Staging

     We’ve spent an entire week in Sunset Cove, Key Largo.  Dolphins and manatees have come to play around our boat.  Dan says they love the blue hull, but I think the ultrasonic bottom cleaner he installed recently is also attracting them.  Dolphins especially are curious animals, and they have been spending a lot of time swimming all around and under us, sometimes even just leaping out of the water despite the fact there is no wake to play in while we are at anchor. 

Sunset Cove

We’ve done our last minute provisioning and supplying, our last minute mailings and garbage runs, and Dan made the long trek to the marine salvage store with a new friend Mike, who is anchored near us, just to see what they might have that he can’t live without.  One of the things Dan bought was an animal life jacket.  Our Tommie has never been too interested in wearing one, before, and this time was no different.  She sat not-so-patiently while Dan clipped her into it, swatted at him when he snugged it up, and then sat on the floor, tail swishing while we watched.  She wore it for about a minute, got up and easily pulled it off and walked away for a bath, glaring at us.  Dan will find another use for the jacket.

The abandoned lifejacket

Today - New Year’s Eve - we will go to Angel Fish Creek where we will gather with Rick and Debbie on Raison D’Etre and Mike on Gilkey as Charged for the night.  We’ve all been conferring and consulting to come up with the best route and the best plan that suits all our needs.  We will make the crossing to the Bahamas together tomorrow, on New Year’s Day.  Coincidentally, we made this same crossing on this same day seven years ago, the first time we ventured to the Bahamas.  Last time we ended up being alone for most of the journey.  It’ll be good to have company this time.   

Conferring by text

Happy New Year’s - hope 2023 brings nothing but joy.  

Merry Christmas

         We made Key Largo in good time on a blustery Christmas Eve.  Our anchorage in Biscayne Bight turned out to be extremely uncomfortable as the wind picked up and blew across the Bay, and we got underway by 0730.  We first decided to anchor in Tarpon Basin - we’d spent many nights there seven years ago and had good memories of the manatees playing and the hospitality given us at the government center.  The first thing we noticed was that there were over a dozen squatter-boats anchored there (last time there may have been three or four, max).  The second thing we noticed was there is absolutely no legitimate access to shore here.  The government center’s dock was fenced off, as was about a hundred feet of its property on both sides, with signs forbidding anyone from tying up to the fence or to the nearby mangroves in order to come ashore.  The one small beach was also posted private, no trespassing, and neither of the two hotel/resorts offered dinghy access.  What a shame!  So we hauled anchor and moved around to Sunset Cove.  Sunset Cove is not as protected as Tarpon Basin, but it is far, far more cruiser friendly.  We anchored in front of Snook’s Barside Tiki Restaurant and went ashore for dinner, tying up at their docks.  Dan inquired about us using their docks in order to walk to town and they were very agreeable.  There are other places to get ashore as well.  

The winds picked up in the night as the temperature dropped down into the 40s and our anchor alarm went off around midnight.  We hauled her up and moved across the Cove to a more protected spot, reset the hook, and went back to bed.

It’s Christmas Day.  Yesterday we had a long phone call with our sons and their wives and pictures flew back and forth as we virtually celebrated with each other.  Today our phones are going off with messages and texts from family and friends wishing everyone a merry weekend, with a small competition as to who has the coldest weather.  (Wisconsin wins, a 2 degrees.)  Dan made coffee cake - a family tradition for Christmas morning - and we are just taking the day off, listening to the wind howl and nibbling.    

I’m ending this post with a Quaker Benediction:

When the Star in the sky is gone,

When the Kings and Princes are home,

When the Shepherds are back with their flocks

The real work of Christmas begins.

To find the lost

To heal the broken

To feed the hungry

To release the prisoners

To rebuild the nations

To bring peace among brothers

To make music in the heart.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Solstice Blessings;  peace, joy, laughter, love, and music to all.

The Bridges of South Florida

         Last time we did this trip I remarked about the prevalence of bridges the further south you go in Florida.  It’s crazy!  They are all different heights, from 6’ to 90’, but it seems the vast majority of them are in the 18-22’ range.  Willie Dawes has a height of 22’ 8” with the mast up.  Some of the bridges add a couple extra feet in the center, so if the chart says it’s 22’, it’s possible it might be 26’.  But you have no way of knowing until you get right up to the bridge, and often (probably for liability reasons) the bridge tender won’t tell you what the height is.  The bridges all have their own opening schedule - some on the hour and half-hour, some on the quarter and three-quarter hour, and one of them opens every twenty minutes.  The further south you travel on the ICW, the closer the bridges.  There could be four bridges in five miles.  It’s difficult to time the cruising distance between bridges efficiently; often we’ll end up waiting fifteen-twenty minutes for the next opening.  And, just to keep things interesting, all the bridges use the same radio frequency so you get to listen to all the nearby bridges talking to north and southbound boats while you try to hail the one you’re approaching, to let them know you’ll be passing through.  

Bridge listing - with notes

We had two long days on the waterway on Wednesday and Thursday and only got from Stuart to Pompano Beach, averaging 35 miles/day.  The cruise is interesting - you pass by some spectacular homes that try to outdo each other with statuary and infinity pools - but it was also tedious and hot as we turned circles in front the bridges waiting for the next opening.  Wednesday and Thursday afternoon Dan abruptly pulled off the ICW and said “We’re done.  We’re here.”  Wednesday night we were in Cocoanut Grove, and were entertained by a laser light show and Christmas music to celebrate the Solstice.  Thursday we anchored in Lake Santa Barbara, a small man-made basin with several little canals, all lined with expensive homes.  Space was at a premium here, so we put out a stern anchor to keep from swinging, settling into a spot directly in front of someone’s lawn display of the Nativity.  

Solstice show in Cocoanut Grove

Nativity in Lake Santa Barbara

So this morning, Friday Dec 23 - after we’d dawdled in front of the next two bridges - we decided to go out the Fort Lauderdale inlet and cruise the ocean instead of the ICW.  There was a strong onshore wind, but much of it was blocked by the tall buildings from Ft   Lauderdale right down to Miami. 

Government Cut

We skipped at least a dozen bridges and had a beautiful, if somewhat bouncy cruise along the beaches.  About three pm we turned into Government Cut, which led to Biscayne Bay, and by 3:45 we were anchored in Biscayne Bight.  We’ll make Key Largo tomorrow.

Biscayne Bight Sunset

Palm Harbor

  Saturday, Dec 17 we made our way to Palm Harbor, a tiny basin off the ICW in the city of Palm Bay.  We have some long time friends here whom we haven’t seen for several years.  They have a house on Turkey Creek, and Palm Harbor is the entrance to that creek.  We were the only transient boat in the harbor.  There were three sketchy-looking vessels where someone may or may not be living aboard, and there were five abandoned vessels along the shore line.  We’ve seen many examples of both - sketchy live-aboard boats, and boats washed up and abandoned - all throughout Florida.  Some of the boats are sunk at docks, only their masts or rails showing.  The sketchy live-aboards are just as easy to spot - their sails or torn or missing, the bottom is thick with marine growth, and the decks are covered with various bits of collected junk, often covered with tarps.  It doesn’t give us a sense of safety to anchor nearby, and we make good use of padlocks in the anchorages here.

However derelict the anchorage, though, the beauty and serenity of Turkey Creek more than makes up for it.  We saw blue and green herons, ibises, osprey, and in one great moment, we saw a manatee rise out of the water to forage along the shore line.  We spent two mights in Palm Harbor and went ashore every day via a fifteen minute dinghy ride up the creek to the small seawall behind our friend Dianne’s house, where we tied up to her cypress tree.  We had a good time catching up, going out to dinner, and visiting Dianne’s husband Dave, who is now residing in assisted living due to his advanced stage of Parkinson’s disease.  We’ve known these dear people for over thirty years.  It was so nice to be able to spend time with them.  And the second night we were there, Dianne, Dan and I went out to dinner with mutual friends Ed and Joyce to catch up with them and share boating stories.  

On Monday we took Tommie to the vet in Melbourne.  She’s fine, but she needed an international health certificate in order to come to the Bahamas with us, and this clinic specializes in providing such a service.  The people were all exceptionally cheerful and friendly, even though Tommie was in rare form - “Miss Growly Grumpypants” was what the vet called her.  Don’t worry, I assured them, as Tommie snarled and hissed, she’s all talk.  Well Tommie decided to make a liar out of me, lashing out every chance she got.  I was the only recipient of her claws; the vet was more experienced at seeing it coming and got out of her way.  They brought out the dreaded towel to wrap her up so they could finish the exam for her clean bill of health.  We got the certificate, Tommie had the last say about her adventure - one last strike at me just so I was clear about how she felt - we paid the bill and left.  On that note we bid goodbye to Dianne and set off back down the creek to the Willie Dawes.  

Miss Growly Grumpypants taking cover once back on the boat.

    We made it to Pine Island that night in time for a pretty sunset.  Tonight (Tuesday Dec 20) we are in Manatee Pocket enjoying a little liquid sunshine.  We are hoping to get to Key Largo by the weekend.  

sunset, Pine Island

The Haul-Out

         After Daytona Beach we spent two nights in the New Smyrna Beach area.  The first night (Sat Dec 10) we were in the Ponce de Leon inlet, with view of the lighthouse.  Sunday we moved over to anchor smack in front of a row of condos, a short dinghy ride away from the town dock.  

Lighthouse at Ponce de Leon inlet

Last time we were in this area, we utilized the town dock for an oil change (Dan) and a trip uptown to find wifi (me.)  I’d found wifi at a little ice cream shop.  This time we took the dinghy ashore to get some zincs at a local marine hardware store and to have an ice cream lunch.  We scored all the zincs we could possibly want, but the ice cream store has since moved to Edgewater.  We are doing really well in this department - places we remember or that are listed on Google as open have closed, moved, or are not open on the day or at the time we’re there. 

Monday we moved on to Titusville, and did a little recon of the boatyard before anchoring in the strong current and chop for the night.  Tuesday, Dec 13, we were hauled at 0900.  

Hauling out - notice the ICW stains

Westland Marine is a DIY boatyard that allows living aboard while on the hard.  The people who work there couldn’t be more friendly.  The other boaters and contractors in the yard couldn’t be more generous with their knowledge or their supplies.  Dan made friends with the surrounding boaters and there was a lot of swapping of tools and information.  The boatyard also offers showers, restrooms, and laundry facilities and we made good use of all of them.  

Green slime on the bow

We were swiftly hauled out by the team (Joe, Colby, and Steve) and placed over a waiting tarp.  Dan and I first walked to a hardware store (that was no longer in business - we really have to start calling before we walk…) and managed to find make-do supplies at a Dollar General before we returned to begin the scrubbing.  The boat had few barnacles and a little green slime, so we declined the pressure wash in favor of working at it ourselves.  It was drizzling but warm - actually perfect weather for this kind of wet, dirty work.  We were a mess.  Armed with scrub pads and brushes, we went over every inch of the bottom, the ablative black paint streaking our clothes, shoes, skin, and hair.  We were quite a sight!  We took a break for lunch and then right back at it, until our arms and backs protested enough so we thought hot showers and a walk to a nearby restaurant was in order.  It was also Dan’s birthday, so we celebrated in style:  rum drinks and a key lime pie-cake.  

Wednesday we started the real work.  I began the waxing while Dan began the painting.   As I was trying to rub out the orangey-brown stains of the waterway as well as all the scuff marks fenders can make, one of the local contractors - Chad - came by and pulled out a spray bottle.  “Here, use this.”  He said, spraying a generous amount over the topsides.  Like a miracle, the stains and marks all disappeared.  Whoa!  “You can get this at Ace Hardware.”  He told us, then offered his supply to us for now and to buy us a bottle when he passed by the next day.  Dan dropped his paint roller and took up the spray bottle and twenty minutes later I was waxing the beautifully clean topsides.

We worked til about three-thirty, cleaned up and went back to the same restaurant for dinner.  Wednesday night whiskey and wine drinks were a dollar off!  

Thursday morning we finished the painting and the waxing before a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through just after noon.  Willie Dawes looks spectacular!  Melissa at the boatyard office called us to let us know we were slated for an 1100 launching the next day (Friday), and we were very grateful, as they had told us they were fairly busy and might not be able to get to us until next Tuesday.  We celebrated that night at what had become our regular restaurant.  Hauled, scrubbed, cleaned, waxed, and painted!  Today’s launching performed by Joe and Colby went smoothly. 

See the jaunty paint job - and no brown mustache!

We did a small shake-down cruise to make sure everything was in order, before anchoring on the south side of the Titusville bridge where we should have a front row seat of the rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  

Space-X Falcon 5 satellite launch just after dark

The To-Do List

      Those of you who have been tracking us will have noticed we haven’t gone very far since leaving Fernandina Beach, and that we even backtracked a little bit.  When we left my family on Saturday, we only went a little beyond Nassau Sound before stopping for the night.  In the morning I wrote up a to-do list of things we knew we really needed to get done sooner rather than later.  

A couple of the things on the list were about insurance - confirming that we had boat insurance for the Bahamas cruise, and making sure Dan renewed his health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace.  Another item on the list was getting hold of a boatyard in Titusville to schedule a routine haul-out for bottom painting and to check the cutlass bearing.  We also wanted to take on some fuel; Dan knew of a place up the San Sebastian River in St. Augustine which was reported to have a good price for diesel.  It being Sunday, we couldn’t take care of anything, so we cruised to an anchorage just north of St. Augustine.  We would take advantage of the current and the bridge opening on Monday morning.   

Fort Matanzas

Monday we got the fuel, and since we’d been to St. Augustine before, we decided to move on and anchor in the Matanzas River, adjacent to the old Spanish fort there.  There’s quite a current here, and the fort isn’t currently open thanks to the recent storms, but it was quiet and so peaceful we decided to stay two nights.  Dan was still playing phone and email tag with the two insurance agents and with the boatyard, and while we waited for connections, we tackled another item on the to-do list: gathering up all the required paperwork to renew his merchant mariner license.  This was basically a matter of going through a check list and printing out the proper forms, but it took longer than it should have because our printer kept acting up.  But by the end of the day we had that all together and ready for mailing, we had definite confirmation from our boat insurance about our cruising plans, and we’d heard back from Dan’s health insurance agent that he was on her to do list and she would get back to him soon.  We didn’t hear from the boatyard until Wednesday.    

Coquina at Mala Compra Beach

We left the Matanzas River on Weds (Dec 7) morning and were cruising through the Matanzas/Marineland wetlands area when the boatyard confirmed our haul-out for Dec 13.  Titusville is only a couple days’ cruise away and now we had a week to kill.  So we decided to turn back and head north a couple miles to Bing’s Landing, where we’d read there was a small park to explore.  We anchored opposite the Landing, on the other side of the ICW, and for good measure, tossed out two anchors to keep the boat out of the channel and secured from the current.  Bing’s Landing is home to a small archeological dig of an early eighteenth century plantation house, in an area that went by the name Mala Compra, which means ‘bad bargain’ in Spanish.  The area was not very profitable for a plantation and was subject to multiple raids by Native Americans, but the dig is interesting and they’ve done a nice job explaining the lives of the people who lived and worked there.  And we learned the difference between coquina and tabby.  Coquina is a natural formation of limestone which has been studded with seashells.  Tabby is a kind of concrete mixed with seashells that was used as foundations for houses.  We walked a mile to the beach at Mala Compra and saw many coquina rocks in the surf.  The sand there is quite orange in color, too, although we didn’t learn why.  

Marineland Beach

After we got back to the Willie Dawes and untangled the two anchors (why does that always happen no matter how carefully we set them?) we debated - go back to St. Augustine for the night and explore a little in the morning?  Go back to Fort Matanzas for the night?  After all, we have several days to kill now before we have to be in Titusville.  We opted to go to Marineland and take a slip at the town-owned marina there.  So we headed north for another mile or so and turned into the little channel that led to a tiny marina.  Marineland was home to the first Oceanarium, where they trained dolphins and filmed movies like Creature of the Black Lagoon.  We saw the building that still offer sessions of swimming with dolphins, but it wasn’t open, and it was unclear if it is open anymore.  There is another beautiful beach here with orange sand and coquina rocks, but the wooden steps to the boardwalk and the beach were damaged in the recent storms, and you have to “find your own way” as the marina dock master informed us.  This we did, strolling the beach as the sunset and the full moon rose, watching two hearty people do some surfing.

Thursday we left the marina and traveled thirty miles to Daytona Beach to fulfill a couple of other things on the to-do list.  Late Thursday afternoon we walked nearly four miles to West Marine to pick up some bottom paint, returning to the boat at sunset, just in time to see the contrail of a satellite launch from Cape Canaveral. 

Satellite launch

Today (Friday) we walked to the Post Office to mail off our Christmas packages and Dan’s renewal paperwork.  We also went for a walk on the beach here in Daytona Beach. The damage from Hurricane Nicole here is also evident - businesses on both east and west sides of the ICW were flooded, and many sets of steps to the beach were destroyed.  

Repairing Roads

Only two things left on the to-do list:  haul-out, and get the cat to the vet for her international health certificate for the Bahamas!  

Fernandina Beach

    Fernandina Beach is an historic town on the northern end of Amelia Island.  My brother Ralph and his wife Kim live here.  From the water it truly doesn’t look very appealing at first, as the town is sandwiched between two very active paper mills.  Between them, the waterfront is almost entirely a marina, and there is a small shipping port as well.  But take the dinghy into the dock and you are instantly in the historic section with its Italianate architecture and brick-lined walks.  Restaurants and shops are clustered beyond the old train depot, live oaks and other local flora line the streets and arch overhead.  Right now it’s all decked out for Christmas with lots of lights, ribbons, and wreathes. 

Fernandina Beach Historic District

Even the paper mill looks festive at night!

The weather could have gone either way for us - the forecast was very very strong winds and thunderstorms - but most of the time it was sunny and warm and the winds were considerate about abating in the evenings when Dan and I returned to the boat in the anchorage for the night.  We stayed in the Fernandina Beach anchorage for the entire week.

Ralph and Kim live in an older neighborhood near the beach.  They couldn’t have been more generous hosts.  They lent us their only car for the whole week so we could run as many errands as we wanted.  We ate dinner with them every night, either Kim’s fabulous cooking, or dining out in one of the many restaurants.  On Thursday my sister Betty drove down from South Carolina to join us for two days. 

            While she and Kim went horseback riding on the beach, Ralph gave Dan and I a little tour of the American beach, which used to be the segregated African-American beach and host to a lively African-American community.  There is a small building here that once used to be a juke-joint where musicians like Louis Armstrong came to play.  That night we all went out to dinner in honor of Ralph's birthday.

On Friday, we hosted everybody on the Willie Dawes for a quick run back up to Cumberland Island.  None of the others had been ashore there, so Dan dropped us all off at the  No-Public-Use dock and we explored a little while he anchored nearby and brought the dinghy in to join us.  We checked out the ruins and the cemetery, and walked the beach a little. 

Siblings (and Dan) on the beach.

We saw horses everywhere, but one armadillo this time, and on the way back to the dock we spotted a couple of deer.  We had a glorious sunset cruise back to Fernandina Beach.  One of our many errands during the week was a run to Ace Hardware to pick up a string of Christmas lights.  We didn’t realize they were solar-powered and set to come on automatically at dusk when we bought them.  So much fun to see them suddenly light up as we approached the marina dock to discharge our cargo!  

Saturday morning Betty drove back home and we returned the car to Ralph and Kim, enjoying one last meal with them before they brought us back to our dinghy to wish us bon voyage.  Perhaps they’ll join us in the Bahamas.  We hope so.  

Kim & Ralph & Max