Key Largo to Titusville

Friday, April 5th - Key Largo to Key Biscayne (Day 2)

Sunny and warm.  Winds N to W at 10-15.  72 degrees.  Water temp 76

Before I start today's blog, Laura reminded me in my Winter overview, I neglected to post a nice picture she took of Pam and Russ on one of our sailing days in February.  It was a light-wind day but we all had a great time and even had lunch underway.  Sal and Ina plus Jon and Marguerite are somewhere in the background.

 23 nautical miles today.  94 total trip miles

We slept in because our plan was a short sail to Key Biscayne where we would sit out some north winds preventing us from sailing up the coast.  No sailing with winds on the bow but we motored the 4 hours on a pretty day.  Here is Laura cleaning up from raising anchor at 10:30.

We arrived at our normal anchorage near the Key Biscayne Yacht Club to find many, many boats (50+) anchored in the area and over the sandbar 1/4 mile away.  On the way into our anchorage, we saw this powerboat with a huge slide.  That was a first!

The slide must have been inflatable because they took it down before they left several hours later.

After anchoring at 2:30pm, I decided to dive down and see if everything was good with the propeller.  It seemed that the boat was running a little slower than normal so I wanted to see if we had picked up a line or something.  Everything was OK with the prop and rudder.  The water was mid-70s.  Cool and refreshing.

It was a little lumpy at this anchorage with all the powerboats out on the bay.  Plus the wind was a little more west than for forecast and this anchorage was open to the west.  The afternoon was pretty though and we had a nice view of the Miami skyline.  You can also see we still had the blue-green "Keys" water.

We had dinner in the cockpit watching all the crazies including a 60 foot powerboat that anchored about 300 feet from us and drowned the whole area with Spanish music for several hours.  I don't see how they could have stood music that loud on the boat unless all the speakers were pointed outward.

It was a colorful sunset over Dinner Key a few hours later..

Early alarm for tomorrow as we would like to make Lake Worth which is 70 miles away.  

 

Saturday, April 6th - Key Biscayne to Lake Worth (Day 3)

Mostly sunny and warm.  Light west winds.  Temp 76.  Ocean water temp 74 (outside the Gulfstream)

79 nautical miles today.  173 total trip miles

Most of the local boaters had left last evening and we had a quiet night at anchor.  I woke up just before 7am and we decided to get going.

Instead of motoring south around Key Biscayne, I decided to take the run into Miami and through the Stadium anchorage to Government Cut.  It was an uneventful ride.  Here was the view behind us as we motor-sailed out of Government Cut.  Cruise ships lined up on the right and the Container Terminal on the left.

Winds were light out of the west (as forecast) and I turned NE once we were on the ocean to intersect the Gulfstream.  The Gulfstream water flows north at 2-3 knots so can really help a boat that only travels at 6 knots.

We found the edge of the Gulfstream 3-4 miles off-shore and I watched our GPS speed go from 6 to 9+ knots.  The winds had picked up to 10-12 knots so we adjusted the big sails and turned off the motor.

Oh boy.  What the heck was going on?  The ocean had been a quiet 2-3 foot, long swell (as forecast) but the Gulfstream water was nuts.  There was a 5-6 foot steep swell that the boat seemed to drop into every 10-15 seconds.  This usually happens in the Gulfstream with north winds blowing against the north moving current.  But winds today (and yesterday) were out of the west.  This shouldn't be happening but it was.  Check out this video I took.  You can see some of the bigger waves and how the boat is dropping down into the swell.

Last year we had staying in the Gulfstream all day and made it all the way to Jensen Beach - over 100 miles.  Not today...

Since we were sailing, we couldn't just turn 20-30 degrees left and gradually get out of the Gulfstream.  The wind would be too close to the bow for sailing if we did that.  Instead, Laura and I tacked the boat (first time this trip!) and turned about 120 degrees toward shore.  That put the big swell on our beam but it was short-lived.  Within 15 minutes, we were in calm waters and we tacked back to the north.  Here is the "after" video.

Our speed slowed down from 9.5 to around 7 but it was worth it.  I don't think there was any way we were going to get comfortable with that ride.

Note that I had also tried going farther off-shore in case I was just on the edge of the Gulfstream and it would be calmer.  Nope.

The rest of the day Laura fished with a trolling line ("No fish in this ocean", she said) and I kept the boat close enough to the Gulfstream so we picked up a little complimentary current to help us along.  All in all it was a nice day after that and we turned toward the Lake Worth inlet at 4:30pm and entered about an hour later. 

Holy Cow!  Look at this boat docked in West Palm!  It barely fit in the picture!

This is Bravo Eugenia.  She was built in 2019 for $250 million for Jerry Jones - owner of the Dallas Cowboys.  357 feet of beauty.

As we turned the corner past Bravo, we tried to slowly motor around Peanut Island.  I say "tried" because there were boats everywhere including a few who thought it would be fun to stop right in front of us forcing high reverse on a 21 ton sailboat.  It was a zoo!

After getting by the island and under the high-rise bridge, the waterway calmed down a lot.  We motored to the lake and dropped anchor at 6:30pm.  Success!  Another run up the south Florida coast.  We wouldn't have to go back out on the ocean again until New Jersey but we probably will do ocean day-trips through Georgia and South Carolina. 

It was a peaceful night on the hook and we both slept great after a long day underway.

Our plans are to head to Stuart tomorrow where we will anchor, drop the dinghy and go in for dinner with our friends Chris and Bob who live locally.  Then Ft. Pierce on Monday, Melbourne on Tuesday and Titusville on Wednesday to sit out storms from a front coming through. 

Sunday, April 7th - Lake Worth to Stuart (Day 4)

Sunny and warm.  76 degrees.  Water temp 77.  Winds NE @ 10-15

31 nautical miles today.  204 total trip miles

Anchor up at 8:00am.  I screwed up a little since I knew the first bridge (of 7 today) only opened at the quarter and three-quarter hour.  That meant we had less than 15 minutes to pull the anchor and motor about 2 miles to the bridge.  Ya never know if the bridge operator is going to be nice and wait a couple minutes or not be nice and make you sit for 1/2 hour.

In this case he was nice.  We passed through the bridge at 8:17am so we were not too late.  The next bridge (PGA Blvd) was only a mile away and opened on the hour and 1/2 hour.  No problems as we were sitting by for their 8:30am opening.  Donald Ross bridge was less than 3 miles north and we passed through at 9am.  Now we had a problem.  The Indiantown Bridge was 3.5 miles away and we only could do about 6 knots.  If we had some helping tidal current, we could make the next 1/2 hour opening.  Darn.  I ran our normal speed and no helping current.  So instead, we slowed to 3-4 knots and took an hour to run the 3.5 miles.

Just around the corner from Indiantown Bridge is the construction on the new Jupiter Bridge.  This place was crazy and the "new" channel went very close to shallow spots.  We made it through fine although I had to dodge all the local boaters who didn't mind blocking the only deep water channel.  Here was the construction.

A few minutes later we passed through the 707 Bridge (opens on request) and entered beautiful Hobe Sound.  

As this was a nice Sunday, the locals were in full bloom but mostly out of the deep channel except for a Jetski pulling a water-skier that fell twice right in front of us.  Really?  Yes.  Really.

An hour or so later was the Hobe Sound Bridge (also opens on request) and we didn't even have to slow down.  The bridge operator had the draws opened just as we got there.

We had time to make Ft Pierce today and anchor near the causeway but we we decided to take a side trip to Stuart and have dinner with our friends Chris and Bob.  Laura had met them when her ex was in the Air Force stationed at Griffiss AFB so they were long-time friends.  I met them in Annapolis several years ago when cruising through and we became instant buds.  Bob and Chris have since sold their house up north and moved to Jupiter.  The past few times through here, they were away.  Now it was party time!

No problems with the shallow area leaving the ICW into the St. Lucie River.  The Old Roosevelt Bridge opened for us after a short wait and we anchored at 2:15pm in the corner north of Stuart almost exactly where we were 4+ months ago.  We dropped the dinghy, lowered the outboard off the rail mount and relaxed for a few hours 

Just after 5pm we took the dinghy into the Sunset Bay Marina and tied up at the courtesy dock in front of Sailor's Return restaurant.  Bob and Chris showed up a few minutes later.  The place was VERY busy and we waited about an hour for a table.  Food and drinks were good (and more expensive than we were used to) and the company was excellent.  Sorry but I forgot to get a picture for the blog.  Here is one of us from 2020 at Davis Pub in Annapolis.  Four years later we still look the same...  (I wish)

After several hours of fun, we said sad good-byes and dinghy'd back to the boat.  We left the motor on the dinghy since it shouldn't be swinging around back there too much on the ICW.

Plans were to sleep in tomorrow because we had a short day again to Ft. Pierce.

Monday, April 8th - Stuart to Ft. Pierce (Day 5)

Sunny and warm again.  Temp 76.  Water temp 78.  Winds E-SE at 10-20

29 Nautical Miles today.  203 total trip miles

It would be almost 70 miles to the nice anchorage in Melbourne so we decided to instead make it a short day and stop in Ft. Pierce.  The anchorage there has nice protection for the forecast E winds.  We could stay in Vero Beach (another 15 miles past Ft. Pierce) but the moorings there are first-come, first-served and they could raft you up with 2 other boats on a single mooring.  Plus if there wasn't a mooring available, we'd be anchoring in the dark at Melbourne.  

We slept in a bit and pulled the anchor at 8:15am on a pretty morning. 

Back through the Old Roosevelt Bridge a few minutes later and we ran against the tide (again!) back to the ICW crossroads about 1 1/2 hours away.  No problems as we turned north up the ICW and ran out some jib to help with the speed.  In fact, we were able to sail 2 1/2 hours to Ft. Pierce which doubled our sailing time for the trip.  

Laura researched ICW fuel prices while we were underway (https://www.waterwayguide.com/fuel-price-report/6).  We had filled our tank in Marathon before leaving and didn't really need fuel yet but there was not another cheap(er) fuel stop for several hundred miles. 

We motored into the Ft. Pierce City Marina at 1:30pm and made it just in time to find an empty fuel dock.  One powerboat came in while we were there and another pulled in as we were leaving.  I filled our fuel tank with 42 gallons of diesel ($4.25/gal) while Laura filled our water tank with about 70 gallons of water.  It was quick and easy.  Only a little while later we motored back out of the marina, crossed the ICW and anchored 1/2 mile east between several other boats at 2:15pm.  Time for some flute then cocktails!

Weather for the next few days is high SE winds (20-30 knots) until a front with possible thunderstorms on Thursday afternoon.  We will make our way up the ICW and hopefully pick up a mooring in Titusville for Wednesday and Thursday nights to sit out the storm.  

I think the partial eclipse happened while we were fueling.  Never saw it.

What happened?  No pictures today.  Sorry.....

Tuesday, April 9th - Ft. Pierce to Melbourne (Day 6)

Partly cloudy and warm.  Temp 76.  Water temp 74.  SE winds 20-30

47 Nautical Miles today.  280 total trip miles.  

We had a little bit of a restless night because the winds clocked more south than the forecast and brought bigger waves into our anchorage.  It wasn't bad and we did sleep but just not as calm as we had hoped.

Anchor up at 8am to slowly motor back to the ICW.  Once again we started out with the tidal current against us so slooooooly turned north toward the Ft. Pierce North Bridge.  This is our only bridge today and we waited about 15 minutes for their 9am opening.

Now we had the current with us so ran out most of the jib and lowered the engine RPM to charge batteries.  

It was a pretty day and the locals again came out to enjoy the water.  Here we are sailing toward a small boat fishing in the middle of the deep channel.  No worries as the wind blew him west before we go there and we had open water.

A short time later we passed under the Vero Beach bridge and I took this picture of the City Marina mooring field (the part you can see from the ICW) for our friends Dean and Sue. They have spent many Winters here but have recently "swallowed the anchor" and are enjoying shore life.

Once through the next twisty island part and into open water of the Indian River, we again turned off the engine and sailed for 2 hours on a broad-reach (winds coming from behind the beam).  It was a very pleasant sail.

I've mentioned this before but it cracks me up to have small powerboats slow down to their maximum wake speed while thinking they are being nice.  This was a good example.  This guy zoomed up to us then slowed down and took about 10 minutes to pass with his bow sticking up so far he could barely see.  If he had just kept going at 20-25 knots, we wouldn't have even felt his wake.

At 4pm we passed under the Eau Gallie Bridge, started the engine, pulled in the jib and turned east into our anchorage.  A few minutes later we were in calm water behind the bridge causeway and enjoying a quiet evening.  Winds did seem to pick up in the night but we were in a very protected spot.

Wednesday, April 10th - Melbourne to Titusville (Day 7)

Partly cloudy and very windy.  Temp 76.  Water temp 75.  Winds SE @ 20-30

32 Nautical Miles today.  312 total trip miles

I knew it was going to be a fairly short day today (35 miles?) but wanted to get to Titusville early enough to hopefully pick up a mooring before they were all taken.

We pulled the anchor at 8am (again!) and slowly motored back to the ICW.  On the way we pulled out the jib and were able to run the engine at lower RPM while keeping our speed between 6 and 7 knots.

It was another nice day on the water and this section of the Indian River is wide open.  You don't have to stay with the ICW markers.  Just watch the chartplotter and stay away from the more shallow spots.  I typically run 1/4 miles either east or west of the ICW line to give powerboats a wide berth which cuts down on their wakes.

Later in the morning, the winds picked up to high 20s and we actually had to pull in some jib because we were overpowered.  The wind gusts were turning the boat out of the channel.  Not a good thing....

We sailed with engine off for over an hour.  At 1:15pm we passed under the last bridge and performed the now well-know ritual of start the engine, pull in the sail, turn into the mooring field.  We did find an open mooring but it was not one of the preferred ones close to the south shore.  Instead we'd have a little bigger waves from the big winds over the next day and 1/2.

Laura did her normal great job of pulling the mooring pendant up to the bow and threading our two mooring lines through the loop.  Good job Baby!  Later, I pulled in the flag and our sign to configure the boat for storms and took this picture of the anchorage.  You can see the small whitecaps on the wind-waves.

I turned on our instruments for a little while and the winds stayed in the mid-20 all afternoon.  tonight and tomorrow they would be higher but (hopefully) from the SW where the shore is closer and the waves will be lower.

Laura found something new on the Internet and decided to make it for dinner.  It was yummy!  Mexican Chicken with queso sauce.  What do you think?  Want some?

Winds and waves were not too bad during the night but it was very warm with the south winds.  Our cabin never got below 76 but we had a nice breeze coming through.

 

I'm writing this the next day (Thursday) and the storms are just starting.  Winds are over 30 with gusts over 35.  Even though the wind has moved SW which points the boat to the closer shore, we are bouncing around quite a bit on the mooring.  Here it comes!  Time to batten down the hatches!