Back in Florida

With 36 boats waiting to cross the Gulf Stream and most headed for Ft. Pierce, there was a lot of chatter on Monday morning!  When to leave, which spot to leave the banks and the best time to hit the inlet at Ft. Pierce.  Slack tide was reported to be 9:54 am on Tuesday morning, followed by a rising tide flowing in, so everyone was calculating their speed and when to leave.  After all this discussion at least half the boats got antsy and left before the targeted departure time!  Not surprisingly, we were included in that bunch...

Dory watching as Dan returns with a piece of SUPER GRASS doggie pad cut from an over large piece
on a neighboring boat.  We had visited  this boat in the morning and Dory explored their decks, sniffed at the
"grass" and promptly peed!!! We hoped it would make the 24 hour trip easier for her.  

This grass is much more lifelike than any we've seen.  Dory did finally use it, but not until we were in the ICW on our way
up to Vero Beach.  She did it, but didn't look happy about it!  

We had lunch, took Dory for a last land based pee spot and pulled the anchor at 1:15 pm.  (Almost two hours "early")  The wind was still a little north of East and that made the 60 mile  trip across the banks a very broad reach.  We put the main up and were able to carry the jib for part of the trip, but the closer the wind came to East, the harder it was to keep it full, so before sunset we rolled the jib in and proceeded with main alone.  We also put the preventer on to keep the boom from bouncing around as the seas became rolly.  We left the bank at 11:30 pm and were surprised how sloppy the seas were and were worried how it would be when we actually reached the Gulf Stream (about 20 miles west of the banks)

Our buddy boat Kanga  looked great against the shallow blue waters of the banks, and Greg & Paula were more energetic and
managed to maintain wing 'n wing for a while.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the seas actually calmed a bit in the Stream.  We opted to head much further south than the actual course to Ft. Pierce to keep from running the risk of being by the lee which could cause an accidental jibe.  It worked well because the Stream carried us north and we were right on target and on time by the time we got to the Inlet.  It was an easy ride in, but we did hear reports from earlier boats that it was nasty when the current was still flowing out.

Once inside we turned right and headed north to Vero Beach.  It took us another 2 hours or so to get up the the mooring field in Vero.  We called them and asked if we could stop at the fuel dock for diesel and to fill the water tanks before picking up a mooring ball. The dock was full so we idled and waited for it to clear.  When we got the OK to come in I put the engine in reverse to get us positioned and when I tried to put it in forward it immediately shut down.  I tried about three times, both forward and reverse with the same result.  We quickly dropped the hook so Dan could assess the situation.  He was worried it was a frozen transmission.  We radioed Kanga and asked Greg if he'd come help us tow the boat to the mooring ball they were on.  Dan headed off in the dinghy and was about 20 feet away when the epiphany hit - - - something wrapped around the prop!!  He and Greg came back (Greg in his bathing suit) and Greg went down and confirmed we had a wrap.  Dan's back was bothering him so Greg offered to continue to dive and cut it off.  We finally got the Hookah diving compressor out and he made quick work of it.

It isn't pretty!  The inset shows how the line had "melted" and "glued" itself to the shaft.

While this was going on I got a call from a high school friend.  Actually he had been an AFS eschange student during my junior year and we had several classes together.  We hadn't kept in touch, but I saw his picture associated with his 50th class reunion and contacted him  We had seen him in Ft. Lauderdale three years ago on our trip around to Ft. Myers and met his wife, Elisabeth. They are building a house in Vero and offered to come by to see if we needed anything.  It was a BIG help because we had to present ourselves in Ft. Pierce at the airport to pass through customs.  We thought we had it covered by signing up for the DTOPS program through the Customs and Border Patrol, but that only covered the boat, we weren't included!  The drive down was half and hour, we were in the small office for about 4 minutes and that's all it took.  We stopped at Publix on our way back to the boat because I had used  up EVERYTHING fresh, expecting the Customs guy to ask me to bring any produce with me... Nobody seemed to care.  Dan was not feeling up to going out, so he went back to the boat and I had  a lovely dinner with Flavio and Elisabeth.  I was back aboard by 8 and asleep by 9:15.

We headed out this morning a little after 8 am and had a nice trip up to Cocoa Beach.  The wind cooperated and we motorsailed most of the way.  We're not sure how soon we will be on the move again because a big weather front is supposed to dump 3 inches or more of rain in the next two or three days...~~~_/)~~~M&D