Arrival at Stuart

On Monday morning, January 3rd, we threw off the lines once again to continue our trip south along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway toward Stuart, Florida, our next destination.  During our stay at Vero Beach we had replaced a faulty fuel lift pump on the port engine, which we believe was the culprit in the stalling problem we had been experiencing since mid-October. This trip would put that theory to the test.

Our route down the Indian River required constant and careful attention to the channel markers because, although the river is wide, it is deceptively shallow except for the narrow channel, and careless mariners can easily run aground. In fact, a couple of times some thoughtless and inconsiderate boaters coming toward us from the opposite direction practically pushed us out of the channel.

About an hour and a half into the cruise both engines were purring along happily (without even a hint of wanting to stall). Then Ken went down to check on things in the engine room, and I heard him yell, "Shut it down!" Diesel fuel was spraying all over the place. The good news is that the new lift pump was working fine. The bad news was that we had blown an o-ring on one of the secondary fuel filters, and about 10-15 gallons of diesel had leaked out into the bilge. So, we continued toward our destination on the starboard engine alone, with Ken working feverishly in the hot engine room pumping fuel into buckets to keep the bilge pump from activating so we wouldn't be pumping diesel fuel overboard. What a mess!

All's well that ends well, though, and we were able to make it to our marina in Stuart right on schedule. Then we hired a mechanic to replace the faulty o-ring, pump out the rest of the spilled diesel, and clean up the bilge.

Loggerhead Club and Marina in Stuart is located a few miles up the St. Lucie River, near the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway, which ends at Ft. Myers on Florida's west coast.  At the Stuart "crossroads" on the ICW, one has a choice of turning left toward St. Lucie Inlet, turing right up the St. Lucie River (which we did), or continuing south on the Indian River.  Although we thought we had planned our route up the St. Lucie pretty thoroughly ahead of time, we did make one rather funny mistake.  As we approached what we thought was the Rt. 1 bridge and looked for the marina, which should have been on the north side of the river just before the bridge, it wasn't there! Wrong bridge.  We had to continue on to the next bridge, the correct one, and there we saw the marina, right where it was supposed to be. What a relief!

Once again, we love our new watery home.  Unlike the peacefully quiet, reserved atmosphere of Loggerhead, Vero Beach, set in the heart of a lovely gated residential community, this Loggerhead sister marina in Stuart is wonderfully vibrant and alive, with restaurants on site, historic downtown Stuart just across the Rt. 1 bridge, and countless shopping opportunities close by. One meets many fellow cruisers on the docks, some returning snowbirds spending another winter in Stuart, others planning to move on, awaiting a weather window favorable for a Gulf Stream crossing to the Bahamas.

The marina has excellent facilities, including a heated swimming pool and hot tub, seen below.

We also have free use of an exercise room with state of the art equipment.

Although we didn't know it at the time that we reserved a boat slip here for the month of January, this is also the perfect location to be for the upcoming Stuart Boat Show (Jan.14-16).  As luck would have it, this is taking place right across the street (Dixie Hwy) from here, so we can just walk to it.

We are now four months into our planned six month shakedown cruise (see our Sept. 13th blog posting). Where we will go from here, who knows?  Are we enjoying the cruising life so far?  Definitely, yes, but it has not been without its frustrations.  For example, upon arrival here on January 3rd, our satellite TV system mysteriously stopped working. We have a KVH authorized dealer working on the problem, but so far, both he and the KVH techs are baffled.  The equipment works perfectly when the dealer takes it to his office, but when he brings it back here, it doesn't. Luckily, this marina provides free cable TV service, so we're OK on that front for now. 

If we have learned anything in the last four months, it's the importance of redundancy. When our fresh water pump fails (and it has), we can hook up to shore water on the dock with a hose; when one engine conks out, we have a second one to do the job; when one depth sounder mysteriously stops working, we still have another one to keep us from running aground; if our GPS chartplotter shuts down (or we hit the wrong button and screw it up), we still have an old one as a backup; two VHF radio systems provide communication security (plus a portable one just in case). Well, you get the picture.  Anyway, when Murphy's Law meets the Rule of Redundancy, you'd better have a Plan B!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The month of December has gone by in a flash, but not without enjoying the Christmas season here in Vero Beach.  Our Christmas tree was a bit smaller than we are used to, but it worked just fine to put us in the right frame of mind.

On Christmas day we were very thankful to be in Florida at Ken's brother's house, far away from the snow storms that plagued areas north of here.

As mentioned in our last blog entry, Loggerhead Club & Marina, Vero Beach, is a really nice place to spend some quality time, and we have certainly enjoyed our stay here this month. It's located in the gated community of Grand Harbor, with beautiful homes and golf courses, as well as the marina village and harbor right off the Intra Coastal Waterway.

Although the cold wave that has hit the eastern US has hit here too, we have also had enough warm days in between cold snaps to allow us to ride our bikes around to get some much needed exercise.

For the last couple of days, areas both north and south of here have been fighting large brush fires, which have created an interesting smoky haze on the horizon that makes for some interesting sunsets.

Although we feel that we could be happy just staying right here, we're also looking forward to moving on to our next destination, Stuart, about 30 miles south of here.  Until then, we wish you and yours a very Happy New Year.

Finally, Florida!

On Monday, November 15th, we were finally allowed by our boat insurance to enter Florida, but not until noon, when we began the short hop to our first stop, Fernandina Beach Harbor Marina.  Upon arrival, we were instructed to head inside the breakwater dock.  The wind was blowing, which made it a bit difficult, but we managed to squeeze in between two other boats.  In the photo below, we're the third boat back.

Although it was a bit dicey coming in with the wind trying to blow us into the other boats, we made it without incident.  This was the first time we had tried such a maneuver, since we usually requested the face dock.  After docking, we noticed that the boat in front of us was an impressive 60+ ft. Hinckley sailboat. Wow!  We seemed so small next to that majestic beauty after some of the other boats left early the next morning.

Anyway, after our arrival, we went for a walk and ended up at the famous Palace Saloon for a beer.  There we drank some Duke's Brown Ale and toasted Sharon's father who had spent Thanksgiving of 1937 (along with Duke Dupont) in this fine establishment after cruising down the brand new Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from New Jersey at age 21.

The following morning we went out in search of a good breakfast place we had heard about from fellow cruisers, Bright Mornings, and enjoyed a delicious early morning feast.

Then we spent the rest of the day perusing charts and cruising guides in preparation for leaving the following morning and heading for Jacksonville.  We had stayed two days at Fernandina because the weather prediction was for a very windy and rainy day on the 16th, which proved to be true.  Our hope was that the weather report predicting a better cruising day on the 17th would also hold true.  As it turned out, we had opposing wind and current as we attempted to exit the marina, with a few heart-stopping moments as we nearly smacked into that gorgeous Hinckley, but all's well that ends well, and we made it without a scratch on any boats, including our own.

After leaving Georgia, we developed an interesting issue with our port engine which refused to shut down from the helm.  Instead, at the end of a cruising day, one of us would have to jump down into the engine room and push a probing finger into the solenoid, a maneuver only a proctologist could appreciate, and certainly not fun on a hot engine.  Luckily, we had made a reservation to stay at Lamb's Yacht Center, a full service marina and boatyard, while in Jacksonville. We had already decided that we wanted to take a detour from the ICW up the St. John's River into Jacksonville.  It was so different cruising by the downtown area by boat rather than seeing it from I-95 by car as we have done so many times in the past.

As it turned out, Lamb's, located on the Ortega River just off the St. John's, was a very good choice.  They fixed us up in no time, and are also located withing walking distance of various shopping opportunities, including West Marine.

We were on our way again on the 19th, heading for St. Augustine, where we had a reservation at Comachee Cove Harbor Marina.

Here we got our exercise by riding our bicycles a couple of miles to the Historic District of St. Augustine, seen below.

We had been there many years ago by car and remembered a really good Spanish restaurant, the Columbia, and wondered if it was still there.  We found it and were delighted that it was even better than we had remembered.  The waitress volunteered to take our picture drinking their famous sangria.  Yum!

Our next stop was Sunset Harbor Yacht Club and Marina at Daytona Beach, where we docked for free because they have reciprocity with Charleston Yacht Club where we are members.  That was just an overnighter, but even so, we managed to take advantage of some of their wonderful facilities, including a soak in their hot tub!

Then it was on to Titusville where we had a reservation at the Municipal Marina for the next day. Although the forecast was for a cloudy day with a slight possibility of widely scattered showers, we ended up with a rainy day of cruising.  Visibility was pretty bad, so I just settled in behind a motoring sailboat in front of us, matching her speed to keep her in sight.  Ken spent his time mopping up the rain water that was leaking through the zippers on our strataglass windows on the flying bridge and wiping them off to increase visibility.  Just before we reached Titusville, the rain stopped long enough for us to get docked and check in at the marina office.  Sorry, no pictures.

The next day, Tuesday, the weather improved, and we moved on toward Melbourne.  That day our port engine started giving us trouble again.  Now it was back to its stalling routine, which had happened for the first time back in October in Georgia.  So we called ahead to arrange to have a mechanic meet us at Melbourne Harbor Marina where we had a reservation for overnight.  We made it safely, and luckily the engine did not stall out while we were docking because it was a somewhat tricky slip to ease into.  In the photo below, ours is the boat with the white dinghy hanging off the stern.  Notice how close we are to the boats on either side of us.

Anyway, the mechanic arrived on schedule and did some preliminary investigations with the port engine, but was not able to definitively determine the reason for the stalling.  We decided to move on to Vero Beach the next day where we will be docked until the end of December and deal with it then.  Luckily, it didn't stall out at all during our 30 mile cruise on Wednesday, and we saw some pretty impressive real estate along the way, too.

Most importantly, we arrived on schedule, just in time for Thanksgiving with family in Sebastian, FL.  We certainly have a lot to be thankful for, not the least of which is this beautiful Loggerhead Club and Marina in Vero Beach where we will be spending the entire month of December.

Needless to say, we are really enjoying retirement!

Farewell to Georgia

On Tuesday, November 9th, fellow Cruising Club of Charleston members, Mike and Judy Fauss aboard "Odyssey," along with Lloyd Davis and Dick Anderson aboard "Condor," arrived at Jekyll Harbor Marina after an exciting overnighter sailing "outside" all the way from Beaufort, SC.  We managed to arrange for them to tie up near us and enjoyed some quality time that evening aboard the "Docker's Inn."

The following day three more boats from the Cruising Club arrived, with Bob and Beth Kelley aboard "Time for Play," Glenn and Brenda Young aboard "Young at Heart," and Rick and La Von McNaughton aboard "The Porch," all having cruised the entire route between Charleston and Jekyll Island "inside" along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Once again, happy hour was aboard the "Docker's Inn."

The following morning, we all left the marina and headed for Cumberland Island.  Ken and I were a bit concerned about having to cross St. Andrews Sound with winds of about 12-14 mph causing some choppy water, but the "Docker" did just fine, and after a beautiful cruise down the ICW, we arrived and anchored out.

As soon as everyone was settled with their anchors secure, we all piled into our dinghys and headed for the Sea Camp dock to tie up while we explored the island.  This is also where the Cumberland Island ferry brings people from St. Marys.

When everyone had arrived we walked up to the information center to get our bearings before beginning our explorations of the island.

Cumberland Island is a national treasure maintained by the National Parks Service, with pristine beaches, maritime forests, and protected wildlife. We decided to take the trail through the forest, across the dunes to the beach.

Here we found some groups of school children learning how to catch fish with nets.

Along another trail we encountered some of the wildlife we had heard about, including the cutest armadillos snuffling under the leaves at the edge of the path for food.

And the wild horses we had been hoping to see did not disappoint us either.

This trail led us to the ruins of one of the Carnegie mansions for which this island is also famous.

This was the view from the mansion, but we enjoyed it for free!

On Friday the rest of the Cruising Club group continued on to Fernandina Beach, Florida, but we stayed on in Georgia because our boat insurance does not allow us into Florida until noon on November 15th, supposedly the end of the hurricane season. So we stayed on at Cumberland Island a second day and then cruised on to St. Marys, Georgia, just a whisper away from Florida.

Since docking space at Lang's Marina in St. Marys is on a first-come-first-served basis, we were lucky to get there early enough to secure the last spot at the dock.

What a precious little gem St. Marys is.  Most people pass it by when traveling down I-95 between Georgia and Florida, unless they have decided to come here to take the ferry to Cumberland Island. The waterfront dominates and is absolutely charming.

It's a great walking town, with plenty of restaurants to satisfy the most descriminating tastes. We wasted no time in trying out one across the street from the marina for lunch after our arrival.

Both the eggplant parmesan and chicken marsala were excellent! Just a short stroll along the main drag, Osbourne Street, reveals a rich history, with many of the 1800's era homes now preserved as bed and breakfast inns.

Along the waterfront, Lang's dominates, with Lang's Marina East (where we are docked), Lang's Marina West, Lang's Seafood (below), and Lang's Seafood Restaurant.

This is also a friendly town, with special services for boaters, including a daily VHF radio communication each morning at 8:00 a.m., the St. Marys Basin Radio Net on VHF channel 68. This service provides visiting mariners the opportunity to ask questions and share information with locals who might be able to help.

So, tomorrow we will bid a fond farewell to Georgia as we head to Fernandina Beach, Florida, just a stone's throw away.

Detour to AGLCA Fall 2010 Rendezvous

During the last week of October, we left the boat at Jekyll Island, GA, and took a road trip to Joe Wheeler State Park in northern Alabama to attend the America's Great Loop Association (AGLCA) Fall 2010 Rendezvous.

Many of the 200+ attendees are currently in the midst of their Great Loop cruise, having arrived by boat.  What an inspiration this was for us, meeting and talking with this great group of cruisers, many of whom graciously opened their boats to us (and others) on late afternoon "Looper Crawls."  It was amazing to see the many shapes, sizes, and types of cruising vessels these folks call home during their great adventure on Eastern America's waterways, such as the solar-powered canal boat below.

Among the many interesting and informative meetings and events we attended during our four-day stay was a lifeboat demonstration which took place in the swimming pool.

All in all, this was a very worthwhile detour for us.  Hopefully, next year we will be arriving at the AGLCA Fall 2011 Rendezvous aboard the "Docker's Inn."