Taking Our Time

And, whoosh! Another couple of weeks slide by. 

But Florida has finally relented and granted us some T-shirt weather. The Palm Beach area is clogged with impressive Naval Architecture as well as silly stucco & glass extravagances that don't even float. The former is to be preferred, in our opinion.

Famous Dead Guy's Boat

We will head North in the ICW without actually backtracking since we sailed down in the Atlantic from Ft. Pierce to Lake Worth. That was our only real opportunity to get outside with all of the considerations of distance, daylight, and inlet currents in alignment. The big day started with a transit of the Ft. Pierce inlet with an outbound current of 1.5 Knots and a few standing waves. We had seen friskier conditions in New Jersey and made the step out with care. The leftover swell from the north was a bit more than I hoped for, and after some bouncy moments raising the main we turned downwind and rolled out the headsail to fall in with the waves and breeze. The whisker pole did duty, but had an oscillation that seemed unnecessary, so I rigged the lazy sheet to a bow cleat as a foreguy and enjoyed some 20 minutes of deep wing and wing until the pole folded up. Not too surprising considering it was a cheapo, spring pin type, almost fully extended and a bit slender for the size of the boat. We rolled in the headsail and finished out the day as a motorsailer, hitting the Lake Worth inlet just about slack water for a flat ride in at 1630 hrs.

But that was a month ago. This day, 2/22, we motored up the ICW between condos and marinas, drawbridge after drawbridge, sometimes in a parade of 3-4 boats until we reached the St. Lucie River junction. Out of curiosity we turned up river to anchor near Stuart. There wasn't quite enough curiosity to dinghy in for an overpriced dinner and tourism, so in the morning we motored right back down the river and turned north again with the idea of making Vero Beach before our fellow North East travelers, the Jones Family, left their mooring. Vero Beach has no inlet, but a deep water creek off the ICW leads to the Municipal Marina with inexpensive moorings and decent facilities. A free shuttle stops there and a great many snowbirds get that far and park. So many that it is policy to double up on a mooring as folks come in and wait for an opening. We got lucky with a ball to ourselves for three nights. The walk into town features Live Oak and Spanish Moss lined streets, leading to a nice beach with enough public access between the not-too-big resort hotels that it feels less exclusive than it probably is.

We caught up with Reese and Anita, Nina & Lala over lunch in the rain, dinghies along side and the Captain's Lounge. They are having a blast and may stay another week or more, giving credence to the 'Velcro Beach' nickname we've heard since Beaufort, SC.

We walked the town, the beach and the neighborhoods and cast off to move onward before the grasping tendrils of convenience could ensnare us. Besides, we had tourists of our own to ensnare. Mitch and Julie live near Orlando. Mitch has had bouts of boat fever in his youth and always got sidetracked (or saved) by things like family and career, and Julie grew up around boats in the Keys. They tracked us down and visited on the way down, so we offered to take them out on the way back. It happens to us lots of different ways, but sharing an activity is a great way to rediscover one's own enjoyment of the same. We took down the bimini so the sails would be visible and met them at the Melbourne Harbor Marina for a day out in the Indian River. Perfect conditions, mild temperatures, tacking up river to set up a sweet downwind run under Asym spinnaker and dinner at the restaurant a few steps from the slip. It was so nice to sail for the fun of it again. Thanks M&J!

The next day we heard the safety broadcasts by the Coastguard warning of an exclusion zone for a NASA launch. The Falcon 9 was scheduled again for 6:46 in the evening. This was going to be perfect! We reached the Addison Point bridge and dropped anchor within sight of the rocket, 8.4 miles from the launch pad about 5:00 pm and waited with as many cameras as we could contrive. And waited. Nothing. We checked the Kennedy SPace Center website and saw the countdown move later and later and then change to "TBD". In the morning the story came out. Some fool boater had gotten into the safety zone out in the Atlantic. While the Airforce chased his dumb self out, they were holding the liquid oxygen fueling process. The fuel goes in at the last moment, and they did ignite the engines at 7:21 but the system bailed out due to helium bubbles somewhere they shouldn't have been. Boaters... Jeez. Reschedule couldn't be less than 48 hours, so up came the anchor and off we went. Have I mentioned the anchor?

The ground tackle upgrade has been a very good idea. The boat came with a dead windlass, a 35 lb. CQR and a 16 lb Aluminum Fortress. The CQR is just the marginal size for a 37', 19,000 lb boat. Certainly not storm size, and the fortress is just barely 'lunch hook' gauge for Juniata. The design and holding is excellent, we've kedged off with it twice now, and it's nice and light to handle in the dinghy, but it did fail to bite through a layer of twigs and leaves in a very protected cove off of the Magothy River and let us drag uncomfortably close to shore. Sometimes weight is important for that sort of thing. At any rate, we opted for the 44 lb. Vulcan pattern by Rocna and an all chain, 5/16" G4 rode lifted by a Maxwell windlass with a capstan, and BIG wire to run it. We have been very pleased, even in 35+ knots of wind, completely exposed the boat stayed put. It's hard to put a price on that. The only time it didn't set was in another tiny basin, surrounded by condos and full of fluffy mud. I had lowered it without the boat moving, and backed away. I believe it settled upside down and the mud was so soft that it slid on it's shank like a keel. We only had room to pull a few yards and when it wouldn't set, we tried again. This time with some way on to lay out the hardware, and it hooked up immediately. I had a float and retrieval line rigged for the depth and some slack and the anchor dove down through that muck until it found hard ground and the float spent the night two or three feet under water. So even with a good design, some technique will always be required. Who the heck needs a capstan? After kedging a 19,000 lb boat off a sand bar with the jib winch, one could be surprised at how deep the kedging anchor has been drawn. I have never pulled 1/2" nylon as tight as that before, and had to pull it almost that tight again with the windlass capstan to retrieve the kedge. 

Where were we? Ah, backtracking. After the rocket-non-launch we motored up to Ponce de Leon Inlet above New Smyrna and found our Rockhouse Creek spot just as it was on the way down, except more boats. But we got to watch an eagle eat his fish dinner on shore. And another repeat anchorage just below St. Augustine the next night set us up to pick up a mooring at the Municipal Marina today.

We expect to be here a few days for a visit to Jacksonville and a rendezvous with Ron & Alex whom we met in Beaufort, SC. And an oil change. And some old buildings. And fresh shrimp.

Enjoy