Tropical Horizons

01/01/2025

Happy New Year! May 2025 bring you all happiness and a year full of wonderful new adventures.

11/15/2024

We have arrived at our final stop until the new year - Moore Haven, FL. Today we travelled 34.5 nautical miles in just over 6 hrs. So totals for this trip so far: 29 travels days covering 1673 nautical miles. The crossing of Lake Okeechobee was easy and the water got calmer the further we crossed. It is nice to be docked and staying put for awhile. Tonight is steak night at the Eagles Club, looking forward to that.

11/15/2024

Last travel day until January!! We were off the dolphins at 7am for first lockage. We will be across Lake Okeechobee before the winds and seas pick up this afternoon. ETA at Morehaven around 12/12:30pm so a short day 😁.

11/14/2024

We arrived and were tied up to the Port Mayaca Dolphins by 6pm. Today we travelled 69.3 nautical miles in 11 hrs 45 min.
For the Stuart Railroad Bridge and Dixie Highway Bridge we waited a bit for two trains to pass. The RR bridge then lifts and only once the Dixie Bridge operator sees a green light on the RR Bridge does she start to open her spans. The RR Bridge is open for a bit before the green light appears so if you don’t know this rule, you are wondering what is taking the Dixie Bridge operator so long to open. So don’t advance too close until you see a green light on the RR Bridge.
Once through we travelled the St Lucie River to the Port Mayaca Dolphins (which are just before the Port Mayaca Lock).
At the St Lucie Lock we have often had to wait for it but this time less than 5 min wait and we were in the lock. It is so weird to see the lock tender just open the front doors to the lock to let water in to raise the lock level.
We required one RR Bridges to open but only slight delays waiting on it to open.
We arrived at the dolphins just as the sun set (perfect timing). Now to have dinner and relax.

11/14/2024

It has been a beautiful day on the water so far and we are currently in Stuart heading towards two bridges we need to time with openings. There were lots of dolphin today - one stayed with us at least 1/2 hr. Hope to be at the Port Mayaca dolphins before dark but that will mostly depend on how long the St. Lucie lock holds us up. It isn’t a difficult canal to transit in the dark so not worried if it gets dark before we arrive. One more travel day after today!!!

11/13/2024

We have arrived at our anchorage for the day, Hole in the Wall Anchorage (Vero Beach, FL) on the Indian River. Our trip today - 73 nautical miles in 10 hrs 48 min. It was a very windy day with lots of faster boats passing us. Why is it suddenly everyone has forgotten they have a VHF radio. Only one boat that sped by us throwing wakes actually used a VHF to let us know his intent to pass.
For most of the day it was a straight shot on the Indian River. Not a lot to see, especially since it was rather grey out, harder to see things. Tomorrow we push hard to get to the Port Mayaca dolphins before the lock setting us up to cross Lake Okeechobee Friday first thing before weather arrives. It will be another long day but if we can do this, that means Friday we will arrive at our final destination for now, Morehaven. Oh it is a Friday…that means steak night at the Eagles Club…yumm!

11/13/2024

Good morning from the Indian River. Our anchor held strong all night in strong winds and we started to lift the anchor at 6am. It wasn’t long until we were in the Haulover Canal and wow, the wildlife was incredible. I even saw 2 manatees! I took lots of photos with my Nikon so will post later. We had another beautiful sunrise and today we have a few anchorages picked out so hopefully one will work out.

11/13/2024

We arrived at our anchorage, although it was not our first, second or third choice but fourth option. It is not a great protected anchorage but our anchor is holding strong. We arrived after dark which is definitely not our preference but the other anchorages were either crowded, too small for our boat or too shallow nearby not giving us much swing room. Today we travelled 81.9 nautical miles in just under 12.5 hrs. The day went smoothly until it was time to find our anchorage….then it got a little stressful. All is ok though, we are secure now. We saw lots of dolphins, especially between Ponce de Leon Inlet and here. We are both tired so heading to bed early.

11/12/2024

Good morning. We were underway this morning at 6:15am heading towards St. Augustine. Captain Eric took the mast 1/2 way down and Karen put the antennas down giving us a clearance of 17’6”. We arrived at the bridge at 7:30am so could have had it open but the bridge tender said that a mean high tide was 20’ (note the tide board is missing thanks to hurricanes if heading south) but it was a little more than 19’ clearance when we went through and from the pictures below, you can see we had room to spare.
We are now cruising towards Daytona on what is so far a fairly calm day.

11/12/2024

There are now 4 of us in this anchorage but we are all distanced nicely apart. We had a bunch of dolphin playing/feeding around the boat and Tank was going crazy looking for them and watching them.

11/11/2024

We have arrived at our anchorage on the Tolomato River shortly before St. Augustine, FL. There is one sailboat here sharing this anchorage and that likely will be it as it is a smaller anchorage. Hoping for a quiet night. It is overcast so not optimistic that we will have a great sunset. I guess that is what makes us appreciate the spectacular ones. Tomorrow we head to an anchorage around Daytona. We traveled a total of 50.3 nautical miles in 7.5 hrs (including our travel time back to Port Consolidated Fuel).

11/11/2024

Mansions just south of Jacksonville

11/11/2024

11/11/2024

We were off the dock at 6:00am to catch a close-to high tide to exit the marina. This time we had about 2’ under the keel at the lowest point. We actually had a dolphin directly in front of us - it was like it was guiding us out of the channel- cool!
We were first to arrive at the Port Consolidated Fuel dock a bit before 7am and the guy who runs it showed up early as he had a lot of calls from big boats saying they would be there for 8am when he opened so we actually were fueled and on our way by 7:45am.
There is hardly any wind so at the fuel dock the sand flees were ferocious. After we left the dock I noticed hundreds and hundreds of those bugs in our aft deck area. I pulled out the vacuum and sucked them up! I periodically go back and do a little more as these things bite!
We are currently approaching and will be crossing the Saint Johns River.
Today we are aiming for an anchorage on the Tolomato River not far from St. Augustine.

11/09/2024

We have arrived and are docked at Amelia Island Marina. Low tide was at 8:23am and high tide is at 2:44pm so we arrived mid-tide and still only saw 5-5-1/2’ depth (so 1’ under the keel). The transient dock we are on we were told only one boat was there…no two and a catamaran beside us. We had hoped to turn around before docking but we will worry about that when we leave. Maybe the boats behind us will leave tomorrow and we can walk back for an easier exit. We are here two days to get chores done then back underway for our final days getting us to Morehaven,

11/09/2024

Good morning from the Atlantic as we near our destination, Fernandina and the St Mary’s Inlet. A beautiful sunrise but rather red/dark pink…good thing we are heading into port. The seas here this afternoon are predicted to turn and tomorrow they are calling for 5-6’ waves at short intervals. We will be happy to be tied up at a dock. ETA currently 10/10:30am. Oh and our little bird hitchhiker is still with us this morning. Welcome to Florida little birdie.

11/09/2024

Quiet, calm night on the Atlantic. Currently across from Ossabaw Island, Georgia.

11/08/2024

Sunset on the Atlantic. We are almost across from Hunting Island, SC and not far from being across from Beaufort, SC. The ocean is pretty flat with a small swell - tomorrow we should be in Florida and at a dock before noon. We picked up a little hitchhiker 🐦‍⬛.