Finally Reached Warm Weather

Fort Lauderdale is crowded, the drivers are almost as bad as Miami, the housing market has crashed badly, the state property tax crisis has the economy in turmoil, but the weather is beautiful. The weather, of course, is why South Florida is overcrowded and the housing bubble first overheated then popped (nothing explains why the S Florida drivers are amoung the worst in the world). Anyway here we are for a month enjoying the weather, not concerned about housing or property taxes. Soon, though, we will have to deal with the road crazies since we found a very good deal on a monthly car rental.

On a new subject, we went to see "The Bucket List", with Jack Nickolson and Morgon Freeman. Great movie; highly recommended.

South Florida Imported Wildlife goes Native

Wild decendents of imported iguanas that either escaped or were turned loose have spread rapidly. This one sunned itself in front of our boat. They are not reputed to be dangerous but they are certainly not afraid of humans.

Got to Fort Lauderdale

We got to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday afternoon. The weather was rainey and overcast so the ICW crazies were not out in force so the inside trip to Ft Lauderdale was not difficult since with our mast down we could pass under most of the many bridges. We are near our friends John and Bonnie behind an apartment building on Hendricks Isle. We plan on staying here a month before trying again to get to Lucaya.

A few pictures. The lighthouse is the Jupiter inlet light.
Samson and Delilah are resting after a hard day at sea.
The sunrise is Palm Beach as we started out yesterday morning.
The ICW is full of MacMansions and megayachts, often together.

Vero Beach sans pictures

We left Titusville at 0745 yesterday and moved along . But it's 75 miles to Vero Beach Marina so it was 1600 before we pulled in, and then found that they had overlooked our reservation and we ended up on the fuel dock which is a fully equipped dockage area so it was fine. A mild cold front came thru today but we do not consider 59 degrees to be much of a cold front. A day of general housekeeping and maintenance. Lunch to Bobby's for the best hamburger in Vero Beach and maybe in Florida. Off to West Palm Beach tomorrow; another long day. Expect to be in Ft Lauderdale Sunday.

Titusville & some pictures

We got to Titusville about 1130 yesterday. Spent a delightful afternoon and evening with Tom and Carol, old cruising friends. These pictures we taken on the trip to Titusville. The folk of birds is unusual because most of the birds were white pelicans, relatively rare; they seem to like the company of egrets.
There are thousands of dolphin and they love to follow us.
The little yellow sailboat is crewed by the two men who were trying to find St Augustine. Hopefully they have charts now.
And the building in the background is, literally, the largest building in the world; the NASA shuttle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center.

Some Progress

A beautiful day after a lousy 4 days. Anchored in Rock House Creek at New Smyrna Beach. Expect to be in Titusville tomorrow to visit with Tom & Carol. Then move on to Vero Beach for a day. Then on to Ft Lauderdale. All written in sand.

Maybe we can move on tomorrow

The wind is finally beginning to fade. This AM it was blowing over 30 knots. As irritating as this has been it has been much colder further north. Anyway the "plan" is anchor at New Smyrna Beach tomorrow night and visit our friends in Titusville Wednesday.

Plans in sand

I am beginning to feel that "boat plans are written in sand at low tide" implies too much certainty. We are still in St Augustine. The morning weather reports had up to gale forcce winds all the way to Palm Beach. Seems the cold front and the cold high winds will stay another day.
We'll hope to get away tomorrow but that wish does not even reach the tenious plan level.

Finding St Augustine

Just when you think you have seen every strange thing that can happen on the water a new really strange one appears. On the way to St Augustine, about 15 miles away, we passed a Catalina 27 sailboat with Michigan registration. The boat had an open cockpit, no canvas protection of any kind, and not exactly equipped for cruising; manned by two very cold men. A few minites later we heard them on the radio asking a north bound motor cruiser " Can you help us out? We are trying to find St Augustine! We think its south of us somewhere, can you tell us where it is?" The boat he was talking to was stunned and could only say, its 15 miles away. I guess these folks had no idea what a chart is. These are the kind of folks who cost all of us a lot of money when they get into serious trouble and sue the Coast Guard.

The upper left picture is shot from the Castillo de San Marcos south toward the north anchorage and the rebuilding of the Bridge of Lions draw bridge, a Art Deco designed bridge that is being replaced, as is, in its original design when a high rise could have been built faster and cheaper. All because those who never had to wait for the bridge either on the water or on the road were concerned about "the heritage".

The second shot is the inland side of the Castillo de San Marcos, a fort built in 1585 to protect the city after the first 9 wood forts were destroyed in various attacks. Parts of the fort's walls are 30 ft thick. It was never taken in battle again. Its the oldest stone structure in the United States.

The lower picture is shot from the east wall of the fort toward the St Augustine outlet channel. The open water is 3 miles from the cannons on the wall which had a range of 3 miles. Those wondering where the "three mile limit" came from can figure this out.

The "plan", written in sand, is to move on to Daytona or New Smyrna Beach tomorrow. We'll see.

Travel in Reverse

The weather is not behaving as it should. The further south we go the colder it gets, with wind and rain that do not match the image of the "Sunshine State". All this is complicated by the inefficiency of the National Weather Service, which does predict the weather but hardly ever accurately. After a dreary travel day, no sight of the sun all day, we decided to stay in a marina in St Augustine since the NWS is predicting heavy rain, squalls and 40 knot winds at times. We'll see if it happens. Probably be here another night since a new front is coming through with freezing temperatures, rain and high winds.

There are some pictures. The range light has the new very high rise Brunswick bridge in the background. The bridge took years longer to build than it was supposed to; what's new?

The trawler covered with birds had a good catch and the birds wanted some.

We anchored at Cumberland Island last night and kept looking for some wild horses on the beach. Never saw any but the beach is still there.

A Short Day to Cunberland Sound

The weather has not been good and it is not going to get better soon. High winds and rain all night last night. The tide was against us so we didn't leave St Simons until 11 AM. Anchored tonight at Cumberland Island.

Brunswick,GA seaport

This is one of the busiest ports on the East Coast, primarily because this is the largest new car import terminals in the US. The two pilot boats in the picture are out constantly bringing in mostly Japanese cars transport ships. The classic yacht shown in the other picture has been here in St Simons for years in a very well maintained condition.

Weather turns bad

We had a nice dinner with Artie last night. There is a new restaurant at the marina which is very good. Hope they can stay in business. At least three others have tried and failed.

We planned on moving on today but the weather forecast took a sudden turn for the worst. 30 knot East winds and heavy rain. Not the kind of conditions you want to cross St Andrew Sound in. So we'll stay another day in St Simons. There was a time, I suppose, we would just press on. Age seems to bring more cautious behavior. Or maybe experience teaches something.

Golden Isles

These two pictures are typical of this part of the ICW. The barges usually only move on a rising tide. The area for 100 miles is known as Goolden Isles because of the gold colored marsh grass. We are in St Simons today and will leave tomorrow for Fernandia Beach.

Local Color on the ICW

The pictures here were taken as we left the Vernon River in the fog. The dolphin, of which there are thousands in the ICW, acted as though he was trying to lead us out of the fog (didn't work). The two working trawlers (Po Boy Too and Dammit) were anchored in the Vernon River; they are truly working boats and obviously the owners don't worry about appearance. Most working trawlers don't look any better.

The fog was the worst we have seen in years and it wouldn't go away. We waited until 1100 to get underway, ran into it again just sort of Hell's Gate (appropriately named, one of the worst spots on the ICW), waited again, and then ran into zero visibility in St Catherines Sound. Finally gave up and anchored in Walburg Creek about 1500. A grand total of 23 miles. Hopefully, St Simoms tomorrow.

On to St Simons

As usual plans have changed. Artie is not going to Atanta on a buying trip so we are leaving Beaufort, SC this morning and moving on south. Depending on the tide/distance equation we will reach St Simons late Sunday or early monday morning. A cold front has moved in making it impractical to go outside.

One More Day in Charleston

We decided to spend one more day in Charleston since Artie will not be back to St Simons until Tuesday. Had a delightful dinner last night with Harry and Sandi Mohlmann. The tide should right tomorrow to allow us to get to Beaufort without stopping early because of low water in sections of the ICW.

Off Shore at last Minute

We motored from Cedar Creek to Mile Hammock Sunday. Beautiful Weather. We left after waiting for the for to lift Monday morning. Our intent was to spend the night in Southport and move down the ICW to Myrtle Beach, Georgetown, Charleston etc. As we got the Southport entrance onto the ICW we decided to turn left instead and go outside overnight to Charleston leaving from Cape Fear. The weather was good but there was an irritating swell. Thank goodness for stabilizers. The cats got sick and Dixie didn't feel great but the trip was OK, with no boat problems. We'll be at Ashley Marina for a couple of nighs and then move on. The weather forecast is not very good for offshore passage so probably will have to play the tide on the ICW.

Mile Hammock Bay

Here we are anchored in the Marine base at Camp Lejune. A beautiful day. All is well. Off to Southport tomorrow.

Underway at last!

With ice on the dock and still freezing we loaded the final things on the boat, kidnapped the cats and got underway, all the way down to the fuel dock at Northwest Creek Marina. Sounded like as ice cutter as we sheared through the surface ice on the creek.Took over an hour to take on 200 gal of diesel and spend $680 on fuel. Off again to anchorage in Cedar Creek just off Adams Creek. Moving on finally. Off to Mile Hammock at Camp Lejune tomorrow.