at the base of the Bridge of Lions directly in front of the city square.  For added measure we were docked near the 17^th century Spanish reproduction “El Galeon” pictured below.  We can highly recommend Harry’s restaurant on St. George street as a place for lunch or dinner.  Great  New Orleans style food.

We walked all over town both days.  Many interesting historical sites and great art galleries.  Of course there are good bars as well.  On Thursday night we had cocktails at the “Tini Maritni” bar in the Casablanca Inn where we met several local people.  They enticed us to move on to the Hilton several doors down where one of them knew of a “secret” room.  Ordered drinks at the bar then walked across their plaza, up an elevator and out onto a terrace overlooking the harbor.  We suspect this area is normally reserved for private functions.  But it was unlocked and we enjoyed the view and company.

New found friends

On Friday we explored more of the city.  Debby, being a huge fan of Gone With The Wind, was happy that we were able to find “Scarlett O’Hara’s” tavern, a place we have visited in the past.  (I think we will have to invest in a “selfie stick”).

At Scarlett O'Hara's

Week 1 May 2-10

We got off to an inauspicious start.  As we were approaching the marina in Stuart May 3 just north of the Palm City Bridge in the middle of the channel we ran aground and damaged the props.  Jim had to drive to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up the spares on Tuesday then have the props replaced by a diver on Wednesday.  Not a good start for the trip!

At least Debby, who has been sick for the past month, was able to get to the doctor and is now well on the way to recovery.

Got underway for good on Friday May 8 and as if in celebration we were treated to a dolphin show.  As we traveled up the Indian River four dolphin cavorted in our wake for 15 minutes, leaping out of the water and landing right at the swim platform all the while making eye contact with Debby.  We stayed at Vero Beach Yacht Club Friday and Saturday nights.  We always enjoy this place and meet nice people.  This time was no exception.  Sunday we pressed on to Eau Gallie Yacht Club near Melbourne.  At their dock was a magnificently restored Chris Craft from the 50’s.

AT LAST WE ARE UNDERWAY

We have talked of doing an extended trip such as the Great Loop for nearly 10 years.  Life kept interfering.  Finally on May 2, 2015 we untied the lines at Lauderdale Yacht Club (our home for 6 years) and departed.  We have modified our travel plans and may not do the Great Loop, but instead will explore the Eastern Seaboard for the next 2 years.  This year our loose plan is to be in the Chesapeake during June, Long Island Sound in July, and Maine in August.  We will likely winter in Charleston then in 2016 go up the Hudson River cross the Erie Canal into Canada and Georgian Bay.

We will document our travels with periodic updates in this blog.

Homeward Bound

We are on the home bound stretch. Left Treasure Island on Nov 28 headed for the Field Club in Sarasota. This is a very elegant old club as the picture shows. The following day we moved on down to Boca Grande on Gasperilla Island. We really enjoyed this stop. It is a neat little town with all homes and buildings in pristine condition and 7 miles of beautiful beach. After 2 nights we moved on to St. Charles Yacht Club for a nights stay then on to the Royal Palm Yacht Club in Ft. Myers. High winds on arrival made for an exciting docking experience. We toured the Edison and Ford winter homes which were right next door to the club (that's me in front of Edison's house). Well worth the time. Windy, rainy weather kept us in Ft. Myers longer than we wanted, but we enjoyed the club and took a cab to a local mall to get some Christmas shopping done. We walked downtown which has been spruced up over the past 2 years. Although it looks nice there does not appear to be much happening there.

We finally left Ft. Myers on Dec 6. We traveled the Caloosahatchee River to Clewiston on Lake Okeechobee passing through 3 locks. The following day we crossed the lake and traveled the St. Lucie Canal to Harbor Ridge Yacht Club in Stuart. The lake was magnificent. It was perfectly calm when we departed, so between the clouds, mist and water you could barely discern the horizon. the birds followed us the entire length of the lake which is about 25 miles.

As I write this we are in Stuart heading to Palm Beach where we will anchor out for the night then go home tomorrow. All-in-all another great trip.

St. Petersburg/Treasure Island

We arrvied at St. Pete YC on Monday Nov 16. This is a great facility. It is a large club with over 2,000 members with a central downtown location next to a park and the central harbor. There is always something going on at the club with entertainment every night in the bar/lounge. The food is good and the prices reasonable compared to our club. We have had the opportunity to get around the area quite a bit and like what we see.

Over the weekend there was a lot going on. Every Saturday there is a farmer's market on the waterfront. This weekend there were 2 art shows going on downtown and a sand sculpture contest on the beach. The pictures above show some of the results. (Pay close attention to the clown face). On Saturday night they held a "Chill Lounge Night" in the waterfront park across from our boat. They bring in wicker lounges with canopies and set up a large bar while the local restaurants set up food stalls. They also set up a large stage and a runway for a fashion show. The models for the fashion show were brought in on chaises borne by four "fireman" types each with gold painted chests. All in all quite a spectacle. The fashion show itself was closer to a strip tease act than fashion show.

Another interesting feature in St. Pete is the floating and powered wedding chapel barge shown in the photo.

We rented a car for the weekend as we were going to a Dixieland Jazz Festival in Clearwater on Friday. Our friends the Williams from LYC had put us on to this 3 day festival and what a hoot it was. It is the first event we have gone to where we brought down the average age of the audience. We only went on Friday, but they had at least 20 bands playing for 3 days in about 5 different venues in 2 hotels. All the ones we saw were great. We plan to come back next year and stay for the whole event.

On Nov 25 Fred Sorensen and I brought the boat from St. Pete to Treasure Island on a rainy foggy day. Debby and Edie went shopping. The four of us drove back to the yacht club for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday which turned out to be very good.

Florida West Coast Trip

I have had to over come a great deal of inertia to get this blog started. We have been gone three weeks already and this is the first entry. Part of the problem I guess is that we have not taken many pictures plus in most cases we are covering ground traveled on past trips.

Our overall plan is to make the circumnavigation of the lower half of Florida by going down thru the Keys then up the West Coast to the St. Petersburg area then south again to Ft. Myers and across Lake Okeechobee to the East Coast and south to Ft. Lauderdale. Total distance traveled will be just short of 1,000 miles.

For the first 5 days of the trip we traveled with our friends the Hajaars on their 44' power cat Dream Away. Leaving on Oct 31 our first stop was the north end of Elliott Key where we anchored out. The next day we moved on to Pumpkin Key so that we could spend Sunday afternoon enjoying the food and band at Alabama Jacks, one of our favorite Keys watering holes. We than moved on to anchor off another favorite bar in Islamorada, Lorelei's. There we met other friends, the Gillens and joined them for dinner. The following day we moved on down to Lower Matrecumbe Key to anchor off the Gillen's great Key's house. They had graciously invited all of us for dinner. ( In the small world department the Gillen's house guests were people we had met on our trip up to North Carolina in '08. They are from California, but keep their 49' Grand Banks in Oriental, NC which is where we first met them. As it turns out they live just a few blocks from our nephew Mike in the marina area of San Francisco.)

We had planned to spend more time at the Gillen's, but the forecast was for increasing winds so we moved on the next day to Little Shark River while the Hajaars started back home. Little Shark River is about as isolated as you can get on the coastal waters of Florida. It is just north of Cape Sable in Everglades National Park, 30-40 miles from any civilization. We anchored then put the dinghy in the water and explored the river. Very tranquil and full of birds.

The next day was the worst of the trip as we had a 57nm open water run to Marco Island into a strong north wind. Debby spent the whole day in bed as that is the area of the boat with the least motion. The Gulf waters can get nasty in a hurry.

We arrived in Marco Island on November 6. It continued to blow in excess of 20 knots for the next 5 days so we just stayed put at Marco Island Yacht Club. Fortunately, the Coulsons were in town. Tony and I worked together both at National Airlines and at AeroThrust. They have had property on Marco for over 30 years, so we got a good tour of the island and had several nice meals together. Since we were going to miss going to Naples by boat we rented a car one day and toured Naples as well. We were pleasantly suprised by Naples, and wished we could have enjoyed the club there.

The wind subsided a bit by the 11th so we moved on to Sanibel Island for an overnight stop then on to our next destination which was the Isles Yacht Club in Punt Gorda in Charlotte Harbor. This turned out to be a great, hospitable club and a neat little waterfront town. There were 4 boats from St Pete YC there having a rendezvous and they included us in some of their parties. The Isles club had a lecture on the sinking of the Titanic by an individual who traveled to it on a Russian submersible in 2000 which was also very interesting.

We have finally arrived at St. Petersburg Yacht Club after an overnight stop at Venice Yacht Club. (For those of you unaware we stay at yacht clubs when we can because we get reciprocal privileges meaning the first nights dockage is free and subsequent nights are usually inexpensive.)

Our friends the Sorensens have recently moved nearby at Treasure Island, and other friends , the Hansons live at a high rise overlooking the club, so we have a built in social scene. The Sorensens are trying hard to get us to consider moving here. The area certainly has a lot to offer boaters.

The pictures show from top to bottom: Moon rise at Sunset off Pumpkin Key, Underway in the Keys in tranquil water (note the almost indistinguishable horizon), Sunset in Lower Matecumbe with Hajaars boat, Gillen's house, Sunrise at Little Shark River.