Long Johns and Flannel Jammies.....

Our route and new location: Cocoa, FL

Geese, it's cold down here.  What are we doing here anyway?  Oh, yea, looking for warm weather and our Defever friends in Stuart, FL--just 2 cruise days away.  We had a great ride down here from New Smyrna Beach.  Cold, windy but mostly sunny.  Due to the expected cold temps tonight we plugged into the Cocoa Village Marina.

We walked the town after our arrival.  Very nice little village with loads of small shops and restaurants that are not chains.  We like it here.  Vicki looked for shoes (did you hear me Lisa Cicconi?) and I went to the Vault for a drink.  The Vault is an old bank that has been coverted into a bar and restaurant.  Nice!

We also ran into Jim and Ann O'Mally, DeFever Cruisers members and folks we have met before at the last rendezvous.  They just purchased a slip here and moved their boat here.  They live here too and offered to take us shopping; but, we are nicely provisioned at the moment.  We're looking forward to seeing them again at the Defever Rendezvous in Stuart.

91213/14/16--Jacksonville Beach -to- New Smyrna Beach

Our route and destinations over the past 3 cruise days.  Current location: New Smyrna Beach

What an adventure this is.  We cruised 3 days to New Smyrna Beach.

Our first stop was St Augustine.  We spent Christmas here last year with our friends Mike and Fran. But this year we stopped at the Oyster Creek Marina.  It's a short distance south of the municipal marina and up the San Sebastian River about 1.5 miles.  Very convenient to town and to shopping.  And, no currents to contend with.  Paul, the dockmaster we very accomodating and helpful.

Our second stop was Palm Coast.  Barry and Barbara Kipnis hosted us at their home dock.  We met Barry and Barbara at the MTOA Rendezvous in Crisfield, MD this summer.  We got reacquainted and had a wonderful vist.  We were able to capture them from their busy evenig Christmas social schedule and go to breakfast.  Good time!  The forecasted winds kept us at dock here for two days.

Our third stop was in New Smyrna Beach.  There, we met up with our friends Pete and Lillian Satterlee.  They let us raft up to their boat (which is also a DeFever 49 RPH, just like ours).  We ordered pizza in and had a great time eating pizza and drinking wine and hearing all about Pete and Lil's European cruising in the Netherlands, France etc.  Awesome adventure and their stories peaked our interests in maybe doing this too some day!!  The pictures Pete had on his computer wers fantastic.  Unfortunately, we were so absorbed in the discussion, we did not take any pictures.  Bummer!!

We stayed in New Smyrna for a couple of nights.  Again, the winds and forecasted thunderstorms kept us off the waterway.

Going South, from Jacksonville, FL

Our route and destination today:  Jacksonville Beach, FL

It was a short cruise day today because we wanted to time the tidal currents in Pablo Creek, which can rip at 6 knots.  So, we planned to depart Jacksonville Landing late morning to hit Pablo at slack.  BUT, after a brief walk in the morning we returned to the boat to see signs were posted that "Unauthorized Vessels May Be Towed or Impounded".  Now these were new--not there for the past two days.  Well, it seems that on game days (Jaguars were playing at home) the free public dock where we were tied up becomes unavailable.  "A big stern-wheeler party boat is due there any minute" says the water taxi captain.  "You better skedaddle!"  So,  we rushed our departure to make room for the bigger boat.  And, just in time.  The stern-wheeler was in the channel waiting for us to leave.  That early departure required us to pretty much float in idle speed North to the ICW. And, even at that, we were making almost 8 mph sometimes.  But, it worked out ok and we were able to slow down enough to hit the Pablo Creek bridge at slack--as planned, I might add.

It was getting late, so we pulled into Beach Marine at Jacksonville Beach for the night.