Moving Again!

We finally pulled up our anchor this morning, after two days of thunderstorms. Generally the storms don't move in until afternoon but the past two days they happen early in the morning. By the time they clear out it's too late to move to the next anchorage. This morning for the most part they were not near us. We hope by the time we get to Little Shark River and anchor, they will have moved further northeast.

Our plan for tomorrow, if the weather allows it we will anchor at Indian Key. Both today and tomorrow will be in the Everglades. Lots of bugs. If there wasn't a threat of storms we would just anchor out along shore in the Gulf of Mexico. The third day we will go to Marco Island and take a slip. We are hoping by doing only 30 nkm a day we won't be traveling during the storms.

Anchored in Islamorada Fl!

We are at anchor in Islamorada Florida for the night. After we set our anchor we went for a swim to cool off. The water is very warm but refreshing. Again today we have been watching the storms developing. One was starting to develop near where we are anchored so we got out of the water. It seemed to disperse while we were eating lunch but then shortly after the skies seemed to explode with lightening and thunder and a deluge of water. We needed a fresh water rinse, we sure got it. After the skies emptied the sun came back out and it was beautiful again.

Tomorrow we start our trip up the west coast. Four days more and we will be at our new home dock. That is weather permitting.

I've created an album on iCloud to share some pictures. I hope it worked. Here is the link. If it doesn't work just copy and paste into your browser. Enjoy!


https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0QGWZuqDuDhC2

Moving Again!

I'm having issues with my blog so no pictures, sorry. Wanted to let you know we are moving again. We left on Wednesday from North Palm Beach and took the outside route via the ocean. It was calm with between 5-10 knots of wind out of the east. The most we saw was about 8 knots. It was a motoring day as there wasn't enough wind to get us to Fort Lauderdale in a timely fashion.

We entered the channel and found our anchorage in Lake Silvia. We have anchored here on several trips in the past. After a calm night and we were up and on our way early, just before 7 AM. Again we took the outside route on the ocean to Miami. After entering the Miami channel we made our way to an anchorage just off Key Biscayne, an anchorage we have used several times in the past. As we were making our way to the anchorage the thunder clouds were building over the mainland. By evening more clouds were building over the ocean creating thunder and lightning. This made for an uneasy nights sleep. We never did get any rain or storm activity near us. We were thankful for that.

With the excessive heat we are having it was nice to cool off in the water by the boat. We did enjoy our evening, even while we sat in the cockpit watching the lightning strike out on the ocean side. We were also treated to a show by two spotted rays that kept swimming by the boat. They are so graceful as they swim.

This morning we woke to storms building out on the Hawk Channel, the route we were going to use. After some debating we decided to go the ICW to avoid the building storms. Well that didn't work. We were almost to Key Largo and new storms developed in our path. We were almost to Card Sound bridge when we could see lightening striking where we were headed. We opted to drop our anchor just north of the bridge and wait it out. After waiting about 30 minutes, the storm subsided and we were under way again.

We are at a dock at Gilbert's Resort and Marina for the night. We are plugged in and cooling off with the air conditioning. The last we will see of that until we are at our new dock.

Earlier in the day we had made contact with a sailing friend of ours, Mike. We met him and Diane our first year cruising. They continued to go back and forth from NJ to Florida during our hiatus in DC. We wanted to know about depths in the ICW route and he shared that things had not changed much since we were here last. He also suggested the Yacht Channel up to the Everglades. We had taken that once several years ago. It will cut off several miles of our trip so we plan to take it. Tomorrow we will go as far as Islamorada and anchor off Lorilie's restaurant. The following day we will head to the Everglades and anchor off Shark River. If I don't do an update when we are in the Glades I probably don't have a signal.

Still in North Palm Beach!

This is just a short post to catch you up to speed as to our whereabouts. 

Sunday night was a rough night for me with my coughing. I pulled a muscle in my chest because of the coughing. Monday morning Larry searched on line for a clinic near by. We found one and called the marina shuttle, when they opened, for a ride to the clinic. They agreed I had pulled a muscle. They gave me prednisone to help with the muscle pull and curb the coughing. They also took a chest X-ray and EKG. Tuesday I was still not up to par and we stayed put. On Wednesday I got a call they needed me to come in for the results of my X-ray. There was evidence of infection in my lower   right lung. Just what I needed but now we know why I wasn't getting better. This time they put me on Azithromycn for the infection. I believe it's helping but all I want to do is sleep. 

Fortunately Larry has had a lot of work for work to do that is better done sitting still at a dock. Otherwise I'm sure he would be going stir crazy waiting for me to get better. 

At this point we are not sure when we will start out again. Every day I think the next will be the day but then it isn't. I will certainly post a yeah when we do. 

Respite in North Palm Beach!

After leaving our anchorage in Hobe Sound Friday morning, we headed for North Palm Beach and a marina. We arrived about 1:00. We were both very tired, after working the tide so we had enough water and were on a raising tide at Jupiter Inlet and managing 6 opening bridges. Most of the bridges were on a schedule not request. That meant keeping the boat in the channel as not to hit the bridge while we waited.  I forgot to mention there was current and wind added into the mix. 

Needless to say when we got settled at our dock neither of us were interested in doing much. We had planned to stay only one day, Saturday, to do laundry, get groceries and make water. When Saturday got here and Larry attempted to make water the filters had become foul, so that meant he needed to pickle the water maker. This and changing the filters will make it fresh again. Between the high heat and some of the places we have made water there has been a lot of sediment, things get rancid. We have decided to leave it pickeled until we get to Charolette Harbor. It's easy enough to fill our water tank when we get fuel. After doing all that we did on Saturday we decided we needed a day just to rest. I've been under the weather with a bronchial thing going on, so I haven't been a lot  help on the helm for Larry. We also haven't been getting a lot of sleep with me coughing. I think today's rest was much needed by us both. 

We plan to leave tomorrow morning about 8:00. The tide should be about slack for going out the inlet to the ocean. Hopefully it's calm out there, east winds are predicted. We don't have the option of the ICW because our first bridge is closed to boat traffic until September 14. 

Anchored Out in Hobe Sound!

We did get to Vero Beach yesterday. Here is a picture of our boat on a mooring ball at the city marina. 

We had left Melbourne early so we could arrive early at Vero, get things done and relax. Best laid plans. When we arrived at the marina we stopped at the fuel dock for diesel and to top of the water tank. After we checked in and paid we went out to our mooring. No problem all hooked up, let's have lunch and launch the dingy to go to shore. Well after lunch Larry put the dinghy down in the water. We then attached the engine to the back and he went forward to get the dinghy fuel tank. That was when he realized the tank had cracked and was leaking fuel if it was tilted. Now we needed to get to West Marine for a new one but first he had to find out if the marina would dispose of the fuel in the tank. He was certain if fuel was leaking out water was getting in. Now the only way to get to shore was to row and an inflatable dinghy isn't the easiest boat to row. We got to shore just minutes too late to catch the free bus into town, so now we had to sit and wait, which we did. We finally got to West Marine and purchased their last 3 gallon tank on the shelf. We hurried across the street to Publix to get some groceries and quickly returned to the curbside bus stop where the driver said was a pickup on the hour. We were early, but she must have been even earlier, because we waited till at least fifteen minutes past the hour and still no bus. We needed to be back before the office and gas dock closed for the night at 5:00. We had 45 minutes left so we called Über. If you have ever used Über, you can track them to see how close they are to you. We were still out by the road and we could see he was riding around in the parking lot for the plaza behind us. Talk about a comedy of errors, we started to run after him hoping he would see us. Finally he stopped and we were able to catch up to him. We made it back to the marina thankfully before they closed. The fun just never ends! 

During our many trips North to South and the reverse I have always been about the journey not the destination but this trip the destination can't come soon enough.

This morning we were up early and out by 7:00. Our dodger windows needed a cleaning since they were salty from the constant winds across the salt water. I hadn't gotten to it yet and along came a rain cell and did the work for me. Here's a picture of the rain. 

Tonight we are at anchor in Hobe Sound. The breeze is pretty constant and we hope it stays. Last night the wind died and we were eaten alive by noseeums. It was too hot for a sheet but you didn't dare push it down. 

This is the view in front of our boat, beautiful expensive homes. Behind us is all a preserve, that's were the noseeums hide. 😊

Melbourne, Fl

Yesterday morning we left our dock at 7:00, just in time for this beautiful sunrise.

We had one bridge opening. This bridge crosses over to Cape Canaveral. 

This is the best picture I could get of Cape Canaveral. The sun wasn't high enough in the sky to get a good shot. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, a rocket is scheduled to be launched. If we had the time we might have anchored and hung around to watch.  

Last night we anchored out by a bridge. The winds were still about 10-15 knots but we were protected by land and the bridge. We still had a nice breeze to stay cool. 

We pulled out of the anchorage around 7:00 this morning. Another beautiful sunrise. Off to Vero Beach and a mooring ball. Possibly get groceries. 

Titusville!

It was a noisy sleep last night. The wind and tide had the water slapping at the stern of the boat. Our berth is in the aft so we heard every slap. We left our dock at New Smyrna at 7:45 this morning. It was overcast, which is good so we don't get to much sun but it means the thunder storms will roll in in the afternoon. They did but we didn't see any lightening just a few sprinkles but the wind built to over 20 knots. We had planned to take a mooring ball at Titusville Marina but the fetch across the water was rough. The fetch coming in the channel at the dock is bad enough, out in the open would have been worse. It's supposed to calm down during the night. I hope, we could use some sleep. 

Usually we see lots of dolphins in route, today we also saw manatees. We had to be careful not to hit them. We go slow but they are even slower. It was cool to see so many of them. When we have made this trip in the past it's been Spring and Fall, the water is too cold for the manatees, so we don't see many of them. They like warm water and will travel further North when it warms up. 

Our only glitch today was when we got to the Haulover Canal. The bascule bridge was not working. We had to anchor for about 30-40 minutes waiting for a repairman to come fix it. When they did fix, it was half a fix. Only one side was able to open. I hate when only one side opens. It makes for a narrow passage. It was better than no passage and an over night anchoring in the canal. All we keep saying to each other, this is the last time for this trip by boat. 

After we docked and ate some late lunch we went for a walk. Here are some pictures. 

There isn't much here but the parks are quite nice. 

Our selfie in the park turned out pretty good. 

This was a sand crane over by the dog park. His feathers were flying in the wind. 

This picture shows the fetch coming in the channel and hitting the dock behind us. I didn't catch the splash that came to the top of the dock. 

New Smyrna Beach!

We pulled out of Marineland about 8AM this morning. We had to wait for the tide to rise for about an hour so we could get out of the channel, as it was we were dragging bottom even after an hour into high tide. We weren't sure how far we would go today. We planned at least Daytona but went on to New Smyrna Beach. We would have anchored in Daytona but in New Smyrna we took a dock. We have anchored here but the anchorage here has more shoaling than when we were here last. We had to play the tides back then so we didn't want to do the same tomorrow morning. 

Of course a thunderstorm chased us into New Smyrna tonight. Shortly after we docked the sky opened and it rained. We timed it well. We are looking at an early departure tomorrow morning. We should have current with us, which helps with speed. 

Last night when we were at Marineland we went for a walk on the beach. It was a beautiful calm evening for a walk on the beach. 

Calling it Quits Early!

We left St Augustine around 9AM this morning. We waited until the tide and current at the mouth of the marina channel was not running fast. We had tide against us until we got to the St Augustine Inlet, then it was giving us an assist. We were doing 7.7 at one point. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long for the Bridge of Lions 9:30 opening. 

Shortly after leaving the bridge we started to get rain. You can see in the screen shot what was coming at us, we are the blue dot. After seeing lightening and hearing thunder we decided it was a good move not to go as far as originally planned. 

This shot shows the second bridge we had today. This one was on request. We pretty much saw rain the rest of the trip. 

This shot is of Fort Matanzas as seen from the ICW. There is much shoaling here at the inlet and the channel marks are way over by shore. No following the chart in this area. 

We arrived at Marineland Marina shortly after noon. We are all tied up and snug. The rain just keeps coming. 

Still in St Augustine!

We stayed put today and it was still pretty ugly this morning. We had very little sleep last night. The winds were howling and the boat was doing a dance at the slip. Larry had battened things down and removed a few things. We did not take down our canvas. The actual hurricane tracked above us but we still had some high winds 23-28 MPH. 

We decided to be tourists again today. This time we took the courtesy car to the St Augustine lighthouse. It is still a working lighthouse, privately run but overseen by the Coast Guard. 

The 219 stairs we climbed to the top. The wind was amazing up there. It felt like it would pick you up and carry you away. 

Fresnel Lens at the top. 

Picture of the Salt Pond Anchorage. 

This is the chanel into the marina we are moored at. The tide was very low tonight. 

Riding Out the Winds From the Hurricane!

Yesterday was calm and we had a few sprinkles. Last night and today are making up for that calmness. The hurricane hit landfall during the night above us. We have had winds 22-28 MPH. We have been mostly in the trough between the two bands of rain so we have gotten very little in the way of rain. I'll be glad when the winds stop though. 

Out in the ICW there are white caps on the water. I'm glad we are not out there. There is a sailboat anchored out near the chanel. I'm told he has been out there for six months. I'm sure this isn't his first storm out there but maybe his first hurricane. 

Yesterday we played tourist again. Our first stop was at the fort you see in the picture. We then walked the Colonial Quarter and visited the little shops. Before we headed back to the boat we had lunch in the Columbia Restaurant. The restaurant has been there since 1905. Several of the shops have been in business for 30 years. 

Some of the shop keepers shared that the weather has killed their business over the last few days. It's too bad because the weather was fine up until last night. It always amazes me how the media can squash business with the hysteria they create with their news and weather forecasts. We tend not to listen to them but use NOAA weather prediction instead. They use facts to do their projections and are much more accurate. The weather channel uses their facts but their own interpretation. 

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to calm down so we are looking at leaving St Augustine and heading further south.