Relaxing into a Routine

This lifestyle is agreeing with us.

Last night Greg and Leslie invited a few people over to their boat for cocktails around 5:30 pm. It is good to get to know some of the other boaters. Leslie has only been here for 2 weeks, and she already knows everyone living on their boats, and a little story of where they live, and how long they have been boating, etc.

Leslie, Nancy and John aboard Amalia

Greg and Leslie have been travelling on their boat for about 8 years now, and they make friends very quickly wherever they are. We have been fortunate to come into that circle.

Peter aboard Amalia

This morning she was making a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up a couple of items. I only had 4 things on my list but somehow managed to fill 2 grocery bags. Funny how that happens. Leslie did the same.


I have finally discovered a very civilized way to do laundry. Put a load in the washer. Go for a swim. Change the wash load to dryer and start second washer load. And have a swim. Fold clothes from first dryer load, and put second load in dryer. Then sit around and enjoy the sun and the day till the second load of laundry is dry. Visit with other people at the pool. Meet some new fellow boaters.

Greg Marsh aboard Amalia

Then return to boat around 4:30 to prepare dinner.

I had forgot to mention the small sea creatures that feast on the bottom of the boat.  Some say they are shrimps. Boy, they are quick. When we put the boat in the water, they were immediately checking out the bottom of the boat. They make little snapping sounds that you can hear inside the boat. Not sure what they were eating as the boat had been on dry land for 9 months. They work away day and night. They are very busy.

Peter working hard at pool.

At this marina, you can hear the fish jumping all thru the night. And then the silence of the night will be broken by the very ugly call of the heron as it flies by the boat. All in all, it is quite a pleasant way to spend your time.

Weather report for today, low 80's, southwest winds 10 knots, partly cloudy.  Perfect day. Very comfortable. Tomorrow will be a different story. Calling for rain, temps 68 (brrrr cold, long pants weather) lows 52 degrees.

Fountains that enhance the pool area. The laundry area is in the building poolside.

The decision was made to have a pot luck at the Captain's Lounge tomorrow night. I will make the potato salad, and mexican nacho dip. Sounds like another trip to the grocery store.

Loggerhead Marina, Vero Beach

Getting settled in. Peter had the engine running and electrical cord off, waiting for me on my return from the showers. Quietly, in stealth mode, we ever so gently moved from the transient dock over to our slip for the next 2 weeks. We are only  2 slips away from Greg and Leslie.

Greg was on the dock waiting to catch our lines. Boat secured, power on. Our new home for awhile. Not sure Peter can handle being in one spot for this long, but I am already nesting. Looking forward to being in one spot for awhile. There are books to be read, and a pool to lounge around.

There always is a maintenance list when living on a boat. I am quite sure Peter will have enough projects to keep him as busy as he wants. There are still a few things to get done before we make our way to the Bahamas.

Leslie was not feeling well yesterday. Greg said she is feeling better this morning. Peter is off for his 3 mile walk and then will return for a shower. Then lunch out with Greg and Leslie. They have brought their car down and will show us the highlights of Vero Beach.

To north, and only 2 slips away is Greg and Leslie's boat "Amalia"

Directly behind the boat are individual homes and duplex homes.

In front of the boat are a number of condominiums.


This is a golf course and home development that went bankrupt a number of years ago. Loggerhead came in and bought the marina portion of the development. Which then gave them enough money to finish the project. Much to the chagrin of new and old tenants, there no longer were docks as part of their package.

Staying here for the next 2 weeks will work out quite well for us. The office has already made reservations for us at the reciprocating Loggerhead Marinas on our travels south. It will mean that we will have to travel with a schedule. Ugh. Peter is not good with schedules, but I guess he can live with it for the following 2 weeks. We have set the schedule up with lots of time between marinas if needed. 

Off to Vero Beach

Another long day expected. Vero Beach is 55 miles south of Cocoa Beach. The plan was to get up early and underway by 7 am for a 10 plus hour day.

Foiled again by the weather. 6:30 am dense fog. We aren't going anywhere till the sun burns the fog off. 9:15 am saw us away from the dock. A haze still hangs over the waterway, but not sufficient to impede our travel. Today the weatherman said temperatures in the low 80's, calm on the inland waterways, 30% possibility of rain.

Leslie Marsh, have dock box will deliver dinner.

Pelicans are not shy. They don't even move.

Blimp over Loggerhead this morning. 

Peter is still in Mardi Gras mode.


( I am having a terrible time with these photos today. I have no control over where they show within this blog. Perhaps better luck on next blog. Also the script is strange, the way it displays. Hope you can read this one.)


I have decided that dolphins are very shy creatures. By the time you see them and get your camera ready for that wonderful photo opportunity. They disappear.

Now the pelicans are a totally different story. They are so accustomed to boat traffic that they do not even get out of the way or try to change their positions unless you are right upon them and definetly going to run right over top of them.

We got into Loggerhead Marina Vero Beach about 4:30 pm. Made really good time for the 55 mile run from Cocoa Beach.  7 hours. We barely had the boat tied up, when we looked up the dock to see Greg Marsh walking towards us. And then a few moments later, Leslie arrives with chocolate covered strawberries and cookies. What a welcome!

A few brief moments of greetings and quick catching up, and Leslie said that she and another boat were planning a pot luck dinner in the marina lounge room and asked if we would join them. We accepted and suggested that we would bring something. Leslie insisted that they had it all covered. She insisted that we get settled, have our showers, and then join them for dinner.  WOW, what a reception!


This is a very upscale marina with everything you would expect, new washrooms laundry facilities, marina lounge area,  plus a pool area. Of course it is also expensive; $2. per foot with a 10% discount for Boat US members.  The monthly rate is just under $600. So we have had a change of plans. We are signing up for a month with Loggerhead Marina, Vero Bch. This becomes our home port. We will stay 2 weeks here, and then as we move south; there are a number of Loggerhead Marinas that have reciprocal benefits that we can overnight and stay a few days as travel. It seems like a good alternative for our travels.

It sounds like Marathon Marina is full as it is every year. So we will make our way to Rodriguez Key and join up with Steve and Linda Franko. This will be a good jumping off point for the Bahamas. My planning should put us a Rodriguez Key by March 22. Leaving us a few days to provision the boat for the Bahamas.

Cocoa Village and Mardi Gras

Our progress will be delayed due to Mardi Gras Parade.

My captain has heard that there will be a Mardi Gras Parade in Cocoa Beach. No time for us to go to New Orleans, so we will delay our progress and participate in the Mardi Gras festivities here.

The marina is full ....... no room at the inn for us. The harbour master is calling all of the boats that are away from their dock to see if he can find us a dock. What service? We won't know till later in the day.

Peter is off to find a new alternator belt as a replacement for the one we broke yesterday. It is always good to have a spare.

I completed the application for the decal for the boat for another season. I started the process our last day in St. Augustine, got the paperwork in Marineland, completed the final details of paperwork this morning in Cocoa Beach.  That only took 3 days. Pretty good. The delay was the account number. I didn't think we had one. When everything was complete, I decided to record it in the Password Wallet program I have on the iPad so I would have it for the next time.  When I had entered all the info and saved it, found that I already had the a/c number saved. Silly me. I only had to look it up on the iPad. Sometimes being organized means that you have to look it up on your system. Peter is off to fax it away.

I have the boat to myself for a little while. Now what to do? Nails need to be done. A good project.

Nails done. French White this time.

Peter returned with a new belt.  Also, good news, we can stay and we don't need to change dock positions. How fortunate. While the plan was to go grocery shopping; the rain moved in so we just stayed on boat and read. Quiet day.

Mardi Gras Day. Nothing starts till 5 pm today and then runs till 11 pm.  Good time to go to the grocery store for groceries.

I have been corrupted. While most girls look forward to going shopping for clothes, getting their hair done, or to buy chocolate; I once again long for a West Marine store. I want a new duck bill flapper for the head. For those of you who are not boaters and are unsure what a duck bill flapper is or does ..... It is a little piece of rubber that fits in the toilet that once you have flushed the head (toilet) it prevents the sewage from the holding tank coming back into the head and partially filling the bowl. We tried the oil trick to no avail.

My hero, once again saves the day. Installation of duck bill flapper. All is good in our world ..... the bad stuff is staying where it was intended to be.

I have my priorities. West Marine store first, then grocery store. Bus ride is .60 cents per person. What a bargain.

Jeff and Terry Zukerman, aboard Ariel a 42' Catalina, invited us to their boat for cocktails and then we will go to the Mardi Gras together. Had some pretty good crab cake. While waundering around, Peter noticed people were wearing  hats that would light up. Of course he wanted one. He came back with two head bands that had fiber optic plumes in a mohawk effect. Looked awful. One for him and one for me. Imagine my embarassment. I just kept telling myself that no one knew me here, and  I would not see any of them again.

Numerous vendors of trinkets and trash, deep south food vendors, alcholic beverage vendors, and two bands playing at different locations ..... one rock and roll band and a Louisiana blues band. The rock and roll band was a big name band locally however unknown to us.

Peter sporting his mohawk head gear. 

The parade was fun. Beads being thrown from floats, just as you would expect. A couple of bands. A caribbean band lead the parade. The parade circled the parade route 2 times.

All in all, a good time. Tomorrow we will make our way to Vero Beach.

 Now picture those fiber optic tufts, flashing and rotating thru red, yellow, green and blue colours. There was more attractive head gear available, but I think he just looked for the most outrageous.  And when we were returning to the boat, another compulsive purchase...... glasses that would light up. Docktails, here we come.

New Smyrna Beach to Cocoa Village Marina. Thurs. Feb 20th 2014

A foggy morning delayed our departure.

Peter had time to get some more fuel for the boat. The garage attendant had seen him coming with the gas can and insisted on driving him back to the boat.  Diesel is over $4. a gallon. We used $25. yesterday. Something that is very good about the sailboat over the trawler.

He then had time to tighten the alternator belt. The fog had lifted so off we went. 9 am.  A gorgeous day to be on the water. After about an hours running, there was a high pitched engine alarm. The alternator belt had broken and was sitting on the engine room floor. We quickly pulled to the side of the ICW and dropped an anchor. I guess the belt liked being loose.

The Daytona 500 pit crew would have been proud of Peter. In less than 20 minutes he had replaced the belt and we were on our way.

Surona pit crew, hard at work.

We are running against the tide so our progress is a little slow, only about 4.8 knots. Tide should change around noon.

Our first barge of the season. 

Confirmed our dockage for the night at Cocoa Village Marina. Have stayed here before and like it. We are probably within one day of Greg and Leslie Marsh, aboard Amalia. Last we heard they were at Loggerhead, Vero Beach. Hopefully we can catch up with them. They are always fun.  We haven't seen them for a year now. We have been so fortunate to have met such wonderful people on our travels.

Manatee (the brown spot in water) Haulover Canal

The Haulover Canal was not a disappointment. There is a pool where the manatee love to come. While we didn't see manatee in the pool, we did see one along the channel. The bonus sighting was a dolphin.

Parasail windsurfers, Titusville.

As we approached Titusville there were 4 para sail wind surfers playing along the shore. Do they ever go fast. If the sailboat could go that fast this 10 hour day would have been only 2 hours.

When we were about an hour away from the NASA Causeway Bridge we started to read the details about the opening times. OMG the bridge closes from 3:30 to 5 PM. This became a very stressful situation. We had reservations at Cocoa Village Marina, and if we missed the bridge we would have to find somewhere else for the night. And that could have been anchoring out in some uncomfortable area. We pushed on. We could see the bridge, we were close. Called the bridge tender to request passage. He just said that we would have to be there by 3:30. No encouraging words of any kind. I told him that was our intent. We pushed on. We were travelling as fast as we could. The hands of the clock seemed to be travelling faster than we were. Nothing to do but push on and see what happens. It was going to be very close, if at all.

Then we heard the bridge warning signal to stop traffic, and the bridge began to lift. Phew. We had made it. Surona travelled under the lifted bridge at 3:28pm. No sweat. 2 minutes to spare. Now what was all that drama about!

Peter assumes the afternoon captains position. Getting tired. Already 6 hours of travelling with another 2 more hours to go. 

We arrived Cocoa Village Marina about 5:30 pm. A very long day.
We discovered that there was to be a space launch sometime between 8:40 and 8:59 pm and that the upstairs patio was the perfect viewing area. Such good fortune, to be able to see a space launch. It is a Delta 4 rocket taking  a military GPS System up.

Delta 4 Rocket reading for launch, Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center

A shower, a drink, dinner, and off to watch the launch. This will probably be a once in a lifetime experience for us. The horizon began to glow with an amazing brightness, and then the rocket could be seen lifting off. The sound was delayed about 1-2 minutes before it carried to Cocoa Beach.  And then the rocket was out of sight. What an experience. Unfortunately, no pictures as it was night time.

Peter sure does know how to show a girl a good time. It is hard to believe, that when we were building a house and raising our children, that we would one day be on our own sailboat in Florida and watching a space launch.  Will wonders never cease? Hopefully not.

Away from the Dock, Tuesday February 18th, 2014

We finally got away from the dock in St. Augustine.

Ready for another season. It only took 3 weeks.

A short shake down cruise planned south on the UCW to Marineland. We stayed here last year on our trip north and liked the marina. Everything is new. The marina is only 3 years old. And yet it is already subject to shoaling within the harbour due to the boats turning around in the basin and stirring up the silt into a berm. We called ahead and they said that if we could arrive by 2 pm we should have no trouble.  And all was good.


We left home on January 10th this year, managing to escape the cold northern weather between two storm fronts. We had an uneventful trip all the way  thru to Edisto Island, where we once again visited our good friends Jim and Linda Murray. They had invited some of their boating friends in for Sunday dinner. We had met everyone on our previous trips and it was a welcome reunion.

Linda and Jim Murray, sister Betty and Peter

The next morning we were off to stop by  and quickly check the boat in St. Augustine, then on to Orlando. We were catching a flight to Costa Rica where Peter had some work done on his teeth. Dr. Marco Cavellini. Two implants and 6 crowns. Temporaries as the Dr. wants to be sure the implants have set properly. We will return the end of April. All of this for $1250.  so far. A lot less than at home where the dentist wanted $4,000. for one implant. Thank you Martin Schepers for the referral.

Dr. Cavellini and Peter. What a day!

On the weekend, Dr. Cavellini wanted to show Peter his boat that he has been having some work done on and a favourite place he likes to go. He took us to the Pacific Ocean side 2 hours away. Then they took us out to Deer Island, a very remote place not frequented by tourists. On the way out, they found a fish floating in the water that had escaped fishing nets. Still alive, but barely. They brought the fish aboard. The fish was given to the people on Deer Island, and they prepared it for our lunch with a shrimp sauce. Wonderful experience, beer, fish, and an island tour.  Peter makes friends wherever he goes. We invited Dr. Cavellini to Canada so we can return the boating favour.

Dinner out with Ken and Judy Dubbin and their friends.

On our return to Florida, the weather was cold, so we decided to visit some friends. Off to see Ken and Judy Dubbin who winter in the Orlando area, and spent a wonderful evening with them. Dinner with some of their friends at a favourite restaurant.


The next morning we were on our way to visit with Marcel and Fern Daigle who winter in the Largo area. Just in time for the Super Bowl. We were invited to join. Peter was the big winner of the game. They may rethink inviting him. They invited Peter to join them for a round of golf the next day. Fernie and I went Thrift Shopping. What fun.

Marcel and Fern Daigle.

The weather was turning nice so we decided to return to the boat and get ready to move south.

When we arrived at St. Augustine, the weather changed to cold, windy and wet for about 4 to 5 days. Not nice weather for working on a boat. We just hung out for awhile.

I had to stop writing for awhile here as we were leaving the dock at New Smyrna Beach. When I got back to the blog I had already had 9 page views. And I haven't given anyone the address yet. It is a small world.

Now, let's see, where was I. OK. Once the weather improved, we went to the boat in earnest. Really not much to do, but it took us over a week to do it. We replaced the old rusting air conditioner that was making a mess all over the front deck. Changed the engine oil for another season. Put the alternator back on. Had taken it home to have it rebuilt. Replaced water pump impeller. Put the cockpit canvas on. Followed by the sails finally.  Cleaned  the debris out of the strainer. It is hard to remember all the things we did, but it took us a long time to do it. Wonderful to be retired and not feel pressured to complete the list with a deadline.

The day came for splash down. We had the first appointment of the day. 7:30 am.?????? Don't they know we are retired and don't do this time of the day well??? We were ready.  By 8:30 she was in the water. But wait! There is no water coming out of the back of the boat. No water circulating. After a quick check of the normal problem areas, Peter determined that the strainer was probably not sealing correctly. We got the boat to tied to a dock alongside the launching well area, and off we went in search of  new gaskets for the strainer. Easy peasy. Found them, not even 1 mile from the boat. Replaced and on to the next project.

Stored the car in the St. Augustine Public Parking near the Information Center.

Then we were finally away. Marineland our first stop. We joined some local boaters for sunset docktails and shared our boating experiences. Caught up on the laundry that was building up. The washer was free and dryer was only $1. WOW. Leftovers for dinner. The weather is perfect. Just what we had been waiting for.

Wed. am, we were away by about 8:30am. Did a little dredging on our way out of the harbour as low tide was at 7 am. Another perfect day. We are seeing dolphins again. Disabled and abandoned boats  along the shoreline are a reminder to always  be careful. What would we do without Active Captain, which gives us all of the marina ratings, and caution areas, etc. We bumped  twice before New Smyrna Beach. We were where we were supposed to be, but that doesn't prevent the shifting shoals from surprising you. It is not like Georgian Bay. It is not granite that you bump into, it is soft berms of silt. Not that they can't stop you and create a problem. We had no problem, we just helped our American boaters by doing a little more dredging with our winged keel.

Good Year Derigible (Sp?)

We saw two Good Year derigibles (sp?)flying along the waterway. Preparing for the Daytona race. What a sight.

We got into New Smyrna Beach Marina about 4:30 pm. About a 50 mile day. Another perfect day. Winds picked up a little in the afternoon, but nothing too much. Once the boat was docked and Peter had paid for the evening, we had a drink and toasted our first real day on the water.

After getting settled, we went for a walk before dinner.

We finished our evening by watching the last DVD we had from the Downton Abby series. We have watched all four seasons now, thoroughly enjoyed them and will have to wait for season 5.