Today was a nice short trip to Oriental. We had to tie up on the face dock which made for quite a bumpy day/evening with fenders galore set out. Thankfully, neither of us are prone to sea sickness! We have not used the bikes as much lately since we’ve been docking close to the towns but we got the bikes out and went for a nice ride to the Dollar Store and the Piggly Wiggly – Woo Hoo! The Piggly Wiggly actually has a shuttle van back and forth to all of the docks but we enjoyed the bike ride.
We were making good time on our way to Beaufort and arrived at a bridge that needed to be opened for us 10 minutes before the next scheduled opening. We were told that the opening would not occur due to an emergency on the beach and ended up waiting about an hour and a half in 14 mph winds. Luckily, the wind was pushing us one way and the current was pushing us the other way but Kevin still had to work to keep us in the channel. We were also listening to the training shots being fired from nearby Camp Lejeune.
Beaufort is the third oldest town in North Carolina. There are about 150 beautifully restored homes which have plaques with the original owner’s names and year that they were built. In order to be approved for a plaque, the front facade of the home must be true to the original architecture but additions may be made that don’t affect the front view. The homes along the waterfront were absolutely stunning!
The Sloo Home on the right. See story below under the Old Burying Ground photo.
While walking along the downtown waterfront, we were fortunate to spot a couple of wild horses across the creek at the Rachel Carson Reserve.
We visited the NC Maritime Museum which had many wonderful exhibits including artifacts from Blackbeard’s flagship “Queen Anne’s Revenge” which ran aground in Beaufort in 1718.
There is a Watercraft Center where wooden boats are built and restored. The center of the building had been cleared out for an upcoming event so there were no boats in the process of being built but it was still a spectacular area.
We took a bus tour aboard a 1967 English double decker bus and then toured the Beaufort Historic Site which is a collection of six wonderfully restored buildings which depict the Coastal Carolina lifestyle of the 18th and 19th centuries including three homes depicting different levels of wealth, a courthouse, jail and apothecary.
Leffers Cottage, c.1778. Once home to Samuel Leffers, a schoolmaster, merchant and clerk of the court.John C. Manson House, c.1825John C. Manson House, c.1825.Cateret County Courthouse, c.1796The Old Jail, c.1829 and in use until 1954. The jail is currently being restored but we were still able to tour the inside. The jailer and his family lived with the prisoners. Apothecary & Doctor’s Office, c. 1859.
Ellen took the marina loaner car to the Piggly Wiggly for provisions.
The Old Burying Ground established in the early 1700’s. There was a family, The Sloo family, who came to Beaufort from England in the mid 1700’s and became very prosperous. The daughter had always longed to go back to England when her father traveled back there. The father finally gave in to his daughter’s pleas and the mother agreed under one condition – that he would bring their daughter back to Beaufort no matter what. Unfortunately, the daughter became sick on the voyage back to Beaufort and died. The custom for those who perished on a ship was for them to be buried at sea but the father could not break his promise to his wife of bringing their daughter back no matter what. He placed his daughter in a barrel of rum to preserve her and brought her home. She is buried here with the barrel of tum as her casket. Townspeople and visitors still leave toys and stuffed animals at her gravesite.
We had delicious dinner at Clawson’s 1905 Restaurant which was originally a grocery store from 1905 to 1934. The building was home to several shops before being renovated to a restaurant in 1977 and is filled with memorabilia from the grocery store.
The Beaufort Music Festival was across the bay from our marina and Ellen enjoyed sitting on the flybridge and listening to the music our last night in Beaufort.
Before we left for Oriental, we walked around the Olde Beaufort Farmer’s Market which is held every Saturday on the courthouse grounds.
5 hours 11 minutes (includes 30 minutes waiting for a bridge opening)
8.3 mph average speed
4-7 mph winds
Hampstead was just an overnight stop for us and we were told to beforehand to have plenty of food on board because it was a rural area with nothing around the marina. When we first pulled in to our slip we were so excited to see the beautiful sailboat, Rubycon. We were docked next to John and Hamida when we were in Key West. Unfortunately, we learned that, while their boat was there, they were not so we missed getting to see them again.
Shortly after we had pulled. in, Nowhere Fast pulled in to the slip next to us. We had first met Lee and Lani in Southport. We enjoyed talking with them and planning out the next legs of our trips together.
Southport is a charming town overlooking the Cape Fear River and has been the setting of many movies, including Nicolas Sparks’ “Safe Haven”. We visited the Fort Johnston-Southport Museum and the Maritime Museum. There are about 100 homes from the mid to late 1800’s in the downtown historic area.
The absolute highlight of our time in Southport was spending time on Robert and Kay Creech’s front porch! Robert and Kay have been Harbor Hosts for the AGLCA for many years and regularly speak at the AGLCA Rendezvous. I believe they completed the Loop in 2008-2009. They graciously invite all Loopers that stop in Southport to their home to visit and enjoy “porch tails ” rather than “dock tails”. Robert checks NEBO and walks the docks of the marina every day to make sure everyone knows they are invited. We were in Southport for three nights and went to the their porch every night. The first night, there were 23 Loopers which almost beat their recent record of having 24 Loopers. There were 10 of us the second night and 8 of us the third night. Such a great time getting to meet other Loopers and exchange stories as well as get wonderful advice from the Creech’s.
The WONDERFUL Robert and Kay CreechThe second largest gathering, by one, that the Creech’s have hosted.Friends Karen and Rob from “Off Leash” whom we first met in Georgetown.
We had a delicious dinner at Provisions Company. Orders for dinner are placed at the kitchen when you first walk in and they bring the food out to the covered porch. In the meantime, patrons help themselves to beer, wine, tea or soda (or get a mixed drink at the bar). Once the meal is finished, the patrons check out back where they placed their dinner order. The ticket is found and the patrons are then on the honor system of letting the cashier know what they had to drink. Two sweet teas for us that night!
I don’t know who those people are!
It was a full moon and also a lunar eclipse the night we were there. By the time we had finished our dinner, the whole area was flooded and we had to walk along the dock on the backside of the restaurant and jump to another dock to get out.
Ellen stayed up late to watch the Flower Moon Eclipse. It was a real treat as the sky was clear and she had a great view from the flybridge.
Not the historical part of town but where a lot of restaurants are.
Kay Creech was also kind enough to offer to take anyone who needed provisions to Walmart and I gratefully took her up on the offer!
As we were leaving Georgetown we saw the most beautiful rainbow.
Today we made it through the infamous “Rock Pile” without incident. The Rock Pile is an area on the AICW that is known for being a narrow channel lined with submerged rocks on both sides and home to commercial barge traffic which would make passing in the narrow channel difficult. Fortunately, we came through this area at low tide and were able to see the rocks and also did not have any other boats to pass, let alone barges. It was all very uneventful for us.
North Myrtle Beach is just a quick overnight stop for us. We had a great dinner at The Officers Club at the marina and were off again the next morning.
We spotted our first alligator swimming in the water as we were traveling to Georgetown.
Georgetown is a lovely town! We had a wonderful dinner at The River Room and delicious pastries from Indigo Bakery the next morning for breakfast.
Another turtle spotted while we were strolling along the Harbor Walk/
We Ubered to Hopsawee Plantation which was built around 1740. and was one of the South’s major rice plantations.
Front view of Hopsawee Plantation House which faces the North Santee River.Rear view of Hopsawee Plantation House.Relaxing on the porch while waiting for our tour of the house.
The home is now a private residence with the owners only recently having moved out of the house. They run a lovely tea room on the property. There was a Sweetgrass Basket making class going on when we went there. While we had easily gotten an Uber to the plantation, getting one back to the marina was a different story. We tried for an hour or so before asking the plantation manager for assistance. He had just learned of a new “taxi” service in Georgetown and made arrangements to have us picked up. In the meantime, we decided to have a snack in the tea room. We had Pimento Cheese Biscuits and Okra Fritters along with tea that we sweetened with spoonfuls of simple sugar. They had a Tea Room cookbook in the gift shop which Ellen had to have and both of these recipes are included along with many other delectable looking things we look forward to trying.
We met Looper friends Karen and Rob from Off Leash at SoCo Grill for some wonderful “home cooking” before attending a play at the local theatre, the Strand Theatre. The play was “Murder at the Howard Johnson’s” which had opened on Broadway and closed just three days later.
Ellen broke down and got her gray roots covered at a darling salon named “Hairapy”. It was like being on the set of Steel Magnolias as everyone else in the salon was local so Ellen got her fill of what was going on in everyones’ lives and felt like she knew all of them by the time she left.
We had a great tour of the Rice Museum and Clock Tower. in The Old Market Building was built in 1842 after the previous building had been destroyed by fire the year before and was originally used a law court and jail. There is a wonderful collection of dioramas that explain the history of rice cultivation.
The Old Market Building which houses the Rice Museum and Town Clock
The Kaminski Hardware Building was also rebuilt in 1842. The Maritime Museum is now on the third floor and houses the Brown’s Ferry Vessel which was built in the early 1700’s and sunk around 1730. The vessel was discovered by divers n 1974. It is the oldest commercial vessel to have been discovered. in the southeastern United States. Remarkably, the vessel predates previous shipbuilding discoveries by about 50 years.
The Kaminski Building
There is a wonderful collection of old ledgers from the hardware store.
We met a. lovely non-Looper couple at the marina, Bob and Laurel. They are traveling on a houseboat, Last Resort, to the Erie Canal where they will spend the summer. We enjoyed talking with them the night before we left and hearing stories of their travels, including being in two hurricanes.
8 hours 16 minutes – includes about a half hour of hanging out in the harbor waiting to get in the marina
8.7 mph average speed
7-10 mph winds
We left early for our trip to Charleston and were in a convoy of about 5 boats for a good portion of the trip. It was a beautiful and calm day but a tad bit chilly on the flybridge. Once we got close to the marina, we had to hold up for about 30 minutes until the dock master was free to assist us with docking so we circled the area in front of the Battery and admired the beautiful antebellum homes. Docking in Charleston was challenging with the wind and current but Kevin did an excellent job, as usual! We wish we knew why the winds always kick up right when we are docking.
We were happy to see that our (non-Looper) friends, Zuby and Ilyas, who were on the beautiful Nordhaven that we met in Brunswick were docked at the marina and enjoyed dinner with them before they took off the next day.
Ellen was excited to meet Julie, a friend of hers since 6th grade, who lives in Mount Pleasant and do a bit of catching up over breakfast.
We had plans for the four of us to go to dinner later in the week but we ended up having to go home to attend to a family crisis. The good news is that while we were home we learned that Ellen’s second grandson would be born on May 3rd so we were able to go to Birmingham and help take care of Luke while they were in the hospital, meet Baby Levi at the hospital and help out once they all got home. More on that later!
Before we had to leave Charleston, we were able to do a good bit of sightseeing. We visited Boone Hall Plantation, Fort Sumter, the USS Yorktown, the Charleston City Market, the Aiken Rhett House and took a bus tour of Charleston.
Boone Hall Plantation was founded in 1681 by Englishman Major John Boone. The home that exists today was built in 1936 and is filled with beautiful antiques that would have been typical for a Coastal Carolina planter.
While at Boone Hall Plantation, we took a tractor led covered wagon tour of the 738 acres that make up the plantation. It is one of the oldest still working farms in America.
There is a beautiful barn that sits on the river and hosts special events. It was set up for a wedding the day we were we there and it was absolutely stunning.
There are nine original slave cabins which were built between 1790 and 1810 and currently house exhibits depicting how the slaves lived and worked.
We attended a live presentation of the Gullah culture which included storytelling, singing and dancing by a descendant of the Gullah people. The Gullah culture dates back to when West Africans were brought to Georgia (known as Geechie) and South Carolina (known as Gullah) and enslaved on plantations. Gullah is one of the oldest surviving African cultures in America with over a half a million descendants still carrying out the traditions of their ancestors.
The drive up to the plantation is lined with live oak trees and dubbed The Avenue of the Oaks. These trees were planted by the son of Major John Boone in 1743. The view is quite spectacular!
We took a ferry across Charleston Harbor to visit Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter is where the Civil War began on April 12, 1861 when the Confederacy fired the first shots on the Union troops in the fort.
View of Fort Sumter from the ferry.
The USS Yorktown was a World War II aircraft carrier. It was the United States’ tenth aircraft carrier and was commissioned in 1943. She is also known as “The Fighting Lady”. She was redesigned in the 1950’s and served in the Vietnam War and recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and capsule in December, 1968 before being decommissioned in 1970.
The Captain!
We had a fantastic bus tour of downtown Charleston. We deboarded the bus at the Charleston City Market. The Charleston City Market was established in 1807 and is one of the nation’s oldest public markets.
We have not bought many souvenirs on the trip thus far but we did both want to purchase a sweetgrass basket made by one of the Gullah women. Sweetgrass baskets were originally used to winnow rice on the plantations and the craft has been passed down from generation to generation among the Gullah women since the 1700’s. We looked at a lot of different types of baskets, most were way out of our price range, before choosing the one below. It turns out we have good taste as choosing a sweetgrass basket as one of our few souvenirs as I later read that sweetgrass baskets are regarded as one of the nation’s most prized souvenirs and one of the oldest West African art forms in America.
The lady that made our basket is Beverly Grant. She was born on Boone Hall Plantation and has been making baskets since she was nine years old. Both her mother and grandmother worked on the plantation.
Sweetgrass Basket
Photos from a trip to Charleston would not be complete without a picture of the famous Rainbow Row, a row of 13 brightly painted houses along the waterfront. The homes were built in around 1740 and merchants would have their businesses on the first floors and live on the second floor.
Rainbow Row
Our final tourist destination in Charleston was the Aiken-Rhett House. The Aiken-Rhett House was built in 1820 and then expanded by Governor and Mrs. William Aiken, Jr in the 1830’s and 1850’s. Rather than being restored, the home has been “preserved-as-found” by the Historic Charleston Foundation when they assumed ownership of it in 1995. The slave quarters are the same as they were in the 1850’s.
Aiken-Rhett HouseRear view of the Aiken-Rhett House with slave quarters on the left and stable on the right.Kitchen area in the slaves quarters.
As our time in Charleston came to and end, we traveled home to Atlanta for a week and then Birmingham for a week where Ellen’s second grandson, Levi, was born and joins big brother, Luke!
This will likely be our shortest travel day of the entire Loop. We had to backtrack 4 miles because the weather predictions were for strong thunderstorms so we had decided not to travel today as planned but the marina needed our slip for another boat so we moved to another marina 4 miles south. Of course, it was a beautiful but overcast day with no rain in site and the water was as calm as a lake! Better safe than sorry though!
We were fueling up at the new marina when a boat about 60′ went under the nearby bridge at top speed. We, along with all of the other boats docked, got waked pretty bad as Kevin was refueling but no one sustained any damage. It’s hard to imagine anyone, let alone someone with such a nice boat, would speed by a marina and fuel dock. The dock master was able to radio ahead to the next bridge so that someone could get the name and home port of the vessel and she will be filing a complaint.
A fellow Looper came by to talk with us once we were docked. He had completed the Loop, solo, last year. He had just purchased another boat, a beautiful Defever, and will be heading up to Canada the end of May. He had a car at the marina and offered to take us to the store if we needed anything.
We walked to a wonderful Mexican restaurant, Agave, for dinner and had ONE margarita!
Today was a long but pleasant trip. We had a flock of seagulls that followed us for several miles.
Kilkenny Marina is a very rustic marina with a wonderful owner and a beautiful setting just off the ICW. It is quite different from the marinas that we have stayed at so far but definitely has character! We had planned to stop here for one night before heading to Beaufort, SC but the winds didn’t look good for travel the next day so we will stay two nights. The gnats/noseeums were plentiful when we arrived but vanished in the wind the next day. There really isn’t anything around the marina except for a wonderful restaurant, Marker 107, next door. The town of Richmond Hill is about 12 miles from the marina. This was a nice stop to just relax.
The only other thing to do here besides eating at the restaurant was to take a walk but it was a beautiful walk!
After the two recent prop incidents, it was nice to have our second day of traveling with NO INCIDENTS!
Brunswick Landing is a great marina and the largest one we have visited with over 300 slips in a well protected hurricane hole.
We had wonderful dinner at Reid’s Apothecary to celebrate Ellen’s birthday.
We met a lovely couple that were in the slip next to us, Ilya and Zuby who are traveling on a beautiful 55 foot Nordhavn. We attended the social that the marina held with them and very much enjoyed spending time with them. We ended the evening with delicious garlic knots and pizza at Fox’s Pizza.
Zuby baked us some delicious cookies for our trip the following day!
We had a nice calm day for traveling. A few pictures as we were leaving St. Augustine:
Bridge of Lions – St. AugustineSt. AugustineCastillo de San Marcus
When we docked at Fernandina, the starboard engine would not shut down. This is when we learned that the only way to shut off a diesel engine is to cut off its fuel. After what seemed like an hour and with the help of several other boat owners, we got the engine to shut down. During the scramble, one of the men helping us put his hand in the wrong spot and ended up in the ER. He ended up with two broken fingers and some deep cuts. When we saw him the next morning, he could not have been nicer and actually apologized to US for the mishap. It turns out we need a new fuel cut off solenoid which, of course, could not be locally sourced and will have to be ordered. In the meantime, Kevin is manually turning off the fuel to the starboard engine each time we stop.
Fernandina is a lovely town with a beautiful downtown district with a lot of nice restaurants and shops and definitely a place where we would like to return one day for a longer visit. We enjoyed an informative trolly ride around the northern end of the island.
Fort Clinch State Park is definitely a place we would like to come back and visit and are sorry we were not able to visit this time. There are bike and hiking trails, a beach and Fort Clinch. The best we could do this time was pictures as we were leaving the island.
Fort Clinch
We really wanted to visit Cumberland Island and had planned to dingy there from the Marina but, after being told we could stay another night, we were told that our spot was needed for someone else. The MTOA is currently having their Rendezvous here so we have to move on.
It was so nice to be back on the water today after a week in the marina waiting for the props to be repaired. We saw so many dolphin frolicking in the water. I think the winds the day after we arrived in St. Augustine were the highest we’ve seen at 15-25 knots with gusts up to 35 knots so we were certainly glad to be tied up in the marina.
As we were traveling to St. Augustine and in the middle of a deep channel we felt a bump but nothing was visible in the water before or after. We decided it would be best to have a diver take a look and, sure enough, there was slight damage to one of the props so we had the props pulled for repair, again! Kevin decided to also purchase a new set of props so that we will have a spare set on board. Certainly once we have spares we won’t need them!
We had a lovely evening with Maggie and Bruce from Currently and Chris from Taylor’d for Two. We had a not so great dinner at a Mexican restaurant, walked around downtown St. Augustine, had a drink on the rooftop of Casa Reina restaurant and visited Ron on Flying Colors.
After having the props removed, we had missed the weekly pick up from the place in Bradenton where we were sending them for repairs so we rented a car to drive them over there and then drove home to Atlanta for a few days. That was a long 14 hour trip!
Once we were back in St. Augustine, we were happy to see that our friends Pam and Hank from Slainte had arrived at River’s Edge Marina. We had a delicious dinner with them at Sainte-George.
Sainte-George restaurant with Pam and Hank. Castillo de San Marcos in the background.
We rented another car to go pick up the new props – have we put more miles on cars than on the boat?! The diver installed the props and we were once again ready to resume our trip!
2 hours 28 minutes underway and 1 hour not underway
10-15 mph winds
It was all going so well…..until it wasn’t. We were enjoying our departure from New Smyrna Beach and heading to Palm Coast when, all of a sudden, we found ourselves stuck on a shoal at Ponce Inlet beside the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. This is apparently an all too common occurrence for boaters in this area as, we learned later, this is an area notorious for extreme shoaling that changes frequently. We ultimately decided we should call for a tow. In the meantime, although tide was starting to come in, we did not want to drift into even shallower waters ahead of us so we decided to drop the anchor. The only problem with this was that the windlass wasn’t working! Thankfully, we had a spare anchor which we were able to drop. As we were on the phone with Boat US to schedule a tow, we saw a Sea Tow boat heading our way and radioed the captain for assistance. The Sea Tow captain could not have been any nicer or more helpful and got us back into deeper water. At first, everything seemed to be okay – the engines and rudder seemed to be working fine – but once we got up over about 1,100 rpm we experienced a good bit of vibration so we decided it would be best to stop in Daytona and have the props checked out rather than continuing on to Palm Coast (about 5 miles vs about 35 miles). We made arrangements with a marina in Daytona and took it slow until we got there.
Once we were safely docked in the marina, Kevin noticed a leak coming from the stuffing box in the engine room but he was able to troubleshoot over the phone with a mechanic and had that fixed in no time. He also discovered the windlass hadn’t worked because the circuit breaker needed to be reset.
Divers were able to come the next day and remove the props without us having to be hauled out. The props did have a little damage which is what was causing the vibration but, thankfully, they were able to be repaired.
While this was an unfortunate experience, it is also something that happens to just about everyone at one time or another. There is a saying that, if someone says they have never run aground, they have either never left the dock, haven’t been boating long enough or they aren’t being truthful! Another saying is “If you haven’t run aground, you ain’t been around”.
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
We rented a car while we were waiting for the props to be repaired. We enjoyed a leisurely drive up A1A to St. Augustine and stopped at the marina where will will eventually bring the boat and had lunch at the onsite restaurant, Hurricane Patty’s, which has an amazing crab dip! We decided to drive back to St. Augustine the next day when we would have more time for exploring. We have both been to St. Augustine many times but neither of us had been there for about 20 years so it was nice for both of us to be there again and relive old memories. There is so much to do in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US. We did not feel the need to revisit most of the attractions that we had already seen multiple times in the past but it was nice to see that things had not changed much since we were both there last.
We had an amazing brunch at Sainte-George restaurant which had been recommended to us by our friends from Marathon, Leslie and Hal. We sat on the balcony overlooking Castillo Drive which runs along Matanzas Bay had had a wonderful view of the old city gates, the fort and the bay. We walked along St. George street after brunch. A favorite attraction for both of us from our past trips to St. Augustine was Castillo de San Marcus, the nation’s oldest masonry fort, so we decided we would like to tour that again.
Construction of the fort by the Spanish began in 1672 and was completed in 1695. The fort was occupied by Spain (twice) and Great Britain before both Union and Confederate US forces assumed possession and it was ultimately used as a military prison. Control of the fort was transferred each time via treaty rather than by force. The fort came under fire many times but was never captured as it was built of coquina (light and porous mixture of shell fragments). If a cannonball was able to penetrate the walls of the fort, the holes were easily repaired and coquina was also impervious to fire.
City Gate with Sainte-George restaurant behind and to the left.Castillo de San Marcus
On our way back to the marina in Daytona, we stopped at the Holly Hill Arts Festival.
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.
