Lorenzo & Delois Johnson

Our stay in Fort Lauderdale has ended.  Tonight, we are rafted in Tarpon Basin, only 50 miles from Marathon.  Our plans to stay at Boca Chita were  changed based on the weather predictions.  The wind was predicted to increase to 18-20 kts from the North, which would make our travels on Biscayne Bay very uncomfortable, so we continued on past Boca Chita to a point where the wind would not bother us.

We arrived at the Fort Lauderdale Downtown marina on Tuesday evening around 1 PM.  Our stay was really enjoyed by all.  Robert Robinson from Holden Beach has a home near where we were docked, so He came over and took us on a tour of the town.   He visited us several times, and really made our stay special.  We were visited by our cousin Kinte Vereen who lives within walking distance of where we were docked.   We were visited by several people from the Southport and Holden Beach area, since the boats name and homeport are  displayed on the stern of the boat.   We went to the largest swap market I have ever seen.  This is really a combination flea market and farmers market all located in a drive in movie lot. The drive-in movie has 12 screens, with each one showing a different movie.   Customers drive around the massive facility to find thei r movie of choice. It would take many days to visit all of the shops in this flea market.

Fort Lauderdale is a really great town to visit.  We enjoyed visiting the shops on Los Olas; we  spent lots of time in the Cheesecake factory;  we enjoyed the local restaurants and all they had to offer.  We really enjoyed our stay in Fort Lauderdale.

We are scheduled to arrive in Marathon on Wednesday, so we have to decide how we are going to spend the two extra days.

Tonight, we are docked in downtown Fort Lauderdale at the Downtown New River Marina.  This is one of our favorite places to visit.  We can stay here for four or five days and still arrive in Marathon on Feb 1. 

 We were very happy and surprised to see Les and Judy on Voyager II standing on the dock as were were docking.  They are friends we met for the first time during our Great Loopo Trip, and we have seen them many times since.  They too will be spending the Winter with us in Marathon.

We had a great day yesterday.  Brantley Powell, a close friend of Louis, came by at 0730, and we went fishing on his boat.  The ocean was rather rough, but it was a very good trip.  We were in 150 feet of water, and less than 200 yards from shore.   At home, we need to travel 50 to 60 miles out in the ocean to find water depths of 150 feet. 

By 10 am, we had landed and released a 6 ft long sailfish.  This was a great experience, and we were just a few miles from the anchorage where our boats were anchored.  We returned to the anchorage, and rested and had lunch.  At 4:30, Brantley and his wife, Brenda, came by the anchorage.  All of us from our three boats boarded Brantleys boat and off we went to enjoy Happy hour and dinner at His favorite waterside hang out.  A very good time was had by all.

This morning, we left the anchorage at 7AM, and arrived at the marina at 3PM.  After dinner, we walked up to Los Olas Boulevard and did a lot of sightseeing and Ice cream eating.  Today has been a very good day.

Tonight, we are rafted and anchored in a beautiful anchorage in Lake Worth, Fl.  Our two day stay in Fort Pierce was really enjoyed by all.  We arrived in Fort Pierce around 3 PM on Friday.  We visited with old friends there, and had a relaxing evening.  On Saturday, we went to the farmers market.  We ate a hearty breakfast at the market, and stayed there shopping and sight seeing until noon.  We returned to the boat, and had lunch.  After lunch, we spent a few hours cleaning and washing the salt from the boat.  We ate dinner, and then walked up the street for ice cream.  Overall, our Fort Pierce stop was enjoyable and restful.

We left Fort Pierce at 0730, and had an uneventful travel day.  It was an exciting day, and reminded us why we normally do not travel on weekends.  The waterways were full of weekend boaters and they kept the day interesting.

We anchored and rafted around 3 pm.  We prepared our communal dinner, and enjoyed a really great meal.  Tomorrow morning, we are going fishing in the Gulf Stream hoping to hook a sail fish.  A friend of Lewis is taking us fishing, and then they are coming by on their boat to take us to Happy Hour at their favorite bar and grill.

We arrived in Fort Pierce around 3 PM after a great travel day.  The weather was absolutely beautiful, with no wind.  We are docked at the Fort Pierce City Marina, a very good place to stay. 

Tomorrow morning, we are going to the Farmers Market held in the park adjacent to the marina.  This is our fourth time visiting the Farmers  Market, and we are looking forward to it.-

We had a good travel day today.  We were docked in Cocoa Beach at the Cocoa Village Marina at around 1 PM.    This is a really nice Marina in a good location.  We walked to downtown (3 blocks) and visited the oldest and largest hardware store in Florida.  This store has been in business since 1885, and has been owned by five generations in the same family.  This place is awesome.  They have lard stands and wooden wagon wheels for sale.  They have almost anything that You can imagine in a hardware store, and the prices were very good.  I would love to spend three or four days in this large hardware store that is housed in two twin story buildings that are interconnected.

We left the hardware store and visited some of the other stores in the area.  The downtown area is really beautiful, and we really enjoyed the ice cream store.

We met the other boaters in our traveling group at Ryans Pizza for dinner.  There were 11 of us having dinner together, and we really enjoyed a good meal and lots of good company.

We returned to the dock to sit out on the dock and watch a NASA rocket launch.  At exactly 730, the sky lit up.  It was really beautiful, with the light reflecting on the water.  The NASA space center is about 10 miles away, and we could hear the loud sound of the rocket as it was takinfg off. 

Tomorrow morning, we will travel to Fort Pierce to be there for the Saturday Farmers Market.  We will probably leave there on Sunday morning, and head to Fort Lauderdale.  We will spend a few days in Fort Lauderdale before heading toward the Lower Keys. 

We had a good travel day today.  We left the marina at 0700 and arrived at our destination around 3 PM.  We had a long day today, traveling almost 70 miles.

We are docked in the CIty Park!! The City Park has a large dock, and we are spending the night here. 

Tomorrow, we will spend the night at the Cocoa Village Marina  at  Cocoa Beach.  Friday night should be spent in Fort Pierce, in time for the Saturday farmers market.

We arrived in St Augustine yesterday in the early afternoon.  I was very surprised when we were met at the dock by an old friend from Holden Beach.  David is the Dockmaster at this Marina.

We have had two good days here.  David loaned his vehicle, so we have made trips to West Marine and to Wal-Mart, among other places.  We were able to catch up on some of our boat chores, and really enjoy our break from traveling.  We have eaten both nights at a very good restaurant that is within easy walking distance.  We are docked within 2 blocks of the winery, and they offer free wine tasting tours all day long. 

Tomorrow, we will get an early start, and it will be a long travel day to reach our planned destination.  We are making long days so that we can reach Ft Pierce in time for the Saturday Farmers Market.  We are planning to spend two days sight seeing in Ft Pierce, then we will move on to Ft Lauderdale and spend three days there. 

The trip is going really good.  The weather has been very nice, and the friends are really great people.  We are really enjoying ourselves.  Lil’ David continues to perform without problems or concerns.  Life is good.

We are rafted and anchored in Ft George River, Fl.  We are about 40 miles from St Augustine, Fl.  We are planning to travel to St Augustine tomorrow, and spend a few days there to take a travel break.

We had a really good day today.  The winds were moderate, and the weather was very nice, with the temperatures in the low 60s.  We had a very good dinner tonight, and  watched a good football game.  

Today is Friday the 13th !!! At 0300 last night, I went out on deck to verify our position at anchor.  The three boats were rafted together in our normal fashion.  The winds were gusting to 40 MPH, and we had no wind protection from the shore.  I was surprised to see that we had dragged our anchors for about 100 ft, and Lil David was aground.  The other two boats were toward the center of the channel, so they were still floating.  Checked that everything was OK, and settled down to spend the rest of the night making sure that everything went OK.  At 0600, everybody came out on deck to view our positio while the tide continued to fall and then again in the rising tide.  The tide for last night was 9.4 feet.  At o7oo we seperated the boats, and the two that were floating were allowed to drift out into the channel to wait on the tide to refloat Lil David.  At o745, were were floating, and as we retreived our anchor, we were pulled to the center of the channel.  We were underway by 0800, so the anchor drag caused  our departure to be delayed by 30 minutes.

Tonight, we are rafted and anchored in a really nice anchorage on the Duplin River in  Georgia.  Tomorrow, we are planning to go to Brunswick to fuel and spend the night.  This should give us enough fuel to go to Marathon.  We have not decided whether to spend a second night in Brunswick or to go on to Fernandina Beach, Fl and spend Sunday night there. 

Tonight we are docked at Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, Ga.  We were successful in navigating the Little Mud River today.  There were several times that we held our breath as we eased our way through the shallow areas.

Tonight, we all went to the Pizza restaurant for dinner.  The restaurant is 3 to 4 blocks from the marina, so it was an easy walk.  The food was very good, and the company was even better.  Everyone enjoyed the evening.

We were joined by Bonnie and John on BON VOYAGE.  They are heading to the Florida West Coast, and will be traveling with us for a while.  We really enjoyed their company.

Tomorrow, we will cross the St. Marys River into Florida.  We will make a short day and stop somewhere around Fernandina Beach.  We are going to travel for the next two days, since we will have good weather.  Rain and windy weather is forecast for early next week, so we will take a couple of days off when we reach St Augustine.  That is a great place to spend a few days ashore.