Vero to Titusville

Thursday, April 6th (Day 5)

Mostly sunny and warm.  Moderate SE winds.  Sea temp 80.  Air temp 74 (am)

Since we had stopped around noon yesterday, the boat cooled off nicely before bedtime. Both Laura and I slept well and I even pulled a sheet over me in the early morning.  

Today was a down-day for the boat but we had a few "shore" plans.  We wanted to get to the beach (Laura needed her beach-time) then happy-hour at the marina later in the afternoon.

After a quiet morning, we closed up the boat (was a little cloudy so didn't want to take a chance of rain) and dropped the dinghy for the ride to shore.  Two years ago we were here for a couple weeks and, after much exploring, found a nice little sandy spot off the canals to park the dink and walk across US 1 to the beach.  I was hoping the spot was still there and I could find it.

It was a pretty ride through this part of Vero and we easily found the little beach tucked between the mangrove trees.  We were able to pull the dinghy up on shore and secure her to a tree with our safety cable and lock.

It's a cute little spot to tie up the dinghy, right?

The ocean beach was less than 1/4 mile away - just across US 1 and a small park.  Laura immediately headed for the water.  Sorry this picture is a little washed out from the bright sky but that is Laura standing in the water.

Laura hung out at the beach for a while and I took a brisk walk down the boardwalk.  It was great to stretch my legs for a mile or so.  

About 1/2 hour later we met back at the beach.  I looked on my phone for maybe a place to buy lunch but nothing was within short walking distance.  Bummer.

We walked back to the dinghy, put away the safety cable and shoved off back to the boat.  I took a little longer ride to the ICW and around the big island.  Along the way we saw this very colorful cloud.  Looks like something from a Si-Fi movie.  I thought it looked like a spaceship going away from us and the colorful part was the engine exhaust.  What do you think?

Back at the boat for a little lunch and maybe nap-time before happy-hour later in the afternoon.

Around 3, I decided to jump in the water and check out our propeller and running gear.  I felt like the boat had been behaving a little sluggish the past day or two and I wanted to make sure everything was OK for our continuing trip north.  I brought all my gear to the back deck (snorkel, mask, weight belt, fins) but only put on the mask to see what was happening.  The water was definitely not as clear as Marathon but I had about 3-4 feet of vision underwater so it was fine for this job.

Boy.  Was I glad I did this.....  As I approached the prop, I could see a black rope / line wound around the blades several times.  No wonder the boat was sluggish!  I went to the back of the boat and put on the rest of my gear.  Laura handed me a sharp, serrated knife that I might need to cut it off.  Turns out I was able to pull the rope around the propeller blades and get it off without cutting.  This was great.  Sometimes a line like this will weld itself to the shaft - I'm not sure I would have been able to cut that off free-diving.  A few minutes later I had the 20 (?) feet of black 3/8" poly line up on the swim deck.  This is typically the type of rope used for crab or lobster pots. A boat must have run over the crab or lobster buoy and cut the line.

Sorry.... I forgot to take a picture.  

Just before 4pm we packed the dinghy with guitar, music (iPad and stand), Laura's harmonica case, munchies and cocktails then headed into the marina.  I did not bring my flute or Ukulele as we had enough junk to lug around.

Dean and Sue had just arrived and we helped each other bring everything to the picnic tables.  We met a few other boaters and played music for a couple hours.  Here is a picture of Dean playing with Sue singing along.

Dean also took this picture of Laura and I playing.  It was a fun evening.

Another boater - Tony - brought his guitar and played along a bit.  He's to the right in the picture.

Back to the boat around 7pm.  I pulled the dinghy up on the davits while Laura re-heated chicken enchiladas for dinner which were quick as we were eating late (for us).  I think we hit the sack early.  It was a fun and busy day for old cruisers like us...

Friday, April 7th (Day 6)

Sunny and warm (low 80s), winds ESE @ 10-15, water temp 78

65nm today - 289 total trip miles

We slept in a bit and were off the mooring at 7:50am.  Our plans were to make somewhere around Melbourne today then Titusville tomorrow.  

It was a beautiful day on the water and we were third in the line of sailboats heading north from Vero Beach. I rolled out the jib shortly after entering the ICW and we actually passed the two sailboats in front of us.  I think that was a first for us - we don't pass too many other boats.  Several powerboats passed us during the day but, by early afternoon, we were by ourselves motor-sailing north up the Indian River.

Importance of weather forecasts and planning

My biggest job when cruising is managing our travels based on weather.  When you are driving on a trip in your car, rain and thunderstorms are not fun but you can keep going through them.  On a boat it's a different story - winds can blow you around quite a bit - plus we have the added challenge of being safe while anchored overnight.  It looked like the next week to 10 days were going to take all my skills to keep us safe and moving whenever possible.

If possible, I plan ahead to be on a mooring during the worst winds and storms.  The boat doesn't move around as much as when we are anchored in storms and, in this part of the world, the moorings are inspected periodically so are very safe  Also, most of the moorings (St. Augustine is the exception) don't take reservations so you can stay on them until you are ready to leave.  Since this storm system would last several days, it would be good to have the option of staying or leaving.  Several cities have moorings spaced out along the ICW with the next in-line for us being Titusville and St. Augustine.

A front was coming through on Sunday which would clock the winds to the north and increase to 20 during the day and 30 at night.  From experience, our sailboat doesn't do well with a 60 horsepower (40 years ago) diesel pushing a 42,000 pound boat into 20 knot winds.  We slow down to 2-3 knots sometimes. Plus the next week or so was over 50% chance of rain every day and some thunderstorms. Yuck!

We could not make St. Augustine by Sunday but might make Daytona if we ran two long days today and tomorrow.  No moorings in Daytona but the anchorage there was nice, had good holding (experience from many times anchored there) and it would offer some protection from the winds.  This would be my second choice.

First choice would be a mooring in Titusville.  The Titusville City Marina does not take reservations for the moorings so we had to hope there would be moorings available when we got there tomorrow.  One problem was the anchorage there was not very protected if we couldn't get a mooring - it was OK but not great.  The best protection was behind a bridge about 12 miles south of TItusville.  Should we take the chance?

I called the Titusville marina. They told me there were moorings available (right then).  I tried to make a reservation for a marina slip for the weekend (as a backup solution) but they were full.  

We had helping winds all day.  With the our full jib sail out, our speed increased from the normal 6 knots to 7 with the light SE winds.  Now we could make it all the way to Titusville by around 6pm.

It was nice day on the water and we were making great time.  The Addison Point Lift Bridge (NASA Causeway Bridge) was closed from 3:30pm to 5pm for rush-hour traffic but we should get there just before 5 and be in Titusville by 6.

Turns out we were at the bridge by 4:45pm so I called them to say I'd be standing by for the 5pm opening.  I was informed that the schedule had changed and the rush-hour lockout now extended to 6pm.  Well...  That was a bummer.  Now we wouldn't be to Titusville until around 7pm. 

We pulled in the sail and motored away from the channel for about 1/4 mile before dropping the anchor for an hour.  No problems getting through at 6pm but there were now 2 other sailboats waiting.  I motored in front of them (I was there first, right?) and we all went through the bridge close together.  Laura helped me roll out the jib and we zoomed away at 7 knots leaving them in our dust.  Oops.  The catamaran didn't get that memo.  He was going just barely faster than us and slooooooooly passed us over the next 2 miles.  When we motored up to the mooring field in Titusville, I could only hope there were two moorings open because the catamaran was looking for one too.

Turns out there were many open moorings and Laura did her normal great job of getting two mooring lines through the one I picked.  Yea! 

I felt like there was a huge weight off my shoulders now.  We were safe for the storms coming Sunday and could stay longer if the front moved slower than the forecast.

We had a nice dinner of leftovers and turned on the TV to watch a few shows.  A short while later, the TV stopped - our Starlink showed "outage" on my app.  What the .....?  Was there a problem in this area or something going on with my setup?  

I played with it for a while and it wasn't coming back.  We switch the TV over to our phone hotspot and continued watching as I monitored the Starlink outage.

It turns out the Starlink problem was world-wide and lasted for almost 1/2 hour.  Wow.  That sucked for a lot of people!  Elon apologized (on Twitter of-course) and said it was some problem with a ground station.  Don't ask me how that could take down the whole world on Starlink - I'm not a Starlink expert.  But I do know when I worked in Technology for 35+ years, I always stressed not having a single-point-of-failure in any systems.  Somebody screwed that up royally.  Anyway, it's all good now and I slept well not having to be worried about being anchored in the storms coming up.

Saturday, April 8th (Day 7)

Partly cloudy and warm.  Cooler last night - down in the high-60s.  Air temp 75.  Water temp 77

Didn't move the boat today (or for the next few days...)

Laura and I both slept well and had a relaxing morning.  Around 10:30am we closed up the boat, I dropped the dinghy into the water, Laura got our laundry together, and we motored into the marina.  We paid our mooring fee for 3 days ($57) but the (3) marina laundry washers were full.  No problem, we'll take a little walk to the grocery store for a few things.

It was a nice walk through this part of Titusville and we got a little exercise on the 1/2 mile walk to the Save A Lot.  When we got back to the marina, one washer was almost ready so I asked the office guys if they had a place to keep our eggs and milk cold (they did) and Laura started the wash.

We ended up sitting in the laundry room talking to two gents also from a boat in the marina.  I had a good time talking to the boat owner because he was also a space and Elon Musk fan.  About 1 1/2 hours later we got back our milk and eggs then trucked everything back to the boat.

Storms are supposed to start later this afternoon / evening so we might be on the boat for a couple / several days.  No worries for us.  We have plenty of food, drink and power for a few relaxing days (as long as the Starlink doesn't go out again)...

Right now it looks like the main thunderstorms will extend into Monday so we might be here until Tuesday when we can head north again on the ICW.