On 3/11/14 we arrived back at our home port, Green Cove Springs, Florida. Since leaving on 11/6/13, a 125 day adventure, we:

• ·         traveled 965 nautical miles
• ·         went through 6 locks
• ·         crossed under 115+ bridges
• ·         encountered gale force winds
• ·         anchored in secluded areas with no cell reception & in areas surrounded by multi-million dollar homes
• ·         navigated the:

o   Okeechobee Waterway

o   Gulf of Mexico

o   Atlantic Intercostal Waterway (east coast Florida)

o   St. Johns River

Our route: We left Green Cove Springs, Florida (St. Johns River) traveled south on the ICW, crossed Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway, popped out at Ft. Myers, headed south skirting the Florida coast (Gulf of Mexico), docked in Islamorada (Florida Keys) for a couple of months then headed north on the ICW, with the final destination our home port Green Cove Springs.

It was absolutely an amazing adventure. 

The people we encountered and the friendships we made along the way…priceless.

 As we approached the dock at Holland Marine in Green Cove we were excited to see our friends Winnie & Wayne on Blue Max. They had Holland Marine paint their boat and she is beautiful. We are thankful we get to enjoy their company while we are here. Winnie is the Mexican Train Dominos queen.

We also met the new owners of Semper Fi N37, Karen & Richard. Hope to meet the new owners of the GH47 John Henry when they arrive at the end of the month. 

Coming back north so soon is bitter sweet as the weather is still cold. But we are here planning our next big adventure, The Loop. There is lots to do & our excitement continues to build.

God continues to bless us each and everyday. We praise Him.

3/10/14: We threw off the dock lines yesterday and left Daytona Beach, Florida.  A good weather window for the next few days will let us get back to our home dock.

Last night we anchored out about 8NM north of St. Augustine in a secluded area off the ICW. It was a quiet, calm night.

As always God served up an amazing sunset and sunrise for us to enjoy.

Good Morning - Beautiful

Sunset view from the back of Twelve Stones

3/5/14:  We anchored out Sunday night in Daytona Beach, Fl. We had the hatch over the bed open and as usual the stars were breathtaking. Looking at all the stars I thought about the promise God made to Abraham.

"I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous 

as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore." (Genesis 22:17)

I wonder how many times Abraham looked at the sky and said “really as numerous as the stars…wow.” We serve a God that does things in a big way.

When we woke up the weather north of us had taken a turn for the worse so we ducked into a marina. Looks like the first possible chance to leave will be either Saturday or Sunday.

The positive side of this I got to see my sister Linda and her husband Danny. We had a great lunch and great visit. Life is good!

3/2/14:  Yesterday the wind picked up dramatically so we made an early stop at the Titusville Marina.  Highlight of that stop was getting to see our friend Jim. He is a great guy so it is always nice to visit with him.

Up early this morning with winds 5-10 knots and a light chop. Hope to get past Daytona Beach today.

As we were plugging along Russ said here comes another Great Harbour. It was ‘Mother Ocean’ a Great Harbour GH47 southbound. It was pretty exciting to see our bigger ship sister. She is impressive on the water.

3/1/14: We spent the last 3 days at the Melbourne Harbor Marina, Melbourne Florida. 

The day that we arrive about 7 miles south of the entrance WE LOST OUR STEERING! Now that’s what you call a pucker moment.

During our 2013 retro-fit we had Mirage the manufacture of our boat install new rudders with a new steering cylinder & steering pump. It appears they forgot to tighten a jam nut resulting in the cylinder becoming disconnected from the rudders. We were in the channel dead in the water with no way to steer. Russ sprang into action, got down into the bowls of the boat & made emergency repairs to get us to the dock. Once at the dock Russ was able to address the problem and fix it.

Now here is the God moment with this story. As Russ was downstairs working to get our steering back I was upstairs at the helm watching for boats & watching our depth and I have to admit I was stressed! We drifted out of the channel & landed EXACTLY on a spot I had marked on our chart. It was a spot we had anchored at in November 2013. When I saw we were dead on that spot I just looked up to the heavens and thanked God for His protection. We serve an amazing God!

We had already made arrangements for AMC Electronics to meet us at Melbourne to fix our autopilot. Again during our 2013 retro-fit we had Mirage install a new autopilot & the thing never worked right. Of course the guy at Mirage said we really didn’t need an autopilot & would never use it. WRONG AGAIN! Dave the owner of AMC came aboard, we took Twelve Stones out and he got the autopilot working perfectly. We are underway as I am writing this & the autopilot working correctly has been like night and day from before. Russ is very happy.

We have learned a lot since we first bought Twelve Stones but perhaps the most costly ($$$$) lesson we learned is …. Just because someone says they know how to work on boats doesn’t mean its true.

The highlight of our Melbourne stop was the time we got to spend with our friends Denny & Linda McGovern. Also Kay & Al on Knot Home came in for a night as they head north.

Life on the water is good.