Space Center

Leaving Vero Beach, we saw many pretty sites and had good weather.

This small island had a long sand bar, King commented it would be a good place to fish.

A barge that is dredging the ICW.

We anchored at Melbourne Beach.  I finally got a picture of a dolphin. There were several swimming around the anchorage.

A picture of Kennedy Space Center from the boat from the ICW.

We are staying at Titusville Municipal Marina.  Titusville has a historic downtown; many of the buildings kept the old signs.

A manatee came up to our boat.  Mantees like to drink fresh water, but it is against the law to give food or water to manatees.  We were washing the mud off the front of the boat and the manatee was trying to get some fresh water.  We didn't give the manatee the water, although it was tempting.  The manatee is large.  Imagine a horse without legs or a neck - thats the size of a manatee.  The head looks like a dog.  They have paddles for feet and a tail.

 The manatee is on its back with its tongue sticking out catching fresh water that's running off the boat.  It's head is pressed up against and under the boat.  What you are seeing is it's chest, chin, tongue and upper lip.  It's flipper is against the boat and in the whilpool.   

King 'talking' manatee.

Five boaters put together a jam session.  We has music, finger food and then ordered a pizza.  It was a very nice evening.  Lots of talented folks!

We spent a great day at Kennedy Space Center.

This is the space shuttle Atlantis.  It was positioned here and then the building was built around the space shuttle.

A full scale replica of the Hubble Telescope.

This building will hold five Empire State Buildings in volume.  It is big! Note the cars and trees to compare.

This is the space crawler which is used to take rockets from the construction site to the launch site. The fuel usage on this is 39 feet per gallon!

Control site for the early space flights.

Remember the early space capsules that dropped to earth by parachute?  This was before the space shuttle that could land like a plane.  It was amazing to see the advancement and technology that has occurred in the last 50 years.

Rocket Garden

Alligators were seen along the bus tour route of the Space Center 

We saw the Space-X rocket launch on March 25th.  The rocket is taking scientific experiments and additional supplies to the Space Station.

Kennedy Space Center is a must see stop.

Money, money, money

Blue Moon, Wild Raven and Jules from Ontario, Canada left Oleta State Park Anchorage in Miami on Monday morning on March 9th.  Wild Raven had a speaking engagement in Miami about their canoe adventure.  They were pleased to receive a medal from The City of Miami.

Wild Raven wave good-bye to us and to Jules.

We traveled to Lake Boca Raton anchorage.  

We use Skipper Bob Publications for our waterway guide book and we heeded its advice to NOT travel Miami and north waterways on weekends because it is so busy with weekend boat traffic.  We were glad we did because even on a Monday there were plenty of boats of all sizes and types out enjoying the day.

Little Boats

Big Boats

Big Boat being towed in by a little boat

Working ship with a pleasure boat and sailboat.

Cruise ships

One of many bridges that must be opened in order for us to pass.

The Canyon

The upcoming section of waterway is called 'The Canyon'. This is a highly developed area, lasting over 40 miles, that is lined with concrete walls at the water line.  The wakes reverberate back and forth making this stretch bouncy when the waterway is busy.  The waterway is lined with opulent homes and even larger yachts.  I spent the better part of two days taking pictures of houses, houses and more houses and boats and more boats.  This is an amazing section of the Loop - imagine this size of houses for 40 miles, one right after another.

And of course, beautiful flowers.

We spent a night at Ft Pierce Municipal Marina.  School days friend, Steve McWethy lives nearby. We had a memorable dinner and evening with Steve and  his wife, Pat, who graciously showed us around Port St Lucie and Stuart.  Thanks for a great evening!

We traveled on to Vero Beach.  It is a great town that really caters to boaters.  There is a free city bus that comes right to the marina.  We went to the beach, enjoyed the St Patrick's Day Parade and a farmer's market.  We also rode to the nearby mall and I bought new shoes.

Pierre and Jennifer and Jules met us and we all enjoyed a fish dinner at the nearby restaurant.

Seems like we are always eating!

Smooth water and a beautiful sunset cap off an enjoyable stay at Vero Beach.

Pierre, Jennifer and Jasmine spent the night.  Next morning, Jasmine rides on Pierre's shoulder to board Wild Raven.

As we were traveling the next morning, we picked up a hitchhiker!!

Marathon to Miami

Our friends from Woodland Park, Dave and Leslie, returned via Miami from their vacation in Ecuador. They rented a car and drove to Marathon to spend two wonderful days with us before heading back to Colorado.  We enjoyed seeing some of the same sites that we had visited together over 25 years ago, when we did a bareboat charter on a sailboat.

Conch chowder, fish baskets and key lime pie in Marathon.

Big and fast boats at Holiday Isle, Islamarada, FL.  We were told they were on a poker run out of Miami.  Lamborghini was there - on display. Zoom in to see the motorcycle & Lamborghini.

We found another pretty spot.  Great scenery and great day.

 King and Dave, who knows what they're talking about??

Lots of fresh-caught fish to choose.

Leaving the restaurant.

Tranquil seas and winds took us from Marathon to Shell Key anchorage.  We were the only boat for miles, but the mosquitoes found us!

A deserted sailboat that had gone aground along the Intercoastal Waterway. There's lots of skinny water all around.

Tarpon Basin anchorage, Key Largo, had a lovely dinghy dock provided by the local government. We walked across the street to Absolute Title Company to sign the closing paperwork on our house sale.  

Our house in Spicewood sold and closed and funded.  We are happy it sold and wish the new owners as much pleasure living there are we had.  We lived there 16 years, longest we have lived in one house. We had enjoyed numerous visits from family and friends.  Good memories.  

John Pennekamp Park is a destination park in Key Largo. We planned to go offshore on a glass bottom boat tour, but when we arrived the seas were predicted to be very rough (6' waves) and the staff was recommending taking dramamine.  I recommended we tour the facility and skip the rough waters and that is what we did.

A Wyland Mural hangs in the on-site museum, with an accompanying movie about the park.

We left Tarpon Basin anchorage about 8 a.m., headed for Marine Stadium Anchorage in Miami.  We only got a very short distance, maybe a mile, when both engines were over-heating.  King turned the boat around and we re-anchored very close to the channel.  Water depths are very shallow in most of the Keys and we had picked up mud. The raw water strainers were completely blocked.  Both strainers had to be cleaned and we were on our way after about an hour delay.

The weather and waves were good on Friday, but for only one day. So, we purposefully cut our time short in Key Largo, or it would have been a week before the weather improved enough to go to Miami.  Jennifer and Pierre from Wild Raven Adventures were camped at Elliot Key and needed to also cross Biscayne Bay.  They had to paddle out to us because we could not get into the shallow land.  They have a speaking engagement in Miami so they rode along with us rather than cross the predicted very rough waters of Biscayne Bay.

Here they come paddling their canoe. 

Not a good picture of Wild Raven crew, but the only one I took.  It was an experience to anchor and then load their 500 pounds of gear up the swim ladder and then put their boat on the front of Blue Moon.

Miami and boats and more boats of every shape and size, from the tiny fishing boat to very large cruise liners.

Miami with the canoe on the front of Blue Moon.

Rain is coming.

 Jennifer taking pictures from the deck.  We are going under a bridge with lots of boat traffic.

We anchored at Marine Stadium.  The view of downtown Miami was spectacular.

This is a very busy anchorage.  Lots of activity early on Saturday morning.  

Sights along the waterway.  Buildings on the right are Trump Towers Three.

Another fabulous sunset from our anchorage at Maule Lake.  

 Homes built along the waterway.

We arrived at Oleta River State Park in North Miami.  Jennifer, Pierre and Jasmine are staying at the campground and preparing for their presentation, ''Montreal to Miami".   We rented a car yesterday and visited the three W's every boater knows - WalMart, West Marine and Walgreen's.  

Google map of Oleta State Park and anchorage.  We are the blue dot in the center of the picture.  The boat just to the south of us is a large trimarran.  It is still here, don't know how long it must have been here.

We met our boat neighbor, Jules, who is also from the Quebec, Ontario area.  He is towing us from our anchorage up to the campground.  Our dinghy motor quit.  King realized the electric motor he bought didn't specify 'for use in salt water'. It was a cheap motor - now we know why.  So, we have a new motor on order - one that likes salt water.