Early February: We finally left old and new friends at Vero Beach and started south. We’re traveling with our friends George and Jackie who are aboard Sea Otter II, and plan to cruise with them for the next several months.

We stopped for a weekend in Palm Beach Gardens before continuing to Miami Beach. (Slow boats like Dory and Sea Otter II don’t travel much on weekends. The hot shots on their “go fast” boats are all over the waterways, and they care little that their high speed wakes will rock other boats tremendously.)

There is some conspicuous consumption here. In a 45 minute walk from where we landed the dinghy to a nearby ocean beach park, we were passed by three Rolls Royces. We also wandered by the first grocery store we’ve ever seen that had valet parking and a courtesy golf-cart shuttle from the parking area to the grocery store entrance — all of 100 feet. 

The sights along the waterway from Vero to Miami are amazing. There are homes that rival small hotels in size, and odd decorations every where we looked.

Doesn’t everyone have a full-sized model of a helicopter on their roof?

Below: I guess these two decorations might represent love and hate. We’re not sure who the owner of the second statue might have been mad at.

Late February: We anchored in Miami Beach, and spent the better part of two days seeing about 1/3 of the boat show. We also met up with Mojo, Vagabond, Longtayle, Rusty Nail, and a few other cruising boats we’d met earlier.

Take a look at where we anchored in Miami Beach, at about the middle of that photo.

We stayed in Miami Beach for a few more days, completing minor errands and waiting for good weather to move on.

Early November: We pulled into Brunswick, GA, and docked at the local marina. We tried the local specialty, Brunswick Stew. It’s an acquired taste, and we haven’t acquired it.

Next, we anchored off Cumberland Island, a Park Service-administered wildlife refuge with wild horses, lots of isolated beach, and the remains of a mansion from when this island was owned by the Carnegie family. JFK Jr. was married here. After hiking a few miles among the Jurassic Park-like Cumberland Island and touring the ruins of the mansion, we hauled anchor and went down to Fernandina Beach, where the fuel was reportedly the cheapest in the southern ICW. We added 200+ gallons, for the slightly roughly 500 miles we’ve gone since we started. Then we continued to Fort George River, where we dropped the anchor near the Kingsley Plantation, another 1800s place now run by the Park Service. Oh yeah, the cheap fuel? It would have been, except for 7% “impact fee” and 6% taxes added on top by Florida…

Sandy the boat-dog was alert to prevent attacks from dolphins.  Ever since he was splashed by dolphins when we first encountered them, Sandy goes completely nuts when he sees or hears the ever-present dolphins.

Thanksgiving: We spent Thanksgiving with 128 other cruising boaters in a giant pot-luck dinner in Vero Beach. The turkey was purchased, and everything else came from the galleys of all these boats. Lots of great food!

Christmas: We rented a car and drove to North Carolina to spend Christmas with family. A great visit, but 700 miles each way made for a long drive for such a short trip!

Late October: We anchored with perhaps a dozen other boats in Mile Hammock Bay (within the limits of the Camp Lejeune Marine base in NC). Ron and Karen on Seadancer invited many of the boaters over to their boat for a happy hour. (We met Seadancer and some of the others repeatedly during the next few months.) Leaving the next morning, we were second in line coming out of Mile Hammock Bay in the cold, rainy, and dark morning.

The lead boat took a wrong turn, and lemming-like, we followed. We were only aground 5 minutes or so.

Along with several dozen other boats, we stopped at Barefoot Landing, a free dock at a large shopping and entertainment area at Myrtle Beach, SC. The afternoon of the 27th, the boaters had an impromptu pot-luck happy hour on the docks, and got acquainted.

For Halloween, we stopped at Beaufort, SC. (The first syllable rhymes with “you”.) No trick-or-treaters came to the boat, but maybe that was because we were 200 yards from shore…

On the return trip, we stopped in Austin and met with a dozen friends who had also worked in Saudi with us, and now returned to the central Texas area. From there, we visited other friends in Mississippi, and then traveled to the Albany NY area for a surprise anniversary party for Sue’s sister and brother-in-law before returning to reboard Dory.

When we returned, Dory was still unpainted, as there had been too much rain for her hull to dry enough for the sandblasting and repainting.

That gave us the opportunity that every cruiser loves . . . the chance to live on the hard for a few weeks. The deck of your boat is 10 feet above the ground, the boat seems precariously balanced, there is no running water, and you can’t use the onboard head (toilet).

Your access is via an extension ladder. Since we had boarded our dog Sandy, we had to get him on board when we picked him up. That was interesting … we constructed a 20 foot ramp for him to climb up.

Those midnight trips to the marina rest rooms were even worse!

Even though we had air conditioning installed, we couldn’t use it, because it requires sea water for cooling.

Finally, the weather allowed the sandblasting and painting, and the paint dried enough to put her back in the water. We relaunched Dory on Friday, October 18th, coincidentally one year to the day from when we’d finished the last of the projects and launched on our cruise the year before.

All in all, a very enjoyable first year living and cruising full time aboard Dory!