Trip 5 - On the way to Titusville, FL

Leg 27 - Marineland Marina

Well, we are back on the move again after a wonderful 5 days in St. Augustine FL. It was a great stop and we took the opportunity to explore a good deal of the city. We started our trip by walking in Old Town, along George street – the historic district. We stopped for a wonderful pizza at Chianti Ristorante recommended by a friend. It was a nice deviation from sea food and also provided leftovers for lunch the next day. After that we walked through the 16th century city gate and around the outside of the local fort. We returned to the boat along the waterfront wall. The next day we explored the interior of Castillo de San Marcos (fort) and learned about the many different flags that flew over the city and surrounding areas from the Spanish, French, American, Confederate, and of course, we can’t forget the original native Americans, who lived here thousands of years prior to the European settlers. That afternoon we had a visitor from our high school years in Doylestown – its always good to connect with old friends. Dinner was at Casa Reina – a fancy Mexican restaurant. We enjoyed our margaritas while people watching on a balcony overlooking the port as we waited for our table. The next day we toured the oldest historical house in St. Augustine – which reminded me of Williamsburg, VA where I grew up as a child.  Then we walked around the town in and about the many different streets and ended up at a very nice restaurant called River and Fort where we had cocktails and appetizers on the rooftop, overlooking, obviously, the fort and the river. It was another wonderful seafood dinner and afterwards we again walked along the river returning to the marina. Finally, our next to last day we toured a typical 18th century boarding house and grounds, and then went onto a museum that was a 19th century gilded age house that the wealthy owner imitated the Moorish architecture of southern Spain. After a decadent lunch at Burger House, we of course, visited the St. Augustine distillery where we sampled vodka, gin, bourbon, and rum. With a cardboard box of bottles we flagged down a courtesy golf cart who took us back to the marina. Yesterday we prepared the boat for our trip such as the pump out, filling water tanks, laundry, and vacuum etc. for departure today. We rewarded ourselves with a late lunch at Harrys, a well known eating establishment in St. Augustine. The afternoon we relaxed on the boat chatting with our marina neighbors and just relaxing in the warm sun. So, now that everyone is caught up lets begin with today. I timed our departure with slack tide so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the strong current again. All went well and it was a very calm and no drama exit from this wonderful marina. The trip down the Mantanza was quite uneventful as well with the only exciting thing to look for were the many derelict boats along the way. The weather is turning windy and rainy and we were hoping to get to our next marina before the rain started – which, as it turns out, wasn’t a problem. We went through the Crescent Beach bridge without incident – which was good since it was down for mechanical issues until Monday. And we turned into the marina and bow into our slip with no issues. The marina operator is trying to convince me I have to stay until Sunday due to the low pressure heading this way. I am hoping to get out on Friday as traveling on Saturday is not wise. Anyway, we cleaned up and took a walk over to the beach. While strolling on the beach the rain finally arrived. Since we were prepared for rain we just continued to explore. But when lightening started showing up we found shelter and waited it out. We returned back to the marina and our boat and eventually had dinner of garlic shrimp and salad. We are hoping for some sun tomorrow to walk on the beach some more. We will be here at the very least, tomorrow and leave Friday so there will be another break. I did manage to update SpinSheet with the pictures from the previous two trips. I will work on those from St. Augustine. Well, that’s about it. I trust all is well with you all. I did see that some snow fell in PA today. Sure glad I was on the beach!

Leg 28 - Halifax Harbot Marina - Daytona Beach FL

Before I jump into todays travels, I should catch you up from our visit to Marineland FL. Yesterday we awoke to a nice strong rainstorm pinging on the cabin top. Sue made pancakes and sausages for breakfast and we sat around waiting for the weather to break. When it finally did, we rushed back down to the beach to walk around the giant coquina rock formations just strewn about in a haphazard manner. We enjoyed the beach and wading in the chilly water and actually found a few nice shells, although there weren’t many. We returned to the boat before the rain began again and then spent the rest of the day doing boat chores. Dinner was shrimp in a garlic sauce over penne and a salad. So, the weather looked very bad for Saturday but a little ok for today. I decided to leave early to get out before the bad weather had a chance to set in. Also, the marina boss mentioned we wouldn’t want to be leaving at low tide due to shallow water. Well, the wind was less than 3 knots, and the current non-existent, and we slipped out of there quite easily. It seemed we were always just steps ahead of the storm clouds and rain as we only had about 10 minutes of sprinkles in the entire 5 hour trip to Daytona. Rats, I had all my rain gear at the ready, too. Behind us were dark menacing clouds and in front of us just broken blue skies. We only had two bridges to be ready for and both opened on signal / request. That meant we didn’t have to be there on the hour or half hour but just call ahead. While we were about 1 mile out from the second bridge, I heard boats traveling north call for an opening. I didn’t want the bridge to close after they passed through and then possibly I have to wait a bit so I called out to the operator and he said if I could get there quickly, would he hold. Well, I had the throttle wide open going over 8 knots against a slight current and we made it just in time. That was about the most excitement we had for the day. Other than Sue seeing another Bald Eagle, a Royal Tern, a Little Blue Heron, and a Tri-colored Heron, that is. We have transitioned from nature land to very expensive homes and high rise buildings. For a while we at least had some nature to watch on one side of the boat but after a period of time we even lost that and just had humans to watch – when they were out. We couldn’t help notice the large screened enclosures over the porches and pools indicating misquotes are most likely an issue another time of the year. We finally arrived at our marina – Halifax Harbor Marina – and they sent me a picture of their slips with a red dot where we were going. That was very helpful in me planning my approach. We went past the fairway and started backing down until I was backing smoothly through the fairway. Then I gently turned into the slip and stopped. The dockhands made comments that they hadn’t seen someone do it as easily as we did it. I guess they have had some rough days. Anyway, we cleaned up the boat and ourselves and then decided to take a quick walk around the very large marina. We went to check out the bath house and laundry room just to get a feel for it. Everything was clean and functional. The docks are great floating concrete docks with long finger piers. The fairways are nice and wide and there is plenty of room all around. It really is a 5 star marina. Tomorrow, if possible, I would like to check out more of the marina and possibly the town. We chatted with a few of the marina members who seem to live here – one guy has been on his boat since 2005 – calls it his condo on the water, another has a sailboat he bought 2 years ago and has never left port. His kids are home schooled and need companions desperately as they came down and chatted with Sue (using her teacher voice) for quite some time. Dinner was grilled steak (yes, they allow grilling at the docks here – imagine that), broccoli, sauteed potatoes and onions. Tonight our original plan was to anchor out but since they are calling for very strong winds and heavy rain along with cold temperatures, I thought it prudent to change our plan and stop here. It really seems like a very nice place so I don’t mind at all. Hopefully the bad weather is out of here by Sunday so we can continue our progress to Titusville.

Leg 29B - Mosquito Lagoon

Well, first, sorry I didn’t get this written yesterday but after drinks and dinner I was too tired. So, I shall catch up. First, we ended up staying in Halifax Harbor Marina and extra day as Saturday it just rained and was windy all day. We basically stayed indoors doing some jobs but mostly just relaxed. Sue started another book on her Kindle. When that happens I lose her for hours at a time. Anyway, we stayed Sunday and took the time to explore around Daytona Beach. We had a nice lunch at an Asian Restaurant near the marina mostly because about 5 different marina patrons we spoke with, all recommended it. And it was very good. It was at this time we realized we didn’t change our clock forward for DST. I thought it was morning and it wasn’t, it was afternoon. I wanted to check out Daytona Beach a little, so we got an Uber to take us to the pier – part of their boardwalk. Wow, it has been bikers week here and while sitting in the marina here (as well as in St. Augustine) they were very noisy. Now we were in the heart of it with bikers to the left of us, bikers to the right of us, and definitely bikers in front of us. It took at least 20 minutes to cover 2 blocks through the center of the downtown Daytona Beach but we finally made it to the pier. We got out and walked the pier and looked at the ocean for a bit. The winds were very strong from the east making the surf rough. Of course we took lots of pictures which I will post some on the SpinSheet site. One thing about being on a sailboat for 35 days is you get peoplefobic. There were just too many people around so we decided to head back to the boat – but not until we had watched a several groups being slung up 150’ into the air on the Daytona Sling Shot amusement ride.  Not for the faint of heart and yikes, not for me, thank you. Then we walked away from the crowds (Sue wouldn’t let be buy a bikers week tee shirt) called an Uber and were soon safely back into our little quiet sailing world on The Office in the marina. Since we had a big meal at lunch we feasted on drinks and appetizers. Then boaters midnight.

Well, that brings us to yesterday, or if I was on time I should say today. Anyway, we got up early, we thought. We had a quick breakfast and quietly slid out of our slip and headed over to the fuel dock to empty out the holding tanks and fill the fuel tank. Ouch, $248 fuel bill. Thank goodness I am not a gas gobbling powerboater! We left the very nice marina and back onto the ICW, heading south. While this part of the ICW has more condos on both sides it was interesting to check out the many different dwellings. One thing for sure, the further south you go the more derelict and sunken boats you pass by. It makes one think twice on where to anchor and what would happen if the anchor drug. The other thing that seems to be increasing is the absence of courtesy other power boaters have as they zoom by.  Oh well. We arrived at our first and actually only bridge opening and I called saying we would be standing by for the 11:30 opening. The bridge operator, very politely stated, “Roger, The Office, but you will be waiting for the 12:30 opening”. Panicking, I thought, how am I going to drive around in circles for an hour and 20 minutes in this narrow area. What am I going to do, possibly maybe anchor. But then the bridge operator continued…”Office, you might want to check the time on your chart plotter.” Oh, silly me. The phones and computer automatically sprung forward. Sue change the clock after we got back yesterday but I never thought about the chart plotter. So, after he had his laugh, I sheepishly acknowledged and we waited for the opening. No issues. We came to the Ponce de Leon cut and while Bob423 recommended one direction, our chart plotter recommended another. I decided to follow Bob423. All went well until we arrive at the point where we rejoined the ICW. I did see on the chart that there was a warning of shoaling at low tide. I checked, yep, it was low tide. So, I slowed down, and carefully stayed on the Bob423 track that hasn’t failed us, and aimed between the red and green buoys, and told Sue to hold on. Bam, contact with mother earth. No worries, I was going slow so I backed up, re-aimed the boat to a different area and moved forward, slowly. Bam, another keel cleaning incident. I did this a few times until Sue pointed to an area north that she felt the water color was more blue. Slowly I fought the current, headed north, no where near any navigation markers and wow, we made it. Once again this is a lesson about when to travel. Low tide is the time to be in port having a cocktail or at anchor having a cocktail. So, now that we scraped any barnacles off of the bottom of the keel I figured we would go a bit faster. We motored past New Smyrna as there was no room in the marina – hence the title 29B – a change where we just pushed forward to Mosquito Lagoon. This an area between a small piece of ocean beach property running north and south and the ICW. While it is quite vast and open, the depths are mostly 5’ or less. There was a spot that has depths of 7-8’ and I had picked our anchorage there. Once again the tide was almost low tide and we were crossing out of the ICW into an area that is charted at 5’. I went slowly, ready to back out if necessary, but we soon were in 8’ of water. Then we headed in about ¼ of a mile and dropped the hook in 20 mph of wind. The anchor stuck first try and we backed down hard after paying out 80’ and putting on our snubber bridle. Confident we weren’t going anywhere we shut everything down and Sue made drinks and we had appetizers. Apparently Sue made my drink a little strong as I didn’t feel like writing this trip report – sorry, hence the lateness. We had grilled hamburger (me), chicken (Sue) along with leftover vegetables and noodles in olive oil and spices. We sat in the cockpit watching the sun disappear behind the mangroves enjoying the strong wind as it was keeping all bugs away. The wind was supposed to lesson in the evening but it never did get below 20 mph. That’s why you set the anchor and pay out chain as if a storm is approaching. You never know. We didn’t budge at all. Tomorrow (actually as I write this it is today) we head to Titusville, one day early to the end of our ICW journey, phase 2.

Leg 31 - Titusville, FL

The wind never let up last night. Each time I was up checking, the wind was between 20 and 25 mph. But we held fast with our anchor. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast as we need to use up some refrigerated items before Sunday. We were not in a hurry as we had a short 15 mile trip to Titusville. After everything was cleaned up from breakfast we recovered the anchor – into a headwind of 20 mph. All went well and we slowly back tracked over the path we entered so that we felt confident we had enough depth to get back onto the ICW. After holding our breath for a few minutes we indeed were back headed south. We had one bridge to get through, which was not an issue at all as it was on request, and all we had to do was stay between the lines and all would be fine. We arrived at the marina and after some confusion on the dock and slip we were to go into I backed successfully into C-101. This is our first fixed dock in many years so we aren’t used to it very much. But, since there is little tide here I am told all is fine. We cleaned up and went to the marina office to check in. They have a nice little store right on site. Dobbs stopped by and then Suzanne as we caught up on our trip and theirs as well. They are the people who fix my rigging when it needs it. Then we had cocktails and appetizers. Dinner will be chili over rice and salad. We have a game of Skibblio with Jen and Christian planned for later tonight. Tomorrow we start preparing for out trip to the Grand Canyon. Then after that we will return here and continue south a little more before returning north.

Thanks for traveling along with us these past 35 days - 24 of which were traveling on the water to cover the 399 miles it took to get from Charleston, SC to Titusville, FL. I should have all pictures posted on the SpinSheet site for all to view.