WE MADE IT 

March 15, 2016, Super Tuesday

The Marina at OTEGA LANDING 

Jacksonville

Our home base for the next year . . .

The weather has been perfect the last 3 weeks.  The only challenge was the wind which was fun except when you are trying to catch a mooring ball or docking!

Haulover Canal between Ft. Pierce and Melbourne

That evening, we dropped anchor south of the Melbourne bridge to avoid the northeast winds.  We enjoyed our drinks on our cockpit taking in this sunset.  Not bad.

The following day we docked at Cocoa Village Marina, a very popular and delightful place.  We could walk to the village for shopping.  They happened to have an arts and crafts fair the weekend we were there.  Stayed for 2 days.

It's not hard to love a place called Cocoa.  Legend says that a woman who lived on the banks of the Indian River during 1800's would deliver hot cocoa to sailors as they passed by.

The 100-year-old Travis Hardware, still functioning, is a landmark of Cocoa Village.  You can't see it, but it takes up a whole block.   It gave Captain a place to shop while I browsed the village.

After leaving Cocoa, we cruised to  Rockhouse Creek for the night where we dropped anchor.  

We had a visitor the next morning who had already taken his bath.

Next day, we docked at the lovely Palm Coast Marina, 

where we stayed another 2 days.  

Alan and I enjoyed one of the days riding our bikes for over 13 miles!

We rode them to Washington Oaks State Park on the beach side.

The gardens encompasses over 400 acres of natural and ornamental landscapes on the Atlantic.  In addition it's known for one of the largest outcroppings of coquina rock.  The turtles enjoy nesting here May through October.  Guess we are early for the babies.

  

We took a break on our way back to the marina.  This is the chef of Captain's Bait and Barbecue.  It was delicious!

Next day, on to the old and beautiful St. Augustine.

We moored there for 3 days.   

Some areas along the way have mooring balls that you catch and attach a line (rope) to it and cleat it to your boat. This is often used instead of anchoring, especially when the bottom of the sea is deep or not suitable to catch and hold the anchor.  Then you would dingy to get to land.  However, in St. Augustine, a water taxi will pick you up and take you to the city every 2 hours on request.  They will also bring you back to your boat.

St. Augustine hasn't changed too much.  Still lots of tourist enjoying the nation's oldest city.  Plenty of museums, 4-star restaurants and unique shopping.

The Captain doesn't change much either.  He doesn't pass a marina that he doesn't enjoy.  Boats.  Big and small.  Power or sail.

Moving on. . . The Last Leg

Our last cruising day, a long and challenging one.  We left the comfort of the ICW and entered St. John's river that would take us to our destination.

Our 1st encounter was this beast.  We raced.  Guess who won!

Yep.  We left her in our wake.

And, our next view

Jacksonville from the water

Railroad bridge has to open for us.

WE ARE HERE!

Club House

Sea Jamm snug and safe!

Ortega Landing from a distance

  Pretty walks . . .

And parks.

I found a wedding happening in one of them.

The second wedding I've seen in the last 2 weeks.

It must be in the air.  Speaking of which, Alan and I have to go home to prepare for a one.  We are excited.  Love is in the air.

Maggie has chosen the purple plum color, so I find and send her a flower that color everyday as I walk.

We are excited to take this break
from sea and salt.
But, we will be back.

Friday, March 4th

Ft. Pierce, Florida

As we sit here this evening, we're very happy reminiscing the last few days!  After a slow start in Fort Myers, we have now traversed Caloosahatchee to Clewiston, crossed Okeechobee to Port Mayaca, and cruised St Lucie River to St Lucie.  We have our celebratory cocktails sitting on our flybridge watching the sunset over Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce.

Can you name this flower?

How about this one?

I'm sure you can name the fowl?

Actually, at present, flamingos no longer breed in Florida.  One will have occasional sightings in the southern reaches of Everglades National Park.

The following 3 pictures were in a very full, small Clewiston lock!  It was a party.  And they only had to raise us one foot!

Lori from Phase II.  We rafted to their boat.

On to Lake Okoochobee

This is our view for 26 miles.  Looks like haze.  But, it is actually smoke from sugar cane burning.  Apparently, it is a controlled burn to remove the outer leaves around the stalk before harvesting.  Plantation owners burn every year between October and April.

Back to Harbortown

Drinks on Sea Jamm . . . Fish at Harbor Cove

Pelican on Harbortown

Dinner at Harbor Cove

Pelicans spotted during our dinghy ride . . . 

two pelicans

two and one make three

Ft. Myers Municipal Yacht Basin

Caloosahatchee River District

Week 3

Happy Valentine!
Just the two of us!

 

A visit to Ft. Myers wouldn't be complete without lunch in Ford's Garage.

Ford's Garage.  The best hamburgers around!

The ladies' room in Ford Garage.

The hamburgers from Ford's Garage are directly related to Henry Ford's success.  In 1855, Mr. Ford visited a friend's meat packing company. In his autobiography "My Life and Work",   he states that visiting that meat processing company opened his eyes to the virtues of using a conveyor belt.  There he got his idea of an assembly line which attributed to his success in the automobile industry.

We eat a lot, but not ALL the time.  We finally saw manatees up close in Manatee Park.

A mother and her young one.

 A mother nurses her calf up to two years.

Do you see some surfacing to breathe? They spend approximately 50% of the day sleeping submerged, surfacing for air regularly at intervals of less than 20 minutes.

When they aren't sleeping, they are eating!  A 1,000-pound manatee eats up to 100 pounds of vegetation a day.  

Colorful Kayaks waiting for playful Manatees

Back in the city.

We were able to enjoy the Allure Your Senses Sculpture Exhibit only in Ft. Myers January-March. Allure Your Senses is a 23-piece exhibit of iron sculptures by renowned Colombian artist Edgardo Carmona.

Utopia.  Boy fishing

10.0 Balance, movement and internal and external strengths come together.

Juego de Domino.  Domino players, a part of tradition and life in the Caribbean and Antilles.

It's a Wrap

So we end this last week saying goodbye to the 3 who have help put Ft. Myers on the map: Ford, Firestone and Edison relaxing in Centennial Park. 

To be continued as we plan to move east and explore more of the Caloosahatchee in March . . . 

Ft. Myers Municipal Yacht Basin

Caloosahatchee River District

Week 2 

A visit from the Gorleys!

Enjoying the wind gust in front of the Edison & Ford Estates.

Sunset martinis on top of the Firestone, the tallest building on the River District. Only 4 stories!

Windy week with gusts up to 35!  We stayed in the marina most of the week walking the small city of Ft. Myers AND enjoying it's delicious restaurants.

However, on Wednesday we were able to cruise and anchor at Cayo Costa on Pelican Bay.

Stay in the channel.  Red to the left and green to the right.  No white knuckles for Mary Alice.

A natural!

Because of the wind on Tuesday and the fact that you can only get there by boat, nobody had ventured to the island. We were lucky and found traces of lots of sea creatures and many various kinds of shells, starfish, and sand dollars.

Mary Alice's treasure.

Cannot believe the wind brought this big baby ashore.  Must weigh more than a ton.

A calm night at anchor.  Good night Cayo Costa.

Ft. Myers Municipal Yacht Basin

Caloosahatchee River District

Week 1

A visit from Ingrid!

What a great opportunity to catch up with Lady Bowers.  With such a full week, we hardly had time to catch our breathe.

We cruised and anchored at Cayo Costa for the night. We dinghied to the island and walked a mile to the beach to do some shelling. Very relaxing.

Kayaked Bunche Beach Preserve in San Carlos Bay through the mangrove caves.  Hidden among it's many branches are small crabs from the size of a quarter up to a half dollar.  Reminded us of spiders. 

One of the many mangrove caves.

We also visited the Edison & Ford winter estates. They were neighbors and had winter homes in Ft. Myers and were friends along with Harvey Firestone. Thomas Edison loved southwest Florida and said it best (in 1914):  There are over 100 million people in the United States but only one Fort Myers, the flower city of tropical Florida.

Enjoying one of Mina Edison's gardens

On the weekend, Ft. Myers annual Arts Festival was held out our back door in the Caloosahatchee River District.

David Black's Fire Dance found in Centennial Park