Tuesday, December 12th (Day 66) to Sunday, December 17th (Day 71) - Palm Coast Marina
We spent this week at Palm Coast Marina because we had to leave the boat a few days for personal business. Tuesday morning we rented a car and drove north returning late Friday night. Our original plans were to bring the rental back Saturday morning then leave with the boat for a short ride to Daytona Saturday afternoon. Don't forget, we're trying to get to Marathon for Christmas with our friends at Burdines plus Pam and Russ who are a little ahead of us now.
Unfortunately, the weather was not nice for the entire weekend so we stayed an extra 2 nights and kept the car. Interesting that the car was only another $22 for the 2 extra days because we hit the weekly rate. That was pretty nice. Plus, now we could relax a bit on Saturday and take our time with some shopping and groceries. Too bad the marina didn't have a weekly rate which is usually much less than the $80 a day we paid for the 7 days.
Here is a graph of the winds from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. The peaks are just over 40 knots. We were getting blown around pretty good.
Sunday afternoon I brought the car back to Enterprise and used the key-drop. After taking an Uber back to the boat, we were pretty much ready to go. That evening we had a colorful sunset after all the storms went through.
I had filled up our water tank and removed all the extra storm lines from the boat. We were ready to go!
Monday, December 18th (Day 72) - Palm Coast to Titusville
58 degrees. Water temp 65. West winds 8-12. Clear and sunny
67 nautical miles today (1,293.5 total trip miles)
I had the alarm set for 6:15am and we were up right away getting the boat ready to leave. It was chilly and we both had sweat pants and sweatshirts on. What's up with that? Isn't it supposed to be warm now?
It took us longer than usual to get out of the boat slip because we had stern lines on pilings behind the boat. This involved my untying all but 1 bow line, jump on the boat then pull the boat back with the stern lines until I was close enough to reach the piling to slip off the lines. Luckily, our neighbor Tim came out and helped hold the boat. Plus the winds decided to die which made it fairly easy. By 7:15am we were off!
Current weather forecast showed a possible weather window for us getting around Miami around the 22nd or 23rd. It was not great (5 foot seas) but possible if we could get to Ft. Lauderdale by then for only a 20 mile off-shore run. There is a fixed bridge in Miami with only 55 foot clearance - we need 61 feet. It's the only ICW fixed bridge between Norfolk and Miami that's under 65 feet. What were they thinking?
Anyway, we would have to do several long days to make that window. We had left early hoping to make Titusville which was over 60 miles - a long run for our slow sailboat.
Winds were helping and we had most of the jib out to increase our speed 1-2 knots. It was a pretty day as we motor-sailed through Daytona.
Tidal currents helped most of the day and we averaged over 7 knots. I was pretty sure we could make the anchorage in Titusville before dark so we kept going past Daytona. No good / favorite anchorages for us between Daytona and Titusville so we were committed. The LB Knox Bridge opened for us without even having to slow down and we only waited 5 minutes for the George Munson Bridge.
Another nice jib motor-sail down the Mosquito Lagoon then through the Haulover Canal where, once again, the bridge opened for us without having to slow down. Now 4 miles motoring into the wind before turning south before the railroad bridge and rolling out the jib again.
We pulled the sail before the Titusville high-rise bridge and turned west into the anchorage. Geez. Where did everybody come from? We had only seen 4-5 boats all day on the water and there were 10 boats anchored here. After motoring slowly around the anchorage looking for a hole in all the boats big enough for me to safely anchor, we decided to head a little farther south and anchor off the ICW channel. I guess there were more boats anchored here because of the SpaceX launch tonight.
Oh. We did "rub" on a shallow mud spot while motoring through the anchorage. I'm not going to count this as running aground since the boat never stopped. Those of you who have followed our blog know I try to see how far I can make it down (or up) the ICW before our keel finds the bottom. I've only made it 3 times in 36 runs. So far, we're 1,200 miles into this try.
We anchored just before dark at 5:45pm. It was a nice sunset as we prepared dinner.
It was warm and calm enough for us to eat dinner in the cockpit. I love dinner in the cockpit because it's a great time to sit and talk about everything. If we eat downstairs, it's in front of the TV.
No alarm for tomorrow. We only have a 35 mile run to Melbourne. No decent anchorages for the north to east winds that we could reach south of that.
Tuesday, December 19th (Day 73) - Titusville to Melbourne
58 degrees. Water temp 67. Winds N - NE @ 12-20. Another pretty day.
34.5 nautical miles today (1,328 total trip miles)
Anchor up at 9am on another chilly morning with north winds. Another opening bridge was deleted from the ICW as the NASA Causeway Bridge was replaced with a high-rise this summer.
We were able to jib motor-sail again at lower engine RPM with winds behind us. We could have just sailed this section but our plan was to get anchored then drop the dinghy and run into Indiatlantic for a walk to the beach.
There were more power and sailboats along this section and I guess we caught everyone now. I love the Indian River when we can get the sails out. There are only a few sections where you need to stay in the ICW channel and I usually run way outside the channel (plenty of depth) to give the powerboats room to zoom by without having to slow down.
No problems as we motored through the Melbourne Bridge and turned east into the anchorage. Only a couple sailboats anchored but plenty of room for us too. We anchored at 2pm.
Hmmm. I had anchored about 1/4 mile back from the roadway to cut down on the car / truck noise and the swell from the north wind was coming through the bridge and around the corner at us. Here's a screenshot from our chartplotter of the anchorage. The red X is where we anchored and I drew a blue line showing the swell coming through the bridge.
We've seen this happen in the past where we anchor behind something (in the lee) but the swell curves around and gets us anyway.
As I dropped the dinghy, it was bouncing around pretty good on the 1 foot swell / wind-chop. I felt pretty proud of myself with the balancing act I accomplished to pull-start the outboard as the dinghy and I were going a little crazy. Laura and I quickly packed and left the boat for an easy motor into the park. In hindsight, I probably should have anchored closer to the causeway for an easier dinghy launch.
It was much calmer as soon as we motored closer to shore and we tied up a few minutes later at the park near the road. No problem to lock the dinghy to the park bench with the long cable we have for this purpose. A few minutes later we were walking into town on wobbly legs that hadn't walked any distance in several days.
The ocean was cranked up from the high winds of the last few days.
Laura only took a short walk on the beach before she gave up from the big winds. As we walked back to the road, we spotted a Cold Stone Creamery. ICE CREAM!! It was wonderful.
Here is a short video I took of the beach and ocean.
Our legs seemed to loosen up as we finished the 1/2 mile back to the dinghy.
This cracks me up. Walking though this small area, it's the perfect picture of Florida towns. Every other building is a Real-estate office, nail salon or medical office. Too funny.....
We made it back to the boat with no problems other than tracking mud from the park all over the poor dinghy. It's gonna need a good cleaning when we get to Marathon.
The off-shore weather still look possible for going around Miami on Friday. We needed to hustle if we wanted to be in Ft. Lauderdale for that. Another long day planned for tomorrow. We need to run the 40 miles to Ft. Pierce then find a place for fuel. If we still had time after that, we wanted to anchor on the St. Lucie River which would set us up for south Palm Beach on Thursday then Ft. Lauderdale and the 20 mile off-shore run around Miami on Friday. We "could" still make Marathon for Christmas if all the stars aligned.
Wednesday, December 20th (Day 74) - Melbourne to Stuart
66 degrees. Water temp 67. Winds out of the east 8-20 knots.
64 nautical miles today (1,392 total trip miles)
Early alarm again trying to make miles. We pulled the hook at 7:15am and motored back to the ICW. Winds had gone from north to east in the night (as predicted) which made our anchorage much calmer (no swell coming around the bridge).
Two other sailboats were leaving the anchorage at the same time and we had them in sight most of the day. I think they were just sailing and we were motor-sailing to make miles so we gradually pulled away from them.
Winds were helping a lot as we motor-sailed the pretty section between Sebastian Inlet and Vero Beach. I really like this part of the ICW weaving in and around several pretty islands.
Here we are jib motor-sailing through a bridge in Vero.
I had been a little worried about needing fuel before our normal stop in Ft. Pierce but the winds had helped pushed us there so no problem. Now we needed to decide where to go for diesel.
Our normal stop was the Ft. Pierce City Marina but, when we look on-line at their fuel price, they were around $5 / gallon. The Pelican Yacht Club was listed at $3.99 / gallon but we had never been there. We needed over 100 gallons so that was a big difference!
As we approached Ft. Pierce, I checked on-line and the City Marina had dropped their price to $4.12 plus a 10 cent discount for Boat/U.S. which we had. Since we were very familiar with that marina and knew the fuel dock, we decided to head there.
After a short wait at the Ft. Pierce North Bridge, I called the City Marina on the marine radio. They said there was a boat on the fuel dock but we could come in for a "short wait". Hmmm. That dock was about 120 feet long. How big was that boat?
As we motored up to the fuel dock, I could see a 40' sailboat exactly in the center of the 120' dock. The dock attendant should have never put them there. Now their whole dock was tied up by a 40' boat. I don't know why this still surprises me. We've seen it 100s of times. Most people don't think others when docking (or other things....).
The marina staff told us "about 5 minutes. They only have one tank to fill." After slowly motoring around the marina for 15 minutes, they finally pulled that sailboat back and told us to come in. Guess it was more then "one tank".
We pulled into the marina and swung around to point into the wind for docking. This put us bow-to-bow with the other sailboat. I wondered how he had docked with the 15-20 knot winds behind him.
No problem as we tied up and took on 111.5 gallons of diesel and about 50 gallons of water. That's over 1,000 pounds added to the boat and it lowered us several inches in the water.
I paid the $440 fuel bill and we untied lines to leave. Wouldn't you know a 20' pontoon boat pulls in and tries to dock right in front of us (the other sailboat had left already). Again with the wind behind him it was almost impossible to stop next to the fuel dock and he almost hit us before putting the boat sideways - again, right in front of us. Wow. What a zoo. I think this is all because the people running the fuel dock had no idea what they were doing. From letting the first boat dock right in the middle to not even trying to help the pontoon boat. I was SOOOO glad to get out of there.
FOLKS. FIRST RULE OF DOCKING A BOAT. ALWAYS DOCK POINTED INTO THE WIND OR CURRENT!
Maybe next time we'll try the Pelican Yacht Club.....
It was now 2:30pm and we had almost 20 miles to anchor in the St. Lucie River. I thought we could make it with the winds and currents helping. We turned south down the ICW and rolled out the jib to pull us along.
No problem with the next 20 miles to Jensen Beach and the St. Lucie River. We anchored by Sewall Point at 5:45pm - almost dark because of all the clouds. We made it!
I poured a small tequila and sat down to go over the wind and sea forecast for the next few days on Windfinder, PredictWind and Windy apps. Oh oh. Seas had gone up a little to over 5 feet and the period (time between the swell) had gong down. This was going to be much worse than the forecast even a day ago. Laura and I had dinner in the cockpit again and went over the forecast and our plans. We both decided that being in Marathon for Christmas was not worth beating up us and the boat in choppy seas. Tomorrow we'll motor the short distance to Stuart and try to pick up a mooring. If no moorings, there were nice anchorages near-by.
Thursday, December 21st (Day 75) - Sewall Point to Stuart
64 degrees. Water temp 67. Cloudy with occasional light showers. Winds east 10-15
6.5 nautical miles today. (1,398.5 total trip miles)
Only a short run to Stuart today so we slept in and didn't pull the anchor until 9:10am. After passing through the Old Roosevelt Bridge, we motored over to the Sunset Bay Marina mooring field where we found "no room at the inn".
Instead, we motored about a mile to the NE corner of the St. Lucie North Fork and anchored away from the many crab trap floats at 10:30am.
This was the view from our anchorage.
Laura and I spent a quiet day on the boat getting her in "anchor" mode. We setup the solar panels and turned on the wind generator. Nice! We were charging the batteries at 25-30 amps because of the high winds and little Sun.
We decided not to head into town today and just relax on the boat. Later in the afternoon we broke out the Mexican Train Dominoes and had a fun several hours in the cockpit before grilling a steak for dinner.
Plans are to stay in Stuart until after Christmas. This is an excellent place to "stage" for the off-shore run from Lake Worth to Miami. There is easy access to town from the park next to the Sunset Bay Marina and several protected anchorages depending on wind direction.
Current forecasts show winds and seas calming next week. We'll probably leave here on the 26th and motor to Lake Worth. Then an early morning out Lake Worth inlet for a gentle motor-sail down the coast with light west winds on the 27th.
We should make Marathon for New Years.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILIES!
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