MV SERENDIPTY Larry and Erin

Saturday November 16, 2019 Anchored in the Indian River iat Melbourne Florida

Good afternoon everybody. Again I am further behind than I had hoped today in writing onto the blog but we are not behind in our travels south. I am writing this from Melbourne FL. We have covered a lot of ground since I last wrote.

The trip to Jacksonville was not unusual. We still had lots of marsh but more homes and recreation areas were showing up. Florida is big on recreation areas and there were many along the way. There were also remnants of the hurricanes with many docks being destroyed. Some were rebuilt but for the most part may in the smaller rivers and cuts are obviously summer homes or fishing cottages.

While we may be losing the Georgia marshes we are going to a land of bridges. I say this because Florida waterways are basically a separation between the Sea Islands and the mainland of Florida. As with the Outer Banks of North Carolina all of the Sea Islands have become resorts starting with Amelia Island at the St. Mary's River and working your way down all the way along the intercoastal waterway to Miami. The rivers that form the waterways connect in such a way as to afford a very good luck at different communities and the emphasis that they place on either being a residential or a resort community.

An example would be Daytona Florida they have a wide river that separates the city. One side is Daytona the other side is Daytona Beach. Both communities have high-rise resorts hotels and condos and looked very much like it could be Atlantic City in New Jersey. On the other hand new Smyrna Beach is very much like a very moderate to low income community with some areas being totally resort campers motor homes and fishing cottages. There is quite a contrast all the way down the waterway each community having its own unique perspective on how they prefer their communities to be seen.

Our stop at Palm Coast Maria and dinner was a good one and it was a treat for Erin on her first boating trip to the Florida waters. I believe she needed more than the dog needed the walk because she has gotten very anxious about steering the and things that might happen and it has negatively affected her opinion of the trip itself. Not of the spirit of the trip but she has become very anxious as we go in to anchor or get underway or travel down the waterways and I spend a lot of time with the help. She does her share of the hard effort for creating the navigation picture and communicated on Face book with others who we have met that are also going down the waterway so they can share experiences. I almost thought she was going to get off until  St. Augustine.

Once we left the Palm Coast Marina they homes on the canals in this very elite and very rich community were incredibly impressive and pictures that you will see definitely convey that message. Through here the waterways were pretty narrow that yet communities have built on these waterways making it one of the more popular upper and communities on the northeastern coast of Florida. Our destination was St. Augustine today. It was a little bit more of a longer run than we anticipated that we have made arrangements at the St. Augustine municipal Marina for us to spend two days tied up at the marina and two days at the mooring balls. As it turned out we were able to spend four days at the peer which allowed us not to have to dinghy the dog in and out. I should comment that is nice as it is to be tied up here it is very expensive. I was hoping that we would spend more time at anchor. The cost of doing this makes trip a little less enjoyable if you have to tie up all the time we have a capable dinghy cable motor and a very secure anchoring system in a very confident. I am not at all opposed to anchoring and moderate winds 10 to 15 miles an hour and anchor holes very nicely tying up to a Marina you don't get the kind of fresh breezes in the general motion of the boat tied up in a Marina.

The trip to St. Augustine had a lot of interesting sites to say that most impressive as you approach the harbor in St. Augustine at San Sebastian Inlet. It is obvious that this area is a very active voting area and well maintained by the Coast Guard for navigation. We were amongst five votes that were lined up at the bridge of Lyons which connects St. Augustine to Anastasia Island. As you'll see in the pictures there is a fort that guards the entrance that has a wonderful history and is very impressive from the water. We will tour this castle which is maintained by the National Park Service during this day. Much to be seen in this town. The architecture by he characters that developed the city as well as the museums, the churches, shopping and the unique character of the mixture of ethnicities that occupied and battled for the city. The fort's history goes well back to the early interest in colonizing the North American continent by Spanish French Huguenots English and even by the native Indians. We will see all the sights that we can in four days.

It just so happens that we were here for Veterans Day weekend. It brought a lot of people said the city besides voters as it was a three day weekend. Of course Larry got his bigger flags and was flying them proudly while the boat was tied at the marina. In honor of Veterans Day many of the attractions were free veterans with their ID cards of course we took advantage of that benefit. The first thing we did was take the trolley ride which takes the rider to 24 different sites and opportunities to get on and off the trolley all day long as well as having a second day to use the trolley to get around. We took full advantage of that opportunity and Larry even used it to go do some shopping once he knew where to get on and off.

Another really good thing about this stop is with another DeFever 44 owner who was taking his new boat to their homeport of Ft Lauderdale FI. We also met a couple who have a 55 foot catamaran sailboat which has amassed tall enough they can go under the 65 foot bridges. We got to spend two evenings with them one of the evenings we went to one of the local breweries and enjoyed the IPA and other beverages that they offered while having two evenings of arousing competition on the shuffleboard tables us truly enjoyed the developing friendship. We look forward to seeing them again. They charter their boat and were waiting for another opportunity to take out other couples or parties on their boat.

The trip to the fort and other locations gave us a true perspective as to how the local economy and the history helped to make St. Augustine a very popular spot or tourism. Spending time in the city is well worth anyone's interest and time.

The departure from St. Augustine was on a very windy day or generally the wind was right behind us and was pushing us along. As I mentioned about South Carolina and Georgia occurrence make a lot of traveling difficult or very beneficial. If the tide is coming in and you are going in the direction of that current we have seen speeds of his much is almost 10 miles an hour as opposed to our normal 6.8 mph from just the engines with no other boost from wind or water. Of course the opposite is true and we find ourselves doing for knots against the current which also slows us down. But when you balance it out, our 40 to 45 mile days averages about seven hours a day traveling from one place to another.

A couple of the natural sites that we have seen which are always exciting to us are the large numbers of dolphins. We have seen them in every single day and every body of water regardless of the size. Today on 16 November sitting on the fly bridge dictating this entry I am watching a pot of dolphin play and fish right in front of me the scene is wonderful to watch these beautiful creatures swim alongside and to come up and dive right in front of us. In addition to the dolphin we have had several encounters with Manatee both in the marina as well as on the waterway. Most people know that this large slow-moving mammal is an endangered species. We are very careful to keep an eye out so that we do not strike one of these if they were to surface in a. Also the unusual side in Amelia Island, which is the northernmost sea island in Florida. These were the albino pelicans. We're used to seeing Brown pelicans on the waters in the Chesapeake Bay but to see these birds which are all white and look the same flock together on small patches of sand that rise above the surface of the water. They look exactly the same except for their color. They don't fish the same way however as the brown dolphin which dives into the water. These birds either catch their own food well or swimming or they're stealing it from some other bird who has caught fish clever little rascal aren't they? These birds tend to flock together just as the saying says about birds of the same feather flock together. See some of the pictures that I took from a distance. We had not seen these birds until we crossed into Florida.

We left St. Augustine after four days in the marina with the intention of spending three days at anchor prior to arriving in Fort Pierce Florida and spending three days at a Marina. Or perhaps only two we will say. As a right this we have stopped at anchor in Daytona Beach, Titusville and now Melbourne Florida each time we have been able to find some comfort if the Anchorage by being in the Lee of the land at either a causeway or bridge crossing. Unfortunately the direction of the wind today in Melbourne is not favorable for finding a Lee and so we are currently anchored about 500 yards from the western shore of the Indian River in about 15 not steady breeze from the Northwest. And while we had hoped that we could go into the Lee of one of the bridges it just hasn't worked out well Aaron was very nervous about selecting this Anchorage but there was no place either East or West in the river that was going to be any better. Nonetheless we are securely anchored and when the wind dies this should be very adequate. At 3 PM however it's marginal is far as taking the dinghy ashore. We will have to wait and see how this works as we get a little further into the day. The real problem is where may not be able to get the puppy ashore. She is still unwilling to avoid or on the and so we have had to make I don't think you're going to get her to change her mind but that I will be a real challenge is the lens not look like they are going to take. her ashore and I don't think I to take her in  this kind of condition. As best as we tried to plan for this it's just not working out for us on this particular stop. Frankly if I have to say I'm perfectly happy is to be here and maybe not as bad as some of our folks up north and getting the weather.

Our intention is that we depart tomorrow from Anchorage for Fort Pierce Florida where we will stay for two or three days as we make our southbound trip to Key West. I will post the pictures of these places that we had been later today and hopefully put some captions with them so you can see some of the sites that we have and that I've described in this post.

Don't forget Erin as a Facebook which is offering a daily look at what we are doing and has some pictures that she took. Her Facebook page is erinmichaud (erinmurphy) and the Facebook picture is of Abigail the 14-year-old standard poodle) 

Also, we have not heard back from anybody so we are not sure that anyone is following the blog. If you are please let us know.