Loggerhead Marina, Vero Beach FL

Once more we were the first boat to leave our anchorage, having left at 0740.  Maybe the rest of the boats weren’t going anywhere today.  Winds and temperatures today were as predicted, winds South to South East 15 to 20 knots and temperatures in the lower 80’s.  It did rain a bit last night, around midnight the Skipper was awoken to rain on the deck and winds around 20 knots; the Mate slept soundly and never heard a thing which is not terribly unusual.

Another boat that came to grief. You could probably get it real cheap. Let’s see: the engines are toast, all electrical wiring on the boat needs replaced, all the woodwork is shot, anything of value has probably been pirated. OK, forget about it.

Our friends with the matching Back Cove boats cruised by us again today.  The difference was that they changed positions with the lead boat hailing us as the southbound trawler at marker such and such.  The second boat once again called us My Liberty.  What is funny is that they are docked almost directly across from us in Loggerhead and the guy calling us My Liberty finally addressed us by our “real” boat name, Liberty.  We are here for two nights so I don’t know if they will get the opportunity to pass us again.

About a mile before we got here the wind picked up to a steady 20 knots and weather radar showed showers almost over us.  Fortunately this basin is highly protected and once we headed to our dock we didn’t have to fight the breeze.  A few drops of rain did fall but it wasn’t enough to really wet anything.  This area has had one of the driest Novembers in recent memory according to the local paper and they expect that to continue.  We are not complaining.

Who is on the other side of the dock from us? John and company, the Canadians from Port Dover that were tied up in front of us at the Welcome Center in Troy and who we last talked to via VHF at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. They have been here for almost a month now and coming down have been at marina docks about as often as we have been at anchor. Their cruising style is almost 180 degrees from ours, but they are happy and we are happy.

We did get the opportunity to try out the pool this evening before dinner.  While it wasn’t quite as warm as we hoped it wasn’t cold by any stretch of the imagination.  For some reason once we get to Vero Beach we feel that we have actually arrived in Florida, a good feeling to be sure.

Today 52 sm (same as yesterday) in 7.4 engine hours (fighting the current the entire way).  Total:  2134 sm.

Dave

Coco NE Anchorage

Leaving the dock at 0740 we were ahead of the Canadian catamaran and his smaller buddy so we didn’t have to pass them as we headed south.  Today, winds were similar to yesterday, SSE at 15 with gusts to 20 and temperatures in the low 80’s, typical Florida weather I guess.  We would have been happier with northerly winds as the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River are actually pretty good sized bodies of water and the winds had generated more chop than we have seen in quite a while.  We had to go out and wash down the pilot house windows on a few occasions as it starts to get difficult to see out of them due to the salt spray coming over the bow.  If you don’t get it soon enough, the wipers simply smear the salt around making it impossible to see.

More Hurricane Matthew results, south of New Smyrna.

 

This guy was “anchored” right outside the channel on the Mosquito Lagoon.

While we didn’t see or pass many sail boats today, we were passed by a lot of power boats.  The biggest one was 80′ and came up on us at 30 knots according to the AIS.  He did give us a slow pass (sort of).  One boat was hailing My Liberty, My Liberty saying they would do a slow pass to port.  It wasn’t until the boat behind him also hailed and said he would be doing a slow pass did I put two and two together.  I knew there was two boats behind us and I finally realized that the first guy who was too far behind to possibly read the name on our transom was looking at his AIS and probably saw M/Y Liberty.  M/Y being short for Motor Yacht.  I really don’t know what our AIS output looks like as you can’t see your own boat on your chart plotter and the programming of the AIS unit itself is done by a dealer when it is purchased and not by the owner upon installation.  The two boats appeared to be new and identical Back Cove Motor Yachts.  I guess the lead guy hasn’t been boating too long to understand S/V (Sailing Vessel), M/V (Merchant Vessel) or M/Y (Motor Yacht, recreational).

Coming up to the Haulover Canal Bridge the Mate was in the bow keeping an eye out for Manatees, of which there were many, as well as dolphins.  The closed bridge clearance is 27, we need 28.  When we got to Addison Point we requested an opening and the bridge tender said the center of the bridge was 4′ above low steel and to read the gauge.  I replied the gauge read 23′ and 4′ above that was 27′ and we needed 28′.  He then gave us an opening, but didn’t raise the center of the span by too many feet.    I had explained that we needed 28′ when I first contacted him but he must have not heard that.

Our anchorage tonight has eleven vessels here, which is really strange considering the fact that the last couple of time we have anchored here there has been only one or two other boats.  We deployed the dinghy and headed into shore where after a short walk we purchased dinner at Ms. Apples Crab Shack.  Besides the little neck clam and shrimp dinner we bought an order of red roasted potatoes and a pound of large, wild caught shrimp.  We were smart enough to only buy one dinner and split it as it is more than enough for two, but you have to like garlic.  It is a good thing we weren’t here the previous two days as she is closed on Sunday and Monday.

At anchor off Coco. The town is on the other side of the river, a place where we have never visited. It must be a hopping place as Wally and the Sail to the Sun group are scheduled to spend three days here. They are still in St. Augustine.

Tomorrow we are off to Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach.  The weather is supposed to be pretty much the same for tomorrow.

Today:  52 sm in 7.2 engine hours.  Total:  2082 sm.

Dave

New Smyrna Beach Free Dock

Two sailboats, a large catamaran and a smaller monohull departed Palm Coast Marina about a half hour before we left the dock (0750) this morning.  It didn’t take long for us to catch and pass them as the cat seemed to be traveling at the same speed (slow) as the monohull, evidently they were doing some buddy boating.

We passed a half dozen sailboats on the water today and were only passed by one powerboat, at Grand Banks 42 that was running about as fast as it could go judging by the wake it was throwing.  We arrived at New Smyrna at 1345 and from a distance it appeared as though the free floating dock was open.  It turned out that there are so many dinghies tied up here that they need both sides of the floater.  In the past they were restricted to the inside of the dock to allow larger boats to use the outside.  We tied up to the semi-circular fixed dock adjacent to the floating dock, not quite as convenient but it wasn’t that difficult to make it work.  Actually, I cut off a protruding bolt head on one of the pilings here a year ago (December 7, 2015) before it could damage our fender board.

At the dock in New Smyrna Beach.

Our afternoon walk took us through the town using our normal routine of having the Skipper sit on outside benches while the Mate goes through the shops.  When we returned we stopped by the City Marina to visit with Pam, the dock master there.  Pam and Ian own the Pilgrim 43 Miss Marian also docked at the City Marina.  The Mate was talking to one of the ladies who worked in one of the shops and the lady said that she has lived in New Smyrna all her life and has never seen so many boats anchored off the town, which explains the explosion of dinghies at the dock.  I mentioned to Pam that the dock has become crowded and she said that all these anchored boats are slowly becoming a problem.  It makes you wonder if all the anchoring restrictions that are being put in place south of here are driving the boats north.

Miss Marian, a Pilgrim 43 of which only four were built (not by Gozzard). We were looking for evidence of the passive stabilization gear on the boat but Pam said it is still in the design phase.  These are really big boats.  http://pilgrim-trawlers.wikidot.com/hull-143

 

Some more hurricane Matthew stories:  Our friend Mike who we used to visit when he kept his boat at Fish Island in St. Augustine before he wised up and moved to Burnt Store on the west coast sent us a picture of a catamaran that was on the inside of the dock at Fish Island during the storm.  The boat broke loose, traveled over the top of the walkway that went out to the floating dock, was swept under the Route 312 bridge where it lost it’s spar before ending up well inshore, at the edge of the woods.  As soon as the hurricane passed, the boat was looted before the owner could get to it.  Pam said the same thing happened here.  Three boats were driven up on the beach and they were quickly plundered.  It really makes you wonder about the human race sometimes.

Endeavor Cat driven into the woods. Photo from Mike Anderson.

 

Somebody at the City Marina has a sense of humor.

Our catamaran and monohull “friends” finally showed up here at 1730, taking up residence on the southern semi-circular dock, a few hundred yards from us.  We traveled for 6 hours, they took 10 hours to cover the same distance.  That makes for a long day on the water to only get 43 miles especially with the monohull being single handed.  I expect that we will be passing them again tomorrow morning.

Today:  43 sm in 6.1 engine hours.  Total:  2030 sm.

Dave

Palm Coast Marina, Day 2

Actually, today isn’t about being in the Palm Coast Marina as we weren’t here for most of the day.  Today was spent pursing all the “treasures” being offered at Renningers Flea Market and Antique Center in Mount Dora.  They claim 700 vendors at the Flea Market where people pay $10 for a small booth area and try to unload everything that hasn’t sold at garage sales.  The Antique Center is in a building, is huge (200 vendors) and has some very nice (expensive) items.

Need any stuff from the Flea Market?

After that excitement we returned to Dean and Barb’s house for a delicious although somewhat belated Thanksgiving dinner; turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce, then it was 75 miles back to the boat.  Early tomorrow we shove off for New Smyrna Beach, a few steps ahead of Wally and the Sail to the Sun group where we hope the free dock will be empty and waiting for us.  A quick check of milage shows us to be 330 sm from our winter berth in Burnt Store Marina.

Dean and Barb aboard Liberty.

Today:  No miles

Dave

Palm Coast Marina, FL

After a pleasant night at anchor we left at 0800 thinking this would get us to the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine by 1000.  What we found interesting was that we were the first boat to leave the anchorage this morning.  Normally the sailboats are all up early, leaving at first light.  We must have been in with the late risers.  A fair current allowing us to make the 12 miles to St. Augustine in less than 1-1/2 hours, allowing us to catch the earlier bridge opening.  From there to Palm Coast it was relatively quiet motoring except for the occasional waking from fast power boats.  You can’t get too upset about getting waked because that is just the norm in these parts and there is really nothing that you can do about it.

When we came through St. Augustine we passed by Fish Island where we had stayed four time in the past. Hurricane Matthew took out part of the floating dock and the walkway out to it. Although there were some boats tied up on the dock, the only way out was by dinghy.

 

Near Marineland Marina there is an anchorage shown on Active Captain. I think this guy took it to an extreme. Actually, this trimaran has been deposited up on the shore by the hurricane.

 

This is the same boat, last March. Parked on the beach but not looking too bad although it is obvious that it has been there for awhile.

When we arrived at Palm Coast we were surprised to be told that maybe there wasn’t room for us to stay two nights, even though that is what we requested when we called for reservations a few days ago.  It turns out they had overbooked their facilities.  When we came in we took on 50 gallons of diesel at $2.30/gallon while we waited to see if we could stay two nights.  Our daughter’s in-laws, Dean and Barb live about an hour and one half away from Palm Coast and we planned to visit with them and to stay at their house over night, hence needing a two day stay in Palm Coast.  They sent their dock boy out to check to see if a slip was available, one was, so they sent us out to that dock and said they could accommodate us for two nights.

We moved from the fuel dock and hadn’t finished tying up the boat in the slip when a Carver (powerboat) showed up and asked if we were leaving.  No, we had just got there.  It turns out it was this guys slip, and he wasn’t exactly happy.  We said we would vacate the slip and go back to the fuel dock.  While we untied the boat he was on the phone to the office but before we could back out the dock boy showed up and told us we should stay where we were and they would relocate the Carver out to the face dock.  The mix up was a result of a note left to the dock master (who was off work for the last two days) that indicated that the Carver was leaving shortly.  Actually, the Carver had just gone out for a couple hour cruise today and when the dock boy checked to see if the boat was gone he failed to notice that they hadn’t taken their dock lines, so they really hadn’t left yet.  I am still confused on why they didn’t have us on the face dock as the Carver had to remove all their dock lines and re-tie everything.  The fixed dock we are on isn’t very well suited for us as it is missing an upright meaning that with our low free board we really struggled to adequately fender the boat given the tidal range and the fact that that we couldn’t use our fender board due to the missing upright.  Actually, this is the worst dock arrangement we have had to deal in the last 12,000 miles.  Fortunately there is a large power boat next to us and the owner said he would keep an eye on things for us while we are gone.  All is well that ends well.

Gary Miller’s Lady Barbara at Palm Coast Marina. Gary’s boat is too big to fit in the picture.

We had a real nice crab soup with a chicken turn over of sorts for dinner after which we headed into Mount Dora to walk the down town as they had closed off the streets to traffic for some Christmas festivities.

All the lit up trees in Mount Dora.

Today:  38 sm in 5.7 engine hours.  Total: 1987 sm.

Dave

Pine Island South Anchorage, FL

We hiked over to the marina office before we left this morning to pay our overnight dockage and it is probably a good thing we did.  When we were giving our credit card information to office girl over the phone a few days ago it appeared she was having some issues.  In person, we could see what the problem was.  They just installed a new system to manage the docks and produce invoices that was separate from the system used to actually charge your credit card.  She needed to give us a 20% BoatUS discount which hadn’t been applied and then had to bounce back and forth from the two systems to complete all the transactions.  Eventually they will get it sorted out but at the moment it seems rather confusing.  The fact that she was also getting interrupted as she also answers the phone didn’t help.  Anyhow, we were glad we physically signed off rather than trying to do it over the phone.  These places are always an adventure when you go there the first time.

Our spot at Amelia Island Yacht Basin in the morning.

 

How do you know you are in Florida? By all the semi-derelict live aboard boats along the water way.

 

This old Hunter sailboat sits here year after year. We are amazed that somebody doesn’t require the owner to do something with it.

The journey down to Pine Island kept us on our toes.  There is a railroad bridge across the ICW just a hundred yards south of the entrance to the Amelia Island Marina.  Normally it is open except when a train comes by.  The tracks are right next the the marina parking lot with a crossing at the marina road entrance.  Yesterday, being Thanksgiving we didn’t see or hear a train all day or night.  It wasn’t until we were motoring down the marina channel to the ICW that the bridge closed for the worlds slowest moving freight train which fortunately wasn’t that long.  By the time the bridge opened, two sailboats appeared off our stern and one stayed behind us the entire way down, following us into the anchorage.  The five or so miles on each side of the St. John’s river was maddening.  It seemed that everybody and their brother that owned a boat was out on the water today.  Fishermen, jet skies, kayaks, paddle boarders, pontoon boats and go-fasts were everywhere.  This is in sharp contrast to the salt marshes in Georgia where we could go an entire day and not see another boat.  Even the Homeland Security people got in on the action, waking us while passing less than a boat length away at speed, their three large outboards churning up the water.  They were chasing down a British flagged sailboat a quarter mile ahead of us.  They “pulled him over” but by the time we caught up to them and were trying to find a way around the two boats in the narrow channel they had finished with him and sped away at speed once more.

We were the fourth boat into the anchorage today and eventually staked out our piece of water.  By the time the sun went down there were eight boats in here; a pretty popular spot by the looks of it.  Actually, last year we thought we would stay here on our way north but when we got here decided it was too crowded and continued north about a mile where we had a spot just off the ICW to ourselves.  Today the weather was just like yesterday; light winds and temperatures in the upper 70’s.

A view off our stern of the anchorage. We came up to the fly bridge to watch the sun set but were quickly chased down to the bow of the walking deck by all the tiny gnats flying around.

 

Sunset off our bow. This is after the bugs followed us to the front deck so we retired to the safety of the pilot house.

Today:  46 sm in 6.6 engine hours.  Total:  1949

Dave

Amelia Island Yacht Basin, FL

We awoke to dead calm winds this morning, perfect conditions for crossing Saint Andrew Sound.  Some swells from yesterdays east winds were still coming in the entrance and once more we took the short cut across the shoal rather than going all the way out to the turning buoy, never seeing less than 7′ under the keel at +3 tide.

Another day with dolphins under our bow.

 

The Mate getting in some “steps” while we are underway. You might think that having somebody continually walking by the front of the pilot house would be distracting. It is similar to living next to the rail road tracks; you don’t notice it after awhile.  The Skipper is too frugal to have a Fitbit. The free app that came on his Samsung cell phone does essentially the same thing and produces pretty much the same results when we walk together.

 

Going by the sub base at Kings Bay we normally get a military vessel escort until we are out of range. We weren’t disappointed today.

For what ever reason we got down to Amelia Island a lot faster than we expected so we anchored off Fernandina Beach to wait for the tide to come in and the water in the channel into the Yacht Basin to rise.  Normally we would have stayed at Fernandina, on their mooring balls or at the dock.  Unfortunately, this is another place that was hit hard by Hurricane Matthew and they don’t expect to have the marina running until next spring at the earliest.  Jekyll Harbor Marina was spared, they didn’t have any damage at all.  Of course boat owners at Jekyll had a number of sleepless nights as they were evacuated from the island and weren’t permitted to return for four days so all they could do was wonder about the condition of the marina.

Evidently these boats are victims of Hurricane Matthew in this area. They must get loaded on this barge then deposited on shore.

Today being Thanksgiving this place is almost devoid of humans.  Besides the dock master that lives on site the only other people here are two girls who are camping out in their minivan on their way to New Orleans, a woman and her dog on a catamaran that came in after us and three people who evidently just flew in as an airport shuttle dropped them off a bit ago and are aboard the sailboat next to us.

This little guy is sharing the T head we are on. Obviously there is enough water at this dock.

 

Thanksgiving dinner on Liberty. We cooked our three pound turkey (breast) in our Instant Pot pressure cooker.  Plop the bird in, set it to 30 minutes on the Poultry setting and you are done.

Today 36 sm in 4.9 engine hours.  Total:  1903 sm.

Dave

 

Jekyll Harbor Marina, Day 2

This blog posting is a milestone of sorts.  It is the 500th posting since we started cruising in September of 2014.

Today began with a walk on some of their 20 miles of paths and trails, then lunch and then we hit the path again into the historic district where the Mate visited the few shops in that area while the Skipper kept a park bench warm.  Once back on the boat we did a bit more reading before dinner, which in this case was some of the crab cakes and shrimp from the fish place in McClellanville.

One of the picturesque walking trails on the island.

 

Back in the day, before they had bridges to the island and it was a resort for the ultra wealthy, they pulled their boats out of the water (one was 100′) with this winch.

 

Click on the picture to get an enlarged image to read about this location.

 

The Jekyll Island Club Hotel, rates aren’t too bad, between $150-$200/night during the off season.

 

A number of the old cottages have been turned into small shops.

Today we did get the east winds that were predicted, tomorrow the forecast is for light and variable; perfect for our early morning crossing of Saint Andrew Sound.  Our destination tomorrow is Amelia Island Yacht Basin.  They are closed for Thanksgiving but the dock master lives on site so he will take care of us on arrival.  The dock master gave us his cell phone number and we need to call before coming in for instructions.   We have to show up at mid tide or higher as the channel into the place only has 2-1/2′ of water at dead low.  As a matter of fact, they warned us that when the tide goes out we will be sitting in about 2′ of soft mud.  That isn’t too much of an issue as when we were at Fish Island last year the top of the mud was at our waterline.

Once again we bump into our old “friend” Magic, a Hinckley jet drive boat out of Key Largo.  This is the boat that waked about everybody (including us) on the waterway north of Morningstar Marina on St. Simons two years ago. When we got into Morningstar on Thanksgiving they had us docked right behind him. The sailboaters were so mad at him they called the Georgia Water Police and they were supposed to send an officer down the day after Thanksgiving.  The boat left real early that morning before an officer arrived. We actually saw them in Osprey Marina not to long ago.  Hopefully he as learned some manners in the intervening time.

No miles today on the boat but about 15,000 steps on foot according to the Mate’s Fitbit (6.5 miles).  We gave some thought to breaking out the bikes today but the Mate said we needed the “steps”.

Dave

 

 

Jekyll Harbor Marina, GA

We departed our anchorage at 0850 this morning after a quiet night in the anchorage.  With 90′ of chain out in 15′ of water we slept soundly, rotating about our anchor 180 degrees three times as the current changed with the tide.  For the longest time we were setting out too much anchor snubber, 8 brait line that is used to secure the chain.  The snubber lines are belayed to the two cleats in the gunwale which keeps any load on the chain from being transferred to the windlass.  As chain doesn’t have any elasticity any shock loading from the boat bouncing in waves has to be taken up by the catenary of the chain.  If it is real windy then the chain would become bar tight and you need something else to act as a shock absorber, hence the use of snubber lines.  Not only that but as the boat tacks back and forth at anchor the chain getting dragged against each side of the anchor roller makes quite a racket and certainly doesn’t do the anchor pulpit any good and decreases the scope of the anchor line (chain).

General concept of using an anchor snubber.  Image from Bosunsupplies.com

Some people have multiple snubbers of different diameters based on expected wind conditions, smaller diameter for light winds and larger diameter for heavier winds as they are tying to match the loading with how much the line will stretch and not permanently deform.  We only have one size, two lines that are 30′ long.   Anyhow, what we found was that with any significant amount of snubber line deployed in an anchorage with current the snubber line would set up a harmonic vibration due to the water rushing by the line.  This would then get transferred to the hull with what sounded like a drumming noise that would come and go as the boat tacked back and forth.  It has taken us a long time to simply deploy enough snubber to get the attachment point on the chain to just below the water, thereby not giving the water any chance to set up the vibration.  Obviously we are not taking advantage of any of the stretch capability of the snubber line but in a quiet anchorage it allows us to sleep and there is no load on the anchor pulpit or windlass, our prime consideration.   If is rough and windy we will have to put up with the occasional drumming if we deploy more snubber line.  Generally speaking if it rough and windy you don’t get much sleep anyhow, and that is why God invented docks and why we stay at them.

Arriving at Jekyll, we secured the boat and took a walk up to the Beach Village so the Mate could check out the over priced stores before we headed back to the boat to take it easy.

The Atlantic side of the island, a real nice day to have a sailboat and be scooting down the coast. The only problem with that is the fact that you have to come out and then back in some inlets which depending on conditions can be quite exciting.

 

The Beach Village, not a lot of stores, but then not a lot of customers either.

 

On the face dock where we will also spend tomorrow. Winds are supposed to be East at 15, straight into Saint Andrew sound off the ocean.

 

This cat-ketch hasn’t moved since last fall. He threw a rod through the side of his engine and got towed in here the same day we arrived in the fall of 2015. When we were going north this spring and stayed here, he was a day away from having a new engine delivered. Today the boat still sits. The marina owner says that he keeps saying he needs to come and get his boat. At the moment he is cruising the Greek Islands so money must not be an issue.

Today:  33 sm in 4.5 engine hours.  Total:  1867 sm.

Dave

North River Anchorage, GA

We left the dock this morning at 0830 as we wanted to give Hell Gate some time to “fill”.  We arrived there at 1000 and as we passed through we saw a minimum of 3.5′ under the keel.  In theory we could have gotten through at dead low but waiting a bit certainly didn’t hurt.

Winds were light and variable today, allowing us an easy passage through St. Catherines and Sapelo Sound regardless of the current direction.  We managed to make the southern most anchorage that we had selected today, a place where we have stayed twice before.  This has been our “staging” anchorage before we went into Morningstar Marina on Saint Simons Island.  The last two years we celebrated Thanksgiving at Amy and Robb’s, who are children of our good friends Mary and Dave who own the Pilgrim Gatsby.  Two years ago Mary and Dave arranged for us to have dinner at Amy and Robb’s beach house on Saint Simons and last year we got invited back.  This year Mary and Dave were going to be in Saint Simons for Thanksgiving and we were again invited.  Unfortunately, Hurricane Matthew had a say in these plans as the beach house got flooded.  The Thanksgiving gathering had to moved to their home in Atlanta and needless to say, Atlanta is a bit out of our way.  As far as the holiday calendar goes, we are two days ahead of that “schedule”, and four days ahead of the actual calendar “schedule”.

Putting Sapelo Sound behind us in perfect conditions. That is the Atlantic Ocean directly off our stern.

 

One of the many dolphins that came over to ride our bow wave today. Occasionally they will leap out of the water right at the boat which is kind of neat. We don’t need to go to Sea World.

Tomorrow we will bypass Morningstar and go directly to Jekyll Harbor Marina, one of our favorite stops.  We will need to spend two evenings there as Saint Andrew Sound lies two miles south of Jekyll and it is a tough spot with any on-shore winds.  The day after tomorrow winds are forecast to be East around 15 and the following day South East around 15.  We found a website that predicts swell heights in Saint Andrew and those two days are showing swells in excess of six feet.  The next day winds are supposed to be offshore at around 5 knots with swell heights around two feet.  That is more like it as the magenta-line route takes us close to the breakers, although the last two passages through here we have been short cutting that by almost a half mile into shallow water avoiding the worst of the rollers.  We just don’t want to push it too much.

Sunset at the North River Anchorage. We are the only boat here tonight.

Today:  61 sm in 7.9 engine hours.   Total:  1834 sm.

Dave