On the Move Again

The urge to be on our way again finally won out over the comfort of staying on longer in Stuart.  It wasn't easy to give up this lovely setting adjacent to the Harborage condominium community.

We will especially miss happy hour at Wahoo's right at the foot of our dock, with two-for-one drinks accompanied by free snacks available each evening.

A wonderful unexpected opportunity presented itself while we were there, as we discovered that two of my (Sharon's) cousins live in nearby Jupiter, and a third who lives in Charlotte, NC, was on the way to visit them.  So they all converged on our marina for an impromptu cousins reunion on our boat.  We hadn't seen each other for well over forty years!  It was so much fun reminiscing and catching up on what everyone has been doing, and we all vowed to keep in touch from now on.  Here we are, from left to right:  Sharon, Pam, Peggy, and Sandy.

Ken and I also made one more trip to Jensen Beach, but found three good reasons not to go in the water.
First, there was a rip tide current warning which made it dangerous for swimmers.

Second, the beach was littered with nasty looking Portuguese man 'o war jellyfish.

And third, the water was too cold! However, it was just perfect for a walk along the water's edge.

With a week remaining on our paid contract for dockage with the Loggerhead network of marinas, we took off on Tuesday, February 22nd, headed south to take advantage of reciprocity with three other marinas in the chain, the first at Palm Beach Gardens.  This was an easy 4-hour cruise with lots of interesting stuff to see along the way, including mangrove swamp wildlife refuges,

many beautiful mansions lining the ICW and offshoot canals,

plus the lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet. Here we turned west, up the Loxahatchee River, then sharply south again into Lake Worth Creek.

Our marina (Loggerhead - Palm Beach Gardens) was located immediately south of the Donald Ross Bridge, just a bike ride away from Juno Beach. We pulled in to the fuel dock and topped off our tanks, then just backed up a bit along that face dock for an overnighter. This was convenient to the marina office and restrooms.

The next morning we headed out again.  The wind was calm as we left the marina, but picked up a bit as we entered Lake Worth. Since it was coming from the north and we were heading south, we didn't feel it, so it was quite warm as we cruised.  Again, there was plenty to see along the way, more mansions,

some highrise apartment buildings,

plus Peanut Island and the Port of Palm Beach, with a container ship unloading, etc.

Although boat traffic was light, we did encounter one speed demon throwing a huge wake that challenged our stability (but nothing broke), plus a group of clueless kayakers blocking the channel.  I guess that's what horns are for.

When we arrived at our marina (Loggerhead - Sout Lantana), the water was choppy and the wind had picked up quite a bit, but we made it in safely, even though the dock hands were late arriving.  It's great to have two engines and two thrusters!

This marina has some very nice facilities, including a heated swimming pool and hot tub, which we enjoyed.

However, there were not very many boats there.

Again, we stayed one night and then moved on to our next destination, Hollywood. We briefly considered postponing our departure due to predicted windy weather that day.  Then we received an email from fellow Charleston Cruising Club members, Sharon and Charley Barnett, who are embarking on a 1200 mile non-stop passage from Charleston to Tortola, BVI, in their sailboat, Blue Horizon. That made us feel like real weenies, so we just threw off the lines and left.

That day we had a greater distance to cover, which took us seven hours, but it was a great cruise.  We had to carefully watch for signs indicating slow speed/minimum wake or idle speed/no wake.  Plus, we had several bridges to contend with that required opening, some on demand and others on a published schedule.

As we passed through areas such as Boca Raton, Pompano Beach, and Fort Lauderdale, there was so much to see, including waterside restaurants,

many more canals lined with gorgeous homes,

Lots more apartment buildings and resorts,

It was almost overwhelming, but also lots of fun. The predicted wind turned out to be no problem, even as we had to bide our time and stay in place waiting for bridges to open.

Still in Stuart, FL

We're having such a good time here in Stuart, FL, that it's going to be tough to pry us loose.  As we mentioned in our last posting, the Loggerhead Club & Marina - Stuart is a great place for cruisers like ourselves. When we're not involved with various activities, such as going to the beach or swimming in the heated swimming pool here at the marina, we enjoy just kicking back on our aft deck, enjoying our watery environment.  It sure beats shovelling snow!

During the Stuart Boat Show in mid-January, we purchased a special 3-day pass for cruisers for just $35 each, which included coffee and bagels each morning, lunches, and happy hours, along with various seminars of interest to cruisers, plus unlimited access to the boat show itself.  The best thing for us was that it was all located at three marinas right across the street from us.  In fact, some of the displays were actually set up right on Dixie Highway, which passes in front of our marina.

Boats of all kinds, both new and "pre-owned," were on view on the docks of the three adjoining marinas.

There was something for every power boater's taste, whether it was trawlers or speedboats, like the one below powered by four 350 hp engines.  We could just imagine the amount of fuel that baby must consume!

And if you you couldn't make it to the show on foot or by car, well how about using Sky Limo Air Charters?

One thing we noticed that was different from other boat shows we have attended in the past was that the vast majority of boats on display here were used boats for sale, such as this one with the sign, "Pre-Owned & Repo Bargains."

As one can see from the photos, the weather was just perfect for the show, for which we felt very lucky indeed, especially when we considered what was happening in latitudes north of us. In fact, although some days have been somewhat cooler than one might expect in Florida, most of the time it has been warm enough to enjoy a walk on the beach.

Jensen Beach is the closest one to us. We found a nice beach park there with free parking and a pavillion with free public restrooms and a lunch counter.

Another reason we like being in the Stuart area is that it is very easy to find skilled marine mechanics and technicians to address the various problems one can encounter with a boat. While we've been here, we have certainly experienced at least our fair share of mechanical, electrical, and electronic problems, but have been able to get everything fixed to our satisfaction.

After the fuel leak problem was solved and fixed (see our last blog posting), we had trouble getting our KVH satellite TV system to work. As it turned out, our M1 unit was experiencing some signal interference, which kept the satellite dish under the dome from locking onto the proper satellite.

Our KVH dealer finally figured out the problem and solved it by attaching a ferrite bead to the cable to eliminate the interference.  Problem solved.  The best part was that, since the unit is still under warranty, it didn't cost us anything to get it fixed!

Next, our aft head (toilet) stopped working.  This turned out to be a simple electrical connection problem which was easy to solve (if you have the right guy to do it, which we did).  Then, our fresh water pump started leaking, requiring the purchase and installation of a new one.

Once again, this was quickly and easily taken care of because we had access to a mechanic who knew what he was doing, and who came right away.

So, why would we want to leave?  Because, although we are EXTREMELY comfortable here, points south still beckon. To that end, we have been checking out some marinas south of here which are also part of the Loggerhead chain of sister marinas, all the way down to Aventura, just north of Miami.  The neat thing is that they have reciprosity agreements with all other Loggerhead Marinas.  So, since we have paid for the month of February here in Stuart, we can go to any of the other ones for no additional fee. What a deal!

We don't know where our next blog posting will come from, but 'til then, we'll try to have as much fun as we can.

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!