2025 started off with a bang and I spent the first week and a half of it hunkered down with a bad cold. Thankfully, that is finally behind us and we are back to full adventure mode!
We made a spur of the moment decision to leave Jacksonville one day after we looked at the weather and decided that it would be our best chance of getting ahead of the looming polar vortex/artic blast that was promised to much of the country. We had hesitated on leaving because we had heat at our dock there, but ultimately decided that we just needed to suck it up and get south if we wanted any hope of seeing warmer temperatures this month!
We anchored just south of St. Augustine that night.
After anchoring, Dustin performed his regular engine checks, only to find that the starboard engine had spit oil all over the engine compartment after the dip stick and cap had flown off due to too much pressure  We've been having some ongoing blow by issues with this engine, but Dustin realized it was time to MacGyver something up until we can get to a place for a permanent fix. He exhausted some tubing out of the compartment to ensure proper exhaustion from that motor and so far so good!
The next morning, we continued on to Titusville and made it there just after sundown.

As we were passing Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Allenhurst just before sundown (north of Cape Canaveral), we spotted a flamingo standing in the water just off from a desolate bird island where we had seen them a year ago!! How cool to see them again in the same location! Just after we passed, 3 flamingos flew right over our boat! It was so amazing to see them in the wild!!
We anchored near Nasa Causeway which goes out to Kennedy Space Center. We've never been out there and would love to stop in sometime!
From Titusville, we continued on south, our only goal aiming to get as far south as we could without passing Port St. Lucie where our friend, Mike, lives! We made it as far as Vero Beach, where we anchored near a charming place called "Hole in the Wall Island" Â Despite the name, it was actually a lovely anchorage situated in a private and calm mangrove forest in the middle of nature, and there was even a nearby dinghy dock called "Jones Pier".

After we got settled, we dinghied up to shore with Bella and were greeted by about 10 people fishing from the pier. They were listening to Caribbean music and seemed to be having a great time!
We walked up the dock and immediately at the end was a cute dog water station nestled into the palm trees.
This was the first day that it hadn't been completely freezing out, so we took advantage of it and all went for a nice stroll in the sunshine! Â Across the street from the dock is a really nice nature preserve with a great little walking loop. Bella wasn't technically allowed, so we carried her through it. We saw so much wildlife and it was such a great spontaneous find!!! Great Egrets, White Egrets, Pillated Woodpeckers, Ibis birds, Wooded Mergansers (these guys are crazy looking!), lizards, fish, crabs, a rabbit, etc.
After walking around the preserve for a bit, we went back out to the main road, which is a quiet little dirt road that runs for about 7 miles and is called the Jungle Trail, so that Bella could get a good walk in.
That night, we enjoyed a cotton candy sky at sunset, and watched as dolphins frolicked about in our anchorage. It was so perfectly calm that we could hear the blow sound each time the dolphins surfaced. This was the first night it actually felt like we were back in Florida, and it was nice to be stopping for a few days after a long couple days of traveling in the cold!

The next afternoon, some friends of ours, Kat and Bob, arrived and anchored nearby. They were just planning on stopping for the night on their way to Lake Worth, but ended up staying 3 nights, and it was so fun getting together for drinks and hors d'oeuvres. We also took Bob with us for a walk at the preserve one day. We all originally met in Marathon, FL last year and have each traveled up and down the east coast this year, and have been fortunate enough to get together in numerous ports across the country! It's so fun meeting like minded people and getting to travel with them for short jaunts here and there!

The last day we were in this anchorage, a Roseate Spoonbill flew by and it was a beautiful vibrant pink, just like the flamingos we had seen! These are smaller than flamingos and have a wider, rounded bill, as the name suggests.
Next, it was off to meet up with a friend of ours from our hometown in Port St. Lucie!! More about that in the next post!
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