Sun Spirit

It took us five days to get back here and we are at the same dock waiting for our haul out. We are sad that this journey is ending but it is all for the best. Today we relax as the work starts tomorrow - getting this boat ready for summer storage and it is hot, hot, hot! Here’s how the week went after Telemar Bay last Wednesday: Thursday - Titusville. We heard on the radio that there was a rocket launch that afternoon - a military communications satellite was being launched and we had the perfect view. They tell you a 2 hour window of time and unfortunately we missed the blast off but saw the rocket streaming up into space. Friday - Daytona. The weekend had started in Daytona and we were rocking and rolling with all the speedboats passing us from both directions. The ICW becomes narrow and we had to keep a sharp eye out all the time. Some of the larger powerboats were nice enough to slow down and warn us on the radio that they were passing. Busier than the 401 on Saturday nig...

Yes we have made the decision that it is time to come home. Although it probably sounds wonderful to be isolated on a boat in sunny warm weather, it has become somewhat confining.  We have to keep to ourselves - no socializing which is a huge part of the cruiser life! No restaurants, shops....you all know because it is even stricter at home. We never intended to stay in Vero Beach for so long but it became obvious that most of southern Florida was shutting down to boaters. You can still get gas but many marinas are not taking transient visitors. It will take 5-6 days to get back to Green Cove Springs and then we have to wait until the marina can fit us in for a haul out. Everyone is coming back early, so they are jam packed busy. So what were our days like at Vero? Woke up early cause we were usually in bed right after sunset: Breakfast on the back patio: Go to the dingy dock to fill up our water containers and empty them into the water tanks - not every day as our ...

What to do? Are we better off staying on this mooring in Vero Beach (fairly isolated) or risk being exposed on the drive home with an overnight stay somewhere? Our health insurance coverage is fine - thank you CAA, and we have lots of food on board since we had intended to be in the Bahamas. For now, we are going to stay here until early next week and then reassess the situation. Here’s what we are doing to entertain ourselves. We take the dingy to shore and go for some long walks. We can walk to the beach, the park or go across the big bridge that crosses the ICW. The view from the bridge looking towards the mooring area: The view looking at the ICW: We go for dingy rides: Lots of reading (thanks for all the books Kim & Don) and downloads from the library. When the wifi is good we can watch programs on the iPad otherwise it is the phone and our unlimited data. Comments??

In light of everything going on with coronavirus, we have unfortunately made the decision that the Bahamas is a no go this year. We got started so late and have been reading that some Caribbean islands are quarantining boaters arriving in the country for 2 weeks at anchor before they will let them land. So far we feel fairly safe and somewhat isolated on our boat. Since we stocked up for the Bahamas we have lots of frozen meat, canned goods and dry goods. We hope to move further south before slowly heading north again. Now for the story of Vero Beach. We arrived at this lovely place on Friday. Mooring balls are the way visitors are accommodated here.  It gets so busy that most boats must “raft off” with another boat at each mooring ball.  We were lucky as the owners of our buddy boat are not even here so we have lots of privacy. By the way, the cinnamon buns turned out pretty good considering the small propane oven. One of the great things about ...

We finally started moving on Tuesday Mar 10, slowly making our way south on the ICW. We made it to Daytona and put the anchor down for the first time for an overnight stay. Gunter made a nice pasta dinner with some leftovers we had. Life on a boat is good. The anchor worked fine and we both slept without any worry. Pulling the anchor up the next morning was an experience however as the chain and anchor were coated with black muck - lesson for us - figure out how to use the wash down hose at the bow to clean the muck while you pull it up. On Wednesday we travelled to Titusville which is part of the Space Coast of Florida. There wasn’t any launches planned until the weekend however, so there was no point in hanging around. The marina here has mooring cans available for a very reasonable cost which included all the marina facilities - which you have to dingy to. There is a real strategy to get hooked up to one of theses moorings, for those of you who are no...

After having some engine work done, we left Green Cove Springs on Wednesday March 3rd, exactly one month after we assumed ownership of Sun Spirit. Passed under the first bridge - there will be many more to come on the ICW. Our first stop was in Jacksonville at a free dock in front of the football field, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The only time you pay for a dock here is on Sundays. After docking, we realized our alternator was not charging our batteries. Luckily we have solar panels that do charge and we were still able to start the engine. After a few phone calls, we decided we could still leave in the morning and get to St. Augustine to meet an electrician. Jacksonville is a huge shipping port with many freighters, shipping containers, barges, tugboats and one lonely cruise ship. The next morning we started south on the ICW - some  beautiful natural wetlands in some areas and million dollar homes in other areas. ...