Update June 4, 2010 - Vero to Jacksonville

Hello to all

On the beach at Vero

I know, I did it again. Hopefully we’ll get cruising again by fall and I’ll find more time to keep these updates flowing. We said 2010 would be a transition year for us and it is certainly proving to be that. In the last update we had left Stuart and were headed up the ICW with the last update coming from one of our favorite stops, Vero Beach. The picture to the right is Jean with some great sand sculpture we came across on the beach at Vero.

After a couple of good days at Vero we motored up the waterway rather quickly, anchoring off Titusville for the night and then proceeding on to Daytona Beach where we spent a couple of days enjoying the beach and visiting with our friends Bruce  Ellie. The picture to the right is Seven Seas Marina in Daytona which is one of our favorite stops.

From there we motored all the way to Jacksonville Beach to get a good start on the river currents the next day as the current in the St. John going up to Jax can be fierce if it is running too hard against us. It meant staying at Beach Marine rather than anchoring out at Pine Island but as it turned out it was a good move for unexpected reasons.

We got off early the next morning but as we motored up towards the river we heard the Coast Guard announce a notice on the VHF that the St John River would be closed for approximately 4 hours that morning starting around 0830 while an underwater pipe was laid across the river. The exact location wasn’t clear ( I will eventually learn to understand southern drawl, even over the VHF) and we proceeded on while trying to find the location we were hearing on the chart.

When we reached the junction of the ICW and the St John River we held up for a large container ship to pass and began to follow him up the river. (He quickly outran us). At one point we passed two Sea Tow boats anchored and passed close enough to ask where the closure was and were told we were in it but that they hadn’t started yet. We made it through with about 20 minutes to spare. Had we stopped at Pine Island the night before we would have been held up for several hours while they laid the pipe and then had maximum current against us.

The rest of the trip upriver to Lamb’s was uneventful. That afternoon we drove back to St Augustine where we had a nice dinner with George and Jane from Time Out, stopping in Green Cove Springs to get our mail on the way.

The mail stop provided another surprise in buying a car in Florida. We had expected to pick up our permanent license plate for the car in that mail but it wasn’t there. We called the dealership to find out what to do and learned that Fl. does not mail the initial plate to the owner but instead sends it to the dealership. Luckily, the dealership had just received it and we told them to hold it as we could pick it up the next day.

Our plan had been to take the rental car from Jax back to Jensen Beach and pick up our car (about 225 miles each way), dropping the rental in Stuart. The dealership was in Palm Beach another 40 miles further so we added about 80 miles to the overall trip but were at least able to secure the plate before leaving for Maine which we had planned for the next day. We took Bill to dinner, said good by and got back to Jax tired but still on schedule.

We were 5 days and about 1800 miles in getting back to Maine. The highlight of the trip was stop to visit Lee and Carol of Carol Ann at their home in Maryland. We took their jet skis and did a +/- 25 mile trip up the river to Salisbury where we had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the water. I’d had little experience driving a jet ski and Jean and I had difficulty at times keeping up with Lee and Carol but it was a lot of fun with nearly perfect weather conditions for such an outing. It certainly is different traveling at 25 to 30 miles an hour over the water!

The following day we stopped in Cape Cod for a visit with my mother and brother and family. Mom is doing great for 90 plus and we were able to take her out to lunch twice while we were there.

We found the house in very good condition when we arrived and soon settled in and got organized. The house is under contract to sell with the closing scheduled for July so we had a lot of work to do. Our plan was to store the things we wanted to keep at son Steve’s house and set it up so we could stay there when we in Maine. We quickly discovered that the renovation project which Steve had started last fall was no where near complete so Jean and I spent most of the next month sanding, mudding and painting sheet rock, installing knotty pine wainscoting, cleaning up construction debris, organizing and cleaning the rooms downstairs and painting the floor at Steve’s while at the same time sorting and organizing things at our house. By mid May the project at Steve’s was finished but we had barely started! At least the project came out looking very nice.

On top of that Bill came back to Maine earlier than planned and we spent Memorial Day weekend at his place cleaning, organizing and fixing things to help him move back in and begin the process or readying that property for sale.

We did take some time to have a little fun. We went to two daytime Sea Dogs (Double A baseball) games, had dinner with Larry and Cathy at their home and on their boat, had dinner at Eldon and Dianne’s, went to a cook out at Dan & Meredith’s next door, attended a couple of CYC events and spent a beautiful day sailing Trader from South Freeport to her mooring at CYC. It was good to get out on the water again, this time under sail. I also was able to have lunch with my office partners and got a tour of the new office facility. It looks great. Nice job G! The picture to the right and below is Hadlock Field in Portland where the Sea Dogs play.

By the end of May, we had moved most of what we wanted to store to Steve’s and I had packed up what seemed like countless boxes of glassware and dishes. We should be able to wrap up the rest fairly quickly but that will be in July as we need to get Sun Cat out of Florida by June 15.

While we were in Maine, Lamb’s was working on Sun Cat. The front windows had been leaking for some time and the wood around them had rotted. We had been able to slow the leaks by covering the windows with sunbrella (which also is an effective and necessary sun screen). Therefore we had Lamb’s rebed the windows and replace all of the rotted teak around and under them. Also, we had been having trouble with the aft cabin windows leaking and after their removal determined it would be better to replace rather than refurbish them. So back in April, new windows were ordered from a place in Miami. In addition, I’ve been concerned with the rust spots on the engines so we had the engines cleaned and repainted as a step toward preserving them.

The new windows were supposed to take 3 to 5 weeks which would have been before Memorial Day. So we left Maine on June 1, stopping at Cape Cod again as well as to visit Jean’s sister Gail in NJ and my niece Kelly in SC. We had planned to leave our car at Hilton Head and drive a rental to Jax but since the windows are not in we decided to continue on and are presently at Jensen Beach at the condo. We hope to return to Jax on Tuesday or Wednesday and leave on the boat on Thursday or Friday. We had a nice dinner last night here with Alan and Suzanne of Kaos.

The weather in Maine this spring has been beautiful and we hope the summer will be more of the same. The temperature here in Jensen Beach Florida is in the high 90’s and we are about to head for the pool.

On the road again!

Steve and Jean

Update April 5, 2010 - Punta Gorda and Stuart

Well, I did it again. The months just seem to fly by! For someone not working at a job I seem to stay awful busy, and the time just flies! Therefore this update will cover 2 months of activity.

We left Ft Myers beach fairly early and had a good trip up to Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda. The trip up the Peace River was longer and took longer than I expected but was otherwise uneventful. The marina has a tradition of happy hour on the dock at 5 PM every evening and also has a nice pool. However it was so cold the happy hour only occurred twice and I only got into the pool 4 times. Way too much time was spent in long pants and jackets!

Highlights of our stay there included several dinners out with Ray and; Linda from Summertime and Jim and Trish from Great Expectations both fellow loopers. We also had a short visit from our neighbors, Rick, Pat and Dan but unfortunately it was too cold and windy to go out on the boat so we had to settle for lunch and a trip to Pine Island.

Larry and Cathy also visited us for several days and something similar happened. We had planned to take them out to Pelican Bay/Caya Costa State Park but once again it was much too windy. Therefore we had to settle fo a long bike ride, a trip to the Edson Ford estates and a Lee County park (to see the Manatees) in Ft Myers, and a trip to Boca Grande Island by car. We also had dinner out with one of Larry’s former business partners, Bruce & Doritt. The last day we finally got in a short boat ride down the bay and back. The picture to the right is Larry driving a power boat!

Larry at the controls

Other events included a trip to a jazz concert and rooftop bar with Jim & Trish, and a couple of pot luck dinners. These included a “B Dockers” party which was held away from the marina and included many people who had previously stayed at the marina and had now purchased houses in the area. We also played Mexican Train Dominoes with Ray and Linda several times, enjoyed the super bowl with Jim and Trish, took numerous bike rides and enjoyed the (free) entertainment at the Fishermen’s Village Shops. The month was over much too quickly.

Tim and Jan (from Lamb Chop) joined us our last day there for the trip back across the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart. The first leg was back to Ft Myers Beach where we picked up a mooring for the night. Ray and Linda came over for happy hour and we had an uneventful evening. After getting fuel the next morning, we headed upstream stopping again at the Franklin Lock. Jean and Jan learned to play hillbilly golf at the RV park there. The next day we traveled through more locks, stopping again at Moore Haven for the night. We were able to get in a nice walk around the town, which had little of interest but the exercise was good. The picture below is Tim getting a little help at the helm!

Tim at the controls

A short day -15 miles followed as the wind was too strong to try to cross Lake Okeechobee, so we stopped at Clewiston and got in another good walk. Tim cooked some awesome ribs that evening. The next morning we got up before dawn and left as soon as it was light to get across the lake before the wind came up. We failed somewhat on this and had a somewhat rough trip across the lake. It was a relief to get through the Port Mayaca lock on the far side and we had an uneventful trip the rest of the way into Stuart other than being held up by two railroad bridges. The four of us had a good dinner that night with Alan and Susan from Kaos, trying out the 23oz drafts from the Jensen Beach Ale House.

The following day (Friday)we took a rental car and drove back to Marathon with Tim and Jan. We had a short but good visit there, partying at Sparky’s with a number of our boating friends and staying overnight on Lamb Chop.

We drove back to Stuart on Saturday arriving just in time to pick up Alan and Susan’s car which we would have the use of for the next 3 weeks. Thank you Alan & Susan! Son Bill arrived that evening and we commenced to get the condo set up the next day. We purchased a bed and some appliances and did a few minor repairs on the items identified by the home inspector. Bill was able to stay there by the second night.

The rest of the month was a blur. Rick and Betsey were renting a place on Nettles Island for the month and we were able to get together with them several times. Eldon and Dianne flew in for a couple of days to join us and we were able to go to the maritime museum with them. Larry and Sue (from Sue Sea Q) visited for a week by land yacht and we had a number of afternoons and evenings with them as well. Alan and Susan returned and we had a couple of nice evenings with them. We also ran into Mike and Judy, friends from New Brunswick and spent went out with them a couple of times and of course we spent many days and evenings with son Bill who put on several dinners for ourselves and our friends. The picture above is the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and the picture to the right is Jean and Bill on our (unsuccessful) trip to see Manatees. This was as close as we got!

After looking at our plans for the summer,we decided to buy a car and I learned all about buying, insuring and registering a car in Florida. Every state is different and insuring anything in Florida seems to be an adventure! The condo insurance took forever and we got quotes that were several times the entire house in Maine. Fortunately we also got some more acceptable ones as well. On top of that, the company Sun Cat has been insured through is getting out of the marine business so I was working on that as well. Combine these with doing our income taxes and way too much time was being spent on the computer! Fortunately the weather has finally warmed up and we were able to swim a bit in the pools at both the marina and the condo.

We left Stuart on Easter Sunday (yesterday) and traveled to Vero Beach where we got in a nice walk in the sunshine. This morning, we got up early and saw the shuttle launch. It is an awesome sight even from 50 (or so) miles away! We will be here for a few days and then will head up toward Jacksonville.

That is a quick summary of two months activities! Still having a great time!


Steve and Jean

Update 2/2/2010 - Jacksonville to Ft Myers Beach

Greetings from Ft Myers Beach

As you can see we have left cold snowy Maine behind. Unfortunately it has been colder than normal here although low 70’s are far better than winters in New England. January has gone by like a rocket shot. We spent the last week of January visiting with friends and working on both our house and Steve’s. We had a nice dinner with Eldon and Dianne on Thursday night and on Friday night I did a program at Centerboard Yacht Club on cruising the great loop. On Saturday we went to a birthday party for our friend Larry Clough which was also attended by a number of our boating friends/ Sunday was spent with our sons and then on Tuesday (1/12) we flew back to Jacksonville to pick up the boat. It was around 40 degrees when we arrived and we were pleased to find the heat in the boat running. The boat was in good shape when we found it.

After a day of errands and provisioning, we set out for St Augustine, fighting the current much of the time. We were met in St Augustine by my brother Ron who would be traveling with us for most of the next week. From there, we had a good run with the current to Daytona Beach. We took a short walk on the beach and then enjoyed a nice dinner with our friends Bruce and Ellie. The next day we had another good run. Strong winds and heavy rains were forecast for that evening so we went into the marina in Titusville and took a short walk/ We found a good bakery but failed in our quest for Ron (a railroad buff) to see the trains which run close to the marina.

We set out the next day for Cocoa planning to either stay at the park dock or anchor out. Unfortunately we found the park dock to be fully occupied. and the winds were again very strong. We had a 20 degree heel from the winds on the boat some of the time!
Therefore we opted to into Melbourne Harbor and stay at the Marina there. We arrived in the middle of a sailboat race and had to dodge the boats trying to start and moving quickly under shortened sail. We had a nice walk around Melbourne, finding the Ice Cream shop but once again missing the trains for Ron.

The next day we went into Vero Beach which is one of our favorite stops. The weather had warmed up enough for shorts. We took a walk on the beach, splashing our feet in the water and enjoyed another good happy hour at The Pearl.

After Vero, we stayed at the Harborage Marina in Stuart for almost 2 weeks. During that time we shopped to a new home that our son Bill could stay in, We also had several nice dinners with both Alan and Susan from Kaos and Bob and Allie from Bali Motu both at their homes and at restaurants. In addition, we took a little time to enjoy the pool at the Harborage. Our search may have been successful. We made an offer on a property which was accepted. However, the seller is a government agency which repossessed the property and we have now been over a week dealing with various versions of paperwork. I can’t believe anyone would want these people to be controlling their healthcare! Hopefully the process will come to a successful conclusion.


From Stuart we proceeded across the Okeechobee Waterway. The first day was a short run to Indiantown where we stopped as the lake was too rough to cross that day. When we hooked up the electricity, the circuit breaker tripped immediately and I spent the rest of the evening trying to find a short in our system. It turned out the problem was the GFI breakers that were part of their system. The next day we crossed the lake accompanied by Toucan under acceptable but not idea conditions as the waves were around 2 feet with occasional larger waves. The crossing took about 3 hours and we were glad to get to the other side although it really hadn’t been that bad. We stopped at Moore Haven that evening and tried to go to a Mexican restaurant that had been recommended to Toucan. We found it closed and wound up with Pizza as a substitute. The next days run was good, and we stopped that afternoon at the Park at the Franklin Lock just in time to avoid the rain. The park is small but nice.

The last day on the Okeechobee started under partially sunny skies but soon clouded over and it was raining by the time we passed Fort Myers. The rain let up as we reached Ft Myers Beach and the sky lightened so we decided to fuel up then rather than wait until morning. (Ballard Oil in Ft Myers Beach is one of the best places to fuel up in Florida) The rains came back quickly and we got very wet taking on fuel. We had planned to pick up a mooring ball but we were offered the fuel dock for the evening so we stayed there rather than picking up the mooring in the rain and then having to launch the dinghy and go in and pay for it in the rain. As I write this, it is still raining but we have dried out.

Its supposed to be nice tomorrow!

Steve & Jean

Update 1/3/2010 - Hilton Head to Jacksonville

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Hello to all from Snowy Maine!

It’s a marshmallow world out there! As I write this on Sunday morning its been snowing pretty much continuously since Thursday noontime and its supposed to snow most of today.  No wonder we are more than ready to return to Florida! Clicking on the link below will get you to a web site that will let you play dean Martin's Marshmallow World song.

http://www.last.fm/music/Dean+Martin/_/A+Marshmallow+World

In my last update it was November 1 and we were about to leave Hilton Head. This is what has happened since.

Our first day out of Hilton Head was short as we traveled only as  far as Thunderbolt, Ga. Thunderbolt is a savannah suburb and has the distinction of being the only town in the country so named. We had dinner that night at Tubby’s with Ray and Linda on Summertime.

The next day was not a good one. The trip through Ga. was pretty but uneventful. However, when we went to anchor that afternoon, the anchor line parted at the rope to chain splice. We rafted onto Summertime and tried to drag a grapple with the dinghy to find the  anchor but were not successful. Then as we returned to the boat (as it was getting dark) Jean informed me that she was not able to start the generator. This was a surprise since we had tested it a few days earlier. After a few hours of testing I determined that the problem was the electric fuel pump. Fortunately I had an electric pump I could make work and after another couple of hours the generator was working again.

The next day we traveled the rest of the way through Ga. to Fernadina Beach where we spent a nice evening with Tom and Jerry Claire at a pot luck dinner held at their sailing club. Calls to Lamb’s and West Marine during the day got a new fuel pump and new anchor and chain on order as well. The following day we went to Jacksonville where we stayed at Jacksonville Landing, a free dock right in the middle of downtown.  It was the first Wednesday of the month so they were having their “art walk”, a 4 hour event where they serve free wine and one gets to view artwork in a number of interesting buildings, some of which we toured. The following day we walked around, did some shopping and went to the maritime museum. This museum is small but has a lot of historical information about Jacksonville as a major river port (which it still is).

After a day at Lamb’s getting the new fuel pump and anchor on board and installed we headed upstream (south) on the St John River. The first night was spent at Palatka. We were having a quiet drink with Summertime when the locals on the dock invited us to go to dinner with them in Welaka, so off we went to a very rustic lodge and marina for dinner and some live entertainment.  The following day we anchored in Murphy’s Creek and went exploring in the dinghy looking for wildlife. We saw plenty of birds but no alligators.  The river here is largely undeveloped and is quite pretty. It gets even nicer further down.

After another night in a pretty anchorage avoiding strong winds, we crossed Lake George and spent a night at the Blackwater Inn in Astor. There isn’t much in Astor but strong winds were predicted (there was a hurricane warning out further north) and the dock at the Inn is only $10 a night. However, we did have lunch and dinner at the Inn so that made it a bit more expensive a day.  From there we went all the way to Sanford which is effectively the head of navigation. We spent several days there touring the town and visiting  the museum.  They also had an evening event going  downtown called ‘”Alive at Five “ This consisted of live bands and street vendors and free food and drink. What fun!

The next night was spent in a pretty anchorage called the river forest loop. In addition to the usual wildlife we saw wild turkeys and another large bird that stood over 3 feet tall. Then it was back across Lake George where we anchored for a couple of hours in the afternoon and took the dinghies into Silver Glen Springs State Park to see the manatees, followed by a night at Georgetown marina. (There is nothing there!). The next three nights were spent at three more nice anchorages-Deep Creek, Six Mile Creek and Black Creek and then it was back to Lamb’s where we spent a day or two and then left Sun Cat to fly back to Maine for the holidays. Sun Cat will get some needed maintenance while we are up north.

The five or six weeks here in Maine have been a blur. We had a pleasant Thanksgiving with our sons Steve and Bill, and had a good trip to the Cape to visit my mother and my brothers family. We also spent a nice evening with old friends Rick and Betsy Blake.

Steve is in the midst of a major renovation of his house so I’ve spent quite a bit of time helping him with insulation and sheet rock. It’s a big project but he’s doing it the right way and it will be very nice when he is done.

We had somewhat reluctantly decided to sell our house here this fall so we have also spent a good deal of time cleaning and organizing things here at the house. It looks great! There have been a few showings but no nibbles yet.

Christmas was spent with our sons and was over all too quickly. It seems hard to totally relax for that holiday but we managed to have fun anyway.

In addition we’ve visited with friends, attended the “Past Commodore’s Lobster Stew” at the yacht club, and went to several concerts. We hope to see more of our friends before returning to Sun Cat.

We wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2010!

Steve & Jean

Update 11/09/09 - Hilton Head

We arrived back at Sun Cat just before Labor Day and spent the weekend cleaning the boat and traveling to the beach and the pool. It was great to be back in nice warm weather although the last 2 weeks in Maine and the week in upstate New York were also warm and we wore shorts most of the time there as well.

Shelter Cove Marina Hilton Head

As I reported in the previous update, the boat was in good shape when we returned but had not been cleaned all summer so we spent a number of days cleaning and polishing with particular attention to the plastic windows that surround the bridge and sundeck. We also cleaned the dinghy and added a new coat of UV protection as well as had the divers clean the bottom and running gear. Our plan was generally to work in the morning and play in the afternoon and evening. It worked for the most part!

We traveled to Beaufort twice the first week. We had a nice lunch there with Ken and Sharon Vogel, a couple we had met at Hilton Head 2 years ago. We also made a trip to get a new set of tires on the truck as one had gone flat and one was bad. We also had a nice dinner with my niece Kelly and her husband Steve at their house in Blufton.

After a week or so, we had lots of company. Ron and Brenda came for another visit as well as my sister Sue and her husband John, her son David and his family and her daugher Kelly and Steve. Everyone stayed at Kelly and Steve’s in Blufton and we had a good time traveling with them around Hilton Head and the area. One day we took the Sun Cat and went over to Daufuskie Island for lunch, ducking rain showers the whole time. We also visited the Harbortown lighthouse and south beach as well as the nature preserve in Sea Pines. Steve had grown up in the area and served as a guide. Ron & Brenda took us kayaking in the lagoons of Palmetto Dunes one morning and we spent a day with them playing tourists in Savannah. The picture to the right is the view from Harbortown lighthouse.

Palmetto Bluff, SC

Soon after ever they left, fellow cruisers Bob & Sharon on Catch Me If U Can arrived and we spent much of the rest of the time there showing them around Hilton Head, working on our boat, going to the beach and pool and partying with them. Among other adventures, we went to a classic car drive in, took a boat ride to Buffalo’s restaurant at Palmetto Bluff, attended a performance of Cabaret and played many games of Sequence. We also enjoyed many dinners together with Sharon preparing several wonderful meals and Jean introducing them to a Low Country Boil.The picture to the left is the restaurant at Palmetto Bluff

Before we left Hilton Head, we traveled to Joe Wheeler State Park in Rogersville, Alabama, which is on the Tennessee River. There we attended a Rendevous of the American Great Loop Cruisers Association where I did a presentation on traveling from Key West to Jacksonville. It was fun to meet the latest group of Loopers and tour some fo their boats. We actually got to see a larger Symbol of the same vintage. The picture below is the view from our room at Wheeler.

The river at Joe Wheeler State Park Alabama

The time had come to leave Hilton Head. We returned the truck to Chuck and Claria. We’d used it so much and really enjoyed it. The F-150 is definitely a good vehicle! It was sad to leave our friends and a place we like but we wanted to do a tour of the St John River in Florida before flying to Maine for the holidays so we had to go. Our next update will cover that adventure.