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.
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!
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.
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.
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