A blog about boating. How about that? Didn't know if it would happen again but we are heading south. Again. On the boat. Eventually.
We headed south on the boat after we drove south to get to the boat which is already in the south. Then we'll go south. Souther. First, we had to pack the car with the stuff we will need. Clothes. Food. Tools. Not as much stuff as we took off the boat in the spring, that took a truck to haul home. We got it all in the Vibe, although just barely. Hardly enough room for Cleo and we left a few things behind. We left Mystic on a Sunday morning and had a bit of traffic in Connecticut. Surprised by this. Heavy, but no major slowdowns until Stamford and again at the GWB. NJT was heavy, too, but mostly moving at speed. Slowdowns at Baltimore but not terrible considering a major route no longer exists. It was destroyed. The D.C. area was heavy with slowdowns but not terrible. Can't imagine how a workday would be. We stopped for the night in Ashland, VA and the Monday morning commuting traffic past Richmond, VA didn't last long. We ended up in Savannah, GA and went to the boat at Thunderbolt the next morning.
No serious damage to the boat from Helene but we are covered in debris. Mostly palm tree debris. The interior was mostly fine except for the mold. A lot of varieties of mold. Yellow mold. Brown mold. Black mold. White mold. Moldy mold. Ok, some of it may have been mildew. It doesn't label itself. Cleaning commenced. And storing the stuff we brought. What fun. We were ready to go in the water in a little more than 3 days but the marina decided they could not get us out past some other parked boats so we had to wait until after the weekend. Since we were (supposedly) officially in the water we were allowed to stay on the boat overnights. This is usually not allowed for boats on land. This let us do more major external cleaning and polishing. Lucky us. The inside was done and the hull and deck got reasonably clean. For us. For a liveaboard. We were launched on Monday afternoon and proceded to do some work that could only be done while floating.
We took a day trip into downtown Savannah. The above photos are one of several stairways down to the river. Historic steps means "we're not going to make them safe." Or provide an alternative, apparently. There is no sign at the bottom.
The other development was less than 2 weeks after Helene another major hurricane (Milton) was developing. This one was going to cross our path although well south of us. We decided to stay put. In the water but in a reasonably protected basin. We could have moved 75 miles more to the south safely but it wasn't worth the risk. The cost for marina space would not have been less farther south and we had our car here. Safe and comfortable comes with a $$$ price but we are more into safe and comfortable than we used to be. The storm itself wasn't bad for us. Heavy rain for a while then wind. Wind was under 25-30 so nothing like they got in Florida. All friends with Florida homes came through all right but tornados came a little closer to one set of friends than we would have liked. Our first passage out of Thunderbolt went ok. It was only rough for the 20-30 minutes we were in Sapello Sound. It is close to and exposed to the ocean which still had Milton affected seas. And rough meant mostly 1 foot chop with brief 2 foot seas. No prob. The bad shallow area the first day was hit an hour after low tide and the second day the next one was at two hours after low so although we went through very slowly we cleared these areas okay. Nerve-wracking but okay. We anchored in the Crescent River one day and Umbrella Creek the second. Our third day took us past shallows in northern Florida but even though it was only an hour after low tide we made it through. We tied up at the free dock off Sisters Creek in Jacksonville, FL. Then we went to St. Augustine to have a meal with friends there. Some marina damage from the hurricanes but not too bad. After St. Auggie it was a long day to New Smyrna where we anchored in our usual spot. We had stopped for fuel in Daytona but the day could have been a little shorter if we didn't have a brief stop on a shoal outside the channel after the Memorial Bridge.
Photo of us by friends ashore as we passed by their neighborhood.
Just about the time we were hauling the anchor in New Smyrna the wind picked up. It was a day earlier than originally forecast and about 8 hours before the most recent forecast predicted. It started blowing. 20kts and sometimes more. All the way down through Mosquito Lagoon and down the Indian River. Plus the only respite, in the Haulover Canal where it's narrow and tree-lined, the bascule bridge delayed us almost 30 minutes for repair work being done. Not appreciated. Seas were two to three feet but luckily they were mostly on the stern or slightly to port. Going into these would have been very uncomfortable, even dangerous. On the stern they were merely annoying. It was a long day nonetheless and coolish because of the wind. Very low 70s but felt cooler with the wind blowing so hard. We ended up in the Banana River, a usual spot for us in Indian Harbor Beach near Eau Gallie, FL. The next day, forecast to be worse, turned out to be slightly better. A little warmer, a little less wind and smaller waves behind us. Not terrible. We ended up getting a mooring in Vero Beach (Velcro Beach) for a week.
Photos of us by friends in Ft. Pierce. From up on the bridge we have to go under.
During our week in VB we rented a car and drove up to Savannah to retrieve our car. We also did some shopping and friend visiting. We got underway on a Thursday with a breeze at our backs but nothing like the couple of days before arriving at Vero. We had decent luck with the bridge schedules enroute to Lake Worth, Palm Beach. A longish day in order to shorten the next one. We got underway again about an hour before sunrise and went out the Lake Worth Inlet. We had departed before dark here several times before as we were going out into the ocean and not traveling on the ICW. Relatively easy and safe(ish). Our passage from Palm Beach to Miami was a little lumpy with 2 foot seas coming from a less than ideal direction. Not an awful direction (the nose) but not quite as nice as on the stern. Oh well. A nine hour day with us ending up in Marine Stadium Basin, Virginia Key, Miami. It's a protected anchorage in case of a storm, none forecast, but often very noisy.
Noisy? Very noisy. Until 0330. How could you party until 0330? Why blast noise (music?) loud enough to sterilize the fish? It must be painful on the boat, it's painful on a boat 100 meters away. Why? Anyway we got underway in the quiet about 0715. It's a long day into the upper Keys but uneventful if you don't go aground. It's very protected but very shallow. Down to 7ft. at times. Slows you down even if you don't touch bottom. It's physics. And hydrodynamics. Waterflow between the boat and the ocean bottom. Slows you down due to friction and compression. Oh well. We anchored in Barley Basin near Islamorada, Upper Matucumbe Key. A usual southbound stop for us. I went for a swim in the 78° but choppy water and found a crab pot warp wrapped around a prop. No crab pot attached. Just random line. Didn't stop the engine but might have eventually. Problem caught before it became a problem. How unusual. 🤔
It was breezy again as we got underway on our last southbound day. Wind behind us and seas about a foot so not too bad. We found another crab pot and towed the trap itself some distance until it broke away. After passing through Bowlegys Cut we had to stop for me to dive under the boat to cut away the warp. What fun! The boat was bouncing about 1 1/2 ft. and wandering about while I hung on and cut the lines. Lots of line. Wrapped around the saildrive and the rudder. Current made it interesting, too. Ah, boating. This activity is called a suicide dive for good reason. Not particularly safe. Not recommended. After that the 2ft. seas in the Hawk Channel seemed minor. On the stern and not uncomfortable. Small Craft Advisories were issued about 3 hours after our departure and 2 hours before our arrival. Not very helpful. In any case we arrived in Boot Key Harbor about lunchtime and picked up our mooring for the winter sesson. Or until whenever. Not a bad mooring, L-1. Not too far from the dinghy docks.
We will have to see what the winter holds for us. Sell the boat? Do our usual activities and volunteer jobs? Just survive? Who knows?