Posts In The “Florida” Category

Miami Cruise Terminal

Miami Cruise Terminal

The Miami Cruise Terminal is the busiest passenger port in the world, handling 6.8 million travelers in 2019. The facility has room for ten large cruise ships and has recently seen a number of upgrades and new construction projects to support the burgeoning industry. In 2018, Royal Caribbean opened the 170,000 sq ft (15,000 sq…

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Changing Plans, Again

Changing Plans, Again

Our plans are always fairly fluid, but the past couple of years have seen even more changes than normal. In 2020, we made three major itinerary adjustments: skipping the Mediterranean and instead heading to Scotland; crossing the North Sea to Norway while en-route to cruising the Scottish Orkney and Shetland island groups; and choosing to…

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Thunderbolt Marine

Thunderbolt Marine

We’d never heard of Thunderbolt, Georgia, nor the superyacht yard there, until we were referred to Ian Anderson, an electronics installer at local Mackay Communications. Following an overnight run from Halifax Harbor, we spent three busy but enjoyable days at Thunderbolt Marine while we upgraded our KVH V7 mini-VSAT satellite data system to the latest…

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Halifax Harbor Marina

Halifax Harbor Marina

Halifax Harbor Marina is among the closest marinas to Daytona International Speedway, which is the main reason we picked it. But we were so happy with our berth there that we extended our four-week stay to six weeks almost immediately upon arrival. It was an excellent base to attend the racing at Volusia and Daytona,…

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Bike Week

Bike Week

Barely have the Daytona 500 crowds dissipated when Daytona Beach hosts the 76th annual Bike Week. The 10-day motorcycle event originated in 1937 and draws an estimated 500,000 people. From the marina we’d been hearing motorcycles pass all week, and after a morning of running errands with a rental car, we spent the rest of…

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Daytona 500

Daytona 500

We bought a four-day package for the Daytona 500 that included the Can-Am Duel on Thursday night, the NASCAR truck race on Friday night, the Xfinity Series race on Saturday and of course, the Daytona 500 on Sunday. We had great time watching the races, and being at the Daytona 500 was super-exciting. But a…

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The Greatest Show on Dirt

The Greatest Show on Dirt

We’d come to Daytona primarily to attend the Daytona 500, but that’s not the only major racing event in the area in February. Nearby Volusia Motor Speedway was hosting the season opener for the World of Outlaws Sprint Car racing, “The Greatest Show on Dirt!”. The last dirt track racing we saw was in August…

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Miami Boat Shows

Miami Boat Shows

From Daytona Beach we made a road trip south to Miami for a couple of days to check out the Miami boat shows. While there we spent some time at sea on FBP 781 Cochise, toured the new Ranger Tug R-29 CB, and also checked out Nordhavn 92 Rest Assured. Trip highlights from Feb 15th…

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ICW Miles 778 to 830: St. Augustine to Daytona Beach

ICW Miles 778 to 830: St. Augustine to Daytona Beach

We initially were planning to run offshore from St. Augustine to Daytona Beach, but decided to take the ICW for a couple of reasons. The nearest inlet to Daytona Beach is about 14 miles south of the city at Ponce de Leon Inlet and it looked like it might be a challenging entry. The breakwater…

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St. Augustine, FL

St. Augustine, FL

“The first this, the oldest that” begins Lonely Planet’s description of St. Augustine. The town the Spanish founded in 1565 retains dozens of historical buildings ranging as far back as the Spanish era and now is a popular tourist destination. We spent two night anchored off town, enjoying the sights from the water and ashore….

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FPB 781 Cochise

FPB 781 Cochise

We are interested in all ocean-going power boats, but right near the top of the pack is the FPB series from Steve and Linda Dashew.  We’ve seen many FPBs over the years as we completed our around-the-world run and the first things that jumps out is they are unfinished aluminum. When we were in New Zealand…

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Time to Leave

Time to Leave

When we arrived in Palm Beach mid-March, we booked a slip at Soveral Harbour Marina for two weeks, expecting to have a brief stay there, get some yard work done and continue north. Soveral Harbour, and Palm Beach in general, worked out so well as a home base that we kept extending our stay. We…

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Cracker Boy Boat Works

Cracker Boy Boat Works

When we hauled out in Whangarie, New Zealand near the end of 2013, we didn’t expect to go more than 2.5 years before the next haulout. We finally lifted Dirona again at Cracker Boy Boat Works in West Palm Beach. In the nine days that followed, we cleaned and painted the bottom; re-applied Propspeed to…

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Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

The modern-day US Navy SEALs originated in World War II as Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) that provided hydrographic reconnaissance and underwater demolition of obstacles prior to any amphibious landing. The Navy UDT-SEAL Museum stands on the site where those first divers trained, at Fort Pierce, Florida, an hour’s drive north of Soverel Harbour Marina. Click…

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Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center

The Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral are synonymous with America’s manned spaceflight program. It was here in 1961 that NASA launched the first American into space, Alan Shepard, as part of project Mercury. Later would follow the Gemini and Apollo programs that ultimately put a man on the moon and, more recently, the Space…

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Jupiter Exploration Program

Jupiter Exploration Program

We decided to execute on the mission of sending two people to Jupiter and safely returning them to Florida. We got back in the same day, hardly used any fuel, and didn’t even have to go into orbit. Jupiter, Florida is about six miles north of Soverel Harbour Marina—we went by tender along the intracoastal…

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Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale

After our Naples trip we drove south to Fort Lauderdale twice, once to visit North Trail RV Center and the other to attend Fleet Week Port Everglades. In between, we visited Stuart to the north to check out a couple of boat yards. Trip highlights from May 5th through 9th follow. Click any image for…

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Naples

Naples

Earlier this month we rented a car and made a road trip to Naples, Florida to have lunch with a friend. On the way there, we made a couple of stops to take in some Everglades wildlife. We didn’t see the elusive Florida Panther, but we did see plenty of alligators. Trip highlights from May…

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