Today we saw several manatees and dolphins as well as some pretty pink birds which we think were Roseate Spoonbills.
The AGLCA has about 500 Harbor Hosts who are people who live in the towns along the route that volunteer their time to assist Loopers with things they may need (repair recommendations, questions about the area, rides to the store, etc.). Rick Swanson, a Harbor Host for NSB, noticed on the NEBO app that we were headed to NSB, contacted us, and asked if we would like for him to give us a tour of the town. He arrived at 6:00PM to pick us up and gave us a very thorough tour of the town which he so loves. We toured Flagler Avenue, drove the car on the beach, walked around Smyrna Dunes Park, toured Canal Street and ended with an amazing dinner at Riverpark Terrace restaurant.
Our amazing Harbor Host/Tour Guide, Rick Swanson
The next day we biked to Flagler Avenue and walked up and down the street looking at all the shops and restaurants before having lunch on the beach at The Breakers. Later that evening, we went to the restaurant at the marina, Outriggers, for dessert.
Today was a nice travel day except for a few light showers along the way. We did not have to stop for any bridges which was nice and we saw several dolphins along the way. We saw a rainbow while traveling and we even picked up a kayaker who was riding in our wake.
We were lucky to get a slip at the only marina in Cocoa as the manager told us they had had to turn 8 boats away today and still more are calling.
The day we arrived, we walked around the historic village and then had dinner on the boat.
On Tuesday, we Ubered over to Cocoa Beach, walked on the beach and had a nice lunch and later hosted our first docktails on our boat with Pam and Hank from Slainte, Mark and Laura from Wild Life and Chris from Betty Gail.
Wednesday was spent touring the Kennedy Space Center.
Rocket GardenSpace Shuttle Atlantis
Thursday was “date night”! We had a delicious Italian dinner at Villa Palma and then attended the musical “All Night Strut!” at the Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse. The production was a collection of songs from the 1930’s and 1940’s and included singing, dancing and a live onstage orchestra. The cast included people of all ages. The theatre first opened in 1924 as the Aladdin Theatre which showed silent movies. The building also served as a Red Cross station during World War II.
Friday was spent visiting all the cute shops in the village followed by wonderful docktails hosted by Pam and Hank on the beautiful MV Slainte (slon cha) which means “cheers to good health” in Irish. There was a nice crowd of Loopers in all stages of completion including Pat and Bill from Uno Mas, Deb and Tom from Lollipop and Libby and Steve from San Souci. The Melbourne Harbor Hosts, Sharon and John, drove up and brought tasty sweets from a local bakery. After docktails, Kevin and I had a wonderful dinner at Cafe Margaux before the long wait until the 11:24PM rocket launch which we viewed from our boat. There was quite a lot of cloud cover but we were still able to see the rocket launch.
Kevin played golf with Pam and Hank from Slainte on Saturday.
Another successful docking by the Captain in very windy conditions! Vero Beach is a quaint town that is often referred to a “Velcro Beach” because people go there and don’t want to leave. We took a walk to the town and enjoyed looking at all the shops and restaurants. The next day we attended the Under the Oaks Art Show and had an early dinner at Ocean Grill overlooking the ocean and watched a skim board competition.
We took the inside route from Ft. Lauderdale to North Palm Beach. Winds were 18 mph when we arrived at the marina but Kevin did an amazing job docking the boat. We were glad to be in a marina with nice laundry and shower facilities and a nice restaurant after having been at Pier 66 which was under renovation and had no amenities. We were even gifted a bottle of wine when we checked in to the marina! Dinner at the onsite restaurant, Belle’s, was wonderful.
We spent all day Wednesday doing a little cleaning, laundry and waiting for a serviceman to come fix our head (toilet). It was super windy again today so we were glad to be docked. As we spent the day waiting for the serviceman, we only got to go out for dinner. We went to Stormhouse Brewery which was good and, as a bonus, it was Trivia Night. The Perfect Match team did not fare very well in the game but we had fun trying!
Stormhouse Brewery
Flagler Museum is the former winter retreat, Whitehall, of Henry Flagler and his third wife. Whitehall is a 75 room, 100,00 square foot mansion built in 1902 as a wedding gift for Flagler’s third wife. The New York Herald described Whitehall at the time it was built as “More wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world.” It would be worth looking further into Flagler’s biography as he was an amazing self-made millionaire who was also very generous with his wealth. He was a founding partner in Standard Oil, the largest and most profitable corporation in the world for over 100 years, and was also responsible for much of the development in Florida, including hotels and a railway from St. Augustine all the way to The Keys which established many of Florida’s east coast cities as tourist destinations.
After touring the beautiful Flagler Museum, we had lunch at Almond in Palm Beach.
Moule Frites and Turkey Burger at Almond in Palm Beach
Today was a long but beautiful day of cruising. We traveled through Biscayne Bay and Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. The traffic was not as bad as we had thought it might be although we did have to wait at several bridges for the next opening. We could not get over the number of condos in and around Miami nor the number and sheer size of the yachts in Ft. Lauderdale which has been dubbed the “Yachting Capitol of the World”.
Cruising through Miami
We had lunch at Coconuts on Friday. Oh. My. Word! The Scoobies were AMAZING!
Scoobies at Coconuts – shelled Blue crab pinchers sautéed in oil and garlic.Coconuts Restaurant
Kevin’s boss drive down from Palm Beach on Saturday and we had a delicious lunch at 15th Street Fisheries.
Sunday was spent planning the next leg of our journey, a trip to Publix and dinner at Southport Raw Bar.
Delicious Old Bay Shrimp at Southport Raw Bar
On Monday, we took rode around Ft. Lauderdale in a water taxi and got a close up look at many beautiful homes and yachts. A real live episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”!
View from the 17 Street Bridge with 15th Street Fisheries in the background. Pier 66 Marina where we stayed would be off to the right of the photo.
We had fun sending the photo below to family and friends and, in a nod to “Where’s Waldo?” we asked “Where’s Perfect Match?”!
Today was a beautiful day for cruising outside in Hawk’s Channel. Calm seas and gorgeous blue water! We spotted a sea turtle that had come up to the surface for air but I was not quick enough to capture a photo. I tired not to get too nervous when we saw that the instructions for navigating to the marina included a 90 degree blind turn at “crash corner” but Kevin successfully maneuvered us around the corner with ease.
Marina Del Mar is home to the African Queen, the boat used by Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn in the 1951 movie by the same name.
While in Key Largo, we had dinner at the Hobo Cafe with dear friends, Leslie and Hal, whom we had met in Marathon. The next day we went on a wonderful snorkeling trip and saw the most beautiful coral and all kinds of colorful fish then ended the day with dinner at the marina restaurant.
Shortly after we docked at the marina, a huge manatee swam up to our boat to greet us.
We stayed at Marlin Bay for the month of March and went home to Atlanta the second week to see family and get check ups with our doctors. We brought Ellen’s son, Philip, back with us for a week when we returned.
Marlin Bay is beautiful and has a wonderful, attentive staff. We spent a lot of time at the pool and also enjoyed yummy Mudslides while watching the sunsets.
Sombrero Beach is about three miles from the marina and we traveled there both by bike and dingy several times.
We became fast friends with the couple staying in the slip next to us, Leslie and Hall, who were from Colorado. We took our dinghies to Burdine’s and enjoyed a delicious lunch.
Leslie and HalBurdine’s Restaurant
There were several restaurants within walking distance of the marina. One of them was the Stuffed Pig which had a wonderful breakfast.
Key Colony Beach Sunset Park is about a 6 mile bike trip from the marina and a really nice sunset outing. Since 2012, a group of locals who came to be known as the KCB Sunset Singers began playing a recording of the 1812 Overture and timing it so that the song ended once the sun left the horizon. They then invite everyone to sing along to the official song of Marathon, “The Islands of Marathon”, composed by John Bartus.
Philip went on a fishing trip on the Marathon Lady and we had Keys Fisheries restaurant, down the street from the marina, fry up his catch for us for dinner.
We had a great time playing table shuffleboard at the marina!
Th Dolphin Research Center provides rescue and rehabilitation to marine mammals and forever homes for bottlenose dolphins and California Sea Lions that have been deemed unreleasable back into the wild. It is a beautiful setting with several lagoons and currently maintains the health and well being of 25 bottlenose dolphins and 3 California Sea Lions in addition to tortoises and exotic birds.
The Turtle Hospital provides rescue and rehabilitation to injured and sick sea turtles in the Florida Keys and is on the grounds of a 1950’s motel. It has 23 various sized tanks (150-800 gallons) for turtles that are receiving treatment and a 100,000 gallon salt water pool for turtles who are permanently disabled. The turtle patients are either affected with the Fibropapilloma Virus which causes benign tumors that make it hard for the turtle to survive, have what is known as “Bubble Butt Syndrome” resulting from a boat hit which causes the turtles to permanently float, have intestinal blockages from something they ate that they shouldn’t have or have injuries from entanglements from fishing or buoy lines. The facility really does look like an intensive care unit of a human hospital, complete with special turtle ambulances for transport.
Turtle with “bubble butt syndrome”.
The day before Philip was to return to Atlanta, we took the bus for a day trip to Key West. We walked up and down Duval Street, toured the Little White House, visited the Southernmost Point and enjoyed sunset activities at Mallory Square.
We attended the 13th Annual Sunset Celebration hosted by Pat and George Hospodar at The Point Bar at Banana Bay Resort and Marina. This was a gathering of over 100 Loopers who all brought appetizers to share in addition to there being a cash bar and a live band, “4 Sheets to the Wind”. A good time was had by all and we enjoyed meeting and exchanging stories with fellow Loopers.
The day before we were to depart from Marathon, we went back to Keys Fisheries for on last amazing Lobster Reuben.
We had originally planned to anchor at Shark River on the way to Key West but weather delayed us in Marco Island for two additional days so we decided to make the full run to Key West. Steve and Kevin took turns at the helm and everyone was on crab pot spotting duty which was quite a job.
It was a long day with mostly pleasant conditions and we were all happy to finally be settled safely in Key West.
Stock Island Marina is lovely! It has 288 slips, The Perry Hotel, three restaurants, two heated swimming pools, very nice bath houses and laundry facilities, fuel, weekly pump outs and much more. They also have a free shuttle to Key West, Higgs Beach and Publix which we took full advantage of during our stay.
Darci and Steve would only have one full day in Key West before they had to leave so we spent the day walking around and visited the Hemingway House. The Hemingway House was built. in 1851 and was home to Ernest and Pauline in the 1930’s and where he wrote several books and short stories. It is now home to about 60 cats, many of whom are polydactyl (six toes on each paw).
The first swimming pool in the keys.Cat Condo
We had a lovely farewell dinner for Darci and Steve at the Grand Cafe on Duval Street.
Higgs Beach is a nice bike ride from the marina and the shuttle also stops there. It is a nice beach and also has a great restaurant, Salute!, where we ate a few times.
Biking to Higgs BeachRelaxing on Higgs BeachDessert at Salute! on Higgs Beach
Fort West Martello, a Civil War fort built in 1862 and also used during the Spanish American War as well as World Wars I and II, the Cold War and the Cuban Missle Crisis, is next to the beach and maintained by the Key West Garden Club with beautiful plants and trees filling the remains of the fort.
Our second week in Key West was very special in that Ellen’s daughter, Lauren, son in law, Michael and grandson, Luke, came to visit and celebrated Luke’s 1st birthday on the boat.
Happy 1st Birthday, Luke!Southernmost Point
Luke loved his afternoon swims!We rented a golf cart for two days of touring Key West.We enjoyed a delicious brunch at Sarabeth’s on Simonton Street.
We enjoyed touring Fort Zachary Taylor and the rest of the state park which included “Key West’s Best Beach”. We went back to the beach the next day with a picnic lunch and Ellen and Michael snorkeled just off the beach.
Fort Zachary TaylorWe enjoyed a wonderful sunset dinner at Louie’s Backyard
One thing we really wanted to do while we were in Key West was visit the Dry Tortugas National Park but, to our dismay, we learned that the ferry was sold out through March. As Lauren and Michael had decided that the trip might be too much for Baby Luke, Kevin and I planned to try to get on standby after they left. We left the marina around 5:30AM to wait until 8:00 to see if we could get on the ferry. As luck would have it, they only allowed two additional guests and, since we were the first ones there that morning, we were able to board the ferry. We could not have been more excited! It was about a two hour ride to the Dry Tortugas with about 4.5 hours of exploring time before the trip back. The whole trip was very well run, the staff was amazing and we had beautiful weather for our excursion. Once we got to the park, we went on a guided tour of the amazing fort, had a picnic lunch and snorkeled around the outside of the fort’s moat.
The Dry Tortugas National Park is 100 square miles of water and islands, one of which is home to Fort Jefferson which is the third largest fort in the US. Ponce de Leon discovered the area in 1513 and named it Los Tortugas after all the turtles in the surrounding waters. The name was later changed in the 1700’s to Dry Tortugas to indicate to mariners that there was no fresh water. The largest barrier reef in North America stretches form Biscayne Bay (just south of Miami) to the Dry Tortugas. Construction of Fort Jefferson using 16 million handmade bricks began in 1846 but was never actually completed. The plans were to build it to hold 420 cannon and 2,000 people able to sustain themselves for up to a year if they were attacked although the fort never saw angry fire.
The fort was used as a prison during the Civil War and its most famous prisoner was a man named Dr. Samuel Mudd. Dr. Mudd was sentenced to life in prison for being a coconspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. After having shot Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth’s leg was fractured during his escape from Ford Theater. He subsequently ended up at Dr. Mudd’s home where Mudd set the injured leg. During Mudd’s imprisonment there was an outbreak of Yellow Fever. The prison doctor succumbed to the illness and Mudd ended up taking over caring for the sick prisoners and staff as well as trying to find out how the disease was being spread. Thanks to a petition by the soldiers in the prison, Mudd ended up being pardoned by President Johnson after serving only 4 years but the stigma of his crime remained. Legend has it that this is where the phrase “Your name is Mudd” originated.
Summarizing our time in Key West would not be complete if we did not mention the CHICKENS! They can be spotted, and heard, everywhere in Key West!
Kevin’s daughter and son in law, Emma and Andrew, were very creative at Christmas and gave us a gift certificate to a wonderful restaurant in Key West, Azur. We had a delicious meal there our last night. in Key West.
There is not much to report for this period since Ellen was still isolating and we weren’t doing any activities. Darci and Steve were wonderful during this period and prepared all of our meals and Steve and Kevin did a few projects. on the boat.
Darci on her way to the grocery store to provision for yet another wonderful meal.
Another beautiful day for cruising and another microbrewery to visit, Big Storm Brewing Company.
Big Storm Brewing Company
On Saturday, Darci and Ellen biked about 6 miles to town and stumbled upon the Cape Coral Art Festival which had about 300 booths spanning many blocks. After we had looked at the wares in each and every booth, we met the boys who had been working on boat projects while we were gone. It was then that all of a sudden Ellen started feeling more run down than she should have been feeling so she and Kevin Ubered back to the boat while Darci and Steve took the bikes and went for a bite to eat. In the meantime, Ellen took her temperature and had a slight fever so, once they returned to the boat, she took a COVID test – just to be sure – and BAM, it was positive. We quickly came up with a plan for Ellen to stay out of the cabin and mask up 24/7. She packed a bag and headed to the flybridge where she would sleep for the next several days.
The departure date for our Great Loop trip has finally arrived! This a little over 3 years since Kevin purchased Perfect Match and we started learning about and planning for our adventure. Along the way, we had become members of the AGLCA and had attended several of their Rendezvous. During our first Rendezvous in Norfolk in 2019, we had the pleasure of meeting Darci and Steve Smith who quickly became our AGLCA BFF’s! We met them again at two additional Rendezvous and communicated with them via text, email, phone and zoom and hoped to one day travel the Loop together. As they live in California, finding the perfect boat has been a challenge for them and as we neared what we thought would be the start of our Loop, they were still searching for that perfect boat. They were going to be on the East Coast around the time that we were planning to start our trip so we all thought it would be great fun for them to join us for 3-4 days on our boat. That 3-4 day trip quickly turned into a wonderful 12 day trip that I’m sure will be a major highlight of our Loop adventure once completed! I think all of our family and friends thought we were crazy spending so much time together on a boat but it really worked out great and we were all sad when the time came that they needed to leave to pursue other plans. They made the trip with us from our home port of St. Petersburg all the way to Key West. It was especially nice for Ellen, still feeling rather inexperienced, to have them on board with us as we started our Loop. It was particularly nice since on day 3 of our trip Ellen tested positive for Covid. As we were masked up 24/7 and sleeping on our enclosed flybridge, Darci and Steve took over the galley and prepared wonderful meals for us – and washed the dishes! Darci is now an Instant Pot fan. Steve was extremely helpful to Kevin with several boat projects along the way while we were docked and they both became expert crab pot spotters! Amazingly, even though we had been in such close quarters before my positive test, no one else ended up getting sick and Ellen was not very sick. It was a bit of a challenge trying to isolate from 3 other people on a 40 foot boat but we all made it work! Darci and Steve are wonderful travel companions and are welcome on our boat anytime!
The weather and cruising conditions on our first day could not have been any nicer! We all had a great time spotting all of the dolphin along the way and scurrying to the aft deck to capture videos of them swimming and jumping in our wake.
We arrived in Venice around 4:00PM and had a nice walk on the beach before having dinner at the Crow’s Nest Tavern. The next day, we were off on bikes to explore Venice. One of Darci and Steve’s hobbies when they travel is finding microbreweries to visit and recording their favorite craft beers on their website “Judge Brewdy”. We biked about 6 miles to 3 Bridges Brewing Company, Venice’s first brewery.
