Florida is a state of extremes in that respect. The whole of America is. There are huge shopping malls everywhere with mega-large parking lots and lots of shops, open on Sundays and sometimes even 24 hours a day like the Wall Mart. But there is also beautiful nature everywhere with still wild animals. You never have to drive far to get to such a beautiful nature spot. And that makes America very attractive as a holiday destination, as we experienced last week. We notice from the temperature that we are in more northern areas. At night it cools down considerably and for the first time we sleep under a duvet again.

Saturday the 10th of April we first go to school and after that we go shopping in a relatively small mall near the harbour. Eline and I go to the hairdresser and we buy shoes for Toine. In the evening the Pjotter comes to visit us, also a Dutch departure boat with Sebastiaan, Rhiannon, Emma (3 yrs) and Macsen (1,5 yrs). They are a harbour further on at the entrance of Cape Canaveral. We had met them before in Cape Verden, Surinam and Trinidad, and now for the first time here again. It will be a pleasant evening. The next day we leave in time for a car trip of about 3 hours to the south of Florida.

It's quite rainy and we're glad we planned the visit of a mega large covered shopping mall. What a thing to say! We don't buy much more than swimming trunks and shorts for Toine and shoes for all four of us, but still very nice to see. Then we drive another hour and arrive at our hotel at the beginning of the Florida Keys at Key Largo. A beautiful hotel by the sea with swimming pool, great rooms and a lovely restaurant. The sun breaks through and then we have a great end of the day with a nice dinner and a view of the sea.

Monday morning (12 apr) we dive into the (heated) swimming pool. Then back in the car via the Everglades. Again it rains a lot every now and then. We also drive the wrong way; I have entered the wrong address in the on-board computer, well, and then of course you don't get to the right place. It turns out, after consulting Toine's brother Pieter, that we should go back more than an hour and we are also on an Interstate Highway where the next one is only 30 km away.
turnoff is. We had actually decided to leave it at that and drive on to 'home', until at that exit we saw a sign with advertisements about also a piece of park with crocodiles and boat trips. Right in the middle of nowhere we arrive at a well organized park. Not busy at all (because of the weather?), and we make a nice trip with a big jeep through the park and see a lot of wildlife, such as bison, wild pigs, crocodiles, deer, etc. In the middle of a swamp area where Indians used to live. What a difficult environment to live in as a human being! Finally, we make a boat trip with an airboat (a very shallow boat powered by a windpropellor) and we see a lot of crocodiles swimming, even right next to the boat. Tired, but satisfied we arrive back at our own boat late in the evening ... in a short time we have seen a nice piece of Florida.

On Tuesday the package with the water maker parts arrives on time, so we can leave in the afternoon, via the inlet of Cape Canaveral to the sea for a trip of 25 hours 'outside' over the sea to St Johns Inlet. In the lock to the outside we see three manatees. Inside' over the Intra Coastal Waterway (ICW) could also have been done. The ICW is a natural 'waterway' of rivers and lakes that runs along the coast of southern Florida to Norfolk (the beginning of Chesapeake Bay). Depending on the weather, we plan to go outside and inside. Just going indoors would stop far too much and only motorcycles looking out for shallows is tiring and boring. Over sea you can make many more miles by also sailing at night and you don't have to pay that much attention. But only by sea we see nothing of the beautiful nature here on the east coast. So the first part of 160 miles is by sea. The first evening there is a lot of swell with really high waves. Luckily with half wind we sailed well, but the boat makes nice sliders every now and then and much more than lying down and we don't go to sleep early. During the night it gets a bit calmer and the sea flattens out as well, so the next day will be a fine sailing day. Since a long time we see dolphins again, they sit here a lot. There also seem to be a lot of whales, but we haven't seen them yet. In the afternoon we sail up the St Johns River, with a strong tidal current. We anchor a little bit on the ICW just after Sisters Creek Bridge. A great place where we have a lovely afternoon in the sun with beautiful nature around us. The Pjotter has gone inside and is a bit more to the south. We have more or less the same planning and agree to sail together from tomorrow.

The next day we do school in the morning and Toine places the new parts of the water maker. A difficult job, but it goes very well. In the morning we have some contact with the Barbarossa by SMS and phone ... they are lying in bad weather before the entry of Luperon on the Dominican Republic and doubt if they can enter. We have been there a few weeks ago and can help them with information about the entry. At such a moment we both realize again how much fun it was to sail together.

Just after lunch the Pjotter arrives and we sail a piece of ICW together. Our first ICW experience through a beautiful piece of nature and where we get stuck four times. Luckily it's mud and we are all free again. On one piece we even have to try several times in different places until we have a passage that is deep enough.

And now (today) we are at a nice anchorage just across the Florida border in the state of Georgia just before the island of Cumberland which is a National Park. Nothing else at all in terms of buildings in the area, and yet we have internet. What a country, that America! This morning we go out on land for a while and then again through the sea for a night in Charleston, South Carolina. Sailing through the sea for a longer time is not an option because of the wind that will blow against us tomorrow evening. Also the following days the wind is coming from the wrong direction and we will do some ICW again. Ah, that variation is nice! And so we are still on schedule to be in Norfolk (South Chesapeake) on April 27th to welcome my mother and aunt Helen (from America). Mom was supposed to fly to her sister today, but unfortunately the airspace is closed due to the volcanic eruption on Iceland and now she can only fly on Monday. So wait another weekend!