12/10/10 Peck Lake
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
Well not the worst, but certainly embarrassing. After a good day on the water we were pulling into a marina/anchorage for the night right as a sport fishing tournament was ending. I didn't know there were so many 50'+ sport fish boats in the state, let alone the same very crowded narrow channel as us. Also in the channel (directly into the setting sun light) was a telephone pole sticking out of the water. The kind which often has a navigation symbol attached to it. This one was just right in the center of the channel. I hit it.... full speed. As we went from 5 knots to 0 knots very suddenly, the anchor which Laura had just readied, no longer dogged down to an attachment point on the bow, kept moving and ended up running all the chain out of the locker and giving the line of passing sports fishing boats something even more comical to watch. Fortunately we were not the first boat to hit the pole and it gave readily bending as we hit it. In the end all that was hurt was our pride.
The best of times: was the anchorage that we found after leaving our originally intended anchorage with our tails between our legs. Three miles farther down the ICW was a beautiful little pocket off the main channel. 3-10 feet deep and very calm. We saw the usual dolphins (which we have seen every day since NC), and there were also Manatees! Very cool. Also anchored in the same cove was a boat named "Discovery Magic" Owned by two very nice brits Caroline and John. She is the prototype for a new production line from a company in South Hampton England. The Discovery 50 ranks second, right behind Chris White's Atlantic series catamarans, as our favorite boat design. Laura and I had actually been aboard this exact boat at the Annapolis Boat show this year. She is absolutely gorgeous both inside and out. I want her.
12/11/10 Peck Lake
We had a very peaceful night at anchor. Light wind and no waves. During the night we were wondering what the noises we were hearing were. They were kind of a non stop industrial sound. Well, as it turned out the sound we were hearing was surf. Just a hundred yards beyond the shore was a many mile long beach with just us and maybe one or two people in sight. Spent the day just relaxing on the beach and collecting seashells. Warm and perfect.
12/12/10 To North Palm Beach
This was the day of the bridges, and waiting for them to open....
People talk about making this section of the trip South an ocean section. I can see why. Narrow channels packed with fast moving power boats and punctuated by many lift bridges which do not open on demand but on a schedule (typically the hour and half hour but not at all from 7-9 or 3-5). This would have not been such a problem but for the fact that we still only have the one motor. This means we cannot make it from one bridge to another in the half hour between openings. We end up getting there just a few minutes late and have to sit using our one motor, the current, and the wind to try and stay in one spot until the next opening. Kind of stressful.
We did however end up waiting at one bridge with another Maine Cat! Always fun to see another one (there aren't many of us). We have seen two other 30' and a 41' so far on our trip.
12/13/10 North Palm Beach
I don't know why I am even a little shocked... Yamaha sent a defective power head to the yard in Southport. So I just paid the overtime for a guy to work all day Saturday for nothing. Useless.
We now have made the decision to go ahead and cross the Gulf Stream with one motor. There is a weather window in the forecast and it will likely be our only chance to get across before Christmas. This is a little scary.
Laura and I also rented a car and went shopping. It's an odd feeling to move so fast after moving so slow for so long.
We also finally saw The New Harry Potter Actually we saw it in IMAX which was really cool. Laura and I have long lamented the lack of a decent movie theater in Charlottesville so this was a real treat.
12/14/10
North Palm Beach (again)
We decided just to stay at the marina we have been at for the last two nights. Our other option was to go to the cruisers anchorage off Peanut Island, but it has been so cold these last few days that we have considered shore power for our heaters to be a must have.
A low point for the day was discovering that Yamaha can't or wont send our motor to the Bahamas. Something about import export regulations. So we are going to have them ship the motor to a freight company called Tropical Shipping and it will be loaded onto a container ship and brought over to us in Marsh Harbor next Tuesday. If this works it will be a miracle.
Laura and I went out to a very fancy restaurant for dinner. Cafe Boulud. This is one of Daniel Boulud's restaurants and the executive chef got the James Beard nomination for best chef south last year. It was very good.
12/15-16/10 North Palm Beach to West End Grand Bahama
In preparation for the crossing Laura and I installed new jack lines, built a new permanent anchor bridle, got the dingy motor fixed (old gas had messed us the slow speed valves in the carburetor). We also had the 100 hour service done on our one motor, oil, plugs, filters that sort of stuff.
At about 3pm we moved the boat over to the anchorage right near the ocean inlet. We actually got some sleep and were ready to go when the alarm went off at 10pm.
The crossing was really not bad. The swell was light and the chop minimal. In fact the sonar telling me that the water temp had risen to 75F was the only noticeable change when we hit the gulf stream. There were some problems however.
1) Laura was seasick from the beginning so I was on watch pretty much from 10-5:30. Not a problem, just one of those things.
2) Larry Jones called it.... Our battery is dying. =( It likely has been for quite a while but we have not noticed it. Basically during the day the solar panels are pumping out so much power that we can run whatever we want with out any problem, and at night we use almost no power as we are sleeping and nothing is on. While crossing however we were using a lot of power at night and obviously there is no sun to charge the battery. About 12am I looked at the battery monitor and discovered that it was down to 11.5V, not good. We turned everything we could off other than the mast head light, the VHF, and one chart plotter. The voltage stabilized and it was clear that we would be ok. I was able to periodically turn the radar on and have a look around. The one outstanding question I have is why the alternator wasn't putting out very much power.
3) We almost got run down by a 500' Coast Guard ship. I have no way to describe this other than to say that if Laura hadn't reacted literally the instant she did we would have been killed. It was as close as you can get and still be okay. I had seen them on radar a few minutes earlier but they were 7 miles away and not moving particularly fast. Laura took the helm for a few minutes while went below. Laura saw the ship about a few minutes before it passed us but thought it was not on an intersecting course. Then when she saw in next it was on top of us. They were traveling at least 20 knots and though laura accelerated and threw the wheel over they passed us no farther than 5-10 feet. It was so close that when they did see us they turned around and hailed us to make sure they had not actually hit us. We talked for a while, it was surreal.
Despite having a radar reflector and a mast light they never say us until it was over, I will think very hard about making a crossing like that again without AIS. An AIS transceiver would have given both us and them our exact positions, and course. It would also have warned both of us that there was a possibility of a collision miles before we passed each other.
Other than those things it was all good. Laura started feeling better as the sun came up and were treated to many schools of flying fish skimming the surface in front of us as we approached the Bahama bank.
We docked at Old Bahama Bay marina in West End about 12:00pm and cleared customs with no problems. Lowering our yellow quarantine flag and raising our Bahamas courtesy pennant was something of a triumph. We're here!
12/17/10 to Great Sale Cay
The water is just stunning, it is so beautiful. I think we are going to really like it here.
We motor-sailed all day anchoring just after dark in a broad anchorage with maybe 10 other boats. Good holding and no anchor issues.
12/18/10 To Spanish Cay
It was not quite as warm as yesterday but still very nice. We traveled a good long way today making above 5 knots the whole way. We arrived at Spanish Cay just at sunset and are well tied up. We had planned on anchoring a few hours back, but after getting some weather information we decided to try and make it to a good marina. We are glad we did, a front came through over night and there was a lot of wind and rain.
I'm also glad that we made it here as this is kind of the kick off of the central cruising grounds for the Abacos and we will have short travel days from now on. We can just sail for fun. We should be only one day away from Treasure Cay where the Aimones will meet us for Christmas.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Captain's Log Week 4
12/2/10
To Isle of hope GA
Really nothing to report. Motored all day. Easy day in the ditch. Remote marina at mile 590, I think we were in bed by 9:00pm.
12/3/10
To Tea Kettle Creek
Another day of motoring all day, that's the down side. The upside is that Laura found a really fantastic anchorage. Just absolutely pristine. We were anchored in 10ft of water in Georgia's low country. There wasn't a tree in sight just 3 ft tall reeds all around to the horizon. We also got treated to one of the best double sunsets I have ever seen (double in that the light is mirrored on the the surface of the water). We have been using a website called cruisersnet.net. It is a really useful site for people cruising on the atlantic coast. The information about marinas, bridge closings, and anchorages is often more up to date than the guide books.
12/4/10 To Jekyll Island GA
Very cold morning, especially without the heaters which we have when we are docked.
We traveled to Jekyll Island on the southern boarder of Georgia. I'm really excited to make it to florida tomorrow.
Jekyll Island marina was our chosen stop for one reason... They boasted a a hot tub and we wanted it! In the end it was a cold tub that after an hour of waiting for it to heat up, turned into a luke warm tub, but it was still nice. We are planning on taking it easy tomorrow and spend the morning at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
12/5/10
To Fernadina Beach
We started the day off with a bike ride to the Sea Turtle Center as planned, it far surpassed my expectations. We ended up with a kind of impromptu private tour with one of the volunteers at the center. learned a lot and got to see a lot of really cool Turtles. See Laura's post about the trip for more details.
12/6/10
To St. Augustine FL
Really long day but we made great progress lots of miles covered. Really missing that motor. We had a hard time getting through some bridges as the currents we strong enough to almost over power our one motor. We went under one bridge at all of 1.2knots with full throttle! Currently we are docked on the outside of the seawall and it is really rough, might be a long night.
12/7/10
To Daytona Beach
I fell down on deck while steping out of one hull and walking to the other (I was a also on the phone with Yamaha at the time). It was a spectacular fall and I thought I had broken something for sure. It really hurt. Fortunately nothing was broken but all my corners (knees and elbows) are really bruised. I wonder what the Yamaha guy thought was going on when the cell phone I was holding went crashing across the deck?
12/8/10 To Titusville
Nothing exciting today other than during a long motor we were treated to a Rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. Very cool.
We docked at a small marina in Titusville. Included with our docking fee was a coupon for a free drink at the local bar. I'm guessing that is a promotion that pays big dividend. The other nice thing about our stay in Titusville was that right after docking we got word from Yamaha that they would indeed be giving us a new powerhead for our starboard motor. Additionally they agreed to have the parts shipped overnight to the mechanics in Southport NC and to also pay to have the motor shipped back to us wherever we are. =)
Finally!!!!
12/9/10
To Vero Beach
A new record for longest day on the water! We went about 70 miles today. We in the Vero Beach Mooring Field which was recommended to us by Larry and Roberta Jones. Good suggestion. We had a great night rafted to another catamaran, and it was only $13. Used the Dink (dingy) today for the first time on the trip. Despite having a rebuilt carburetor and a bunch of other work recently done, she isn't all that I could want. Basically she will only run with the choke out. Not so good. Will have to have the mechanic who puts our other engine in look at it.
To Isle of hope GA
Really nothing to report. Motored all day. Easy day in the ditch. Remote marina at mile 590, I think we were in bed by 9:00pm.
12/3/10
To Tea Kettle Creek
Another day of motoring all day, that's the down side. The upside is that Laura found a really fantastic anchorage. Just absolutely pristine. We were anchored in 10ft of water in Georgia's low country. There wasn't a tree in sight just 3 ft tall reeds all around to the horizon. We also got treated to one of the best double sunsets I have ever seen (double in that the light is mirrored on the the surface of the water). We have been using a website called cruisersnet.net. It is a really useful site for people cruising on the atlantic coast. The information about marinas, bridge closings, and anchorages is often more up to date than the guide books.
12/4/10 To Jekyll Island GA
Very cold morning, especially without the heaters which we have when we are docked.
We traveled to Jekyll Island on the southern boarder of Georgia. I'm really excited to make it to florida tomorrow.
Jekyll Island marina was our chosen stop for one reason... They boasted a a hot tub and we wanted it! In the end it was a cold tub that after an hour of waiting for it to heat up, turned into a luke warm tub, but it was still nice. We are planning on taking it easy tomorrow and spend the morning at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
12/5/10
To Fernadina Beach
We started the day off with a bike ride to the Sea Turtle Center as planned, it far surpassed my expectations. We ended up with a kind of impromptu private tour with one of the volunteers at the center. learned a lot and got to see a lot of really cool Turtles. See Laura's post about the trip for more details.
12/6/10
To St. Augustine FL
Really long day but we made great progress lots of miles covered. Really missing that motor. We had a hard time getting through some bridges as the currents we strong enough to almost over power our one motor. We went under one bridge at all of 1.2knots with full throttle! Currently we are docked on the outside of the seawall and it is really rough, might be a long night.
12/7/10
To Daytona Beach
I fell down on deck while steping out of one hull and walking to the other (I was a also on the phone with Yamaha at the time). It was a spectacular fall and I thought I had broken something for sure. It really hurt. Fortunately nothing was broken but all my corners (knees and elbows) are really bruised. I wonder what the Yamaha guy thought was going on when the cell phone I was holding went crashing across the deck?
12/8/10 To Titusville
Nothing exciting today other than during a long motor we were treated to a Rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. Very cool.
We docked at a small marina in Titusville. Included with our docking fee was a coupon for a free drink at the local bar. I'm guessing that is a promotion that pays big dividend. The other nice thing about our stay in Titusville was that right after docking we got word from Yamaha that they would indeed be giving us a new powerhead for our starboard motor. Additionally they agreed to have the parts shipped overnight to the mechanics in Southport NC and to also pay to have the motor shipped back to us wherever we are. =)
Finally!!!!
12/9/10
To Vero Beach
A new record for longest day on the water! We went about 70 miles today. We in the Vero Beach Mooring Field which was recommended to us by Larry and Roberta Jones. Good suggestion. We had a great night rafted to another catamaran, and it was only $13. Used the Dink (dingy) today for the first time on the trip. Despite having a rebuilt carburetor and a bunch of other work recently done, she isn't all that I could want. Basically she will only run with the choke out. Not so good. Will have to have the mechanic who puts our other engine in look at it.
Spanish Cay, Wonderful Sailing, Not So Wonderful Everything-Else
We took another day off at Spanish Cay Marina. There was a cold front headed through the area, and it seemed like it mostly passed Saturday night, but we decided to stay put until the Whale Cay passage had calmed down a little. It was a beautiful island, so we did some exploring. We rented a golf cart and went to the beach and tide pools near the airport. The instructions for the golf cart were "don't drive on the runway because planes do land, but you can drive along the side of the runway." We packed sandwiches and had a picnic lunch at the tide pools before it started to rain again. We raced back to the boat once the rain started, cheering as the golf cart puttered up the small hills.
After the rain, we did some fishing off the docks. Ben caught a beautiful yellow amber jack. It was probably just big enough, but we decided to throw it back. After that we only had bad luck - we lost several hooks to the rocks.
The wind on Monday was great and we had a beautiful sail. Real Sail! The engine was up and we were hitting 8 knots at times. Unfortunately, everything else started to go wrong. Our battery, which was slowly dying is now dying much quicker. We were thinking about trying to get a replacement on the same boat over as our motor, but couldn't quite make the noon deadline. Even worse news though, in talking to the shipping company, our motor did not make the noon deadline either. We called yamaha yesterday at 1:00 to ask what the miscommunication was, because we thought we had been very clear on the deadline, and the motor left southport Thursday early afternoon. We are still waiting for a return phone call.
After anchoring at White Sound in Green Turtle Cay we discovered our toilet has been smelling not so good because the holding tank was clogged and completely full. I'll leave out the gory details but we took a trip into New Plymouth this morning and purchased a plumbers snake, and the clog has been fixed, making our home habitable again.
After the rain, we did some fishing off the docks. Ben caught a beautiful yellow amber jack. It was probably just big enough, but we decided to throw it back. After that we only had bad luck - we lost several hooks to the rocks.
The wind on Monday was great and we had a beautiful sail. Real Sail! The engine was up and we were hitting 8 knots at times. Unfortunately, everything else started to go wrong. Our battery, which was slowly dying is now dying much quicker. We were thinking about trying to get a replacement on the same boat over as our motor, but couldn't quite make the noon deadline. Even worse news though, in talking to the shipping company, our motor did not make the noon deadline either. We called yamaha yesterday at 1:00 to ask what the miscommunication was, because we thought we had been very clear on the deadline, and the motor left southport Thursday early afternoon. We are still waiting for a return phone call.
After anchoring at White Sound in Green Turtle Cay we discovered our toilet has been smelling not so good because the holding tank was clogged and completely full. I'll leave out the gory details but we took a trip into New Plymouth this morning and purchased a plumbers snake, and the clog has been fixed, making our home habitable again.
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| Calling Home! |
Saturday, December 18, 2010
At Disneyland Water this Color seems Fake
The water is an absolutely beautiful teal color that almost looks fake. It's deceiving to be able to see the bottom in over 10 feet of water. It looks like it shouldn't be as deep as it is.
We've had an interesting past two days. On Friday we sailed from West End to Great Sale Cay. We had some excellent sailing in the morning, we were over 6 knots and ended up using all of our sails. In the afternoon the wind was on our nose, and we couldn't quite figure out why we were only making 4 knots. We figured it must be because we only had one engine, but we planned on going faster and arrived after dark. We ended up being guided into a large, beautiful anchorage by the light of the almost full moon, and it all worked out. There were about 10 other boats there already, but the anchorage was not at all crowded. Ben says I need more adjectives to describe the anchorage, I can't believe I didn't take a picture.
Today we sailed from Great Sale to Spanish Cay. Since we are not 100% on the weather (further explanation below), and the range is perfect, we decided to stay at the Spanish Cay Marina tonight. The wind is supposed to shift and all the anchorages in the area are unprotected from at least one direction. Today we are making much better time (over 5 knots), with and without the jib out, so maybe there was some current yesterday (and possibly those large mats of kelp attached to our bumper keels were slowing us down).
We've had some success and failures over the last two days. Here's the to the point version.
Success: We caught our first real fish. We're pretty sure it was a 14 inch king mackerel. (Ed. Note from Ben, 20 inch Mackerel!)
Fail: The fish was lost while trying to bring it on board and kill it. Ben thinks he did successfully knock it out, but then it came off the gaff. We hate to have killed a fish we didn't get to eat, and rice for dinner is even more depressing when we came so close to having a feast. Hopefully next time will be smoother.
Fail: Our Ham radio is not allowing us to tune into the weather station or Chris Parker's radio broadcast.
Success: Our $20/month, unlimited satellite phone service from global star is proving it's worth. We were able to call Ben's parents and they looked up the Bahamas broadcast for us. We should now be within range to hear the 8:15 am Abacos "Cruisers Net" broadcast, but we are trying to figure out what to do about getting our hands on an SSB radio.
Weather Fail Part 2: XM Weather. Yes, we do get XM service in the Bahamas, however the weather broadcast does not include info for the Bahamas. Basically, we can check the US weather from here. Not sure if we can blame the XM rep who ensured us that the weather would be available, since technically, weather reports are available, just not the ones we need.
XM Success: We were able to listen to the Diane Rheme show today and catch up on some US news.
SuccessOur anchoring situation is in much better shape. We have become a lot more comfortable with the bridle and haven't had any more problems anchoring.
FailWe are really missing that other engine, especially when our remaining motor, Old Faithful, did not start this morning.
Motor Fail Part 2As my dad has discovered with the lawn mower, the motor won't start unless it is in neutral. Crisis averted.
Fail: After 10 years, it appears even the famous NASA battery is clearly showing it's age. We are really trying to limit our consumption after the sun goes down. No charging the ipad overnight! The most amount of time I've seen remaining on the battery is 17 hours, which seems ok, but a few summers ago, I don't think I ever saw under 80 hours remaining, and that was only if all the water pumps had been running and all the lights were on.
Success: We're in paradise!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
We've had an interesting past two days. On Friday we sailed from West End to Great Sale Cay. We had some excellent sailing in the morning, we were over 6 knots and ended up using all of our sails. In the afternoon the wind was on our nose, and we couldn't quite figure out why we were only making 4 knots. We figured it must be because we only had one engine, but we planned on going faster and arrived after dark. We ended up being guided into a large, beautiful anchorage by the light of the almost full moon, and it all worked out. There were about 10 other boats there already, but the anchorage was not at all crowded. Ben says I need more adjectives to describe the anchorage, I can't believe I didn't take a picture.
Today we sailed from Great Sale to Spanish Cay. Since we are not 100% on the weather (further explanation below), and the range is perfect, we decided to stay at the Spanish Cay Marina tonight. The wind is supposed to shift and all the anchorages in the area are unprotected from at least one direction. Today we are making much better time (over 5 knots), with and without the jib out, so maybe there was some current yesterday (and possibly those large mats of kelp attached to our bumper keels were slowing us down).
We've had some success and failures over the last two days. Here's the to the point version.
Success: We caught our first real fish. We're pretty sure it was a 14 inch king mackerel. (Ed. Note from Ben, 20 inch Mackerel!)
Fail: The fish was lost while trying to bring it on board and kill it. Ben thinks he did successfully knock it out, but then it came off the gaff. We hate to have killed a fish we didn't get to eat, and rice for dinner is even more depressing when we came so close to having a feast. Hopefully next time will be smoother.
Fail: Our Ham radio is not allowing us to tune into the weather station or Chris Parker's radio broadcast.
Success: Our $20/month, unlimited satellite phone service from global star is proving it's worth. We were able to call Ben's parents and they looked up the Bahamas broadcast for us. We should now be within range to hear the 8:15 am Abacos "Cruisers Net" broadcast, but we are trying to figure out what to do about getting our hands on an SSB radio.
Weather Fail Part 2: XM Weather. Yes, we do get XM service in the Bahamas, however the weather broadcast does not include info for the Bahamas. Basically, we can check the US weather from here. Not sure if we can blame the XM rep who ensured us that the weather would be available, since technically, weather reports are available, just not the ones we need.
XM Success: We were able to listen to the Diane Rheme show today and catch up on some US news.
SuccessOur anchoring situation is in much better shape. We have become a lot more comfortable with the bridle and haven't had any more problems anchoring.
FailWe are really missing that other engine, especially when our remaining motor, Old Faithful, did not start this morning.
Motor Fail Part 2As my dad has discovered with the lawn mower, the motor won't start unless it is in neutral. Crisis averted.
Fail: After 10 years, it appears even the famous NASA battery is clearly showing it's age. We are really trying to limit our consumption after the sun goes down. No charging the ipad overnight! The most amount of time I've seen remaining on the battery is 17 hours, which seems ok, but a few summers ago, I don't think I ever saw under 80 hours remaining, and that was only if all the water pumps had been running and all the lights were on.
Success: We're in paradise!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Spanish Cay, The Abacos, Bahamas
Thursday, December 16, 2010
We Made It!!
We started feeling better about making the trip with one motor after talking to Chris Parker - The Cruiser's Weather Guru - and finding out starting Wednesday night, there was going to be a 72 hour weather window which was the best he'd seen in two months. So yesterday afternoon we moved over to an anchorage near the Fort Worth Inlet. We were also relieved that there were many other boats also staged at the anchorage by the inlet.
Except that I got incredibly sea sick, and Ben had to do most of the work, it was a great trip. The first 10 - 15 miles were a little rough, but then it calmed down. Unfortunately, once you throw up spice sausage for a few hours, there isn't much going back. (Note to self: Next time fix something bland for dinner the night before leaving).
We are so excited to be here and are off to do some exploring!
Except that I got incredibly sea sick, and Ben had to do most of the work, it was a great trip. The first 10 - 15 miles were a little rough, but then it calmed down. Unfortunately, once you throw up spice sausage for a few hours, there isn't much going back. (Note to self: Next time fix something bland for dinner the night before leaving).
We are so excited to be here and are off to do some exploring!
Location:West End,The Bahamas
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Yamaha - Are you really this incompetent, or do you just hate us?
So apparently I did jinx us. Yamaha sent the new power head to southport, and it arrived Friday. We talked to Gregory Poole and they agreed to work overtime if we would pay the extra. Monday, when Gregory Poole went to put the last screw in, they realized the power head Yamaha sent was missing a brass ring, which is not only a very important piece of the motor, but also specific to that motor (so the one could not be taken off the old one). By the time we found out about it, Yamaha had already missed Monday shipment, and it would not go out until Tuesday to arrive at Southport Wednesday, for them to do the work Wednesday and Thursday and possibly make the Thursday pick up, but if not Friday. So then the motor couldn't go on until Monday which only gives us 3 days to make it from Palm Beach to Treasure Cay for Christmas, which is a push assuming the weather is there. We are going to do more research today, but at this point it looks like we will be crossing between Thursday and Saturday with one motor. The weather looks very calm, so we should be ok.
On top of that, Ben's phone is no longer charging, and he is unable to sync or restore it using his computer because he is getting a message that the software is incompatible. So, we have another appointment with an Apple Store. This of course is complicated because we have used Ben's number as our contact number for the the marina in Southport, Yamaha, and the marina here that is supposed to install the engine.
On to happier topics, where were we? I had said we had some long days recently. Here's the exact milage (in statue miles): Dec 6; Fernandina Beach, FL to St Augustine, FL; 59 miles Dec 7; St Augustine, FL to Daytona Beach, FL; 60 miles Dec 8; Daytona Beach, FL to Titusville, FL; 46 miles Dec 9; Titusville, FL to Vero Beach, FL; 70 miles
Leaving St Augustine we made our first bridge timing error. On the chart it looked like the opening bridge was about 1/2 a mile from our marina. We read in the guidebook that the Bridge of Lions Highway Bridge opens on the hour and half hour except for 8 am, noon and 5 pm. So we thought if we left about 7:10, we would make the 7:30 opening, and be golden. Unforetunetly the bridge was a little further than we though, and we just missed the 7:30 opening, so had to wait until 8:30 am.
On December 8 a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket was fired from Cape Canaveral, which is right across the ICW from Titusville. The dock master at the marina south of Daytona Beach said we would be able to see the rocket from Daytona as we motored towards Titusville. It was supposed to launch between 9:00 am and 12:30 pm, and the first launch time was about 9:35. We looked for it, but when we didn't see it, I checked twitter and a news site and saw the initial launch was delayed and had been rescheduled for 10:43 am. We missed the initial part of the launch but looked up just in time to see the stage two rocket fire!
According to the guidebook, the NASA Railroad Bridge is the only opening bridge without an attendant on the ICW, and is normally open except when a train comes through, but on the 8th, the bridge was undergoing construction and was closed for "a little while." By the number of boats with their anchors out waiting for the bridge to open, it looked like it had been that way for quite awhile. We also recognized many of the boats as having passed us earlier that morning - many of them were much faster than us and had passed us several hours earlier - they must have been waiting for a while. We started to drop our anchor as well, but then heard on the radio it would only be another 1/2 hour, so decided to wait it out. After the NASA bridge there was another opening bridge 2 miles later, which we made with no problem. The next bridge, about 7 miles after that did not open at all between 3:30 and 5 pm. We would have just made it by 3:30 if we didn't have to wait a half hour for the railroad bridge, but with the delay we realized we wouldn't get through until after 5, so decided to call it a day.
After mooring at Vero Beach, we stopped at Peck Lake at about mile 992. It was a beautiful anchorage, especially when we figured out the loud crashing noise was actually the beach, just a dingy ride and short walk away! We decided to stay put on Saturday and enjoyed the beach! It wasn't quite warm enough to swim, but I laid on the beach and read, Ben searched for sea shells and we waded up to our knees. Ben also got online and got a 3 day fishing permit for the state of Florida. We were very excited to catch our first fish while fishing in the surf. It was a salt water cat fish which Ben threw back. We'd much rather be on a beach in the Bahamas, but we are having a blast anyway, and we're starting to realize how hard it will be to go back to "the real world" once this trip is over.
We are now at North Palm Beach Marina. When we called the marina, they said there was a grocery store about a mile away, and we could walk to it, but we'd probably want a cab back. It turns out it's actually 1.8 miles. The first night we were here we walked to a restaurant which was closed, and then walked about another mile to another restaurant, knowing we'd need a cab for the ride home. The cab was $20 for less than 2 miles, and there was no meter or any info on how the fare was calculated in the cab. We decided we'd be better off renting a car than trying to deal with the cabs again. It ended up being a great decision! We had a lot of last minute provisioning to do, so it was nice to be able to fill up the car. In addition to the grocery store we also went to Carmine's Gourmet Grocery store which was a nice little store with great looking meat and fish. We bought a few dried sausages which should be great for snacking, and adding to rice and beans for a little variety and flavor.
The best part about having the rental car was last night we went out to see Harry Potter 7 Part 1 at the IMAX! It was a pretty big splurge ($15 a ticket), but it was a lot of fun, and as Ben said, we haven't done much in terms of entertainment over the last month. The movie was great and it was nice to be able to get away from the boat for a few hours.
Update from Yamaha: They will not actually ship it to the Bahamas since they are not an exporter. There is a solution in the works, but it depends on things going right, so we will see.
On top of that, Ben's phone is no longer charging, and he is unable to sync or restore it using his computer because he is getting a message that the software is incompatible. So, we have another appointment with an Apple Store. This of course is complicated because we have used Ben's number as our contact number for the the marina in Southport, Yamaha, and the marina here that is supposed to install the engine.
On to happier topics, where were we? I had said we had some long days recently. Here's the exact milage (in statue miles): Dec 6; Fernandina Beach, FL to St Augustine, FL; 59 miles Dec 7; St Augustine, FL to Daytona Beach, FL; 60 miles Dec 8; Daytona Beach, FL to Titusville, FL; 46 miles Dec 9; Titusville, FL to Vero Beach, FL; 70 miles
Leaving St Augustine we made our first bridge timing error. On the chart it looked like the opening bridge was about 1/2 a mile from our marina. We read in the guidebook that the Bridge of Lions Highway Bridge opens on the hour and half hour except for 8 am, noon and 5 pm. So we thought if we left about 7:10, we would make the 7:30 opening, and be golden. Unforetunetly the bridge was a little further than we though, and we just missed the 7:30 opening, so had to wait until 8:30 am.
On December 8 a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket was fired from Cape Canaveral, which is right across the ICW from Titusville. The dock master at the marina south of Daytona Beach said we would be able to see the rocket from Daytona as we motored towards Titusville. It was supposed to launch between 9:00 am and 12:30 pm, and the first launch time was about 9:35. We looked for it, but when we didn't see it, I checked twitter and a news site and saw the initial launch was delayed and had been rescheduled for 10:43 am. We missed the initial part of the launch but looked up just in time to see the stage two rocket fire!
According to the guidebook, the NASA Railroad Bridge is the only opening bridge without an attendant on the ICW, and is normally open except when a train comes through, but on the 8th, the bridge was undergoing construction and was closed for "a little while." By the number of boats with their anchors out waiting for the bridge to open, it looked like it had been that way for quite awhile. We also recognized many of the boats as having passed us earlier that morning - many of them were much faster than us and had passed us several hours earlier - they must have been waiting for a while. We started to drop our anchor as well, but then heard on the radio it would only be another 1/2 hour, so decided to wait it out. After the NASA bridge there was another opening bridge 2 miles later, which we made with no problem. The next bridge, about 7 miles after that did not open at all between 3:30 and 5 pm. We would have just made it by 3:30 if we didn't have to wait a half hour for the railroad bridge, but with the delay we realized we wouldn't get through until after 5, so decided to call it a day.
After mooring at Vero Beach, we stopped at Peck Lake at about mile 992. It was a beautiful anchorage, especially when we figured out the loud crashing noise was actually the beach, just a dingy ride and short walk away! We decided to stay put on Saturday and enjoyed the beach! It wasn't quite warm enough to swim, but I laid on the beach and read, Ben searched for sea shells and we waded up to our knees. Ben also got online and got a 3 day fishing permit for the state of Florida. We were very excited to catch our first fish while fishing in the surf. It was a salt water cat fish which Ben threw back. We'd much rather be on a beach in the Bahamas, but we are having a blast anyway, and we're starting to realize how hard it will be to go back to "the real world" once this trip is over.
We are now at North Palm Beach Marina. When we called the marina, they said there was a grocery store about a mile away, and we could walk to it, but we'd probably want a cab back. It turns out it's actually 1.8 miles. The first night we were here we walked to a restaurant which was closed, and then walked about another mile to another restaurant, knowing we'd need a cab for the ride home. The cab was $20 for less than 2 miles, and there was no meter or any info on how the fare was calculated in the cab. We decided we'd be better off renting a car than trying to deal with the cabs again. It ended up being a great decision! We had a lot of last minute provisioning to do, so it was nice to be able to fill up the car. In addition to the grocery store we also went to Carmine's Gourmet Grocery store which was a nice little store with great looking meat and fish. We bought a few dried sausages which should be great for snacking, and adding to rice and beans for a little variety and flavor.
The best part about having the rental car was last night we went out to see Harry Potter 7 Part 1 at the IMAX! It was a pretty big splurge ($15 a ticket), but it was a lot of fun, and as Ben said, we haven't done much in terms of entertainment over the last month. The movie was great and it was nice to be able to get away from the boat for a few hours.
Update from Yamaha: They will not actually ship it to the Bahamas since they are not an exporter. There is a solution in the works, but it depends on things going right, so we will see.
Friday, December 10, 2010
We've had some long days!
I need to double check the exact milage, but the last several days we have really been pushing from sunrise to sunset and have put in a lot of 50 (statute) mile or over days. Yesterday was probably the longest, we went from Titusville to Vero Beach, which was almost 70 miles. We took it easy this morning, we woke up, had a yummy eggs and bacon breakfast, took the dingy ashore to pay for the mooring and take showers, and didn't head out until about 10:15!
We have some tentative good news - hopefully I won't jinx it, but right now, the parts and a shipping crate are on there way from Yamaha to Southport, and Eddie will be re-assembling the motor tomorrow. We will pay the upgrade to ship it overnight to a marina we've found in Palm Beach, and they should be re-attaching it on Wednesday morning. After a lot of back and forth with Yamaha, including being told that we had an atypical use of the motor and may have voided our warranty, they finally agreed a five month old motor should not have rusted cylinders. Yay, we are finally winning again, too bad we will have ended up doing 700 (of 1000) miles of the ICW with only one motor. It's been a learning experience and I think we are going to be experts at docking the boat once we have that other motor back. We are going to make a real effort to continue to plan and communicate which is really what made this possible. Remaining calm and not yelling when things did not go as planned also kept our boat and marriage in one piece.
A few quick thoughts:
We are working on the next installment of the video blog! Get ready.
Yesterday we were trying to remember the last day we didn't see dolphins. I think it was our layover day in Beaufort, SC, but before that I can't remember. On this trip we've also seen otters, a few manatees (we think) and a bald eagle. Unfortunetetly nature photography is really difficult and there will probably be little evidence in our next video blog.
Today was finally warm! It was in the 70's. Also, the water today was teal! It felt very tropical.
And a few pictures:
We have some tentative good news - hopefully I won't jinx it, but right now, the parts and a shipping crate are on there way from Yamaha to Southport, and Eddie will be re-assembling the motor tomorrow. We will pay the upgrade to ship it overnight to a marina we've found in Palm Beach, and they should be re-attaching it on Wednesday morning. After a lot of back and forth with Yamaha, including being told that we had an atypical use of the motor and may have voided our warranty, they finally agreed a five month old motor should not have rusted cylinders. Yay, we are finally winning again, too bad we will have ended up doing 700 (of 1000) miles of the ICW with only one motor. It's been a learning experience and I think we are going to be experts at docking the boat once we have that other motor back. We are going to make a real effort to continue to plan and communicate which is really what made this possible. Remaining calm and not yelling when things did not go as planned also kept our boat and marriage in one piece.
A few quick thoughts:
We are working on the next installment of the video blog! Get ready.
Yesterday we were trying to remember the last day we didn't see dolphins. I think it was our layover day in Beaufort, SC, but before that I can't remember. On this trip we've also seen otters, a few manatees (we think) and a bald eagle. Unfortunetetly nature photography is really difficult and there will probably be little evidence in our next video blog.
Today was finally warm! It was in the 70's. Also, the water today was teal! It felt very tropical.
And a few pictures:
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