St. Augustine to Beaufort, SC (Day 21, 22 and 23)

Monday, May 4th (Star Wars Day!)

Air temp 68, water temp 74, winds SW @ 5

157 nautical miles (2 days), 555 total from Marathon

Another quiet night on the mooring in St. Augustine ends as we prepare for another day out on the ocean.  I completed all my engine checks last night so just had to start it this morning, turn on all my electronics, make sure everything was setup in the cockpit then pull the moorings lines.  By 6:30am we were motoring through the Bridge of Lions bridge.

Shortly after the bridge we turned into the wind and pulled our our full mainsail (always try to get it out as soon as possible).  Then we turned toward the St. Augustine inlet and motored out to sea.  There were 3 sailboats in front of us that turned around and came back.  I'm thinking, "The seas can't be that bad since it's been calm all night and light winds this morning."  Later, we found out they were traveling together and one of them was having autopilot problems so they all turned around.  They eventually fixed the problem and we talked with one of them on the radio once we were off-shore.  They set a direct course to Charleston and we didn't see them again.

Once into the deep water off the inlet, we turned north, rolled out the full jib and raised our mizzen-sail.  The winds were only mid-single-digits so just enough to help move the boat but not enough for us to make St. Mary's before sunset.  Our goal was to travel the 50 miles to St. Mary's then sit for a day or two on a mooring in Fernandina Beach.  Laura took this video of us sailing off-shore.

The ocean just had a small, maybe 2 foot swell coming from our starboard quarter which only rolled the boat slightly.  Having all our big sails up really calms down the boat.  Laura and I enjoyed the day on the ocean and even both napped during the afternoon with the boat gently rolling a little from side-to-side.  The winds picked up a little so we were able to throttle down the engine just enough to keep around 6 knots.

Dean and Sue were still traveling with us on Autumn Borne and stayed within a couple miles all day.

About an hour north of the inlet, this little yellow-ish bird came on-board and eventually made himself at home in our Hibiscus plant on the back deck.  He was joined by his partner (we think) - she didn't have the COVID-19 mask that he was wearing.

Later in the afternoon, I texted Dean about how nice is was today on the ocean and maybe we should change plans to keep going overnight up the coast.  An overnight sail would allow us to miss all the shallow and twisty ICW through Georgia and southern South Carolina.  Dean and Sue decided it was a good idea so we turned a little more out-to-sea on a better course to Port Royal Sound in the morning or Charleston later in the day.  We also setup our cockpit for the overnight sail which entailed moving cushions and pillows around for long-range comfort.

Laura re-heated some frozen spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with a small tossed salad. We try to keep the meals at-sea to something simple so she is not working over a moving stove for too long.

It was a beautiful sunset and Laura got this great picture of Autumn Borne on a fairly calm sea with the beautiful sunset colors.  They were 2 miles away from us at this point but she was able to zoom in with her Nikon P900 camera.  I think she took about 20 pictures to get this good one because the boat was moving around on the waves a bit.

The moon was just 3 days before full and, with the clear skies, kept us company and lit up the ocean all night.

We've tried several different schedules for overnight sailing over the years and have found that 2 or 3 hour watches don't really allow the off-watch person to get much sleep.  We've settled on 4 hour watches which can be extended depending on how tired the person on watch gets near the end.  My shift was 10pm - 2am and Laura decided to try and get some sleep shortly after sunset.

It stayed pretty calm until about midnight.  I think the land-breezes started to kick in (land cools and the wind picks up in the direction of cooler water) as the southern wind picked up to 15-20 knots.  This was a little higher than predicted (of course) and, according to Windfinder, would die back down in a couple hours.  I eventually reefed the jib and sheeted the mainsail in tight to try and keep down the roll from the following sea which started building to 3-4 feet.  We had pulled down the mizzen before sunset so we wouldn't have to bring it down in the dark if the winds picked up.

On our Garmin chart-plotter, I had the course set for Port Royal Sound (ETA 6am) and the iPad AquaMaps set for North Edisto River (ETA 10am).  I was hoping to at least make the North Edisto River on this trip which would make our ICW traveling a little easier over the next few days.

Laura came up around 1:30am without getting much sleep.  I went down and slept about an hour on the sofa until a group of larger swells came and rocked the boat enough for me (and the sofa cushions) to slide off onto the floor.  Then I tried our bed which is athwart-ships (sideways) so I wouldn't roll off.  It was a little better and I think I slept maybe another hour there.

Tuesday, May 5th (Cinco De Mayo!)

Air temp 64, water temp 72, winds S @ 16-20

12 nautical miles (afternoon), 567 total miles from Marathon

Hard to believe this starts our 4th week traveling from Marathon.

Around 5am Laura came downstairs and woke me up.  She said Dean had called on the radio and was having overheat problems on his engine.  He was going to go in Port Royal Sound to anchor and check it out.  I dressed and went up into the cockpit then called Dean on the radio.  They had fallen back about 3-4 miles behind us because he had brought his engine to idle when it was overheating.  We decided to go in Port Royal with them in case they needed help.  I turned Second Wind north and let out the sails for the beam-reach (wind from the side of the boat).  I turned off the engine for the first time in 23 hours as the boat zoomed through the waves at 7 knots.  Port Royal Sound outer marker was about 6nm away then another 10 miles to shore and the river.  This is one of the longest ocean channels on the coast and seems to take forever.

Just as we approached the outer marker, Dean texted me and said he had turned the engine off for awhile then, when he started it up again, the temperature stayed good.  He recommended we keep going for maybe North Edisto River entrance in another 20 miles.  I turned the boat back downwind and adjusted the sails for the new wind angle.  10 minutes later he texted me again saying he decided to go in and check things out "just in case".  Yikes!  Sail drill again!  I turned the boat back toward the inlet which was now a little behind us.  I pulled the sheets in tight for close-hauled sailing and just was able to make it back to the first channel marker without running over any shallow areas.  Then we fell off the wind a little and sailed the channel to shore.

Two hours later I was off the ocean and back in calm water although we had slowed to 3.5 knots against the outgoing tidal current.  I decided to run into Station Creek and anchor.  We had anchored here many times in the past and knew the entrance was easy and deep.  This was the sunrise on the way into Port Royal Sound.

Dean hadn't been in here and was a little more skeptical because the charts showed it to be shallow.  He eventually decided to come in and anchored just behind us.  I think the 4 of us were asleep about 10 minutes later to try and make-up for the lack of sleep last night.

We had logged 157 nautical miles from the mooring in St. Augustine to this anchorage.  On the ICW, this would have been about 225 statute miles through the twisty-turny Georgia waters with lots of shallow places where we sometimes have to stop and wait for higher tides.  In 27 hours, we had covered the equivalent of 5-6 days of ICW traveling and didn't have to once slow down so a powerboat could pass us without throwing a big wake.

After naps and lunch, we decided to head up river to Beaufort and maybe pick up a mooring for a couple nights.  We pulled our anchor just before 2pm and had a very nice motor-sail up the Beaufort River for the 11 miles trip with the tidal current helping this time and averaging 7 knots.  Autumn Borne took a little longer naps and decided to stay in Station Creek for the night.

I called the Safe Harbor Downtown Marina (formally Beaufort City Docks) and was able to pick up a mooring for the next two nights.  After tying to the mooring, we cleaned up the cockpit from our overnight sail and relax for the rest of the day.  Here is Second Wind on the mooring in Beaufort, SC with the Lady's Island Bridge in the background.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon and Laura made chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice and re-fried beans  for our Cinco De Mayo dinner.  Also had to include Margaritas.  Looks good, right?

We watched a few "Car Masters" shows on Netflix which is our new favorite - some very talented people who are not yelling at each other all the time.  Then we hit the sac around 9pm and both fell asleep quickly.

Wednesday, May 6th

Air temp 74, water temp 75, winds W @ 10

Not moving the boat today

We slept almost straight through to 7am - 10 hours.  Missing a night's sleep is the best sleeping-pill for the next night.

It was warm in the boat last night as the temps had hit 90 degrees yesterday in Beaufort.  Geez.  Still feels like Florida - hot and humid.  The cabin was 78 degrees when we went to bed and, even with the fan blowing I was warm and thinking about sleeping on the sofa under the open hatches.  But, I fell asleep shortly after that and it eventually cooled off.

Today feels cooler with highs only going to near 80 this morning then north winds will cool things down later in the day.  Tonight's low is predicted to be 51.  Might have to close up!

We worked a few boat projects this morning including organizing our pictures from the past few days and catching up the blog.  Autumn Borne picked up a mooring near us around 11am.

Just before 1pm I started untying the dinghy.  I had put two extra ratchet-straps on it to prevent swinging while out on the ocean.  While I was getting ready to lower the dinghy into the water, I saw a sailboat circle around us trying to tie up to a mooring in front.  During a brief conversation, I found out the lady driving was single-handed (alone) and having a problem stopping the boat next to the mooring, running up to the bow, reaching down with a boat hook for the mooring line, then running one of her lines through it.  The wind was blowing the boats on moorings all over the place.  Tying to a mooring with this current and wind was going to be tough. 

I told the gal on Bees Knees I would help her with the mooring in a couple minutes when I had our dinghy in the water.  As I plopped the dinghy in the water, I saw another boater had already motored over to the mooring and was helping her.  Cool.  Lots of help around.

I had texted Dean about giving them a ride into town which they had accepted.  On our way over, I saw a powerboat having problems with the mooring so I zoomed over there to help.  Laura got the worst of it since I was driving the dinghy.  She reached over and pulled up the mooring pendant to run their boat line through the end.  The mooring pendant was covered in algae and sea-growth so Laura got pretty dirty.  But, those of you that know her understand it didn't bother Laura hardly at all.  She just stuck her hands in the water and washed off on the way over to Autumn Borne.

We found the marina dinghy dock then we walked up the ramp and deposited our garbage bags.  After spending a little time in the marina office, we split up because I really wanted to take a long walk.  Laura and I had a nice 3-mile walk around Beaufort and ended up at the ice cream store (of course).  Then a short walk around the waterfront park where we met back up with Dean and Sue.  We piled into the dinghy and motored back to the boats.  Here's a picture from town of Second Wind on her mooring.  She's just to the left of center. 

On our way back to the boats I motored out onto the river to see how well the new motor would push the 4 of us in the dink.  After just a short time at full throttle, our new Tohatsu 20 popped the dinghy up on plane and we were zooming down the river.  Lots of fun for this old river Captain...

Tomorrow we'll head north again on the ICW and should be able to make it near Charleston.  Another day through the McClennenville area then a 3rd day up the Waccamaw to Myrtle Beach area.  We'll be needing fuel and water in a few days so plans are to stop at Osprey for fuel then overnight in North Myrtle Beach - maybe Myrtle Beach Yacht Club that just reopened after being shutdown for the quarantine.  That's the plan for now, we'll see how it goes.

Daytona to St. Augustine (Days 19 & 20)

Saturday, May 2nd

Air temp 63, water temp 67, winds N @ 10

46 nautical miles today, 398 total from Marathon

I hate setting an alarm for the morning.  Not having worked a 9-5 job in 15 years, I've really gotten used to sleeping until I'm not tired anymore.  Plus, sometimes I wake up an hour before the alarm and can't get back to sleep because I'm waiting for the alarm.

Laura took this pretty sunset picture last night.  You can see the last crane working on the new bridge.

This morning we had the alarm set for 6am.  I woke up at 4:30 and never got back to sleep.  I know this puts me in a bad mood all day so I purposely tried to be nice and Laura looked the other way when I wasn't.  That's one of our secrets for spending 24 X 7 together.

Anchor up at 6:30am.  We passed through under the new Memorial bridge and the Main Street lift bridge opened for us as we arrived.  Then it was set cruise RPM on Gertrude (our Perkins diesel) and relax until the power-boaters and local boats come out to play.

Autumn Borne had their anchor up and fell in behind us just passed the Seabreeze Bridge.

When we are cruising everyday like this, we get passed by the same powerboats every morning.  They are faster but run shorter days - they leave their marinas later in the morning and stop earlier in the afternoon.  So, we end up ahead of them each morning and around 10-11am they all pass us again.  It's a familiar ICW dance that we are very used to.

As expected, it was a quiet morning on the waterway until around 10am.  Being a beautiful, calm Saturday, lots of pleasure boats were expected and they didn't disappoint.  It seemed like we would get passed by 6 or 7 zooming boats then, about an hour later, the same group would zoom back the other way.  Most of the bigger boats were nice to us - they slowed down so we wouldn't get a big wake - but one big (40+ foot) SeaRay in particular was a nut-job.  He beeped his horn for a warning then passed us at 20-25 knots throwing our 42,000 pound sailboat up, down and around the ICW.  A few hours later he came back the other way and did the same thing.  Did blowing his horn make him feel better about swamping us?

What a beautiful day!  Not enough wind off the bow so we couldn't get help from our sails, but no complaints about the weather.  Here is a picture of Autumn Borne following us with the georgeous blue water and sky.

I always try to include a couple picture of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and what our day is like.  As we approached Mantanzas Inlet, we saw this power boat pulling another one off the beach with a long line.  I guess the tide had gone down unexpectedly.

A couple hours later, as we approached St. Augustine, we passed a very popular beach-boating spot on the ICW.  This picture is just a small section of the party.  Maybe a little social-distancing here...

We approached the St. Augustine City Marina around 3pm.  I called and received our reserved mooring assignment on the south side of the bridge and Dean called and got one on the north side of the bridge.  A few minutes later Laura had rigged both mooring lines even though the wind and current were making it very hard for me to hold the boat next to the morning.  Nice job Baby!

After configuring the boat for mooring life (turn off instruments, turn on wind generator and solar panels, bring binoculars, books, phones and iPad downstairs, etc.) we dropped the dinghy and motored over to pick up Dean and Sue.  Our dinghy is easier to deploy than theirs and we have plenty of room for 4.

Dean and I paid for our moorings and we decided to walk to Winn Dixie for groceries.  It was a pleasant 2 mile walk through town and down US1.

What a different town from all our other visits.  With the lock-down from COVID-19, it was like the town was deserted.  No college students, no red tour trolleys and almost no people walking around.  Usually it is wall-to-wall people here on the road and sidewalks.

No problems with groceries and I even picked up a few minor things from West Marine in the same mall.  I ordered an Uber XL (larger vehicle) and Dennis arrived 8 minutes later to bring us and our groceries back to the marina.

Too much stuff for all of us in the dinghy so I took Dean, Sue and their groceries back to Autumn Borne then went back to the marina for Laura and our chow.  Back at the boat we hauled everything from the dinghy to the walkway, then over the combing into the cockpit, down down the stairs to the galley, then Laura put everything away.  Groceries by dinghy takes a lot of work.

We had a rotisserie chicken we bought from Winn Dixie for dinner (it was juicy and flavorful) along with a few veggies.  After a couple Netflix shows (good Wi-Fi here) we hit the sack early.  I slept excellent for over 8 hours after a short sleep last night and long day.

Sunday, May 3rd

Air temp 61, water temp 74 (after Sun for a few hours), winds SE @ 5

Spent the day on the mooring in St. Augustine.

Another beautiful day on Second Wind with not much on our agenda.  I'm going to take a side-track a bit and write about our health and eating habit changes.  If you're only interested in the cruising / sailing part of our blogs, feel free to skip down to "Back to our cruising life -".

After all the work we do to keep the boat in shape, we also try to keep ourselves healthy - sometimes more successful than others to be honest.  In early December, I decided my big gut was getting in the way of things so started doing sit-ups, crunches and leg-lifts every morning.  I gradually worked my way to 100 reps and have only missed maybe 4 days since then.  It's a great way to start the morning and get the blood pumping.  I also stopped drinking coffee in the morning because it seems my heart is not happy with it since my ablation surgery in 2018.  Does 100 sit-ups = 1 cup of coffee?  It does for me.

Before we left on the boat 14 years ago, I recorded 11, 30 minute aerobic work-outs with Gilad called Total Body Sculpt and have since moved them to the computer for playing.  I rotate through them every once in a while when we have the time.  During the commercials (which we've memorized of course) I do push-ups and have added free weights for upper arm strength at the end.  These exercises are not every day or even every other day.  Sometimes I do 3 or 4 a week and sometimes none.  But, I do try to keep them going so I can keep going.  I did one this morning in our salon.

Laura and I have also changed our eating habits a lot.  We haven't totally given up the bad things (like carbs) but we do limit them to small portions and the good things (like veggies) to larger portions.  That way you don't feel like your being punished or loosing out on the "good" stuff.  For example, Laura makes these awesome chocolate, cherry cookies with a dark chocolate drizzle.  Am I making you hungry now?  They are my favorite and she makes several dozen at a wack then freezes them.  I eat ONE for dessert.  It satisfies my craving for chocolate and fills that last little crack in my tummy.   I've also been not eating snacks at night (thank you to my brother-in-law Steve for that great example).  Seems to be a lot of literature lately on intermittent fasting where you basically eat for 10 hours a day then don't eat anything for the other 14.  There is lots of health benefits from this and, once again, I can testify to feeling much better from it.  I've only been eating from 9am to 7pm.  Here was my lunch today (1/2 turkey sandwich) that is typical of the last several months.

I am bragging a little but also want to be a better example for my friends and family. I feel much better over-all and I'm doing many things I couldn't do in December like bend over and tie my sneakers with holding my breath.  As we get older, it seems like you can't do many of the physical things you used to.  I don't think that's completely true.  We just let ourselves get out of shape.

Back to our cruising life - Dean and I were texting in the morning and he was eventually able to stay on his mooring for tonight.  We decided to go back into town after lunch, take a walk and look for ice cream.  We've been wanting ice cream for a long time and haven't found an open shop for the last couple months.  Today was the day!

We picked up Dean and Sue with the dinghy and motored into the marina.  As we walked into town, I took this picture of Dean, Sue and Laura.  This is downtown St. Augustine and this park in the background is usually packed with people.  Very empty today....

We walked into Old Town and there were a few visitors around.  Most of the stores were closed but we did find ice cream!  Here is Laura outside of Tedi's Ice Cream.

After a nice tour of downtown, we walked back to the marina.  Dean and Sue invited us onboard for a cocktail which we accepted and had a nice afternoon on Autumn Borne.  Then back to our boat for the rest of the day.  Steaks on the grill tonight if the wind doesn't blow out the BBQ.

Tomorrow we plan on heading off-shore for a day of sailing up to St. Mary's inlet and maybe a couple days in Fernandina Beach.  The weather looks excellent for the run up the ocean tomorrow with west winds 10-15 and long seas less than 2 feet.  I'll let you know how it goes!

TItusville to Daytona (Days 17 & 18)

Thursday, April 30th (how come nobody noticed I had the days-of-the-month wrong in the last blog.....)


Air temp 70, water temp 73, winds W @ 20

Didn't move the boat today...

I was up twice in the night.  First, around 12:30am when the winds started howling than again around 4:30am when the rain, thunder and lightning came through.  It was a bit of a crazy night but not really uncomfortable for us.  Our mooring was near (1/2 mile?) the western shore and that's the direction the big winds were coming from.  With only 1/2 mile of fetch, the waves didn't even move the boat very much.  Here is what the weather RADAR looked like around us just before 5am.  We are the blue dot.

After being up during the night, I slept in until after 9am.  By then the heavy rain had stopped but it was very humid and cloudy.  We worked on a few boat projects during the morning and it seemed we both were itching for a walk ashore.  Shortly after lunch, I dropped the dinghy and we motored into the Titusville Municipal Marina under very cloudy skies.  We didn't know if we would be able to walk into town because of the rain, but we did bring a bag of garbage that was a little smelly.

After dropping off the bag of garbage, we started toward town.  We only made it about 1/2 mile before the rain started.  We jogged over to a bus-stop enclosure and sat it out for 10 minutes.  When the rain let up, we could see lots of clouds heading our way so we decided to hoof it back to the dinghy.  Our goal was to get some fresh fruit and maybe a head of lettuce from the 7-11 that we could see about 2 blocks from the bus-stop.  But, it was not to be.

We did make it back to the boat before the rain came pouring down.  It rained hard for about an hour then, like magic, the Sun came out and we saw blue skies.  By this time I had already started a glass of tequila so we just sat up in the cockpit, played some music and enjoyed the Sun.  I did get this cool picture of the giant Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral through the bridge from our mooring.

By evening you could tell the winds had changed to the NW.  It was feeling much drier (lower humidity) and cooler.  When we retired around 10pm, the temp outside was below 70 and around 75 inside the boat.  We had a blanket ready because it was supposed to go down into the 50s by morning.

 Friday, May 1st

Air temp 64, water temp 71, winds NW @ 15

42nm today, 352 total from Marathon

I had the alarm set for 6:45am and Dean texted me shortly after that he was picking up his anchor.  We had our plans a little confused this morning as I thought he was leaving later (so I slept in a little) and he thought I was leaving sooner so he got up earlier.  Oh well...

We were underway by 7:15am so only a couple miles behind Autumn Borne.  The winds were a little higher than predicted which slowed us down about 1/2 knot.  There was also some current against us until we crossed to the Mosquito Lagoon where we picked up a little speed.  Just before lunch, I took this picture of a local fisherman with his 3 big fishing dogs.  How does he move around on the boat?

The ICW was a little busier today with several sailboats in sight plus we were passed by several powerboats.  That was until we got to New Smyrna Beach where everybody that knew someone with a boat was out on the water.  It was wall-to-wall boats all the way to Daytona.  I wish I could have gotten a picture a few times when all the crazy boaters were around us zooming and passing each other.  But, I was too busy trying to miss them all.

We anchored at our favorite Daytona anchorage just before the new Tom Staed Memorial Bridge.  This is a nice anchorage because this area is a "Minimum Speed - No Wake - Manatee Zone".  Most boaters slow down and we don't get a lot of wakes.  Here's a picture of the bridge from our anchorage.  It has lots of arches that I like better than the flat bridges across the ICW (you can see a flat one behind in the distance).

Dean and I have already synced our plans for tomorrow morning.  Our alarm is set for 6am.  We have a little farther to go (45 versus 42 miles) and want to get in early enough to go in and walk to the grocery store.  I called the St. Augustine City Marina and made a mooring reservation for tomorrow and Sunday.  While I had them on the phone, I asked if I could make a reservation for Autumn Borne too.  They told me "No.  There are not too many moorings left" so I texted Dean and recommended he call them immediately.

Dean texted me back about 10 minutes later and said he could only get a reservation for tomorrow and was on a waiting list for Sunday.  Geez.  It shouldn't be this complicated for 2 boats to travel together....

Anyway, that's why we want to be in St. Augustine early and do our shopping tomorrow.  If Autumn Borne can't get a mooring for Sunday, we'll leave Sunday morning with them and keep working north.  The next several days are predicted to be nice winds and seas for doing a little off-shore sailing.  We're looking forward to that!

Last Two Days in Vero then Off to Titusville (Days 13-16)

Sunday, April 27th

Laundry day!  Not much going on with the boat today as we're pretty well full of fuel and groceries plus the boat has been running nice (knock on wood).  We relaxed a bit in the morning then took our laundry into the marina after lunch.  Wouldn't you know it?  For the 4 or 5 times we've been by the marina laundry room we've never seen anyone in there.  Today there were only two washers empty (out of 6) and a lady showed up right after us with 2 or 3 loads.

But, we didn't have to wait and got our laundry right into the washers.  We just hung out while washers were running then, after moving the laundry to the dryers, we went for a walk. We walked south down Indian River Drive then across Rt 60 into Riverside Park.  Wow!  What a huge and beautiful park!  We didn't even have time to walk all the way around it before we had to head back for the dryers although we did 2 miles of it.

Back at the marina we folded up our laundry then headed back to the boat.  Timing was great as I had the dinghy up on it's davits just as the afternoon rain started.  It wasn't as bad as predicted but there were huge storms just south of us.  We could see the lightning and hear the thunder for a couple hours.

Tonight will be cool - down into the high-60s with north winds tomorrow.  That's why we are sitting another day so the north winds clock east and we can sail on Tuesday.

Monday, April 28th

 It was cool enough last night to put a blanket on the bed.  Very comfortable for me.

After a few boat jobs in the morning, we went for a dinghy ride after lunch.  Dean had told us about a canal that runs over toward the ocean so we meandered around and eventually found a small beach, between the mangroves, where we were able to lock the dinghy.  Then just a short walk across A1A to the beach!  On the way to the beach, we spotted a snack bar with an advertisement for ice cream.  I think we've only had ice cream once this Winter so we were ready.  Crap.  They closed at 2:30pm.  It was 3:10pm.

Plus, the public access was all closed and no other place we could find to get down there.  It was beautiful and empty.  Bummer.  Now we were 0 for 2.

 

It was a pretty day though with a cool north wind blowing down the coast.  We both had long-sleeve shirts on to keep warm.  On the way back to the dinghy, I took this picture of the nice park with a place for the dinkster.  Sorry about the finger in the upper corner...

We had a nice ride back to the boat without any other issues.

Before we left I had texted Dean about playing some music at the marina this evening.  We made a date for 4:30pm and just had time for showers and pack up our instruments after our dinghy ride.

Dean and I alternated songs on our guitars and Laura even played a couple songs on her Mountain Dulcimer.  Dean had invited several of his friends at the marina who came and chatted while listening to music.  It was a fun evening that was helped along by TWO glasses of Tequila.  Back at the boat I hauled up the dingy and secured it a little better than normal because tomorrow we are going sailing!

Back at the boat I was feeling pretty good and very ready to be leaving tomorrow morning.  Those who have followed our blog for the past 14 years might remember that Laura and I are classified as "Globe Trotters" and not "Cruisers".  This was a term used by Bruce Van Sant in his Gentleman's Guide to Passages South which we use during our first two years for traveling to Grenada and Trinidad.  It says we are the type of sailors who like to travel between places more than staying there.  We are always ready for the next horizon.

Tuesday, April 29th

Air temp 72, water temp 76 winds E @ 10-15

33 nautical miles today, 277 total from Marathon

Tuesday morning we are up shortly after 7am and motoring out of the harbor by 7:30am.  The winds are a little lighter than predicted so we motored for the first hour until we were away from shore a bit and the east winds built in nicely.  We turned off the engine and sailed the ICW for the next 5 hours with full main and jib pulling us along at 5-5.5 knots.  It was one of our favorite days in many months.  The boat just glided along and it was so quiet.

Autumn Borne passed us later in the morning as Dean was running his engine to check everything out.  This was their first day on the water under-way since December so lots to watch for.

We made it an early day and anchored just past the Dragon Point bridge near the eastern shore around 2:45pm.  I practiced my flute for a while then Laura and I watched a few shows off my iPhone.  We hit the sack around 10pm.

Wednesday, April 30th

Air temp 76, water temp 74, winds SE @ 10

33 nautical miles today, 310 total from Marathon

After a nice night on-the-hook, we were up and raised the anchor at 7:30am again.  I rolled out the jib but the winds were light and behind us so we were only making about 3 knots without the motor.  I decided to work on my sailing a bit today and because the Indian River is fairly wide here I jibe-tacked back and forth from a broad-reach to wing-on-wing all morning.  This means running the boat a little east of our desired course to keep both the main and jib working on a starboard tack (wind on our starboard side).  Then, when we got too close to shallow water, I jibed the main to the starboard side and we ran straight downwind with the full jib out to port and full main out to starboard.  This only works with the wind right behind you so the boat gradually worked toward the western shore of the river on this tack.  I ran this process all morning and probably averaged 4.5 knots for the day.  Since we only had 30 miles to Titusville, we weren't in any hurry.

Autumn Borne passed us again and arrived at Titusville 2.5 miles (a little over 1/2 hour) ahead of us.  They had run their engine at low RPM all day while our engine was cold. In the two 7 hour days from Vero Beach, we had sailed for 10.5 hours of it.  I know.  Not a huge accomplishment but I gotta take gratification in the little things these days.

Because of the storms predicted all day tomorrow, we picked up a mooring at the Titusville City Marina for two nights - $38.  I feel safer on a mooring (if they are city run and inspected annually) plus the boat doesn't dance back and forth like if we were anchored in high winds.  We might take the dinghy into town for a walk if we can get a couple hours between rain cloud tomorrow.  Here is our view of the Titusville bridge and some of the high-rise condos from our mooring.

Three years ago we added solar panels and a wind generator to Second Wind.  Days like this are when they are really is nice.  We sailed all day and only ran the engine for about 20 minutes at each end of the trip.  Prior to three years ago I would have had to run our generator for several hours at the end of the day to charge our batteries.  When we tied to the mooring, the batteries were all charged up - even put back what we used last night.  I was even able to run the hot water heater off our inverter for about 1/2 hour to get hot water for shower and dishes.  That was replenished in the batteries before the Sun went down.  It was a prefect scenario - clear, blue skies and winds in the high teens.  Don't forget we have a refrigerator and two freezers that run off the batteries when not at the dock.  They are frugal but not power free.  Thank you Mr. Wind and Mr. Sun!

Today was much warmer and humid with the south winds.  The front will clock the winds tomorrow to the west and cool everything down for a couple days.  The low tomorrow night is predicted to be 58 here.  Our first 50s!  I'm so excited (Laura is not).

But, highs will still be in the low 80s for the next couple weeks and even close to 90 on Monday and Tuesday.  Nights are going to be in the 60s which should keep things comfortable for us without air-conditioning.

Stay safe everyone!

Sitting through storms in Vero (Day 11 and 12)

Friday, April 25th

Air temp 79, water temp 79 (I'm not making this up folks), winds S @ 15-18

It was a quiet morning on Second Wind as I slept in a little because it was too warm in the boat to sleep well last night.  We had some of Laura's fresh baked English Muffins with an egg and bacon for breakfast.  They were GOOD!

Storms were heading at us from the north and west so today was going to be wet.  It rained on and off during the morning and we alternated from windows open to windows closed about every 1/2 hour.

Around noontime, there was a clear spot on the weather RADAR so we dropped the dinghy and headed into the marina.  We had trash to dispose of and I wanted to pay for a couple more days.  We were paid through tonight.

After paying for 2 more night and dropping the trash, we went for a little walk to loosen up.  I didn't want to go very far as there were dark clouds heading our way.  We only walked about 1/2 mile but kept the pace fast so we could get a little exercise.  Back to the boat and it started raining just a little later.  I ran the Honda generator about 20 minutes on our hot water heater then a few hours for our air-conditioning while the boat was closed up.  It made it very nice in here.

Laura took this picture of a neat tree near the marina office.  It actually has a palm tree growing in the center.  In the picture, you can just see some of the dried palm fronds near the top of the picture.

I had been smelling antifreeze from the engine room for the past few days and today it seemed worse.  Yesterday I had drained some of the antifreeze from the engine in preparation to replace the thermostat.  Then, I put it back in and ran the engine for a bit after I couldn't get the thermostat bolts out.  Maybe I had spilled some antifreeze that was causing the smell.

When I went to investigate, I saw the heat-exchanger (radiator on a car) cap was seeping.  I'd seen this before so took it off to make a new gasket.  I keep lots of different gasket material on the boat so selected what seemed right and went to the salon.  Laura is always happy to help so she jumped right in and cut out a new gasket with her sewing scissors.

 

When she finished, the new gasket looked pretty good.  It's the one on top in the next picture.

I replaced the cap and it fit nicely.  Hopefully, no more leaks.

But, a few hours later, we could still smell antifreeze.  Now we had some work to do.  Laura changed into "bilge monkey" clothes and dropped down into the engine room.  I helped from above as we removed the two oil pads from under the engine and another pad along the starboard side.  The one on the side was probably the smelly culprit as it had several green spots from antifreeze.

We used engine spray cleaner and paper towels to clean everything up then put in fresh oil pads.  Now it smelled nice in there so hopefully it will stay nice.

Yesterday I had taken the dinghy under the bridge behind us to check out the Riverside Cafe on the other side.  I was hoping they had take-out.  Turns out they were closed and renovating.  But, when I got back to the boat, I noticed their wi-fi was still broadcasting.  I configured our amplified antenna for their network and it's been working awesome.  It should, right?  There's nobody at the restaurant using it.  We were able to stream shows last night and I even downloaded on my phone a season of Vikings and Criminal Minds that we are re-watching.

Storms with lightning, thunder and high winds lasted through most of the evening but things quieted down when we went to bed around 10pm.  Then, around 12:30am, a big storm came through with boomers and winds that rocked us pretty good.  No sleeping through that but it ended about 20 minutes later and we slept peacefully the rest of the night.

Saturday, April 25th

Air temp 70, water temp 78, winds calm

The storms last night brought north winds that cooled us down nicely.  I think it actually got down to 68 outside and about 76 inside the boat.  Toward morning, I even had to pull on a blanket.

Today was grocery day.  We've been filling up our virtual cart on the Publix website and wanted to get it delivered this morning before the predicted afternoon storms.  Laura placed the order around 9am with a 2-3 hour delivery.  I dropped the dinghy to be ready when it arrived.

It was cool to watch on-line as our shopper check things off on the list and there was only 1 item they didn't have but we were able to select a substitute.  Around 11:30am it was "out for delivery" so we gathered trash (including all the dirty engine room rags from yesterday) and motored into the marina.  We arrived just as Brian showed up with a backseat full of food and stuff.  Sorry - we forgot to take a picture of us in the very full dinghy.  Next time...

He helped us load the many bags into the dinghy then we thanked him as he drove off.  What a concept!  I could get used to this except it seems pretty expensive.  When comparing the register receipt to our final bill, it looks like it cost something like $62 for the delivery MORE than getting it ourselves.  But, the website said our groceries would be about $30 more than the actual register receipt.  Dean said he knew from experience we would get this back but it would take a few days.  We'll see.  Next time we may take the 2 mile walk then spend $10 to Uber back to the marina.  What else do we have to do?

Laura finished putting away all the groceries and, after lunch, I helped to vacuum seal the 12 pounds of on-sale chicken we had ordered along with (3) 1/2 pound packages of deli-meat for lunches. In my world, you can never have too much chicken.  There's so many things you can make with it!

This afternoon was very warm on the boat.  Temp at 6:30pm was "87, feels like 97".  I took my flute up to the cockpit and played for about an hour but I was wet with sweat before I stopped - even with all the windows open.  I've been trying to practice more lately to increase my quality of play.  I played the flute quite a bit several years ago with my sister Denise on piano and me on flute.  We played several nice duets.  But...  that was about 15-20 years ago.  When you don't play the flute for awhile, all your mouth and lung parts forget how to do it.  The first time you try you can play a few notes but it's very squeaky and sounds like crap.  From experience, it takes about 2 weeks of solid practicing to get the good sound from the instrument started.  I'm almost there!

This afternoon was very little or no wind.  This is the forecast for the next 36 hours until the next front comes through late Sunday night and finally we get some nice (for me) weather of low 80s during the day and down into the 60s at night.

I took the dinghy into the marina with a load of trash from packing the groceries.  I saw Dean and Sue out on the back of their boat talking to someone so I stopped by.  After talking for a while, I ask if they had any trash which I would be happy to take in with mine.  They had more than me!  Go figure. 

The rest of today will be a few odd jobs around the boat and tomorrow will be laundry day.  It's been over 2 weeks since laundry in Marathon so, even though we wear our summer clothes multiple days, our laundry basket is full.

It was so warm this afternoon that Laura and I decided to skip dinner.  Neither of us were hungry so we'll just snack a bit.  Neither of us is going to waste-away-to-nothing....

Dean and I have been discussing when we will leave and we might stay until Tuesday.  The storms end on Sunday but winds on Monday will be out of the north at 10-20 knots.  That is the direction we'll be traveling which will really slow us down. Tuesday and Wednesday look like better sailing days and we'd get to Titusville for another cold front on Thursday.  Sounds good to me.

Change of plans (happens all the time...) - Days 8, 9 and 10

Tuesday, April 21st

78 degrees air temp, 78 degrees water temp.  Winds NW @ 10

36 nm today, 244 total from Marathon

We were up before sunrise and preparing the boat for a 60+ mile run to the Melbourne anchorage today.  It took a little longer than usual to pull the anchor as the chain was very muddy.  We have a seawater washdown with a hose that we use to clean the chain and anchor.  But, this stuff was like peanut butter and took longer than usual to rinse off.

By 0645 we were underway and motoring back to the ICW channel.  No problems in this direction as I just followed my GPS track from when we had come in.  This showed the one deeper spot that I had found - 6 feet.  We turned north and settled in for a day of motoring the ICW.

2 1/2 hours later we passed Ft. Pierce and had to wait 20 minutes for the North Bridge schedule (they open every 1/2 hour so we just missed it).  This is our only bridge today.  As we motored passed the bridge, the winds clocked a little to the east so I rolled out the jib and main to try and help us along.  That only lasted about 15 minutes until the wind veered back to the north and the sails were flapping.  Oh well...  I will always try to sail whenever possible.

A couple hours later we passed Vero Beach where our friends Dean and Sue were on a mooring.  They were supposed to join us but Dean got heavily involved in a few boat projects (it happens) so decided to sit a few days.  They will hopefully catch-up in a week or so.

Our plans were to anchor around Melbourne tonight then motor to Titusville tomorrow.  Titusville mooring field is very protected from the south winds predicted this weekend and we'd be able to go ashore to loosen up our legs.  I decided to call them and maybe try to reserve a mooring for tomorrow and the next few days.

The lady on the phone told me they did have moorings but they were first come, first served - no reservations.  She also added that they were "daily".  I asked if they meant we could only stay one night.  She replied, "No.  You can stay more than one night but can't come ashore."  Oh crap.  With the nasty weather predicted Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we had planned on staying there for 4-5 days.  It had been 8 days since we had been ashore.  Even though we don't mind extended stays on the boat, we would like to stretch our legs and maybe see other people once in a while.

I called back to Vero Beach City Marina and asked if they had a mooring available.  They did have "one" but it was also first come, first served.  I turned the boat around and motored the 4 miles back to Vero hoping no one else would get there before us.

Turns out we did make it and tied up at the fuel dock for a pump-out and registration.  They still had all our owner and boat information on the computer from the last time we were here - December 2006.  Nice!

We paid for 4 nights ($69 total) then moved the boat to the open mooring.  Laura did her normal excellent job of picking up the mooring line and tying lines to both sides of Second Wind.  Dean and Sue drove by to say, "hi!" and seemed happy we were there.  Dean also texted me a little later to say he was thinking of organizing a guitar jam at the dock and wanted to hear us play and sing again.  After talking, we decided to schedule this for tomorrow.  Laura and I were a little tired from being up early and didn't feel like dropping the dinghy, putting the motor on, etc.  So, after 8 days of not getting off the boat, we decided to wait for tomorrow.

Dinner was burgers on the grill and afterwards we watched a few shows off my iPhone connect to the TV.  AT&T recently sent us a notification that they were offering a new plan that increased the monthly gigs from 22 to 100 per device - these are both "unlimited" plans but can slow you down after reaching these limits.  The caveat was it included HBO but not AT&T Watch TV.  We almost never watched Watch TV so we signed up for it.  It will be interesting to see if we use all the data while traveling and watching TV each night off the phone.  I'll let you know.

Wednesday, April 22nd

68 degrees air temp, 76 degrees water temp. 

This was the first night in months that I pulled on the blanket and slept really well.   We have a clock in our cabin that displays the current time plus inside and outside temperature on the ceiling.  This was the first morning since January that it was below 75 in our cabin - it was 72 inside and 67 outside at 6am.  Even with the air-conditioning on in Marathon, the nights were so warm it barely got below 80 in the cabin (but it was much dryer, comfortable and noisier).

We decided to go ashore today!  Later in the morning we dropped dinghy, lowered the outboard onto the transom, got all our stuff together and motored toward the marina .  On the way, we stopped and talked to Dean and Sue on their boat.  Then we motored to the dinghy dock and touched land for the first time in 8 days.  It was nice.  We walked down the road a bit without a real destination then decided to see if the beach was open. After a mile walk, it turned out there were signs the public access to the beach was closed but a nearby restaurant had steps leading down to the sand.  There were 100s of people on the beach but nobody close - everyone was social distancing nicely.  Laura got in a little walk for her "beach fix".

There is a highway over the water just behind our boat so, on our way back to the marina, I walked up and took this picture.  (No.  We didn't buy a drone...) This is the Vero Beach City Marina mooring field.  Second Wind is the first boat in the lower right.

Dean had scheduled a 3pm play-along at the marina picnic tables.  We arrived around 3:15pm and were the first people there.  This worked out OK as I watched the 3:30pm SpaceX launch from Cape Canaveral on my iPad and a little in-person.  I had hoped to be at Titusville for this launch but we didn't make it.  From 70 miles away, we did see the light from the engines going up into the sky but the higher clouds hid the rest of the accent. Bummer.

Dean played guitar, I played guitar and Uke, Sassy also played the Uke.  A few other boaters came over and we had some fun for a couple hours singing along.  As you can see, we were social-distancing here too.

We had BBQ pork chops off the grill for dinner and ate in cockpit for the 3rd time in several months.  I love eating dinner in the cockpit.  It's like a picnic with just the two of us in the fresh air.  Plus, as usual, we played some nice dinner music on the stereo (Howard Livingston) then sat and talked for quite awhile after eating.  When we eat in the salon, I turn on the TV and watch a few shows instead of talking.  It was just a perfect day weatherwise.  Light north winds which were just a little cool for walking and hanging out.  Just enough wind to keep the mosquitoes and no-seeums away.

Oh.  There is a boat parked next to us that reminded me of my late cousin Don.  During our get-togethers in Marathon, he would always call Islamarada "Esmerelda".  Thinking of you Don!



Tomorrow will be warmer with high south winds.  Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday are predicted to be unsettled weather with showers and thunderstorms.  This is why we are here so we'll sit out the next few days with plans on leaving Monday to head north again. 

In the meantime, Laura has been making out a grocery list on-line for Insta-cart at Publix to be delivered on Saturday.  Prices are a little higher than in the store but it's perfect for folks without a car (like us).  Dean had an Insta-cart grocery delivery today and they brought it right to the dinghy dock.  Awesome!

Thursday, April 23rd

74 degrees air temp, 76 degrees water temp

It was warmer last night so no blanket for me.  We do sleep with a small fan blowing cool air on us which makes things much more comfortable.

Just so you don't think everything on a boat is fun and games....

Over the past year or so, our boat engine has been running a little hotter than normal on the gauge.  I keep a close eye on it and have even checked our engine temp with a thermometer gun (yes, about 10 degrees hotter than normal).  I've changed the raw water impeller last fall which didn't make any difference and checked the sea strainer and lines to the engine.  My next troubleshooting spot was the thermostat which I thought might not be opening all the way and limiting the cooling water through the engine.

I called and found that Trans Atlantic Diesel in Virginia (a good place for Perkins engine parts) had them in stock so I ordered two thermostats and two gaskets yesterday with overnight shipping.  They arrived this morning and I took the dinghy into the marina office and picked them up.

Back at the boat, I siphoned about a gallon of antifreeze mixture from the engine and only got a small amount in my mouth.  Euuuuu!  That stuff tastes awful. Then I concentrated on the two bolts holding the thermostat housing.  One bolt was easy to get at so I started there.  Box-end wrench wouldn't loosen it so I tried a socket with ratchet then a 1 foot breaker-bar.  Couldn't move it.  I sprayed on BP Blaster (good solvent for loosening bolts) and waited a bit.  Still wouldn't move. 

Two hours later and I still can't get the bolts off.  I'm giving up for today and putting everything back together.  At least this is not critical - we can still move the boat at close to our normal cruising speed.  Plus, the engine temp has seemed to get a little better since we motored out of The Keys.  There has been about a 10 degree drop in seawater temperature to here and it will only get cooler (better?), right?

Laura is making English-muffins from scratch and they are rising right now.  Dean organized another sing-along at the marina (I think Thursday is their normal day) and we can't decide if we are going in to play / sing.  Seems like I would be playing all the same songs from yesterday.  What fun is that?

I guess that's all for today.  I'll post this and start another episode tomorrow during the predicted storms.  At least we are on a mooring now in a very protected cove.  Should be fun!

Lake Worth to Stuart to Jensen Beach (Days 5, 6 and 7)

Saturday, April 18th

Air temp 79, water temp 83, winds W @10

26 nm today, 191 total from Marathon

Anchor up at 9:30am to continue our "bridge dance" to Stuart.  We had 7 bridges today and the first 4 were on a 1/2 hour schedule.  We passed through the first 3 without hardly slowing down as the schedule was close to our boat speed.  The Indiantown bridge was 4 miles away but we only had 1/2 hour from the last bridge.  I knew we couldn't make it so throttled down so we would not be too early and have to hold the boat near the bridge.  It all worked out well and the next two bridges were on request and pretty close.  1/2 hour later we were in Hobe Sound with only one more bridge over an hour away.

While cruising, we almost never pay attention to the day of the week.  Unless, it's a weekend.  Then, it seems like every boat ever made is out on the water and we're dodging them (and their wakes) big and small.  Especially today as it was a beautiful morning - warm with light winds.  The waterway was crazy busy and Hobe Sound was even more nuts.  Most of Hobe Sound is a 25 knot speed limit which is perfect for the big fishing boats to put out a huge 3-4 foot wake to everybody around them.  But, it gradually calmed down for us as we passed a couple major anchorages which seemed to be the destination of most boats.

Have you seen electric hydrofoil boards?  They look like a lot of fun but I don't know if I could balance myself on something that small.  They look like a tiny surf board but have a fin underneath with an electric motor about 3 feet down pushing a hydrofoil up to the surface.  The rider stands on the board with a remote speed control in his hand.  As he / she goes faster, the board gradually lifts out of the water and looks like something from Back to the Future.  Here's a picture Laura took of a couple running around us in Hobe Sound.  Notice the guy on the right is going slow so his board is still on the water.  The guy on the left is going much faster so the hydrofoil had pushed the board up like he's floating on air.

We were not sure of our destination today as we had a few choices.  A great spot to anchor with ocean beach access is Peck Lake about 1/2 way between Hobe Sound and the St. Lucie River.  It is usually pretty full with anchored boats but we were hopeful with less cruisers on the water now there would be room.  Nope.  It was very full with 12 sailboats and several local powerboats.  There was probably room for us to anchor between some of them but I don't like tight anchorages.  If the winds picks up, ya never know how good the anchor system is of the other boats.  They could (and have) drag their anchors right into us.

So we decided to keep going and anchor near Stuart where I planned on getting fuel and water - probably tomorrow.  Just after passing Peck Lake, a squall came through with 20-25 knot winds.  The winds were out of the north which slowed us down a bit but didn't push us out of the channel.

The squall calmed down just as we made the turn onto the St. Lucie River toward Stuart with rain and winds up to 35 knots.  I decided to try and new anchorage near a spot called Hooker Bay.  It looked pretty wide open with good wind protection from the west and south where the winds were supposed to blow tonight.  I made the turn to the west about 1/2 way between G17A and G19.  Both of my chart plotters showed this whole area to be 7-9 feet deep so I didn't even slow down.  About 2 minutes later I could see our depth sounder going down (shallow water) so pulled back the throttle to idle.  21 tons of sailboat doesn't stop very quickly but we did start to slow.  My depth sounder alarm went off a few seconds later to show less than a foot of water under our keel.  I put the transmission in reverse at almost full throttle - this is our brakes.  The boat slowed much quicker but I could feel the keel dragging in the mud as the boat came to a sudden stop.  It was soft mud which I was able to reverse out of fairly quickly and move closer to G19 where the water was deeper to the western shore.

This is our 29th trip up or down the ICW.  It's a little game with me to see if I can make it all the way without running aground.  The game was up quickly this year as we hadn't gone 200 miles (out of the total 1,700).  I have made it all the way twice - pretty lucky those years.

A short time later we had the anchor down in Hooker Bay and spent a somewhat restless evening with the boat wakes from the ICW continuing until after 10pm. 

Sunday, April 19th

Air temp 73 (a little cooler - YEA), water temp 84, winds W @ 8-10

17 nm today for 208 total from Marathon

We like taking our time and not rushing when cruising up and down the east coast.  Our schedule is almost always controlled by the weather.  When it's nice, we move.  When it's nasty, we stay put.  Plus, I have favorite anchorages which I know will give us good protection from specific wind directions so I plan to be there when the winds are high and we need to sit.  The past few weeks have seen some nasty squalls with high winds all along the southern and southeastern states so we didn't want to go there until things calmed a bit.

Also, part of our schedule this year, we were meeting up with our friends Dean and Sue (S/V Autumn Borne) on the 21st.  They have been on a mooring at the Vero Beach City Marina for several months and decided to travel north with us. 

This is why we haven't gone very far the past few days plus thunderstorms have been building along the Florida coast every afternoon / evening.  The weather forecast for Monday called for 20-30 knot winds from the south and southwest all day so we wanted to be somewhere with good protection from the south.

I decided to anchor Sunday and Monday nights on the north side of the Jensen Beach Bridge.   We've been in there several times and the holding is good with very nice protection from any southern winds.  Knowing today would be a short run, we slept in a bit and didn't leave our anchorage until 10am.  As we had time to kill, I decided to motor 7 miles to Stuart and fill up our diesel, gas and water tanks.  We were not running low on anything but, this year, I was trying to keep everything more full than normal in case our normal fuel stops were closed.  Right now, they are all open but ya never know. 

I'm not sure I've ever seen this many boats out on the water.  The Stuart area is very popular with boaters but today was over the top.  We did make it to Sunset Bay Marina and loaded 25 gallons of diesel (out of 150), 5 gallons of gasoline (out of 20) and about 30 gallons of water (out of 200).  Because of COVID-19, we were not allowed off the boat and even handed the attendant a couple bags of trash to dispose for us.

Back down the St. Lucie River toward the ICW with both small and big boats passing us in every direction.  Here's a picture Laura took of all the boats zooming around us.  Can you count how many boats are in this picture?

A couple hours later we crossed under the Jensen Beach Bridge and I had to find my way over the bar into our anchorage.  I knew from experience this would be tricky so I slowly edged the boat to the west off the ICW.  The first two places I tried we "touched bottom" but the third time was a charm.  Still there was less than a foot of water under our keel as we slowly motored behind the bridge watching the water get deeper.  We anchored in 8 feet of water nicely protected from the south and west.

Winds were not too bad but it was warm and humid.  Around dinner time I closed up the boat, started the generator and turned on the air-conditioner to cool down the boat and lower the humidity inside.  We decided to make a breakfast for dinner with home fries, bacon, sausage, eggs and toast.  What wine goes with breakfast?  I choose white.

I had been checking the weather RADAR on my phone and was watching storms pass south of us but nothing showed in our area.  Near the end of our dinner all hell broke loose.  We had a huge gust of wind come from the side and lean the boat over 30-40 degrees on it's side.  Everything in the salon slid off the table and counters as we tried to hold onto our plates.  I immediately opened the hatch and crawled into the cockpit.  I could barely see the front of the boat 25 feet away with the rain and blowing spray from the water.  We were in a white-squall!

Laura was frantically trying to close the clear canvas windows in the cockpit and I immediately ran downstairs and turned on all our instruments then back into the cockpit to start the engine.  I put the engine in gear and gave it some throttle to try and keep the anchor from pulling out.  As I looked down at the instruments, the anemometer (wind speed) read 44 knots.  Holy Crap!  And this was after it started calming a little.  What was it 5 minutes ago?

The only time I had felt the boat like this was in 2007 when we were anchored in St. David's Grenada and were hit by the tail of a Hurricane and 65 knot winds.  This brought back bad memories.  It cleared around us enough to see that we were not moving (this was very good) but just a few minutes later the winds (and our boat) clocked 180 degrees and we pointed the opposite direction.  What the heck was this doing to our anchor?  The rain and winds calmed down (to mid-20s) about 10 minutes later.  I could see that we had moved maybe 100 feet from where we were anchored before the squall.  I assume this was from the winds clocking 180 degrees which would have pulled our anchor backwards and out of it's set.  Then the anchor would have to re-set in the new direction.  I can't believe it actually did re-set when the winds were over 40 and the boat would have put enormous pressure on it.  I love our Rocna anchor!

I thought we had come through pretty well when Laura said, "Look at our solar panel!".  The two 7/8" stainless tubes that held the panel had broken and the panel had flipped up into a position it was never meant for.  When I checked it out, I could see that the 3/16 pop-rivets holding the aluminum mounts had broken off and nothing was holding the top of the panel.  We eventually tied a rope around it so the winds would not blow it back down and break the glass.  Here's what it looked like while the storm was still going.

The winds gradually died down and we could hear the emergency sirens wailing for the next couple hours.  There was no report of a tornado but what would have clocked the winds 180 degrees in the middle of a storm?

After that we watched a few shows on the TV and hit the sack early.  Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy too and I've got a little work to do around the boat.

Monday, April 20th

Air temp 78, water temp 84, winds SW @ 15

0 miles today.

Today is going to be the warmest this year (high of 93 degrees) but it is supposed to cool down a bit after this.

Because of the 20-30 knot winds predicted for today, we are staying at anchor and not moving up the ICW.  I needed to fix the solar panel and also wanted to re-anchor the boat back to our original position which would let me check the anchor and shackles for wear.

After breakfast, Laura and I swung the solar panel down and put two clamps to hold it there.  Then we did pull up the anchor and move the boat.  I motored slowly around the anchorage, watching the depth sounder, and looking for the best place.  It turned out where I had anchored the first time was best and was between two crab pots that we had to stay away from.  A short time later we re-anchored very close to were we had started before the storm last night.

I then dug out my tools to work on the solar panel.  I drilled out the old pop-rivets then drilled the holes bigger for larger rivets.  I replaced the 3/16 rivets with 3/8.  These should not be the weak link next time.  I then fixed the stainless tubing supports - seems like they had just come apart at the end caps.  Laura and I put the panel back up and it looked pretty nice.  Here's what it is supposed to look like.

The winds have started to pick up (as predicted) and are currently gusting over 25 knots.  Doesn't seem very bad compared to yesterday.  We are going to spend a quiet day on the boat and I'll check the engine over closely for hard running the next couple days.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are supposed to be the best travel days of the week so we are going to try and make over 100 miles to Titusville.  The Titusville city marina runs moorings there and, if they have one available, we'll pick one up.  Then we'll sit a couple / few days until the weather settles again.  Maybe we will be able to drop the dinghy and take a walk!!  That would be nice.  Today makes a week since we've been off the boat.