We've been in Marathon about a week now. Christmas has just passed and the weather has been phenomenal!
But...
The first Norther went through last night and it's cooler now. It was a weak one so the daytime temps have dropped from the high 70s to high 60s. Until today the nighttime low temps have been about 75. Awesome. BTW: a Norther is a winter cold front in Florida. Or the Bahamas.
The Bahamas is our next, but at this point only hoped for, destination. We are planning but know a weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream may never happen safely. Should happen but there have been years one didn't. The current weather pattern had strong easterly winds but this first norther may change all that and set up a winter weather cycle that gives some crossing windows nearly weekly. We'll see.
Heather arrived here the day after we did (20th) and is staying until the day before New Year's Eve. Unlike last year she caught great weather while here. We have been doing a lot of biking and dinghying looking for wildlife. Interesting creatures sighted, including 5 foot lizards. The other wildlife sighted was in Key West. We took the bus down to there for shopping and weirdo watching. Not many weirdos this year but we did see a few 6 foot Tarpon waiting for a tourist to fall into the water.
So far the only breakdown is the failure again of our generator. It's been producing electricity, heating and cooling since October but has suddenly quit putting out enough electrons. Grrrrrr
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
In the Keys
We're in the Florida Keys again. Just barely.
At Dinner Key, across from Key Biscayne, just down from Virginia Key. Keys, right? Welllll, more like Miami.
In the Florida Keys technically, maybe. But really at a real big city. In fact as I write this we're in a hotel in the city. Not even on the boat. We left the boat on a mooring and came to a Hampton Inn to watch the UConn women's basketball team play Baylor.
This feels weird. Leaving the boat, and Cleo, and going to a hotel!
How did we get here?
We stayed about three weeks in Fort Pierce visiting with Mike and Carol and resupplying the boat. Oh, and Carol went off to work for a week and a half to get us the money that keeps me in the lifestyle I've become accustomed to.
Thanks M & C Guay for the use of the car, the meals and the friendship!
While in Ft Pierce we saw our first manatee and the first blue-bottle of the season, too. Blue-bottle? Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish. Potentially fatal if encounterd while swimming. Especially if as big as this one.
Anchored off the City Marina wasn't too comfortable most days, this season. Very persistant easterly winds made for a little discomfort. Not terrible, just a little uncomfortable. Those winds also meant we were not going outside to sail from there south. Motored from Ft Pierce to Lake Worth (Palm Beach) on the ICW. An hour of bridge delays make for a long day. From there we went offshore to Fort Lauderdale. The wind had died and the seas were down but the current was against us. We had to get very close to shore to get any speed over the ground. The last hour gave us some sailing wind and a little bit of favorable current. We anchored in Lake Sylvia, Ft Lauderdale. A very nice spot but a little crowded this time.
From Lauderdale we have to go outside to Miami. They got away with building a 56 foot bridge over the ICW in Miami instead of the required 65 feet. We need every inch of those 65 feet. The conditions were forecast to be pretty rough but we started early when there was no wind. When the breeze and seas came up they were behind us and we had no troubles. 8.8 knots was our highest clocked speed over the ground. We only realized how rough it was when we turned for the Miami channel and the seas were on our beam. 20 minutes. Not hard to take. Government Cut, Dodge Island bypass and back to the ICW and starting down the Keys. Again, just barely.
Tomorrow we head for Marathon. Probably stopping around Key Largo the first night and trying for Marathon the second. Weather permitting. Forecast again is not too great. Easterlies. If they keep up, the Bahamas passage may be in jeopardy. Of course, patterns can change in the month or so until our hoped for departure.
Photo from last years visit to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
At Dinner Key, across from Key Biscayne, just down from Virginia Key. Keys, right? Welllll, more like Miami.
In the Florida Keys technically, maybe. But really at a real big city. In fact as I write this we're in a hotel in the city. Not even on the boat. We left the boat on a mooring and came to a Hampton Inn to watch the UConn women's basketball team play Baylor.
This feels weird. Leaving the boat, and Cleo, and going to a hotel!
How did we get here?
We stayed about three weeks in Fort Pierce visiting with Mike and Carol and resupplying the boat. Oh, and Carol went off to work for a week and a half to get us the money that keeps me in the lifestyle I've become accustomed to.
Thanks M & C Guay for the use of the car, the meals and the friendship!
While in Ft Pierce we saw our first manatee and the first blue-bottle of the season, too. Blue-bottle? Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish. Potentially fatal if encounterd while swimming. Especially if as big as this one.
Anchored off the City Marina wasn't too comfortable most days, this season. Very persistant easterly winds made for a little discomfort. Not terrible, just a little uncomfortable. Those winds also meant we were not going outside to sail from there south. Motored from Ft Pierce to Lake Worth (Palm Beach) on the ICW. An hour of bridge delays make for a long day. From there we went offshore to Fort Lauderdale. The wind had died and the seas were down but the current was against us. We had to get very close to shore to get any speed over the ground. The last hour gave us some sailing wind and a little bit of favorable current. We anchored in Lake Sylvia, Ft Lauderdale. A very nice spot but a little crowded this time.
From Lauderdale we have to go outside to Miami. They got away with building a 56 foot bridge over the ICW in Miami instead of the required 65 feet. We need every inch of those 65 feet. The conditions were forecast to be pretty rough but we started early when there was no wind. When the breeze and seas came up they were behind us and we had no troubles. 8.8 knots was our highest clocked speed over the ground. We only realized how rough it was when we turned for the Miami channel and the seas were on our beam. 20 minutes. Not hard to take. Government Cut, Dodge Island bypass and back to the ICW and starting down the Keys. Again, just barely.
Tomorrow we head for Marathon. Probably stopping around Key Largo the first night and trying for Marathon the second. Weather permitting. Forecast again is not too great. Easterlies. If they keep up, the Bahamas passage may be in jeopardy. Of course, patterns can change in the month or so until our hoped for departure.
Photo from last years visit to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Florida again
Back in Florida again. Finally.
It's a little breezy and uncomfortable anchored in front of the City Marina but it gives us easy access to town. The wind will fade eventually.
But it's warm!
There were a few cool days in Charleston with some pretty cold nights but it wasn't too bad. Mostly 60s with plenty of 70s. Since we've been in Florida it's been mostly 70s with some 80s. And nothing lower than the mid-60s at night. We can handle that... until the first winter norther comes through. Last year it was the second week of December but it's still November (25th) right now. Black Friday as a matter of fact. We arrived in Fort Pierce Thanksgiving afternoon and had a scrumptious dinner, without killing any poor bird or pig.
We had a very quick trip here. Much shorter than last year timewise. That's because we went offshore from Charleston to St Augustine bypassing Georgia (yay!) and the northern part of Florida (boo!). I like the ICW in the northern part of Florida but not any of Georgia. 31 hours of very blue water with an amazing encounter with a very playful pod of dolphin. The overnight was reasonably warm, okay cool, not like last year when it was very cold. No sailing was involved even though we had the mainsail up. There was a fairly big swell from the east because of several days of windy weather before we departed. But no waves on top of the swell due to little wind. You wait for good weather to go offshore if you do not want to deal with big seas but you end up not sailing. Oh well.
We stayed only one night in St Augustine. Watched the UConn women beat Stanford (YAY!!!) at a local bar. WE were at the local bar not the basketball players.
From St Auggie went went back to the ICW and went to New Smyrna Beach for one night. Don't have any idea where the old smyrna is. From New Smyrna we headed down my least favorite stretch of the Florida ICW. This goes inside of Merritt Island and the Kennedy Space Center area. They are preparing for a launch (today, the 25th) of the mission to explore Mars again. We believe we could see the launch vehicle but when we went by it was sheathed in the gantry. We stopped at the mouth of the Banana River in a nice protected spot in front of some very expensive homes. The one we parked in front of had nice friendly owners who said hello and liked our boat. From there we headed to Ft. Pierce, and here we are.
One interesting event on the last passage was encountering a small (10ft) skiff right next to the ICW near the Sebastian area that said it was disabled as we went by. Carol was on the helm and didn't quite understand what they wanted. We realized they said they were in trouble and we furled the genoa and turned around and called the Coast Guard. They had never stopped fishing so it wasn't apparent they were in trouble. They weren't, they were out of fuel. Wanted some of ours. We saw another small powerboat coming and signalled them to come over and tow these idiots. We couldn't have brought them where they wanted to go due to shallow water. They only downside to all this nonsense, besides a few minutes of time wasted, was we had started the distress process with the USCG and had to finish filling out their forms over the VHF and cell phone even though we had left the scene to the other vessel who was towing the Floridiots to shore. Oh well. It was good practice if we ever encounter a real distress situation.
I don't know if I just coined that term 'Floridiots' or heard it somewhere before. Maybe from a Carl Hiaasen novel, or James Hall. Probably Dave Barry. We've encountered plenty of Florida boaters. Probably the standard percentage are idiots, same as at home, but when you meet up with them you just have to wonder.
Anyway, we're here. It took the end of September to the end of November but we're here. Ready to spend some time in southern Florida. Then the Keys. And maybe even get over to the Bahamas early next year. We can hope.
It's a little breezy and uncomfortable anchored in front of the City Marina but it gives us easy access to town. The wind will fade eventually.
But it's warm!
There were a few cool days in Charleston with some pretty cold nights but it wasn't too bad. Mostly 60s with plenty of 70s. Since we've been in Florida it's been mostly 70s with some 80s. And nothing lower than the mid-60s at night. We can handle that... until the first winter norther comes through. Last year it was the second week of December but it's still November (25th) right now. Black Friday as a matter of fact. We arrived in Fort Pierce Thanksgiving afternoon and had a scrumptious dinner, without killing any poor bird or pig.
We had a very quick trip here. Much shorter than last year timewise. That's because we went offshore from Charleston to St Augustine bypassing Georgia (yay!) and the northern part of Florida (boo!). I like the ICW in the northern part of Florida but not any of Georgia. 31 hours of very blue water with an amazing encounter with a very playful pod of dolphin. The overnight was reasonably warm, okay cool, not like last year when it was very cold. No sailing was involved even though we had the mainsail up. There was a fairly big swell from the east because of several days of windy weather before we departed. But no waves on top of the swell due to little wind. You wait for good weather to go offshore if you do not want to deal with big seas but you end up not sailing. Oh well.
From St Auggie went went back to the ICW and went to New Smyrna Beach for one night. Don't have any idea where the old smyrna is. From New Smyrna we headed down my least favorite stretch of the Florida ICW. This goes inside of Merritt Island and the Kennedy Space Center area. They are preparing for a launch (today, the 25th) of the mission to explore Mars again. We believe we could see the launch vehicle but when we went by it was sheathed in the gantry. We stopped at the mouth of the Banana River in a nice protected spot in front of some very expensive homes. The one we parked in front of had nice friendly owners who said hello and liked our boat. From there we headed to Ft. Pierce, and here we are.
One interesting event on the last passage was encountering a small (10ft) skiff right next to the ICW near the Sebastian area that said it was disabled as we went by. Carol was on the helm and didn't quite understand what they wanted. We realized they said they were in trouble and we furled the genoa and turned around and called the Coast Guard. They had never stopped fishing so it wasn't apparent they were in trouble. They weren't, they were out of fuel. Wanted some of ours. We saw another small powerboat coming and signalled them to come over and tow these idiots. We couldn't have brought them where they wanted to go due to shallow water. They only downside to all this nonsense, besides a few minutes of time wasted, was we had started the distress process with the USCG and had to finish filling out their forms over the VHF and cell phone even though we had left the scene to the other vessel who was towing the Floridiots to shore. Oh well. It was good practice if we ever encounter a real distress situation.
I don't know if I just coined that term 'Floridiots' or heard it somewhere before. Maybe from a Carl Hiaasen novel, or James Hall. Probably Dave Barry. We've encountered plenty of Florida boaters. Probably the standard percentage are idiots, same as at home, but when you meet up with them you just have to wonder.
Anyway, we're here. It took the end of September to the end of November but we're here. Ready to spend some time in southern Florida. Then the Keys. And maybe even get over to the Bahamas early next year. We can hope.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Charleston
Here we are in Charleston again. This is a nice place to be. The anchorage isn't too great but there's access to shore and the town is just a short bike ride away. Lots of shops and restaurants and it's really a pretty town. It's also a spot Carol can fly out of for work. We've been here more than a week with nearly two more to go. Eating our way through some of the restaurants, cupcake shops, donut shops and more!
We left Great Bridge more than two weeks ago and skipped by Coinjock. We anchored just outside Broad Creek off North River a little short of Albemarle Sound after just squeaking under the Pungo Ferry fixed bridge. Water levels were very high due to the wind direction for the last 3 or 4 days. Closest clearance since we've been going up and down the ICW (all three trips). The fixed bridge near Great Bridge was pretty close, too.
Crossing Albemarle Sound wasn't too bad because it was fairly early in the day. Able to sail, well motorsail, part way. It got a little choppy on the south side but not as bad as it can get. We ended up at Belhaven but didn't go ashore. It was pretty late after a 10 hour day. The next day we were in Adams Creek again. Our usual spot. Strange to say we have a usual spot in only our second year.
From Adams Creek we went by Beaufort (Bo-fert) and went all the way to Mile Hammock, a USMC basin. There's been some dredging before this spot and where we went aground earlier this year was deeper this time. YAY!!!! We also had a number of Harrier passes as they do their practice STOL, short takeoff and landings, very close to the ICW. Very neat, and loud. There were also a number of nearby explosions. Marines playing with their toys.
Our next stop was Wrightsville Beach. It would have been a short day but our total bridge waiting time was more than 1 3/4 hours. Yuck. Boring. Then we went to Calabash Creek right near the NC - SC border. Another repeat anchorage as was Cow House Creek the next night.
Our next stop was a new one to us, Dewee's Creek. It's just a few miles from Charleston but a 10 hour, 71 mile day is long enough. It's also very windy and the next passage to Charleston was rough also, with a foggy crossing of Charleston Harbor. Not a fun day but it was only 3 hours long.
As I write this I'm at the City Marina. Just for one night so we could have our new refrigerator delivered. Hopefully Carol has learned how not to put a hole in this one.
Another expensive mistake to add to the list we've both created.
We left Great Bridge more than two weeks ago and skipped by Coinjock. We anchored just outside Broad Creek off North River a little short of Albemarle Sound after just squeaking under the Pungo Ferry fixed bridge. Water levels were very high due to the wind direction for the last 3 or 4 days. Closest clearance since we've been going up and down the ICW (all three trips). The fixed bridge near Great Bridge was pretty close, too.
Crossing Albemarle Sound wasn't too bad because it was fairly early in the day. Able to sail, well motorsail, part way. It got a little choppy on the south side but not as bad as it can get. We ended up at Belhaven but didn't go ashore. It was pretty late after a 10 hour day. The next day we were in Adams Creek again. Our usual spot. Strange to say we have a usual spot in only our second year.
From Adams Creek we went by Beaufort (Bo-fert) and went all the way to Mile Hammock, a USMC basin. There's been some dredging before this spot and where we went aground earlier this year was deeper this time. YAY!!!! We also had a number of Harrier passes as they do their practice STOL, short takeoff and landings, very close to the ICW. Very neat, and loud. There were also a number of nearby explosions. Marines playing with their toys.
Our next stop was Wrightsville Beach. It would have been a short day but our total bridge waiting time was more than 1 3/4 hours. Yuck. Boring. Then we went to Calabash Creek right near the NC - SC border. Another repeat anchorage as was Cow House Creek the next night.
Our next stop was a new one to us, Dewee's Creek. It's just a few miles from Charleston but a 10 hour, 71 mile day is long enough. It's also very windy and the next passage to Charleston was rough also, with a foggy crossing of Charleston Harbor. Not a fun day but it was only 3 hours long.
As I write this I'm at the City Marina. Just for one night so we could have our new refrigerator delivered. Hopefully Carol has learned how not to put a hole in this one.
Another expensive mistake to add to the list we've both created.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Great Bridge
We are at a free dock in Great Bridge, VA, part of Chesapeake, VA. Now that's not Chesapeake City which is in MD. I don't know why it's Chesapeake since we are no longer on Chesapeake Bay, we are in the ICW.
Great Bridge is a nice little spot. Walking distance to groceries and library and it's FREE to tie up here. Room for 6-7 boats. It's between Great Bridge Lock and Great Bridge bridge. Confused? You can look it up. Significant Revolutionary War battle fought here.
Last Saturday we left Annapolis intending to get to Solomons, MD. A couple of hours bashing into major wind and waves made us change our destination to the Rhodes River. A real pretty and protected spot that local cruisers have their raft-ups at.
When we left the next day it was still a little breezy but nowhere near as bad and we made good time to Solomans Island. Motoring some because of the wind direction but we also had some nice sailing time. Happy. We anchored in a spot we used in the springtime where there is room for 2 or 3 boats. Within a few hours we were surrounded by 9 or 10 boats. Way too many. Way too close. We even asked one for their insurance information because of where they anchored and the weather forecast. For some reason they moved off to a mooring. Might have been something I said. Besides us there was one US registered boat (that stayed), one Australian and the rest were Canadians. I might have posted something unflattering about Canadians on Facebook being a little frustrated with their anchoring choices. I know Canadians. Canadians are nice. I'm sure they contribute to our economy travelling to the US. But.... do they have to anchor SO DAMN CLOSE???
Whoops. There I go again. Sorry. BTW: the boat I shamed into moving was from Massachusetts. Definitely not Canadians.
We had a very nice sail to Deltaville, VA and anchored next to Canadians. We made sure not to be too close and that made them (and us) friendly.
From Deltaville we planned to go to Hampton, VA but we've had the current with us for several morning departure passages and made good time to Hampton Roads where we decided to brave the Norfolk traffic and military restrictions to head into the ICW. Just barely made some last of the day bridge openings which caused some tension but... here we are! In the long ditch. Heading to Coinjock next to do laundry and then across Albermarle Sound in NC. We're actually waiting an extra day here (where it's free) to time crossing Albermarle Sound in safer conditions. Coinjock docking is definitely not free.
Did I mention we like free? We spent multiple thousands of dollars in maintenance and repairs in the last few weeks. Some planned. Some not. Ahhh, cruising.
Great Bridge is a nice little spot. Walking distance to groceries and library and it's FREE to tie up here. Room for 6-7 boats. It's between Great Bridge Lock and Great Bridge bridge. Confused? You can look it up. Significant Revolutionary War battle fought here.
Last Saturday we left Annapolis intending to get to Solomons, MD. A couple of hours bashing into major wind and waves made us change our destination to the Rhodes River. A real pretty and protected spot that local cruisers have their raft-ups at.
When we left the next day it was still a little breezy but nowhere near as bad and we made good time to Solomans Island. Motoring some because of the wind direction but we also had some nice sailing time. Happy. We anchored in a spot we used in the springtime where there is room for 2 or 3 boats. Within a few hours we were surrounded by 9 or 10 boats. Way too many. Way too close. We even asked one for their insurance information because of where they anchored and the weather forecast. For some reason they moved off to a mooring. Might have been something I said. Besides us there was one US registered boat (that stayed), one Australian and the rest were Canadians. I might have posted something unflattering about Canadians on Facebook being a little frustrated with their anchoring choices. I know Canadians. Canadians are nice. I'm sure they contribute to our economy travelling to the US. But.... do they have to anchor SO DAMN CLOSE???
Whoops. There I go again. Sorry. BTW: the boat I shamed into moving was from Massachusetts. Definitely not Canadians.
We had a very nice sail to Deltaville, VA and anchored next to Canadians. We made sure not to be too close and that made them (and us) friendly.
From Deltaville we planned to go to Hampton, VA but we've had the current with us for several morning departure passages and made good time to Hampton Roads where we decided to brave the Norfolk traffic and military restrictions to head into the ICW. Just barely made some last of the day bridge openings which caused some tension but... here we are! In the long ditch. Heading to Coinjock next to do laundry and then across Albermarle Sound in NC. We're actually waiting an extra day here (where it's free) to time crossing Albermarle Sound in safer conditions. Coinjock docking is definitely not free.
Did I mention we like free? We spent multiple thousands of dollars in maintenance and repairs in the last few weeks. Some planned. Some not. Ahhh, cruising.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Wonderful Weather
We're at a marina near Baltimore waiting to get hauled for annual maintenance. Carol is off on her first week of working. Someplace warmer than here.
As mentioned in my previous post the weather has been unsettled. No major storms but rain, fog, showers nearly every day. Blah.
We left Port Washington 24 September intending to go all the way to Cape May, NJ. Nope. After going under the Narrows-Veranzano Bridge we noticed we were sinking. Not good. We had a leak in a raw water cooling hose. The leak was after the pump so the cooling water was not going through the heat exchanger but into the bilge. In a sailboat raw (salt) water cools the anti-freeze which circulates through the engine. So we limped on one engine into Atlantic Highlands, Sandy Hook, NJ. Three dirty hours of belt changing and hose trimming got us ready to go again the next day.
We headed out about noon on the 25th for a 19 hour overnight passage to Cape May, arriving in the morning of the 26th. It was a mostly calm, non-eventful passage except for fog near the end. That fog kept us in port until the 28th when we headed up Delaware Bay. We had some fog and some showers but mostly it was calm and we had the current the whole way. Only 8 hours in the Bay! That's unbelievably fast! The passage totalled 10 hours and at the end, in Chesapeake City we had dinner with Bob and Jane Fulton and three other couples we met there. Before meeting here Bob and Jane knew only us and us only them. Old friends, new friends, good food, a good time. That's cruising!
Passages to Bodkin Creek went easy just a continuation of the unsettled weather. Hoping it's going to be good for working this coming week in Pasadena, MD.
Photo is from our passage through NYC where Heather took photos of us going by.
As mentioned in my previous post the weather has been unsettled. No major storms but rain, fog, showers nearly every day. Blah.
We left Port Washington 24 September intending to go all the way to Cape May, NJ. Nope. After going under the Narrows-Veranzano Bridge we noticed we were sinking. Not good. We had a leak in a raw water cooling hose. The leak was after the pump so the cooling water was not going through the heat exchanger but into the bilge. In a sailboat raw (salt) water cools the anti-freeze which circulates through the engine. So we limped on one engine into Atlantic Highlands, Sandy Hook, NJ. Three dirty hours of belt changing and hose trimming got us ready to go again the next day.
We headed out about noon on the 25th for a 19 hour overnight passage to Cape May, arriving in the morning of the 26th. It was a mostly calm, non-eventful passage except for fog near the end. That fog kept us in port until the 28th when we headed up Delaware Bay. We had some fog and some showers but mostly it was calm and we had the current the whole way. Only 8 hours in the Bay! That's unbelievably fast! The passage totalled 10 hours and at the end, in Chesapeake City we had dinner with Bob and Jane Fulton and three other couples we met there. Before meeting here Bob and Jane knew only us and us only them. Old friends, new friends, good food, a good time. That's cruising!
Passages to Bodkin Creek went easy just a continuation of the unsettled weather. Hoping it's going to be good for working this coming week in Pasadena, MD.
Photo is from our passage through NYC where Heather took photos of us going by.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
South again
It's our 35th anniversary and we're underway on our second cruise south. We're wondering what will break this cruise. And when.
Mixed weather today but actually got some unexpected sailing in. Motorsailing too, of course, but we didn't expect to put the sails up at all. Forecast for the next few days to a week is for unsettled weather. Not necessarily stormy, just gray and wet.
Today we got some other form of 'yuck'. Bugs. Some kind of flying ant. They just dropped out of the sky, after mating it would seem. Made a mess. Yuck.
The start of this cruise doesn't seem promising.
Mixed weather today but actually got some unexpected sailing in. Motorsailing too, of course, but we didn't expect to put the sails up at all. Forecast for the next few days to a week is for unsettled weather. Not necessarily stormy, just gray and wet.
Today we got some other form of 'yuck'. Bugs. Some kind of flying ant. They just dropped out of the sky, after mating it would seem. Made a mess. Yuck.
The start of this cruise doesn't seem promising.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
