Ho ho ho! Three weeks just slid by when I wasn’t looking, and here we are at the jolly holiday season. Once again, I’m playing catch up. So here are the highlights of the recent past.
At the southern end of Georgia we opted to go up the St. Mary River a ways, to the town by the same name. What fun! It was holiday time, and we hit the parade day. Santa was in a horse drawn sleigh with Mrs. Claus and a local child. At each of the 10 corners along the boulevard the procession stopped and a troupe of 6-12 year old dancers regaled the crowd with recital numbers. The DPW then hit a button and lit trees along the next block’s boulevard. What a hoot. When the procession finally reached the reviewing stand (where a local talent had been entertaining) and the huge Christmas tree, Santa took the little girl by the hand and walked to the tree. As he reached out to touch it, the lights of the tree came on! MAGIC! Who knew that Fred would be invited to press the magic button and bring the tree to life for Santa?
Was a very special evening. Next morning we bought shrimp fresh off the boat, and headed south.
This issue of the Blog covers the entire east coast of Florida—slightly more than 750 miles. Florida has nominally been divided into 4 sections, to wit: the northernmost First Coast (St. Augustine etc.) with it’s historical towns and forts, followed by the Space Coast, dominated by the Kennedy Space Center and including the towns of Cocoa, Melbourne and Titusville. Interestingly, the technology industry rules here, but Kennedy’s 140,000 acres also harbor lots of wildlife (of which we’ve seen little). Next is the Treasure Coast, so called because of shipwrecks that occurred here, (Ft. Pierce is the major port) and finally, the Gold Coast, described in Managing the Waterway (our cruising bible) as ‘wealthy, opulent, decadent, crowded and expensive’. Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and Miami are the cities here.
Florida is flat. And mostly at sea level---the highest elevation in the Keys is 18 feet above sea level at Key West. The coast is also peppered with islands, large and small. Here is a quote from MTW--a description of the Islands of Florida:
If an island is covered with hardwoods, such as live oaks or pinelands in sawgrass, it’s called a hammock, or more precisely, a hummock. If the island is mangrove or pine, then it’s a key. If the island is covered with willow or bay trees, it’s a head. An island of cypress is a dome. Florida is so flat that a few inches of elevation make a huge difference. Raise the soil a tiny bit above the waterline and a the island becomes a buttonwood hammock instead of a mangrove key… And an island created by canals and covered with houses is called a development.
In the First Coast St. Augustine is always a favorite stop. This time the wind was whipping and at docking time, we had to ‘stand by’ while a ‘situation’ was resolved. Seems the big sailboat ahead of us got turned sideways in the slip. So glad it wasn’t us! We spent two days—had some boat work done by Darryl, shopped, and walked to the Lighthouse Theater to see the local production of “Duck Hunter Shoots Angel” written by Mitch Albom, (he who wrote “Tuesdays With Morrrie”). It is a funny show with lots of valuable messages; was well done and a delightful evening.
Our main stop in the Space Coast was at Cocoa Village where we docked next door to CHRISTINA SEA, a Great Harbour 47. Fun to visit with George and Christy! Andy Allen from CEE DEE (he lives in Cocoa Beach, across the Indian River) also stopped by, and we’d followed PELICAN down the coast, so we had a Mirage good time of it!
We languished in Cocoa Village for a couple of days while Fred recovered from an infected wound on his cheek (ask him why people set orange cones on docks…) He’s all better now and won’t walk into any more anchors anytime soon!
Our favorite Treasure Coast stop (especially in Dec.) is Ft. Pierce where the Christmas Light show at the park near the marina entertained us, as well as a whole lot of locals. How great to see the little kids run and jump and dance with the music and synchronized light show!
We have a special stop in the Gold Coast. My high school classmate, Marilyn, generously hosts YA at her beautiful (and again newly dredged and upgraded) dock in Ft. Lauderdale. Getting there is the trick. Florida’s huge population requires many, many bridges over the Waterway, and while most of them have been upgraded to 65’above the water so even the high-masted sailboats can move freely, between Ft. Pierce and Ft. Lauderdale (roughly 100 miles) no less than 26 bridges required our serious attention. Only 11 needed to be opened to accommodate our 19’ height. Like ‘Location’ in Real Estate, with bridges, Timing is Everything. Fred has become masterful at using the GPS to adjust our speed for the correct arrival time, thereby reducing the amount of ‘hovering’ while awaiting the scheduled opening of the bridge.
South of Miami (not your-ami, it’s MYami), we found a great new stop at Boca Chita! What a delightful little Key—first developed by Mr. Honeywell, yes, THE Honeywell, it now is managed by the National Park Services. With our Golden Passport we paid a hefty $10 for one of the most pristine stops we’ve made. Palm trees, ocean beaches, manicured walkways—who could ask for more?
Next day we got a spot at the non-marina in Blackwater Sound, where Sr. Frijoles Mexican Restaurant has been a favorite stop when we travel by car. And while there we did rent a car, and go to and from Ft. Lauderdale airport to spend a delicious day with son Geoff. The Army sent him from his current posting in Seoul, Korea to Washington, DC for meetings, and bless his heart, he added 2 days of leave to fly to FL and spend a day with us. Nice.
One more day of travel (a day in the boat is an hour in the car, remember?) and the last 50 miles were covered. We’re back in our favorite slip (#16, in case you wondered) at Banana Bay in Marathon, FL, the center of the Keys. We’ll be here at least through January, and next week expect 4 of the 7 ‘children’ to arrive for Christmas! Banana Bay has an attached motel, so we’ll have plenty of room for all 14 guests and are looking forward to a very special Holiday.
And may yours be special as well! Remember to breathe, and share love and peace as you celebrate in your unique way!
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