Boat in harbor

Boat in harbor

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Kennedy Space Center...


Titusville has been on Ben's radar since we started making our way north. There is nothing in Titusville but the marina and a cab that takes you to The Kennedy Space Center. We are excited!! 

We traveled from Vero Beach, almost 74 miles away, to Titusville in about 8 hours. We planned two nights here so we could grab a few groceries in town and then spend a full day at the Space Center. We sure were not disappointed. 
The marina was nice enough and had a fenced-in dog park right next door. Crocket is loving this part of our trip north! But it was all about the Kennedy Space Center!

Kennedy Space Center

This is the crawler transporter that moves the rockets to the launch pad. It travels 3 miles an hour, that is sloooow!
The command center on the left and the rocket garage to the right.
These are the blast deflectors, they deflect the rocket blast when it takes off from the pad...check out the heat damage!

This is the Saturn rocket
One of the capsules from an Apollo mission.
This is my stud of a husband.
We had a blast!
Crocket and his new friend at the dog park. 
Jammin Jane at the Titusville Municipal Marina

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Quick stop...Vero Beach!!

62.5 miles north we found ourselves in a small, somewhat-run-down city marina in Vero Beach, FL.
We enjoyed our very short stay by visiting the awesome dog park across the street, Crocket was a huge fan! After the captain took some time to chill from our 7-hour run, we had dinner next door at the Vero Beach Yacht Club. We belong to The Sturgeon Bay Yacht Club and with reciprocal rights we can enjoy yacht clubs along our trip. We were pleasantly surprised by this yacht club...the food was delicious! It started with popcorn and drinks at the bar and just kept getting better. We were here on a Friday so the club was hopping! We met some wonderful members of the club who were very much interested in our Great Loop Travels. We love sharing our amazing journey with whoever will listen!!  Next time we are in the area we will dock at the yacht club and enjoy dinner again and maybe a bit of time to check out the town! Until then...we are moving north! 

Titusville is next...Kennedy Space Center here we come!!!


The water is still very blue and tropical, this is going to change quickly.
It is getting sad to see fewer palm trees...pretty soon we will not see them at all, boo hoo!
Crocket watching for his dolphin friends.
Jammin Jane docked at Vero Beach.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

North Palm Beach Baby!

We traveled from Hollywood to North Palm Beach. It was a gorgeous 57 mile run overlooking enormous houses and even more enormous yachts. Where does all this money come from?

We traveled on the inside (Intracoastal waterway) since the waves were 3-5 feet on the outside (Atlantic Ocean). The downside of traveling this stretch on the inside is that there are a lot...repeat, a lot of bridges to go under. You have to travel under each bridge slowly and then there are the bridges you have to wait to have opened. There are several no wake and restricted speeds along the way too. So, it is slooooow moving. Our trip took us just shy of 9 hours! We had to go under 23 bridges, but worse we had to have 17 of these bridges opened for us to pass through. Our air draft is 23ft, meaning from water line up we are 23 feet tall. The good news is that each bridge opens either on the hour, half hour, quarter to or quarter after the hour. They are all timed so that if you travel a certain speed (avg 7) you can make each bridge on time. We did great with our bridge timings! We had to speed-up between a couple as our last bridge had a restriction. We had to make it there by 3:15 or we would have to wait until 5:15 to get under. We did it with 6 minutes to spare!! PHEW!
The first of many yachts we saw along our travels north. This was in Fort Lauderdale.
We just passed under this bridge, you can see it being lowered in the background. 
Another bridge, but this one we fit under.
Some of the enormous yachts along the way. Crazy sick money in this picture! 
This was one of Jim Moran's (the automobile pioneer, who introduced American buyers to Toyota) super yachts, Gallant Lady. 
This is the busy Hillsboro Inlet (this takes you to and from the ocean and the intracoastal) with the lighthouse in the background. This lighthouse is considered one of the most powerful lights in the world, which can be seen some 28 nautical miles away. 
The gorgeous yacht, Limitless, is owned by Leslie Wexner, owner of  Victoria's Secret. Ben and I saw her while in Mallorca, Spain some 13 years ago.
We are staying at the Old Port Cove Marina, which happens to be where Tiger Woods keeps his yacht, Honey. Too bad it was moved before we got here! This marina is very nice, with a bottle of wine as a welcome gift, food delivered to your boat, shuttle to and from stores, restaurant on-site with a bar and express food to go, free shuttle to stores, great boat house and shower/laundry facilities. It has a great spot for Crocket to run and a nice 2 mile walking trail for all of us! We were only going to stay one night but changed that to two nights after our 9 hour day.
Going for our walk around the marina...look close, Crocket carries his toy every where he goes! 
Fresh Mahi! Jealous!
Just a couple yachts!
Nordhavn...Ben's favorite! There were more here than I've ever seen!

Marina office, restaurant, bar and cafe 
Jammin Jane nestled in her slip 

OOOPS!!!
Next stop...Vero Beach!

Friday, April 22, 2016

Our last supper...


We were eating Greek food at Taverna Opa in Hollywood, with our friends Billy and Beth, while we looked out over the Intracoastal waterway. I'll never get sick of these views! It was a great meal to end our stay in Hollywood. Seeing Billy was really special as we only get to see him when he travels back to Illinois for special occasions (He is a pilot and lives here in Florida). So, to see him here on his turf was great!! We feel so blessed that we have been able to meet up with so many of our loved ones along the way. It makes it easier to be away from home for so long.

We really enjoyed our stay in Hollywood...the food is great, the boardwalk is fun and our marina was right in the heart of it all! We will come back here, I am sure!

The boardwalk in the morning on a weekday...
The beautiful beach

Our walk over the intracoastal waterway via the Hollywood Bridge This is looking north, our marina is on the west side and dinner was on the east which is where the fun boardwalk is located.
Dinner with Billy and Beth at Taverna Opa
Our view at dinner, this is looking across the Intracoastal at our marina...what a sky! 
I am a pizza addict! We have not been able to find good pizza this whole trip (8 LONG months) until Hollywood! I liked it so much I went back a couple hours later to get another one!! I so wish I had more...I am craving one now!
If ever here in Hollywood, stop at Lino's Pizza
We found a good Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Vi, and enjoyed some Pho! 
Crocket had fun, he went for a quick cool off in our friends pool. Spoiled dog!


We have our props back from being repaired and we are on our move north.
The prop guys at work. 

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Visits with friends in Hollywood!

When all our buddies starting moving north a month ago, Ben and I felt somewhat sad and alone. Almost like our network of fun was gone. Well we have been doing just fine! But having buddies makes life so much better! So, it was great to see our fellow Looper friends, Betsy and Dave on Fryedaze arrive here at our marina for a couple days! We hung out and swapped stories about where to go and what to see. They are back on the move north while we are still here a couple more days waiting for our props.

Sending them off with a smile at 8:00am!


No sooner did Betsy and Dave leave, we welcomed a visit from the infamous Allen Schiller. I call him this because I have heard about this man since I met Ben some 19 years ago. Allen is a boat broker down here in Florida. He has been a family friend for many years. Ben's grandpa even worked with this wonderful guy. Ben called him about the purchase of our old 1979 GB. This guy knows his stuff and as been a wonderful resource for us. He has been in the industry since 1979, spending 22 years selling yachts for Alden Yacht Brokerage in Boston. Currently, you will find him bringing in the money for East Coast Yacht Sales.  Check out his profile here: Allen Schiller  
We really enjoyed chatting boats and Springers with Allen! I'm very happy to officially have met him!


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Dinghy ride to see Uncle Bill's boat...

We are only a few miles from where Ben's Uncle Bill keeps his Leopard 58 Catamaran. So, what else do we have to do while we are waiting for our props? Why not take the intracoastal in our dinghy and check out some big boats. So, that is exactly what we did...