TO THE KEYS

From our last post, (which has been a while), we were anchored on the North end of Lake Worth. The winds had kicked up quite a bit which did not allow a good nights sleep. After reviewing the guide books, we also decided it would not be a good idea to traverse the next few miles on a Sunday due to heavy boat traffic and the resulting "washing machine" effect that resulted from several hundred boats wakes(mostly power)between concrete sea walls. We had planned on moving to a marina to get water and a pump out, as well as a better nights sleep. Once again, the weather gave us a different plan. The winds became even more severe and getting the anchor up and into a dock was going to be a difficult, if not dangerous venture. As a result, we wound up spending a pretty miserable day and night until Monday morning when we finally raised the anchor and were on our way to Fort Lauderdale. The ICW from this point to Miami is highly developed. The guidebook was right about the "washing machine" effect as power boats would fly by creating huge wakes that continued to bounce back and forth off the concrete walls long after they passed. Luckily, being a Monday, we didn't have too much of that. The other part of being highly developed is the mumber of bridges. We went through more than 20 bridges between Lake Worth and Fr. Lauderdale, many of which only opened at specific times. The houses, the huge yachts and highrises along the way were also spectacular!

All together it was a pleasant trip to the Los Alos Municipal Marina where we grabbed our mooring on Monday, November 19th. When we went ashore to register, we were surprised to run into Roger and Lisa from Sky, along with their crew member Zach. They had been docked next to us at Amelia Island while we were waiting for the affects of Sandy to die down. We were surprised because he had planned on going to the Virgin Islands right away. It seems he ran into some engine problems and had to order parts from England. He had been waiting for over a week in the mooring field where we were at. Fort Lauderdale was the furthest we could go on the intercoastal due to a 55 foot bridge on the way to Miami. This meant that we would have to wait on the weather again for the wind and waves to die down before we went out on the ocean to sail the Keys. The forecast showed high waves and wind until at least the next Sunday, so we settled in for a week in Fort Lauderdale and even made plans to have Thanksgiving on our boat along with Roger, Lisa and Zach. Some Beach scenes and Brad Pitt's Boat in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale is famous for it's fabulous beach and college spring breaks. We were not disappointed. Although the weather was a bit windy and cool, the beach front was the place to people watch. The Elbow Room bar seems to have the best advantage point since it is on the corner of Los Alos and Route A1A that goes along the shore. There were lots of restaurants competing for the business, but were a little pricey. Everyone, except the Elbow Room, had "happy hour' specials with 2 for 1 drinks. The only problem is that one drink cost you more than three drinks should. Despite the high prices, it is beginning to feel more and more like the tropics. The Los Alos City Marina has nice facilities that include a cruiser's lounge. We met several cruisers there that were going in different directions. The majority were waiting to go across the the Bahamas. We decided to leave on Sunday morning to go outside on the ocean and then down the coast to Miami and into Biscayne Bay. We had two other boats that wanted to leave at the same time. Walter and Donna Reid (not the hospital or the movie star) Windspell was in the mooring field with us and Siobhan II with Joe and Joyce were in a slip across the channel. Windspell and Manana dropped the mooring at 6:30, but Siobhan II said they would be an hour or so behind us. We had to wait for our last bridge to open at 7 AM and then we were off past all the cruise ships and into the ocean. What a relief! We had all our sails up and had a beautiful, peaceful and QUIET sail all the way to Miami. I almost forgot how wonderful it is to move along at six and seven knots without having to listen to a motor! Going into the Government Cut into Miami was interesting. The Coast Guard had closed off the shipping channel to keep potential terrorists away from the rows of cruise ships, so we had to be careful to keep to port and and go into the channel through Miami Bay and then under a very high bridge into Biscayne Bay. From there it was a straight shot over to Dinner Key where we got more water and grabbed a mooring next to Windspell. Dinner Key is near an area called Coconut Grove and has a huge shopping and restaurant district. We had dinner with the Rieds at a local restaurant that was recommended by some local people and then got back to the boat for a good nights rest. The Miami Skyline

On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Windspell and headed for the Biscayne cut to get on the ocean side again. The cut is interesting because it is bordered by houses built on pilings over the water that are at least a mile or so away from dry land. Once we got outside, we were in the Hawk's Channel, which is protected by reefs to the East and the Keys from the West. The Biscayne Key Light House

Houses on Pilings

Siobhan II had also been at Dinner Key and came up behind us motorsailing. The winds were blowing 10 to 15 and we had another good sail, all the way to Rodriquez Key just past Key Largo. Siobhan II got there first and anchored on the Northeast side of the Island and suggested we could anchor to their starboard and have a comfortable night. There wasn't much protection, however. Shortly after the sun went down, we noticed Siobhan II had slid from a position next to us to behind us and sideways to the wind and waves. Apparently their anchor had dragged! We called them to let them know, since they apparently had not noticed to that point. Our anchor was dug in good and we did not budge but the wind was strong and consistant and, with the waves they created, kept us bouncing around all night. Siobhan II tried at least once to get back into the same position but didn't have much luck. After a restless night, we hauled anchor and got moving again. A full moon and angry skies at Rodriguez Keys

We had noticed that our batteries were lower than they should be and decided to motor sail down to Miami to get them topped off. As I might have mentioned before, we have minimal information to determine the status of our batteries. We have been on the hook now for almost two weeks and apparently we have not been adequately charging them. They are never supposed to go below 50% of their capacity but, unfortunately, with only a volt meter and an amp meter, we can't seem to know for sure where we are at on our usage or our charge. According to our volt meter, our generator is charging them at 14 volts, but they never seem to get fully charged. We are going to be looking into a monitoring system and solar panels before we leave the boat for the holidays. The motorsail down was a little uncomfortable with some fairly large swells on our beam and hundreds...no... thousands of crab pots everywhere! In our earlier expierience, if we stayed in the marked channel, we rarely saw a crab pot. Here they are so packed together there are times when there is not enough room to go between them. If you hit one, you stand the chance of gettting them wrapped around your prop. That means you would have to stop, dive down and remove it. Not a pleasant thing to have to do. Our friends on Siobhan II Continued on to Boca Chita and we turned off into Marathon to grab a mooring at Boot Key. Boot Key at Marathon is a unique area that is very cruiser friendly. Coming into the channel, it feels as if you are going back into the 50's with the the buildings and docks along the channel. There are more than 200 mooring balls here as well as additional anchorage for a similar amount of boats. A mooring cost $21 per day and includes the use of the dingy dock, showers, laundry, internet, water, mail services, various cruiser activities, and the commaraderie of all the other cruisers you meet every day. Anchoring is free, but to get all the other amentities, you still have to pay $21 per day. One of the first things we did was to contact some local service people to solve our energy problems. We made an appointment with SALT (which we were told stands for Sea, Land and Air Technologies)to have them come out and evaluate our porblem and see what they could suggest to correct it. They pretty much told us what we had expected. We needed a monitoring system and some solar panels to help us maintain our battery charges to avoid what happened while we have been on the hook. Although our volt meter was telling us it was fully charged, it was only a "surface" charge and we ran our batteries lower and lower each time. since we needed a place to mount the solar panel, we decided to have davits put on to help transport and secure the dingy. Key west is only about 20 minute, $4.00 bus ride from Marathon ($1.50 if you are over 60), and most of the cruisers prefer to stay here because of all the amenities and, of course, the price. They get the best of both worlds! We plan on having our new equipment installed on the 3rd or 4th of December so we are staying for at least a week ourselves. So in the meantime, we'll be enjoying the cruisers network, visiting the beaches and restaurants, going to potluck dinners, jamming with local musicians, volleyball?, tennis?, yoga classes?, watch a few movies and plays?, and enyoy meeting and talking to all the other cruisers who are enjoying the lifestyle like we are. Sorry for such a long blog, but it has been a long time between and there was a lot to tell. Key West is next and then home for the Holidays. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season! Entering Boot Key

Sunset among all the cruisers at Boot Key

BACK ON THE EAST COAST AGAIN

In my last blog, I had mentioned that we were going to leave our boat for repairs while we left for business. We had moved the boat about a half mile south to Aquamarine that was going to haul us out and completely redo our packing gland. One of the workers came down and said he could take care of it without hauling it out. Fifteen minutes later he was done. Apparently, the other people who told us we had to haul it, didn't have much experience changing it in the water, or were looking for the big fee for the haul out. The mechanic showed us every step of the way so that we would have no qualms about doing it ourselves. It appeared that when we had it changed the first time we did not put enough packing in. He put two more rows in and it appears the problem is solved. He even gave us his special tool to adjust it if needed. We were able to save several hundred dollars due to the honesty of the workers at Aquamarine. Even the vibration problem turned out to be our Maxiprop not opening all the way, which, thanks to some sailors at the yacht club, we are now able to correct and avoid the problem in the future. Now, we had no reason to haul it out and went back to the Halifax River Yacht Club, where they allowed us to leave the boat for the week we were going to be gone. We arrived back at the boat on 11/12/12 and stayed one more night at the yacht club to do laundry and relax from our trip. It was a great week of education and building relationships with fellow REALTORS but it was good to be back on the boat. We left Daytona Beach on the morning of 11/13/12 and headed south again. We had set our sites on Titusville, since they had inexpensive moorings and it was near Cape Canaveral. The days are much shorter now and the sun was getting low as we grabbed a mooring. The price was right but the moorings were unprotected from all directions and we had to go out close to the channel to find a depth that was comfortable. This meant a long (and wet) dingy ride to shore. After checking out the hassles and cost of visiting the space center, we decided to just stay on the boat and leave the next morning. We awoke to some threatening clouds and headed South once again. Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center takes up a large portion of the shoreline and we could see what appeared to be the launch towers as we motored by. The scenery just seems to get better and better the further South we go. More wildlife, palm trees everywhere and beautiful houses along the shoreline. Dolphins would pop up unexpectedly in pairs all around us and pelicans would glide just inches above the water or make an awkward looking dive to catch their food. There was no more vibration and the packing gland was working fine. Of course, it is a boat. Denise was not feeling well and was taking a nap and I needed to go below. I set the autopilot and started to walk away, when the boat made a sharp turn to the left. Before I could get back to the wheel, it made a sharp turn to the right. I turned off the auto pilot and tried to see what the problem was. I reset it several times and it did the same thing. I powered the autopilot down and turned it back on, still no change. The only thing we noticed that was different was the rudder position indicator was off by about 10 degrees. I called Raymarine and they suggested that the rudder indicator had come loose or the unit was bad. Ouch. We pulled everything out of the rear compartment and everything seemed to be ok. We decided we would continue on and take a closer look when we are anchored. After repacking everything, I noticed the rudder indicator had changed and was showing the rudder in it's proper position. I tried the autopilot again, and it worked! Apparently, something must have fallen into the autopilot arm and created the problem. More boat bucks saved! The intecoastal waterway led us through some beautiful communities with some very nice homes just before arriving at Vero Beach. Unfortunately, Denise was not in the picture taking mood for the houses, but we did get a few good shots along the way. A Rainbow on the way to Vero Beach

A Pelican Party

We secured our mooring and were in for the night. Vero Beach is also known as Velcro Beach to the cruisers. It seems once you get there, it's hard to leave. Not only is the mooring inexpensive, the municipal marina has very good facilities and there is a free bus service that can take you any where you want to go in the area that picks you up about every 15 minutes. The cruisers really bond together here doing all kinds of activities. Thursday night was sort of a bring a dish to share and jam night. I brought my guitar and had a lot of fun playing and singing with the other cruisers. So, we wound up staying three nights and didn't get out of "Velcro Beach" until Saturday morning. We left shortly after sunrise and had a beauriful trip down the intercoastal once again. The outside route was still taunting us but there are some extreme storms and swells that come with the non-stop North winds that have been blowing for the last few days, or maybe weeks. I can't remember recently when it was not blowing hard from the North bringing cold winds and unsettled weather out on the Atlantic. The scenery was certainly looking more tropical as we made our way South. The water was turning clearer and a much prettier color of blue and the palm trees were growing all along the shore with the mangroves. A small house with the intercoastal on one side and the ocean on the other.

A real boating community

Palm Trees gone wild and well manicured

The closer we get to Miami, however, the more traffic and bridges we encounter. Not fun. We made good time all day Saturday and wound up dropping our anchor in Lake Worth in North Palm Beach, Florida. We aren't going ashore and will start out early tomorrow morning!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Although Sandy missed us and went ashore well North of us, we continued to feel her affects with high winds and offshore waves. Finally, after a week of hiding out on Amelia Island, we decided we would leave on Halloween. Obviously, we will not make Key West by November first. We are extremely disappointed that we will miss the Meeting of the Minds and Rob and Sue's wedding, but it will help us relax a little bit more without the deadline. We can now take a little more time to explore the East Coast of Florida. The Amelia Island Yacht Basin is a good hurricane hole but the winds and some small waves did manage to find their way in and, since their channel was a little shallow in spots, we decided to wait for high tide before leaving. We tossed off the lines and headed for the gas dock for a pump out. The winds, (although lighter than other days), and the sharp angles and narrow channels to get into the gas dock created a bit of a problem as we had to make a sharp "u-turn" back into the winds to leave. After several tries and the help of the dock hand, we finally were on our way. The winds continued to gust close to 30 and, initially, the tide was in our favor. Our first inlet was not far down the ICW and was just a short hop across. Other than the winds increasing in the open areas, it was not much of a challenge. The St. John River inlet was the next exit to the ocean and it was a bit more challenging. Once we got across the inlet, the tides began to change and we were being pushed back to some very slow speeds. We had anticipated being in St. Augustine, Florida for the evening, and this could cause us to arrive in the dark. The currents became extremely strong as we entered narrow areas. It almost brought us to a standstill going under one of the bridges as the current caused about three foot waves in front of it. Waves created by the current.

With the wind at a descent angle, we let out about 1/3rd of the genoa to help give us a boost. The scenery along the way began to change as we went past Jacksonville and got closer to St. Augustine. There were some very beautiful and large homes along the way and a lot of wildlife. Just one of the beautiful and massive homes along the way.

We arrived just as the sun was going down and passed through the Bridge of Lions to our mooring. We will take some time to explore this historic city before continuing South. The Bridge of Lions from our mooring.

Since we had arrived later on Halloween, we didn't go into shore and decided to spend Thursday and Friday to make sure we enjoyed St. Augustine. There is so much history and sites to see in this comfortable town. The focal point is the Spanish Fort Castille that has guarded the entrance to St. Augustine for over four hundred years. Combine that with lots of restaurants, bars, interesting history on every corner and very friendly people and it makes quite an impression. The Fort from outside.

A view of the entrance from the Atlantic from the Fort.

Some Big guns that guarded the entrance.

The Gates of St. Augustine and some of the sites within.

At Scarlet O'hara's on Friday, we met several new friends and were invited to local celebration on Saturday night. Our new friends, Sam and Bernice offered to drive us there, so we decided to stay another night. The party was a at a local place called the Sand Bar in Crescent Beach. They had free food and beer and a fun band that kept everyone dancing. It was a great way to meet the local people and see what living the laid back life in Florida is about. We had a great time with Sam and Bernice and hope to see them again in our travels. Some of our new friends from Scarlet O'hara's

The lead singer of the band

The next morning, we started out early with the tide and made our way down the intercoastal. Once again, we had considered going outside, but the wind was very light and on our nose, so we decided to stay on the intercoastal and enjoy the scenery. It was a good choice. There was a variety of scenery from marshes to beaches to wide rivers and beautiful homes as we neared Daytona Beach. Finally! A picture of the Dolphins in our wake!

Another ancient fort guarding an entrance from the Atlantic

An unusual house along the way.

Our packing gland continued to be a problem, however, and we also seemed to have a lot of vibration when I tried to accelerate over 2300 RPMs. With our slightly slower speed, we saw a sailboat coming up behind us pretty fast. As it got closer, we noticed the name Brio on the side of a 49 foot Hunter. It was John, Donna and Allen that we had met in the Erie Canal! We had not expected to see them again. We called them on the radio and managed to get a slip at the Halifax River Yacht Club next to where they were staying and planned on getting together with them. They continued on ahead of us but had trouble getting under the bridges in Daytona Beach and we wound up passing them and getting settled in our slip long before low tide made them feel confident enough to go under the fixed, (and supposed), 65 foot high bridges. We finally got together with them and swapped stories about our different trips. I had obligations with the business and had planned on stopping the next day in Titusville to leave the boat for a few days, but we started researching the idea of having someone look at our problems in Daytona Beach. We found someone that would allow us to leave the boat and do the repairs and now we are staying another two nights in Daytona Beach and leave the boat on the 7th for my meetings. With that being resolved, we did a walking tour of Daytona Beach. A beautiful place with a lot of Palm trees everywhere. Except for the kind of chilly weather, It's definitely beginning to feel like Florida! Denise surrounded by Palm Trees!

The sites from Daytona Beach