Archives March 2024

Day 306 – 311; 3/20 – 3/25: Wednesday, 3/20 Chris and Tricia arrived from MD right on time and we were off to dinner at our host yacht club in Daytona Beach – the Halifax River YC. It was great to see Chris and Tricia again on Legacy! Thursday morning we were off to Palm Coast and enjoyed a sunny ride accompanied by dolphins in the bow. It was about a 3 hour run to Hammock Beach Marina where we were quite excited to be able to sit by the wind protected heated pool for a couple hours before dinner. Hooray for sunshine since the forecast was for a bit of a spitty day on Friday. Initially, the marina was part of a larger resort including a golf course, pools, lazy river, tennis, fitness center and more as well as several restaurants. Unbeknownst to us, the marina was sold off and now separate. For a “small fee”…. $35/per person per day….we could venture over to the resort via golf cart and “use” the restaurant. Well that was a ‘no’ and we enjoyed a delicious shrimp stir fry creation by Gary, followed by the Baltimore Blast game on Twitch.

Since the Blast were no longer in the hunt for a playoff spot (they had been eliminated the night before), Quantrell, the backup goalkeeper, started against the Texas Outlaws. Blast lost 9-4, but it was good experience for Quantrell. The indoor game is very fast and with balls being played off the walls, it takes some time (and hard knocks) to learn. Michael had the night off except for one short appearance where his experience was better suited for the situation they faced.

Friday morning we were off to St. Augustine in a slight rain. We ran from inside (the pilot house) instead of the bridge most of the way, venturing out to see the dolphins in the bow.

It was a little over a 3 hour run, arriving a little after 1:00. After a quick lunch, we were on foot to get our steps in with a 10 minute walk to beautiful downtown St. Augustine. We met up with a large group of loopers at the downtown marina and enjoyed docktails with them in the lounge, followed by dinner at Hurricane Patty’s where it was ‘all you can eat snow crab night’….. Yum!!!

Saturday, 3/23, was a beautiful sunny day so we were up and out early. We enjoyed a hop-on, hop-off tour through the old city, which in one go would take about 2 hours, but we spent the entire day. Troy was an amazing driver and tour guide, filling us with the rich history of the city…. A small portion of which is below.

Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the ‘oldest continuously occupied settlement’ in the United States. This was 42 years before the English colonized Jamestown and 55 years before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts. The first Thanksgiving, Floridians will tell you, actually occurred in St. Augustine, not New England.

Ponce de Leon is credited with discovering Florida and claiming the land for Spain. So let’s back up that train……Ponce de Leon first came to the Americas as a “gentleman volunteer” with Christopher Columbus’s second expedition in 1493. By the early 1500s, Ponce de León was a top military official in the colonial government of Hispaniola, and island in the Caribbean. He was authorized to explore the neighboring island of Puerto Rico in 1508 and took office as the first Governor of Puerto Rico in 1509. While Ponce grew quite wealthy from his plantations and mines, he faced an ongoing legal conflict with Diego Colón, Christopher Columbus’s son, over the right to govern Puerto Rico. After a long court battle, Columbus kicked him out of the governorship in 1511. Ponce decided to follow the advice of the sympathetic King Ferdinand and explore more of the Caribbean Sea.

In 1513, Ponce led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his first voyage to the area. In popular culture he was supposedly searching for the Fountain of Youth, but there is no real evidence to support the story, which most modern historians consider a myth.

In the following half century, the government of Spain launched no less than six expeditions attempting to settle Florida; all failed. In 1564 French Huguenots (Protestants) succeeded in establishing a fort and colony near the mouth of the St. Johns River at what is today Jacksonville. Many a skirmish between the Spanish and French occurred up and down the coast, attempting to claim the land and force their religions (Catholic vs. Protestant) on all those who were there or came there. St. Augustine was burned to the ground several times in these battles. The Spanish fort (Castillo de San Marcos) built in 1672 still stands as does the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. Built in 1793, it is the oldest Catholic Church in Florida. Its congregation, established in 1565, is the oldest Christian congregation in the contiguous US. Both structures are built with coquina – a natural stone made from small seashells broken down over time and hardened when exposed to air.

Fast forward to the 1763 Treaty of Paris, signed after Great Britain’s victory over France and Spain during the Seven Years’ War. Florida was ceded to Great Britain in exchange for the return of Havana and Manila. The vast majority of Spanish colonists in the region left Florida for Cuba as Florida became Great Britain’s fourteenth and fifteenth North American colonies (East and West Florida). Because of the political sympathies of its British inhabitants, the two Floridian colonies remained loyal to King George and St. Augustine became a Loyalist haven during the American Revolutionary War…. More on that below.

During the twenty-year period of British rule, Britain took command of both the Castillo de San Marcos (renamed Fort St. Mark) and of Fort Matanzas. They permanently stationed a small group of men at Fort Matanzas. Once war broke out, loyalist St. Augustine residents burned effigies of Patriots Samuel Adams and John Hancock in the plaza. Fort St. Mark became a training and supply base, as well as a prisoner-of-war camp where three signers of the Declaration of Independence and South Carolina’s lieutenant governor Christopher Gadsden were held.

We always look at the American Revolution from an American perspective, with 13 colonies from New Hampshire down to Georgia. But when you look at the war from a British perspective, you realize that we’re not talking about 13 colonies, we’re talking about 33 colonies that they had to be concerned with, from Nova Scotia down to Grenada. Half of those colonies – 16 of them – were in the Caribbean.

During the American Revolution, approximately 60 percent of the British military was stationed in the Caribbean, to protect sugar production. In the 18th century, sugar was as important to the global economy as oil is today. The Floridas were located right between the British sugar plantations in the Caribbean, and the northern colonial revolt. The British launched attacks on the American rebellion from both St. Augustine in East Florida, and Pensacola in West Florida.

St. Augustine was particularly important to the British, as it had the only stone fortresses south of the Chesapeake Bay. The British had repeatedly attacked the Castillo de San Marcos when it was under Spanish control, and realized the strength of its coquina walls.

During a series of battles from 1779 to 1781, Spain was able to recapture West Florida from the British. When the American Revolution ended in 1783, England returned East Florida to the Spanish to keep control of Gibraltar. Spain continued to struggle to bring settlers to Florida and their control weakened. Gaining control of Florida for the US would mean gaining control of the Mississippi. In 1819, after years of negotiations, Secretary of State John Quincy Adam’s achieved a diplomatic coup with the signing the Florida Purchase Treaty which officially put Florida into US hands at no cost beyond US assumption of some $5 Million of claims by US citizens against Spain.

Florida would become a United States Territory in 1821. By 1840, the territory’s population had reached 54,477 people. Half the population were enslaved Africans. Florida was named a state in 1845. During the Civil War, Florida seceded from the Union (January 1861), being deemed a “slave state” and fought alongside the confederacy although it’s role was mostly one of supplying beef, pork, corn and molasses to the southern armies.

So much history, yet so much we’ve left out like John Flagler (close friend of John D. Rockefeller) being one of the richest men in the world who built extravagant hotels to make St. Augustine the “Newport of the South”. Those buildings, including the former Ponce De Leon Hotel, are now Flagler College complete with 79 Tiffany glass windows valued at over 130 Million! Also, Flagler’s duping of Franklin Smith as he attempted to build a hotel (Casa Monica) to complete with Flagler…..you’ll just have to go to St. Augustine and get the scoop on those on your own!

Sunday, 3/24 was Gary’s Birthday, so we enjoyed a bit of a walk about town finding a very local tavern for lunch, then venturing to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum – the first of the Ripley Museums in the country. That was quite the display of oddities! The Museum grounds include just one of two exact replicas of Michael Angelo’s David, the most recognized sculpture in the world. The replica was carved to the exact specifications of the original 17’ high statue and weighs 10 tons. The marble is even from the exact same quarry – Fantiscritti in Miseglia, Tuscany.

Michael Angelo’s David was first put on display, front and center of the Ripley property, right on the main drag…. let’s just say it caused quite the stir and even a few car accidents. David, in all of his nakedness, now sits behind a 12-13’ high set of hedges that shield him from the public (you can only see his shoulders and head) unless you walk into the viewing area within the hedges…. Of course we had to go see him! It’s art!

Ripley’s, as promised, was a strange collection of things from around the world, but did give us a few good laughs on what was a cool and windy day. Originally, the guys had planned on golfing but the winds were so strong they changed their golf plans to Monday, so the ladies similarly changed their shopping plans to Monday. Sunday was capped off by am amazing dinner at “The Fish Camp” … highly recommend….and of course, Gary’s favorite German chocolate cake back on the boat.

All good things must come to an end and Chris and Tricia headed back to the cold weather of MD on Monday afternoon, while we began to chart out our next ports of call on our adventure north. Next stop is one night in Sisters Creek, then on to Jacksonville, FL.

We are thrilled to have finally found the warm weather and are not wanting to head north too fast and get ahead of that! Mid June is still our “target date” to be home, but we still have lots of places to explore…. Stay tuned!

Day 303 – 306: 3/17 – 3/20: Sunday morning, we woke up at anchor in New Smyrna Beach to a beautiful sunny and warm day. It was St. Patrick’s day, but we didn’t really have any ‘Erin go braugh’ plans…we’d see what the day had in store. We did have plans with Faith and Dream Catcher to go to brunch at Outriggers at 10:00 am. Legacy and Dream Catcher headed over in our dinghies while Faith rode in with My Bella. Brunch was excellent, and a good time was had by all.

While the others went back to their boats to get ready to head north (they wanted to get some miles behind them before the rain came on Monday) Gary and Carol decided to enjoy the beautiful sunny day here in New Smyrna and deal with the rain tomorrow.

We ventured a bit north and east to Flagler Ave (why is everything named Flagler?) on the ocean side of the ICW. Flagler Ave was great walking street lined with lots of great shops, restaurants and bars. It seemed odd that the 1-1.5 mile street had 3 Irish bars, all brimming with patrons on St. Patrick’s Day, but what the heck. Carol managed to find a couple nice shops and took home a few things, but we didn’t stay long. The streets were well tended by the local police force as the Spring Breakers had descended on New Smyrna! The college vacationers were out in their bikinis and swim trunks. The sidewalks were quite packed but the police told us this was nothing…. Wait til tonight. We decided not to stick around! Yes, we remember those days but have no desire to relive them in our 60’s, unlike some of the other 60+ year olds who were out partying their hardest!

We climbed back into the dinghy, took a swing by the mangroves to see if we could find some manatees (we found none) and had a relaxing day and dinner on the boat…. No corned beef and cabbage for us, but there is an Irish place in Daytona Beach – our next stop!

Monday, 3/18 we awoke to the forecasted spitty rain and cool temps. It was a short rum (just 2 hours) so we took our time getting up and out, leaving a little before 11 am. Getting the anchor up took a little longer than usual since we had a hitchhiker on the chain and he (we think it was a huge sea slug) was good and stuck! Finally got him loose and we were off. We ran from the pilot house instead of the bridge to stay warm, and of course Carol had a call. The cool weather didn’t deter the dolphins as they again joined us for a bit of the ride. This group we’d characterize as more ‘lookers’ and ‘spinners’ than ‘jumpers,’ but we enjoyed them just the same.

We arrived at Halifax River Yacht Club just before 1:00 pm to a warm welcome from the dockmaster and dockhand. The club was closed, but Scott the dockmaster gave us a tour anyway. It was a lovely traditional club with a fairly small marina but also tennis and pickleball courts. Interestingly, the front of their brochure features a statement “Where owning a boat is optional.” Hmmmmm… but it’s a Yacht Club? They had a special place for “Legacy Members” (see below) ….. okay, different Legacy!

Anyway – the club is centrally located near some great shops and restaurants on Beach Street so we wandered downtown for a little tour before Carol’s next call and chose McK’s Irish Pub for dinner. Neither one of us ordered the corned beef and cabbage or “The Gary” (surprised his head could fit through the door after reading that one – see below). Highly recommend both the bangers and mash as well as the Short Rib. Both filled us for dinner with plenty left over for lunch….now that is stick to your ribs food!

Tuesday, 3/19 we awoke to unseasonably cold temperatures (45 degrees) and turned on the heat! We’ve been in search of sunshine and warmth for 10 months….mostly unsuccessfully! We again returned downtown to tour one of the oldest chocolate companies in the country – Angels and Phelps. They have been crafting fine quality chocolates and candies since 1925 and they are yummy!! We went with the one pound box of assorted chocolate of our choice!

Leaving there, we couldn’t resist an “antique shop” that was full of stuff from every Great Grandmother’s house and attic. We saw lots of ‘lookers’ but not any ‘buyers’ in the place. It was a bit of a combination of an antique store, church thrift shop, Goodwill store and a very tired consignment shop. We also stumbled upon a theater that would be having an Improv Comedy show that night (every Tuesday) for only $8.00 admission. We decided we’d return for that after dinner. So after dinner, it was a cocktail at bar at the club and off we went to be entertained…. Or so we thought. Let’s just say they shouldn’t quit their day jobs and you get what you pay for!

Wednesday, 3/20 brought some chores and stuff that is so easy to do at home, and a bit more difficult on the road. Carol found a place for a haircut and Gary found a place for an eye exam in order to keep his drivers license. Let’s just say one of us was successful! You can guess which!

Maria and Todd on ‘Sea No Evil’ were in the adjacent marina and had a rental car so Maria was kind enough to come by and pick up Carol for a grocery store run. Hooray since Chris and Tricia were arriving for a few days around 6:30/7:00 pm. We’d provision, have dinner at the club and then head to Palm Coast in the morning; after that, St. Augustine on Friday….. “to infinity and beyond!” Oh no wait, that would have been when we were in Titusville and near Kennedy Space Center!

As we wrote in the last blog, on 3/16 the Baltimore Blast’s path to the playoffs was a tough one…. They had to win their last 3 games and Kansas City needed to lose 2. Sadly on 3/17, KC beat St. Louis and the Blast’s quest for a playoff spot was over. With 3 games left in the season, this was uncharted waters for Michael Z, playing games that except for supporting their fans, don’t matter. He’s always been in the chase for ranking in the playoffs, a playoff spot, or a championship. The rest of this year, is different… or is it? As a professional, it’s for the fans. As a teammate and athlete, it’s about honor. We know he will go out there and give his all.

Day 298 – 303; 3/12 – 3/17: Tuesday, 3/12 we bid Melbourne goodbye and headed north to Titusville, FL – a 3.5 hour run. Gotta love Starlink as Carol had one meeting in the middle of the run; works great except when we go under a bridge! We eased into our slip in the Titusville Municipal Marina, which provided basic services like showers, laundry and 2 boaters gathering areas – one outside with picnic tables and grills and one being a big screened in porch with lots of seating. The people were super friendly and facilities nice enough. What was surprising was the number of boats in the marina that haven’t moved in years! They are literally floating apartments with “window wart” air conditioners tacked onto the architecture of the boat, lots of accumulated stuff everywhere and years of growth on the bottom of the boats. Some were quite the sight!

We passed Mike and Darlene on Riversong at the last bridge before the marina, so they pulled in a few minutes behind us – their slip on the next dock over. We decided we’d all walk over to the nearest restaurant (about 1 mile) called Pier 220 for dinner. They’ve been on the loop, starting in Cincinnati, OH, since mid September, but have met hardly any loopers! We scratched our heads how that could be….6 months on the loop and so few looper encounters? We realized the problem – they started down the river system from Cincinnati about 3 weeks before any of us could pass through the locks in Chicago. Remember how the locks in Chicago were shut down for several months and didn’t reopen until 10/5? So their first several months, navigating the entire river system and most of FL western coast, was spent traveling alone and meeting only the locals….no loopers! That is not at all your typical looper experience and rather sad! Well, we were pleased to break that pattern and welcome them to looping with loopers!

They hadn’t experienced ‘safe arrival drinks’ or docktails on the pier, rafting up together, group potluck dinners, tall tales of fish caught or stories of looper helping looper. Carol promptly swung into action contacting all the other loopers in the area, finding them on NEBO and setting up docktails on 3/13. Best laid plans, however, didn’t work totally as intended….Mike and Darlene were leaving the next day to go to Kentucky to see their kids and grand babies for a week! Oh well – next time! We pressed on without Riversong joined by Walter and Alanna on Echo’s Too and Sacha on Live de Life for some looper time!

Back to Titusville – we were very much looking forward to this port so we could visit the famed Kennedy Space Center. Feeling like little kids, we bought our 2 day passes and started mapping out our path to maximize the things we could see, minimize time in line and avoid groups of screaming elementary school kids…. Yes they come by the bus load! Neither of us had ever been there as kids, so it was a big treat!

Part history and part theme park, we brushed up on our space race history starting with JFK challenging the nation to go to the moon, “not because it was easy, but because it was hard.” JFK wouldn’t personally see that happen, but his challenge on May 25, 1961 (as well as Russia launching the first satellite into space (Sputnik 1) in 1957 and first human space flight (a Russian) on April 12, 1961 (Yuri Gagarin) was the catalyst. The US responded with amazing achievements including the first humans on the moon in January of 1969…..I can remember being huddled around our black and white TV to watch that historic event as Walter Cronkite reported. It was Apollo 11; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon…..”One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The United States would go on to put men on the moon 6 times between 1969 and 1972, something no other country has been able to do. Now NASA, with help from industry, is vowing to do it again.

From the Apollo missions to the Space Shuttles to the International Space Station (ISS), Hubble and James Webb Space telescopes and all the discoveries and improvements to life here on the planet Earth that came from the Space program (GPS, Solar power, and cell phone communication to name a few) it was a great 2 days. A highlight was the Space Shuttle Atlantis on display, after completing 33 missions in space. Like little kids we rode the Space Shuttle simulator to know what it felt like to take off on the Space Shuttle and enjoyed the simulation of future space flight that would take visitors to Mars. Like we said earlier, part science/history and part theme park, just about every exhibit ended in a gift shop and ice cream for 2 exceeded $20! Regardless, it was worth it and made us proud.

Both days, we returned in time for what was supposed to be a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to carry more Starlink satellites into orbit. We sat on the bow of the boat ready for a launch on both 3/13 and 3/14, but both never happened. As luck would have it, we had tickets to the community playhouse on 3/15; show started at 8:00. Launch was scheduled for 6:00 pm; then rescheduled for 7:00; then, of course 8:05 when it finally went….. so we missed it! Oh well. The show was great fun and now we will have to return to see a launch when we return to FL in future years to go to the Bahamas!

Friday, 3/15 took us to the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum – an exhibit dedicated to those who serve as police officers all across the country. It was a very interesting mix of memorabilia, history, trivia and tributes. We capped off the night with docktails with Echo’s Too, Hoppy Trails, Seabatical, Carpe Diem and Next Chapter. Next Chapter has only been on the loop for 10 days…. Virgins! After docktails, it was onto the play at the community theater where we saw “May We All,” a fun play featuring lots of country music and heart warming Americana themes.

Saturday, 3/16 we said goodbye to Titusville and headed to New Smyrna Beach, FL where we planned to anchor for 2 days. We arrived in a little less than 4 hours, leaving around 11:00 am. Along the way was an interesting mix of sightings of manatees, dolphins, flocks of birds and gators. We had a few dolphins ride along with us on the way, but not like before. They were short stints and only one or two at a time.

Our planned anchorage looked a little dicey with strong currents, tidal changes, wind and some severe shoaling. We consulted with Linda and Scott (soon to cross their wake in Charleston) on ‘Faith’ as well as Norma and David (gold loopers from AZ) on ‘Dream Catcher’ who were already anchored, then chose a safe spot to drop the hook. Of course our next step was to drop the dinghy and join them on their boat for a “safe arrival” celebration.

We had communicated with Linda and Scott (‘Faith’) on Facebook and stalked each other on NEBO, but not actually met…so that was great! We hung out for a bit then returned to Legacy for dinner and to watch the Baltimore Blast Game at 6:05 pm. Baltimore played well and handily beat Harrisburg 7-5 with Michael in goal. Unfortunately, the Blast’s path to the playoffs is a difficult one. Sitting in 5th place, they need to win their last 4 games, all in regulation time, and need the 4th place team (Kansas City) to lose their last 2 games, all in regulation time. Why regulation time you might ask? MASL uses a scoring system whereby a regulation win earns 3 points, an OT win earns 2 points, an OT loss earns 1 point and a regulation loss earns nothing. It’s a pretty steep hill, but not statistically impossible for the Blast to make the playoffs. Love them all dearly and hoping for the best, but not putting hard cash on this one!

We will stay in New Smyrna Beach for one more day (3/17) and then it will be on to Daytona, FL. New Smyrna beach is a lovely and eclectic beach town with miles of white sandy beaches, cute shops, great restaurants and art galleries. The big ‘HOWEVER’ this week is that it will be College Spring Break Week AND St. Patrick’s Day. What could go wrong with that???

Stay tuned!

Day 288 – 298; 3/2 – 3/12: It has been another 11 days since our last post. Carol has spent so much time in zoom meetings or on phone calls, it’s been tough to find time to sit down and write the blog. It’s been a trade off of the “must do’s,” trying to enjoy the trip and the “other to-dos.” What’s going on you might ask? Well, Carol had a face to face BOD meeting in Boston from 3/5 – 3/7 for one BOD and countless calls and meetings in between from her other BOD. You know what they say …. “when #$&^* happens”…..it creates lots of meetings and calls!

So back to our adventure….3/2 was day 288 of our journey as we left Fort Pierce, FL and headed to Vero Beach, arriving around 12:45 pm at the Vero Beach City Marina. It was a bit of a strange sight as we approached the marina passing the mooring field. Each mooring ball had 2 boats on it, rafted together. At first we thought perhaps friends were sharing the cost of one mooring ball, but as we got closer to the marina and looked up the cove, they were all this way. We’d never seen that before.

Anyway, we digress….it was a beautiful sunny afternoon so we got on our bikes and rode to the beach for a little stroll. Gary’s knee was bothering him a bit so we didn’t walk too far on the beach, but we did enjoy the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair. The ride there was quite nice – of course very flat, but also quite scenic passing old style FL homes and beautiful mature trees. The Main Street downtown was lined with high end shops and restaurants that we had hoped to come back to, but didn’t get a chance. Gary is quite skilled at steering Carol away from those shops!

Dinner was on the boat as we settled in to watch the Baltimore Blast game against Milwaukee at 6:00 pm. Sadly, Blast lost 7-1.

Sunday, 3/3 began a few days of getting back together with old friends! Nancy and Carol worked together back in the Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems days in Linthicum, MD. It’s been 16 years since Carol left NGC, so 16 years since we saw Nancy and Phil who now live on North Hutchinson Island, Fort Pierce a short distance from Vero Beach. So thankful that Facebook is what reconnected us some years ago and Nancy has been tracking our journey. It was so great to have lunch and an extended afternoon with them and so gracious of them to take us to the grocery store!

We were back on the boat by 3:00 for another Blast game. Those guys had to be exhausted – they played in Baltimore on Saturday at 6:00 pm, finished the game, showered and boarded the bus at 10:00 pm to drive over 5 hours to Utica, NY. They arrived in the middle of the night to turn around and play again at 3:00 pm. They did look a bit tired and lost 10-2. Not their best day.

Monday, 3/4 was another travel day for us, heading to Melbourne, FL and the Eau Gallie Yacht Club (EGYC). It was about a 4 hour run and for over 1.5 hours, we had dolphin escorts on the port, starboard and in the bow! While this group of dolphins wasn’t quite as acrobatic as others, we’ve never had a group run with us for that long. It was spectacular and good to see our “dolphin magnet” was still working! We definitely attract more dolphins than most boats and love to see them; it never gets old.

Check out the videos below where again we were surrounded on all 3 sides – dolphins on port, starboard and in the bow. We divided the video into 2, it was so long.

The club is closed on Mondays so we were not able to check out the restaurant and bar, but did walk around on the grounds. A lovely spot with an equal focus on boating and tennis that is undergoing some pretty extensive renovations at the main club. This place is going to be very nice when done. Carol needed to pack for her trip so it was a quiet evening of packing and a movie; no Blast games!

8:30 am Carol was off to Orlando airport – destination Boston – and Gary was off to get a rental car – destination golf course! Gary’s 3 days were highlighted by 2 rounds of golf, dinner at the home of our looper friends Tom and Diane and 1 day cleaning the boat. Carol’s time away was highlighted by 2 days of meetings and an amazing dinner and tour of the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. While the main purpose of being there was to honor 2 colleagues who were retiring from the Board, we did get to take an abbreviated tour of the exhibits including the current special exhibit “Service and Sacrifice” which focused on JFK’s early life at Harvard and service in WWII (PT 109). What a fascinating place and journey to the 1960’s. If we could only roll the political state of our nation back to those days!

Oh….. one random travel tip…. When you pack toiletries into those little pockets in a toiletry bag, don’t put the tube of toothpaste and the tube of Icy Hot in the same pocket…. Yah, they are the same size and from the back side of the tube look the same. Yuck!!

Flights went smoothly and Carol got back to EGYC around 7:00 pm on Thursday, so we decided to head up and check out the bar. Met some lovely members who we chatted with for a couple hours, getting some of the history and hearing tall tales about boating and fishing!

Friday, 3/8 brought more of Carol’s endless calls, but we made the most of it and relaxed by the pool in between calls and a trip to the store to provision. By 5:00, we shut down electronics and enjoyed a cocktail on the boat with Pam and Ed before heading to Hotel Melbie for dinner on their rooftop deck. What a great view and fun time catching up with Pam. We worked with Pam back in our California Northrop Days! We were all in contracts and pricing together working on the B2 program. We moved from CA to NY in 1995, so have not seen Pam in 29 years! Since then, she’s a Gramma 4 times over and still looks like she did 29 years ago! It was so fun to catch up. We were back to the boat in time to catch the 10:00 pm Blast game in Chihuahua, Mexico where they lost a heart breaker 8-6, the 8th goal on an open net with a 6th attacker on the field.

3/9, in addition to being Michael’s birthday, brought us a reunion with more friends, these being loopers! Tom and Diane (Beachside Cruising) invited us, Jeff and Pam (Sea the USA) and Matt and Tonia (Lil Sudden) over to their beautiful canal front home for brunch. A great time was had by all as we spent the entire afternoon there. We are the only ones still looping (they have all “crossed their wakes”), so we got some great advice on places to stop and things to do as we head up the coast. Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we headed back to EGYC and enjoyed a late dinner on the patio with Matt and Tonia.

3/10 was another reunion! Carol and Leni worked together at Northrop Grumman (NGC) in Bethpage, NY and hadn’t seen each other since 2008…..so 16 years. Back in 1995, Leni and Carol were peer managers and Leni welcomed Carol with open arms as we moved from CA to NY with a 2 year old and newborn. Everything wasn’t wine and roses with the merging of 2 companies and cultures as Northrop bought Grumman, but that didn’t stop our friendship. We became fast friends and rose in the management ranks together becoming peer CIOs at different NGC Sectors. When Carol left NGC in 2008, we headed in different directions, but reconnecting was like yesterday! Steve and Leni graciously invited us to their beautiful waterfront home in Indialantic for an amazing brunch. We could have chatted all night, but again didn’t want to overstay our welcome.

We left them late afternoon to catch the Blast Game in Monterey, Mexico at 5:30 pm EST. Monterey is undefeated this season, so we knew it would be tough. Blast lead for a good portion of the game ending regulation in a tie, but losing in Overtime 5-4 on a penalty kick. Those who know soccer know that a defensive foul “in the box” in front of the goal results in a penalty kick (PK) for the offense. And those who know soccer know that the odds are heavily in favor of the shooter and not the goal keeper on a PK. Sadly, Blast lost in OT dashing their hopes of handing Monterey their first loss of the season.

Monday, 3/11 came and with that….. you guessed it… more meetings and calls! We ran a few errands, returned the car and regrouped to get ready to head to Titusville in the morning. Titusville would be a 3.5 hour run (with 1 meeting in the middle of it). There we look forward to visiting the Kennedy Space Center, never having been there.

Day 275 – 288; 2/18 – 3/2

WOW it’s been a long time since we updated the Blog… all is well here!

Sunday, 2/18 we spent our second day in Jupiter tied up to the outdoor bar….alas the weather did not give us a ‘margarita or pina colada day’. It poured all day, so we took the opportunity to clean the boat inside, top to bottom. People ask us what we miss while doing the loop. We surely miss our family and friends, but I miss our cleaning lady! Oh….. and my own sink in the bathroom….. and my hairstylist….. ok, enough of that!

Monday, 2/19 we left Jupiter headed toward Stuart – a 3 hour run. This was all on the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) so we had lots of no wake zones and passed under many bridges, some of them needing to be opened for us. We turned off of the ICW into the St. Lucie River as we looked for the Fleming dealership where we would leave Legacy for a week of routine maintenance. We were a bit taken aback by the dark, dirty water of the St. Lucie River and would later learn it was due to discharge from the Lake Okeechobee Canal – a real point of contention with the locals. Mike and Sue Pitchford (Cruise Committee Chairs from AYC) graciously took us out for a pre-dinner cocktail (they winter in Stuart) and we later enjoyed dinner downtown at the Boathouse – the only seats were at the bar, so we enjoyed their Happy Hour sliders and called it a night a bit early – the car was coming for us at 6:30 am the next morning!

Tuesday, 2/20 we were off to Scottsdale, AZ where Carol had a BOD meeting and Gary decided to tag along and get in a few rounds of golf. BOD meetings made for long days and nights, but it was nice to be in the warm weather. Friday, 2/23 we boarded the silver bird again headed for Maryland, arriving at AYC around 6:00 pm to meet friends for dinner there. What a nice time we had with Todd, June, Chris and Trish. Saturday, 2/24 was a day of catching up on local tasks and some planning on our return in June. We went to the car dealership, since we sold Carol’s car when we left, and took advantage of our time at home by getting haircuts and pedicures…. Well at least Carol got one!

Sunday 2/25 was a big milestone – for those who know the saga of buying the condo in Annapolis, we closed on 1/31 after a 14 month delay. On Sunday, 2/25 we met with the architect and builder to turn what we affectionately call ‘the dump’ into what we hope will be something amazing. It is currently 2 units deeded as 1 so there is a 2 bedroom/1 bath unit adjoined with a 1 bedroom/1 bath unit….yup… 2 kitchens….both horrible! It’s not been updated since the late 70’s/early 80’s and needs everything! The good news is we have an amazing location and view with an amazing team to transform it. Stay tuned!

Monday, 2/26 we were up and out early again (left Todd and June’s house at 6:30 am) headed to the airport to get back to Stuart. Special thanks to them for hosting us! We arrived back at the boat around 1:00, thrilled to find Legacy looking great! Our entire list (and it was long) was completed and she is ready to take on our final leg of this journey – engines and other mechanicals maintained, carpets cleaned, canvas repaired, drains cleared, faucet fixed and more…. Let’s just say her ‘hair and nails’ were looking great!

We needed to turn around quite a bit of laundry so decided to leverage our own washer and dryer as well as the marina’s – Burr has some wonderful amenities for the Fleming owners including showers, laundry, courtesy cars and covered outdoor gathering areas. Carol had been in and out of the laundry room a couple times – you have to access it by going through the employees break room. When Gary went to retrieve the last load, he somehow got locked inside…. Without his phone…. After 5:30 pm. Yikes! He hoped Carol would eventually miss him, since we were going out to dinner with some new Fleming owners at 6:00 pm and figure out he didn’t come back and go looking for him. After pounding on the door for a while, someone finally heard him and let him out. The things that happen on the loop!

We enjoyed an amazing dinner with Ed and Jacqui who will be starting their loop on their ‘new to them’ Fleming 55 in about a month. It was so fun to get to know them and share our 9 months of wisdom! We initially thought we’d head out of Stuart on Tuesday, 2/27 but decided to take an extra day (being locked in the laundry room was traumatic….just kidding) and enjoy the downtown Stuart shops, re-provision Legacy and enjoy docktails and tall stories with 4 other couples who are Fleming owners that evening. A great time was had by all!

Our original plan was to head back south to Jupiter and Palm Beach to cross over to the Bahamas on 2/29 but the weather, wind and waves had given us enough pause to question the wisdom of that decision. First we would need to wait for a good weather window to do the crossing, then we would need to get Carol to Nassau to fly to Boston for a meeting on 3/5 and then get back on 3/7, then we would need to enjoy our time there and find a weather window to cross back to the US. It felt more and more like the weather, wind, waves and calendar were not in our favor and we needed to wait and do the Bahamas another time. This was to be a real highlight of our trip, but the more research we did the more we learned that the best time to go is April/May, not Feb/March. Thus, we will wait and go another time. Remember the movie Appollo 13 when Tom Hanks says “we just lost the moon?” That’s what it felt like. But as Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said “We’ll be back!”

When Wednesday, 2/28 came, we put smiles on our faces, bid our friends at Stuart goodbye and headed north to Fort Pierce, FL instead of south to the Bahamas. It was about a 4 hour run to the Safe Harbor Marina, arriving around 2:45. Carol had another meeting around 3:00 (this meeting schedule is getting exhausting) but we did manage to have some pool time around 4:00….. YES WE FOUND THE SUN! We decided on dinner on the boat and looper midnight arrived as usual (8:30/9:00 pm)!

Thursday, 2/29 we finally had a morning free of meetings so jumped in the tender and headed to the manatee center to see if we could see some manatees. The guide there said there were some earlier in the morning, but all we saw was a cement manatee statue! Hrumph!

After touring the Manatee Center (that took about 15 minutes), we headed back to to the boat for lunch, and afternoon by the pool and more meeting and phone calls for Carol (are you seeing a pattern here?) BOD work sounds great until something goes wrong! Enough complaining – we got this! We enjoyed dinner and live music at Skipper’s Cove right at the marina, also chatting with others who snowbird there.

Friday, March 1st we headed back to the Manatee center and were lucky enough to see 2 manatees for about a half hour before they disappeared. It was very cool!

Manatees are large, aquatic mammals that are native to Florida. Adult manatees are typically 9-10 feet long from snout to tail and weigh around 1,000 pounds; however, they may grow to over 13 feet long and weigh more than 3,500 pounds.  Manatees have two fore limb flippers that they use for steering movements and to hold vegetation while eating.  A large, round, flattened paddle-shaped tail is used for swimming.

Manatees have finely-wrinkled, leathery looking thick skin that continuously flakes off. Algae often grows on the backs and tails of manatees, which makes their skin color appear green or brown.  Barnacles (found mostly on coastal dwelling manatees) often leave round scars from attachment sites; movement from saltwater to freshwater habitats clears the animals of these saltwater hitchhikers.  The manatee’s flaky skin adaptation also helps keep the algae and barnacles from building up on the animals. These unique aquatic creatures definitely have some highly specialized features.

Manatees are aquatic herbivores (plant-eaters). Also known as “sea cows,” these herbivores usually spend up to eight hours a day grazing on seagrasses and other aquatic plants. A manatee can consume from 4 to 9 percent of its body weight in aquatic vegetation daily.

Manatees use their tails in an up and down motion to propel themselves forward. Strong swimmers, they are capable of reaching speeds of 15 miles per hour in short bursts. Manatees rest from 2 to 12 hours a day either suspended near the water’s surface or lying on the bottom, usually for several hours at a time.

While most people tend to see many manatees gathered together at winter warm-water sites, during the rest of the year these animals are semi-social as they travel around the state’s waterways in search of food, mates or places to rest. Except for cow/calf pairs and small mating herds, manatees do not need to travel together although they do socialize when other manatees are encountered.

Manatees reach sexual maturity in 3-5 years (females) and 5-7 years (males) and may live over 65 years in captivity. Gestation is approximately 13 months and usually one calf is born. The calf may stay with its mother (cow) for up to 2 years. Male manatees (bulls) are not part of the family unit. Bulls will leave a cow alone after her breeding period is over. Of the wild manatees that reach adulthood, only about half are expected to survive into their early 20s.

We returned to the marina for an afternoon by the pool, followed by a bit of a rainy day in the afternoon and dinner on the boat. One cool thing we saw, but didn’t know what it was, is this stark difference in the color of the water as we headed back to the marina…. An actual dividing line – can you see it below:

We wondered if it was a demarcation where there are sea grasses under the dark side and no sea grasses under the lighter side? It wasn’t a shadow. It wasn’t pollution. Turns out this is where the salt water from the ICW and the fresh water flowing from the creek meet. Very cool!

Saturday, 3/2 was our day to pull up stakes and head to Vero Beach (about a 12 mile, 2 hour run) to the Vero Beach City Marina, adjacent to the Vero Beach Yacht Club. We left around 11:15 and had lunch along the way, arriving at the marina around 12:45. More on Vero Beach later. We’ve covered a lot of ground (or should I say water) in February…. 12 trips and almost 500 miles at an average of 8 knots.

Good news is…. We finally found the sun and some warm weather!