We're not in Kansas ...well Florida anymore 30◦46'.076N 081◦28'.292W

As the title states, we are no longer in Florida. We crossed into Georgia a few miles back , further ensuring that we are most definitely heading North. It was a glorious day, however, so we certainly cannot claim that it's getting colder! 80F today and humid to boot. Our trip up the ICW has been wonderful. We were yet again, a line up of boats heading North. We saw, as always, some wonderful homes along the water way, but this one took our attention more than others. 

I really like the Triple Decker dock. Must be really nice to sit out there in the summer sun.

Saw of few signs of industrialism as well. I thought that crane was going to pick us up!

We are now anchored just off Cumberland Island. This particular island is interesting as it is home to Ferrell horses. These wild horses could be seen from the waterway, but we did not come up close to them when we went to venture on the island.

There is a ranger station here and we are allowed to go venture on the island, for a minimal fee. 

The trees are just phenomenal! We felt like we were in a hobbit movie or something. The live Oak grows everywhere and they are just dripping with Spanish moss. I found out yesterday that Spanish moss is neither Spanish nor is it moss (just and interesting fact) Anyway, the knurled branches sure gave the trees an interesting look.

The wildlife is abundant here too. We saw a deer, horses, birds of all kinds and an armadillo, all of which are far faster than I am at pulling out the camera and snapping a picture. Guess you'll just have to take my word for it. 

 After our hike through the woods, we got to the wooden walkway that leads to the Ocean, via the sand dunes.

 Although we did not see any horses here, the evidence that they exist was  everywhere in the form of large patties and hove prints.  

The beach goes on for miles it seems.

When we finished our hike, we returned to the boat for a lovely dinner and a game of cards with Jeff and Sue.It's amazing how different one day can be from the next on this trip. Somehow all of it quite wonderful none the less.  Don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I am sure it will be good.

Good night all 

St-Augustine Day 2. High 78F Low 57F

Well I said there was lots to see and I was not kidding. This is the oldest European settlement in the United States and we were reminded of it every few minutes.

We took a trolley tour of the city, hopped on around 9:30 and did not get back to the boat until 6:30pm. Man what a town! I lied about the Basilica yesterday though. It was open to the public, just not when we went by yesterday. We did go to see it today and it is one ornate place. 

We also saw the oldest town square, the oldest pharmacy; the oldest hotel and on and on it goes.

One quite interesting place we visited was the distillery. It used to be an ice making factory but it closed down many years ago. Some young folk turned it into a distillery which now makes Burbon, Vodka and Gin, however they just opened in 2013 so their first batch of burbon will not be ready until 2016, and their premium stuff will be ready in 2018...I guess we'll have to go back! What makes this place really interesting is the fact that they use only locally made produce to start their liquor, so they are helping local farmers of wheat, corn, sugar cane and citrus fruits to stay in business. There is no mass producers involved at all. Their bottles feature the farmer who supplies the produce on the label. 

Since their burbon is not ready yet, we had to settle for taste testing the Vodka and Gin only. The vodka was served as a Florida Mule. Mint, bitters, lime juice; syrup and vodka. It was pretty good. The gin was served as a gin and tonic, but I am not a gin lover at all, so I cannot comment on how good it was.  I will admit it was not strong on the pin flavor through.

We also visited the Ponce de Leon Hotel and the Lightner Museum building which were unbelievable.

At the Flagler College, there are stain glass windows in this College that were hand made by Tiffany himself. At the time he was just a young man with no reputation, but today these windows are valued at $30,000,000. That is a lot of zeros! 

I got to visit Nombre de Dios and the Shrine to our lady of La Leche. The statue depicts Mary as a nursing mother.

I got to see some  wild life, A peacock perched in a tree (did not know  they could fly) and a red creased wood pecker.

Oh and one of the 10 most beautiful streets in the United states according to National Geographic.

Anyway, That's about all I can write about, We could have easily spent 3 days here, but alas we must continue North. So Tomorrow, up the coast we go, however I will leave you with one last little thought. 

 Tata for now.

Palm Sunday at the oldest church in North America. 29◦53'.152N 080◦18'.251W

We left Daytona beach at 7am and had a wonderful day traveling through the ICW. We did see a few people who were not having such a great day. Mostly due to water levels. 

Some too much water .....

and some too little.

We ended up in St Augustine on a mooring ball in the City Marina. St-Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement in the United States, founded in 1565 and as such has a lot to see.

The Cathedral Bassilica of St-Augustine is one such thing. It is the oldest parish in North America, having been founded in 1565. Unfortunately, it is also currently under renovations so we were unable to go into it today. 

We walked through town via King St. and discovered that there was way too much to see in just one afternoon, so we decided to stay for one more day.

I have a few pictures of today's foray into the city, and I'm sure tomorrow will yield a few more.

Right now I need to go soak my feet and ready them for tomorrow, so good night all. 

Happy Birthday Bob C. Daytona Florida 29◦10'.539N 80◦59'.669W

Today was a cool day, starting at 54F and warming up to 64F. This would be the first time we wore long pants and long sleeve shirts in a few months. In speaking with Liane tonight, I found out it was -8C so still not complaining! We took off from Canaveral around 7am and made it all the way to Daytona (by boat this time) by 4pm. It was much faster in the Camaro! Along the way we saw many Dolphines, Manatees and a rose coloured bird called Roseat Spoonbill, I think.

 I would never have seen them at all if it was not for Susan's eagle eye.  I was busy all day completing tax returns in the am and translating another chapter of a book about the "Great Loop" in the pm. Susan called us on the radio to alert us to all the sights along the way, so I would not miss any. God bless that girl! The birds are magnificent indeed. 

We were certainly not the only snow birds heading North either. Our trip today was through the Intracoastal Waterway and we were a whole line up of boats coming up. 

When we arrived at our anchorage, we were only about 1 mile away from "Blue Moon", "As the crow flies" and "Wild Raven" so we dingyed out to their marina for happy hour.

King and Sharon hosted tonight and what wonderful hosts they are.

Margaritas abounded and every glass was salted to perfection. After a couple of hours of chatting and laughing, "Perfect Balance" and "Gran Vida" came back to our boats for a late dinner. 

Tomorrow we are aiming for St-Augustine and looking forward to an early afternoon arrival to enjoy the sights and sounds.

The title for tonight is the last of a string of B-days in birthday season. My brother Bob is celebrating his ??'th. Wish I was there with you guys. We now get a short reprieve until early May that is. Hey a month is a month!

Good night all. 

Rainy day in Merrit Island High 75◦F Low 54◦F

Once again we were held up because of weather. The Coast Guard came into the marina to hand out advisories for all the boaters. High winds with gusts up to 50mph and thunderstorms with lightning. All of this was meant to pass by 6pm. The marina we were staying at told us we could stay until then and take off afterwards if we wanted to. Nice folks at Harbortown Marina! The morning was not too bad, so we went for a swim, but after that we spent the day doing chores and catching up on e-mails. Our evening was spent sharing dinner and then playing cards. So I will entertain you with a few pictures of the launch and of the cool restroom we went to. Enjoy and see y'all tomorrow.

Merrit island 

Dave Michele and Jim on Gran Vida going to the launch 

Derek Christy and Susan on Gran Vida going to the launch 

Jeff and Mimi on our way to the launch 

The launch, Mimi and Susan Missed 

The smoke plume Susan and Mimi got to see

Check out the restroom. The first picture shows the sign, but when you round the corner it is a dirt bottom empty stall. Guess we just need to squat

Daytona Beach...by accident.

We had a full day planned, rent a car, go to the Kennedy space station, then make our way back, go provision for the next couple of weeks and then back to the marina. Boy did that change! When entering the Enterprise shop, Susan and I were busily chatting about how cool it would be to rent a convertible. Susan said, Jeff's been talking about this off and on this whole trip. "We really need to bite the bullet one of these days and get him one". The lovely lady who was doing our paper work, heard our chat, so by the time Jim was ready to hand over the credit card, the deed was done. We walked out of the shop and there sitting pretty was a nice black Camero convertible and the men immediately turned to boys! I think I even saw drool! 

Then the conversation began, "do we really want to just drive this thing for a few minutes" says Jim. "Seems like a waste to just go park this thing" Says Jeff. "Hey did you know That you can actually drive on the beach in Daytona!" The girls just sat in the back seat and waited for the boys to finish their rant. Whatever they decided, we would go along for the ride. They knew this of course, but they needed to hear it from us. Anyway next thing we know we are on Hwy I-95 heading for Daytona! 

We knew a bunch of Loopers there so we thought we would pay them a visit. Pierre and Jennifer (on the canoe), Cindy and Grant on 'As the crow flies', and Sharon and King Cole (I always want to call him Nat... He does not like that) on 'Blue Moon' We made a pit stop in Cocoa Beach to show Dave and Michele. There's no sense having a toy like this and not bragging about it. When we arrived in Daytona, it started to rain ( go figure) but the rain stopped eventually and we went off to the beach to drive on the sand. 

Jim and I rode on the back seat, note not in the back seat, but on the back. I am certain that everyone there was watching us saying, There goes another bunch of Canadians! But we had a grand time. 

We got back to the marina at 8pm. Susan and I went to provision until 10pm and by the time I got all the meat separated into portions and all the groceries put away, it was just past 11pm. Hence the lateness  of this blog. It certainly will be a day to remember! A demain my friends.

Anti climactic moments in Canaveral 28◦24'.512N 80◦40'.673W

Three days we have been planning, anticipating this big launch. After all, when would we be this close to the launching pads of the Kennedy Space Centre? Our day started out as a foggy morning, but Jim and I were on a mission. Task one, get those replacement grills for our BBQ (the little one is getting quite annoying) and task two, make our way to the banana river area to watch this momentous occasion. We hopped on the dinghy at 0830hrs and set off to the town dock; which we could not see in the fog; to find the nearest Home Depot. We achieved this easily, but as we were taking the 20min walk, Jim said "shut (ok maybe something else) I forgot the measurements of the grills. Well no worries, it should be standard size right?" Wrong. We bought a set of grills that were ½ inch too wide. After we realized this, it was already past our time to leave and the fog was starting to lift, so we weighted anchor and set off for our little jaunt up river. 

We decided to stay at a marina for the night, so we called Harbor Town Marina and they had some space available for us. When we arrived, Jim asked for directions to the slip and wound up going down the wrong dockside in a very narrow area. The lady told him to go straight, but apparently her idea of straight is to turn slightly left! Anyway we made it to our slip with no troubles after that. Jeff and Sue were already here, so after we tied up and paid up, we went over to visit them. 

By this time Derek and Christy had already arrived and we were waiting for Dave and Michele. Once the gang was together, I realized I did not have my camera, so back to the boat for Camera and hors d'œuvres. Jeff was the faithful captain, who brought us to the launch on their boat. A few drinks meant of course that I needed the little girl's room. Susan also came down from their top deck and ever the hostess, was busily checking out who needed drinks. Then we heard the boys calling out "we can't believe the girls are missing this!" There it was, gone! All we saw was the puff of smoke left behind. It was an impressive puff of smoke too! You'll have to believe me because of course, I also had no camera. When we arrived back at Jeff and Sue's boat, my camera would not turn on. I thought maybe the battery was not charged, but alas this was not the issue. What the issue really is, I cannot tell you at the moment, but I do know that my poor video camera no longer works.  So for today, no pics. Jeff got a few shots, so he tells me he will share. When I get them, I will post them. 

So although I did not get to see the launch of a new GPS satellite, I did get to spend a glorious day with some friends, got to take a swim in the afternoon and had a lovely evening to boot. So all was not lost. See you all tomorrow

Cocoa Beach Reunion 28◦21'.539N 80◦42'.944W

We made it to Cocoa beach without a hitch. It was only 22 miles away on the intracoastal so that was not too much of a surprise. We found out that Michele and Dave where at a marina here, so after we got everything settled and engine checks done, we took off to meet them.

Dave took us to a 3 story tall hardware store. If you can't find it here, it pretty much does not exist. Jim went to grab a can of Shellac off the shelf and it spilled all over him. The can was sitting on the shelf with no lid on it. Who does that? They got him some rags, but it took so long that by the time he tried to wipe this stuff off him, it was already dry. There are some downsides to a huge store! 

The girls did not stay too long, we took off to  check out some of the little shops along the way. There are some really nice art stores there. We met up with the boys about 30 min later and decided a pub stop was in order. We later returned to Michele and Dave's boat for some docktails. 

Jim and Michele took out a map and tried to plan our shuttle day for tomorrow. So far it looks like it's still on, so we will be spending our day on the top deck watching a GPS positioning satellite get launched into the sky. So we better get our rest.

Good night.