Florida to Maine 2006

A bad beginning. We were ready to go at 6:30am but the engine wasn't. Fred did a fuel transfer from one tank to the other yesterday. Related? We don't know. He changed fuel filters, used all the techniques that in conjunction seemed to have worked lately and 2 hours later we were on our way. We were too late to make Daytona Beach - our target destination. And 4 years ago on this same stretch of ICW we had both engine difficulties and our alternator burn out the next day - so we had sour memories of St. Augustine or stopping at Palm Coast. But our first alternative was to get through the Bridge of Lions Bridge and then anchor in the southern anchorage. We made the bridge opening at 11 am (otherwise it would have been 1pm) and stopped for fuel at St. Augustine Municipal Marina. Worried about the engine, and seeing that the anchorage was very crowded, Fred also got us a slip for the night. We asked about further nights - Thursday would be ok, however 3 clubs were due in for the weekend.

After lunch, we walked to West Marine, (still in search of filters), stopping at Oyster Creek Marina to see if Caribbean Soul (Nick and Deanna who we'd met in Annapolis) was still there. Nope. But we were successful at West Marine and also stopped at a Winn Dixie for a few items and carried our stuff back to the boat. By now it was after 3, one of the museums we wanted to see would close at 4, and the last trolley tour was at 3:45. Let's just walk. We explored many shops and streets that we hadn't seen 4 years ago. Fred was quite taken with Faraway Places - an eclectic furnishings store. We both picked Columbia Restaurant (Cuban/Spanish cuisine) for dinner and enjoyed our meals. Back to Windwalker for wi-fi and cable. We'd hoped to get home in a few outside hops but the weather forecast was for very strong winds and even higher seas for the next several days. What to do?

Up at 4am for a Frosty seizure, then again at 5:10 to get ready to go. We left the marina at about 7:15 with help with the current and wind by a kind dockhand. We were almost run aground by a large motor yacht who had passed us. Fred was following him when the yacht made a hard left turn. Our depth sounder was beeping and the equally large boat behind us swerved to the left as well. All of us were out of the channel. That woke us up! The forecast was for gale force winds and seas of 12-15 feet outside with very rough conditions inside. No great anchorages near Daytona for gale conditions so we opted for a marina. Iris called Halifax Harbor Marina - the largest in the area. Sorry - can only take you one night, clubs coming in. That wasn't going to work for us so Iris tried Daytona Marina and Boat Works and they could accomodate us for two nights and possibly more. We motored along, passing Bonnie Lass. Fred spoke with them saying he tried to contact them during the passage night. They said they had VHF difficulties.

We got to the marina channel at around 3. The marina staff directed us deep into the powerboat filled slips. A guy directed us to back in to a tiny space with unknown draft. Iris was ready to leave and made sure everyone knew it ;-). Fred attempted to get us into the slip and did, however it really was for about a 30' boat, we did touch the ground and there was no way to tie us up securely for even mild conditions let alone the forecast conditions. We said this was unacceptable and the dockmaster went to see if we could tie up near the fuel-dock. We got tied side-to at what was a fairly exposed site, but seemed ok for northerly winds. We were right next to the outside deck of a beautiful Chart House restaurant. Several people had observed our docking drama and remarked to us later that they couldn't understand why the staff was trying to put a sailboat in such an inappropriate place. Cable didn't work - but Fred and one of the staff found a splitter and attached it. Nope that didn't work. Iris followed the cable and found it wasn't connected to anything. The dockmaster found the correct place and viola - we had cable. Wifi - not working properly. We saw a trawler we'd been behind in Port Royal during that storm, "Christmas". They yelled as they passed us - "you're pretty fast for a sailboat!" (Of course we'd done an overnight passage). We had an expensive but excellent dinner at the Chart House and returned to Windwalker to prepare psychologically for the blow.

Where's the wind? Iris awoke Fred around 8:30 - and within a few minutes the wind started to kick up. We had a big breakfast. Then still worried about the engine, Fred tried starting it. It didn't turn over, and then it wouldn't fire. Fred finally got it started then changed the oil and filter and restarted it. This time it sounded good. The wind was getting stronger and stronger. Mid-afternoon, when we felt the boat was as secure as we could get it, we went for a walk, exploring West Marine at Halifax Harbor Marina, and then continuing on to Old Daytona Beach. The winds were extremely strong, there were wavelets on the ICW and it was difficult to walk. The Beach Road was closed in preparation for an Art Festival tomorrow. We saw the artists struggling with their shelters. Wow - this is going to be rough for an art exhibit. But - maybe we should stay an extra day and see it! We decided to spend another night, since the forecast wasn't improving and we needed some diversion. Dinner aboard, with an evening ending with Battlestar Gallactica ;-)

We'd seen a nice place to go for breakfast near the art festival. However we had chores we wanted to do as well and it was about 1/2 mi away - so Iris made a big breakfast instead. Fred started the engine, although it sounded bad. The winds were moving more to the east (not good for where we were tied up) and forecast to move even more southerly which would pin us to the dock. We were concerned. Mid-morning, we walked over to the Halifax Art Festival and saw a nice display of all kinds of media, and listened to a soft acoustic guitar group called Acousticon. After a couple of hours, we walked back and headed a little in the opposite direction - finding an old historic neighborhood as well as a 7/11 just up the street from the marina. Ice cream! Back at the boat we tried reading in the cockpit - but the 25 knot winds were blowing directly into the cockpit and it was cold! Dinner, showers, tv. We hope to get off early if we can get the engine started and can get off the dock. The forecast was still bleak.

Iris got up at 5:10 but neither of us slept well - we were both worried about the engine starting and the more southerly direction of the winds pinning us against the dock. Waves were crashing against the hull overnight - peaking at around 3am. Fred started the engine after turning it over some by hand to improve starting compression. Iris got the payment receipts from the dockmaster and told him that we might need some help with the lines. He came over and helped fend us off the dock as Fred manuevered against the wind. But we were off successfully at 7! All the other cruisers must have made the same decision to move today. Lots of boats (power and sail) were underway - including at least 4 powerboats from the same marina. Near Sebastian Inlet there were apparently some shallows. The water did get a bit thin, but we didn't have any problems although we saw a sailboat ahead of us run aground. It wasn't clear if he strayed from the channel, however. While it was windy, the chop wasn't too bad on the ICW and the wind was mostly behind us. Since it was Sunday, all of the bridges we had to go under were unrestricted - so we pushed to clear all of them so as to not have any issues in the morning. We anchored immediately after the last bridge at around 3:15pm. About 20 minutes later another sailboat (Winsome) anchored a bit closer to shore. Other than that, we remained alone. There was enough chop to make it a little uncomfortable, but much better than we would have fared had we remained in the marina. We would have kicked ourselves if we hadn't kept moving!

Iris called Vero Beach Marina to see if they took reservations for moorings. They did and she made one for tomorrow night. It would be another long day, but without bridges to delay us. We started listening to a book on CD after dinner.

Two dolphins poked their heads out of the water next to the boat and smiled at Fred as we raised anchor. We were on our way by 6:30, under power with just a bit of main out. Today was much more unpleasant than yesterday. The winds were stronger and more on the beam - which normally would make for good sailing - but the ICW channel is narrow enough here and with enough twists and turns that sailing would just increase our risk of running aground. So we endured the stiff breeze and the whitecaps. We were passed by several power boats but saw no cruising boats the entire day. This may be because they were stuck with the bridge restrictions. Dolphins continued to be everywhere, bringing a bright note to an otherwise very rainy day. The day was uneventful except for our approach to a high-rise bridge where a barge blocked most of the center span. As we approached a tug pushed another barge into the remaining room in the center and stopped. Now what? A power boat behind us asked what the guy was up to. The tug hailed us and told us to go to the span to our right. We let the power boat go ahead of us and made our way through the other span.

We picked up our mooring at 4:15. Almost immediately, a guy from the catamaran next to us (didn't get his name or the boat's name, unfortunately) dinghied over. He recognized Windwalker as a Valiant and said that he was from Lake Texoma (where they are made). While he and his wife were currently based in Destin, FL (west coast), they were going to have their boat shipped back to Texas after seasoning in the Bahamas - returning once again to Lake Texoma. He gave us the scoop on what was around and offered to dinghy us over to check in. But we wanted to explore and thanked him but declined. Between rain showers, we put the dinghy in the water, got our shower gear together and went in search of the dinghy dock. The moorings here are a bargain compared to other places in FL - total for the mooring plus 2 showers was $13.91! Looked like a great laundry room as well. No wonder so many cruisers hang out there for weeks at a time - often waiting for crossing weather to the Bahamas on a mooring. The mooring field was much smaller than we'd expected, however.

The only walkable restaurant was also dinghyable (is that a word?). The marina staff said it was easier to walk and so off we went in search of the place. A few wrong turns, but we found the Riverside Cafe under the bridge and had a pleasant dinner. Since we hadn't planned on staying out so late, we didn't have our dinghy running lights or a flashlight and made our way back to the boat in the dark. We had to decide whether or not we'd stay another day. If not, we wanted to get the dink back up on board for an early start. After deliberation - we just wanted to get 'home', so we put the dinghy and outboard back on board by the light of the nearby sports field. Our cellphone signal was great, and wi-fi for a fee was available, but we didn't log on.

6:30 and on our way - following two sailboats ahead of us. We were motoring again, entertained by dolphins everywhere. We heard a bridge contractor say that the Indiantown Bridge (thus the ICW) would be closed ...2:30. Did he say until 2:30? At 2:30? In order to blow up the old bridge. Then we heard other conversations about loading dynamite. Fred tried to reach the bridge contractor on channel 9 but we were too far away. We'd find out when we got there. As we negotiated the Ft. Pierce high-rise bridge the current was amazing and Fred used flying cross-wind techniques to get us under the span as Iris cringed because it looked like he was aiming for a pier instead. She of little faith... We approached the Indiantown Bridge and finally understood what was going on. They were loading dynamite and had the main span closed - diverting boats to a slightly lower span (except for a couple of sailboats who needed the center). We had to fit between two old supports from the old bridge (they claimed 45 feet but it looked more like 30 feet wide) and then go under the span. At 1:30 they were going to close the ICW with the explosion to be at 2:30 and the ICW re-open sometime thereafter. It was only 11am so we were free and clear. We continued on and anchored at Peck Lake, a spot we'd always wanted to stop at as a potential weekend destination, at around 12:30. Other than two derelict boats at anchor, and another off in the distance, we were alone. Unfortunately it was a gloomy day and we weren't motivated to dinghy ashore and explore the beach or walk the short distance to the ocean. After some chores, and getting our dock lines together for tomorrow, we listened to the radio and the book on CD and 'vegged out' on our last day of the trip. A trawler entered the anchorage at dusk, took 3 tries to set their anchor but got a good set. We ran the generator a bit after dark.

A cat fight awoke Iris at 2:30. That, and anxieties about weather and mechanical problems of the last couple of weeks bummed us out and made for a sleepless remainder of the night. We planned on continuing to get up early because we can only get into our slip between 2 hours before or after the high tide and high was at 11. We still were about 2.5 or 3 hours from there depending on the 4 bridge schedules ahead of us. We had a nice sit-down breakfast - our last of this segment of the trip. Fred went to start the engine at 6:30 and it didn't start. Worse, it looked like we had water in the engine - similar to the anti-siphon issue we had back in Salt Pond, Virgin Islands 6 years ago. It was hard to rotate and Fred could clearly hear water moving into the muffler. We were both beside ourselves - we're so close. Are we going to have to get towed home? But Fred got it purged and some modicum of compression going and the engine started and we were on our way at 7:30 - well within our margin of tide opportunity. We've had a bad impression of a couple of the northern Palm Beach County bridge-tenders and this time was no exception. The 707 bridge operator opened for power boats right away, but when we showed up, made us wait. At least current wasn't driving us into the bridge. About half an hour later we made our turn into our dock with the winds making it difficult to turn Windwalker around. But Fred had everything under control as we approached our pilings. Iris had trouble lassooing her piling, but got a line around it. Fred got his piling and we were stopped. A bit more machinations and help by Jacquie, the homeowner, on shore and we were secure. She kindly gave us a ride to get our car and we returned to start unloading perishables, etc.

Rather than feeling accomplishment and elated at the end of phase 1 of this trip, we felt tired and dejected. The engine problems and weather issues of the last couple of weeks both played a part. But hot showers and a little rest improved our perspective and moods. We'd covered a lot of miles and packed a lot into these almost 4 months!

Projects before heading to the Bahamas in late winter include work on the engine, head, watermaker, brightwork, dodger, upholstery and probably a survey and hunt for an insurer that covers the Bahamas. Insurance issues redux.... **************This will be the last entry until we resume the log in phase 2 of the trip *********************