A Sailing Adventure On The St Lucie River, Stuart, Florida

Wednesday, November 16, 2016


We booked our sailing date on the internet with Treasure Coast Sailing Adventures back in July.  This is an interactive sailing adventure on the St Lucie river near the point where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean. An interactive sailing adventure means the passengers may help raise the sails and steer the boat if they so desire.  Our cruse only had six people so we felt like we had the ship to ourselves.

Our actual departure date for the schooner Lily was moved out several days due to hurricane Matthew's damage to the city dock in Stuart.  The first departure of the winter season was suppose to  be October 24.  As it turned out, our departure on November 16 was the first of the season, and that makes it a shake down sail.  Anything can happen on a shake down cruse, and the unexpected happened mid way through our two hour cruse!

First, let me tell you about the schooner Lily.  She was originally built in the 1970's in response to the oil embargo, and was named Lily of Tisbury.  She was constructed as a sailing barge and began hauling lumber and fire wood in 1978 thru 1985 from Martha's Vineyard and Main.  Originally, she had a single mast, a flat bottom for sailing in shallow water, and a blunt bow to allow her to maneuver in tight spaces.  In 1985 she was sold with the intention of being converted into a sailing yacht.  A second mast was added, but the conversation was never completed until the current owners Fred and Jamie purchased her and began Treasure Coast Sailing Adventures.

Kitty is ready to board the Lily, and Captain Fred is there to greet us.  Note Lily's blunt bow I mentioned earlier.

 Before leaving the dock, Captain Fred has some safety rules and informs us that if we start to sink, life jackets are available!  But, don't wait for him because he will probably go down with the ship, or at least part way down...maybe chest high!  That comment received a few nervous chuckles from all six passengers.

The crew consists of Captain Fred, First mate Jamie, and Dillon (Dillon is pictured below).  They are all a very knowledgeable and experienced crew.

Once we left Shepard Park, we sailed right pass this marina.  The building in the background is  one of our favorite restaurants, Sailor's Return.

The main sail is quickly raise by the crew with some assistance from some passengers.

Next up is the Fore Sail.

Jamie expertly raises the Stay Sail, and we are off and sailing into a 10-20 mph breeze.

Captain Fred is at the helm.

Hey!  Look at who's at the helm now!  Wait a minute, That's me, Captain Craig!

You can tell by the wake behind the boat that we are not exactly going in a straight line!

Now it's time to tack, so I have to bring her about.  Dillon is watching just in case I screw this up!

After a while, I "let" the Captain take the helm again.  A few minutes later the unexpected happened!  The line holding the Stay Sail broke!  The sail stated to flap violently, and Captain Fred was yelling instructions to the crew.  The Captain headed Lily directly into the wind to take the wind out of the sail and the crew managed to get the sail under control and replace the broken line.  Whew!  That was fun!

Kitty's enjoying the ride!

We spotted four bald eagles circling overhead.  I was only able to get two of them in this picture.  They were too high to get a good picture.

Captain Fred is getting ready to blow into this conch shell.  I was amazed that it sounded just like an ocean liner blowing it's horn!  Jamie said he practiced blowing that thing during their drive down to Florida from Main.  It almost drove her nuts!

Here's just a few of the many fabulous homes that dotted the river.  Most of these homes were at least a half mile or more from the Lily, so it's hard to get a close up shot.

This is the club house at the Floridian golf course!

Let me tell you, that was a quick two hours!  I can't believe it's time to return to the dock. Jamie stands ready to toss a line.

That was a fun trip.  No rough water on the river despite the windy day.  It's much cooler on the water and light jackets felt pretty good today.  The weather  today made great sailing conditions and this trip was a definite repeater!  Maybe next time will try the sunset cruse.

Well it's time for lunch!

So, we headed to Jupiter to try out the Rustic Inn Crab House.

The food here will put a smile on your face!

And there's a great view of the Jupiter Inlet.

And a great view of the Jupiter Light!

After lunch we made a few shopping stops.  Then we decided to top off our day with a chocolate strawberry shake before heading home!  Wow!  What a great day!

Boating to Cowboys BBQ and Steak Company, Okeechobee, Florida

Monday, November 14, 2016



It's eighty degrees and sunny today in Okeechobee, and a great day for a boat ride.  So, four couples are going to ride from Lake Okeechobee Canal to Taylor Creek and stop at Cowboys BBQ for lunch.  Okeechobee is crisscrossed with numerous canals running in all directions.  But, once we get to Taylor Creek and head north, its a straight shot for several miles to the state route 70 bridge and Cowboys is just north of the bridge.

Randy and Tom unloading the pontoon.

Tom pulls the pontoon up to the dock to load the passangers

We are underway with the ladies in the bow,

guys in the stern.

One of the safety rules to always follow on any boat is to be sure the weight is evenly distributed. Too much weight in the bow or the stern can cause a serious issue.  Our Captain expressed some concern about too much weight in the bow, but we all laughed it off and kept going.  We had no idea this would come back to bite us later.

We're on the canal that surrounds Lake Okeechobee heading to Taylor Creek.

A few cattle grazing along the canal.

This is the intersection where the canal intersects Taylor Creek.  Just as we turned north, we were greeted by the vultures and they were looking rather hungry  We are all hoping we wouldn't be part of their next meal.  Little did we know how close we came to being exactly that! 

 Here's a couple of nice homes along Taylor Creek.

In about 75 minutes we arrived at the state route 70 bridge.  We had to lower the canape to get under this bridge.  Cowboys is less than a hundred yards past this bridge

We beached the pontoon and made the short walk up hill to the restaurant.  Todays special is baby back ribs, all you can eat!

Lunch was good but the service was very slow.  By the time we finally left Cowboys, it was cloudy and was starting to rain.  After going back under the bridge, we slowed enough to put the canape back up,  Randy handed out some ponchos and some of the gals broke out umbrellas.

We noticed the pontoon was slugging along and was really struggling.  We must have eaten too much for lunch because the pontoon was pushing a lot more water than usual and the bow was much lower than the trip up here. The first mate stepped to the bow to see what was wrong.  The weight shift pushed the bow below the water and a flood of brown water gushed into the pontoon.  Amid the screams, my brain flashed to an image of us sitting at the bottom of Taylor Creek eyeball to eyeball with a hungry gator!  We don't want to die like that!  We hadn't even digested our lunch yet!  Vultures were already circling the pontoon!  Our hearts were pounding out of our chests, our lives flashed before us.  A split second later, the weight equalized, and the bow lifted out of the water.  The brown gush of water swept through the pontoon and exited out the stern.

Once we all caught our breath, a collective sigh of relief made us all realize we just dodged a bullet. We happily waved good bye to the vultures, it stopped raining, and everyone wore a big smile the rest of the uneventful trip home.

Wildlife at WP Franklin Campground, Alva, Florida

Wednesday, October 26, 2016


You may have noticed from my blog on October 4,2016, we ended up at WP Franklin Campground after fleeing hurricane Matthew.  Well, here we are again for three days of relaxing along the Caloosahatchee River (part of the Okeechobee Waterway connecting Florida's East and West Coast). We enjoy watching the yachts going through the locks, and being greeted by some of the local wildlife. Ah...I'm talking about animals, not people!

WP Franklin Campground was built adjacent to the lock and dam  and sits on an island that juts into the river.  The campground was laid out so each site is on the water and, being only a dozen miles from Fort Myers, makes this a very popular campground.  The local area is chock full of horse and cattle ranches.

Here's Kitty and Kallie relaxing  after having lunch.

Kallie likes to lay by the water and watch the variety of birds that make this area their home.  She really gets excited when Mullet start jumping out of the water.  They jump into the air and then belly flop back into the water.

Since we arrived mid day, we didn't have many close encounters with wild life today.  But, this gator swam by as dusk was upon us, and got our hearts pumping.  Fortunately, he decided not to check out our campsite and kept moving away.

I didn't have a tape measure handy, but I'm guessing he was about eight feet long.  If he would have decided to spend the night on our campsite, we wouldn't have argued with this guy!

Shortly after I snapped the picture above, the gator disappeared below the water, and I got this beautiful sunset shot!

Friday, October 28, 2016

This morning we were greeted by a loud screech from two bald eagles.  They are sitting atop a tree across the river from our campsite, and getting a clear camera shot at that distance was difficult even with a zoom lens.  I believe the male is on the top branch and female is just below and a little to the right.

We saw this pair last time we were here and were glad to see they were back to greet us.

 This tricolored heron liked getting his picture taken and I was happy to accommodate him.

After standing perfectly still for several minutes taking pictures of the tricolored heron, I looked up and saw this turkey vulture circling just above my head.  I must have been standing still so long he thought I was dead!

This Live Oak Tree leaning out over the water has a bird house in it.  Even birds like a home with a water view!

This Double-Crested Cormorant stopped by to say Hi!

Our trip ends with another gorgeous Florida sunset! 

Well, that's all for now.  We'll be heading home in the morning.