Gosh it’s been so long since we’ve chatted!  I’ll give you the “readers digest” version of where we’ve been and where we are now, and then I’ll try to keep in touch more often.

When we left off last we were in Daytona Beach. On Thursday (1/23) we left Daytona about 8:15 for a short ride to Smyrna Yacht Club in New Smyrna Beach, FL. Once we arrived at SYC we had lunch on the Yacht Club patio then went for a walk-about. We found a very lovely historical residential area and cute town. We ended up walking nearly six miles enjoying the sights, and then back to the boat where we spent a lovely evening watching dolphins swimming off our transom.

 Off again Friday, (1/24), headed to Titusville, FL.  Arriving in Titusville, FL around 11:50 we walked to town which was pretty dismal. Not much happening here. We did find a cute and popular waterfront restaurant where we had lunch.

Oh no! Quite suddenly, about 18:00 (6:00pm), I was hit with food poisoning. Not sure if it was from the cute waterfront restaurant or the prosciutto I had as a snack on board the boat.  Fortunately, Michael ate differently so he wasn’t affected. I was down for the count. Too sick to leave on Saturday (1/25) we extended our stay and I stayed in bed and Michael did boat chores.

Sunday (1/26) I was back among the living so we headed out for another short trip, to Cocoa, FL. The cute little town was teeming with people enjoying their Sunday. There were lots of shops and restaurants so we stayed Monday as well.  It was a fun stop.

We exited Cocoa around 9:00 Tuesday (1/28) morning. As we cruised under the first bridge, we had to dodge floating wall board.  A delivery truck crossing over the bridge lost his load! Jeez. Our ride today was about six hours and we passed by numerous little islands. Grant Farm Island was inhabited with what looked to be about 20 homes with the only access by water.  If you’ve had any thoughts of living on your own island, this might be the place.

We arrived at Vero Beach Yacht Club about 3:00, a lovely and friendly small private club. We walked through the residential area which was mostly small (1100-1600 sq. ft.) single level homes built in the 1950’s/1960’s. Most didn’t appear to have been remodeled but they were impeccably maintained and were surrounded by massive oak trees that looked more like works of art than trees. Quite picturesque!

We found the town of Vero Beach to be very upscale. The retail area was lined with designer clothing stores, jewelry stores featuring Cartier and Rolex, numerous financial institutions and boutique real estate offices all lined up. Pretty classy! We had a late lunch at Mulligan’s on the ocean as we watched the waves crashing on shore.  It was beautiful and another favorite stop where we enjoyed two days.

We released our lines on Thursday (1/30) on our way to Stuart Corinthian Yacht Club in Port Salerno, Stuart, FL. We arrived about 2:00 at the lovely small private yacht club. A couple of members stopped by the boat and invited us to come up for Friday Pub Night. We joined about 200 members and guests for drinks and pasta. The chef set up a pasta station and prepared individual pasta dishes for each person. Quite nice and fun!

Friday was quite breezy and on Saturday morning (2/1), Michael noticed numerous coconuts on the grounds of the Yacht Club. Oops, they weren’t there yesterday. The last time we visited Hawaii we remember being told several times “don’t sleep under the coconut tree”. This is why you “don’t sleep under the coconut tree”! We stayed at SCYC through Sunday (2/2) then headed to Salerno Marine for Scout’s new bottom job.

While Scout was in the yard from Sunday (2/2) until Thursday (2/6) we stayed in a nice little one bedroom waterfront Airbnb across from the yard. The dogs and I pretty much hung out at the apartment and Michael was at the yard every day overseeing the bottom job and doing boat projects. We decided to change the bottom color to red from turquoise – reason for the change – you can immediately tell when the bottom starts to show wear because you can see the old color showing through. Smart – don’t you think?

Back in the water on Thursday (2/6) we went back to Stuart Corinthian Yacht Club so we could clean Scout up and get ready to leave again on Saturday (2/8) for Riviera Beach City Marina where we stayed for two days.  We took Scout-About over to Peanut Island which was a kick. Riviera Beach is quite the resort area with an outdoor restaurant, and all kind of activities – paddle boarding, snorkeling, scuba, etc. There were also cruise ships that came in daily. Very civilized.

We left the resort life on Monday (2/10) morning for a short cruise and anchored in Lake Boca in Boca Raton, FL. Our view from Scout was of luxury mansions lining the shore all around us. We took Scout-About to the dinghy dock and walked into town which was very upscale. Another lovely place to visit. Another Looper,  in a Mainship 400 (Blue Horizon), came into the anchorage a short distance from us – and she looked just like Scout. We took Scout-About over and met Melanie and Rick and invited them for docktails and had a lovely evening swapping stories about Looping and Mainships.

We weighed anchor Tuesday (2/11) morning headed to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The trip wasn’t very far but had lots and lots of bridges and no-wake zones. Also this appears to be the land of the millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires by the looks of the mega mansions and mega yachts. Lots and lots of eye candy and head turning. We waved as we passed by Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

We arrived at Coral Ridge Yacht Club around 2:00 which became our home for three days. It’s a lovely club with very friendly members in a great location, just a short walk to Publix and the Galleria Mall. Also across the ICW is a wonderful state park. We took Scout-About over and hiked to the Parks and Ocean restaurant for lunch. Fun and another great stop.

Friday (2/14) we backed out of our CRYC slip headed for Dania Beach Marina, Dania Beach, FL. The trip was another “eye popping” journey with mega yachts and mega homes lining the shore line. Unbelievably amazing! We met up with Melanie and Rick on Blue Horizon again at Dania Beach. Fun!

Our plan is to stay here through the weekend. Will keep you posted. Would love to hear from you guys – missing you so much……

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