10/20/15: Ft. Myers, Florida

We continue to get reacquainted with downtown Ft. Myers and love all the activities and friendly marina atmosphere.

9/25/15: Forest River Marina – Ft. Myers, Fl = 2 locks & 35.3 NM

We left the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin on May 7, 2015 with plans to head to North Carolina after a brief stop in Green Cove Springs. But like they say, all boat plans are written in sand. The extended weather forecast never set right with us so we decided to cruise the St. Johns River. Excellent choice! Now just over 4 months we find ourselves back at Ft. Myers. Praising God for His protection.

Life is good!

Lake Okeechobee Canal Sunrise

Franklin Lock

Foggy Morning on Caloosahatchee River

9/24/15: Clewiston, Fl – Forest River Marina, LaBelle, Fl = 1 Lock & 23 NM

Since we didn’t have to go far we didn’t leave at the crack of dawn. Although I am an early riser this was nice to not have to wake to an alarm clock. The Okeechobee Canal was flat and beautiful. It was a great day on the water.

This is the 2nd time we have seen the Spoonbills on the Okeechobee

Beautiful Lake Okeechobee Canal

A peaceful view!

9/23/15: St. Lucie River Anchorage – Roland Martin Marina, Clewiston, Fl = 3 Locks &  46 NM

Anchor up at the crack of dawn and the only traffic on the river were a few practicing rowers. All three locks opened on demand and we went through with no problem. 

Lake Okeechobee had a little roll to it but nothing like our 1^st crossing on the river. When we arrived at Roland Martin the restaurant was closed for remodeling so they offered us a car. We had a great dinner at the local Sonny’s BBQ.

Port Mayaca Lock - Entrance to Lake Okeechobee from St. Lucie

 Some Lake Okeechobee Birds

9/22/15: Melbourne Beach Anchorage – St. Lucie River Anchorage = 70 NM

The traffic along the ICW has been minimal since we are ahead of the snowbirds. We were glad to see that the St. Lucie Inlet and the St. Lucie River had minimal traffic as well.

The weather forecast showed a wicked storm headed our way but the anchorage we picked had plenty of protection. We anchored then sat outside watching the lightening off in the distance. The storm split and went around us leaving us with 0.04 Knot winds. 

Good Morning from St. Lucie River Anchorage

We never get tired of seeing these guys in our wake.

9/21/15: Daytona Beach Anchorage – Melbourne Beach Anchorage – 76.5 NM

It was another beautiful day on the Florida ICW. We anchored at a new (for us) spot at the Melbourne bridge just north of the Melbourne City Marina.

When we pulled in there was a guy & girl operating a Flyboard. It was great entertainment:

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

 A Flyboard is a type of water jetpack attached to a personal water craft (PWC) which supplies propulsion to drive the Flyboard through air and water to perform a sport known as flyboarding. A Flyboard rider stands on a board connected by a long hose to a watercraft. Water is forced under pressure to a pair of boots with jet nozzles underneath which provide thrust for the rider to fly up to 15 m (49 ft) in the air or to dive headlong through the water down to 2.5 m (8 ft).

The next morning we pulled anchor at sunrise to continue south.

9/20/15: Beach Marina, Jacksonville Beach, Fl – Daytona Beach Anchorage = 72.3 NM

When we left Green Cove on Tuesday 9/15 the weather looked good. Two hours into our trip the wind picked up to around 15- 20 Knots and there were a few rain showers. Our plans to anchor out at St. Augustine changed to docking at Beach Marina, Jacksonville Beach, Fl.  The weather prediction went from bad to worse keeping us at the dock for 5 days.

On Sunday 9/20 the weather had cleared and we threw off the dock lines. We don’t typically like to travel on the weekends because of local boat traffic but forged ahead.

Apparently it was ‘take your dog out on the water day’.

Two dogs - I hope they can swin

Dog on Paddleboard 

Just a man and his dog fishing.

We made it a long day and continued onto our favorite anchorage in Daytona Beach. All in all the day turned out to be a great day on the water.

The anchorage served both a beautiful sunset and sunrise.

Sunset at Daytona Beach Anchorage

Sunrise at Daytona Beach Anchorage

Tomorrow we will continue south. 

9/15/15: Green Cove Springs, Fl – Beach Marina, Jacksonville, Fl.  48 NM

This morning we threw off the dock lines and are headed south. We will miss our home port of Green Cove Springs but the water calls us.

We first arrived at Green Cove on May 14 with intentions of spending only a few days then heading north to North Carolina.  But as the saying goes “Boat plans are written in sand.”  We had some work done at Holland Marina in Green Cove and when it was done we just never got a good extended weather forecast.  So we opted to stay and play some on the St. Johns River. Tricia & Hobby aboard Kristin Noelle joined us & we cruised all the way down the St. Johns to Sanford enjoying every minute of quiet anchorages and smooth waters.

Of course we pulled back into Tom Holland Marina to get a few more things done. After close inspection we decided to replace out motor mounts and our house batteries. Ouch to the pocket but necessary.

This is 4 of the 6 new batteries we installed.

New motor mounts.

 A big shout-out to Tom Holland Marina for always providing excellent service at a reasonable price. Again his crew fixed all our problems that other marinas either just flat out failed to fix or made worse. Sure wish he had a 2nd Marina on the west coast of Florida.

8/3/15: Beach Tree Marina, Sanford, Florida

As it goes in the boating world, we had planned on staying 1 week and we were having such a good time we extended our stay to 2 weeks. Our plans were to leave this morning and slowly make our way back to Green Cove Springs, but the weather has altered our plans. So another day here at the Beach Tree Marina which is not a problem. We have been welcomed into the fold here at the marina by the local boaters and business owners. Life is good.

Twelve Stones & Kristin Noelle Docked at Beach Tree Marina, Sanford, Florida

We have enjoyed lots of time in the pool.

There are lots of turtles here at the docks.

After the first week here we went to Green Cove Springs and got our truck. Tricia & Hobby rode up with us to the get the truck so they could check out Holland Marina. We stopped off at Aunt Catfish’s in Port Orange for a delicious meal on the way up making the trip worthwhile.

Having our vehicle here gave us the opportunity to do some shopping and site seeing. We took a morning and went to Blue Springs State Park.  The Manatees showed up making it a successful trip.

Manatees enjoying the spring.

You can see a fresh cut on this little guys head. 

Blue Springs State Park

While at the dock a Sea Plane landed and tied up a couple of slips down from us. 

7/20/15: Hontoon Island – Beach Tree Marina, Sanford, Fl – 13 NM

After spending a quiet weekend at the Hontoon Island State Park docks we threw off the lines and headed south to Sanford.

The birds are always spectacular!

Everything is on the move after dark.

The river is peaceful and relaxing.

The St. Johns River actually continues several miles south of Sanford however the water levels stops us just before the I4 bridge. We had beautiful weather for our short trip and docked at the marina before noon.

The last time we were here was in late 2013, for our Twelve Stones ‘shake down’ cruise. We stayed here for a week then and returned this time because of the deli, easy in/out access, restaurant, pool, live entertainment, & excellent staff.

Looking forward to some serious pool time.

7/16/15: Parramores Creek Anchorage – Hontoon Island – 20 NM

Hontoon Island State Park is a 1,650 acre island tucked away on the St. John’s River southwest of Deland, Florida. The island is only accessible by Park Ferry or private boat.

There is ample docking at Hontoon for pleasure boats and there are two t-head docks which will accommodate boats the size of Twelve Stones. With our Florida residence discount the docking fee was only $10.00 per night (water & electric included), now that’s a deal.

Twelve Stones & Kristin Noelle at Hontoon Island Park

We decided to stay three nights so we didn’t have to travel the river on the weekends. We dropped our dink, exploring the different channels, as well as a few trips to the restaurant by the bridge.

The St. Johns River never fails to deliver 

up some beautiful creatures.

Every night at the Hontoon dock this big gator comes out and patrols the area.

7/15/15: Murphy Creek Anchorage – Parramores Creek Anchorage – 33 NM

The trip across Lake George was uneventful. Thanking God for a good wind direction. We anchored just north of the Astor Bridge at the canal that goes to Parramores Campground.  

Tricia & Hoppy dropped their dink & we went to Buck N’ Kat’s Café at Parramores for breakfast. My sister, Linda & her husband,  Danny joined us with some of their friends.

After breakfast, up with the anchors and headed to Hontoon Island.

7/14/15: Outback Crab Shack – Murphy Creek Anchorage– 33NM

Even though the outside temperature reached a ‘feels like 106’ the breeze kept us comfortable all day.

Murphy Creek never disappoints us as far as anchorages go. Plenty of secluded placed to anchor & after dark no other boats moving on the creek. We stayed 2 nights on anchor which gave us time to drop the dink and do some exploring.

Twelve Stones on anchor at Murphy Creek.

Exploring channels.

Life is good!

7/13/15: Green Cove Springs – Outback Crab Shack – 5.5 NM

Around noon we threw off the dock lines to start our trip south on the St. Johns River.

Our Looper friends Tricia & Hoppy aboard Kristin Noelle had left Ortega early in the day and were insight. They have decided to join us as we go south on the St. Johns River. We had originally met Tricia & Hoppy at the 2013 Looper Rendezvous at Joe Wheeler

in Alabama. We hope they like the St. Johns as much as we do.

It was just a short trip over to the Outback Crab Shack. After a great dinner we spent a peaceful quiet night tied to the free floating dock.