More pictures of Last Boat Journeys 2011

Susan Cole on SuzyQ riding in the hammock


Nelson & Ondra having dinner (outside, of course)

Oh no, smoke again! They were burning where they were clearing lots beside the ICW.

How would you like to live here? We see this boat here everytime we have been this route.

Even the captain likes a sweet treat every now and then.(candy)

One of the many Lighthouses we have seen on our trip

One of 20 bascule bridges we went under after having to wait for it to be raised. Sometimes we waited 30-40 minutes.

Nov.22-25 Last Boat Journeys

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 we pulled the anchor at 6:45 in Pumpkin Key and headed south continuing our trip through the Florida ICW. We had had enough of the ocean and decided to go through the Keys by ICW which we had not done before. The books say that a 5 foot draft boat can make it through the skinny waters of the ICW. Well, we had our doubts many times as we just knew we would be aground with 0 depths too many times. But, we had made the commitment to go the entire trip ICW so we decided to continue our journey even though we were not sure we would make it. But, we did! We don’t know how except that God was guiding us all the way. We arrived at Marathon Shores at sunset and decided to anchor there for the night and finish our trip to Boot Key Harbor the following morning. We anchored at 4:30 and had another peaceful night on the water.
Wednesday, we pulled anchor at 8:15 and headed under the Seven Mile bridge and over to Boot Key Harbor. We stopped at a fuel dock just before the Harbor called Ponchos and refueled and got our forward water tank filled. Then, we called Boot Key Marina and they told us to go to T9 mooring ball for the night. Nelson later rode the dinghy over to the Marina to check us in. Later, Nelson and I went for a ride through the mooring field and did not see any boats there that we had met in years past. We then rode over to some docks where our friends, Jeff & Ann were living on their boat, Sea Quest. Jeff was there and we enjoyed getting to talk with him again. He was leaving on his boat in two weeks for Texas. Hope you have a great trip, Jeff!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
We thought we would have Thanksgiving dinner with other people in boats there at the Marina, but we heard on the Cruisers Net the following morning that we visiting sail boaters were not invited. That was ok! We had a great meal by ourselves and then went to the beach for the afternoon.
Friday, November 25, 2011 is a special day for Nelson and me. Our first son, Will, was born on that day. Happy Birthday, Will! We love you!
We also departed Marathon and headed west and back under the Seven Mile Bridge. We are now anchored at Little Shark River for the night. We arrived here this afternoon around 2:30. We were not sure this was going to be a good day on the water as the winds were forecast to blow all day at least 20 knots. Well, they did and sometimes 28-30. It was a choppy ride most of the way here but we are thankful to be here and all in one piece. The crab pots were everywhere so we had to continuously watch for them the whole trip and deal with the high winds. We are here for the night and are thankful to have made it here in record time.

November 18-21 Last Boat Journeys

On Friday, Nov. 18, we decided to stay one more night at Vero and get some boat projects done. We changed the oil, and cleaned the raw water filter. Both jobs were needed and the weather was not a good traveling day as the winds were up and the skies were very overcast.
Saturday, Nov. 19, we departed Vero at 7:00 and traveled 62 miles to North Lake Worth anchorage. Great place to anchor with many other boats. Weather was beautiful all day and temperatures were in the mid seventies.
Sunday, November 20 at 7:00, we departed our anchorage with two Canadian sailboats and headed south for Ft. Lauderdale. What a beautiful day on the water! The temp was probably in the eighties. We had a tiring day as we had to wait for bridges with many other boats all day. Most of the bascule bridges have certain times they open and if you are not right there, you have to wait for 30 minutes to 1 hour for the next opening. We had to go through 20 of these bridges today. What a pain! We made it to Ft. Lauderdale at 4:15 pm and anchored in the Middle River anchorage. What a nice place to anchor. We followed the Canadian boats there and we were impressed. We will definitely stay there again.
Monday, November, 21, we pulled anchor at 7:15 am and headed out the Inlet at Ft. Lauderdale for the ocean voyage to Miami. We were by ourselves as the other couples had to go to the bank before leaving that morning and they were staying in Miami until they could get a weather window to the Bahamas. Boy! We had a rocky, rolling time on the big open seas. The winds were up and it was a rocky ride all 59 miles to Miami. We were moving along the coastline and were about 10 miles out so we still could see the big Condos on the beaches. We decided we had had enough and went into the Governments Cut at 12:30 and continued our journey down south through Florida’s Biscayne Bay. This was a much better ride for the both of us. We arrived inside Pumpkin Key at 5: oo pm and anchored for the night in front of some nice homes along the waters edge. We had a very nice quiet night and got some much needed rest. Nelson and I are traveling alone now and are still enjoying our trip together.

Jackson carving his jack-o-lantern at Justin & Lindsey's house with a little help from his dad, Will.

Vero Beach -Nov.16-18

Monday, November 14 we left the mooring field and headed south. We were not sure just how far we were going to travel but we ended up going passed New Smyrna Beach and anchoring south of the New Smyrna Beach Yacht Club just to the left of the ICW with three other boats. We arrived there around 5:15 after traveling 59 miles on the water. Again, the weather was wonderful and we were in short pants and short sleeve shirts. Robert and Susan on SuzyQ radioed that they wanted us to come to their boat for spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Boy! They were great! And, to top it off, Susan had made another delicious key lime pie and we all had a piece before we returned to our boat for the night. We missed the first of Dancing with the Stars but watched the last half.
Tuesday, November 15, we pulled the anchors and started our last travels together with Robert & Susan for Titusville, FL. We only traveled 31 miles on the ICW before getting there. The weather was good but we did have some overcast weather at times. We arrived at Titusville at 2:30 in the afternoon. Nelson and I decided to wash our boat as it had gotten a yellow residue on it when we were in Fernandina Beach. After a long afternoon of cleaning we were tired and ready to get cleaned up and go for a walk to find a neat place to eat dinner. Robert, Susan, Nelson, and I walked to a restaurant under the bridge not too far from the marlna. The food was good. After a walk back, we went to their boat for the last of the key lime pie. It was great! It was sad to say our goodbyes to Robert and Susan. We enjoyed traveling with them.
We will miss them.
We departed the Titusville Marina on Wednesday morning at 6:45 by ourselves headed for Vero Beach.
We had a long day on the water with the sky looking like rain most of the day. But, we did not get the rain and had a good 72 mile day on the water. We arrived at Vero Beach Marina at 5:30, just before the sunset. We were very low on fuel and were happy that we made it to the dock where we refueled, got a pump out, and filled the water tanks before going to the mooring ball. After the marina trip, we went to find our mooring in the dark. We found the boat that we were on the mooring ball with and yelled “Hello” so they would know we were getting ready to hook up with their boat. Eric came out of his boat and helped us hook up beside his sailboat. He is alone at the time as his wife went to see her grandson in a play in MO.
Today, we slept in and later went into town on a bus and did some shopping at West Marine and then grocery shopping. When we returned to the boat, I did laundry at the marina while Nelson connected speakers outside the boat. Tonight, we are going to our favorite River Café here to have a shrimp Po Boy and I will just have fried shrimp. Later we plan to change the oil and if we get that done, we may travel further south tomorrow. We are watching the weather before we make the decision. Take care; Nelson says it is time to go eat!

St. Augustine FL- Nov. 12-14

Thursday, November 17, 2011 and we are at Vero Beach! We have been having so much fun, that I have not taken time to update my blog lately.
We arrived at St. Augustine, FL on Saturday, November 12th on a beautiful, sunny and warm day. We traveled 57 miles on the ICW and made it there by 3:15 in the afternoon. What a neat place to be! We caught a mooring ball in the mooring field after stopping by the marina for fuel, a pump out and refilling our water tanks. Nelson asked everyone if we could find a pizza place to eat as he was passed ready for pizza. I don’t make pizza on the boat! Guess I should!
Too much trouble! We found a great Italian Place on St. George St. and we all had salad and then two different kinds of pizza. We had pepperoni of course, and then Garbage Pizza (black olives, pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions and lots of cheese). We all ate and still had pizza leftovers.
A great place to eat! Robert stopped at a fudge shop and bought us a slice of fudge. Wow! It was great chocolate with walnuts! Yes, I did eat too much of it! It did not last long.
Sunday morning, we invited Robert & Susan to our boat for a country breakfast. We had country sausage in the links, grits, eggs, bread, and fruit! They ate as if they enjoyed it. We also had plenty of coffee. We ate outside as the weather was beautiful!
Sunday afternoon, we all went back into town for a long walk and over to O’Malley’s to watch the ballgame and talk with other boaters that we had met earlier. We spent the afternoon and had a roast beef sandwich before we left there. We also went by Rick & Linda’s boat before going back to our boat. What a nice boat they have! It is a 43 foot catamaran and has four sleeping berths.
Monday morning, we left St. Augustine and headed south. We did enjoy our time there.

From Cumberland Isloand, GA to St. Augustine, FL

Thursday, November 10, we departed our anchorage and headed over to Cumberland Island, GA. We got there around 2:30 and the winds were beginning to blow hard bringing in the dreaded colder weather. Robert and Susan came over with their dog, Abbey, picked me up and we went for a long walk through Cumberland Island. Wow! What a beautiful place. There are trails for walking and the Island is covered with very old large oaks covered in Spanish moss and the ground is covered with small palms. We saw many wild horses, wild turkeys and a deer. We came to a large frame of a mansion which had been destroyed by fire. It was a fine place in its time.
Later that night, we had a delicious steak /salad dinner with our friends; Robert & Susan on Last Boat .They make some delicious scalloped potatoes and more key lime pie. We enjoyed having them over for dinner together!
Friday morning, the weather had turned very cold and we chose not to leave our anchorage until 10:00. We were only going to Amelia Island Marina where we chose to get a boat slip and have electricity so we could use our heater. What a nice place to stop! We enjoyed getting here by 12:00 and had the remainder of the afternoon to rest and take a break from the cold and windy weather. We called a cab and went to the Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie for needed supplies and groceries. Later, we took a cab to a nice restaurant, here on Amelia Island, called Sliders Grill. We had a delicious cup of seafood chowder and also a crab cake.
We want to thank all the veterans for their services to help our country have the freedom that we enjoy here in the USA. We wish them all a Happy Veterans Day!
Tomorrow, we plan to travel 60 miles to St. Augustine, FL where we will stay two days. Hope the weather will get warmer and the wind will not blow as strong as it has for the past two days.