Pulling out of Key Largo…….

    

After waiting on the best weather conditions, we were blessed with one to two’s (waves) in the Atlantic, out of Key Largo.  We made our transition into the Intracoastal (protected waters) at Anglefish Creek.  Beautiful homes dotted the landscape through the cut, and quiet still waters welcomed us into Biscayne Bay.

    

    

Kara Mia cruised at a comfortable clip of 34 mph….

    

The approach to Black Point was long and narrow but deep compared to the shallow waters of Cutter Bay.

        

Once into Black Point Harbor we were surprised to find a very active and welcoming marina. Although there were limited amenities (no pump out or showers), the park setting made for fun investigation.  The restaurant and bar weren’t bad either.

    

We had dinner at The Ocean Grill…….Karen had Macadamia nut encrusted goat cheese and Ron had Jamaica Jerk Chicken – YUM!

        

    

……and enjoyed another beautiful sunset…….

        

The next morning we had a nice sunrise – seeing from our window what Karen thought was a church steeple across the dock – on second look, it was actually a boat mast!

After the sunrise we took a bike hike around the park.  As always, we enjoyed the scenery and wildlife.  Although there were numerous alligator warnings, we encountered none today.

            

    

Thankfully we got back before this quick storm rolled through……

    

We had dinner on the boat and watched the sun set……

Tomorrow we will head to Miami…………

Stephanie sent pics from back home today…..after seeing Jackson’s car and our back deck…..thinking we will stay in sunny Florida!

    

Back at the marina it was a short walk under A1A to the beach.  We heard rumors that this was possibly a nudist beach.  Not only were there no nudes – there were no people – it was too chilly on the beach!  However, Karen did collect some rather unique shells…….

    

        

    

as the evening faded, we enjoyed a school of dolphins playing at the bow of our boat…….

        

A down home meal was a welcomed change for our pallet……how much seafood can one consume anyway?

    

…….North to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow……..

As our friends from Nashville – Raymond and Judy, who have a place here, have shared, “we have truly entered the land of the 1%”.  We continue to be amazed by the buildings, the homes, the boats……

    

    

    

The variety and scale of both commercial and private boats was fascinating as we moved up the Intracoastal Waterway.

        

    

Early on we encountered the devil, waiting on his table at a local restaurant.  Just one of the many scenes along the water’s edge.  There were sunken boats, lots of boat traffic at points, the “Po Po”, boats being towed….

        ….even the big boats aren’t immune to breaking down!

……and tiki bars, and bakeries……..

    

and condos and people……lots of people…….
    

Ft. Lauderdale is a departure port for many large cruise lines heading for the Caribbean, Cuba, Mexico…….and cargo ships connecting with the Atlantic as well…..

    

    

We encountered five bridges today and several were lower than we could get under.  Most bridges in this area open on the hour and half hour to allow for your passing.  Around Miami and Ft. Lauderdale this was a routine occurrence throughout the day and often required us to be in a holding pattern until time for the bridge to lift or open.  Make note of our little yellow tracking line on the map, we go up, back, around, and back again while waiting……(more useless information – but part of our daily routine……).  Just showing how our electronics record every move we make.

    

As we were approaching Bahia Mar, these little sail boats were heading out into the Atlantic Ocean through Port Everglades cut – the same route as the big cruise and cargo ships – you really want to do that?    

We pulled into Bahia Mar Yachting Center and Marina – a welcome stop after the concrete wall and wind the night before.

    

Shortly after we docked our friends from Nashville, Joe and Reba, joined us.  They were in route to Nashville from their winter excursion in Islamorada.  We toasted to friendship before a short walk to dinner at Coconuts Waterside Dining.

    

        

The girls had seafood tacos and the guys had jambalaya…..all was good.

    

Next morning we were awakened to the sound of a megaphone in the not so far distance.  Daylight savings time had just arrived as well and our bodies and minds were still at 4:30 a.m.  Just across A1A (merely 100 yards away on the beach) we were surprised to find 3,200 people!  It was Ft. Lauderdale’s sixth annual International Triathlon with over 1,200 participants (including Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, cheered on by Eric Trump) and over 2,000 spectators from all over the world.  We grabbed a cup of coffee and walked across A1A to experience a beautiful sunrise along with busy triathlon activities …….bikers, swimmers, runners, music………a lot of unexpected entertainment before sunrise!  The dots on the horizon were freighters waiting to pull into port.

          twelve hundred participants – swimming in the Atlantic Ocean – before sunrise – is that CRAZY?    

    

Not to be missed today was the men’s SEC Championship game.  We watched from the marina restaurant.  Note the score – at one point Tennessee was ahead but finally succumbed to a 77-72 loss to Kentucky.

    

An early evening walk found us touring the docks of the really big 200+ foot yachts.  There we found the mega-yacht named “Glaze”.  Most of you don’t know that Karen was a “Glaze” before becoming an “Atkisson”, and she is just sure this is a long lost relative……we are still researching that!

    

We wondered, as a small boat, how the one hundred foot boats felt among the two hundred foot boats……..

We watched the sunset trying to sneak it’s way between the large yachts…..   

Next morning Joe and Reba headed on to Nashville and we hung around the boat through a rather heavy thunderstorm or two……later the clouds cleared and we had a nice stroll on the beach and our last (and ever changing) sunset in Ft. Lauderdale……

   

   

…….tomorrow we plan a short lay-over at Delray Beach before continuing on to Palm Beach………

As we head north, not much has changed in size and scope…..big houses….big boats…..

        

…moving up the Treasure Coast

            

The AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association) provides an app that allows Loopers to register their point in their travels.  Below shows that there are approximately 50 Loopers that have registered their location in the Florida area.  Each red dot is a Looper boat, the little orange man near Palm Beach (if you can see him) is Kara Mia!

    

We arrived at Delray Harbor Marina to be greeted by our little gecko friend.  He hung out with us on the docks.

        

For dinner we walked to Duffy’s Sports Bar where we were pleasantly surprised by an antique car show.  Ron drooled over the Earl Campbell jersey and the antique cars – Karen drooled over the bar-b-que ribs!

    

    

Next morning we arose to a beautiful sunrise but chilly weather, but still not as chilly as back home in Brentwood!

    

….then we were off to Palm Beach where even the bridges were high-end architecture.

    

We have been impressed by the research centers and nature preserves along the waterway.  Here’s an example of one of the manatee research centers and parks to protect the manatee.  A large part of our travels requires minimum speed in order to protect manatee habitats.

    

       

…..this one speaks for itself…….

    

Old Port Cove is an upper echelon 5-star marina in – of course – North Palm Beach.  All the amenities one would want and a great restaurant to boot.  Upon registering, we were greeted in style with a bottle of wine and during our entire stay they offered complimentary coffee, tea, lemonade, sodas, ice and mints!  Of course Ron always loves “floating docks” (we don’t have to check lines in the middle of the night for the tide exchange).

    

It was 47 degrees the next morning and we turned on the heaters, not realizing we had tied the dinghy off directly under the a raw water discharge outlet.  The discharged water was pouring right into the dinghy, filling it with over (at last count) 30 gallons of water.  We spent the next hour pumping water……

Karen spent the morning finishing up our income tax in her corner office (with a view) – YEA – all done!  And then treated herself to exploring around the marina looking at the beautiful boats.

   

We walked 2 miles to Publix to re-provision and took advantage of the marina’s courtesy shuttle to return with our load of “more than expected” supplies.

Our dinner was at the marina’s Sandpiper Cove Restaurant – Ron had the North Palm Beach salad with crab & shrimp, Karen had a bacon and tomato grilled cheese sandwich (not tired of seafood yet, but just ready for a change).

    

……..tomorrow on up The Palm Coast to Ft. Pierce……

After a beautiful sunrise, we left out of Old Port Cove and once again enjoyed the variety of scenery encountered along the waterway.

        

Traveling up the Intracoastal Waterway, we passed Jupiter Inlet and the historic Jupiter Lighthouse, built in 1853 and protected by a 120 acre natural area.  We saw numerous parks and protected preserves along Hobe Sound on our way to Indian River.

    

Soon enough we entered Fort Pierce Marina, a popular Looper stop after crossing the state on The Okeechobee waterway.  There we met Dan and Joe, caught up with Tim and Ramie again, and celebrated Dennis and Dana’s crossing their wake (completing the entire Great Loop).  Their boat “Pharm Life” (a Selene 43) is the first boat you see in the dock picture.    

Our first morning took us on a ten mile bike trip to the closest AT&T store to replace Karen’s phone (got wet the night before and died).  We hurried back to catch the local market and then visited Cobb’s Landing for much deserved libation.

    

    

Around the marina we saw schools of fish at every turn……

        

….as well as friendly neighbors (you see one hanging from the mast of his sailboat)…..

    

Supposedly, the Original Tiki Bar is here at Ft. Pierce Marina.  The Tiki Bar is a popular eatery in a tropical setting with ocean views!

    

    

Sunrise and sunset from the docks on Kara Mia…..

    

As we traveled up Indian River we were impressed with more hurricane damage – beached boats and destroyed docks.  But the Osprey still rebuilt!  Due to the numerous and intense hurricanes in late 2017, we had considered postponing our loop trip but are happy that we forged on.  We have also been impressed with the human spirit and recovery efforts in overcoming the devastation.

    

    

    

Historic Melbourne was founded in 1867 by former slaves and was named for Melbourne, Australia.  They preserve their history in a quaint little downtown setting.  We explored the town via our folding “boat” bikes.  The bikes still have not helped us to lose weight!  We had to get out early as there were tornado warnings and storms headed our way in the afternoon.

    

We chose to have a late lunch/early dinner of shrimp quesadillas at Ichabod’s Dockside, a neat little harbor grille at the marina.    

It was a calm, warm morning that later turned into a wet rainy evening.  We stayed in – watching the wind and lightening from the boat.  It blew over pretty quickly and we were out walking the docks before the sun went down.

Tied up at the end of our dock is this custom-built (one of three) all aluminum 57 foot cruiser, built for efficiency in New Zealand.  She was brought to the United States and purchased by a German crew and named “Broadsword”.  Broadsword flies a German flag and after finishing the loop they will crew her across the North Sea all the way to Germany.    

This natural harbor entices bull sharks every spring to spawn.  At times they say there are hundreds in the harbor.  We were privileged to see a number of them lurking around our boat (no pics – all we could see were little fins).

The next day we explored Melbourne  by foot, starting out at the post office to send our monthly fun tourist packages to the kids (candy, toys, t-shirts).

        

We finished our tour with some delicious fresh fire-grilled Florida-Mex food at Ole’…..

When we got back to the marina we found two more looper boats had arrived so immediately docktails were in order.

    

Loopers – Bill and Bobbie on “First Forty”, Dan and Jo on “Proper State of Mind”, Terry and Joanne on “Courageous”, Mark and Laurie on “Ladybug”, and of course – Ron and Karen on “Kara Mia”…..

        

…..artwork of a dolphin in the last picture was given to Karen by a proud 7 year old at the dock and decorates her office window…..

Heading to Titusville and Ron has gotten way too comfortable with his Auto Pilot (nobody at the helm)……..

        

Throughout our journey up the east coast, manatee have been a seriously protected species.  Manatee, also called “sea cows”, are slow moving mammals that average about 8 to 10 feet long.  We have enjoyed watching them at numerous marinas.  At Titusville, they enjoyed Ron washing the boat (they love the fresh water – although it is illegal to purposefully attract the manatee)…

    

        

Later that evening, with Mark and Laurie (on board Ladybug), we were in search of other loopers…..we had docktails with other local boaters on the dock…..

    

Our least favorite restaurant so far……..was quite a hike under the bridge to Cracker Jacks, at the Titusville Veterans Memorial Fishing Pier…… although a local favorite, it failed our expectations….

    

however, the sunset there was beautiful…….

We were fortunate at Titusville to be docked on the T-head (end of the dock).  It afforded us some beautiful sunrises as the boats came and went through the mouth of the harbor.  If you look close you will see the fins of dolphins topping the water in the early morning and putting on a show for us to enjoy.  They were very active each morning and evening in this harbor.

           

Our Grandson Bryson’s school project for next month is about Astronaut Neil Armstrong.  And what luck that we were in Titusville.  Because of it’s close proximity to the Kennedy Space Center, many astronauts called Titusville home.  With that in mind, we toured the American Space Museum there and learned much about Neil Armstrong that we can share with Bryson.

            

After absorbing as much local history as we could (on our boat bikes), we decided it was time to visit a local brewery located in the old hardware store.  We were fortunate that the food was as good as the beer (and Ron tried them all!).

        

While in Titusville, we biked for provisions and saw some unique “boats”…..

    

    

…….tomorrow on to Daytona Beach…………..