It’s been too
long since I’ve updated this Blog and I apologize to those who are following
our adventure. Much has happened and I’ll
try to catch you up to date.
On our second day
in St. Augustine we were able to go ashore and have a great lunch with some of
our friends from the Hunter Sailing Association we belonged to in the Annapolis
area. Jim and Steph Weeks live in
Florida and Dale and Kim Seastrom just happened to be visiting the area. We spent a few hours eating and talking about
what has been going on in each other’s lives.
We even had a couple of beers from the list of over 70 drafts that are
available at JP Henley's. The following
day the winds where strong again, 25K and we elected to stay aboard and not get
soaked trying to go into the dock in our dinghy. This was not one of our better stays at our
favorite city on the ICW.
The HSA group at JP Henley's
Lynn reading historical marker in St. Augustine
The next day we
departed for Daytona Beach and had to drop the anchor at the first high rise
bridge because the tide was too high and we couldn’t fit our 63 foot mast under
the span. We stayed the night and had a
very bumpy experience with waves and winds.
Are you starting to see a pattern here?
In the morning the tide was low and we headed for Titusville mooring
field. We had hoped to see our friends
Dorothy and Glenn but again the winds and waves kept us pinned on the
boat. We were able to get fuel and water
before grabbing the mooring ball. Our
night was somewhat calmer and restful.
We then let for
Melbourne for one night at anchor and then to Vero Beach where we got another
mooring ball. Sweet Chariot tied up with
us and the following day we were joined by Second Option. Lynn promptly went to shore and did 5 loads of
laundry while I took the bus to West Marine for new cockpit speakers and did
some shopping at the Publix for groceries.
On Thanksgiving Day Dorothy and Glenn arrived and we went to a lovely
potluck Thanksgiving dinner sponsored by the Marina. They provided the turkey and ham and the
boaters brought the rest. The food was
good and plentiful. Dorothy and Glenn
spent the night aboard and left in the morning.
We, along with Sweet Chariot and Second Option, rented a car for 3 days
and spent them going to the Wine Store, Sam’s Club, Walmart, and numerous other
places to stock up on supplies for the Bahamian trip. During this time I was having trouble with my
outboard engine and found a mechanic that made “house calls”. He quickly fixed the problem and now we have full
power again on the dinghy. We had
ordered backup medications and they took longer than expected to be delivered
to us at the marina. During the wait we
made lots of phone calls to schedule a Medicare call with our insurance
provider and to find out about updating our Local Boater Option cards with our
new passport numbers.
The crews of Sweet Chariot, Second Option and twomorrows
Sweet Chariot and
Second Option took off south and we made arrangements to meet them in Lake
Worth as soon as the meds arrived. I
checked later that day and they had been delivered so in the morning we took
off to meet up with our friends. We met
them the next day after a 10 hour day on the water. The following morning I went to the Customs
and Border Patrol Office and in less than 5 minutes got all our paperwork
updated. Again the wind and waves
prevented us from going back in to shore for and sightseeing or lunch at the
local TiKi Hut. We left the following
morning and dropped the hook in Boca Raton.
Guess what? Right, high winds and
waves keep us on the boat again. We did
try a dinghy ride the next morning but after a short distance decided we didn’t
need salt water “showers” and went back to the boat.
Our next
destination was Fort Lauderdale, Cooleys Marina on the New River. We all pulled in to this really nice and very
inexpensive marina for 4 nights. We were
able this time to actually take the dinghy down the canal for a great dinner
and social at an Irish Pub. We were able
to do some more minor shopping and clean almost 2 months of dirt from the
outsides and inside the boat. Did
laundry again and spent a nice evening on Second Option watching a movie and
eating popcorn. On Friday, Dec. 7, we
left Cooley’s and headed to Miami with Sweet Chariot and a boat called Truancea. Second Option stayed for a few days in order to get a car and drive back to Virginia to see their brand new grand daughter, Emma. We left the protection of the harbor and headed out into
the ocean at about 10:00. At around 10:30 the
waves were so bad that we considered turning back but thought we would try
moving farther off shore and give that a try.
We moved out a bit too far and ended up in the Gulf Stream and a 3-4
knot current against us. By this time we
were too far south to turn back but did work back towards shore, maybe 3 miles
off. The waves calmed a bit and we had a
better ride into Miami.
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