Our mail arrived & the weather cleared so we left Titusville this morning. Yesterday Brenda took me to the grocery store. I only needed milk & bread. Well I came home with a carload of stuff. Thanks Brenda. Thanks to Jims help this morning we got off without a hitch.

The ICW was mostly calm so we made good time. We are anchored  south of Melbourne Beach.

We havent anchored in weeks so it feels so good to be out here all alone.  Grilled some steaks, threw in a couple of baked potatoes and tea. Ahhh life is good.

We said goodbye to Daytona Beach, Florida on Monday 11/11/13 and headed south to the Titusville Municipal Marina. Lesson we learned on this leg of our trip:  Stick to ' the ditch' don't wonder outside the narrow line or you will touch bottom. 

Our original plan was to spend just a couple of days in Titusville visiting with our friends Brenda & Jim. But as they say boat plans are not set in stone!

As predicted at 4:30 am this morning, 11/13/13, we began to experience strong N-NE winds. The forecast called for gale force winds off the coast and the ICW. Many times the weather predictions have been wrong but not this time. At 5:30 am we were on deck adding an additional line. At the first daylight Russ managed to get onto the dock to tighten our lines and yes add additional lines. At this particular marina the finger docks are low so we are have to exit from the upper deck onto a 3-tier portable step, then onto the dock. With winds 30 mph this can be tricky. 

Throughout the day we have watched as people have scurried to secure their boats and their neighbor’s boats. Earlier this morning two boats broke anchor outside the marina and landed on the shore. 

Thanking God for a safe harbor to ride out this storm.

The weather is forecasted to continue howling until 10:00 pm this evening. It looks like our 1^st chance to leave will probably be Saturday.

We have enjoyed our time here in Titusville and had a great time visiting with Brenda & Jim. They are some great people and we will miss them once we get underway. 

The highlight of the Titusville Municipal Marina is the Manatees. There are dozens of them and they are not shy. I was washing down the deck on the boat & as the water ran off the Manatees appeared & began drinking the water. They would playfully push each other out of the way in an attempt to get under the falling water. Manatees are protected in Florida so you are not allowed to interact with them. So to see them so close was a real treat. This was the first time I wished the deck washing would have taken longer…LOL.

To all our friends making the crossing from the panhandle to the SW coast of Florida safe travels and we hope to see you some of you soon. 

Saturday 11/9/13 we left St. Augustine & headed south to Daytona Beach. The sights along the way were breathtaking. As always the birds are plentiful and make me look like a good photographer. 

The dolphins played in our wake and you could hear the noises they make chatting with each other and air coming out their blow holes. God made some beautiful creatures.

There are not shortages of docks some more creative than others.

Saturday afternoon we settled into the Halifax Marina in Daytona Beach. The weather again forced us to stay an extra night.  No one wants to deal with an angry ocean that causes the ICW to rumble. We did run into Randy & Barb, Lazy Dolphin again. They are on anchor just outside our marina. They were able to turn us onto a nearby (within walking distance) local Italian restaurant where we all ate delicious food.

Tomorrow Monday we head out to Titusville. We plan on spending a few days there visiting friends.

I will continue to say WE ARE HAVING A BLAST!

Wednesday night 11/6/13 we spent a relaxing night at floating docks at Jacksonville Landings. The lights were breathtaking as you can see from this picture.

Thursday 11/7/13:  Our trip planner suggested a shove off time of 6:00am. Only problem, it was still dark at 6:00 am so we left at 6:45. We rode the tide seeing 10 knots. Now that’s flying for us! 

After 10 months of planning we finally reached the ICW at 8:52 am.  We were greeted by several Dolphins and I am sure they were saying ‘Welcome to the ICW’.

The current stayed with us as we pushed on to St. Augustine to our final destination Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor. What a great marina. We didn’t feel comfortable docking at the location they had selected for us so they gladly put us at another dock. The staff and accommodations were excellent. 

Strong winds kept us at the dock for another day. No problem. We took advantage and my sister and her husband come over and meet us for lunch. 

Weather permitting we continue our southward journey tomorrow.

We are having a BLAST!!!!

This morning at 9:45 am we left our home dock in Green Cove Springs, Fl.

Heading north to catch the ICW out of Jacksonville then south.  Its an exciting day for us.

Be sure to check back on this blog to follow our adventures.

Update: We are still in Green Cove Springs, Florida waiting to leave. We finished up all the "boat" stuff Friday. Yea! We have some personal business to deal with on Monday then we hope to get out of here either Tuesday or Wednesday. 

We got a nice surprise yesterday when we looked up & saw another Great Harbour GH37 coming into port. It was Barb & Randy Semper on Lazy Dolphin. Nice to meet other GH37 owners. 

Also our friends Winnie and Wayne have returned from their trip to Europe. Cant wait to catch up with them. I see dominoes in our future. Winnie is the dominoes queen.

Update on our plans

We just returned from a week at the AGLCA Joe Wheeler Rendezvous, Alabama. It was a great learning experience and we meet some awesome people. We went by car but plan on docking at the spring rendezvous in Norfolk, VA.

We continue to get ready to head out for the winter. A friend told us 'the hardest thing to do is get away from the dock'.  We are living those words. LOL. There always seems to be one more thing to do.  Our plans are to leave next week…..ok another cruising saying “plans are written in sand.”  Do I need to say anymore!!!

To all our land locked friends we will miss ya. To all our looper friends keep an eye out for us we will be on our way soon.