The Space Coast and the Palm Coast

As much as we enjoyed Vero Beach, it was time to move on.  We had lots of people to visit and places to explore, so we dropped our line on the mooring ball and headed north to Cocoa.  After a calm early morning the winds rose and gusted to about 20+ mph as we cruised the ICW.  We had a seagull drafting us for quite a distance.  He had a free ride!!

It was really choppy from the winds as we entered the marina, but Captain Flint handled it superbly, as usual.  We were going to visit our friends Dave and Cheryl Koerner, so we called and let them know we had arrived.  They were both working, so we made plans for them to pick us up at about 5:30 to go to their home for dinner.  Another looper boat from Massachusetts came into the marina so we chatted with them about their travels.  After dinner that evening we took the Koerner's truck back to the boat so that we could use it the next day to do some shopping.  We bought the fixings for our Seafood Chowder and prepared it at their home for our dinner that evening.  We attended their Home Group that evening and enjoyed fellowship with their friends.  They enjoyed seeing our boat home.




Dave and Cheryl Koerner

  Cocoa was a fun stop, but it was time to move on.  The day started out with light winds, but the forecast was calling for a storm to come through later in the day so we wanted to get settled into our anchorage before it hit.  We arrived at Rockhouse Creek, near Ponce de Leon inlet, and found two other looper boats anchored there.  There was no time to visit as we needed to get a good anchor set before the storm started.  We anchored twice as Flint was a little concerned about the first set holding well, but when the rain started and the wind blew, we felt like we had a good hold.  The next morning it was still raining steadily, but we only had a little over 10 miles to go that morning so we left while it was still raining.  We wanted to fuel up before we went to our planned stop for the next couple of days so we were going to go into a marina near the Halifax River Yacht Club.  The wind picked up just before we needed to enter the marina for fuel and it tried to push us out of the inlet as we crabbed into a more protected area.  Again Captain Flint handled it beautifully and we pulled alongside the dock to fuel up.  When we "fill 'er up" it hurts the wallet as we hold 300 gallons, but it's all part of the process.

After our fill up, we moved about 1/4 of a mile north to the Halifax River Yacht Club in Daytona Beach.  It was a beautiful facility with all the amenities we could want.  The thing we didn't know before we got there was that it was "Bike Week" in Daytona!!  There were about 500,000 bikes in attendance during the 10 day period and it sounded like a huge hive of bees for most of the time we were there.  It quieted down at night so we had no trouble sleeping.  Iris and Walt Lehmberg live north of Orlando and they came to visit and have lunch with us.  We served our famous Seafood Chowder and it was enjoyed by all.  Flint's coworker from Carroll Hospital Center, Joy Yowan, arrived with her husband, Ken, in the late afternoon and we served them our favorite Chicken and rice casserole for dinner.  We hadn't seen them in many years so it was fun to do some catching up.



Ken and Joy Yowan

 It was chilly the next morning as we prepared to drop our lines and head for St. Augustine.  We are excited to see the sights in the oldest city in the US.  It warmed up nicely by noontime when we arrived and prepared to pick up a mooring ball in their new municipal mooring field.  It was even easier to pick up the mooring line than it was in Vero Beach, but maybe that is because we are becoming more proficient.  LOL  We checked in at the office and walked around the square a little.  We bought a pass on the Red Train and it gave us the ability to jump on and off at all the various attractions for a three day period.  Most of the attractions cost quite a bit and we just chose a few to visit.  Our Golden Pass from the US Parks got us into the fort for free so we really enjoyed touring the oldest fort in the nation built in 1695.  We rode the train to the San Sebastian Winery and enjoyed a wine tasting.  The next day we took the train and a van to the St. Augustine lighthouse.  Beautiful sights from the top!! 

It was time to drop our line from the mooring ball and head north again.  We had one more stop to make to visit some special ladies in Ponte Vedra Beach.  We arrived at Palm Cove Marina at dead low tide and had to slow---ly work our way into their marina without going aground.  We called Mary and Rachel and told them we had arrived and that they could come and pick us up.  Rachel Cruzan was the first Queen of the Chesapeake Bay in 1948 and we met her when she came up to the Maryland Yacht Club for their 100th anniversary.  Rachel is 80 and her sister, Mary, is 89.  We were concerned about whether they could board our boat from our swim platform, but they did very well.  We visited for awhile and then went to Rachel's "club" for a late lunch.  We had a great visit and loved connecting with them again.  Mary lives in Sawgrass, which is a premier golf club where the TPC golf tournament is played.  She took us on a tour through the area so we could see where the tournament takes place.  

Our visiting is done and we are ready to head for the St. John's River.  We will be meeting some cruising friends south of Jacksonville who have cruised the river many times and we look forward to hearing their expertise about what to see as we head up the river.  What is weird is that we are going up river, but heading south because the river is one of the few in the US that flows north.  See you on the river!!!