Tag Archives: LilSudden

Great Loop: A Universally Great Time

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Days 26-28: February 12-14, 2023

We got up bright and early so we could voyage up to Titusville by lunch time. It was another example of getting out early to beat the wind. The forecast was again saying that the afternoon breezes were going to be too much to handle, and they again proved to be correct. Shortly after we docked in Titusville, the winds picked up to 40+ knots and we were all glad that we were safely tied up. We opted for a marina during our time in Titusville as we knew the next few days were going to be spent off boat and an hour away in Orlando – so less worries about boats at anchor.

Cape Canaveral

In the afternoon of arrival, we headed over to the nearby Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to see if we could be launched into space. Sadly, they didn’t have room on their schedule for us, so we had to settle for tours and exhibits.

There is a lot of cool stuff to see: all the history of the space program from the original push to the moon to the plans for Mars—a geek’s paradise.

Every time I look at the space shuttle, I’m surprised at how small it was. I know, it’s not really that small but growing up I pictured something that was at least twice the size.

It’s crazy to see the capsules and the spaces the astronauts have to be in for extended periods of time. I get cramped up just sitting on a boat for a few hours. And I can get up and walk around anytime I want there.

When we got back to the marina, Michael found a horseshoe crab molt. Ugly creatures but they are pretty cool and prehistoric! He’s saving it for his collection. Of what? Random things found on the beach.

Universal

The next morning, we headed an hour west to Orlando to spend the day at Universal. All I have to say is the new VelociCoaster is the best. The Hulk used to be my favorite coaster but there is a new top contender. You gotta try it!

We spent a bit of extra money and did a group tour. They have two types of tours: private and group. On a private tour, you get to dictate the day and pretty much ride whatever you want whenever you want. On a group tour they have a basic schedule and hit all the popular rides in both the parks. With both they take you right up to the ride and there is very little waiting. It also included breakfast and lunch. You can get spoiled with the tour. Highly recommended if you are only visiting once or infrequently. It is worth the money to get the most out of a day trip.

Tree Trek

On the final day in the area, we headed back to Orlando to hit the Orlando Tree Trek Adventure Park. The Trek is not a normal obstacle course. The catch is it’s suspended in the air. It took me a few obstacles to get over my aversion to heights, but I managed to complete the four courses included. Michael was so excited that he was now tall enough to do the adult course. He’d been talking about it for days and I think he may have been more excited for it than Universal.

Oh yeah, and we had donuts before heading to the Trek. Tastee Donuts wasn’t much to look at from the outside though the donuts were pretty tasty.

Day 26 Trip Details:
Merritt Island, US to Titusville, US
Time: 2 h 8 m (07:05 to 09:14)
Distance: 14.10 nm

Great Loop: Hot Cocoa

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Days 23-25: February 9-11, 2023

Melbourne

The next stop on the trip was a one-and-a-half-day layover in Melbourne (Florida). We originally planned for a day but that stretched to two to give us a bit more down time. On the arrival day we did a bit of provisioning. There was a marina close to our anchorage and only a block away from the Publix grocery store as well as a few department stores. Always good to have close access. The checkout boy at the store told us to borrow a cart so we used it for the block back to the marina.

We spent some time fishing off the boat and caught a few hardhead catfish. Not my favorite fish because they are so slimy, though the kids had fun and it occupied their time for quite a bit.

The second day in Melbourne we decided to check out the downtown area. First stop was to Jacqueline’s Bakery for some coffee and tasty treats, and hot chocolate for Tonia, of course. After a nice morning snack, we strolled the town, checked out the shops, and had a nice morning.

When the fun was had shopping, it was time for lunch. And when there is a place named Squid Lips, you have to go! It was a fun restaurant and we saw a manatee surface from our dining viewpoint.

The birds of Melbourne…

Cocoa Village

Up bright and early the next day, we headed for Cocoa. Cocoa had some damage during Hurricane Nicole in November and we knew some of their docks were destroyed. And the docks were only two years old. Luckily the big boat dock survived, though no longer with power or water. Unluckily for us, the wind was strong from the south and the stay was a bit rocky. With a few additional fenders we weathered it decently.

Cocoa Village was an amazing town. Lots of shops and local artist studios ranging from paintings to jewelry. They were setting up for a concert that night in the park as well as a “sip and stroll” through town so you could see that the town does a lot to support the community.

The bonus of Cocoa is we were able to meet up with Mike, one of my close high school friends, and his wife Danielle. The last time we saw them was 6 years ago in Seattle, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We found a nice German Biergarten and had a great time.

Day 23 Trip Details:
Vero Beach, US to Brevard County, US
Time: 4 h 28 m (08:21 to 12:49)
Distance: 33.57 nm

Day 25 Trip Details:
Brevard County, US to Merritt Island, US
Time: 2 h 4 m (07:44 to 09:49)
Distance: 14.79 nm

Great Loop: Cruising up the Treasure Coast

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Day 20-22: February 6-8, 2023

Back in 1961, the area of Florida encompassing the Indian River, Martin, and St. Lucie counties needed a name to distinguish themselves from the Gold Coast to the south. At the same salvagers found a Spanish shipwreck off the coast and a newspaper published the location as the Treasure Coast. It seems to have stuck!

Fort Pierce

Our first stop was Fort Pierce and we dinghied over to the city marina to find a spot on their dinghy dock. We poked around the town area for a while and popped into a shop called Africa, which featured art and artifacts from Africa and a shopkeeper who called out “Welcome to Africa!” Neat to see. After a bit more walking, we happened upon some peacock crossing signs and some trash cans painted with peacocks. We figured it was a joke or town gimmick. But no, their gimmick was the real thing. There is a house called the Peacock House and around it was a lot of peacocks. Boris referred to them as effing peacocks!

After the peacocks it was time for dinner, and we headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us by a group at our last stop. The restaurant was 12A Buoy and it was a pretty happening place. The food was wonderful! We even had one of the resident kitties join us.

On the 7th we had a big day planned. A short dinghy ride took us over to the St. Lucie aquarium. The aquarium was having their monthly free day, so it was pretty busy. It’s a small place but had a lot of tanks that displayed the sea life from the local area. They have a touch tank, which is always a big hit with the kids.

Here are a couple videos showing the movement of starfish, or sea stars as we were corrected by the docent because they are not technically fish.

After a quick stop for lunch at a hot dog stand, we got back in the dinghy and headed over to the Navy Seal Museum. As you expect from the name, the museum is dedicated to the history and workings of the Navy Seals. It has everything from underwater delivery vehicles to interactive consoles that let you plan equipment on missions. There are a lot of displays of historic missions they have undertook. It even has the safety boat from the pirate attack. On the outside they have an actual obstacle course for people to try out. Or, in my case, hurt yourself on.

Vero Beach

We got up bright and early on the 8th to continue the voyage north. The next stop was Vero Beach. They have a great city marina that is well protected. We arrived just as some boats were departing and that allowed us to snag a mooring ball. The cool thing for this specific marina is they allow rafting for boats under 50 feet on the mooring balls and thus we could stay together.

The day in Vero Beach was chill. We walked over to the beach and watched the kids play in the waves while making sand creations. We ambled by the historic Driftwood Resort. We also saw some Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish washed up in a few placed on the beach and avoided them. After a bit, we bribed the kids out of the water by the promise of ice cream. That usually works for them…and Tonia.

Day 20 Trip Details:
Martin County, US to Fort Pierce, US
Time: 3 h 4 m (08:49 to 11:54)
Distance: 18.34 nm

Day 22 Trip Details:
Fort Pierce, US to Vero Beach, US
Time: 2 h 54 m (07:05 to 09:59)
Distance: 13.28 nm

Great Loop: Riding out the storm on Hutchison Island

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Day 17-19: February 3-5, 2023

Storms come in many forms. Upon returning from our side trip to Iowa I’d say there were two storms on the horizon. One emotional and the other the Mother Nature type.

One cool thing about the loop and traveling is you get to see people that you haven’t seen in forever. When we were back in Iowa my old friend Sarah reached out and said she saw we were near West Palm from our blog posts. It worked out that we could do dinner the night after returning. It was great fun catching up.

On the morning of February 3rd, we knew we were on the clock for a weather window to get up the coast. The forecast showed it getting nasty in the afternoon and it was going to last for multiple days. Therefore, we decided to book a marina up by Stuart.

We did a quick dinghy trip over to Peanut Island. It was a great walk around and good to stretch the legs and get back to our morning walking.

Upon returning to the boat, we pulled anchor and decided to hit the nearby fuel barge. Fuel there was $4.99 a gallon, which is a significant savings over the nearby marinas charging $6 plus. While we didn’t need a full tank, it’s always good to get fuel cheaper when you can. Plus, the fuel barge crew were super friendly and tolerated our lively banter.

Being in close proximity to one of the inlets, we decided to go on the “outside” to the ocean instead of the intracoastal. It allowed for a quicker trip with no slow zones. Probably saved us an hour or so on the day. And the timing worked out perfectly. The wind started picking up just as we were docking and if we’d been any longer, we would have been in a full thunderstorm, which was bad. We took the shuttle over to the Atlantic side just in time to watch the hotel employees chasing umbrellas down the beach. One got airborne at least 30 feet and was gone. Since we missed beach time, we opted for the hot tub back at the marina hotel along with some beverages.

We spent the next two days riding out the thunderstorms that rolled thru. It wasn’t the typical Florida storm where it moved in and out in a short time. It was a lingering storm. At one point we walked to get lunch and came back with sopping wet shoes and pants. The rain jackets worked.

Tonia, Mayli, and I checked out the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center. It’s a small, mostly outdoor, aquarium and activity center that has some cool animals to see. They have three resident sea turtles that are in captivity only because they can’t make it in the wild. It was cool to see them swimming around the lagoon. There are also many ocean fish in there to gander at. We were there at feeding time so got to feed string rays and watch the staff feed the game fish. It was a fun to pet the sting rays, some of which were super docile. 😉

Ok, you’ve read this whole thing and I didn’t mention anything about emotional storms. Sometimes those go behind the scenes. Since our trip to Iowa, Tonia and I have been a bit bummed out. Probably a little understandable with the overload from the last week. This is a perfect time for Jimmy Buffet’s lyric “Breathe in, breathe out, move on.”

Day 17 Trip Details:
Palm Beach Shores, US to Martin County, US
Time: 4 h 57 m (09:02 to 14:00)
Distance: 32.42 nm

Great Loop: Sidetracked to Iowa

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Days 10-16: January 27-February 2, 2023

Sometimes trips don’t always go as planned. We started out with news that Tonia’s dad Alan was having health issues and needed to go to Mayo (Rochester) for tests. That was followed up with news that Tonia’s Uncle Gary was losing his fight with cancer. We decided we needed to travel back to be with family.

This led to the decision to put the boat in a marina for a few days and fly back to Iowa. We found a spot at the New Port Cove Marina and a flight up to Des Moines on Sunday, Jan 29. It was an early morning flight and we had to Uber it to the airport at 4am. We arrived in Iowa to the aftermath of a snowstorm and low single-digit temperatures. I had to wear two long-sleeve shirts and a sweatshirt since all our cold weather gear is nicely packed away in Seattle.

The positive side is we were able to spend a good deal of time with Tonia’s Uncle Gary on Sunday. We arrived at his place around two and spent the afternoon into the evening telling stories with Gary, Alan, and the family. Unfortunately, Gary passed away early the next day. We are very happy that we got to spend a few last hours with him and his family.

I first met Gary when Tonia brought me to a Bouska family get-together when we were still dating. Of course, I was a little worried meeting the family. However, there was a hayride to which Gary had provisioned a case a beer. It was all history from there.

We spent the remainder of the trip back traveling to Rochester to accompany Alan at his appointments for tests and a biopsy. It was a low-key trip, but we did get to stop by and see Tonia’s cousin Mark and his wife Irissa and five kids. I don’t know how they do it will all the kids running around!

The final day on the side trip was a lot of driving. We swung by New Hampton again to check in on Aunt Sue and family as we were going to miss the funeral.

The trip summary is Gary will be very missed and it is darn cold in Iowa/Minnesota. Yes, that’s where we’re from but spending time in Seattle and now Florida has made us cold adverse!

Above, snow, snow and more snow, must-have taco pizza when in Iowa, buckets of hickory nuts for Alan, and Al and John Deere.

And we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled program ‘aft’er these messages…

Day 11 Trip Details:
North Palm Beach, US to Riviera Beach, US
Time: 1 h 1 m (12:08 to 13:09)
Distance: 3.96 nm

Day 12-15 Trip Details:
Fort Lauderdale to Des Moines to Fort Lauderdale

Day 16 Trip Details:
Riviera Beach, US to Palm Beach Shores, US
Time: 0 h 22 m (10:54 to 11:17)
Distance: 1.45 nm

Great Loop: Sharks!

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Days 8-9: January 25-26, 2023

We finished up the voyage to Hell Gate with “The adventures of Boris and Mayli and the sandbar.” Read the whole story on their blog at “When it rains, the diesel will pour.”   That night we got pizza from a local place in a roundabout way. Delivery guy to hotel, kayak to our boat, and finally dinghy from our boat to the sandbar and Boris and Mayli. The pizza made it safely! A huge thanks to the HOTEL for the restaurant suggestion and allowing us to deliver there for pick-up.

After Saga was free from the sandbar and safely rafted to Lil Sudden, it was time to plan the next step, which included running into Jupiter to get a part to fix the diesel leak and swap out the pulley on Saga’s alternator. Both were accomplished by a dinghy ride, short walk, and a nice mechanic with the correct tools. With Saga repaired we checked out a close marina and they had space for the night.

The JIB Yacht Club and marina is one the intracoastal but also only a few blocks walk to the beach on the Atlantic side. That required a trip to play in the waves. On the path to and from the beach, they had a couple interesting trees. Not sure what they were.

You read all this way and there is no mention of sharks. Ok, here’s the story. Boris found us a little tour company that specialized in shark diving, and we were set. In fairness, they should have been called shark snorkeling but I’m sure they thought diving sounded much more impressive.

We got up early and dinghied over to Jupiter to meet up with the tour company. We had a great weather window, and the trip out was pretty smooth.

Once out a few miles it was time to get into the water. The current was pretty big, so they put out a line tied to a fender so we can hold on and not float away. The line also kept us mostly horizontal in the water, which is key to watching sharks without them getting too close. The way they attract sharks is by putting out bait in a box. It brings fish and sharks up from the deep. Almost as soon as the bait went in the water, we had sharks swimming around.

We were told to keep horizontal and not put our limbs down. Otherwise, the sharks would think we were trying to feed them or trying to attach them, which could cause them to bite. The other thing we were told is to keep looking at the sharks because the sharks would think they could sneak up on us if they knew we weren’t looking. All in all, these bull sharks eat a diet of fish so as long as we were chill, they just went about their business.

And now the actual sharks!

We swam with the bull sharks for an hour and it was a great experience to see them up close in their personal habitat. We’d recommend if you get the chance!

Day 8 Trip Details:
Hell Gate, US to Tequesta, US
Time: 0 h 51 m (13:23 to 14:14)
Distance: 1.91 nm

Day 9 Trip Details:
Jupiter Inlet Colony, US to North Palm Beach, US
Time: 1 h 52 m (13:02 to 14:54)
Distance: 9.47 nm

Great Loop: Gilbert’s Bar

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Days 6-7: January 23-24, 2023

Ok, Ok… Not that kinda bar. Well, what then? Gilbert’s Bar was named for the nasty pirate Don Pedro Gilbert, ARRR! So, what’s this post about then? Close to Gilbert’s Bar is the last remaining House of Refuge. Back in the day the area of Florida between Miami and Daytona had a population in the range of 300 people. If you had a shipwreck on a reef or got caught in a hurricane, you could probably get to shore…at which point you would find no water and die a horrible death of dehydration and bug bites. If you did find water, it was full of bacteria, and you would get dysentery. This sounds like the outcomes of the Oregon Trail game.

To combat sailors dying, a major commercial issue, the US government built 10 houses of refuge along the Atlantic coast of Florida. If you survived a shipwreck, you would go to shore and find signs that pointed you to nearest house, which should be no further than 10-13 miles. Upon arrival at the refuge house, you would be provided food, water, and basic first aid. That would last you until the next supply ship passed and you could be transported back to civilization. The houses were stocked with enough supplies to last 25 survivors for 10 days. Each house had a keeper, like the lighthouse keepers of old. They led solitary lives with their sole purpose each day to walk the beaches daily looking for shipwrecks.

In 1915, the House of Refuge was converted into a coast guard station and used during WWII for spotting German submarines. The building is the oldest structure in the county and purchased by the city to be maintained as a historical site. One of the mottos of the rescue boat personal was “You have to go out, you don’t have to come back.” Beyond looking for enemy ships during the war, the station also worked on combating rum runners during the time of prohibition. A local area legend was Bill Macoy. The “Real” Macoy as they say around here!

Next to the House of Refuge is Ross Witham Beach. Mr. Witham was known for his work with turtles, and he had hatcheries next to the House of Refuge for many years.

We finished up the tourist outing by walking down to the Bathtub Reef Beach. It was a cool beach area that has shallow water out to a reef. Since we were there around low tide, it allowed us to see more see life and the birdies pecking around.

On the boating side, we anchored in Seminole Shores close to the ritzy neighborhood of Sailfish Point. The anchorage was interesting as it had very strong current. What’s strong? Well, if you jumped in the water, you were 30 feet away before you came above the water. Boris, Michael, and I did a little swimming behind the boat by holding on to dock lines. The current was almost strong enough you could get up on water skies. Almost! The other issue with the anchorage was the wind. It seemed like it was opposite of the current most the time. Therefore, the boat wanted to go multiple ways at once. We ended up putting out drogue anchors behind the boat. That kept us from swinging back and forth in the wind.

Day 6 Trip Details:
No voyage

Day 7 Trip Details:
Seminole Shores, US to Hell Gate, US
Time: 3 h 5 m (12:19 to 15:25)
Distance: 15.27 nm

Great Loop: Slowing down in Stuart

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Days 4-5: January 21-22, 2023

The change in plans to skip the Bahamas has removed the immediate time pressure to get somewhere fast. Our anchorage after crossing over Florida was next to Stuart, FL. It was voted the most beautiful city in 2008 and the wiki universe says it’s cited as one of the best small towns to visit. It also claims to be the sailfish capital of the world.

We were all beat after our long trip across Lake Okeechobee, so we opted to dinghy over to Shephard’s Park and got to the first restaurant we came to. That happened to be Lola’s Seafood Eatery. We were a little skeptical when we arrived as it’s an order at the counter restaurant catering more to the fried food varieties. We were pleasantly surprised, and everyone enjoyed their meals from special-of-the-day Seafood Gumbo to the Cod Francaise.

When we arrived the first night it was getting close to the end of the day, and we anchored by the channel near lots of other boats but unfortunately not in a slow zone. The next morning, we received many “wake” up calls from local boaters and by noon we decided it was a good Idea to move a half mile up down where the slow zone started so we didn’t bob around so much.

On Saturday we took a break to work on some projects. That led us to Best Buy, West Marine, Home Depot, and a bunch of cellular stores. One of the purchases was a toilet seat. For some reason the FomoFleet has a track record of breaking toilet seats, this being the 3rd in a year. In our defense, the plastic holding the seat was 20 years old and very brittle.

Did I mention they have cool lizards running around everywhere! At first it looked like leaves blowing around but no, it was lizards running here and there.

After our errands the unanimous vote for dinner was the Basil Garden Thai restaurant that we scoped out across the street. The food was wonderful, and the server was great to chat with. He had been working there for over 24 years so was very knowledgeable when we inquired about dishes.

Stuart has a nice downtown area close to the St Lucie River. It also has a long-running Sunday Green Market that was fun to visit. They have a nice public pier for all sizes of boats for day-only moorage.

The next destination takes us to an anchorage in Seminole Shores and promise of some beach and tourist activities.

Day 4 Trip Details:
Palm City, US to Palm City, US
Time: 0 h 19 m (12:09 to 12:28)
Distance: 0.51 nm

Day 5 Trip Details:
Palm City, US to Seminole Shores, US
Time: 2 h 13 m (11:07 to 13:21)
Distance: 9.44 nm

Great Loop: Okeechobee Waterway, cutting across Florida

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Day 2-3: January 19-20, 2023

Hold up! You can cross through the middle of Florida? Why yes, you can! The Okeechobee Waterway is a man-made channel that stretches across Florida from the Caloosahatchee River at Cape Coral/Fort Myers on the west side to the St. Lucie River ending in Stuart on the east. It was built in 1937 so boat traffic didn’t have to go all the way around the Keys to get across Florida. The channel is 154 miles, has 5 locks, and sports a water depth of 10 feet in most places.

On day two, we traveled from the Franklin Lock to the Moore Haven Lock. We briefly contemplated pushing on to Clewiston on the edge of Lake Okeechobee but decided just to tie up to the dolphins (pilings tied together to create a mooring point) outside of the Moore Haven Locks. That gave us time to do a bit of kayaking and I got in a jog around the lock.

Day 3 had us traversing Lake Okeechobee. Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida and 10th largest contained fully in the US. The craziness of the lake is the average depth is about 9 feet. But, as we know, 10 feet in Florida is considered deep.

Change of Plans:

Given our start date, our plan was to cut across Florida, bop over to the Bahamas, and do a 2-week side adventure. It seems mother nature doesn’t really approve of that plan as the upcoming wind predictions are not favorable. While there is a weather window to get over to the islands, the wind predictions are forecasted high for the 1-2 weeks after, so we’d be mostly in a port or anchorage waiting it out. We figure the side trip would be about 600 extra miles, which equates to around 400 gallons of fuel and $2000. That’s a large expense of money and time to just hope the weather may be good enough. 

This trip will be about going with the flow. After discussing the above issues, we will stick to the eastside of Florida and check out what there is to see in Stuart, Jupiter, West Palm, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Surely, we’ll find some cool things to pass the time.

Day 2 Trip Details:

Alva, US to Glades County, US
Time: 7 h 44 m (08:22 to 16:06)
Distance: 38.62 nm

Day 3 Trip Details:

Glades County, US to Palm City, US
Time: 9 h 10 m (08:12 to 17:23)
Distance: 60.18 nm

Great Loop: The Journey Begins

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Day 1: January 18,2003

That’s right! We have begun our Great Loop Journey. Exactly two weeks after picking our boat up from Tarpon Springs, we completed the maiden loop voyage on our new boat “Lil Sudden” — a play on name Sudden Inspiration.

It was a short hop from Cape Coral to the Franklin Lock. While the plan all along was to stay around the locks for the night, we didn’t have a choice when we found out they were closed for maintenance. Guess I gotta get back in the habit of reading the notices again. 😊

Looking forward to the next year traveling with MV Saga (https://justabitloopy.com) and MV Coda (https://www.adventuresofcoda.com/) as we complete this ~6000-mile adventure around the US and Canada, with a side trip to the Bahamas to start the trip.

The last four months have been a roller coaster with buying a boat, Hurricane Ian, and doing the final preparations. More on that in future posts!

Day 1 Trip Details:

Cape Coral, US to Alva, US
Time: 3 h 26 m ( 12:05 to 15:32 )
Distance: 21.69 nm