Florida's First Coast

The only thing better than enjoying the sights and experiences of this trip is sharing them with friends. That was certainly the case during a recent visit by our good friends from home Mimi & Larry and Martha & Mike. They joined us for dinner and an overnight stay on the boat Tuesday. In spite of running aground and getting lost in the dark, a good time was had by all.
On Wednesday Martha, Mike, Larry and I took a 28 mile boat trip from Daytona north to Palm Coast. Mimi and Susan joined us by car and again we enjoyed cocktails and dinner at Palm Coast’s European Village.
Mimi, Larry, Marta and Mike thanks for joining us, we love you guys lots. Safe travels home.
Friday Susan and I traveled to St. Augustine where we docked at the municipal marina right in the heart of downtown. St. Augustine is a charming city with lots of fabulous architecture and art. On Saturday we rode our bikes to the Anastasia State Park on Anastasia Island and relaxed on the beautiful beach.
No discussion of St. Augustine would be complete without mentioning its history. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S.A., settled by Spanish colonists in 1565. Susan and I attended church services Saturday evening at Cathedral Basilica of Saint Augustine, the first parish in the America’s.

Back on the Magical Mystery Tour

This past Tuesday, April 14, Susan and I returned to Northern Light docked at Soverel Marina in Palm Beach Gardens. Jay and Linda plan to re-join us in early May.We spent the day Wednesday repairing, preparing and provisioning for the continuation of our journey. We haven’t covered much ground/water for the last month so we anticipate putting in some long travel days over the next couple of weeks. We don’t have a firm schedule but obviously if we don’t start moving a little faster we’ll never get home by this summer like we had planned.
Thursday we traveled to Fort Pierce, Friday to Melbourne, Saturday Cocoa And Sunday we’re in New Smyrna . Most of the traveling was done on the Indian River Lagoon, a 130 mile long river that runs north and south up Florida's East Coast and provides a great waterway when it’s too rough to travel offshore. That’s been the case this week with 25+ mph winds and offshore seas over 9”. The weather has been great and we have been able to anchor each night along the way. Tonight we are anchored behind a beach island just inside the Ponce de Leon Inlet.
Here are a few pictures from some of the high points of the week before we flew back home.

Posie and Tom , thanks for dinner and the use of your car !

Andy, we loved your visit, wish it could have been longer.

Lastly I wanted to mention my visit with my old high school buddies the Boca Boys. I went to high school in Ft. Lauderdale and graduated with these guys 42 years ago. The last time I saw any of them we were all 18 years old, we’re now 60. What a hoot it was to see them, catch up and talk about old times.

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Rest in Peace

This blog is dedicated to Mathew D. Uler, the beloved son of
Linda and Jay Uler, who unexpectedly passed away on Friday, March 27th, 2009.

He had many hardships in his life and his strength and courage were an inspiration to all those who loved him.

We will miss his mischievous smile, sparkling eyes, dry wit and humor and his sincere appreciation for the smallest of favors.

To quote Linda, “Our loss is his gain”.

Rest in Peace Matt!

(We will be in Michigan for the next two weeks.)

Where the Boys (and Girls) Are!

We spent a wonderful week in Fort Lauderdale at historic Cooley’s landing and enjoyed all the fun things to do there. Even though we had a few days of rain we were able to take advantage of the down time to get some things done, boat projects, laundry and needed provisioning. We also took in a couple of movies, went to the famous Fort Lauderdale beach. Yes, the Elbow Room is still there and it looks the same as it did in the 1960’s when we spent time here from college spring break. We spent much time on the River walk and enjoyed the restaurants and scenic beauty.

St. Patty’s Day was celebrated with our Looper friends Hank & Ann from “Queen Ann’s Revenge”. It was a great time visiting with them. We met them back in January in Mobile and it was nice to see them again.

Departed Cooley’s early Monday morning and headed north along the Intercoastal Waterway and enjoyed viewing the opulent homes, fabulous landscaping and mega yachts along the way. We needed a lift from a lot of bascule bridges but the schedule matched our travel time well. There was only a short wait for a few of them and all the bridge tenders had their own unique personalities which made it interesting.

Found some great anchorages along the way. Monday night at Lake Boca Raton, Tuesday in Lake Worth next to Peanut Island where we explored a beautiful park. An interesting fact about this island is that it housed the presidential bunker for JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Waved at Donald Trump when we passed his home. Wednesday continued our journey north to North Palm Beach and found a special anchorage in the NE corner of Lake Worth.

We are all looking forward to having Andy Light come aboard this evening!

Florida's Gold Coast

Thursday, March 12 In the morning we took a short ride across the Biscayne Bay to Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove. Later that evening we celebrated my 60th birthday at a great dockside seafood restaurant overlooking Biscayne Bay. We spent the next two days enjoying this trendy little town on the outskirts of Miami.

Saturday, March 14 Today we motored over to the chic Miami Beach Marina located just two blocks from “SOBE” Miami’s South Beach district. Spent the afternoon sunning and taking in the sights on the beach.

Sunday, March 15 We departed Miami through the Government Cut and sailed south toward Ft. Lauderdale. Our high spirited 30 mile sail in the Atlantic ended mid afternoon as we re-entered the Intracoastal waterway at Port Everglades. We spent the night anchored in Lake Sylvia, a small lake just off the waterway in Ft. Lauderdale. That evening we had a clear view of the space shuttle launch from 200 mile away Cape Canaveral.

Monday,March 16 Took a slow sightseeing ride several miles up the New River on our way to Cooley’s Landing Marina. The marina is located in the heart of Ft. Lauderdale’s historic/restaurant/theatre district. Ft. Lauderdale isn’t a very old city so there is not a lot of history here, but what there is started at the site that is now occupied by the Marina. In 1836 the Seminole Indians attacked and killed the Cooley Family at this location. This marked the beginning of the Seminole War in South Florida and led to the founding of the military post, Fort Lauderdale

This is Heaven!

It is so good to be back aboard Northern Light again after a short absence. Linda and I arrived on Saturday at Burdines Marina in Marathon. Our dear friends Dan & Kathy May drove us to the Keys and will be returning our car to Michigan this spring. Thanks for your generosity. We all had a delightful dinner of steamed shrimp & honey buns at the Castaways.
We spent Sunday in Marathon (Vaca Key) exploring the area and preparing for our departure to the Atlantic Ocean.
On Monday we departed Burdines after breakfast and had a great breeze so we were able to sail along the Keys up to Lower Matecumbe Key. We arrived at Matecumbe Bight about 4:15pm after going under a 65 foot bridge (Linda’s first) she also saw her first dolphins and a huge sea turtle swimming alongside the boat.
Tuesday was another great sailing day in the keys and we arrived at our next anchorage at Rodriguez Key. We took a short dingy ride to check out our new surroundings. Brad and I put on our snorkeling gear and cleaned the bottom of the boat and swam around looking at all the pretty fish.
Wednesday was another perfect sailing day for us and we needed to get an early start since it was our longest day (about 53 miles) to our next anchorage at KeyBiscayne near Miami. We arrived at Bill Baggs State Park, a beautiful little anchorage called “No Name Harbor”. I renamed it “Brad’s Bay”. All enjoyed hiking in the park and taking a cool shower outside. Enjoyed cocktails after dinner while waiting for the shuttle launch that never happened.
These last 3 days have been beautiful. This is what I imagine heaven to be; sailing in aquamarine waters with a fresh breeze on a beautiful boat with good friends, nothing could be better. Thank you Brad & Susan for giving us this wonderful opportunity of a lifetime.
Tomorrow is a special day! Brad’s 60th Birthday and we plan to celebrate in style.