Central Florida

Happy New Year all. The new year finds Quartet in southern Florida, the temperatures are climbing and hopes are rising on reaching the Bahamas. We had a nice quiet Christmas in St. Augustine complete with the lights of the city. It seems as if old man winter again found us after the 25th and the weather started to get colder. Which means time to move on. Before we left we found out our cousin was in town visiting, and he came by to see us and we stayed an extra day to visit... which totally made our weekend. Thanks so much cousin Ed!

Before New Years we moved on to Marineland, a neat old marine park that had dolphins and all the aquatic life you could imagine. Unfortunately, the dolphins were quarintined due to a virus. We did manage to do a kayak tour with a guide to the wetlands, which was very good and had lots to see that we normally would not have noticed. It also filled in all those questions we had as we moved south when we saw wildlife but didn't know what we were seeing.

We moved on for a few days to make it to Melbourne to see an old friend from college. We managed to snag a tour of Cape Canaveral Space Station, including the old launch pads from the apollo missions (one from the accident that killed three astronauts and one that John Glenn and others departed from on their historic missions). Totally cool. There were current space missions going on, but we missed a launch due to weather while still managing to get a a windshield tour right up to the rocket. Thanks guys for an awesome few days escape to see the sights of the area, and the wonderful hospitality.

We find ourselves in Vero Beach enjoying a good mooring at the city marina, visiting the beach while the rest of the country froze, and making plans to move on to Miami area soon. The water is changing color to a nice green and blue, the temps are in the 70's and low 80's some days and we can feel the island calling us. Soon we'll prep for the crossing to the Bahamas, which brings on a whole new chapter. More to follow!