April 25-27, 2014 Jacksonville Beach FL

We caught the 7:30 bridge opening and headed north along with 3 other trawlers and 2 sailboats. One trawler and one sailboat headed out the inlet to the open ocean to head north (probably directly to Hilton Head) to avoid all the marshes and 8' tides of Georgia. Not us! Headed to Jacksonville beach - another 30 miles on the trip. Weather was cold and windy early on and jackets and hats were very welcome. It did not take long to string out the train with yours truly in the rear. Our boat is designed to go slow and steady, and at least for now we love it. Arrived about 1:00 and just rested for the rest of the day. We are staying here until Monday morning, giving us time to update this blog, wash the boat and repair the lower helm station radio (quit working for some reason).

The marina is nice but mostly geared for dry storage and the fork lifts run all day. The good side is there is lots to watch. Our neighbors were also across from us in St. Augustine and laying over to avoid weekend boat traffic on the Intercostal waterway during the busy weekend days. Sounds like a good idea! Had a little trouble getting into the slip, but patience paid off on the third try.

Different harbor - same neighbor.

April 24, 2014, St. Augustine FL

After a bad night's sleep, we were up and away by 7:45. Our first crossing of a small inlet from the ocean - Matanzas inlet, went smooth as silk. Fallowing the new buoys placed after recent dredging and not show on the charts made for great water depth and proved the value of buying Cruising Guides in addition to just the charts. Got to St. Augustine about 11:30 (26 miles and a helpful tide the entire way. Squared away the boat, had some lunch and went into town. We have visited, shopped and ate here several times since buying the boat, but never made it into "The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine". We decided to enter and say a prayer for family and friends - and for a safe voyage. What a beautiful place, as you see in the photos. Lots of Spanish history and influence in the town and a lovely place to explore. 

Spanish Galleon guarding the bridge

Neat tour boat!

The main bridge is "Bridge of Lions" this is one of four guarding the bridge.

Great architecture - a 24 suite hotel/residence, the church steeple, and the bell tower for Flagler College.

Gerry and Ponce de Leon. Every town in north FL says he landed nearby!

 this is a really moving monument of recent history.

Lots of building with upstairs porches

Downtown park

Another view of the hotel/residences.

The back of church

The main Alter/Sanctuary

Chapel Alter

Beautiful stained glass.

Fence around Flagler College main building. The spiked balls are about 6" in diameter!

details under the bell tower

The Alcazar Hotel, originally built as a hotel for rich folks, was purchased in 1939 by Mr. Lightner of Chicago to serve as a museum for items acquired from folks during the big crash and following depression. Kind of a depressing thought in itself! It was later gifted to the city and portions were turned into the City Hall.

 





Courtyard

 

Garden and Fountain.

April 23, 2014 Palm Coast FL

Our first official day on the loop! Guess what - We both woke up a little early - excitement and nerves! Finally the official start of our big adventure.

Leaving the slip for the last time.

Took a little time to get away from the dock as we had all double lines (for hurricanes) and some had to be cut away and some retired early. Good thing we had purchased new primary lines (and kept the best of the old). Off at 9:00 and safely out of Daytona after clearing 2 bridges that needed to be raised for us to pass.

The Admiral leading us out the channel.

Bridge opening for "Lady J" and us, there is always company on the water.

Nice homes north of Ormond Beach

House Boat?

Island Time!

Lots of this to see.

A pink house boat!

Smooth water and an easy 30-mile / 5-hour ride to Palm Coast FL, and the Palm Coast Marina. Great little Marina  - about 80 boats and we got a great slip on the end of the first row - perfect.  There was a great "porch" behind the office,

The back porch

 and we met several couples doing the loop and some traveling back north for the summer, and one guy who stopped 3 years ago and never left. Lots of advice from the former "director of Tourism" for North Carolina about where to stay and what to avoid. If we can only remember it all (did get out a map and make notes as soon as we returned to the boat).

View from the porch.

Judie met a lady couple cruising on an Endeavour 38 power catamaran - the very same boat she fell in love with at the Annapolis boat show and later in St. Petersburg FL when we re-looked at her hoping to convince her owner to sell. Not a similar boat - the exact boat! Judie was happy to see it loved and in great shape - made her third goodbye a little easier.

Our neighbor had a pet parrot the talked constantly until dark and was very fluent with quite a large vocabulary. Not too bad, but when he returned home at 2:00 AM and turned on the music, the entire marina had to listen. He refused to shut it off or turn it down until the marina staff cut off his power at 6:00 AM. Good music, thankfully, but bad timing!

April 17-22, 2014 Final Preparation

The final days of getting ready. Lots of miscellaneous things that needed to be done too numerous to mention them all. Biggies were to do final calibration of the Autopilot, change oil in both the main engine and generator (who knew the main engine would take 15 quarts!), practice anchoring some more, and say goodbye to our new car (left with the dealer that we bought it from as still in title work and long distance transfer of registration. Ger's sister, Cath, came over for a few days and helped out - also a wonderful time to catch up before leaving.

Cath and Judie saying goodbye.

Our last sunset from the slip. Lights on right are from the Daytona Cubs AA baseball team.

Our home for the last 4 years - Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach FL.

April 4-5, 2014: The Car

Each day on the water brings a new adventure - sometimes the adventure is on land! On Friday morning Ger took the car to the local Honda dealer to get a "clunking" sound fixed. I guess 12 years in the desert and 181,000 miles does some damage - like it needed: Engine mounts, transmission mounts, ball joints, shocks and struts! I made the mechanic show me everything twice while the surprise was wearing off! Then I got the estimate and barely avoided cardiac arrest. They  would need 2-3 days to gather the parts and a day to do the work - nice of them to provide a free loaner!

I returned to the boat, picked up Judie and we had a catfish and Bloody-Mary lunch while discussing how to proceed. Long story short, we returned to the dealership, looked at several new models and are now the proud owners of a 2014 Honda CRV. Judie choose white with beige interior (Honda red is more deep burgundy). Since we were out of town, had to move money, make special title arrangements and blah, blah blah - took until about noon on Saturday to finish the paperwork.

It is amazing the difference 12 years makes - comfort, convenience and mostly electronics! We love it!!

March 30 - April 3, 2014: Some new stuff

The boat gets more final touches. Last Summer while in Sun City during August, Ger refinished the Name Boards that go on the port and starboard sides of the boat. New gold lettering and 8 coats of varnish. we re-installed them onto the boat and they look great. Had to also wire up and mount the port and starboard (red and green) running lights.

 

We keep our inflatable boat (for going about when at anchor) on the back of the boat. It needed a thorough cleaning and some addition of air. Not rocket science - but needed to be done. 

Two years ago at the Ft. Lauderdale boat show, Judie fell in love with a "shiny new anchor". It also happened to be the top-rated anchor in the industry. One of our biggest concerns is anchoring out and waking up in the morning and being a few miles away from where we went to sleep! So in addition to a GPS based alarm system called "Drag Queen" that runs on the I-phone and I-pad; we have the anchor installed onto the boat. It has been stored in our shower for 2 years and finally gets to see the light of day.

200 feet of new chain for the new anchor!

Shiny thing!

We have a great friend and mechanic, Gary Wolfe, who has cared for the boat for the last four years while we were back in AZ. On Wednesday morning we went for a short cruise to calibrate the auto-pilot and check the main engine alternator under load. Alternator is fine and autopilot needed a little "tweaking".

Gary Wolfe and Ger