We're still here (Vero Beach) and probably going to stay a while!

Tomorrow we will have been here at Vero Beach for two weeks and we are loving it! We have decided that unless there is a big change in the weather in favor of a crossing to the Bahamas (and for expected good weather there too!) that we are most likely going to make this our final destination south. Janet and Alan Botula made it to Alice Town, Bimini in the Bahamas last Friday morning after a nice overnight crossing from the Keys. It was one of the few weather windows that there was and they took it!! Congrats!! They plan to do some “south-easting” heading to the Exumas if weather permits. However, the wind there is planned to be strong south easterly winds that will make that challenging at best!! As for us, we are staying here!

We decided to stay for many reasons – mostly because we have found the warm weather we were after for the winter, we are in a very safe anchorage here, and we have great accommodations. We were also concerned that we might have difficulties getting back to the US with all the crazy weather that we have been having this year. We can't begin to tell you how many people we have met that have decided the same thing – to stay and not go this year, or who have already returned and are starting the trek north again. We plan to stay until the end of March and then begin moving north as the warm weather proceeds us!

We are also a bit concerned about our engine (which we think is actually OK – at least it seems to be) but we have not done a lot of moving and we will need to monitor it carefully. When we start north again, we plan to get back to Little River perhaps in about two weeks and will again spend time there until the end of April or so. We will then begin the long trip back up to Groton, CT which took us 42 days to come down.
We have met quite a few people from Vermont and NH here some of whom are also Downton Abbey and Survivor fans. We are having a big Downton Abbey finale viewing / party in the boaters lounge this evening! We also became very good friends with a couple on a large trawler (Nordhavn 50) called Grey Goose (yes just like the Vodka) who are originally from Germany.

Vero Beach is a really wonderful town. Yesterday we went to the Farmers Market they have each Saturday and enjoyed our walk through the beach town area and back to the marina. Gracie is getting a lot of exercise (not to mention us!).



Joan is going to post her perspective tomorrow!



More Pictures of Vero Beach City Marina

               Our mooring field to the south - We are in the very north end.

    Just north of us.  Note Grey Goose is almost the last mooring ball.  Boats at anchor further north.

     Wolfgang and Luitgard Dietrich, Joan and Gracie enjoying happy hour on "Grey Goose"!

     Gracie loves to ride on the bow of our dinghy!

     The south end of the mooring field at Vero Beach.  Note the bridge that goes from downtown to the beach (left)

     The marina building

   Coming in to the dinghy dock

   The marina from the land side

    This is the building where they have the boaters lounge, laundry and showers!

     The marina again.

 What the winds are doing right now between Florida and the Bahamas!  North winds against the Gulf Stream is a
recipe for disaster!  

  At least we had a little Taste of the Bahams at the Vero Beach Farmers Market!

   One of our walking street scenes.

 At the park at Vero

Whit finds Wilson!!!

Vero Beach (aka Velcro Beach), FL – we're stuck!!

We have been here at Vero Beach since last Monday (Feb. 22^nd) and it is like a vacation!!! This is one of the more popular cruising locations on the ICW in Florida – it is usually on everybody's list as a place to stay, relax, re-provision and enjoy- not to mention that it is also a super protected anchorage. There are about 55 moorings in here and during really crowded times they raft up 2-3 boats on each. We, fortunately, are on our own mooring up in the north end of the mooring field-  about a 4 minute dingy ride to the dinghy dock. Amenities here include nice showers, laundry, boaters lounge, free pump-outs (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and a wonderful transport system – free shuttle buses that go to the beach and to town where you can get anything you need. We wanted to get in here before the big storms that were predicted to blow across Florida (a major cold front) on Wednesday - and blew through they did! Wednesday saw two major rounds of thunderstorms. The first, at about 1pm, lasted about 30 minutes and was pretty intense with winds up to about 40 mph and it included a tornado that passed by just to the north of us by about 5 miles! We had a brief lull and then round two of thunderstorms rolled through with wind and intense rain that lasted from about 3pm to 6pm with a significant temperature drop with this passing front.

Along with all this fun, was the often seen during storms such as these – the “dragging boat follies”. One of the boats at anchor started dragging into the mooring field. To make matters worse – the dragging boat did not have anyone on board! All of a sudden dinghys were launched from the boats about to be hit and we were off to the games!! I radioed in to the marina to send their launch out to assist in the rescue. In the end, all was well – owner returned to assist in the re-anchor, lots of very wet dingy captains returned to their now safe vessels. All was well. The rain and wind continued not withstanding!

So the fair warm winds of the south have been replaced by breezy cold north winds with daytime temps now in the 60's and night temps down to the upper 40's but the sunny skies are wonderful. Temperatures will be returning to the upper 70's and low 80's in the next next few days and we are loving it! So we are relaxing here doing some boat projects and planning out what our next move might be. We are not sure – sort of depends on the weather and winds most importantly which are still not very conducive for a crossing to the Bahamas. We are thinking that if we do go, the crossing will be from Lake Worth, FL directly east to West End. Given the weird and wild weather this current El Nino year has produced, we may not go. We will see. But for now we are just enjoying no longer working on a “boat delivery” cruise!

What is really interesting about being here is that we have finally “caught up” with all the other cruisers doing the same trip as we have been doing. Believe it or not, a few of them are actually headed back north! And it has been interesting comparing notes with all the other cruisers. We have all been to almost all of the exact same places and we have all experienced the same problems with the crazy weather. Lots of people are not sure about going to the Bahamas – in fact, the weather there is not a big drawing card either! We have time to wait and see what develops.

How we got here:
When we were in Titusville, FL we met a wonderful couple from Ducksbury, VT – their boat aptly named - “Evergreen”. They were spending the winter there in their first ever live-aboard experience. We plan to see them on our return. We left from Titusville, FL and made it very easily (and early in the day) to Merritt Island. We had planned to go in to Harbor Square Marina, where we had been told we could get it to (it is a very, very small marina) but had to use a shoe horn to extricate ourselves when it became all to clear that we were not going to be able to get into the dock. So we called quickly to the next marina – Harbortown Marina – just about 1 mile further along – and they were able to accommodate us. This marina was great!! They had a great dog park and restaurant on site and were extremely friendly and helpful (not to mention the price was really very reasonable!) We wanted to get to a marina so that we could host Phil and Nancy Stewart – my high school drama teacher – easily.

Phil and Nancy were just so wonderful. We gave them a tour of Sweet Liberty and then headed off to see their house on Merritt Island where they have lived for the last 25+ years. In all of the years since I graduated from high school – Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY – I have spoken to Phil at least once a year. He is one of those “once in a lifetime people” you are blessed to know and so I have remained in contact with him all these years. He has been a mentor and friend for the last 46 years since I graduated!! After hosting us at their house, they graciously took us to dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant, Alfredo's Paradiso. Not only do Phil and Nancy know the owner extremely well, Nancy is taking cooking lessons from him! The Italian food was absolutely outrageous! Thank you Phil and Nancy – so much!! I can't believe, however, that we forgot to take a picture of them so I stole a great picture of the two of them from Phil's facebook page!!! And while I was at it I grabbed a picture of myself he posted when I was in Phil's first play at Horace Greeley H.S. - A Midsummer Night's Dream playing Duke Theseus. Phil told Joan all about my high school “creativity”!

We left Harbortown Marina and stayed the next night at anchor off the town pier in Melbourne Beach, FL. Thankfully it was an very calm afternoon and night because it is really a wide open area to anchor. We dinghied ashore and walked to town as well as to see the Atlantic ocean – about 4 blocks away- and did a little shopping. Early the next morning, after taking Gracie ashore for her morning constitutional we were off for Vero Beach, FL. And here we are!!

           Heading in to Harbor Square Marina - which is where you see the masts just before this bascule bridge - you have to go down a canal that joins the ICW to Port Canaveral.  We had to come back out, wait for the bridge, and then continue to the next marina...

       ... here - at Harbortown Marina!  You can see the canal out to the back of our boat.

     At Harbortown Marina - off in the back pond - we saw our first gator!

     Harbortown Marina - we were at the T-end of A dock

Phil and Nancy Stewart (I think this might have been  taken outside of their favorite restaurant - Alfredo's.)

 Guess who!?  Duke Theseus woos Hippolyta

 Only in Florida - outside a market which sold a lot of beer!

      At anchor off  Melbourne Beach pier.

           At our mooring in Vero Beach, FL

    Joan hit the farmers market for a few items at Vero.

Slowly moving south! In Titusville, FL

We left Fernandina Beach on Thursday Feb. 11^th (nine days after arriving!) having been there much longer than we wanted to – three days needed for parts and repairs to the sea strainer and then another five days due to weather. We traveled about 3 hrs to Sisters Creek to a public dock where we tied up with one other boat that was already there. It was a great location – easy to take Gracie for her doggie business! The current, however, ran extremely strongly at max so it was like we were under sail while at the dock!!
We left early the next morning to go about 33 nm to St Augustine. We arrived on Friday Feb. 12^th earlier than we had expected with only one wait for bridge opening – the last one – the Bridge of Lions just before our anchorage for the night. We took a mooring at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina which gave us access to dingy dock for Gracie, showers and town for us!! We had asked if it was possible to get a mooring as close as possible and they gave us mooring #1 which was the closest one in the mooring field!! St. Augustine is a really great city to visit. It has the southern charm of Charleston, SC (complete with lots of pirate history and attractions) and it has the feel of New Orleans! It is quite the tourist town – there were people from all over the country visiting for their winter vacation.
Joan's comments about St. Augustine:
***
“It felt good to have moved on towards our goal of going South!! St Augustine's is a very nice city. We tried to take a trolley tour of the city, but they didn't allow dogs, even in a carrier. Whit saw a golf cart type thing go by called “Hopper” and it said it did tours. So that's what we did!! What a crazy experience. Our guide/driver/college student was just the ticket for learning about the eclectic side of this city. Very fun, but a few moments in traffic when I thought, “well this isn't going to be pretty”. Since it was Feb 13, we decided to treat ourselves to an early Valentines Day lunch. Had a great meal at a place called Harry's. We ended up staying a few extra days so we really got to know our way around the walking radius of the area. It seems to me that we are some sort of magnet for the unfortunate homeless population, I think, because they want to pat and talk to Gracie! We have granola bars in our backpacks so when one man asked us for money we asked if he would like a granola bar. He was so happy that I now will pack more in my backpack!”
***
We had planned to stay two days (Friday and Saturday) and leave on Sunday but because I wanted to consult with some diesel mechanics about our oil consumption, which seems a bit excessive, we needed to remain until Monday to contact them. I was concerned that perhaps we had done some damage with our overheat due to the sea strainer and that is why we were burning more oil than I had remembered. (We also seemed to be making more oil smoke out the exhaust than I recalled too!) I did an oil change Sunday and talked to four mechanics on Monday who all basically said the same thing – 1) an oil change was important to do after an overheat and 2) I would need to monitor closely the oil consumption because it was possible that we had scored the piston cylinders and would, in fact, burn more oil. So we are doing just that – carefully monitoring!!!
We left St. Augustine on Tuesday February 16^th headed to Daytona Beach, FL on an absolutely beautiful day that finally warmed up to the temps we were expecting on this trip – the 70's!!! We made excellent time and anchored in Seabreeze (in Daytona Beach) at a lonely little spot with access to a boat ramp. (For Gracie of course!) It was a completely calm night at anchor and we were off early the next morning for Titusville, FL, where we are now. We did NOT go ashore in the morning for Gracie – a first on this trip – because we needed to catch a bridge opening and she had been reluctant to do her business, for one reason or another, ashore the night before. We figured she might finally use the sod which we STILL have on the aft deck!! (Nope! - she waited until we got to Titusville at about 3pm!!)
We needed to take on fuel so we first came in to the fuel dock at the Titusville Municiple Marina and were asked if we were staying with them for the night. I said that we were planning to stay on a mooring but would consider a dock if they had a “deal” for us. After a quick call to the main office, we had a “deal” and we got a nice dock spot for the night, which has again been a godsend because the winds have kicked up to 20+ knots and being on a mooring would have been insanely tough to get to shore. A good call once again!!!
We have ordered parts for the dingy engine which we need and are waiting for them. Our plans are to leave for Merritt Island today (Friday Feb. 19) where we plan to visit my high school drama teacher – Phil Stewart. Phil and I have remained in contact for all of these years and is not only a mentor but good friend. After Merritt Island we plan to stop in Melbourne, FL and then our immediate goal of Vero Beach, FL.

       Leaving Fernandina Beach anchorage one is reminded of exactly how deep the water is!!

   At Sisters Creek the Navy went by!

   They all had machine guns that were manned too!!  One of these or just like these went hard aground on the jetties outside of Jacksonville!!!

    This is the free public dock in Sisters Creek.  This is just before you enter the St. Johns River leading up into Jacksonville, FL

   At Sisters Creek we were met that evening by Brown - the self appointed "Greeter".  Brown met our "Greeter" - Gracie, who is plying him for treats!!!

 Right outside of Sisters Creek is our first bascule bridge - being replaced by a fixed bridge under construction.

 We see a lot of wrecked and abandoned boats in FL.  Results of Katrina?

 Pirate Gracie!!

 On Mooring #1 in St. Augustine!

   The Bridge of Lions in St. Augstine

   St. Augustine's Flagler College

   Joan was thinking about going back to teaching!!

     Our neighbor at dock - The Pirate ship - Black Raven.  Daily and evening "shows".

   For Mike Noble - the compass - showing which way the wind is still coming from!!!

 This was NOT a wreck - this was a mistake.  There are some very shallow spots we had to navigate through on the ICW.  This person must have gone aground at high tide.  Not good!!!

   But this is remnants of Kartrina (or other) I think.

 The marina in Titusville.

 We think we found Mike Conroy's new boat!!  (Note: no name change needed, Mike!)

 Another sunken sailboat just outside of the marina in Titusville.

Still waiting in Fernandina Beach, FL for better weather!

        It is still blowing like crazy here!  It blew all night long last night at about 20 knots (about 23mph) along with the fact that it got down to about 42F this morning.  It has piped up to a fairly consistent 20-25 knots with gusts up into the 30 knots!!!  We just saw two power boats come in to the marina.  One successfully got on the inside of the outer wall with lots of bow thruster!- the second didn't do so well but finally made it on to a T-head two docks over from us.  (We are on the T-head of dock 4.)  It is supposed to blow all day today until about 6pm before we drop below 20 knots .  It is also supposed to be even colder tonight down to about 29F!  (Good thing we have a nice Espar diesel heater on the boat!)
        Thursday looks like it might be our opportunity to continue down towards St. Augustine which will take two days of travel.  (First night we will anchor just before we reach Jacksonville in Sisters Creek.)  It is also supposed to warm up into the 60s and then 70s the following week with the exception of next Sunday which we will have heavy NE winds and temps in the 50s for one day - we hope!!   As you can see the weather really controls a lot of what you do on a trip like this!!!  The most dangerous thing, however, you can have on a boat is a schedule!!  So being patient is a good thing!

                   

                     The view - but it is difficult to really see how rough it is out in the bay.

                                                     
                                                            The average wind speed               

                                                             Max speed lately!

Arrived in Fernandina Beach, Florida!

Saturday February 6^th

We have been here in Fernadina Beach, FL since Tuesday mid day after a successful overnight on the Atlantic.  Here is the rest of the story!


We left Charleston, SC on Monday (Feb. 1st) at about 8am.  It was a bit overcast but fair weather was expected. The winds were blowing out of the SW which helped us get out of Charleston ok – but it meant that we were going to have wind in our face all day (and for that matter night too!) But for the most part they were going to be light (about 7 kts) so it was a do-able motor run. We expected the run from Charleston to Fernadina Beach (which is about 150 nm) to take us about 25 to 30 hrs depending on how fast we could move (6 kts or 5 kts) but the weather window for light winds and calm seas (less than 2 ft) was holding so we were looking forward to the crossing. Going this way saves us 6 days (the ICW through SC and GA is about 213 km doing only about 35 km a day).
About 4 hrs outside of Charleston, we had some problems!!! All of a sudden the motor sounded really bad and we had white smoke coming out of the exhaust as the engine overheat alarm began to sound! Quickly we shut the engine down and began to see what was wrong. Down below I could hear the sound of water coming in to the boat!!! When I opened the engine compartment I saw that the cap to the seawater strainer (which catches any debris that comes in to the raw water supply to cool the engine) had popped open and the water was gushing in – thus not getting to the engine to cool it!! We closed the sea cock quickly to stop the water and pulled out some sail to give us some steerage (albeit in the wrong direction but at least headed back to land – we were about 15nm out!) It took me about 2 ½ hrs to jury rig a fix. I used stainless steel wire to replace the bolt that had failed on one side of the cap. It seemed to work fine (after one more adjustment and another 1/2hr of work!). It was now about 4pm and if we decided to go directly to the nearest inlet (N. Edisto) we would be coming in in the dark – not something you want to do in an unfamiliar harbor. So we decided to stay out and continue our route!! WOW! But wait – the excitement was not over!!!
At about 6:30 pm we saw a very large boat with lights all over the side at about 9nm away from us. It looked like a cruise ship that was sitting outside Savannah waiting to come in to port because it did not move from being directly in front of us on the radar. At about 2 nm from this ship, which still seemed to be presenting a side to us and not moving, I then made radio contact with the captain of the ship. After a long discussion with a very heavily Italian accented captain we thought we both understood each others intentions. First of all this was a tanker and the red light I was seeing meant that he was facing into our path!!! He said he was, in fact, underway (which just did not seem to be so based on my radar!) and that he knew our position, course and speed and that he would keep track of us and that we were OK and to hold our course. (I do not have AIS so this all had to be done the old fashioned way – by communication!) The only disconcerting thing was at about 1 nm we saw both his green and red lights which meant we were directly in front of him-crossing his bow! We were very relieved to pass by quickly and know we were well away from him.
Now for some sleep. It had calmed down a lot, so at about 9pm Joan took the first watch (our tanker friend out of the picture) and Gracie and I retired to the main cabin for some sleep! At midnight, we switched and Joan slept below until 3am. We then sat up together for about an other hour and then Joan took another watch and I sleep then vise versa for an hour each. It was a fairly cold night and the stars on the Atlantic were unbelievably beautiful. The seas became like glass from about 4am to sun rise at 7am.
Our final challenge happened at about 11am for the last two hours of the trip into the St. Mary's inlet to get to Fernandina Beach – pea soup FOG!! This proved to be more annoying than anything – having lots of experience in dealing with fog from Long Island Sound and Maine. We missed seeing all the wonderful sights of coming into St. Mary's inlet – Ft Clinch, etc.
We decide to pick up a mooring at Fernandina Harbor Marina to be closer in to get Gracie ashore and we were expecting winds in the upcoming days and our engine would be down for some time while we fixed the sea strainer! We went ashore Tuesday afternoon – Gracie having been 30+ hours without relief (she had sod available all the time but just won't use it!! - but she never once complained!) and had a celebratory beer, seltzer and pulled pork on homemade chips!! (Sorry Rebecca but we deserved it!)
I was able to locate and order the parts I needed to fix the sea strainer Tuesday late afternoon. It would be Thursday before they would arrive so Wednesday was see the town day and enjoy. Gracie, Joan and I saw all the sights of Fernandina Beach FL and relaxed. Showers were also on the list of things to do!!
The parts arrived Thursday late afternoon. We had just come ashore in a torrential downpour having held off as long as we could for doggie relief so we wouldn't have to do the trip again to get the parts and just as we walked up the dock – the UPS guy arrived!! What great timing!!
We spent yesterday working on the repair – about 3 hrs to get the old latch removed from the strainer and then about 1 ½ hrs to get the new one installed!! Small parts in even smaller places to work and you don't want to drop anything in the bilge!
We were going to leave this morning to head towards St. Augustine but the wind has been blowing 20-25kts and is expected to continue for the next 5 days like this so we have given up on the mooring and are taking refuge in the safety and convenience of the marina. We got a special deal because we can get on an inside dock because of our shallow draft so the price is pretty reasonable!! So here we are for a while!!

                      Sunset in Charleston, SC the night before the "big voyage"!

                 Sunset on the Atlantic - somewhere around Hilton Head, SC

           Sunrise on the Atlantic - about 5 hrs away from St. Mary's inlet

     At the helm in the morning!  Note provisions!! - blankets, dog, crackers, PB and J's at the ready - and wool hat having replaced baseball cap!

   Gracie monitors VHF radio transmissions!!

   Check out how flat the seas became!

      Whit, however, had time to land "Walter" on the trip.

    Jury rigged raw water strainer!

   Our boat on the mooring in front of Fernandina Harbor Marina (below)

                    
                       Raw water strainer - with new latch installed.  Looks easy - eh?

         Here we are now, on the inside for a few days!

        Why we are hunkered down!