Week 33

Feb. 23-Mar 1, 2026

Monday

It was super windy last night. We worried we would drag anchor and blow into a sailboat that was fairly close to us. The temperature dropped dramatically overnight. We woke up to temps in the 40s this morning. It is still pretty windy.

We traveled 4.5 hours and 34 nautical miles to Port St Lucie, FL. We anchored for the afternoon and evening. Ed was able to fix our circuit breaker. That's so nice. We probably won't need the AC much any more. As we head north the temps are dropping. Now he's working on finding a new microwave to fit in this cabinet spot we have. Then we'll be all caught up on repairs.

Tuesday

We only had to go 17.6 nautical miles to get to the marina at Fort Pierce. Right before Port St. Lucie the water turned a more brown color and got the boat really dirty. River water has Tannins that stain the hull yellow. I washed the boat off first thing. Then we went to rent a car.

Our first priority was going to the National US navy seal museum. We watched a fascinating documentary giving the history of the seals. There were lots of displays outside and even an obstacle course. We were very impressed.

We went on the hunt for a new convection microwave. We looked at home depot, Walmart, target, and Lowes. We got to Lowes last and that's where we found it. It had to be the exact size for our cabinets.

We drove out to Stuart to pick up a wall hanging board. This man etched out the great loop on these boards. I fell in love with the one I saw at April Degennero's house in Chocowinity. I love it.

We did a grocery run and got back to the boat a little after 9pm. It was a full long day.

Wednesday

We turned the car in this morning and left the marina for an anchorage near Melbourne. It was about a 48 nautical mile cruise. The water up here is more a muddy brown look. We've left the beautiful turquoise behind.

Thursday

We pulled up anchor first thing for a 40 nautical mile drive to Titusville pronounced tie-tus-ville. This area is home to Cape Canaveral. We are hoping to see a rocket launch tomorrow morning. Kennedy space center is also nearby. Since we've been there before, we aren't going to do that.

We went for a walk to see the park with space plaques. This area is called the space coast of Florida. We walked to the museum that was free. It was just a history of Titusville museum.

On our walk back, we passed by a fresh water pond with some little islands. On several of the islands there were alligators. One island had turtles. We saw a beautiful big white bird with black wing tips. We watched a giant heron swallow a big fish whole.

We went about 36 hours without a boat problem. Today's issue is the stern thruster has stopped working. Ed spent some time trying to diagnose the problem with our stern thruster and fix it. So far he has been unsuccessful. 😞

Friday

We woke up to watch the SpaceX rocket launch to a super foggy morning. We couldn't see anything but we could hear it! It flew right up over the boat.

We went for a walk while we waited for the fog to lift and then left the marina. We traveled 41.4 nautical miles to anchor at Daytona Beach. It started to rain and rained most of the night.

Saturday

We left pretty early at 7:30 am. to get to St. Augustine. We traveled 46 nautical miles. We were excited to get to this city. There is so much history here. It did not disappoint! We arrived just after lunch. We got on the hop on hop off trolley tour. We love these because it gives a good overview. We learned a lot of the history. This is the oldest city in America founded in the 1500s by Ponce de Leon. He was looking for the fountain of youth. It was originally called La Florida, the flower. We went on a street, Magnolia street, that was voted in the top 10 beautiful streets in America. There aren't any magnolias any more. They died in a frost. There's big beautiful trees that looked like live oak trees that form a canopy over the street. We went on the oldest road in America. We walked through the fort that was never overtaken.; the Castillo de San Marcos. At one time it had cannon balls launched at it for 60 straight days and it survived. We saw the love tree. It is a live oak tree that is estimated to be between 650 and 800 years old. It has a palm tree growing in the middle. Two trees, one root system. You can't remove one without most likely killing the other. So it's referred to as the love tree. If you kiss underneath it you will have a long successful relationship. So, of course, we kissed. St. Augustine was the original Florida capitol until it was moved to Tallahassee. We walked through the old town shopping district that is cute and quaint. Many if the houses and buildings are original from the 1700s. This afternoon, I was washing the windows, when a couple came over to say hello. They are pretty new loopers, Randy and Ginni. He said he has been watching our videos since day one! They said, we would recognize you anywhere, we’ve seen many videos. We went out to dinner together and learned they lived in Clovis, Ca during the same years we were there, just few miles from us in the country right by our friend Steve Schumanns house. We actually moved away a long time before they did. They just lived a couple of miles east of us. Such a small world. It was fun to reminisce about Clovis. We were probably passing each other all the time and never knew it. Super nice couple!

Of note for today: Pres. Trump ordered the attack on Iran this morning and the top 40 leaders were killed. Hopefully the people will rise up and form the kind of government that will be good for them and allow for freedom and liberty for the Ira Ian’s free all these years of oppression. Many Ira Ian’s are celebrating . We hope and pray for peace soon.

Sunday

We took an Uber to church. We met Brent Brown from Springville Utah and a fellow looper. He had a car and gave us a ride home.

In the afternoon we went to the Lightner museum. It was first a hotel built by the famous oil man Flagler to help build up St. Augustine. It was eventually bought by Lightner a man from Chicago, who turned it into his museum dedicated to the guilded era. There were some fascinating pieces. The building is magnificent.