Back to the East Coast, Heading South

Todd and I spent Wednesday evening, February 18th, with his parents in Astor, FL. We fried catfish for dinner and then played a game of Mexican Train (dominoes) before retiring to the "Vagabond IV" to sleep. Todd's parents recently moved the "Vagabond IV" from its home at Sanford Boat Works to Astor Landing so they could do some boating while they are there.

Sitting around Todd's parents' motor home in Astor Park, visiting with nearby neighbors.


Sampling genuine Lake of the Ozarks catfish... yum!


We left Astor around noon on Thursday and headed to St. Petersburg to spend a few nights with our good friend Cathy. Friday evening some of Cathy's friends, Don & Patti and Chuck & Linda, came over and we played everyone's new favorite game, "Apples to Apples."

Patti, Cathy, and Linda ham it up for the camera.


Don, Chuck, Linda, and Patti getting ready to play "Apples to Apples."


Jack loves the taste of "adult" chocolate milk.


Saturday we went to Tampa Bay Downs to meet our other good friends, Steve & Lisa, who treated us to seats in the Garden Suite. How special is that?!!! Lady Luck was with Todd and he had a moderately successful day of betting. The rest of us also had a few wins, but the ratio of wins to losses was not in our favor!

Troll shows off Todd's first race winnings!


Steve and Todd enjoying their winnings from race #9!


After the races were over, we went to Steve & Lisa's house where we ate Lisa's signature pulled pork and spent the next several hours playing a number of different games (Hearts, Cranium, Catch Phrase, etc.) before the boys finally made us go to bed.  Lisa and I were pretty certain we weren't ready for bed but I'm not sure either of us felt our head hit the pillow!

Ah, the morning after...!




As you can tell from the above photos, Sunday morning was a little slow for "some" of us, but after a nice, late breakfast prepared by Steve, we headed back to Cathy's for a final evening. We made it back to Sanford on Monday in time to pick up Everett (Hayes) at the airport. Everett flew in from Springfield, MO and is going to spend a few days aboard "Life's2Short" before driving our "throw-away" car back to Springfield for us. That evening we treated Everett to dinner at Gator's Riverside Grill, a must for all visitors to Sanford Boat Works!

Everett prepares to take "Gracie" back to Springfield. Thanks, Everett!!!


The local watering hole at Sanford Boat Works.


On Tuesday we ran errands and made final preparations to leave the dock. Everett helped the Captain with various boat jobs and even asked to go grocery shopping with me that afternoon. Amazingly enough, Everett spent 1-1/2 hours waiting for me to make it to the checkout line in the grocery store and he didn't issue a single complaint! If only all men could be so patient and easy-going!!!

That evening we went to Mark & Jennifer's for Todd's mom's 77th birthday dinner featuring fresh crab-stuffed flounder and both crab-stuffed and smoked fresh grouper. Very nice! We were also joined by Micki & Danny, friends of Mark & Jennifer's. Micki's birthday is on the same day as Marilyn's so we had a joint celebration. Happy Birthday, Marilyn and Micki!!!

Happy 77th mom, that hat looks familiar.


Sister Jennifer presents her crab-stuffed flounder... what a treat!


The Captain and his mother sneaking an early taste.


Everett and the "L2S" crew at Jennifer's house.


The gang is all here for dinner and birthday cake.


Where are the other 70 candles?


Everett and the birthday girl discuss the intricacies of cell phones.


After three seemingly very short months, we pulled away from the dock at Sanford Boat Works about 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 25th. Everett watched as we pulled out of the marina and then began his thousand-plus-mile journey back to Missouri.

It was a fairly cool, cloudy day as we made our way to the anchorage at River Forest Loop, about four hours north. We left the anchorage at 9:30 Thursday morning and met up with Todd's parents aboard "Vagabond IV" near Astor Landing. They wanted to tag along with us on our way back to jacksonville.  We travelled as far as the Welaka public docks where we tied up for the evening.

Along the way, "Life's2Short" pulled in to Georgetown Marina to top off with water and grab a bag of ice. The Captain was concerned for weeks that there wouldn't be enough water depth to get out of the marina at Sanford Boat Works, so he didn't fill up our water tanks before we left. He didn't want to make us any heavier than we already were (especially after loading our supply of beer for the Bahamas), and filling our water tanks would add nearly 2,000 additional pounds to our payload. As it turned out, we didn't have any issues getting out of the marina, but better safe than sorry!

The Captain and his father enjoying a nice afternoon in Welaka.

Thursday evening we walked up the hill to Cafe Bleuu for happy hour drinks and some very tasty appetizers while watching the sunset. We then dined on tacos and "enchilakas" aboard "Vagabond IV" before playing a partial game of Mexican Train. Todd named his mother's dish "enchilakas" (or Welakaladas) to commemorate her homemade, improvised enchilada sauce made out of sour cream and salsa. It really was tasty, Marilyn!

Sunset and cocktails, it doesn't get much better than this!


Todd took Bill & Marilyn for a dinghy ride up the Oklawaha River, locally referred to as the Jurrasic Park of the St. John's, Friday morning hoping to see as many alligators, birds and turtles as we did when we toured it in November. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wildlife out that morning, but they still enjoyed the scenery on a beautiful, sunny day.

Heading out for our dinghy ride.


After the dinghy ride, Todd encouraged Bill & Marilyn to take a tour of the Welaka Maritime Museum while he loaded and secured the dinghy. While they were gone, Everett called from Cadiz, KY to report car trouble. He took the car to Wildcat Chevrolet where they checked it out and told him it needed a new water pump. While he waited for the water pump to be installed, he munched on fresh popcorn from the machine in the lobby, and the staff then invited him to share their Godfather's Pizza for lunch. Before he left, they gave him a Wildcat Chevrolet coffee mug to take with him as a souvenir.

Everett made it home later that same evening and told us he enjoyed his trip back to Missouri, even with the water pump issue, viewing it as "just another adventure!" We are very grateful to him for taking the car back to Springfield and for being such a good sport about its quirks and issues. Thanks for everything, E! As they say, "It's not the destination, it's the journey," and Everett is always up for an adventure!

We had originally planned to spend two nights at the Welaka public docks, but a nasty storm system was scheduled to move through over the weekend so we decided to untie and get a few hours closer to Jacksonville. We arrived at the new Palatka Town Docks about 4:30 p.m. and were both able to tie to a nice face dock, for free, for the evening. We had dinner aboard "Life's2Short" and then finished the previous night's game of Mexican Train.

Lake wind advisories were issued for Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m., so we were up and underway before 8:00 a.m. to beat the front. "Vagabond IV" put it in high gear and reached the 1000-foot courtesy dock at the Outback Crab Shack in Sixmile Creek about an hour before we did. However, we were both tied up and secure before the wind got too bad or the water too rough.

Todd and Ginger trying to get an alligator to bite his rubber frog. Don't laugh as the gator actually had the frog in its mouth and bit off both of the poor frog's legs! :-(


Todd's mom wasn't feeling well for much of the afternoon, but by evening she was doing better and we all went to the Crab Shack for dinner. Marilyn took it easy on her stomach and primarily ate steamed vegetables, but the rest of us pigged out on BBQ smoked ribs and mounds of fried seafood (fish, shrimp, clams, oysters, gator, stuffed crab, hush puppies and french fries). We even topped our decadence off with Black Walnut ice cream and cookies aboard "Vagabond IV" while playing more dominoes!

Dinner at the Outback Crab Shack, home of the 1000-foot dock.


The cold front arrived Sunday morning and produced a lot more wind than rain. By late morning the rain had moved on and it was sunny again, but the wind continued to gust and howl all day. Marilyn went to a morning church service held at the restaurant at 8:30 Sunday morning and then she & Bill came over to "Life's2Short" for a late breakfast of biscuits and sausage gravy.

I spent Sunday afternoon working on our blog update and baking a cake while Todd worked with his mom on uploading pictures from her digital camera to her computer. That evening we dined aboard "Vagabond IV" and wrapped up Saturday's game of Mexican Train before returning to "Life's2Short" to hunker down for an overnight low in the lower 30's.

The wind was still blowing up Sixmile Creek Monday morning but the Captain decided it was time to head toward Jacksonville, and we were underway by 10:00 a.m. With the cold weather forecast to hang around through Wednesday, we decided it might be best to find a dock with power for the next couple of days.  We had hoped to be able to stay at the docks where Jim & Sherel aboard "Sandpiper" have been since they returned from the Exumas last August, but the dock owners wouldn't budge from their $3.00/foot/night rate. So the Captain did some checking around and we decided to go to the Ortega Yacht Club Marina in Ortega Creek, a few miles south of Jacksonville, where we had nice side-by-side slips for $1.25/foot/night and were within walking distance of a Publix and several other shops and restaurants.

"Vagabond IV" getting ready to dock alongside "L2S."




Mom inside her "boat-away-from-home."


Man's best friend...and the Captain's best friend - dad, not the dog!


After a nice breakfast Tuesday morning including some wonderful elk sausage, courtesy of Todd's sister (Cindy) and husband (Ken) in Steamboat Springs, CO, we all walked up to the shopping plaza where Bill got a quick hair cut and the rest of us went to Publix to get a few items. Todd spent the rest of the afternoon repainting the 25-foot and 50-foot markings on our anchor chain and working with his mom on the computer while I sliced and froze fresh strawberries and made a stawberry banana cream pie.

We walked to the Longhorn Steakhouse around 5:00 p.m. for an early dinner and were extremely disappointed at how salty our steaks were. The manager was very apologetic and adjusted our bill accordingly, but it was a shame to see such great cuts of perfectly cooked meat ruined by careless overseasoning. Nonetheless, we all managed to get plenty to eat as we topped the evening off with strawberry banana cream pie while playing Skip-Bo.

Today is Wednesday, March 5th, and we travelled the remaining few miles to Jacksonville Landing where we were tied up in front of Hooter's by 11:15 a.m. Bob, who works for the City of Jacksonville and often comes down to the Landing during his lunch hour, knew we were going to be here and graciously brought us some frozen shrimp from his home in Fernandina Beach. We originally met Bob during our first stay at the Landing in July of 2008 and saw him again in early November when we began our journey south on the St. John's.

"Life's2Short" getting ready to dock at Jacksonville Landing.


Bob visits with Todd's parents on the back deck of "Vagabond IV."


Wednesday afternoon we walked over to "Sandpiper" for a wonderful late lunch of grilled Angus steak burgers, baked beans and potato salad with Jim & Sherel. Thanks, guys, we really enjoyed it!

Jim & Sherel say good-bye from the back deck of their beautiful 55-foot Viking, "Sandpiper."


We plan to leave Jacksonville tomorrow morning and head south on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway whereas Todd's parents will remain in Jacksonville aboard "Vagabond IV" until Sunday when they will begin the trip back to Astor.  Todd's sister Jennifer & husband Mark are coming to Jacksonville this weekend to watch Mark's daughter, Rachel, compete in a track meet on Saturday at the University of North Florida, which is why Todd's parents are staying in the area until Sunday.

Todd & I have enjoyed our time on the St. John's River, and we have especially enjoyed having the opportunity to boat with Todd's parents from Astor Landing to Jacksonville. We wish them a safe and memorable return trip. As for "Life's2Short," southern Florida here we come!