Saturday, March 15, 2014 Titusville Municpal Marina

hauling in anchor

sunrise at Eau Gallie

Eau Gallie

What a good night sleep we got last night!  We needed it after our ‘Anchorage from Hell’, our last night in Fort Pierce.  We woke up to a millpond and less than 2 mph winds, if that.  After enjoying the beautiful sunrise, our anchors were hoisted at 8 am and we are off to Titusville, 35 miles north.   It looks like we will be motoring today.  Not only are the winds light but the winds we have are on our nose!  Once out in the ICW, I called the Titusville Municipal Marina to reserve a dock for 1 week.  We are trying to stall in the warm weather until the north thaws out a bit!  I got an alert from “Mel and Tom’ stating that the Dismal Swamp will be closed temporarily.  It seems the foot bridge (swing) at the Welcome Center is having problems with its hydraulic system.  It should be up and running by the time we get into North Carolina.

Cocoa Beach Anchorage

It’s a bit sad to be retracing our southerly passage that we made in October, November and part of December.  We just passed the Cocoa Beach anchorage.  We both liked this quaint  town with its old hardware store, nice dinghy dock, and their waterfront park.  As we passed, we commented on the fact that the one boat was still stranded up on shore and the same derelict boats were still anchored with their masts laying stretched out on their decks. When anchored here in the fall, there weren't many cruisers that joined us,  but not today.  There are quite a lot of cruisers anchored for the night. 

dolphin in distance

What an awesome day on the ICW.  The dolphins are surfacing

everywhere.  They are still too quick for me to capture them on my camera.  I’d really like one good shot for my photo album!  And the ospreys….they seem to be everywhere.  We saw them yesterday and today feeding their little ones.   They like to build their nests in trees close to the ICW but many of them have nests on top of the day markers.  Since we can get really close to the markers, we get a great view of their nests and babies!

Along our route today, we've passed under 3 fixed bridges.   They don’t hinder our speed.  However, we’re now approaching the Addison Point Bascule Bridge/NASA Causeway .  Since it’s Saturday, there are no restrictions as far as its opening.  It should open on our request.  We’ll see shortly….and it does open as soon as the bridge tender stops the traffic on the road.   There is a sailboat motoring south, Circe.  Who would believe it?  But,  it’s not Billy and Eileen on their Circe!  Anyhow, our boats let this Circe pass under the bridge first.  Soon, we’re on the move again and have 7 more miles to go to reach the Titusville mooring field and the Municipal Marina.

When I hailed the marina at 3:00, they assigned us slip A43.  Before we docked, we pulled up to the fuel dock to purchase diesel….17.4 gallons….not bad considering that’s what Happy Hours drank from Old Bahama Bay, West End to Titusville. 

At 6:00, our plans are to meet the crew at the marina office.  One of the dockhands told Rita to call ahead for priority seating.  This way when we get there, we’ll have no more than a 25 minute wait.  We called a shuttle driver,  'Biggans', and he took us to the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant. Wow, the food must be good.  There were people milling around everywhere waiting for a table.  True to their word, we had our table in no time.   We discovered this restaurant by people recommending it.  The service was great and the food was good!  Dixie Crossroads is famous for their rock shrimp.  At one time the rock shrimp was considered a trash seafood and inedible.  Mr Thompson developed a machine to crack the shell of these hard shelled shrimp and started his restaurant.  These shrimp taste like lobster but just on a smaller scale!  The 5 of us had a great time…until we got back to the marina and had to say  ‘goodbye’.  Our last time together…….

rock shrimp

Rita & David

Friday, March 14,2014 Happy Pi Day! Heading North!

Happy Pi Day Everyone!           

We woke up at 7 am.  I didn't sleep well and I don’t think Chuck did either.  It’s kind of unsettling to spend a night on the hook and not have had the time in the daylight to see if the anchor had a good hold!  Our three boats were planning on hauling anchor at 8 am but by talking on the VHF this morning, we’re all ready to head out immediately.  Fine with us.   Even while hovering around waiting for the Fort Pierce North Lift Bridge to open, Chuck and I aren’t sure if we are going only 14 miles to Vero Beach or staying with Whisper and Rising Sun to Melbourne Beach.  We have 14 miles to make our minds up.  They are in a hurry to get home but we want to wait until the weather’s warmer back home!    We soon made our decision to continue with our friends…about  45 miles….to Melbourne Beach today and then Titusville on Saturday. 

An interesting note…there was a fourth boat that went through this lift bridge with us…sv/Mystique.  They actually were motoring hard our of the Harbor Town Marina to make the bridge.  Once through, they hailed us on the VHF.   Here, they were a buddy boat to our good friends Alan and Colette on sv/Euphoria on their trip to the Keys.  If they ever ran into us, they were to say ‘hi’ from Al and Colette.  We sure do miss the Skinners!  Hopefully our paths will crossed again some day….

It’s such a great day, cool but perfect winds,  and we are making such good time with our headsails that we all agreed to keep pushing north.  We continued  about 5 miles more past the Eau Gallie Bridge.   Once through the bridge, we headed to the east shore.  Wow, this is a really big anchorage.   There’s no need to anchor near any other boat.  We anchored around 4 pm and happy hours as well as dinner is on our boat.   Rita and I planned this while we were motoring along past beautiful expensive homes on the ICW.  Unreal…..

At 5:30 Keith rowed over with his spaghetti sauce and hot sausage.   He L  But, we’ll have one more night together in Titusville before we stay and they move north!

wanted to know why we anchored so far away from him….considering last night in the dark, he thought we wanted to mate!  LOL.   Rita and David rowed over shortly after with their food.   We started with appetizers in the cockpit and then about a hour later we moved down into the main salon for our dinner.  All of our food came together nicely.   What a meal!  Everything was delicious!  This is our last on board potluck meal between, Whisper, Rising Sun, and Happy Hours II.   What a beautiful night!

Thursday, March 13, 2014 Still in Fort Pierce-High Winds

Well, we made it through the night with calm waves and winds.  It was a cold night , 54 degrees, but great for sleeping.  We had only been up for about 45 minutes when all of a sudden it went from complete calm to being blasted by 30 mph winds!  Luckily Chuck was on the bow of the boat checking on our chain and snubber.  All of a sudden I heard Chuck yell over to David,  ‘are you dragging anchor or are we’?   Whisper and Happy Hours II were close, very close together.  Dave’s bowsprit could almost reach inside our cockpit if the guys hadn't fended the boats apart!  It actually turned out that  neither of us were dragging.   The guys figured that our boats were in different wind patterns and as soon as they turned facing the same direction , everything would be alright.

It wasn't much later that Rita called.  Her friends, Dennis and Diane, were picking them up to lunch at the 12A Buoy.  This restaurant is a popular and fun place to eat.  It’s right at the start of the Fort Pierce South Bridge…..and we were invited!  Now that the winds have died down a bit, we feel comfortable leaving the boats and were to meet our ride at 10:45 am.  We had to get to the restaurant when they open if we want to get a table for 6.  We got a table inside since it was too windy and cool to eat out on their deck.  The word circulating around town is that the clam chowder is to die for….and as good if not better than the chowder made in the Boston area!  In fact, all the meals prepared here have a reputation of being worth coming back for….and they were! 

On our way back to the marina, we had Dennis drop us off at the West Marine.  I have to say this…once again they didn't have what we needed.  Chuck wanted to buy some back up fuel filters.  That’s okay, we’ll stop at Whiticar Marina, a Yanmar dealer, that’s in the Harbor Town Marina compound.   We made one stop before the marina.  Rita wanted t shop at the Thrift Store that we could see in the plaza across the street!  She loves to see if she can find a bargain.  It turned out she bought a top for $3, and it was new.  I bought a new beach coverup for $7  What bargains! 

We spent the rest of the afternoon on our boats.  It’s a good thing that we did. The wind shifted more out of the east.  Happy Hours II was facing the wind out of the east but Whisper, with her full keel, decided to face the current.  We were once again almost touching.  Chuck went to the bow and hauled in 10 feet of chain thinking we’d have plenty of room between our two boats.   I’m not sure that it did any good.  Yikes!  We’re hoping the winds die tonight.   It’s going to be one long restless night checking on our two boats….they seem possessed!!

After dinner, we checked on our location in respect to Whisper.  We seem to be even closer than before.  This isn't good.  Dave says that the full keel is dictated by the current and our wing keel moves with the wind.  We can almost reach out and touch each other!  So, we decided to move…in the dark…not good.  The first place we anchored,  the lady in the sailboat didn't want us beside her.  She had her spot light on us.  At first she yelled over and wanted to know if we dragged anchor….no!    She then shouted that she had 100 feet of of chain out….why?  We were in 7 feet of water.  We hauled anchor and moved over between Keith and the IP.  I thought we had plenty of room.  The current was so strong that by the time the anchor set, we were practically on top of Keith.    So we moved again!  This is getting old and I’m getting frustrated not to mention tired!!  My depth perception is terrible at night, so this isn't easy for me to be motoring around in the dark.  We finally went in as close to the bridge as we dared and dropped our anchor again.  By this time, we were both wired, and I knew sleeping wouldn't be easy.  We've had great luck with our Delta anchor so I felt 99% sure that we would wake up in the same location.

Wednesday, March 12, 2013 Fruit, Veggies, and Friends Visit Today! Yeah!

Chuck and I had a good sleep last night .  I was so thankful the wind didn't blow hard like predicted.  We both would have been up all night making sure we weren't dragging or close to Whisper!  We grabbed our backpack and bags and hiked over to the CVS and Publix.  Chuck needed a prescription refilled, we needed to provision Happy Hours II, and be back for lunch with Mike and Chris Link and Rita and David's friends from MS.  I had negative feelings about CVS filling the prescription even though we've been told we can do this but I had positive thoughts about Publix...fresh fruit and veggies and much lower prices!

Off we went.  Once we got off the marina's compound, it was only a 3 block walk to route A1A, CVS, Publix, West Marine, and a Pizza Restaurant.  We've died and gone to heaven!  CVS was our first stop. We knew there would be some kind of wait for the pills.  The pharmacy was understaffed and 5 people were already waiting in line at  the counter  and it was only 9 am.  So far, each of the 5 were waited on and each left without meds.  Ok....this doesn't look good!  Next..we're next.  Chuck gives the clerk all his necessary information, she does her thing on the computer while we do ours....wait.....and she then tells us they can fill the scripts but they won't be ready until 2:00 tomorrow afternoon!  What??  Why??  I explained that we were traveling on a boat and we might not be here tomorrow afternoon.  Well, it sounded good!  The clerk said she'd try to speed up the process and give us a call when they were ready. Really?  I didn't trust her, so I got there phone number.

Now we're off to Publlix. I'm in awe over all the beautiful fruits and vegetables!  I'm like a kid in a candy store.  I never thought I would feel this way about the tedious chore of grocery shopping!  They have everything... let's see.. lets get strawberries, apples, lettuce, cauliflower, and oh, don't forget the cherry tomatoes and bananas... LOL   We had so much food piled in our cart that we decided to call Tim's Taxi Service..he's cheap...and so we added more items.   The cost of our groceries was less than half of the cost at Maxwell's in Marsh Harbour...and that's if the items were even on the shelves.    We checked out and I called for a taxi man.  No answer.  I called again.  Still no answer.  Well here we go.  We're walking.  My load of 6 bags weren't too bad.  Poor Chuck had all the heavy items.  The can goods were in his backpack. He also carried a 12 pk of pop, milk etc.  It's a good thing the trip back is downhill and before we knew it we were at the dinghy and then back to our boat.   We could have waited for Mike and Chris.  They had offered to take us anywhere when they called yesterday, but oh no!!!

As soon as we stowed our provisions, Mike called to say they were here at the Cove Restaurant. We're on our way.....Rita had reserved a table for 11...  the 5 cruisers, Mike and Chris, and four friends of Rita and Dave's...Mary & David, and Diane & Dennis..perfect. This is going to be so much fun!

And it was...it was great to see Mike and Chris and to relive the places that we've see and the people that we now have in common at the Marsh Harbour Marina and Jib Room.  I already want to go back!  Sigh  :(  The Links are looking great.  Since they weren't able to make it to the Jib Room this winter and their boat is in the water in Titusville, we'll see them again soon.  All of a sudden our visit was cut short, there were black skies headed our way.  So, we said our 'goodbyes' and headed out to the anchorage before the rains came....and it blew over!

Around 4 pm, I called CVS to see if Chuck's prescription was ready...guess what?  The meds were filled and waiting!  I just wonder how long they've been ready.  Did they call like they promised?  Nooo!  We decided to hop in the dinghy, pick up the meds, and then eat at 'Taste of Brooklyn', the pizzeria that we spotted in the morning.  It's a good thing that Chuck has his prescription card with him.  He saved $100 with his card.  Now we have money to eat pizza!!  Walking into the pizza shop, the aroma made our mouths water.  While we waited for our pizza, I got a call from Eileen and Billy from sv/Circe II.  It sure is good to hear from them.  They are anchored in Titusville.  Billy told me that they left West Palm on Tuesday, went outside and back in at Fort Pierce.  When they motored by the anchorage with our 3 boats at 2 pm, they tried to raise us all on the VHF.  Unfortunately, we were all sleeping and had our radios off.  Billy then blew his conch thinking that we would hear it, but we were all exhausted and didn't hear a thing! We sure are going to miss them!!!

Wouldn't you know it!  While walking back to the marina, it started to rain.  You would think by now that we’d be prepared with our foul weather gear.  No such luck tonight.  It’s a good thing the rains didn't last long.   We've decided to stay where we are tomorrow.  The winds are to blow from the N to NE at 30 mph.  I’m hoping they don’t surprise us and arrive early….like in the middle of the night!

Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Back in the USA!!

I just realized something….we checked into the Bahamas on December 11^th and we checked back into the states this morning, March 11^th.  It’s been exactly 3 months!

This freighter greeted us coming into the channel!

Entrance to Harbor Town Marian

Harbor Town Marina

After motoring down the channel of the Fort Pierce Inlet (3 miles long),
we anchored just on the SW side of the Fort Pierce North Bridge along the ICW.   When we got here at 8 am, there were only 3 boats….now at 7 pm, the anchorage is full.  We are all so tired that all we wanted to do was sleep.   However, we still need to check in with the Customs and Immigration office.  We gathered up our necessary papers such as our passports, drivers licenses,  boat documentation, decal number, etc and dinghied into the Harbor Town Marina.  The sign hanging in front of the dockmaster’s office listed the phone number that we need to call.  All 3 of the boats called at the same time to declare our entry and to receive our entry number.  We were all told that we had 24 hours to check in at the Fort Pierce and St. Lucie County International Airport to

present our passports and our entry number.   The one thing I can say about this experience is that the officers are not consistent with their questions.  Once we got to the office at the airport, the process was very quick.  In fact it took less time for them to check all three boats in than the time it took our taxi ride to get to the airport,  a 5 mile trip.  I couldn’t believe that they didn’t want our boat’s decal number after everything I went through to get it.  It took  Al Skinner and I about 3 hours to find the site and fill out the necessary questions in Thunderbolt, GA.  Then I paid extra to have this 1”x1” decal expedited to my house so Tiffany could mail it to Vero Beach….and they didn’t ask us for it!!  Huh, and you’ll like this one.  Our friend Dave discovered today that his passport is expired and so is his boat’s documentation paper.  The officers never even notice a thing……No one in our crew could believe it but it was a good thing for Whisper!!   As for the taxi ride, Keith called the Yellow Cab and they couldn’t come get us for 35 minutes.  I called a one man cab, Tim’s Taxi, and he picked us up in 15 minutes.  The minutes kept ticking away and our round trip total was $30 for 5 of us.  Six dollars each isn’t bad considering my last taxi ride experience in the fall cost 4 of us a total of $88.  Oh well…..

The Cove

Chuck, Rita, Dave, Keith

Once Tim dropped us off at the marina, we all decided we better do lunch.    We sat outside at the Cove looking at the huge marina that surrounded us…so many sailboats and motor yachts.  The food came quick and before we knew it, we were back sleeping on our boats.  Chuck and I didn’t want to sleep too long, so by 3:30 we were both up and in the cockpit enjoying the ICW and watching boats anchoring nearby. It’s a nice day but the winds are cool and not the warm breezes of the Abacos.  Sigh!   We grilled out and then we hit the sack early tonight!

The Cove-more dining.

Monday, March 10, 2014 Making the Crossing

Our original plans were to leave this morning at 9:30.  After checking the tides and currents at Fort Pierce, we all agreed that 11:00 am is better.  This way we'll get there at 7:00 am on Tuesday morning.  We are all itching to go but it's better to stay here than to have to wait on the ocean for a safe entry to this inlet.  So.....we are waiting!!

Whisper

Happy Hours II

Rising Sun

We left the West End of the Great Bahama Island with light winds at our back and less than 2 foot waves.  Perfect!  We were waiting and hoping for this kind of weather!!  We were motor sailing along and enjoying the day, not believing our good luck,  when we all realized our ETA was 4:30 am…..2.5 hours early.   This isn’t going to work.  So, we either waste

time on our trip over by slowing our speed or do circles outside of the Fort Pierce Inlet until dawn.   We all shut our engines off and sailed with just our head sails.   We still were all having a difficult time backing down on our speed…who would have thought?  Oh well, we still have a long 19-20 hour trip and who knows what’s in store later in the day or night!

There wasn’t much activity along our way.  We did have a cruise ship in sight and Keith’s AIS told him that it would pass within 2 miles of our stern…that’s good.  Then we saw something big appear on the horizon off our port bow.  With Keith’s AIS, he was able to know the name of the container ship and it’s speed.   He knew by its name that the ship was bound for Marsh Harbour.  He called the captain on the VHF to make him aware that there were 3 sailboats off his port and wanted to know if he was keeping that same course.  Yes he was and that was good for us because he would pass  within a few miles from us.   We were also entertained with sightings of mylar balloons as well as hundreds of Portuguese Man of Wars sailing along the surface of the water and heading for the Bahamas.   They actually looked like blown up zip-lock baggies floating on the ocean.  Finally at dusk, we could see a dark shape on the horizon but couldn’t quite make it out.  Somehow, Keith heard that it was a tug towing some type of barge.  The tug and the barge weren’t close together so the captain was warning everybody about the long cable stretched between the two! 

Around 10 pm, we had a wind shift.  It now is blowing out of the SW at 15-20 kts.  Where did this come from?  It wasn’t  in any of the 3 forecasts that we looked at!  Of course the winds created 5-6 foot waves and with the direction we needed to travel, they were hitting us on our port side beam.   Yikes!  This makes a very uncomfortable ride…our boats would roll port toe-rail in the water, then starboard toe-rail in the water….back and forth for hours and hours.  This weather pattern stayed with us until we got out of the Gulf Stream and close to the Florida coast.   Luckily, none of our 5 sailors got sick!  By now, we are all tired and cold and ready to go to sleep…but not yet…we still have 3-4 hours to go.   I was so cold, my teeth were chattering! t dawned on me one of the reasons we were so cold, is because we were still in shorts and barefeet!   It’s going to be difficult to acclimate to the colder temps.  During the night,  Rita and I relieved our guys at the helm so they could warm up and get some sleep,  but Keith has no one..remember,  he’s a solo sailor!    

Motoring through the Fort Pierce Inlet was easy this morning.  This is because we planned the passage during the slack tide when there is no current.  It took approximately 1 hour from the time we entered the outer channel and traveled to our anchorage.  I will mention that this is a very busy inlet.  Fishermen are zooming in and out.  We even passed an outgoing  freighter. 

Sunday, March 9th, 2014 Last Day and Night in the Bahamas!

I woke up at 6:00 am thinking Circe was leaving their dock.  I couldn’t hear their engine but I thought I could feel some wave action against our boat.  So, I poked my head out of the companion way, and there weren’t anywhere in sight.   They slipped away without waking any of us!  I was hoping I cold be there to say bye one last time.  There plans were to leave at 5 am and get to Lake Worth approximately 10 hours later.  That would put them in the inlet by 3:00 pm….so they should be there already since it 3:45 now!

When I dressed and went out on the dock, I was surprised to see that all of the sailboats on the other side of our dock are gone!  The docks are empty.  One of those sailboats left with Billy and Eileen, and the others were either going across the Banks headed for the Abacos or going south toward Freeport..  The only sailboats are us, Whisper, Rising Sun and an Island Packet from Rockhall, Md, Ellen, Greg, and miniature Jack Russell, Gidget!  They are waiting for friends to show up today from Green Turtle Cay. 

Before breakfast, Chuck and I decide to walk out on the jetty to the ocean.  The Banks and the ocean near shore are so serene today.  I’m sure the Gulf Stream still has 5-6 footers because it takes a day or two to settle after the wather we had.  While out at the end of the jetty, we saw the Bahamian guy that catches and sells lobster and crab claws.  He swims the ocean aroudn the rocky shore with his wesuit on and floats a cooler behind him.  The coller is tethered to his body .  This guy catches there spiney lobsters with his bare hands!  He acutally is diving on the coral  or rock close to the jetty adn soon I see him swimming out half way between the jetty and the next cay.  Apparently he doesn't fear shark!  What a hard life!!  He seems happy to fine 4 lbosters which he sells for $20.  That's a good day for him.                                              

heliport

the local egret

After breakfast, Rita and I booked the van with Drexel, the driver,  for 12:30.  He was  a little late because he’s already in the Settlement picking up take-out orders for some of the employees.  While there, he told Indera that we are coming back (3^rd time) to eat lunch at her Coffee on the Bay.  We are hoping for conch

fritters today. The last 2 times, they didn't have any made….and none again today either….until Rita sticks her head through the server’s window and asks the 2 cooks if they’d make them for us.  I don’t know what it is, but Rita sure has a way with people and YES, they will make the fritters.  Yeah Rita!!  They are so cheap here…4 for $1….that’s $3 a dozen.   In the Abacos, the conch fritters go were anywhere between $10-$12 a dozen.  We asked for 16 and we got 32!  Yikes, if I knew that, I probably would not have ordered anything else. 

 While waiting, we watched a Bahamina guy pole his little crate-like boat out to his conch traps.  This is where they keep their conch alive until ready to eat.  I went out and talked to the guy about his boat and conch traps.  Some of the Bahamians are hard to understand!  Still waiting for food, another Bahamian came to shore with his boat and the fish that he caught this morning.  He started cleaning them at a fish cleaning table next to the road.  I went out  to see what kind of fish he had and they were all barracuda except for one rather large Spanish Mackerel.

Dave with a local

Once back to the marina and resort, we filled out our departure papers and walked around the marina to the Customs and Immigration office to drop  our papers in their box.   Chuck, Keith, and I, then went to the marina office square up our bill with them.  Keith was in and out quick.  When it was our turn, the guy couldn’t  find our papers.  Here, someone checked us out on Saturday morning which would be a 3 night stay…very interesting!  The young guy made the corrections and charged us for 2 more nights.  He gave us a break on the electric charge.  We used power for 2 nights and he said he’d only charge us for one.  That was nice of him.  It was so hot in the marina building that when we settled our bill, Chuck and I decided to go for our last swim in the Bahamas.  The pool felt cold but we swam there for awhile.  Then we went into the water at the beach.  It felt like bath water.  It had to be 85 degrees!!   Since we didn’t want our last day at the Old Bahama Bay Marina and Resort to end, we went back and lounged around the pool and read our books.  It’s great today.  With resetting the clocks last night, the sun Is going to shine until almost 7:30 pm. 

Off to bed in preparation for our 17 hour trip across the Atlantic and back to Fort Pierce, Florida.  It’s still looking to be a very nice crossing…..wish us fair winds and smooth seas…..