After we left St. Augustine, we headed south Marineland, FL. We didn’t really like the idea of heading back where we came from but we needed a good place to leave the boat for a long weekend. We didn’t want to leave the boat on a mooring ball or anchor since our fridge needs power to run. We typically run the generator a couple times a day to run the fridge and since we still had a bit of food in the freezer, we decided a marina where we could plug into would be best. A friend recommended Marineland Marina so we decided to checked it out.

Marineland, FL, located roughly 15 miles south of St. Augustine on scenic A1A, is home of one of Florida’s first marine mammal parks, is billed as “the world’s first oceanarium”. Aside from the dolphin adventure park, it is also home to University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience. Other than that, it’s mostly sandy beaches, condos and beach homes. Marineland Marina is located directly across A1A from the dolphin water park and right off the ICW. Rates are currently $1.25 foot for the daily rate. Since we knew we’d have the boat there for a week, we got the weekly rate of $7/foot. At that price, it’s a steal! The marina is small but offers the usual accommodations, showers, pump outs and laundry. The dock master is very friendly and helpful as well.

Once we got into our slip, it was time for boat chores (cleaning and laundry). Interestingly enough, as we pulled into the slip, a fellow from the boat next door who came to help us told us his wife follows our blog. They were on a beautiful 42′ Kadey Krogan named Sea Horse. Kirk was kind enough to give Randy a ride to and from St. Augustine for him to pick up our rental truck (aren’t cruisers the best!). They also told us about some wonderful hiking trails right near the marina. The trails are part of the 90-acre River to Sea Preserve. Randy and I ran part of the trails that was a 1 mile loop. The trails are nice and wide and shaded. It was great to have this right near the marina property. We definitely would have checked them out more if we were staying longer.

Once we had our rental (a giant cargo van for $28/day), we loaded up our suitcases and Sophie and headed to Fort Myers for a long weekend of seeing family and high school graduation celebrations. Both Corey and my nephew, Jack, graduated that weekend and it was a great time to visit with family and friends. We also got to pick up our mail and packages (including our new Rocna Vulcan 33 kg anchor) from my sisters house. It was a whirlwind weekend of staying at Randy’s dad’s place and then my parent’s RV, a couple graduation parties plus some Costco and Total wine provisioning. We were back to the marina on Monday with a few small projects to do (including installing our new anchor) before heading out. More to follow…