Grey Nomads in USA: Running Full Tilt into 2013!

On 26 December we went boating along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. ( Note that Boxing Day is not celebrated in the US. Nobody knew what we were talking about when we referred to ' Boxing Day' .)

The intracoastal is a 3000 mile waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US. Some lengths of the waterway consist of natural inlets, salt water rivers, bays and sounds. It runs for most of the length of the eastern seaboard from New Jersey around the Gulf of Mexico to Brownesville, Texas. It is currently made up by 3 segments - the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Brownesville, Texas to Carrabelle in Florida; from Tarpon Springs to Fort Myers in Florida and the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Key West to Norfolk in Virginia. Additional canals and bays extend a navigable waterway to Boston Massachusetts.

Tim is a member of a boat organisation in which members have the use of the boats owned by the organisation. So you book a boat - whatever shape, size or style - for however long you want to use it. The boats are cleaned, maintained, registered and stored by the organisation. Takes a lot of the hard work, and cost, out of boating!

We were on a 32ft Sea Ray. We headed out from West Palm Beach and motored up the intracoastal to North Palm Beach, Jupiter and Jupiter Island. Although it was a breezy day, the intracoastal waters were sheltered; we had a glorious sunny day. Tim, Carolyn, Tim's sons Luke and Mike and us. What a great day!

We passed under 6 bridges along the way. Some of them lifted up for vessels passing underneath; the others were high enough.

Many of the homes along the waterway are massive mansions. They all have large boats at their private docks. The residences continue as far as the eye can see; on each side and up smaller waterways which flow into the intracoastal. The homes look like something out of a magazine with manicured gardens down to the waters edge.
Many of them are decorated with Christmas lights which provides another picture on our return, once the sun has gone down.

We went past the Jubilee Lighthouse, a National Monument owned by the US Coast Guard. It was built in the 1860's. It is a lovely looking lighthouse and comes into view as the waterway turns a bend; there it is!

We also passed by Greg Norman's home. How nice it was to see the Australian flag flying proudly beside that of the US.

Looks good doesn't it!

We have lunch on the boat. I try a can of iced green tea with ginseng. It was very nice - to the point that on our next shopping foray we buy some. I'm not an iced tea drinker generally but hey, change is good.