Posts In The “Destinations” Category
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Last Thursday Jennifer and I were down on Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale having an enjoyable patio dinner when my phone rang. “James, this is Suzanne Speight, Public Affairs Specialist with Navy Region Southeast. I have one position available to embark on the the USS California.” That sounded pretty good. I’ve never been on…
This weekend we attended Fleet Week Port Everglades as a guest of Mike Chan, Protocol Officer with Navy Region Southeast, who was organizing the event. We arrived shortly before the Legion of Honor Ceremony on board the USS Bataan, where the Consulate General of France, Philippe Létrilliart, awarded nine American veterans with the Legion of…
Soverel Harbour Marina has been an excellent stop to replenish our boat spares and supplies, address Jennifer’s shoulder injury, and just relax and enjoy a slower pace. While here, we’ve also completed a ton of boat projects, ranging from battery replacement to canvas work to automation systems. Below are the majority of the projects we’ve…
Jeanerette, Louisiana isn’t a massive metropolis, so why were us boaters and technology lovers excited to spend a day there? Admittedly the oysters, crawfish, and local beer are all excellent, but that wasn’t the motivation behind the trip. The reason was to visit Metal Shark Aluminum Boats. If you have ever been just a bit…
We’ve spent the month since arriving in Palm Beach at Soverel Harbour Marina in Palm Beach Gardens. We selected this marina mainly because they had space for us on short notice–most of the others we’d been recommended were full up. Now that we’ve been here a while, Soverel Harbour has turned out to be an…
What beats an afternoon operating heavy equipment? Months before we made it to Florida, Oliver Sessa offered us a day at Johnny Sessa Bulldozing with an open invitation to give some of their larger equipment a whirl. James has been looking forward to it since. Within a week of our arriving in Florida, Oliver emailed…
Last week we ran 1,424 miles directly from St. Lucia to Palm Beach, Florida. We initially were planning to work our way up slowly through the Caribbean and reach Florida via the Bahamas, but Jennifer developed complications with her broken collarbone, so we went straight to Florida to seek medical attention. We had some boat…
We took a taxi from the Rodney Bay marina to explore Pigeon Island National Landmark. The island once was detached from the mainland until a causeway was built in 1973, and has a lengthy naval history: it was a pirate’s hideout in the 1500s, a British naval base starting in the 1700s, and a US…
From Port St. Charles we travelled 97 miles to St. Lucia and spent a relaxing couple of weeks at the marina in Rodney Bay. We contintued to mostly take it easy, but also got a few boat projects done. Trip highlights from Feb 21st to March 5th follow. Click any image for a larger view,…
We love technology, how things work, and digging in behind the scenes and so an important part of our trip around the world in a small boat has included stops to tour ice breakers, mines, manufacturing plants, container ships. We even tried our hands at the helm of a 5,000 HP tractor tug. Some highlights…
When we arrived into Port St. Charles, Barbados on February 3rd of 2016, we were ready to slow down and take it easy. In the six months prior, since leaving Tipperary Waters Marina in Darwin, Australia on August 10th of 2015, we’d travelled 12,237 miles. We’d made our two biggest non-stop passages ever: 3,023 miles…
We rented a car for a few days to explore Barbados and do some shopping. We spent the first day at the south end of the island in the area of the capitol, Bridgetown, starting with a trip to the Mount Gay Barbados Rum factory. Then we explored other parts of Barbados, including a tour…