The posting before Maggie

April 6, 2017

Maggie comes on Saturday late day, so if I want my blog to go out I better do it now since we will be having too much with a nearly 13 year-old.

I looked back to see if enough time had past so I could tell another tale and found my last post was March 17th and a fine St. Patrick's Day it was with good friends and green wine.

We left Ft. Myers ahead of schedule to play the weather to our advantage and again set out to cross the Okeechobee.  Our dear friends Wally and Darcy headed south from Ft. Myers to the Keys for a month and we headed north toward home.  We are really excited that we have not seen our Ft. Myers' friends for the last time.  We are meeting Patty and Jack and their family in Jacksonville when we pick up Maggie.

So what happened to those Maine people?

We stayed the night at the Franklin Locks Campground and Marina before heading to Clewiston for our first night on dolphins, I tried to get out of it, but the other option was a noisy marina. I had no need to worry about tying up to dolphins. We did great and it helped to use the boat hook. We had the nicest ride between More Haven and Clewiston. Rob counted nine alligators and we saw hundreds of birds.

The real thing

Anhinga

I wish I could show you more pictures of the birds but they were quicker than I was and a little too far away for you to see.

We stayed in Stuart for five days visiting friends, replacing the inverter, walking and watching the action at the Sailors Return.  We were docked far too close to the Sailors Return, but we were lucky it was good music.  Take a look at view from our boat.

Papa bear, mama bear and baby bear

I picked up a fabulous Florida Bird book while in Stuart and on the way to Barnes and Nobles stopped at the Humane Society to see what was new. Litter mates

A blonde version of Gracie and Ginger

But I have to tell you about this bird book.  If you like birds and curious of their names and travel in Florida this is a "must" have book.

There is a place in the back to check off the ones that you have seen.

From Stuart we moved to Ft. Pierce for two nights.

Most cities create art around the town but you know that because I have mentioned it before. The globe is lose and swivels in the manatees fins.

Mural

A young man and his companion took this picture with a "Polaroid" camera as they went by and simply handed the picture to us.

Docktails on the dock in Ft. Pierce

Tourist

This poor pigeon was hiding from something or playing hide and seek with this friends

From Ft. Pierce we moved to an anchorage near Titusville, Cape Canaveral, and Merritt Island.  We had southeast winds so found a place to anchor sheltered from the wind. We were going to anchor near the dock in Cocoa Beach but the anchorage was crowded with long anchored boats, it wasn't protected from the winds and it was just a plain nasty anchorage. 

Without planning it we anchored this far away from history being made. This is the first time that SpaceX has launched a recovered vessel.  It landed on a drone ship.  Amazing!

From there we went to New Smyrna Beach for a couple of nights.  A fun town with ice cream and a 

fun restaurant.  

What the heck!

What could this possibly mean?

Read it out loud

From New Smyrna Beach we landed on a mooring in St. Augustine hoping to beat the bad weather and we did make it with southeast winds. A better direction when you are traveling north.

If it was northern winds it would have been an uncomfortable trip. Success again picking up a mooring, I didn't lose fingers, boat hook or have to try over and over. The next day we moved into a slip and for two days the winds blew hard and it poured.  Rob looked out the window at the pouring rain and asked who's turn is it to walk the dog.

We walked St. George street and checked out the Lightner Museum to visit with Maggie when she comes. There are about seven ice cream places on St. George Street waiting for us.

At Christmas time this park is filled with people that have come to see the lights and festivities that St. Augustine is so good at doing.  The lawn must have to be replaced often because of the foot traffic.

I am not sure why but this motor just fascinates me.  We have a two year old Tohatsu.

We left St. Augustine for Jacksonville 2 days early again because of the weather. On the way we saw beautiful things and not so beautiful but interesting sites.

Is Captain True is taking the picture or at the helm?

I was sad that I couldn't get a good picture of seven herons or maybe ibis and five nests on these electrical cable towers because I would love to have you see it. One of the best surprises on this trip.

There is a lot of industry related business along the route through Jacksonville to Ortega Landing, in this area there were eleven container loaders on the docks.

I saw a huge freighter with huge words on the side--"Take Care of the Environment" and on the same side of the boat further down was the sign "No Smoking".  The messages were not connected but still made me scratch my head.

This is the sister cruise ship to the Independence, both visit Rockland, Maine.

We had a great surprise coming into the marina. In a slip across from us was another couple of friends from our month in Ft. Myers.  We didn't know if we would see Kim and David again since they left Ft. Myers before us and are headed on their way to do the Great Loop. We had cocktails together and just plain had fun.

We were walking along the dock at Ortega Landing and saw this pelican very close to us jump, scared me and I guess him. Usually I keep taking pictures of birds seeing how close they will let me get before they take off. I think this pelican was hurt and I felt bad for sneaking up on him.  He sat at the end of this finger pier for hours but was gone by morning.  

He hopped up these three stairs.

There is a fog bell on a nearby boat that rings often because of the wind and it always reminds me of something that happened when I was a kid.  In the summers I lived with my parents in a log cabin they built.  They cut the trees, peeled the logs and dragged them into there leased land belonging to the Great Northern Paper Company.

The camp had a twisted steel cable that ran from one wall to the other holding the camp from falling out, sort of working as wooden trusses do.  There was a tiny bell that was on the cable and when the wind blew and shook the camp causing the bell to ring when it did my father said it was time to evacuate.  We never did leave the camp, so I think that was him being funny.

Ending with something to think about:

I met a six year old boy in an antique shop in St. Augustine.  He was probably a grandson of the owner.  He told me he was smart, so I asked him to tell me something I don't know and he said, "I don't know what you don't know".  Smart kid.

Tell me this, how do you know when a laughing gull is sad?

Maggie comes tomorrow so see you after that.

Tricia