Manatee encounter

So, yesterday Sue is on the dock talking to the neighbor, when she sees the swirls in the water - the telltale signs of manatees.  The mammals need to surface regularly for air, and they sound somewhat like whales blowing when they do (although I've never actually heard a whale blow).  She goes to the end of the finger pier and sees two adult & one young manatee playing around.  I watch them from our boat as they come under it and bump into it.  We watch for about 10 minutes before we lose sight of them.

30 minutes later I'm taking trash to the dumpster when I walk past an empty boat slip that has a lot of hyacinths in it, and see the hyacinths moving from below!  I stop to watch, and soon see the whiskered snout of a manatee munching on the hyacinths.  The 3 manatees are now in this slip feeding.  I watch for 15 minutes while they feed & frolic under the docks & right up next to the boats.  At times, they come to the surface within 3 feet of me & roll onto their backs.  A perfect time NOT to have a camera in my hands!

The neighbors say that some manatees stay in the area year round.  Their number will increase during the winter months.  So, I'll learn to carry a camera with me.


Today, we'll drive 20 minutes away to visit Sue's brother.  We were surprised to find that this marina is so close to his house.  We haven't seen him in several years, so it will be good to visit.  Tomorrow we drive north to TN and OH.  This cold front has already come through that part of the country, and they now have that white crap falling from the sky!  Gee, I'm glad we moved to central Florida for the winter!

South to our Winter Home

Exiting Ortega River onto St Johns River,
with Jacksonville city skyline

I’m beginning to feel like the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers, with a summer home up north, and a winter home down south.  But, as our sign on our boat says, “Home is where our boat is.”

We stayed at Ortega Landing Marina just south of Jacksonville for a week; visiting the city, doing minor boat repairs, sitting by the pool, and waiting on 2 days of stormy weather which was the RETURN of Tropical Storm Karen which had passed through the first time the previous week.  We finally departed Jacksonville on Wednesday October 16 into a partly cloudy day with cool north breezes.  The “Executive Summary” for the next three days is that the weather was perfect, and the trip was uneventful (the best kind of cruise to have).

Osprey nest on the navigation markers.
This bird used Spanish Moss in the nest.
Note crab traps behind the marker.

We had wanted to cruise the St Johns River because we had heard & read that it was very interesting and pretty.  Again, we weren’t disappointed.  Just south of Jacksonville, the river is very wide & calm, just like a lake.  And, for once I can say that this section had more crab traps than even Lake Pontchartrain!  The ones with only a small black float were particularly difficult to see, and we were constantly dodging them, even inside the navigation channel.

Bald eagle nest.  Look who's home!

I was surprised when we had a tidal current from astern the entire first day because the high tides were progressively later the farther south on the river.  So we made good time, and we saved maybe 1-1/2 gallons of fuel.  We anchored both nights we travelled, since there were numerous places to do so, and the marinas along the way couldn’t handle a large ya-chut like ours.

The second day, we diverted at Lake George to Silver Glen Springs, where the manatees gather for the winter in the constant-temperature water.  We anchored about ½ mile offshore in the Lake, launched the dinghy without mounting the motor, and rowed to shore.  Then we found that the spring source was another ½ mile up the river.  (Yes, we both got our exercise that day!).  The water was crystal-clear, the springs were beautiful, but no manatees.  Apparently they are just now starting to move south to warmer waters.  So we rowed back to our ya-chut, weighed anchor & went about 10 more miles before anchoring for the night.

Lake George was so calm that we had to make
our own wind!  Quite different from our trip
out of Brunswick GA.

 

There are Manatee zones all along the length of the river, so this must really get interesting during winter months.   The mammals eat mostly the water hyacinths.  Which means that the river is just covered with hyacinths, at times almost across the entire river.  The second and 3^rd day, we were constantly dodging patches of hyacinths.

Water hyacinths everywhere!  Manatees will follow!

We went half way across Lake Monroe to our new temporary home at Monroe Harbour Marina in Sanford FL, where the Admiral made yet another perfect landing into the narrow slip, although I really had to scurry around the deck in order to make her look good!  Before we even finished tying up, the neighbors were out on the dock introducing themselves.  And, Sue saw a manatee right in the marina behind our boat.  We think we’re going to like it here.

So last night we walk into the old town of Sanford to eat at the famous German restaurant (after all, it IS Oktoberfest!), and wouldn’t you know it, but our waiter was from Huron Ohio (where my Aunt lives), and his cousin owns property on Middle Bass Island Ohio (where Sue & I met, and where “Fruition” is home-ported)!

Tomorrow we rent a car to drive back to Brunswick GA to retrieve our car.  Later this week we will drive north to TN to assist Sue’s mother, and then to OH to assist Sue’s uncle.  I guess we’ll have to find our woolies, since they’re starting to get that white crap on the ground by now.

Silver Glen Springs is part of a NATIONAL FOREST.
During the government shutdown, they posted
black vultures at the gates to keep out the "unwanted".

Crystal-clear water at Silver Glen Springs

This ain’t “pleasure” boating!

We waited around a couple days for that darn tropical storm to pass by Brunswick, and enjoyed beautiful weather while waiting to depart for points south.  So we were more than ready to leave Tuesday Oct 8, looking at weather reports ranging from 20% rain up to 70% thunderstorms.  In hindsight (which is always 20/20), we should have believed the 70%.  All our boat neighbors were watching/helping us leave; maybe they just wanted to see for themselves that this lady captain could actually handle this big boat!

We took 200 gallons of fuel at a dock just south of the marina which services the commercial shrimp boats, and spent 60 cents per gallon less than at the marina.  We departed under overcast skies and 20-25 mph winds.  An hour later the rain started and the winds went to 30 gusting to 35.  The only reason we continued travelling was that the seas and wind were all from astern, so the ride wasn't too bad since we were mostly in the protected ICW.  But when we crossed one of the open-water Sounds following the ICW to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, we got caught by 4-5’ sea swells.  For 45 minutes, we pitched and rolled about 30 degrees, which mixed up some stuff in the cabin which wasn’t tightly secured.  Sue turned to me & asked “Are we having fun yet?” She added that she doesn’t have to go to Texas to ride the mechanical bull now, since she has already experienced a ride at least as exciting.

The rain and winds continued as the temperatures fell.  When we arrived at our anchorage, we had minimal protection from the winds, as we were still in the grass marshes of Georgia.  We had planned to raft up for drinks & dinner with another boat, which had left the same marina in Brunswick with us, but the wind was too high to try.  We spent a very restless night, getting up every two hours to see if our 65# anchor was dragging.  Luckily, it held, despite our rotating every 6 hours when the tide shifted.

By morning, the wind had died down to only 20-25 mph, but we still had a light rain & cool temps.  Another day not to go boating, but we certainly didn’t want to spend the day anchored in the marshes.  To add to our fun, we found that our windlass would not work electrically to raise the anchor.  I had put out 100’ of all chain rode (because of the high winds during the night), which we then had to ratchet up manually on the windlass, 3” at a time.  Found out the next day that the windlass battery had shorted out & died.  So much for “pleasure boating”.

Our escort on the river, USCG Cutter "Dauntless",
travelled next to us for about 5 miles.

Within an hour, we had entered the St Johns River, which we will take upriver past Jacksonville all the way south to Sanford FL, just north of Orlando.  The river was big, deep, and full of commercial traffic.  We planned our trip to catch the incoming tide, which gave us a 2 mph boost.  And finally, the rain quit and the clouds started clearing!  At noontime, we were finally into the city (I found out that Jacksonville is actually about 25 miles west of the ocean, not right next to the Atlantic).  We docked for lunch at the River City Marina, which is adjacent to the River City Brewing Company, so Sue could sample their craft beers.  We’ve been finding local craft breweries from St Augustine to Savannah, so Sue can compare notes with our two sons.  After a good lunch, we left the dock just prior to the scheduled opening of the nearby railroad bridge.  The bridge has had mechanical problems, and opens to marine traffic only 9-10 AM and 2-3 PM, so if we had missed that opening, we’d be spending the night somewhere else.

Oh, all right......I guess we'll let him have the right of way!

As we continued past the city, the St Johns River transitioned from a fast-flowing business-like river, to a wide calm lake.  An hour later, we finally arrived at our temporary home of Ortega Landing Marina, just south of Jacksonville, and Sue made yet another perfect approach and landing to the dock.  She’s getting so good a docking the boat, I’ll be forced to keep her a while longer!  We’ll stay for several days at this marina, especially since they are having their Oktoberfest party this Saturday, serving beer from…………..wait for it…………..a local craft brewery!  Sue has her list of a couple other beer pubs to check out in town before we resume our cruise. 

Once under way, we’ll be on our final leg of cruising for this year.  We’ll keep the boat in Sanford for the winter, while we spend about half our time back in TN and OH caring for relatives.  Our goal for next summer is to travel up the East Coast to New York City, go up the Hudson to the Erie Canal, and eventually get to Lake Erie.

Old Savannah

Historic building fronts along the river wharf.
The street stones are old ballast stones from
the sailing ships.

We drove our car up to Savannah for a couple days, because we had heard that it was a beautiful city full of history.  We were not disappointed.  The city looks a lot like New Orleans’ French Quarter with the historic buildings surrounded by live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.  But the architecture is definitely British, with the layout of the city one of the first “planned communities” with small parks every 3-4 blocks.  Savannah’s historic district is small enough that you can walk most of it, but its history is so enormous that you should take a narrated tour around the area.  Numerous tours are offered everywhere, and I was surprised at the number of tourists visiting the city.

The other side of the river-front buildings, all built
on a bluff.  Note the catwalks to the front doors.

The city was founded by James Oglethorpe in the early 1700’s as a place to put England’s debtors (English debtor prisons were already full), as well as an effort to create a planned society where the government tried to create a Utopia on earth.  I could make a snide remark here about the current political situation, but I’ll refrain.  Oglethorpe’s Utopia fell apart when his people discovered free enterprise.

I was amused during the city tour when the guide talked about Oglethorpe, who was trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, etc, etc.  He was the local hero who saved Georgia from those dastardly Spanish explorers down south in Florida. The amusing part is that just 2 months ago when we were touring St Augustine, we learned how Ponce de Leon & Menendez saved the countryside from those terrible British up north, led by Oglethorpe!  Teaches you to always evaluate the source of any “facts” you might be told!

Savannah's Cotton Exchange,
headquarters of the US cotton business
in 1887.

Savannah’s history is tied to the sea and its position as a major seaport.  During the early 1800’s, it was a major exporter of cotton, and this is where some obscure man named Eli Whitney tried to enforce his patent for a cotton gin (our daughter studied Whitney’s life when she wrote a TV script about the social impact of the cotton gin).  It was interesting seeing the converted historic buildings along the river wharves & the river bluff where Oglethorpe originally set up the city.  One reason these buildings still exist is because the city of Savannah was not burned down at the end of the “War of Northern Aggression” when William T. Sherman marched to the sea.

Did I mention that Savannah has some excellent restaurants? We found a couple of them.  One thing we started doing along the way is looking for any craft breweries or pubs serving craft beers, so Sue can sample the beers.  We’ve found one in St Augustine, Jacksonville Beach, and now Savannah.  We already have the addresses for the breweries in Jacksonville next week.

Enjoying our mint julep and rum punch at a
river-front restaurant.

Tybee Island lighthouse.  Sue is
tremendously disappointed that it was
closed & we couldn't climb it!

We drove out to Tybee Island, the northernmost barrier island in Georgia to see the lighthouse & whatever else.  There wasn’t much else, certainly when compared to the barrier islands of Florida (both the Gulf Coast & the East Coast).  We tried to visit two of the historic forts of the 1700’s, but since they were both US National Parks and since the date was October 1, and since your Congress just can’t get their crap in order, everything was closed.

 

We’re now planning our departure from Brunswick GA, on a 2-day cruise to Jacksonville, then farther up the St Johns River to Sanford FL, where we’ll keep the boat for the winter months.  Having to watch that tropical storm/hurricane approaching New Orleans, and how much wind/rain it will bring to this area.  We need to be back in TN by Oct 20, so unfortunately, we now have a schedule.

 

Florence Martus, Savannah's "Waving Girl".
She waiting over 40 years for her sailor to return.
Guess what?!?  A sailor has a girl in every port!!

                                          

Huge container ship headed up the Savannah
River.  The channel runs very close to the city, very
much like New Orleans & the MS River.

 

"...the richest, the most exclusive, the most inaccessible club in the world."

Jekyll Island Club Hotel, looking across the
lawn croquet field.  For the right price, YOU
can spend the night here!

After a week of rain & doing chores around the boat, we headed back over to Jekyll Island to rub elbows with the rich & famous.  We took the tours around the Jekyll Island Club, which existed from 1886 to 1942 as a winter retreat, where membership was by invitation only, limited to 100 of the wealthiest Americans.....gentle folks such as JP Morgan, William Vanderbilt, William Rockefeller, Marshall Field, Richard Crane, and Joseph Pulitzer.  A club hotel was built for most of the members, but some decided they needed a separate "winter cottage" (a.k.a. "mansion").  Keep in mind that the rich folk of this era also had "summer cottages" in places like Newport R.I., in addition to their primary home in towns like New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.  On Jekyll Island, Richard Crane (founder of Crane plumbing fixtures & pumps) had the largest "cottage", one with 17 bedrooms.

William Rockefeller's "winter cottage" at water's edge.

The club house & hotel was open only from Jan through March.  One of their rules was that all members had to take their meals in the club dining room, to encourage social interaction.  Obviously, the dining room was elegant.  It was said that during dinner, one-sixth of all the wealth in America was in that room.

I found it interesting that in the early 1900's, an offer of membership was NOT extended to Andrew Carnegie (of Pittsburgh & US Steel fame), so Carnegie bought Cumberland Island, the next barrier south of Jekyll Island & built his winter estate there.

Loggerhead sea turtle recovering from shark attack.

Also on Jekyll Island, we visited the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, where rehab is provided to sea turtles that have been injured by sharks, boat propellers, or disease.  Also had displays on sea turtle nesting along the beach (we've seen many turtle nests all along the Florida east coast beaches where we swam).  I learned that Loggerhead sea turtles, once they hatch & make it back into the ocean, will ride the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic, all the way across to the Azores Islands off Spain, and sometimes return back to the US to nest again.


Finally, at low tide (remember that GA has 7-8' tides in this area), we walked along the beach at the very northern tip of Jekyll Island, what they call Driftwood Beach.  It was really unique seeing all these huge trees, mostly live oak, uprooted & bleached by the sun & sea.  It seemed a beautiful sight - a photo op - until you realize that this is an example of severe beach erosion by the seas.  All these trees were killed as the soil eroded beneath them.  A local lady said that erosion has taken several hundred feet of beach in only 50 years.  How can you stop Mother Nature from doing just about anything she wants?

Sue at Driftwood Beach with the lighthouse on
St Simons Island behind.  Casino gambling boat
was headed out 3 miles offshore on this windy day.

In a final burst of touristy patriotism (i.e., single-handedly supporting the local economy with MY dollars), we're headed up to Savannah GA tomorrow for a couple days.  When we return to the boat, it will be time to look for a weather window to head south for the winter.

Eating our way through Georgia

We've been back in Brunswick GA for a week now & we've done a good job acting like tourists!  We decided to first visit St Simons Island and Jekyll Island, both places where your net worth gotta be at least 7-8 figures to live there (more on that on a later post, after we visit Jekyll Island again).  But this area in general, and on SSI in particular, bear a lot of resemblance to New Orleans.



Live Oak trees & moss at the historic Fort Frederica
National Monument, where Gen Oglethorpe set up
the British fort in 1736 to fight those nasty Spaniards
to the south!
 

View from the top of the lighthouse.  Sue does

pretty well at the top, even though she's afraid

of heights!  Notice she's not hanging over the rail!

 

First resemblance is in the number of live oak trees, all of them with huge canopies, huge branches, hundreds of years old, and every bit as impressive as the live oaks in City Park in New Orleans. The ones around here, however, seem to have much more Spanish moss (which is neither Spanish, nor moss) draped all over them.  The story here is that in the 1700's, live oak trees from SSI were cut & shipped north to build the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides).  The entire St Simons Island was shrouded in shade by all the oak trees and the huge magnolia trees.

Hooray!  Another lighthouse to climb!!
This time, it's St Simons Island light!



 

We found our share of restaurants so far, and found that a lot of the food is just like New Orleans.  Many of the local dishes include some kind of Andouille, shrimp, and Zatarain's seasoning.  We've seen gumbo, jambalaya, and blackened seafood on the menus.  We also tried the local "Brunswick Stew", a thick tomato-based stew with pulled pork & lots of vegetables, spiced just right.  We have yet to try a "low-country boil", but I know they still make that dish in South Carolina when we get farther north.

 

Our highlight yesterday was heading over to Jekyll Island to the annual "Shrimp & Grits Festival".  It was held amid the "winter cottages" (I.e. mansions) built around 1900 by the rich & famous of America (think Vanderbilt & Rockefeller).  The festival had all the tents from local vendors, which kept Sue occupied for hours, and live bands.  The central grounds featured shrimp & grits from local restaurants, prepared many different ways.  We did our best to taste as many as we could.  And, yes, even though I'm still a "Damn Yankee" at heart, I actually let Sue trick me into eating some grits!  In addition to everything else, they also had a beer pavilion where we could sample the wares from local craft breweries (James & Chris, mom can compare notes with you about some more different microbreweries).



Good food plus a couple of good beers, equals
a hell of a good time!

I just had to get this sign along the road to St Simons Island!
  I've heard of deer crossings, and people crossings,
but these here Georgia folks are kinda strange!





Early September 2013

We're still in TN this week, and, by the time we leave, will have been up here for 3 weeks.  When we arrived here, we needed 3 days to sort through our mail, which was piled 1-1/2 FEET high!!  In addition to our own mail, Sue also takes care of all her mother's mail, and thirdly, has all the mail for her uncle in Ohio forwarded to this address.  Couple that with our absence from here of over 4 weeks, and we had a "project" ahead of us.

Our boating news is that our boat is still floating right-side up.  (From all the hurricanes we've been through, I've learned to ask not just "Is our boat still floating?", but to ask the RIGHT question of "Is our boat still floating right-side up?").  Also, we got word from the daughter of our nephew that the marina we stayed at in St Pete FL was hit by a waterspout, and had damage to some boats.  Looking at the pictures, we figured that we had been tied about 200 feet away from the damaged boats.

Back in the mountains of Tennessee, our big event these past 2 weeks was placing Sue's mother in a dementia center for a 3-night trial period.  The first facility here in town had no room in the inn, so our second choice facility was 45 minutes south of here.  There has been quite a bit of emotional stress around here as the events unfolded.  If the facility agrees to accept Sue's mother full time (i.e., can they deal with her special quirks and needs?), the plan is to place her into the facility full time when we return to TN in late October.  If that happens, we'll spend most of this coming winter getting the house ready for sale.

Northward into Georgia

After spending a bit more than 2 weeks at Marineland Marina, we were ready to move on.  As long as we had the car at Marineland, it was convenient driving to a lot of spots in NE Florida.  We positioned our car to Brunswick Landing Marina in Georgia, and resumed our cruising on Monday August 19 on a 3-day trip to Brunswick GA. 

The trip was only 125 miles, and we could have made it in 2 easy days, but the Georgia ICW has so many areas that have shoaled in, that we had to wait for high tides before crossing those areas, and those daytime tides were all around 10 AM.  Earlier this summer, we had planned to cruise as far north as Savannah GA, but because of so much shoaling, and the fact that Georgia normally has 6-7’ tides, I wasn’t too excited about travelling that far.  Other factors were that we would always have our car with us, so we decided to visit Savannah GA and Beaufort SC and Charleston SC by car.  It had to be a lot cheaper that visiting by boat!  And, finally, we have decided to spend this winter at the head of St Johns River near Orlando, so however far north we went, we would need to re-trace our steps at the end of summer.

Small USCG buoy tender for the ICW buoys

We departed Monday rather late, to catch the outgoing tide as far as St Augustine Inlet.  The day turned hot & steamy, and, for most of the day, we were surrounded by rainstorms.  We saw the rain falling only ¼ mile from us, but we ran the entire day without getting wet.  But the hot day affected us all.   When I did my engine room checks, I measured 126 degrees at the engine inlet!  Just too hot to call this “pleasure boating”.

I was a bit concerned about following the ICW out the St Aug Inlet (where the buoys mark the channel around all the shoaling), since we had an outgoing tide with onshore winds at the inlet.  We encountered about 4 knot currents, with swirling turbulence, but we were OK since we expected it.  Boating along the East Coast sure ain't like boating along the Tennessee River!

We made our marina at Jacksonville Beach, and while the boat cooled down, we walked 1/2 mile down US Hwy 90 to the Engine 15 Brewery, which had 50 specialty beers on tap.  Sue is making a habit of finding the places which serve microbrews or specialties, since she did such a good job in St Aug.  We also called our daughter in Los Angeles, who lives at one end of Interstate 10, while we were at the other end of I-10 across the country.

The next morning we got up to that darn thing called an alarm clock, to get underway 1/2 hour before sunrise, in order to get through the shoaling in Georgia at high tide.  We crossed the St Johns River between Jacksonville and the ocean, and encountered quite a bit of turbulence with the incoming tide.  All the tides are extreme this week because of the full moon tomorrow night.

Big bad USCG cutters leaving the Navy ballistic
missile sub base at Kings Bay GA

We saw the normal wildlife along the ICW, but for the first time, we saw a flock of roseate spoonbills on the shore, mixed in with the brown pelicans.  Our other interesting sight was when we passed the Navy ballistic missile nuclear submarine base at Kings Bay Georgia.  When we saw the first 64' USCG cutter exit the base, we thought he was coming out to inspect us.  Then we saw the other 3 cutters speed past us, all with 50-caliber machine guns mounted on the bow, and we knew then that they were headed out to the inlet to escort a nuclear sub back to the base.  Shortly afterwards, were heard the cutters talking on VHF radio to a Navy P-3 patrol aircraft, and I knew from my Navy days that the P-3 was sweeping the wake of the "boomer" (the ballistic missile sub) to make sure no other sub was following it in to port.

Setting of full moon on Wednesday morning
over our anchorage in the swamps of GA

We found our planned anchorage for the night, and, even though it was only 1 PM, we dropped our hook in the absolute middle of nowhere in the Georgia swamps.  We turned on the generator, turned on the air conditioning, took a hot shower, and watched some TV.  It's amazing that we can do these kinds of things when we're lost in the middle of nowhere.  We watched as the tide shifted every 6 hours, and built up a 3 knot current in the other direction.  Luckily, our anchor held for the entire night, but when I raised it the next morning, the chain and trip line were wrapped several times around it.  Talk about a "fouled anchor"!  I think the only reason we didn't drag anchor during the night was because our ground tackle was so heavy.

8' tide difference at our Brunswick GA marina.  Note
position of the boat relative to the Manatee sign.
And this happens every 6 hours!

On Wednesday, we made our passage through the final shoaling at high tide, and our depth sounder showed nothing less than 13'.  The problem was that at least 8' of that depth was due to high tide, meaning that at low tide, you had only 5' water depth!  We entered the big, wide Brunswick River, and cruised up to Brunswick Landing Marina after only 25 miles of travel today.  When we finished tying up at our slip, we look immediately to the next dock and see a boat home-ported in Marblehead (Sandusky) Ohio, only 20 miles from the place we've home-ported our boat!  Small world.  As we're putting out more lines, we find a moon jellyfish right next to the boat at the surface of the water.  Really interesting to watch it move around & finally swim away.  Just another reason for us to NOT go swimming at the marina!

We'll leave the boat at this marina for a month while we head back to TN for family issues, and also to act like a tourist around here when we return.

Week of August 11

After spending most of last week acting like a tourist, we had to settle down & get some things done.  We had some minor boat chores to catch up on, so we did those.  We also found a beach on the ocean that we really really liked, so we drove there a couple times.

Another lousy sunset across the ICW at
Marineland Marina

The major effort during the week was visiting about a dozen different marinas, stretching from Orlando to Jacksonville, to try to decide where to spend the coming winter.  We gathered lots of information and developed spreadsheets, so I could do a proper engineering analysis (you can take the man out of engineering, but you can't take the engineering out of the man).  We settled on a marina in Sanford FL at the head of the St Johns River (which flows northbound past Jacksonville into the Atlantic).  The marina is in fresh water, rather than salt water, and should be far enough south to minimize the wintertime cold fronts.  Sanford is about 10 miles northeast of Orlando, so we should be able to find something to do in the big city.  We might even entice our son & family to come visit us while we take our wonderful granddaughter to the area theme parks.  Our boat insurance doesn't restrict us to a specific parallel of latitude during hurricane season, so we plan to beat the snowbirds into marinas by getting to Sanford around October 20.  The boat will spend about 5 months there, but we'll spend 2-3 months in TN during that period, taking care of Sue's mom.

On the beach at Marineland FL are coquina rocks,
composed of tiny marine shells.  When wet, the
rocks are soft & the waves erode them.  When dried,
the rocks become hard enough that the Spanish
settlers made forts out of this rock. 

The other main effort this week was to plan the details of our trip north to Brunswick GA.  We plan to finally leave Marineland Marina on Aug 19 and take 3 days to get to Brunswick.  Because Georgia normally has 6-7' tides (and up to 8' tides this coming week due to a full moon), we have to plan our travels around the numerous shoaling areas.  Couple that with the fact that high tide is around 10 AM each day, and you have some pretty complicated detailed planning.  I've spent many hours planning only a 3-day (125 mile) cruise.  And this only gets us to Brunswick!  If we had planned to continue north to Savannah GA, I'd have many more hours of planning ahead.  Instead, we'll dock the boat at Brunswick for a month while we return to TN for 2 weeks.  When we return, we'll drive by car (our car is already positioned at Brunswick) to visit Savannah, Charleston & other areas, and leave the boat in Brunswick.

The saga continues..........

Acting like a tourist in St Augustine

The ICW gets crowded when Dumbo fisherman
anchors in the channel!

On Saturday August 3 we cruised 35 miles north to a marina that costs about half what we were paying in Daytona Beach.  We ended up at Marineland FL (pop. 5, except for the dolphins) where the Marineland Dolphin Adventure oceanarium has been re-opened.  I remember visiting this place around 1960 on a family vacation, but it's changed several times since then (so have I).

Sue drank from the Fountain of Youth
and obviously, it worked for her!

We had a good 4-hour cruise up here, with very good weather (that means we avoided the thunderstorms).  I was surprised that there were so few boats on the ICW, for a Saturday with good weather.  Maybe this weak economy really has decreased the number of active boaters.  We saw homes and docks all along this stretch of the ICW, so we traveled at no-wake speed all the way.  The Sunday after we arrived, we saw Don & Becky R. one more time as they kindly drove our car up to us from Daytona Beach.  Marineland is rather remote, so having the car makes us a tourist again.

We huffed & puffed our way up
219 steps to the top of
St Augustine Lighthouse

 
 
 
The native Indian, Spanish, French, British, and American history in this area is astounding.  We've spent the past week learning more about what happened when.  Y'all know that Ponce de Leon "discovered" St Augustine & the "Fountain of Youth" in 1513, but he came to the New World on Chris Columbus' second voyage this way.  Remember that Columbus was an Italian (from Genoa Italy), who got the Spanish Queen to finance his wild ideas.  Everyone set up shop in Puerto Rico until Ponce left after Chris' son was made governor, rather than Ponce.  The history of St Aug is littered with routine enemy attacks & burning, ruthless admirals & generals from Spain, France, and England, and the overlying theme of "If you ain't Catholic, you ain't welcome!"  Our boating friends will appreciate that one of the most important things that Mr. Ponce discovered was the Gulf Stream just offshore, which allowed the Spanish treasure ships returning to Spain from South & Central America, to reduce their voyage by 3 weeks.

The Old City areas of St Aug are pretty close together and you can hike to all of them.  But we found that the tourist trams are a very good way to familiarize yourself with the city and its history.  And speaking of a weak economy.........St Aug was wall-to-wall tourists each day we were there.

Church that Henry Flagler built in 321 days
to memorialize his daughter

St Aug history since 1880 centers around Henry Flagler, who made his billion$ as the co-founder of Standard Oil Co with John Rockefeller (and, since there was no federal income tax, he got to keep it all!)  He came to town to build the Hotel Ponce de Leon, designed for the wealthy to spend the winter months away from that white crap on the ground up north.  The guests had to rent the room for the entire 3 winter months, which was the only time the hotel was open.  Flagler built more hotels south to Miami, and then bought/built railroads to get his guests down to his hotels.  His Florida East Coast Railroad eventually extended all the way south to Key West.

Special programs allow the kids to swim
with the dolphins at Marineland
Dolphin Adventures

In addition to visiting St Aug, we took our first kayak trip as part of an ecological tour of the nearby estuary.  We beached our kayaks on a sand bar to take a rest & listen to the guide stress the importance of the saltwater estuary.  It was quite unique sitting in the morning sun at high tide in 6" of clear water, watching the hermit crabs crawl along the bottom.  That afternoon, we visited the Dolphin Adventure & were amazed at the research going on there.  And the dolphin tricks made me take so many pictures, the camera battery went dead.  This Marineland opened in 1938 & was the first "oceanarium", long before Sea World got into the act.  Our marina is right across the road from the Atlantic Ocean & we can hear the surf at night. 

And then on Wednesday, we're at a free music concert at St Aug Beach pier and pavilion when the crowd starts cheering & pointing to the south over the ocean.  We look to see a red glare in the evening sky -- looked to me like some fireworks shooting into the sky, but never bursting into a show of lights.   As the light kept climbing higher and higher, we realize that we're watching a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, about 75 miles to our south.  We watched the rocket exhaust for over 2 minutes as it climbed into the clear sky, and saw the first stage separation as the rocket was high enough to come into the sunlight.  Quite a sight!!

Dolphins were born at Marineland and have never
been in the wild.  These ladies are waiting to
get their treat after doing their tricks

So let's pause a moment and consider.........would you rather be doing this stuff, or would you rather be stuck in rush-hour traffic on the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans, heading to another boring staff meeting at work???  (this is an I.Q. test).

Daytona Beach

Don R. showing me how to become
a professional meteorologist in
3 easy lessons!

We enjoyed our week in Daytona Beach, mostly due to the friendship of Don R. and his wife Becky (who got her "grandma fix" and returned to their boat this past week).  Don helped us with planning our trip northbound from here, since he and Becky had made the trip almost 10 times.  He also helped me with meteorological prognostications, drawing on his 30+ years professional experience.  Additionally, they helped us find the better restaurants along the water front.  And finally, they have offered to bring our car to us after we head north to Marineland FL tomorrow.  Being such "giving" people that they are, it's no wonder that they have made friends around the world.

The "bearded one" in front of the
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

We were able to act like tourists one day, and drove over to the beach along all the hotels & condos, to visit the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse.  It is the highest lighthouse in Florida, and one that we passed by on our way into Daytona Beach.  The grounds around the lighthouse still have the keepers' homes, as well as several museums.  The museum with all the Fresnel lenses was impressive, especially finding out how exactly these darn thing operate!  Many of these lenses from the late 1800's were made in Paris & shipped to America.

Circular (of course) stairway inside the Lighthouse.
Yes, we were huffing and puffing after climbing to the top!



View from the top of the Lighthouse, looking south
along the ICW.  We had traveled from there
to pass through the inlet.



We then drove back along the beach to find a place to go squish some sand.  The beaches at Daytona have very fine, hard-packed sand, and will support cars driving along the water's edge.  Remember, that NASCAR car racing originally started just north of here, along the hard sand beaches.  We chose a section of beach that did not allow vehicles onto the beach.  The wide shallow beach reminded us of the beaches at Clearwater FL.

 

 

 



Finally getting our feet wet in the Atlantic Ocean





At low tide, the beach is wide & flat



The afternoon setting sun creates some
interesting shadows on the beach

Unfortunately, most of the rest of our time at Daytona was taken up dealing with contractors, especially the marine plumber, who made 3 trips to the boat to repair the head that was damaged by our teenage relative & his "friends".  Remember that the difference between a "marine plumber" and an ordinary "plumber" is about $50/hour.  We also spent a day driving north to the Jacksonville area to begin looking for a marina to keep our boat this coming winter.  Guess we're gonna be a Florida resident for a while.