Saturday, April 8th (Day 7 - continued) to Monday, April 10th (Day 9)
These three days were quite "bouncy" on Second Wind. We spent the whole time on the boat because the waves were too big to launch and travel in the dinghy. This typically isn't a problem for us as we are used to the solitude. Laura enjoys baking and crafts while I work a few boat jobs (there are ALWAYS boat jobs...) and play / sing music.
I've been working on learning a new song lately - "Wind it up" from The Boat Drunks. I love the lyrics but am having problems playing the guitar to the island beat. Check it out on iTunes for a little fun.
The ketch on the mooring behind us is very colorful - and not in a nice way. Check this out -
What are you thinking when you have a Cyan stripe, Burgundy sail covers and Tan canvas. Plus, we saw the owner (?) come out on the deck in a green shirt. "MY EYES!!"
Laura loves trying new dishes so she made Shrimp Wonton soup one night. We had walked to the grocery store on Saturday morning and one of the items on our list was wonton wrappers. They didn't have any (it was only a small store) but I said, "Why don't you just make your own?" She got out her phone and found a couple good recipes. Plus she could use her manual pasta-maker to flatten out the dough. A few hours later, she dug right in and had our whole galley under construction...
The end result was awesome and I ate two helpings.
She also likes making gnomes and played around with a new one.
I mentioned that gnomes don't wear flowers in their hair and maybe this one was a female? With a beard? Too funny....
We had planned on leaving Monday but the front with high winds decided to stick around another day. One of our neighbors on a power-catamaran decided to leave on Monday and I thought he was nuts. The winds were steady in the mid-20s and gusting into the 30s. Laura watched him motor forward over the mooring ball while the wife (?) pulled the mooring line up to the bow and removed the (3) mooring lines they had attached. From here things went downhill. For some reason, he continued to motor forward over the ball maybe thinking the ball would pass harmlessly between the two hulls of the catamaran. No.... that didn't work as planned and he ended up catching the mooring ball / line / chain in his starboard rudder or prop.
They dropped their anchor (maybe because one engine was out of service) and he eventually put on a bathing suit and snorkel gear. About an hour later they motored away picking up their anchor. I was thinking, "Where's the mooring ball?" As the boat turned and motored toward the marina, we saw the ball pop up and float away. He must have broken it off the chain attaching it to the bottom. That was quite a job. These moorings are supposed to be hurricane rated. We later saw them anchored up by the bridge.
About an hour later the marina office calls me. The pleasant gal on the phone asks if we are OK because they found a mooring ball on-shore next to the marina. I said we were fine and told her the story. I didn't want to be a tattle-tale but the folks on the catamaran should have taken responsibility for destroying a mooring and called the marina. Funny that the gal on the phone didn't seem too upset. Maybe this was a frequent occurrence?
A few showers came through during the evening and we buttoned up the boat while streaming videos off the Starlink. Hopefully, outta here tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 11th (Day 10)
Partly sunny with high winds (mid 20s) and occasional showers. Air temp 70. Water temp 75
42nm today (331 total trip miles)
Even though the winds were high and occasional showers were predicted, we decided to leave and continue our trip north. I think both of us were ready to leave this rolly / bouncy mooring field. I felt safe on the mooring but this bay is too wide open for high winds from the north or east. We had lots of both for the past 3 days and nights and they built up waves big enough to bounce around our 21 ton sailboat.
I completed my morning engine room checks then fired up the Perkins and our electronics. Just after 8am we released the mooring lines. Winds were steady in the low 20s with higher gusts. This part of the trip to Daytona has a couple sections a little open to the east (where the winds were coming from all day) and about an hour after leaving the mooring we turned east up up the ICW toward the Haul-Over canal and bridge. This was the most open section of today with 4 miles to shore for the winds to build up a little higher seas. Motoring into the 25 knot winds and 3 foot seas the boat slowed to about 4 1/2 knots (from our normal 6) which made this section even longer. It wasn't a bad ride for us but every once in a while the bow would bounce down on wave and send up spray that eventually covered all of our windows in the cockpit.
Once through the canal we turned north up the Mosquito Lagoon which put the winds on our beam. Hmmm.. Maybe our first sail of the trip? If we wanted to sail this narrow ICW channel safely, we would have to be careful and let out only enough sail to keep the boat moving nicely without overpowering because of the high winds. Plus, unless we have the right percentage of mainsail and jib working, the boat becomes "unbalanced". This means wind gusts blowing on the jib will try to turn the boat into the wind and we would quickly be outside of the deeper channel we need to stay in. Unlike most sailboats, we had roller furling on our mainsail which would make it easy to let out just the right amount. Why not give it a try? What could go wrong....
After a steep learning curve of how much sail to put out, we eventually settled on about 1/2 jib and just a few feet of mainsail. Check it out -
The winds were high enough for the boat to be pretty well balanced with just that little bit of mainsail. We were re-learning medium to high-wind sailing!
I turned off the engine for our first non-engine sailing the trip. It lasted for 1 1/2 hours until we got into the islands before New Smyrna Beach when the winds died a lot and kept changing direction. At one point we were sailing over 7 knots. Laura took this picture of our instruments. 7.2 knots boat speed with 24.1 knots of wind. Yoo Hoo!
We pulled in the sails to motor through twisty New Smyrna area and the George Munson Bridge. Once we were around Ponce Inlet and associated islands, our course was mostly north so we rolled out the jib for help and lowered engine RPM.
By 3:45pm we were anchored near the new Memorial Bridge in one of our favorite spots. This anchorage was excellent for protection from east winds and, even though the winds continued into the night, the boat stayed pretty quiet.
I love this mansion in front of our anchorage. We were finally in calm waters.
Laura and I talked about taking the dinghy to Caribbean Jacks which is one of our favorite restaurants with dinghy access. We both decided to relax and leave them for next time.
Around 9pm we heard fireworks outside and, from our cockpit, we had a ring-side seat. They didn't last long but they were very nice. This picture is just using my iPhone.
I have one of my boat instruments monitoring maximum wind speed. This only includes sustained winds - not gusts. Today it read 29 knots.
Wednesday, April 12th (Day 11)
Partly cloudy, not as windy and no showers. Air temp 71. Sea temp 73.
48nm today (379 total trip miles)
Just after leaving Titusville yesterday, I called the St. Augustine City Marina and was able to snag a reservation for 3 nights on a mooring starting tonight. I felt like we had won the lottery! These moorings have been harder to find over the past few years. I think it's because many boaters use them for in-water storage. It's a cheap way to store your boat (<>$400 / month) but it takes the moorings away from transients who would actually spend money in town. OK. Enough of my rant...
Anchor up at 8:15am and we motored back to the ICW. Winds were down a bit today but we did use our Jib to help us along. We ran 90% of the day with reduced engine RPM on mostly quiet waters.
No problems today as we navigated to St. Augustine. I called the marina on the marine radio and they told me we were assigned a mooring on the north side of the Bridge of Lions Bridge. We only waited about 10 minutes for the 4pm bridge opening and were tied to our mooring about 15 minutes later.
Now. We needed to check in, pay for the mooring and get groceries. Should we wait until tomorrow for the grocery run (it's about a 2 mile walk) or get it over this afternoon / evening. Tomorrow was supposed to rain most of the day (it didn't...) so we decided to suck-it-up and do our groceries now.
After I checked-in and paid for 2 nights, we walked through town and down US 1 to Winn Dixie. It was beautiful weather for a walk - not too hot or humid. Laura's foot was doing excellent and I was having problems keeping up with her. Geez. Just 2 weeks ago I had been walking 3-4 miles several times a week. What happened?
After almost $200 worth of groceries later, we got an Uber for the ride back to the marina. I chatted a little with the driver, Mohamed, who seemed nice. Back at the marina there were no carts near the drop-off spot so I hoofed across the marina for a dock-cart while Laura unloaded the groceries into the parking lot. We carted the groceries to our dinghy, loaded the dinghy, motored back to our boat, put the groceries up on the side deck, tied up the dinghy, then we transferred the groceries to the galley. Lots of work but we are stocked with fresh groceries now for a couple more weeks.
I pulled the dinghy up on the davits and went downstairs to help put some stuff away. On the way, I checked my pocket - no cell phone. Hmmm. Did I give it to Laura to put in the pack? Nope. Was it in the dinghy? Nope. Oh crap.
I picked up Laura's phone and called my number hoping maybe I had dropped it in the dinghy or in the boat and I would hear it ring. After about 8 rings, Mohamed answered it. It must have fallen out of my shorts pocked when I climbed out of the car. Actually, this was pretty lucky, right? I knew where it was.
Mohamed said he was on his way to Jacksonville with a paying passenger and would be back in town between 9 and 10pm (it was currently 7pm). He would meet me at the marina where he dropped me off. I gave him Laura's phone number which he called on his cell phone so I would have his number. He was great!
I put the dinghy back in the water and we watched a few shows on the TV. At 9:15pm I get a call from him saying he is about 45 minutes from the marina. A while later, I dinghy back to the marina and we arrive at the parking lot together just before 10pm. He gets out of the car and hands me my phone.
OK. Now, here is my problem.... How much money should I give him as a reward. He just returned to me a $1,300 iPhone with a huge part of my life on it and I'm VERY grateful. But, he didn't manufacture the phone, he's just returning something I left in his Uber. I wish I knew how far out of his way he went to return the phone. Was he coming back to St. Augustine tonight anyway. Really no way for me to know. How much would you give him?
I didn't think $20 was enough so decided on $40. When he handed me the phone we talked a bit and I explained I wanted to give him a reward but wasn't sure how much. He said it didn't matter - he didn't expect anything. I asked if $40 would be fair and he said, "Oh yes. Sure. Whatever you want...." Geez. He could have given me a sob story and I'd have peeled off a couple $100s.
Back to the boat a short time later and I again haul up the dinghy on the davits, climb down into the salon and relax for a little bit with the TV. A little while later we hit the sack.
Thursday, April 13th (Day 12)
Sunny becoming cloudy with storms later in the afternoon.
This morning, we were thinking, "It's such a beautiful day. Why are we sitting here? Why did we hustle to do our groceries yesterday instead of this morning? Should we go in for lunch and take the chance of getting soaked?" The weather forecast kept changing and it was a sunny, nice day. Forecast was rain at 11am, then 1pm, then 2pm...
Don't forget that we forged ahead with groceries last evening and paid
for 2 nights on this mooring because it was supposed to rain almost all
day today. Finally, at 4pm, I looked out over St. Augustine and saw this ominous sky. It was like a something out of a science fiction movie. I took this panorama with my iPhone. I think if you click on it, you will see the whole thing.
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The black clouds came over with lightning and thunder. We were looking at lots of what we call "Red Shit" on our phones.
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An hour later, the Sun came out and we were treated to a little rainbow over the Bridge of Lions Bridge.
Our friends Kevin, Victoria and their 3 sons (s/v Tsunami) have been on a boat in Jacksonville for almost a year. They were newbies to sailing and cruising a couple years ago and I helped them get down the coast safely from Albany, NY to Oriental, SC. Victoria texted me yesterday to see if we wanted to get together - maybe dinner tonight? We texted during and after the storm to try and organize dinner. Laura and I discussed going in to meet them and she mentioned that everything on the boat was soaked - including the dinghy. We decided to put off the get-together. Good thing. More storms came through over the next couple hours.
Somewhere during the storm our Honda generator sputtered and quit. It sounded like a fuel problem because it sputtered for a while. If there was water in the electronics, it probably would have just stopped. After the rain stopped, I drained the carburetor and it had rusty water in it. Oh boy. Last night I had emptied one of our gasoline jugs into the generator. I try to be careful doing this because the bottom of the jug sometimes has water or other sediment. After draining the float bowl (very easy on this generator), it ran for another 1/2 hour and stopped. I can either keep doing this or, if it keeps happening, I'll probably have to completely drain all the gas out of the tank on the generator and refresh with new stuff.
Our current plan is to leave here early tomorrow morning and try to make somewhere around Fernandina tomorrow night. Winds are finally supposed to calm down tomorrow, Saturday and most of Sunday until another front Sunday night. We'll have to see how far we get and how bad the storm Sunday night is supposed to be before deciding on our travel past Saturday.
Generator just died again. Off to work I go.....
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