"On the road again"!!

After listening to several weather reports this AM Dad declared our window had arrived. We spent the day getting Dory "papers". stocking up. returning car, etc. etc. so we hope to head out of here at 4 am tomorrow to head across to the Little Bahamas Bank north of Grand Bahama Island. We hope to check in at Spanish Cay and then head around the Abacos for a while. ~~~_/)~~~M&D (Edited from email Tuesday March 1 by your humble blog admin, Sam)

We are still alive and well and in Florida!!

Back to the story...we left Vero Beach early Saturday morning over a week ago. After a hairy rainy windy day on Friday, our early morning trip ashore with Dory was lovely

We had made reservations at Lake Park Marina at the south end of Lake Worth but started exploring other options as we made our way south.  We knew we were in for a big blow on Sunday and wanted to be as protected as possible.  We called Old Port Cove Marina (about 5 miles north of Lake Park) and found that they could accommodate us so we headed there instead.  

Every time we leave Vero, we seem to have some engine issue and this time was no different, barely under the bridge just south of the mooring field the alternator belt started screeching.  I shut down and we drifted while Dan tightened it.  We did that two more times and decided to slow back for a while.  We concluded that the batteries were low enough that they were demanding too much from alternator and thus the engine.  Everything settled down after an hour or so.  

Vero mooring field at its best!  Ready to head toward Lake Worth area. 

We arrived at Old Port Cove before 4:30 and settled in wait for the blow.  We called Tess Hinckley who we connected with the last time we were in the area and found that we were even closer to her here in OPC.  She has been dealing with some health issues so offered to pick us up and lend us her car for a while.  We took her up on the offer and  of course found the nearest Publix.    

The blow came in with a vengence and we rocked and rolled and creaked and groaned for a LONG time.   When things settled down we contacted Tess again and have had several good visits and shopping trips with her!  

Tess, Jeanne and I went for nail treatment.
The ladies asked me to remove age spots and wrinkles....sorry I don't have that much time or patience.  We are what we are!

Here we are at Old Port Cove,  not exactly a sailboat haven!  We are the mast just under the moon a little to the left.
Ragtime  did nave a few more  sailboat neighbors than we did.

Our whole time at Old Port Cove I felt like a hanging chad...here we are in Florida and are full of indecision!  Where to go??  No areas south of here seem to have any slips, it seems everyone is sitting tight waiting for El Nino to settle down!  Jeanne and Gerry had decided to hang at OPC for the duration - - - and not worry about trying to cross to the Bahamas.  We spent the next week saying "What are we going to do???"  No answers seemed to arise.   We have enjoyed OPC, but it is relatively expensive and we didn't want to keep bugging Tess to use her car.  

While driving around yesterday we went to one of the large malls in Palm Beach, of course Dan and
Gerry didn't mind, it was Sunday and it was before noon so all the stores were closed, but there was
a wonderful art exhibit of loads of Dr. Seuss illustrations.

Finally yesterday Jeanne, Gerry, Dan and I drove around the area checking out other marinas and found that Loggerhead Marina at Palm Beach Gardens had a good monthly rate and we learned that Sevilla had just made a reservation to spend a month there, so we moved HERE this morning.  It was a 4 mile trip NORTH!!  We have rented a car for a month and will do our worrying again in a month!!

Dan has had fun with his camera, here are some of his shots.

We passed Edge, Bud and Tessie's old boat as we went through the PGA bridge and also got a kick of the "hard top" setup on the sailboat in front of it.  I assume they do a lot of cocktails "up" on deck!!

We've been fascinated by the banyan trees down here.  This one was pretty amazing.

We wish we knew who this creature was, we're just glad he was on the piling and not on the boat!

As we won't be moving much for a month, I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be doing, but we'll see...   ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Vero Beach (also known as Velcro Beach) has us "stuck"

We waited until the sun was up before leaving Cocoa.

The trip from Cocoa to Vero Beach was a little shorter than the trip from Daytona, so we were comfortable putting off our departure until 8 am.  The day was still chilly, but the sun made intermittent appearances and the breeze was still from the north so we were able to use the jenny and for the first time in a long time we used our whisker pole to keep the jenny full.

Ragtime led the way all day. ....including passing under the bridge just past the
channel for the Vero Beach Municipal Marina.  Just as we called him on the
radio he got a text from his son (who was obviously hard at work) saying,
"Hey Dad, you missed your exit!"  Reminded us of some of Sam's "lurking"
experiences in the past!

We had called ahead and were told there weren't any open moorings, but by the time we got to Vero, we were assigned to #57 at the northern most spot in the mooring field,   We were moored by 4 pm.

Ragtime hadn't used their dinghy for quite a while and were unhappy to find out that their engine kept stalling when they tried to head into the marine office to check in.  After some research and wheeling and dealing Gerry found a good deal on a 4 stroke Honda 9.9 from a dealer in Port St. Lucie who delivered the engine today!

The New Engine!

The weather forecast predicted rain so we are hanging here until at least Saturday. We rode the free city bus into the shopping mall yesterday and then took it the other direction today and checked out the beach.  Rain held off until this afternoon, but it didn't stop the rowing practice!  Would you believe a 24 man shell!?!?  It went by several times, they seemed to be right in sync in the beginning but a little less in sync on the way back.  

After watching these rowers go by I am amazed that pelicans don't "catch a crab" as they skim over the water...

Low flyer.

We were encouraged to see that the solar panels can actually put a few amps back into the batteries when the sun is actually shining...now we just need some sun!  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Second long day. We're at Cocoa Village Marina

Ragtine & Brunelle are back together again.

It was another 7 am start this morning.
We stopped at the fuel dock and filled 
up before heading out.

Unfortunately we didn't have the current with us until after we passed the Ponce Inlet, but we still made just under 60 nm and arrived at the marina just after 4 pm. The wind was behind us all day, so we rolled out the jib when we could and got a little boost.

We had originally planned to take a mooring in Titusville, but as we were moving well we decided to push on to Cocoa Beach.  There was a method to our madness, today was sunny, but COLD and with the forecast for a clear night we knew temps would be really low.  We are happily plugged in and cozy tonight.

We walked into town and had a yummy pizza at Ryan's. The  marina dockmaster had recommended it.  He must have spread the word to everyone in town.  It was amazingly crowded for a Monday night.

Dan really likes this lighthouse at Ponce Inlet.  I must agree it is a pretty one.

Finally a gratuitous porpoise shot.  We have started seeing more of them.  We hardly saw any back in the fall.

Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer and we won't have quite as early a start. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

We're back! St. Augustine and heading south...

I apologize, I was so out of practice I went to bed last night without even thinking about chronicling our adventures since mid November!  Quick synopsis:  drove home from St. A in time to drive even further north to celebrate Thanksgiving at Sam and Jess's in NH.  Great to see everyone and to meet the newest member of our extended family, Anna Robinson Forbes.  She is just adorable and had all the cousins cooing and cradling, not to mention the rest of us!

When we headed off in October, there were 5 boats, 4 Catalinas from CCYC and 1 Tartan 43.  Attrition was high!  There are only two of us still heading south!  We were glad to see everyone at the CCYC Christmas party and got a picture of the original 4.  Unfortunately Pekabu III had to bail due to Pete's mom's medical issues and Sevilla had to bail due to Sevilla's non-medical issues. We lost the Tartan when her propeller fell off!

Maureen, Martha, Dan, Jeanne, Gerry, Pete
Glen & Kathy

We enjoyed an abbreviated Blissmas (sorry no Bliss boys could make it home to join us) and  went to Philly for Christmas.  Julie and Mike surprised us with a LARGE print-on-canvas of the whole clan from or 2015 Rock Hall version of Camp PaHaGaCo!  It now hangs on the forward bulkhead in the main salon and reminds us daily of how lucky we are!

A mostly tie-dyed group on the deck in Rock Hall

We found that Hertz has the cheapest one-way rentals and headed back to the boat soon after Christmas.  We had too much "stuff" and Dory... so we couldn't fly.  

The whole time we were home we kept getting reports from Dan's brother Jay about his battle with a RAT that decided to move in when we headed home!  It took him three weeks and every trap and plan he could devise!! and he finally announced "Burial at sea" and we hoped our troubles were over.  We found evidence of his residency in places we wouldn't have considered as we got back aboard and started putting things away.  We think we (and Dory) are free and clear at the moment, but after one night aboard Dory had quite a case of fleas!  She's been triple treated, first by me, then the vet and finally by the groomer, and seems to be flea free as does Brunelle.  Unfortunately for her we decided to get her Bahama cut (easy to rinse after swimming in salt water) too soon and TOO short.  We barely recognized her when we picked her up from the groomer.

As you can see, she was less than thrilled with the whole experience!

We had left St. Augustine right before the turning on of their holiday lights, so we were glad to see they were still shining when we returned.  We even had a very festive neighbor at Camachee Cove Marina.

I love how clear the reflection is!  One of the few calm nights we have had since returning to FL.

There were several projects to work on and lots of iffy weather forecasts, so we didn't get away from St. Augustine until Sunday morning January 10th.  We also had reports from Gerry and Jeanne about their experience running aground in the middle of the channel as they passed by the Matanzas Inlet a few hours south of St. A, so we wanted to be sure to go through on a rising and almost high tide. That added a few more days of waiting!  We left the dock at 7 am, made the 7:30 opening at the Bridge of Lions and were on our way.  We called Jay and Pegg and Pegg was up and dressed and came out and snapped pix as we circled on the north side and then headed off to the south.

You can see that we still have our running lights on as we waited in front of the towering cross near the fort.
Bottom right we are heading south toward the Rt. 312 bridge.

We had the current with us for most of the day and were able to average over 7 knots as we headed for Daytona and Halifax Harbor Marina to meet up with Ragtime.  We arrived a little after 2 pm and had time to settle in before having a shared dinner aboard Brunelle. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

St. Augustine

It's always great to see St. Augustine's distinctive lighthouse, especially after an overnight passage.

We left Ragtime & Sevilla relaxing on Hilton Head and headed out the Calibogue Sound a little before noon.  Our original thought was to come in at Jacksonville at first light and continue straight to St. Augustine on the inside.  When we had threaded our way out through the shoals of the inlet we put up the main and found we could make 7 knots pretty steadily (we did have help from some current in the beginning.  Pretty soon we decided to put St. Augustine inlet as our waypoint to see what that looked like.  The chartplotter said we'd get there at 9 am.  That sounded great to us (and we hoped Dory too) as we would be heading in right at high tide. 

The wind helped on and off, but we kept the main up the whole time, sometimes as a steadying sail only.  The skies were clear and the seas only turned rolly the last couple of hours and the traffic was very light.  An occasional cargo or tanker ship headed to Savannah or Jacksonville loomed large in the distance.  Dan had his camera ready for sunset... about the only picture worthy subject.

The next picture worthy subject.. reverse the scene in the east!

The seas weren't quite as calm, but we had had a very pleasant night in our cozy enclosure!

As always, dawn was a welcome sight and we were still on schedule to arrive at 9 am!  Dan did have to slow down to make sure he stayed well clear of one container ship, but my watches were nowhere near as exciting!  We reached to St. A seabuoy right on schedule.  Dan had talked to Jay about the inlet and Jay had given him the name of someone to call.  He did and was told that all the buoys were right where they belonged, so we kept the main up as we sailed in.

Jay had ridden his bike to the beach and took pictures as we came in.  He then raced to the
Vilano Beach Pier to wave as we came by and passed under the Vilano Bridge on our way
to Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor.

We were in and tied up before 10 am and Dory was glad to see grass, although she seemed relaxed and showed no signs of being nervous throughout the entire trip. We'd traveled 144 nm in less than 24 hours...not bad.  We had dinner with Jay and Pegg and are back aboard for a good night's sleep.  Not sure when our next report will show up...

~~~_/)~~~M&D

St. John's Harbor Marina, B&B Seafood and Harbour Town Marina & Resort

Sunny and hot were a LONG time ago!  We left Charleston Harbor Marina on Sunday and headed across the harbor and through two bridges on the other side of the harbor and went all of 7 miles to put us at St. Johns Harbor Marina on the Stono River.

The trip wasn't all that pleasant, it was rainy and gusting to 22 knots.

We signed up for two nights because Monday was predicted to be even worse!  Predictions were correct.  Record rain fell for most of the day.  We took advantage of the courtesy car and the "girls" headed to West Marine and Harris Teeters.  Believe it or not we spent more time in West than in Harris!  We used the car both days and were glad to get out of the soggy conditions aboard.  The trip to the car (a very long walk due to a small bridge being out of commission) was the most harrowing part of the day!  We gathered aboard Brunelle  for a communal dinner on Monday night.  Maureen made Pumpkin Soup, I did Avocado/Grapefruit salad,  Kathy brought egg rolls for appetizers and Jeanne served yummy cookies for dessert.  

We headed out early on Tuesday even thou there were a few more showers, but sun was expected by noon and did finally shine right on cue. We were one boat short because Pete had to make another quick drive back to Delaware to be there for his 89 year old mom who ended up back in the hospital. We played the current game all the way to Mosquito Creek where we tied up to B&B Seafood's dock. The current game means that for a time you might get a 1-2 knot boost from the current and then all of a sudden it's 1-2 knots against you.  The Billy B (the resident shrimp boat was out when we arrived, but came in around 4:30pm. 

Jeanne and Dan both captured the essemce and source of GREAT SHRIMP.

Another communal dinner, this time with shrimp.  Maureen remembered me making a recipe from Feast Afloat (a great cookbook I have) and I guess we recreated history having the same dish in the same place only one day short of five years later! The whole place is full of "atmosphere" but devoid of amenities, but the shrimp is fresh and reasonable.

Harbour Town Yacht Harbor is certainly a change from B&B!

We left early this morning to get to the bottom of Hilton Head Island at the Harbour Town Marina and Resort.  We had a lovely day, sunny, a little cool but no problems along the way.  We pulled into the fuel dock at the marina, fueled up and were about to head to our slip when the dock master said, "If you want to see Al Roker, he'll be over on the 18th tee at 3:00"  ...as part of his Rokerathon...doing a weather report from all fifty states in one week.  WELL  I was ready to rush right over.  As soon as we docked I dragged Maureen to go see what we could see.  We saw quite a crowd and joined it for almost half an hour before they announced he wouldn't arrive until 4:30.  We started to head back to the boats and spied a girl carrying a goat.  We didn't get that picture, but did get this one.

Something about a goat sighting contest going on.  They hope Al Roker would 'sight" their goat.
I later learned that indeed he did succeed in making this the 22nd sighting...?!?

I wasn't to be deterred by a small delay and headed out at 4:15 for the 18th tee.  I was headed off by a couple I had chatted with earlier while waiting and they said they were making everyone watch the event from across the harbor entrance.  I dutifully headed over there wishing I had taken Dan's big camera with the telephoto lens.  The wait was almost an hour and I busied myself taking other shots, but finally Al arrived and it was at the very most a waste of time but I did get a few pictures.

Al can be seen in the orange cap.

While I was waiting a was trying to see how well the zoom on my underwater camera would work...

 I learned when I got back to the boat that Pete and Kathy have decided to head home to be there for Pete's mom and take the boat back to Chesapeake.  We will definitely miss their company.

 We had a pleasant dinner out and will be saying good-by to our other two companion boats tomorrow.  We plan to head offshore tomorrow, come in at Jacksonville and end up in St. Augustine on Friday evening.  I'm guessing my next post will be from St.A.  ~~~~~~~_/)~~~~~~~~M&D