Welcome to our 2009 Summer Cruise.
This was our tenth year of cruising for three to five months each summer. Last year’s trip from the upper Chesapeake to St Augustine via the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) was the first year since 2000 that we didn’t spend a month or so in the Florida Keys. This year our plan was to continue our trip south, down the Atlantic ICW, stopping at points of interest along the way and ending up in the Keys. We planned more than a month of roaming the Keys, primarily based out of Marathon and Key West. In early July we started the trip back north, stopping at points of interest we missed on the way down, and returning to our slip in St Augustine. After we put the boat to bed for another hurricane season, we returned to Texas at the end of July.
On 24 April we departed Texas and arrived at the boat in Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor, St. Augustine, FL. We completed all the engine and generator checks and test runs. We tested all the navigation and communications equipment. We took on provisions and water, and got everything ready. We planned to depart the Marina early Saturday morning, 2 May, and head for Daytona Beach to visit some cruising friends. Then hop, stop and dally at Titusville, Melbourne, Ft Pierce, Palm Beach, Ft Lauderdale, Miami’s Coconut Grove, Plantation Key, and Marathon. The return hop, stop, and dally list starts with Key West, Marathon, Holiday Isle, Boca Chita Key, Turnberry Isle, Delray Harbor, Jupiter Island, Vero Beach, Coco Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Ginn Hammock Beach, and St Augustine. Well, that was the plan.
http://www.camacheeisland.com/directions/directions.htm
This year we had a SPOT GPS/personal tracking device on board. When we were moving, we had it in the track mode where it will uplink our position every 10 minutes to a communications satellite and back down to a website where our family and friends can follow our progress.
Where is Tropic Daze?
Here is a great sailing story for those who wonder what ever happened to Tropic Daze, our previous boat, a 42’ Lagoon catamaran. We sold Tropic Daze early last year to a family that lives in Sweden with their three young children. Their plan was to buy a boat in the US and then cruise the Bahamas and the Caribbean for four or five months with the family, then keep the boat moored in the Bahamas and fly home. Returning to the boat and the Bahamas for vacations. The husband and his father, both sailors and racers, came to the US and shopped for a boat. The family back home encouraged dad to buy the catamaran. So they bought Tropic Daze and started their cruise, which was the last we heard till we got this email recently.
The email said “I wanted to let you know that we are really happy with the boat and that we are safe back home in Sweden (in August). As you might remember we sailed around in the Bahamas for several months, which was great. We then planned for leaving the boat in the Bahamas, but in the end we changed our minds and decided to sail her back to Sweden. Two of my friends flew in to Nassau and my wife and kids took a plane home. Crossing the Atlantic was a fantastic journey with both storms and almost flat water, lots of animals and happenings. It took us 23 days from Nassau to the entrance of the English Channel. Top speed 22 knots :)”
22 Knots!!! That is over 25 mph. In a later email he stated, “In May we will hopefully get our new 150 cm fat head main sail, which will give some extra power to the boat.” As Tim Allen would say, More Power, AR AR AR!!
2 May 2009
We departed St Augustine and the first departure is always fraught with trepidation. All systems were checked, we ran the departure checklist, shore power was disconnected, engines were started, dock lines released, and we were off. I shifted both engines into forward to start the boat slowly moving, and then back to neutral to let her coast forward out of the slip. The boat stopped, like a dock line was still attached or she just didn’t want to leave the comfort of her slip. After a quick check, all dock lines were off, so we gave her a little more power in forward and we were moving out of the slip. And we are off.
Our Independence has twin engines and a single centerline rudder. Boats without rudders directly behind the props can’t be steered at low speed using the single center rudder because too little water flows across it at low speed. You steer primarily with the propellers, using the shifters and occasionally a little extra throttle. Coming out of the slip I had to make two hard left turns (I will refrain from port and starboard to keep it simple). As I cleared the slip, I needed to stop the boats forward motion because the boats on the next dock are only a few feet off the bow. Then start the boat in a pivoting turn to the left by putting the left engine into reverse and apply a little extra power to the left engine. The left side of the boat slows and our forward progress stops and we rotate left. Time to put the right engine in forward, which pivots us faster to the left and insures that the left engine doesn’t start backing us up. By shifting the engines in and out of gear, we not only make a pivoting turn, but we control our position, forward speed and rate of turn. Using the engines, we steered our way around the docks and other boats, and then headed out for the main channel, to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW). Well now we are off.
We actually left the dock at first light because we needed to get to the Bridge of Lions in downtown St Augustine before 7AM. The bridge was being rebuilt and the channel under the bridge was being blocked daily by barges from 7AM till 9PM. So we made an early departure to insure we were past the bridge before it closed for the day.
During the half hour trip from the marina to the bridge we passed Salty Lady, one of the 17 other Independence 45s built by Hans Christian. With only 18 in the world, you almost never see one. It’s a small world. We exchanged greeting over the VHF radio, and were on our way
The trip from St Augustine to Daytona Beach is through some surprisingly wild country with few dwellings on the western shore. Scenes like these were the norm:
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We arrived at the marina in Daytona Beach just after noon. We met with friends that we have cruised with in the past, and over lunch we relived past adventures and planned new ones. We assembled our folding bikes and biked across the river to Daytona Beach, up the beach for many miles, back across the river using another bridge, and back through town to the marina - about a 15-mile ride. We spent two days visiting with our friends, biking the area, shopping, etc.
After two days, we departed the slip in Daytona Beach. Because we had to back out of the slip, I drove from the upper helm station, which has a better view all around the boat. Our second slip departure was smooth as silk, and then we had to pass close to the fuel dock to drop the marina key in the dockmaster’s net, and then turn into the narrow channel that leads to the ICW. Still steering with the engines from the upper helm, I approached the choke point and started an engine turn into the channel when alarms started blasting. I felt that I had lost the port (left) engine, but I couldn’t check the instruments, as I had to keep the boat from going out of the channel and going aground. Sue was in the pilothouse, at the lower helm assessing the situation. Stopping the boat with one engine also had the undesirable effect of turning the boat towards the shallows on the other side of the channel. Sue restarted the port engine and I had full control again. We backed up to the fuel dock and tied up temporarily till we could assess what had happened. Was a fuel valve set wrong, was a fuel filter clogged, etc? By the time the lines were tied to the fuel dock, I had solved the dilemma, pilot error. I remembered that last year I had pulled the port engine to idle from the upper helm and had killed the engine while docking; I had adjusted the port idle stop, but obviously not enough for a cold engine, another thing for the to-do list. Now that our hearts were started, we were off for an uneventful trip to Titusville.
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Titusville is a small sleepy town just west of Cape Canaveral. We only spent one night, but did meet a lot of people with common interests and backgrounds. The next morning off to Melbourne.
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We arrived in Melbourne in the early afternoon, put together our bikes and explored the town. It was Cinco de Mayo, so we found a great little Mexican restaurant and enjoyed the festivities. The next day we biked across the river’s 65’ bridge, went to the beach, shopped, and ate lunch before tackling the 65’ bridge again. Then we took another afternoon ride for about five miles.
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The next morning it was off to Fort Pierce. As we approached the first of two bridges in Fort Pierce we saw what looked like a sailboat on the other side of the bridge, sitting at an odd angle and not moving. We suspected that the boat was sailing north up the ICW under full sail and with a 15 knot tail wind they passed under the 65’ south bridge and approached the north bridge, which has to open for a boat this size to pass. The sailors probably expected to either time the bridge or round back to windward and sail in circles till the bridge opened. It looks like a good idea gone bad. The boat was sailing up to a bridge waiting for it to open, then did a 180 degree turn outside the channel to kill time. They did kill some time. I think they had to wait for SeaTow and high tide to get off the bottom. It takes a confident sailor to take on bridges under full sail.
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Spending a nice afternoon on the ICW
Again we arrived in the early afternoon at Ft. Pierce, fueled the boat then assembled the bikes and hit the road. We checked the menus at the local restaurants and decided the food at the Yellow Tail looked good, the prices were right, and the view was spectacular; it was Bike Night (Motorcycles) in downtown Fort Pierce. Beautiful bikes (our's excluded) and outstanding people watching; the meal and the show were great.
The next day we did more bike riding, one trip in search of stone crab claws, which are in season, but will be out of season by the time we get to Marathon. We found dinner for that night. The next day, Saturday for those keeping track as we can’t, was supposed to be a big Farmer’s Market, art fair and fishing tournament just outside the marina, so we stayed an extra day. Sue went wild, four trips from the boat to the market. We are stocked
For the cruiser want-to-be’s out there, here is a quote that is often true:
“Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places.”
Cruise Report #2, Excitement in the ICW 16 May, 2009
We are still working our way south, down the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, town-by-town and beach-by-beach. The last report was from Fort Pierce, since then we have traveled to Palm Beach and spent three days, then to Fort Lauderdale for three days, now we are in Dinner Key, which is next to Coconut Grove in south Miami.
On Sunday, Mother's Day, we cruised down the ICW to Palm Beach. The traffic on the ICW increased the further south we went. The first concentration was a few dozen boats around the St Lucie inlet and St Lucie River. The second concentration was around the Jupiter inlet, with boats going everywhere and boats beached on little sand bars along the ICW.
The biggest concentration of boats that we have ever seen was around Peanut Island in Lake Worth, between Palm Beach, West Palm Beach and North Palm Beach. Peanut Island is surrounded by shallow water and sand bars, and on Mothers day there had to be a 1000 boats anchored and beached in the area. What a party. Our pictures can’t do it justice.
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We arrived at Palm Beach Town Dock. Just the name Palm Beach connotes a sense of extreme wealth, and Palm Beach lives up to its reputation. Marinas crammed with boats in the 100’ to 200’ class. Rolls Royce, Bentleys, Aston Martins, and luxury cars I couldn’t recognize were everywhere. We spent three days biking around Palm Beach and across the river in West Palm Beach. Beautiful! Here we are under a banyan tree.
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We departed for Fort Lauderdale, a trip of 40 miles and 18 bridges, eight of which we could not fit under and had to make one of their scheduled half hour openings. The trip went well, past a never-ending parade of multi-million dollar homes. At the end of the trip we pulled into Bahai Mar Marina, just across highway A1A from the beach.
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For three days we walked the Fort Lauderdale strip, shopped, ate, drank and spent time on the beach, then it was time to move of to Dinner Key.
An unscheduled STOP can get your heart started – Another adventure to add to the list
Friday the 15th was a short trip from Ft Lauderdale down the ICW, into Biscayne Bay, past Miami and South Beach, and on to Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove. We started by dodging in and out of some light rain and the wind remained strong across our path all day. The trip was easy as we could pass under 15 of the 17 bridges along the route. The first eight bridges we passed under without waiting for a scheduled opening, and bridge number nine was 18 miles down the ICW in the north end of Biscayne Bay. Due to all the various “No Wake” zones, we were unable to time our arrival at the ninth bridge during one of its scheduled openings. We were going to arrive ten minutes after an opening and wait for its next scheduled, every half hour, opening so we pulled back the throttles and eased through the northern most part of Biscayne Bay at about 5 knots.
The charts and GPS chartplotter showed the ICW channel as a straight line as it passes Bakers Haulover Inlet in this part of Biscayne Bay, but we could see a curved line of new floating green can buoys and floating red nun buoys that were bowed to the west around a growing sand bar. We noticed the sand bar right away because waves were breaking on it and it was marked with a large “DANGER SHOAL” sign. We followed the new channel, staying dead center between the lines of red and green markers. The wind driven waves combined with the overcast conditions made it impossible to see the bottom and reading the water depth by color was no help in these conditions. We had traveled 1000 miles down the ICW from the northern Chesapeake to Florida and had only bumped the soft bottom lightly on a few occasions. This time, while in the center of the marked channel we hit the bottom hard, bounced and hit hard again, I pulled the throttles back and tried to guess which side of the channel might have deeper water. Should I turn left toward the visible shoal with the “Danger” sign or to the right side of the channel and hope for deeper water there? The tide and current from the ocean, through the inlet, were pushing us to the right, as was the 10 to 15 knots of east wind.
Before I had chance to react, we hit hard and the boat stopped moving down the channel, but we didn’t stop moving. The keel is deepest at the stern, so the wind, waves and current couldn’t push the grounded stern, but they could swing the bow down wind, to our right, and toward the red side of the channel. The boat was still moving and bumping slightly, pushed by the wind and waves toward one of the red nun buoys, #6B. Hitting the steel channel marker, even at low speed could cause significant hull damage. I put both engines in reverse and brought the power up in an attempt to avoid the channel marker. I managed to keep us from hitting it, but we were hard aground, dead stopped and still within the marked channel with a red channel marker about three feet from the bow. Now what?
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We made a few futile and a few slightly successful attempts with full power in reverse to back the boat away from the channel marker and the edge of the channel. The tide was just starting to come back up, which would help lift us off the bottom in a few hours, but as it came up, we knew the current and wind would continue to push us out of the channel and into shallower water, so we kept both engines in reverse at high idle to counteract the current and tide. We were also concerned that if we did get off the bottom, we knew we would not have complete control and we might swing into the steel channel marker - not good. We finally decided it was time to call SeaTow and get another boat here to assist and keep us from hitting the buoy when the tide lifted us. Sue called SeaTow and they could get to us in about a half an hour, so we waited.
A passing fisherman stopped and provided some local knowledge that the situation was constantly changing and right now you had to huge the green markers, as the deepest water was next to the sand bar, and if you did hit the a shallow spot on that side of the channel, the wind and current would help push you off.
So while waiting for SeaTow, we did try a few more futile attempts to back up, away from the buoy. About 15 minutes after calling SeaTow and during an attempt to back away from the buoy, the boat lurched and bounced backward toward what we had been told was deeper water. The boat bounced but continued to move backwards, then it was moving and not bouncing, and not on the bottom. Quickly steering with opposite engines in forward and reverse, and lots of power, we were able to spin the boat, find deeper water, avoid the other hazards and get on our way. Boy is this more exciting than pushing a desk!
By comparison the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. And we made our way into Dinner Key Marina, which use to be Pan American Airlines main seaplane base in the 1930s and 40s. It now belongs to the city of Miami and what was the main terminal is now Miami’s City Hall. The seaplane hangers are still here, but they house other businesses today.
We are biking around Coconut Grove and enjoying the area. The weather has gotten a little snotty, so we may spend an extra day or two here and let it pass.
Cruise Report #3 – Arrived at our home away from home.
Friday we arrived at Marathon, in the heart of the Florida Keys. We have been cruising 3 to 5 months a year for the last ten years and in nine of those ten years we spent a month or more in Marathon. The only exception was last year when we brought the new boat down the ICW from the Chesapeake to Florida. It is great to be back on island time in this slow paced cruiser’s Mecca. The harbor here is large, well protected from all sides, and thus is a natural gathering place for sailors, cruisers and drifters of all kinds. The location is a crossroads for people departing to, or returning from Cuba, Mexico and Central America to the west, the Bahamas and the Caribbean to the east; or just 60 miles south is a large, little know, uninhabited Bahamian atoll called the Cay Sol Banks (Google it). Cruisers find that life in the middle Keys easy and it can be inexpensive, whether you like marina life, hanging on a mooring ball or anchoring for free in the harbor, life doesn’t have to be expensive. Many cruisers use Marathon as the jumping off point and wait here for favorable weather, or as a stop for provisioning before continuing their adventures, or some find a temporary job to replenish their cruising reserves. Many cruisers find life in the middle Keys so comfortable, pleasant and easy going that they never leave. What a great collection and concentration of salty characters. Through the years we have met many new friends here.
We spent twenty days getting from St Augustine to Marathon, eight travel days and twelve days exploring the towns and beaches along the way. We plan to spend a little over a month basing our travels out of Marathon. We plan a few trips traveling up and down the keys to some of our favorite anchorages and a few new spots we have yet to explore.
We were at Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove longer than expected because of weather. Two low-pressure systems formed and caused numerous thunderstorms across the state day after day. Three to four inches of rain each day was not uncommon. We monitored the NOAA morning and evening forecasts over the Internet, as well as local TV forecasts, hoping for a clear break in the weather, but none came. We finally decided last Wednesday that although the forecast was marginal, that Thursday looked like our best chance for the foreseeable future. Casting off and backing out of the slip you can’t help but wonder if you have made the right decision or should you stay put and wait a day or two longer. Thursday was better than the forecast and we had a great trip down Biscayne Bay and the waterways around the islands between the Keys and the mainland. We spent the night at Plantation Key.
Friday morning we woke to rain and thunderstorms in the Keys. We pulled up the satellite weather on the GPS Chartplotter and started monitoring the NEXRAD radar for the area. A large area of rain with a very intense core was approaching the marina and our departure route from the south. Again a departure decision - depart now in the calm before the storm and navigate the twisted route along the backside of the Keys and get hit out there somewhere; or stay in the slip and wait out this storm and hope it wasn’t followed by another. We waited and waited in the slip and then the rain came. It poured for a half an hour then it tapered off. NEXRAD didn’t show any new storms on our path, so we backed out of the slip and headed down the Keys.
Half way between Plantation Key and Marathon we passed through to the front (ocean) side of the Keys and we immediately remembered why we love the Keys; the watercolor. The watercolor varies from beautiful blues to bright greens - it isn’t like watercolor anywhere else we have cruised in the US.
Having completed this trip from St Augustine to Marathon via the ICW and combining all of our previous cruising and sailing along the ICWs, we have covered almost every mile of the Gulf and Atlantic ICWs from South Padre Island across the Gulf of Mexico, down Florida’s west coast, and from the Chesapeake down the east coast to Key West.
So it is time to kick back and relax, explore with the kayaks, run around the island in the dingy, bike ride all over the island, or lay on the beach or beside the pool.
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Cruise Report #4 – Kickin back in Marathon
We have been at Sombrero Marina in Marathon, ‘The Heart of the Keys’, for three weeks and life could not be more relaxing. You may have heard people mention or Jimmy Buffett sing about ‘Living on Island Time’, well we are living it here in Marathon. Combine the Keys and easy living, and the natives call it the Keyzee Life. We roll out of bed when we feel like it and we eat when and where we want. The dress is always Keys casual; shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops or bare feet. We ride our bikes all over the island and to adjacent islands. We kayak or dingy the waterways around and through the islands. We work on the boat during the cool of the morning, varnishing the teak or polishing the stainless. Sombrero Marina has a restaurant and bar called Dockside (http://keysy.com/dockside/) with live music every night. We eat the bulk of our meals on the boat, but we have sampled a number of the local restaurants. Evenings, when we eat on the boat, we typically walk up the dock to the bar, have a beer and listen to the music. Many talented musicians have followed the sun to the Keys and found that the island life fits their style. Jimmy Buffet was one of these musicians. They work day jobs, and then play their hearts out at night in the local bars and restaurants. Even the X Mayor of Marathon, John Bartus (http://www.johnbartus.com/), sings and plays guitar weekly at Dockside.
We have many friends here from our previous trips that live on boats at the dock or in town. Collectively over the last ten years, we have spent over 12 months in Marathon, and we keep coming back. We aren’t the only ones, we meet many of the same people who return year after year. Life on the dock is a social affair, catching up with old friends and meeting new friends, discussing the places they have been and the adventures they have had. Charts come out and the discussions begin of favorite anchorages and routes to travel. Someone always has a boat or equipment problem that we all consult on and/or pitch in and help with. We get together for biking, swimming, snorkeling, fishing, dining out, etc.
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Key West
On 25 June we left Dockside and Marathon, and headed southwest down the Hawk Channel to Key West. The Hawk Channel is a ribbon of navigable water between the islands and the reef, at the edge of the Gulf Stream. When heading southwest, most boats choose the Hawk Channel instead of loosing 3 mile per hour due to the Gulf Stream flowing in the opposite direction. Conditions in the Hawk channel are usually good and are always smoother than the conditions in the Gulf Stream. That doesn’t mean that the Hawk Channel doesn’t get nasty, it just means that it is better than conditions in the stream. See our Web site and our 2007 trip from Key West to Marathon, titled “Cruisers lives are governed by the Weather”.
For this trip down the Hawk Channel weather conditions were questionable, but the trip was fairly smooth. At 3:00pm we arrived at Key West Bight and our favorite marina in Key West, The Galleon. We spent a week biking all over and enjoying Key West. On 3 July we left the Galleon and returned to Dockside, in Marathon.
Heading North
We left Marathon on 7 July and headed northeast, up the Hawk Channel. Channel Five is a one of the two main channels in the Florida Keys that connect the Hawk Channel with the inside route on the other side of the Keys. We are planning to decide at Channel Five stop whether to stay in on the outside or switch to the inside route. At the decision point, conditions didn’t look that great, so we went under the Channel Five bridge and headed up the inside route. If we chose the inside route, we had planned to stop at Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina, as we had on the way down. We got to Plantation with a lot of daylight left and decided to push on and anchor further up the ICW. We passed thru Buttonwood Sound, Blackwater Sound, under the US Highway 1 bridge on Jewfish Creek and across Barnes Sound. Anchoring in the open sounds didn’t look good, so we decided to push on up thru through Card Sound, under the Card Sound bridge and continue up Biscayne Bay. Thunderstorms had been following behind us most of the afternoon as we pushed up Biscayne Bay and headed for No Name Harbor on Key Biscayne. The weather started to get nasty as we rounded the shallows and headed for the safety of the Harbor. We made it into the narrow entrance to the harbor and got the anchor down and set when the storm hit. No Name Harbor is surrounded and protected but tall palm trees all around and it felt good to be snug at anchor and off the bay.
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The next day was a short trip from south Miami up the ICW to north Maimi and Haulover Beach Park Marina. Haulover Beach Park is just north of Miami’s famous South Beach and includes 2 miles of ocean beach on one side and 2 miles of marinas, tennis courts, and a golf course along the ICW. We spent three days enjoying the beach and biking around the adjoining communities.
On 11 July we made another short trip up the ICW to Hollywood Beach Municipal Marina. We had heard good things about Hollywood from other cruisers and they were all true. We pulled into the marina and before we were tied up, every cruiser on the dock came by and introduced them selves. The area has a friendly marina on the ICW, great restaurants on the ICW, reasonable prices and one of the best beach and boardwalks that we have found and only two blocks from the ICW. The boardwalk is actually a 20 wide foot paved walk with a separate 8 foot wide paved bike and skating path. We spent two days exploring Hollywood.
On 13 July we headed north to one of the many Loggerhead marinas, this one was the Loggerhead Club and Marina at Lantana South. No dock life, no cruisers, no town to explore, not much to recommend.
The next day we headed to the Mariott’s Hutchinson Island Beach Resort and Marina, just north of the St Lucie River inlet. This is a major island resort with golf courses, pools, sports clubs, condos, and a lot of ocean beach.
On 15 July we traveled to Vero Beach and the Vero Beach Municipal Marina. We walked thru town and spent the afternoon on the beach.
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The next day it was off to Coco Village Municipal Marina. We just got into the slip and tied up when an afternoon thunderstorm hit. It was a good storm and lasted for a couple of hours. After the storm, we explored Coco Village and had a good meal.
On 17 July we traveled north to Halifax Harbor Marina, Daytona Beach and spent the next day with another cruising family who live in the area. Finally we traveled the last leg back to Camachee Cove Yacht Haven and our slip. Five days of getting the boat ready for hurricane season and five months till we return after Christmas.
After Christmas we returned for two weeks to prepare her for next years adventure starting in April 2010. We did a lot of preventive maintenance to help our future cruises go smoothly. We replaced the heat exchangers, engine oil coolers, transmission oil coolers and all raw water and coolant hoses on both engines. We had done a complete rebuild of the port raw water pump, so this year we rebuilt the starboard raw water pump. We updated the software in our nav equipment, etc. The exterior teak is in need of varnish, but the temperatures were running around freezing during both weeks, so no teak work. We will start on that in April before we head south.
See you in April 2010.
Sue and Bob Mimlitch
“Our Independence”
Our Ports of Call: (a typical marina gets a 5 Star rating, out of 10)
2 May 2009 Departed Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor, St Augustine, FL
8 Stars - Friendly, great services, floating docks with good weather protection & no current, a mile from town.
2 May 2009 Arrived Halifax Harbor Marina, Daytona Beach, FL
6 Stars - floating docks, no current, 2 miles from the beach.
4 May 2009 Arrived Titusville Municipal Marina, Titusville, FL
3 Stars - Fixed wood docks, no current, nothing near.
5 May 2009 Arrived Melbourne Harbor Marina, Melbourne, FL
5 Stars - no current, next to town, 2 miles to beach.
7 May 2009 Arrived Fort Pierce City Marina, Fort Pierce, FL
8 Stars - no current, next to town, great Farmers Market on Sat, best fuel prices, 5 miles to beach.
10 May 2009 Arrived Town of Palm Beach Town Docks, Palm Beach, FL
5 Stars - current, next to town, 1 mile from the beach.
12 May 2009 Arrived Bahia Mar Beach Resort, Fort Lauderdale, FL
7 Stars - Floating docks, no current, next to the beach.
15 May 2009 Arrived Dinner Key Marina, Coconut Grove area of Miami, FL
5 Stars - no current, huge marina with little support, next to Coconut Grove!
21 May 2009 Arrived Plantation Yacht Harbor Marina, Plantation Key, FL
5 Stars - no current, next to large town park with a beach and pools.
22 May 2009 Arrived Sombrero Marina Dockside (aka Dockside), Marathon, Vaca Key, FL
5 Stars - In Boot Key Harbor which is the center of the cruising world, no current, friendly, good bar & grill with live music every night, next to town, 1 mile from the beach.
25 June 2009 Arrived Galleon Marina, Key West, FL
10 Stars - Friendly, floating docks with great docking support & marina staff, pool, next to everything in Key West!
7 July 2009 Arrived No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne, FL
7 Stars - Not a marina, but well protected from weather, great jump-off spot for the Bahamas, wild on weekends with locals, can be buggy.
8 June 2009 Arrived Haulover Beach Park Marina, North Miami Beach, FL
7 Stars - New facilities within a large park, next to ICW, great beaches across the street, golf, tennis, etc.
11 June 2009 Arrived Hollywood Municipal Marina, Hollywood, FL
9 Stars - Friendly marina, great beach and boardwalk across the bridge, excellent restaurants, old Florida charm.
13 July 2009 Arrived Loggerhead Club & Marina, Lantana South, FL
3 Stars - New and sterile, in the boondocks.
14 June 2009 Arrived Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort & Marina, Hutchinson Island, FL
7 Stars - A large resort complex, many facilities, great beaches, golf, tennis, shuttle bus to get around.
15 July 2009 Arrived Vero Beach City Marina, Vero Beach, FL
5 Stars - no current, 1 mile to town and the beach.
16 July 2009 Arrived Coco Village Marina, Coco, FL
5 Stars - no current, next to the village, not near the beach.
17 July 2009 Arrived Halifax Harbor Marina, Daytona Beach, FL
6 Stars - floating docks, no current, 2 miles from the beach.
19 July 2009 Arrived Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor, St Augustine, FL
8 Stars - Friendly, great services, floating docks with good weather protection & no current, a mile from town.
