It looks like a B&W picture, but it's just indicative of the grayness of the day on Wednesday..  

Vero Beach has a great system of free buses that makes it easy to head either to the beach or across the bridge into town.  The first stop is right between a Publix and West Marine.  We took the 11:45 bus and found that it went to the beach first, so we had the grand tour before getting to the shopping area!  I didn't need Publix, but found a TJ Maxx right next door and found a Yoga mat.  I did my 10 minute Yoga when we got back!  

The dinghy dock at Vero Beach is always full of interesting dinghies, from all over the world.  We found the municipal park next to the marina allows dogs to run free, so we took Dory and her frisbee for a little exercise.  She did really well playing with a standard poodle and two other big dogs without yapping at all!  On the way back to the boat we went past a little runabout with a pertinent name...

Thursday morning we cast off from our neighbors at sunrise for the trip to Lake Park Marina in North Palm Beach.  Dan had changed the belt on the alternator Wednesday afternoon because it showed a little wear.  Well we were barely under the Vero bridge when I noticed the Tach dropped to zero. Luckily we had the wind and current behind us, so we cut the engine and drifted while Dan tightened to belt.  Unfortunately we had to repeat the procedure several times, eventually rolled out the jib while he continued to work on the belt.  The belt  finally seemed to be tight enough and we continued on our way. 

As we traversed Hobe Sound, famous for elegant homes we passed the 1000 mile marker for the ICW.  We decided the flag pole at this house marked the spot.

Deja vu!  We arrive at Lake Park Marina, get the same slip as three years ago and have dinner with the Pekabu III crew, Pete and Kathy Bruzik and their friends Howie and Ann.  The four of them are heading off on a cruise together and Pete and Kathy drove down from Delaware to join up with Howie and Ann.  

We signed up for two days at Lake Park luckily because Dan woke up this morning nauseated with a strong stitch in his lower back.  He tried to ignore it, changed the oil in the engine, changed out the alternator belt again, but finally decided he needed to see a doc.  We took a cab to Urgent Care and while Dan was seeing the PA there, I finally reached Tessie Hinckley, who lives a few miles from here, and she came over to catch up while I was waiting for Dan.  The diagnosis was a possible kidney stone!  Hopefully it won't be too painful if it passes.  We'll see what tomorrow brings. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Here's Dan's view of the Bridge of Lions as we left St. Augustine.

We made it to Halifax Harbor in Daytona a little after 4 pm (Sunday) and Dan immediately began to dis-assemble the dinghy engine.  He had tried to start it after I had spent Saturday afternoon scrubbing it down and wasn't able to pull the cord at all.  It took a lot of elbow grease and he put in new spark plugs.  Lo and behold it started!  He's not sure what made the difference...

The ginormous buildings out at Cape Canaveral were in view for most of our trip.

Monday morning we fueled up and headed out, hoping to make Titusville where they have added a mooring field since our last visit.   We arrived right at 5 pm and took a mooring ball.  Dory was anxious for a trip to shore, so we headed right in.  She managed to hold it all day, but made sure she emptied well while we were ashore!  

Dan captured his "girls" sitting on the rail when we returned to Brunelle.

 Dan discovered this iPad bracket that makes it possible for us to have our Garmin Blue Charts app open on the iPad with all the Active Captain information about shoaling and anchoring spots as well as reviews of marinas available right next to the chart plotter.  It does drain the battery, but we have a 12 volt plug available nearby.

Luckily for Dory our forward most panel on the enclosure is usually open and she can still  maintain her favorite post - - - watching for channel markers that just might attack us.


Tuesday morning brought a rain shower, but it cleared enough for us to take Dory ashore to have a run in the dog park that is right next to the Titusville Municipal Marina.  She chased her frisbee relentlessly and enjoyed racing around with the only other dog who was visiting the park.

We were back aboard and ready to head for Vero Beach by 9 am.  Radar had shown a line of rain showers that threatened, but it looked like most of it would miss us.

As we passed under the new 65' bridge just south of the Titusville Marina, the sky didn't look very friendly...

We made it to Vero Beach without getting more than a few drops of rain on us in spite of the ominous look of the skies on and off throughout the day.  The office at Vero closes at five, but they gave us our mooring assignment and told us to settle up in the mooring.  Most of the moorings have two boats on them and we rafted with a boat from Annapolis!    

Also known as Velcro Beach because so many people "stick it out" here, we'll stick for another day.  We're off to take the shuttle across the bridge to town for an adventure. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

St. Augustine Friday thru Thursday

The only sun we saw Friday (sunrise) told it all..."red sky at morning..."  We left before Bella and had rain all day.
The only bright spot was this gaggle of white pelicans.

Brunelle settled in nicely at Camachee Cove for her holiday sojourn.

I know I left you hanging... would we make it all the way to St. Augustine Friday or not.  We did. We pulled into Camachee Cove Marina at 1705 and were barely tied up when Jay arrived to whisk us off to 12 O (as we fondly refer to Jay and Pegg's house) for dinner and the night.   We settled in and spent the night upstairs over Jay's shop.

Robby and Carol were due on Saturday and succeeded in making it to their marina by 1000.  They joined us at 12 O for dinner after settling in and beginning the process of getting Bella ready for her seven week stay in St. Augustine.  We helped with the process by placing two snakes, one inflatable and one rubber, on their covers.

Life at 12 O has been enlivened by two new members of the family, Lula and Liam.  The term "beyond precious" gets used A LOT!  They play hard and sleep hard.

To celebrate our arrival, Pegg and Jay put on an amazing TUNA party Sunday night.

A friend had returned from a California fishing trip with 700 pounds of tuna which they sold to all their friends.  Pegg picked two of the best recipes the tuna friends had shared with them and the hands down favorite was this rare seared tuna skewered with a piece of pickled ginger and dipped in wasabi mayo.



Monday we drove Robby and Carol to the airport.  The trip included  a stop at a CNG (compressed natural gas) filling station in Jacksonville to fill Bella's three tanks.  There are no filling stations in the Bahamas, so they will have to use it sparingly.  We also visited a new extension of Sailor's Exchange that opened recently in Jacksonville.  A great collection of marine "stuff".  They worked on outfitting their replacement dinghy (yet to be replaced) and we found a few bargains too.

Today, Tuesday we drove to Princess Place Preserve and spent a couple of hours riding our bikes on several of the trails in the 1500 acre park.  It is a very interesting place that is well taken care of.

The Princess Place Estate was a grant from the King of Spain in 1791 and only recently has been open to the public.
The site is now a Flagler County Park and  hosts events including weddings. I liked the porch pillars, each was a unique
tree trunk. The walls of the main house are made of blocks of coquina and some of the trees look like they are as old
as the estate!

Tomorrow we button up the boat and then fly out Thursday morning, back to PA for the holidays.  We'll be back...next year!  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

What!?!? Back to Georgia!

We remembered this long face dock, but had been on the inside
the last time we were here.  The inside was MUCH better than
either the outside or the mooring field!

Thursday, November 14:
We thought we'd be in St. Augustine tonight, but instead we headed north--back into Georgia.  We had enjoyed our "weathering in" at Fernandina Beach. Wednesday was spent puttering about installing motion sensing LED lights in the heads and our cabin, replacing the water pump, installing a new clutch for the main sheed and trying to organize some of our clutter.

We walked up town around noon and had a nice lunch at the Cafe Karibo, a mini home brewery.  Our dock neighbors aboard Chantebrise II  recommended it us.  We're pretty sure our visit to Ft. Myers where son John and his wife Brandi live with include visits to several brew pub as the two of them are brew pub experts, so we decided to bone up a bit.

Back aboard, we checked the SPOT sent by Robby and Carol and saw that they had moved from one spot on the Brickhill River to a different one.  That meant they had been out and about in all this wind!  I called to see how they were doing  and learned they had discovered the dinghy missing when they awoke Wednesday AM.  They had spent the day trying to nose into every creek they could manage looking for it.
We decided we should head up there early Thursday morning so Dan and Robby could use our dinghy to explore further.  So....as everyone peeled away from the Fernandina docks heading south, we headed north!  We arrived and anchored by 0930 and headed off in Bella towing our dinghy to the northern anchorage where their dinghy had disappeared.  Despite forecasts that called for lessening winds, it was still blowing 15-20 knots.  Rob and Dan spent the whole day exploring miles and miles of little creeks and inlets along the Brickhill River.  They returned at 1615  windblown and discouraged.  At least we tried.  We all returned to the southern anchorage where we had left Brunelle and Rob and Carol joined us for dinner aboard  Brunelle.

Brunelle just coming into view as we return from our fruitless search for the wayward dinghy.

The wind finally subsided with the setting of the sun, so we spent a quiet night, BUT without enough signal to write and post the blog.  We were underway before 0700 this morning (Friday) because we were awoken by an Amber Alert that came in on my phone at 0540!  We're not sure how far we'll get today as we go back and forth from making 8.1 knots to barely 5.0 knots depending which inlet is closer. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

FLORIDA!

On the van ride back to the marina last night, our driver said he would pick us up in the morning for breakfast in the grand dining room.  He was true to his word and picked us up at 0915.  We enjoyed the drive through the grounds is the light of day and got a better look at all the "cottages" and the main club house.  I didn't remember my camera, so I had to resort to finding a picture of the grand dining room on line,

The atmosphere, service and food were all excellent!

We had hoped to take a tour of the whole property after our luxurious breakfast, but the forecast for this evening predicted gale force winds that are expected to continue through Thursday morning and Dan was worried if we anchored out for two days (as had been the original plan)  we would have problems with our battery charger.  We have a new inverter/charger waiting for us in St. Augustine, but currently the only way to charge the batteries is to run the engine.   So the best solution was to leave after breakfast and push on to Fernandina Beach Harbor Marina where we could plug in and hunker down for the next day and a half.  

The trip past Cumberland Island was going smoothly until we got to the southern end of the Brickhill River.  There was much discussion about this area and sure enough it was a problem.   The magenta line (for the first time) was WRONG.  Luckily for us (if not for the other boat) the boat in front of us ran aground so we slowed to a crawl and attempted to go around him and the shallow area, but bumped, but only lightly and were able to turn around and ignore the magenta line and follow the buoyage instead.  Oddly enough the buoys that were in question were #60, #60A, and 61...just like the last buoy problems back in NC!   We were sorry to miss Cumberland Island, it sounds like a great place to visit.

As we neared the Georgia/Florida we went past the Kings Bay nuclear submarine base which looms for quite a while as you approach from the north.  There is always a navy security boat on station to keep anyone from getting to close.  We traveled by at a slow pace and kept to our channel, so we didn't get challenged by the security boat.  We're not sure what the large structure that stuck out almost to the channel was for, it reminded us of a car wash (keep those subs shiny??)

We made it to Fernandina Beach at 1445 and they put us on the inside of the face dock.  They didn't want anyone smaller than 60' on the outside, and as I sit here writing this I can agree with that decision!  The wind is already howling and we are listing a bit even though we are well protected by the cement dock to windward.  It isn't supposed to really blow until nearer dawn.  Can't wait!!

Aurora came in right behind us, but only stopped for fuel and headed off....I wonder where she'll be during this weather.

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

Brunswick to Jekyll Island

We awoke to a bright sunshiny day and it was made even brighter with a trip to Publix.  What a wonderful supermarket.  Connie Dooley drove us there and shared her of knowledge of Brunswick and particularly the Brunswick Landing Marina which is owned by one of the oldest families in the area, the Torras family.  We weren't in a hurry to shove off because we had to traverse the channel by Jekyll Island at half tide or higher, so we didn't leave our slip until 1130 and with a short stop at the fuel dock we were underway right at noon.  The trip back under the Sidney Lanier Bridge took us out to pick up the "magenta line" and on our way to Jekyll Island Marina.

The trip to Jekyll was all of 9 miles, so it took less than 2 hours.  We tied up on the face dock at the marina and waited for Robby and Carol (my brother and sister-in-law) to show up.  They had left the Chesapeake a week before we did, and we finally caught up and passed them by taking our little jaunt "outside".  It was great to see them slip under the Jekyll Island Bridge and anchor right off the marina.  They had called earlier and asked if we wanted to join them as the ate their way down Jekyll Island.  It sounded tempting, and we agreed to give it a try!  We started with an "early bird  dinner special at the Crane Courtyard.

Jekyll Island has quite a history.  It was chosen by the rich and famous as a winter playground just before the turn of the last century.  It is said that at one time members of the Jekyll Island Club  accounted for one sixth of the world's wealth.  Names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Chase etc. were on the membership list.  One name was Crane (plumbing supply magnate) and he was the first to build a cottage that contained a kitchen (plumbing guy ya know).  It also had 26 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms.  All other members took all their meals at the Grand Dining Room (actually a large building).  The Crane "cottage" is now a restaurant where you can eat in a less formal setting that the Grand Dining Room.

The entire place is now a resort open to the public, but it still has an exclusive clubby air about it.  We were picked up by a van from the JI Club and delivered to the front door.  Ed and Connie Dooley and their friends and golfing partners Bob and Sue Hodes had spent the afternoon golfing on Jekyll Island and joined us for dinner. A great meal and the Key Lime Pie was excellent!  Tomorrow morning - - breakfast at the Grand Dining Room.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

"Roly-Poly, Pell-Mell, Tumble-Bumble, down the hill they went."

We felt like that quote from The Pokey Little Puppy Golden Book story.  Our trip from Charleston Harbor, out to sea and down the coast to the St. Simons Inlet and then up to Brunswick Landing was definitely roly-poly.  We had the anchor up and were out of Long Creek and on our way the Charleston Harbor after 0800  and made it out to the sea buoy a little before noon.  As soon as we got past the breakwater, we knew it wouldn't be a smooth ride.  The wind and waves were out of the NW and we were heading SW...not the best combination.  But the weather forecast was for the wind to die down and come around to the east in the afternoon.  Well, it didn't!  It made for a sloppy ride, but we were committed.  We tried the jib first, but we were to far downwind for it to work, so we set the main, 2/3 of the way up and worked on trying to keep the constant roll from slamming the boom all over the place.  We tried our new boom brake and had it working fairly well, but haven't perfected a way to adjust if to our satisfaction.  As the wind continued to come even further aft  during the night and we kept ending up by the lee with almost every roll, we decided to roll the main down and just deal with the waves.  I decided not to straighten the horizon of this picture Dan took of the sunrise, it kinda tells it like it was!  ...Waves never look as big as they really are in pictures!

The trip was exactly the length we expected it to be---20 hours from sea buoy to sea buoy, so we arrived outside Brunswick at 0800.  What we are always surprised to find is how long it takes to get back inside and to your final destination.  On the way in Dan began putting things away that we always have on deck during overnight passages like the MOM (man overboard module) the life raft and our inflatable life jackets.  We finally got a hot meal (neither of us was ready to try to cook last night.) and a cup of coffee. 

On our other trips south we have left from Savannah and skipped the rest of Georgia completely, so this was the first time for us to see the St. Simons Brunswick area.  We were surprised how big an inlet it was and how much industry we saw.  Still the best sites were the lighthouse near the entrance and the beautiful bridge we went under on our way up to Brunswick Landing Marina.  Ed and Connie Dooley (CCYC friends)

have been trying to get us to visit here for years.

The Dooleys used to have a Catalina 400, but had a hard time balancing their love of sailing with their love of golf, so they sold the C-400 and now have an Island Pilot that can cruise--or I should say race along at 33kts !  It gets them to the golf course fast.

Here we are nestled next to Ed and Connie.  Oops, the ICW "smile is back, I'll have to get some more ReaLemon tomorrow to wash it off the bow.  Brunswick Landing Marina isn't a frugal stop, but the bathrooms and showers are great and the laundry is free!   We should sleep well tonight, last night was a little less than peaceful! ~~~_/)~~~M&D