The Diamond Girl Saga Continues

June 2013

  It's been a long time since we did our last blog update. Since then we have done a lot of traveling, including spending time in California and Oregon for the 2012 holidays. As always, we really look forward to seeing our kids and grandkids.
  We returned to Diamond Girl early in January and immediately started on some major engine maintenance and other projects. Bud had to rebuild one of the turbocharges and that turned into a major overhauling of the exhaust system. After putting over 4,000 hrs. on the engines, you have to take the time and spend the money to keep them in good working condition. After all of this work was finished, we were once again ready to continue south and travel throughout Florida.
  We left Palm Coast on January 28th and made our first stop in New Smyrna, about 40 miles down the east coast of FL. We anchored for the night and did a toast, at cocktail time, that the engines worked great! The next day we continued down to the Cape Canaveral area and made plans to meet up with some friends from CA and Ventura YC who now live in Port Canaveral. Alex and Diane are sailors and have cruised extensively.

Dinner with Alex and Diane at Port Canaveral YC.
 

  After spending a couple of days, we decided to keep moving and ended the day anchored in Cocoa Beach. We've been there several times and we consider it a really nice overnight stop. Vero Beach was our next destination. This is a must stop for us. It's one of our very favorite places to pick up a mooring and stay for awhile. We spent  several days but were anxious to keep moving and continue to update the Dozier's Waterway Guide that we work for.
  Stuart, FL is where the Okeechobee Waterway starts. The OWW is the route that you take to cross Lake Okeechobee and cut across FL to the west coast. It's 150 miles long and takes a couple of days. The lake is the second largest lake in the contiguous USA. It's also very shallow (12 feet). There are two routes to cross the lake; one is Route One and the other is the Rim Route. The latter is usually closed because there isn't enough water (4 feet or less), so boats that draw over 3.5 or 4 feet can't traverse it. This year because of all the rain they had last fall, there was enough water for us (we draw 4 feet) to do the trip. There really isn't anything that makes this a special trip other than the fact that you can say you've done it. We had plenty of water but were a little disappointed that there wasn't much to see.

The very beginning of the Rim Route.

 

This is the only bridge on the route and it is opened manually.

The bridge opened for us.

Slim's Fish Camp is the only sign of civilization.

 

 On the west coast side of FL there are also some great spots and things to see. There are 3 locks on the west side and at the most western lock (Franklin Lock) the Army Corps of Engineers while building the lock also constructed a small (8 slips) marina and a campground. It's run by the Park Service and is always a fun stop.

Taken from our slip at the Franklin Lock...a bird roost.

The Hyacinth are thick and pretty.

We've also anchored in this spot.

  Coming across FL on the OWW is always fun. We have come to really appreciate some of the out-of-the-way places that still exist in FL.
  We spent plenty of time on the "left coast" as the locals call it. We traveled south and north doing our updates and then we started back across the OWW again to Stuart. We stayed there for a couple of days then continued south to Ft. Lauderdale. We rented a car and traveled all the way to Key West. If you've never been to Key West, you owe it to yourself to go. It's very eclectic and different from almost anywhere except maybe Venice Beach in Southern California. The one thing that Key West can boast about is that it is the southernmost point of the Continental USA.

There was actually a line of people to take a picture here.
We did it from the car.

   We worked on the Waterway Guide updates through each of the Keys, and then started to head back to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale to do the same. Each area takes at least a day to check out so we spent enough time to do them thoroughly before we started to head north.

You can see Diamond Girl anchored in the background.
This is just north of West Palm Beach,
it's called Peck Lake and is just off of the ICW.

As you can tell from the sign, it is a National Wildlife Refuge.

At Peck Lake you're only a couple of hundred yards
from the Atlantic.
 

  Our next stop was back at Vero Beach. We told you earlier that it was one of our favorites. It is amazingly friendly to the boating community. It's also a gathering spot for the cruisers to meet and socialize. We see people here that we will only see once or twice a year.

Looking at the mooring field in Vero.

We saw this friendly Anhinga almost every day.

  This year was a special year for us to be in Vero. We celebrated our 50th anniversary, and we were able to meet up with some friends from Seal Beach YC that have taken 5 years so far to bring their boat around and through the Panama Canal. We met up with them the end of last year but hadn't seen them since. Ted and Joan are going to do the Great Loop and then head back to Seal Beach, CA.

Can you believe it 50 years and we still like each other!

 

Ted and Joan  from "Panchita."
 

We finally left Vero Beach after 5 weeks and started our trek north. We decided that this year we weren't going to go all the way back to the Chesapeake Bay. We've done that for eight years and have always wanted to spend more time in the Carolinas. So we made some phone calls to see where we could keep Diamond Girl for the summer and made a decision to stay in Myrtle Beach, SC. The Myrtle Beach Yacht Club gave us a great deal on a slip for maybe 3 months or more, and that's where we are now. The people are friendly, the facilities are top-notch and the area provides just about anything you might want.

Our new summer home...MBYC.

The lighthouse marks the entrance to Coquina Harbor.

This is the entrance

.

  Now it will be time to do some cosmetic projects and get Diamond Girl back to her old self by doing some waxing and varnishing. We also plan on doing some exploring. There are numerous small towns that we want to explore. So stay tuned and we will try to update the blog much more often.
  You can also see us on Facebook just look for "Bud Lloyd". We do post quite often there.
Stay Well!