We're heading north . . . .

On Sunday, March 6th, after enjoying a beautiful sunrise in Stuart, 

we left the marina and cruised down the St. Lucie River to the official Intercoastal Waterway (ICW) and headed north.  

Our first stop was Cocoa Village Marina, where we were docked within walking distance of the very quaint old downtown Cocoa, Florida.

Dave was on cloud nine when we visited a 35,000 square foot hardware store that had been in business over 100 years.  I was actually blown away by this place.  They had everything you could possibly imagine, and then some!  Here's Dave drooling over jumbo wrenches.

We had a good run the next day with lots of wind, but mostly calm waters.  This cut from the Indian River to Mosquito Lagoon was very interesting.  Lots of activity... people on the shore fishing, lots of boats & kayaks.

From there we anchored in Daytona Beach, where we could hear the sounds of Harley's for hours, as the heart of Bike Week was just across the ICW.  Continuing up the ICW broughts lots of interesting sights.  Unique boats....

an outdoor aerobics class .....

...which inspired me to hold my own exercise class on the bow of the boat.

Our next stop was Marineland Marina, which was about 20 miles south of St. Augustine.  Our plan was to stay only 1 night, but we had such a great time, we ended up staying 3!  It started with a wine taste on the back deck with the Dockmaster Eric & other boaters docked at the marina.

The next day we went on an eco kayak tour with Loopers Mark & Susan that we had met the first week of our journey in Charlotte Harbor & met up with again at Marineland.  We had great fun with them & look forward to hooking up with them again along the way.

This marina was unique in that it was right across the street from the beach, which gave us the opportunity for some last minute "beach time" before we left Florida.  It was a very different beach, with massive coquina rocks exposed at low tide.  The tides in this part of the state are about 6 feet!

Also right across the street from the marina was Marineland Dolphin Adventure Aquarium.  We learned so much about dolphins, sea turtles and sharks.

We hiked the Sea to River trails, where we found palms like the ones distributed on Palm Sunday.

On Saturday, March 12th we watched the sunrise in the fog....

and then took off for a long day on the water.

We passed St. Augustine,

& some beautiful homes.

We hit what we call our "traffic jams" when we crossed the St. Johns River.

This is more of a commercial area, where it's common to see ship building structures,

and interesting looking military ships, like this stealth-like cement catamaran.  The small red boats were security boats making sure no one got too close.

About 40 miles north of St. Augustine & after cruising about 60 miles, we turned into the Fort George River to anchor for the night.  As we worked our way in to the anchorage we noticed a sailboat looking to anchor as well.  As we approached we realized it was Bella, a sailboat captained by Josh, a young man who we had met & got to know at the Marineland Marina.  We picked up Josh in our dingy & went ashore to tour the Kingley Plantation, which was built in 1798 & is the oldest plantation house still standing in Florida.

The tide in this area was about 7 feet, so at low tide a huge sand bar was exposed.  It was so cool walking on this sand & was absolutely beautiful!

The next morning after another beautiful sunrise, we set off for Fernadina Beach on Amelia Island, which would be our last stop in Florida.

Along the way it rained a little which resulted in a rainbow, look closely & you'll see it.

Historic Center Street downtown Fernandina Beach is lined with beautiful old buildings, including the oldest saloon in Florida.  There is a presence of pirates everywhere.

The huge, old trees were amazing to see.

But the highlight of the stop was when we met & chatted with Wayne Carini, who is the host of Chasing Classic Cars.  Wayne was in town for the Concours d'Elegance, a huge car show, & was just across the street from the marina doing a photo shoot.  The car he was driving was the car that Dustin Hoffman & Tom Cruise drove in the movie Rain Man. 

Back to the mainland . . .

El Nino has just been causing havoc with the weather in Florida this winter!  We had planned to cruise to Key West and then to the Dry Tortugas, but because of the high winds and waves, we stayed put at Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon for 2 weeks.  The good news is we got to spend that time with our friends from Grayling and Sea Dog, which we thoroughly enjoyed!  Sunset at the Sunset Grill at the 7 Mile Bridge was beautiful, and with cocktails, great food and great friends, the night was perfect!

We also took the opportunity to discover some local attractions, like the Crane Point Museum & Nature Center.

On Tuesday, Feb 16th we left Marathon in our wake and headed across the Gulf to The Little Shark River in the Everglades National Park.  It was beautiful there, but "out in the middle of no where" is an understatement.

From there we had smooth waters all the way to a favorite spot of ours, Panther Key, about 10 miles south of Marco Island.  We anchored there for 2 nights......

.....experienced another stunning sunset.....

.... and met some great new people.  They had kayaked from Everglades City and were camping on the island for a week, living off only what they could fit in their kayaks.  One of the best parts of this adventure is meeting interesting people like Wes, Bill and Gaitlyn.

We took advantage of the silky sand and relaxed on the beach.

At Panther Key we picked up another crew member, a pelican to captain the dingy.

From there it was on to Marco Island Marina....

and then to Gulf Harbour Marina in Ft. Myers, where Dave was meeting the guys for 4 days of golf.  Doc, Jerry, Ralph, Frank & Cloyd joined Florida Dave on the east coast for a couple more rounds.

While Dave was golfing, I had a lot of fun with my Mom and Dad at their condo in Sarasota.  It was so great spending time with them in their paradise!  I also had the opportunity to go back to Longboat Key Club Moorings to visit Nancy and Ron and several other friends.  For both Dave and I, it was a great week of reconnecting!

Then back on the water just across the Caloosahatchee River to Kitty's house in Cape Coral.  There we experienced our first "rafting" with another boat.  Silver Boots tied to the dock and we tied to them, cool experience and not nearly as scary as I thought!

Kitty's hospitaliy was again amazing, spoiling us with decadent keylime pie in addition to her opening her dock and home to us Loopers!

On Leap Day, we headed east up the Caloosahatchee River for the 145 mile journey across Lake Okeechobee to Stuart on the Florida east coast.  It had been over 3 years since we had passed through a lock, so we were a little nervous entering the Franklin Lock.

The Caloosahatchee River provided for many interesting sights.

Beautiful sail boats,

abandoned sail boats,

swing bridges,

railroad bridges,

bascule and 65' fixed bridges.

This was a first, horses playing on the shoreline....

Our first stop was LaBelle,

.... the honey capital of the world.

From there it was on to Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston, just east of the lake.  We were jammed in the lock to Clewiston, resulting in our second rafting experience.

Entering Lake Okeechobee...

we had a smooth 25 mile run across the lake.

We anchored out about 5 miles from Stuart, arriving at the Loggerhead Marina the following day.  Florida Dave & Shelly picked us up at the marina, we visited Shelly's parents, Mackey and Jackie Rogers and then we spent 2 nights in Tequesta at David & Shelly's house.  We had an absolute blast with the Frankens, hanging out in the hot tub and pool, having cannon ball contests, eating and DRINKING ....