Recharging our Batteries with Some Boats and Beaches

Pictures: Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, in front of the marina and anchorages; banyan-lined avenue to the Hobe Sound Beach; decorations at Sawgrass Mills Mall near Weston; one of the gardens at Vizcaya in Coconut Grove; view from boardwalk in Murrell's inlet; Jacksonville waterfront on the St. John's River; Ken relaxing on our private patio in South Daytona Beach where we spent one night (beach on the other side of the blue umbrellas); walking our bikes over the ICW in Hobe Sound; one of the sharks caught during the Blacktip Challenge on Hobe Sound Beach

Our drive down the eastern seaboard in mid-January successfully got us away from cold weather and blizzards. It brought us to several delightful stays where we could go on long beach walks, explore marinas, and meet up with some cruising friends from earlier travels.  

We broke up our trip by stopping first at Surfside Beach, South Carolina. We spent a week there and did get the edge of a northern cold front for the middle of the week, but the beginning and end were warm. We entertained ourselves by going to a vineyard and taking the tour with the owner (in the off-season you get individual attention), walked several times along the “marsh walk” in Murrell’s Inlet where you can watch waterbirds, workboats coming and going, and find a good pub or two, and also we walked the beach at Surfside, only a 15 minute bicycle ride from our resort. At the end of the week, on our way down to Georgia, we stopped in Charleston and met up with Cohasset friends Susan and Jamie Ross. We coincidently were all in the city on the same day so went out to lunch with them and with their son (and his girlfriend) who lives there.

In Brunswick, Georgia we looked up Peggy and Jack, friends we first met in the Bahamas. It is fun to follow them, as they are now on their third (or fourth?) adventure since selling their sailboat, each time with a different power boat. On this visit they now have a Mainship 34 like ours, and are staying in a nice marina for a few months, but who knows what we will find next time we see them!

In Florida we finally got to a brewpub (River City Brewing) we’ve had on our radar for a while, in Jacksonville. It had been off the direct route of the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) quite a way when we went by in our boat several times. We got there for lunch on a beautiful early afternoon and really enjoyed the upscale feel, good food and brews and good prices.

Our next stop was in Hobe Sound, a town near Jupiter that we are familiar with since the ICW goes through there. We had a studio apartment in a private home for five days, arranged through “AirBnB”.  This area was easy to walk through, had a great bike ride along a banyan-lined road to the beach, and the beach was always full of fishermen, beachcombers, and curious visitors like us. We met a group of young men who were taking part in a blacktip shark “challenge” which involved catching, measuring, tagging and releasing the sharks, with the biggest catch of the weekend getting a prize. They gave us a good show on two consecutive days catching large sharks from the beach. Guess this isn’t such a great place for swimming!

We had a great time visiting with Susan and Barry Perkins who have a winter place nearby on Hutchinson Island. And we also spent time with Chris and Kevin Buckley in Rio, near Jensen Beach. Kevin took us for a sail on APRES SKI, their Hunter 34. We had two home-cooked meals with these four friends, who are all cruisers we know from our earlier boat trips south.

Our last week was spent in Weston, west of Ft. Lauderdale. It is a timeshare-trade resort with a large pool and nice accommodations. We had another perfect weather week, and mostly hung out at the pool, reading and sunning. We took part in Aquafit classes and used the hot tub several times. If it sounds like typical senior citizen activities, it is! But very relaxing! We also had two days trips, one to Dinner Key at Coconut Grove where we had spent a few weeks on our boat last winter, the other to Dania Beach (south of Ft. Lauderdale) and Harbortown Marina, also boat stops from last year.  In Coconut Grove we took the tour of Vizcaya, a very large estate with beautiful grounds and an interesting 1915-era mansion.

Our time was up on February 10, and we had spent our vacation budget, so we started back for Massachusetts, although the news was not good on the homefront. A blizzard hit Duxbury and all of the area on February 8-9, and our son Justin reported that our power was out and our road not yet plowed.  We continued to get reports on our drive north, and since there was no improvement by February 12 we stopped in Connecticut, in Groton, for one more night rather than continue the last 110 miles to home. This area had a lot of snow too, but the Groton Inn was a great place to stay, with it’s own restaurant and large rooms. We had our Valentine’s dinner here and when we got to our house the next day things had pretty much returned to normal (thanks, Justin, for all the shoveling you did!).