St. Augustine, Day Two

Today we played tourist.  We left Gran Vida tied to her mooring ball and went into town early to see what we could see.  St. Augustine is indeed a beautiful city.  Here's just a sampling:

St. Augustine

After two windy and chilly days of travel, we are now in St Augustine, Florida.  Day one, after a very windy night tied up to a dock in Cape Canaveral, we got an early start and moved the boat to Daytona Beach.  We hopped in the dinghies and scooted the mile or so over for docktails aboard fellow loopers King and Sharon’s boat (Blue Moon), with Grant & Cindy (As the Crow Flies), Pierre and Jennifer (Wild Raven), and Jim and Mimi (Perfect Balance).  Thanks King and Sharon for your warm welcome and the awesome margaritas. YUM! We'yall would like to thank y'all, eh? (our combo of Canadian and Southern talk). Of note, the folks from Wild Raven are the couple that are completing their loop aboard their canoe.  Yep, a canoe.  With their border collie Jasmine aboard as well.  Check out their blog: http://www.wildravenadventure.com/

Today we moved on up the ICW, tied to a mooring ball and enjoyed the afternoon walking around historic St Augustine.  Tomorrow we’ve decided to stay put for the day and we’re booked into a tour of the town with Jim and Mimi. 

It’s funny, coming down the river system, we would run into loopers and leap frog along, seeing familiar faces and boats each day.  Once we got to Florida everyone sort of scattered, and we often would not see other loopers at all.  Now, heading back up the east coast, we’re all meeting again.  We just ran into a boat that we haven’t seen since Alabama.

Tonight, the winds have finally died down and it's supposed to warm up tomorrow.  Tired, after long hours in the fresh air, a cup of tea and early to bed will leave us hopefully rearing to go for another day of exploring.

Cape Canaveral - Kennedy Space Centre - NOT!

March 26, 2015

Cape Canaveral – The Kennedy Space Centre? – Not this time!

The plan for the day was the Kennedy Space Centre with Jim and Mimi.  We got up and called a couple of cab companies to see what the fair would be to go from the Marina to the Centre.  Holy Cow.  Forty bucks each way? That seemed a little excessive.

A car rental for the day would be cheaper, so that’s what we did.  We called Enterprise and made arrangements for a pick up in half an hour.  The very nice Enterprise lady arrived on time and we all piled into the compact car to head back to her office to complete the necessary paperwork.  Outside the office we stopped to admire the three or four awesome “go-fast” cars they had there.  Jeff had been eyeing fancy rentals all throughout our trip, thinking how much fun THAT would be.  After we were done in the office the very nice Enterprise lady took us out to our rental, and SURPRISE!  She gave us a convertible Camaro!!  Seriously!  No extra charge.  Just because she liked us.  Like I said, she was a very nice Enterprise lady.

We were soooo pumped!  What to do with a convertible Camaro on a sunny day in Florida?  Go park it in the lot of the Kennedy Space Centre?  I think not.  Daytona was only an hour away and that car was just begging for a drive on the beach.  Whoo-hoo!  Off we went.  Top down.  Music blasting.

We stopped in to show off our pimped-up ride to Dave and Michelle (Just Us).  Then we remembered that Grant and Cindy (As the Crow Flies) were up in Daytona.  A few texts later and it was arranged.  A looper visit at a marina in Daytona and a drive on the beach.  Awesome!  What a fun day!

Looper get-together.  Crew from: As the Crow Flies; Perfect
Balance; Blue Moon; Wild Raven and Gran Vida

Cape Canaveral - The Launch

The day of the Launch at Cape Canaveral had arrived.  We were really looking forward to watching our first rocket launch.  The plan was, we were going to move the boat to a marina close to the launch area.  Jim and Mimi were going to follow suite after some shopping.  Then Dave & Michelle (Just Us) and Derek and Kristen, friends from Orillia, were going to meet us at the marina and we were all going to go out on Gran Vida to watch the launch.  Great!

Off we went, through the early morning fog, to get ourselves settled.  After checking in to the marina, we all piled onto Gran Vida, drove out and stopped the boat as close to the restricted area as possible. It was around 2:25, plenty of time to drop the anchor, get seated and see the 2:36 launch.  Some went up to the bow, others found a spot on the flybridge.  Mimi and I went down for a quick washroom visit.  After gabbing downstairs for a just a very few minutes we headed upstairs to find our spot to watch, excited to see the launch.  Um, what was that big white, smoky streak in the sky?  OH NO!!!  After looking forward to the launch for days Mimi and I actually missed it!!  Unbelievable!

Nevertheless, it was a great day. Back at the marina we enjoyed snacks and ribs that Jeff had thrown on the Q.  Later we went out for a late dinner in the local restaurant.  Just another Gran Vida day.