Marineland, New Smyrna Beach, Vero Beach and Camp Carol!

Before we left St Augustine, the replacement bolt did arrive by noon. Gerry took an Uber to pick it up, and by 1:30 pm we were on our way to Marineland. Below is the Bridge of the Lions open for us to pass and examples of the Christmas decorations in St Augustine. Check out: https://www.floridashistoriccoast.com/nights-lights/

Marineland is in the southern part of St Augustine and is one of Florida's first marine mammal parks , and is billed as “the worlds’s first oceanarium”. Originally opening in 1938, it became a swim with the dolphin facility in 2006. There is a small marina across the street (were we stayed) but nothing else within 5 miles.

Once secured to the dock (Tues 11/19) we prepared for the forecasted heavy rain overnight. When we woke, we discovered the rain dried up before it reached the coast. The wind did pick up as expected, but not nearly as strong as predicted. (The remnants of Hurricane Sarah)

Wednesday morning, with clouds and wind, we stayed on the boat and puttered. I painted the shells we picked up while walking the beach the night before and Gerry continued to tweak the AIS and we now have our Latitude and Longitude for DSC on the VHF, in the event, we ever have an emergency.

In the afternoon, I cleaned the exterior of the boat, top to bottom! Around 5 pm, we cleaned up, poured a glass of wine and took a walk around the marina. Pam and Bob from Out of the Blue (PDQ) found us and came back to see our boat and we visited for about an hour!

After dinner, I was able to Zoom with Lorna and Lynda from back at home, it was great! Miss my girls!

Thursday we set an alarm 🤣 and headed to Marineland Dolphin Adventure for 9am. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a private (no other guests) tour of the dolphin area and various exhibits and fish. Tom our volunteer guide was very knowledgeable and had a great personality. Did you know that Dolphin do sleep? How do they do that? These fact and so many others made it well worth the cost of admission.

One more funny thing, we learned they filmed “Creature from the Black Lagoon” movie at Marineland in 1954. We went back to the boat, and watched the movie. LOL. Whelp, THAT”S 75 minutes of our life we’ll never get back.

Friday, 11/22 we left Marineland and headed south to New Smyrna Beach to see family. One the way south, we could see the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse and restaurants we have been to before off of Flagler Ave. The weather has been sunny, but burr cold, it was 45 degrees outside when we woke up. Our jackets are back on!

Friday night, we were very fortunate to have dinner with my Uncle Ernie (my father’s little brother) and his wife Jane. They picked us up and we had a great dinner at JB’s Fish camp. We ate alligator for the first time (actually pretty good) and learned about (and ate) Rock Shrimp.

On Saturday, our plans with my cousins fell through to do an illness, (we will catch them on the way back north) so we took our scooters to the beach in the morning and had a late lunch early dinner at Outriggers Tiki Bar & Grill.

Up Sunday morning and off the dock by 8:00 AM. We had a 7 hour, 90 plus mile day to Vero Beach. We met friends, Susan and Clyde Gordon from Ram Island YC and had dinner with them. It was great to see people we know again!. They shared their experiences of cruising the Bahamas and the Caribbean with their family. What an amazing experience they had. We do try to get out somewhere and make sure the Fitbit hits 10,000 steps. Today, we went by a great doggie library in Vero. Take a stick / leave a stick! Fun!

The last picture is of two bridges, the Old and New Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart FL, very close to our first, last stop!

At ICW MM 985 we took a right turn up the St Lucie River to Palm City and “Camp Carol” where this entire adventure began 1600 miles ago in April So happy to be back here!

Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you. We will be leaving AdvenureUS here for a few days as we drive to the West Coast to our condo in Punta Gorda to enjoy thanksgiving. Back here by the weekend, to bring the boat through the Okeechobee Waterway, to Fort Myers and eventually Burnt Store Marina for the winter!