Winter Cruising in Florida

January 2011

It’s amazing….for more than 20 years we dreamed of shipping Diamond Girl to the East Coast and cruising the ICW and the Chesapeake Bay. We are starting the sixth year of our dream and every now and then we pinch ourselves to make sure it’s real. Not very many people are privileged enough to realize their dreams but we have been. It’s also nice that we are still enjoying our travels and still like each other.

After all of the miles and 5 years of cruising... we still like each other

We arrived back in Palm Coast, FL on the 4^th of January and found that Diamond Girl was just as we had left her. The weather was very cold, in the 20’s at night and 40’s during the day, which is what we had left in California. We weren’t happy about the cold, but what could we do but grin and bear it.  Reprovisioning and getting the boat ready to travel was first on our list. Cleaning, doing some annual maintenance and trying to get the boat warm, was also a priority.

As always we had a great time visiting our family and friends in Oregon and California. When we got back to Florida, we were very anxious to get underway again and continue our journey. We also need to do our updates for the Waterway Guide. We are doing all of Florida this year so we have a lot of territory to cover and needed to get underway.

Our first day out was uneventful which is always a good thing. We had decided to only travel for a short day, so we stopped in Daytona Beach and stayed at the Halifax River Yacht Club. The organization that we belong to, the Marine Trawler Owners Association, is a member of the American Yacht Club Registry; therefore, we can sometimes receive reciprocal privileges with yacht clubs. The Halifax River YC is really a great facility. We saw some cruising friends there and had a super time.

After a short stay at HRYC, we continued another 45 miles to Titusville to just spend one night and then continue on. Well, we met some more cruising friends and decided to spend an additional night so that we could visit.

Going into the Canaveral Barge Canal was on our itinerary for the next day’s traveling. We needed some fuel and we had heard that there was a marina on the canal with really great prices. It was worth the effort because we saved almost 50-cents a gallon. Hey….it’s better in our pocket than theirs. Right? The Barge Canal is a “man made” cut across Merritt Island to Port Canaveral (about 8 Miles) which is a large inlet from the Atlantic. If you go all the way across, there are several marinas on the Atlantic side. We didn’t need to go that far, we just needed to go about 4 miles for our fuel stop.



Canaveral Barge Canal



Intersting Signage

 The trip for the last couple of days has been in good weather. The skies have been sunny, and we’ve had very little wind. As always, we need to be wary of the depths, but for the most part if you stay in the well-marked channels you’ll be fine. Our next destination was Cocoa Beach. It’s a small village and very cute. There isn’t much to it but there is a lot of shopping and touristy things to do. We anchored out for the night and went ashore for a short visit.



The anchorage in Cocoa....about 30 boats.



A cute and small village



A lot of court yards

 Vero Beach was our next destination. We have been there several times, and it has become one of our favorite stops. There are always a lot of cruisers in Vero, and we are able to rekindle friendships that we have made along the waterways. Vero has only moorings and a small marina. The staff is very friendly, and the facilities are really nice for us cruisers. There is a Captain’s lounge,  great laundry facilities and a free bus service that is unmatched elsewhere. The buses come twice an hour and because of the way they are routed you can get almost anywhere in town.



It's cocktail time!



Really good munchies



These guys don't even know each other....and their good!



Usually one night a week, there is an impromptu gathering of all of the cruisers. It’s a way of making new friends and catching up with old friends. Those with any musical talent usually bring instruments and have a jam session. It’s always entertaining. Everyone brings a snack to share and of course it’s always BYOB.

As always...STAY IN TOUCH!

We love to see who's following our travels so sign up to be one of our followers. And don't forget to send us email with what's happening in your life.