We are now enjoying Florida. A lot has happened since the last update and this will be a quick summary of the conclusion of our trip last summer and the holidays as well as this winter’s trip to the Keys.
When I last wrote for the Blog, it was October and we were
at Osprey Marina just south of Myrtle Beach.
From there, we proceeded down the Waccamaw River in SC. Our next
anchorage was Awendaw Creek, a very nice anchorage just off the ICW about 30
miles above Charleston, which was our
next stop. Bad weather was predicted again but we couldn’t get into the marina
we wanted so we opted to stay at St John’s Yacht Harbor, just south of
Charleston itself.
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| Sunset at Awendaw Creek |
It turned out to be a good stop. Flint and Leslie, AGLCA
Harbor Hosts greeted us and we spent some time touring and shopping with them
as well as using the pool and doing a few boat projects.
The next night was spent at a
very nice anchorage at Tom Point Creek. This anchorage was both scenic and
sheltered from the winds.
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| Anchorage at Tom Point Creek |
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| Jean and Claria at the ruins of the church on Fripp Island |
Golden Isles Marina on St Simon Island followed. There we
met up with our friends Alan and Susann on Kaos. We had a nice dinner with them
and helped them get their car to Jacksonville the next day. Then it was off to
Fernadina Beach where we enjoyed dinner out with Tom Jerry. A long day to
St Augustine followed. We stayed on one of the City moorings and had a quiet
night’s sleep. The next day we were off to Daytona where we spent the weekend
at the Halifax River Yacht Club and visited with our friends, Bruce
Ellie. Our friend Peter from Maine also visited while we were there and Ellie
provided us all with a great lunch.
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| Time out and Sun Cat at Cocoa dock |
Traveling with Time Out, Vero Beach was the next stop. Vero
is one of our favorite places. We were able to walk the beach and also did a
little shopping. Bob and Sharon drove over from Port St Lucie and the six of
us had a nice dinner out. From Vero, it
was a short run to Stuart where Sun Cat was expected to spend a couple of
months while we furnished and organized the property at the Villages.This concluded our April to November trip on the "Little Triangle" -Stuart to New York to Ottawa to Montreal to Lake Champlain to New York and back to Stuart. We traveled approximately 3800 nautical miles (approximately 4300 statute miles) on this trip.
While we were at Stuart we were able to get together with a
number of our boating friends including Larry and Sue on Susie Q, Mike and
Judy on Sea Sharp, Sue and Paul on Sweet Dreams, Sharon and Ken on Dockers Inn, Jim and
Dale on Sweet Pea, Ray and Linda on Summertime and Dennis and Claire on
Cinnamon Girl. Dockers Inn and Sweet Pea had just finished the loop and we
helped both to celebrate completing the Great Loop. We also did some boat
projects and attended the Stuart Boat Show.
Most importantly, we were able to spend a great deal of time, including
the holidays, with son Bill.
Steve & Chris on the beach
In January, Steve and Christine joined us for most of a
week and Jean’s sister Gail arrived to spend a couple of months. It was not very
difficult to convince her to spend the winter in Florida rather than Alaska! We
took them to a nature preserve in Hobe Sound and the marine center in Stuart.
In January, Steve and Christine joined us for most of a
week and Jean’s sister Gail arrived to spend a couple of months. It was not very
difficult to convince her to spend the winter in Florida rather than Alaska! We
took them to a nature preserve in Hobe Sound and the marine center in Stuart.
In late January, we pointed the boat south again and headed
to Marathon in the Keys, traveling with our friends Larry and Sue. In Marathon, we met up with Phil and Alice on
Wonderland and also visited with Lee Carol who were traveling in their
land yacht. Tim and Jan were also there on Lamb Chop and we all enjoyed
several trips to Sparky’s for happy hour, several concerts, a great super bowl
party on Wonderland (except the wrong team won) and a number of other evenings
out.
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| Jean & Gail at southernmost US point |
We drove back to Stuart with Gail and Larry and Sue and
stopped for a night to show Gail the fun at South Beach Miami. We stayed at an old (but newly refurbished)
Art Decco Hotel, had dinner at another old hotel on Ocean drive and walked the
beach some. After another short visit with son Bill we were back to Marathon
for some more boat projects and R and R (as well as Sparky’s of course). We got a chance to do some biking and walking
and even played a little golf and shuffleboard. We took in a visit by several World War II airplanes as well. Our friends Eldon and Dianne
on Maine Visions joined Sue Sea Q and us at the marina. It was great to see
them again and celebrate their completion of the loop. It was especially fun
because I had helped them on their first leg of the trip – Portland to Yarmouth,
Nova Scotia- nearly four years ago
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| An unusual boat in Fort Lauderdale |
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| Lunch with some CYC friends |
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| Jupiter Florida Lighthouse |
Once the weather improved, we had a good two day run to Stuart, anchoring for the night in north Lake Worth on the way. We are now in Stuart where we and the boat will spend several months.
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| The ICW on a nice Saturday morning |
Earlier this winter we made the decision to sell Sun Cat. Its been a difficult decision as we have really enjoyed traveling on her the last 5 plus years. However, after cruising for 35 years we’ve now reached the point that we’ve done almost all that we’ve wanted to do with the boat and there are other trips we would like to take by land, sea, rail and air. Time doesn’t allow us to do everything so while we were in Ft Lauderdale we listed her with a broker. The listing, which has lots of pictures can be viewed at www.curtisstokes.net. As a result there may not be too many more updates to this blog.
Enjoying the warm Florida weather!
Steve & Jean
