Thursday, November 24, 2011 Thanksgiving

  I spent all morning cooking, and that’s no fun on a small boat with no counter space, no room to maneuver, a fridge that is so small and deep, that everything has to come out each time I’m looking for something.  I made a double batch of cabbage salad (which was unnecessary because there was soooo much food), deviled eggs that would not peel (so I kept them for our table), and a gelatin cheesecake (only because that cream cheese had been in the fridge almost from the beginning) for us for later.

  At noon Ken and I dinghied over to the park to help set up.  All the tables inside were already claimed so we moved a round table on to the lee side of the building and set it for our group.  Lisa was coming from Ft Lauderdale to join us, and Katja and Geoff and Tom and Cathie would be at our table.  All the boaters converged at the park between 1:30 and 2pm , tying off dinghies to the two small docks or pulling them onto the grass.  An estimate of 150 of us turned out for an amazing buffet of food.  We pigged out and drank our fill of wine (everyone supplied their own), then listened to the live music and talked to other cruisers.  We saw Burt and Prue from Exuberant and they’d been here a week and a half and we hadn’t even seen them! (oh, we were shopping—we didn’t run into them on the buses.)

  Late afternoon we came back to the boat where we could hear the music and eat that gelatin cheesecake. Yes, we apparently had room.  We took Lisa to the dinghy dock and came back and scratched our no-see-em bites.  My legs are peppered with bites.  There is a downside to paradise!

 

 

  

Vero Beach

  Vero Beach, also known as Velcro Beach, because it’s so hard to get away from here.  We’ll be relieved when we actually leave here, although we’ve definitely appreciated being here:  free bus service, wonderful marina where, for $13+ a night, we get the use of laundry facilities, showers, Captain’s lounge, a mooring ball, and to talk to other cruisers.

  We have been stocking the boat with as much stuff as we can use, although shopping in the Bahamas is not the problem it used to be.  There’s a huge market now in Marsh Harbour; Georgetown has a great market; and there are even supplies in the more remote areas.  Ken and I usually try to get the first bus out of the marina, 8:15am, and will go to the Miracle Mile Plaza to Publix, West Marine, and other stores, or take #1 bus to the hub, transfer to #2 bus and go out to the mall, Lowes, Target, or Walmart.  We do spend an inordinate amount of time on the bus, or waiting for a bus.  Then after a day of shopping or finishing a project, of course we need some downtime and will meet for happy hour at the local restaurant, Riverside, where we can take out dinghies and tie up to their dock, or on a boat.

  Boats have been coming and going, depending on the weather.  We were lucky to get in Thursday night before the strong winds hit the area.  The talk is always when the next weather window is and sailors will be chomping at the bit to get going and make it over to the Bahamas.  The first weather window is Tuesday, the 22nd, or Wednesday, the 23rd, so there was a parade of boats leaving Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  And then there are boats coming in for Thanksgiving, so as boats are leaving, more are coming to replace them. 

  Sunday we walked the mile, or so, down to the beach, taking a side road where live oaks line the road, some with huge leafed vines going up the trunk and branches.  It’s like a jungle with all the different plants.  We could hear the surf before we saw the ‘white stallions’, yet we still saw boats in the distance heading south.  Nancy and Jim met us at Mulligan’s, driving up from West Palm Beach.  What a treat to see them and spend the afternoon with them!

  Monday after our usual early morning shopping, we waited to hear from Jan and Bob (Jany K) and spent the afternoon with them, visiting their condo on South Hutchison.  I was sold and would move there in a jiffy, if we didn’t have a house in VT to consider!  What a beautiful location and condo!  Then we came back to meet Geoff and Katja at Riverside.

  Tuesday started with our usual early morning shopping.  No matter how many times we go in, it seems  we’re always needing something else and will have to do another shopping trip in the morning!  We’re finally getting this bus system down pat!  One trip I made it to the hub with a group from the marina, and there was no room on the #2 bus to go to Walmart and the Indian River Mall!  We would have to wait an hour for the next bus!  The #9 bus driver beckoned us to come over and said to get on, that it was better to go w/him than stand around for an hour.  He took us to a stop where we caught the #8 bus to the mall.  With the holiday week, we were afraid every day might be like this, but they added and ‘Express’ bus to go to the mall and Walmart, and that helped.  See….our lives are being run by the bus schedule, and here we thought we could get away from this!

  Wednesday, another day of shopping—a long, tedious day of being on buses, changing our phone plan, walking from store to store—exhausting.  Only to cap it off with happy hour on Interlude!  I tell you, cruising is the life!  Oh….we’re stuck in Velcro Beach.  Well, having happy hour every night is the life!

Thursday Nov 17, 2011 Vero Beach mooring ball

  Listening to the weather on NOAA, it sounded forbidding with strong NE winds tomorrow and rough on the ICW.  Hailing Katja and Geoff, we again agreed to go for the SE corner behind the causeway of the Melbourne bridge where we’d be protected from the NE.  Once on our way Ken checked the radar and a huge band of storms were 50 miles north of us and moving south.  I hailed Blue Planet to see what they wanted to do and we agreed to confer again after going through the Addison Bridge.

  Once past the bridge we hashed over possibilities.  We were getting a big push from the current and we could possibly go to Vero Beach even with our late start.  I called the marina to ask if there’d be a mooring ball for tonight and said we might be arriving late.  They would have one waiting for us, although we’d have to raft with another boat, making 3 on the mooring ball, which is norm for the busy Thanksgiving.  We agreed to confer again once near the Melbourne bridge. We’d pulled out the jib and were getting a boost from that, plus the boost from the current, so we agreed to go to Vero.  There would be no possibilities of anchoring, so it was a go, and we were hoping we’d be there before dark.  We hailed the marina a mile away and they told us our mooring and the boat we’d raft to, and we were able to pull in and get situated just as it turned dark.  Whew!  It was a long hard day sitting in that cockpit all day, reading a book, with the sun beating down!!

 

  

Wednesday, Nov 16, 2011 Titusville anchorage

  As we were preparing to leave, one large sailboat motored past and yelled at Ken that the anchorage got shallower every year.  There were numerous boats anchored without any sign of crew, and one sailboat was listing at low tide.  We were happy to leave and took off about 7:20am.

  Going around Ponce Inlet 'Vulcan' was hailing Blue Planet, but they didn’t respond so I answered the hail.  The skipper proceeded to say how he went aground on that same shoal when leaving St. Augustine and we were joking about needing to read instructions.  Then on to George Musson Memorial Bridge where it opens every 20 minutes, only I’d forgotten about that and thought it was on request, so we had to putter around for nearly 20 minutes.

  Motored on through Mosquito Lagoon and the Haulover Canal Bascule Bridge where numerous little fishing boats were anchored.  Coming up in the spring of 2009 we’d seen wild flamingoes on the island, but none this fall.  We love all the birds.  The terns soar around then will flutter just above the water before they make a straight dive in and out.  The brown pelicans plunge into the water with a belly flop which looks like it could hurt until I read they have air pockets in their breasts that they inflate before the dive.

  On into the Indian River and the anchorage at Titusville.  The marina had put in a mooring field that takes up some of the anchorage area, but there is plenty of room north of it. We anchored by a boat that looked like it had been abandoned with torn sailcovers.

It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day and a beautiful evening.

Tues, Nov 15, 2011 Daytona anchorage

  There was no fog.  Katja and Geoff were off for showers.  We hauled out the dinghy motor and put the dinghy on the deck and were ready to leave, heading out about 7:50.  I was at the helm and immediately grounded us on a shoal right outside the mooring field.  To my credit, there was no indication of it on the chart plotter, but Skipper Bob mentioned it and Geoff said he’d been warned of it when he stopped at the dock.  And we were aground!, in less than 4’, and we draw about 4 ½ feet.  So….we sat there.  And sat there.  I called the marina and they said back out into the mooring field.  We tried that every few minutes and would really gun it on a passing wake, to no avail.  Finally we figured we were backing into the shoal and Ken went forward and got us off, after an hour of rising tide.  We knew we could get off eventually with the 5’ tide, but didn’t want to wait forever.  We were even considering staying another day, if it got any later.

  Florida is a straight shot south, which is nice because progress is fast, but it tends to be rather boring.  We had 4 bascule bridges to go through but all were accommodating and fast.  Came into the anchorage field south of the Memorial Bridge and anchored next to Blue Planet.  There was only 8-9 feet of depth, not the 14 feet shown on the chart plotter.  It was a beautiful, calm, peaceful night.

Monday, Nov 14, 2011 St Augustine

  Let’s see.  Went into the marina early and then out to breakfast at a little café on Avenida Menendez.  Checked out where the internet café was at Casa Monica Hotel.  Ken asked the marina personnel about discarding oil—they have a place at the marina.  After working on the blog and Ken fixing the ‘looky bucket’ and eating lunch, we went back to post the blog at the internet café and met Katja and Geoff there.

  We agreed to meet at a pizzeria for supper and were there at happy hour when drinks were 2 for 1 and 10” pizzas were $5 off plus they gave each of us a free slice of pizza!!  Talk about a deal!!  And it looked like the word was out to all the boaters.  Debi and Kevin from Grace were stopping at a bar across from the marina for raspberry beer so we had to stop there, also.

  We talked about what to do in the morning, whether to plan on spending another day in St Augustine with a dense fog predicted in the morning, or continue on.  The consensus was to check it out in the morning and make a decision then.

Sunday, Nov 13, 2011 St Augustine mooring ball

  We dawdled around until 9am leaving only 1 boat in the anchorage, and it looked like they were planning on staying.  It was high tide and everything was flooded, the ICW impossible to discern without the markers.  I called St Augustine Municipal Marina to see what side of the Bridge of Lions our mooring balls would be.  I’d requested the south side to get us through the bridge, and they appointed us #16 and #17 on the south side.

  We debated whether to try to make the 11am opening of the bridge, and finally made a run for it, as well as a sailboat can make a run for it, although we did get the benefit of the current coming in from St Augustine Sound and went through the bridge with a large trawler.  Blue Planet went to the dock first and we headed to our mooring.  After lunch we headed into the marina to sign up, take showers, do laundry, and catch up on the internet, only to find the marina’s internet was defunct.

  Later we went out for supper at the A1A Ale House then walked around historic St Augustine, but were in for the night at 7:30.  We could hear partying all around us and the dinghy dock was full of late (?) revelers.

  Oh, waiting for Ken and to do the laundry, a mother manatee and baby were under one of the dock bridges.  We’d never seen them so close and they looked like 2 blobs, the mother huge, over 1000 pounds.  We were all gawking down at them, and would see the baby come up for air, but the mother didn’t move.  Much later I saw through the lounge window her flipping her tail and leaving.