Jacksonville to the Okeechobee Waterway

On Sunday, November 14th, we left Huckins Yacht Corporation, where we had our bottom job, and traveled 63 miles over eight hours to anchor south of St. Augustine.

Leaving Huckins on the Ortega River with downtown Jacksonville in the background.

A few miles north of St. Augustine, we passed Pete & Linda aboard “Where’s Linda” out for a Sunday afternoon cruise with friends. They have been at a marina in St. Augustine since leaving Marathon last spring. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to spend any time with them as we decided to put in a few extra miles rather than stop for the night in St. Augustine.

On Monday we covered another 50 miles over seven hours to anchor across from Halifax Harbor in Daytona. We then dinghied to the marina and set off in search of Italian food. But first we stopped in at The Crooks Den, an establishment that we were advised by a marina employee to avoid due to its rough reputation, but it was quiet on a Monday evening and the staff and patrons were quite interesting. Next we moseyed in to Stingrays for some wings and finally ended up at Stavros for pizza (the closest thing to Italian we could find). All-in-all, a fun evening.

First stop Tuesday morning was to take “Life’s2Short” over to Halifax Harbor to pump out the holding tanks before continuing south. We then slowly made our way through the New Smyrna area with its many “No Wake” zones to arrive in Titusville seven hours and 47 miles later. A windy but uneventful day.

Wednesday we traveled the final 18 miles to Harbortown Marina on the Canaveral Barge Canal where we planned to spend a few days and visit with Doug & Tammy on “Gypsies in the Palace.” Along the way we saw lots of dolphins that the Captain felt compelled, as he often does, to go out on the bow and “communicate” with!

When we got to the marina Todd decided to back into the slip, something he has only done a few times since 2006. But he did it perfectly and we were all tied up by noon. Doug came by after work and drove us to Cocoa Village Marina to meet up with Norm & Vicki on “Tide Hiker” for happy hour. Then the five of us walked to nearby Ryan’s Village Pizza for dinner. Sadly, Tammy was held up at work and wasn’t able to join us.

Norm & Vicki off “Tide Hiker” explaining to the Captain just how tides and currents work, using the plate as the ocean and green tabs of paper as inlets.

We’re missing you, Tammy!

About 11:00 a.m. Thursday, our friend Kelly Greer from Pickwick Lake on the Tennessee River came by. He was in the area visiting his mother so we made plans to get together. As we were leaving the marina with Kelly, we saw this manatee slurping a freshwater drip from a hose. Very odd creatures, they are!

Other marina wildlife. Lots and lots of birds all around!

On Doug’s recommendation, we took Kelly to the Sandbar (Home of the Fish Taco) where we enjoyed a few spicy Bloody Mary’s and, of course, some fish tacos – Kelly’s first (fish taco, that is)! Then we walked over to the beach where the guys promptly laid down in the sand to bask in the sun. But then the wind picked up and I got cold, so we headed back to the marina.

Since we had access to a vehicle (thanks to Bob & Stephanie on “September Song”), we decided to be like real land-dwelling people and go out to dinner and then to a movie that evening. So we went to Carrabba’s where we had a great Italian meal with excellent service and then to see “Unstoppable” at a nearby theater.

It was a very enjoyable evening although we didn’t make it back to the boat until midnight. But I shouldn’t complain. Doug & Tammy, who actually had to work the next day, went to see the midnight release of the latest Harry Potter movie and didn’t get home until about 3:00 a.m.!

Friday we took off on a road trip to visit Todd’s sister, Jennifer, and family who live in the Orlando area. We had a nice visit and a great dinner and were back to “Life’s2Short” by 10:00 p.m.

From left to right, after me, is Chris, Jesse, Jennifer & Mark.

Jennifer and Chris working together in the kitchen.

Jennifer called Saturday morning to inform us that we had failed to get our mail and several containers of Todd’s mom’s signature snack mix that she had left there for us. So we made a second unexpected trip to Orlando. As it turned out, it was just as well since we had additional mail that arrived at Jennifer’s that same day.

When we returned to the marina, we took off with Doug & Tammy to check out some of their local favorites. Our first stop was Fishlips at Port Canaveral, then it was on to the Cocoa Beach Pier and finally Beef ‘O’ Brady’s. By that time we were pretty munched out, so we headed back to the marina for an early evening.

It was time to get moving again on Sunday. We said our goodbyes to Doug & Tammy, who saw us off about 9:45 a.m. After seven hours and 56 miles, we anchored at Pine Island, five miles north of Vero Beach. It was another breezy day with a few showers but minimal boat traffic for a Sunday.

Today is Monday, November 22nd, and we are currently anchored at the 4 Rivers Loop, about 11 miles into the Okeechobee Waterway. It was very breezy again, but it is supposed to calm down by tomorrow when we cross Lake Okeechobee, which is a good thing since it is a very large, shallow body of water that we’ve heard can be rather unpleasant in strong winds. This is our first time going across the Okeechobee so we are once again in virgin territory.

We saw this rainbow leaving our anchorage this morning.

Our plan at this point is to boogey to St. Petersburg by next weekend so that the Admiral can fly back to Missouri a week from today. However, if it turns out that she doesn’t need to be back in Missouri that soon, we may spend a few extra days seeing friends along the way. Either way, we should be in St. Petersburg within the next ten days or so.