Plans Are Evolving

Early yesterday I thought I would be enroute to Bimini right now, then that changed this morning due to weather, and I thought I would postpone that trip until tomorrow. As it stands now, things are on hold, because I may finally get the chance to do a bit of work on Frank's boat. I am not sure if I have mentioned Frank by name, but he is a German fellow over at River Bend Marina that has been thoroughly raked over the coals by a few vendors there, and he is running short on time, and on money, and his boat is no where near ready to go. Sven introduced us, and has been helping Frank try to nail the unscrupulous vendors through legal channels, and I was recommended by Sven to Frank. So if all goes well, tomorrow I will start working on the engine installation on Frank's boat. More info to follow.

After a slow start this morning I started back to working on Arden, I figure I would take advantage of this downtime and get a few more things done that were begging for attention.

I changed the transmission oil, not that it was showing alot of wear, actually it was quite clean, (transmission fluid does not get sooty black like engine oil) but by the hourmeter it was time for a change. Luckily, the drain for the transmission is right over the sump for the engine, so my tupperware drain pan fit in there just fine. Not a heck of alot of room to slide it in, but once I got it past the transmission housing it fit perfectly. After I got the tranny drained and filled I set about freeing up the dogs on the manhole cover. Arden has a nice access plate in the deck of the cockpit, just like a manhole in a street. However, due to the fact that the boat is subject to all sorts of weather and other things (mom don't read this next part) such as swamping and knockdowns, the manhole cover had to lock postively into place and be watertight. The dogs on Arden's access cover get frozen from time to time, so today was the day to get them freed up again. It took a bit of work to get them all operating smoothly, I had to take 2 of them apart and lube them well to accomplish that, as there was some salt build up around the shaft from all the salt water wash downs I give the cockpit.

I did a bit of bright work - varnishing - today, the tiller was showing a bit of wear and the blocks (pulleys) for the jib sheet were as well. Lots of sanding and prep work, I had to take both the tiller and the blocks down to bare wood, as there were thin spots on both that just refused to sand out fair. I do an ok job with bright work, it is a job that takes an incredible amount of patience to turn out a great finish, and I am not nearly patient enough or skilled enough to turn out a great job, but I do ok. I'm a mechanic, not a painter. My dad did an incredible job with his boat Sunshine, the foredeck on her is like a mirror, and looks a mile deep. My job today on Arden was not that involved, but I did get 4 coats of finish on the tiller, and 3 on the blocks. As time allows I will sand both down again, surface sanding this time, and add a few more coats and get a deeper finish on them. Nothing looks quite as classy on a boat as a good varnish job.

As the day wore on I tackled the dinghy engine again, this time I tore it down a good way, cleaned out the carb (again), cleaned the contacts for the coil and the flywheel, and cleaned out the cyliner with brake cleaner. I had set the plug gap yesterday, but I checked that again, and after checking the timing, I put it all back together. Amazingly it fired up after a few pulls, and has started everytime I have tried to run it since. Maybe it knew it was destined to become the 4th anchor if it didn't run today, or maybe I actually did fix it. I am not a gas engine specialist, but 2 cycles are pretty damn easy - fuel, air, spark - the damn thing should run. And it does, we will see how long that lasts.

I did some organizing and consolidating of all the crap I have aboard, I ended up tossing one of my treasured milk crates, the stuff I had in it got redistributed to the other 4 (or is it 5) and it really took up too much space under the nav station seat. So out it went. I also went through the vee berth and got is straightened out a bit, and I realized something, I have way too much stuff aboard this boat. Between tools, spare lines, extra wood for repairs, fishing rods, extension cords, more tools, what a ton of stuff I have squeezed onto this boat. Next time I know not to bring as much. It always pays to be prepared, but all this crap makes it hard to organize.

And finally I whipped the ends of some of the lines that were fraying, I will eventually whip them all, but it is a tedious task that takes more time than it should. So I do a bit here, and a bit there as needed. Most of the lines, and they are lines, not ropes, have the ends heat fused, but in time those ends always end up breaking loose and coming undone. So the answer is to whip them. Whipping a line is done by wrapping the end of it with sail thread, and using the sail needle to work a portion of the thread over and through the line to secure it. It takes a bit of time, and you really need to use a sailmakers palm (a leather device that goes over your hand, protecting it from the needle) to get it done correctly. When it is all done, the result looks very good.

I am also including some pictures of the laundry that I was not able to upload this morning, I have much better net tonight than I did this morning. Refer back to this mornings post for a description of the laundry and how it works.

Waiting on Weather

I am still in Ft Lauderdale this morning, the weather pattern that was supposed to come through yesterday early did not come through until yesterday late, and so the winds and waves in the Florida Straights are a bit more than I really want to deal with for this crossing. It is cool and windy here today, after a very warm and stormy afternoon yesterday, but in between rain showers I was able to get in a good bit of work on the boat.

I finished up a few projects that have been hanging for a while, the aft water tank is now fully installed and secured - I epoxied in some plywood blocks to mount the eyes that hold the flexible tank in place, and covered those with strips of fiberglass tape to ensure the blocks are secured well. Considering the space I had to work with, underneath the cockpit floor, I think the job came out first rate. I may have over done the job, but having no real idea of the stresses that the blocks will see, I figured better to over do it and be safe. Once the epoxy dried I screwed in some stainless steel eyes and secured the tank, and I filled the tank with a hose borrrowed from Mike, the guy that let me tie up to his dock. He was kind enough to let me use his water, and as we filled the tank, Arden settled down onto her lines, trimming out like she is supposed to. Because the main, or original, tank is so far forward, the boat has always been down by the bow, but no longer. However, when I haul her out over the summer, I do think I am going to have to raise the bottom paint a few inches as the entire boat sits lower on her lines now.

I also put in a through hull for the laundry drain - I am not sure if I had mentioned that Arden has a laundry on board, well a washing machine of sorts, but using an idea gleaned from books by Lin and Larry Pardee, Gary built in a laundry in the forward compartment. The laundry is really a compartment that Gary had built in below deck, with a bronze portlight on deck for a hatch that you use to put your dirty clothes through. Add water, a bit of detergent, and go sailing. The theory is that the motion of the boat through the waves will agitate the laundry enough to wash the clothes. It does, and the clothes get pretty clean with very little work. One of the many innovations that Gary had worked into Arden over the years. Originally I had plumbed the laundry drain into the drain for the sink in the head, but that did not work so well, so some time ago I decided that it needed a through hull of its own. Now it has one. That job was complicated by the fact that the through hull is above the waterline, and has to fall between the lapstrake lines on the hull. Measure, shift, measure, change, after 4 or 5 tries I was ready to drill a pilot hole - and it was just about perfect. You have no idea how hesitant I have been to drill that hole, but the placement turned out well, and I was drilling the hole for the through hull minutes later with the holesaw. Five minutes later the through hull was coated in 5200 caulk, and the job was finished shortly there after.

The outboard is now really giving me fits, I originally thought that the problem was water in the fuel, but now I am not so sure. I really curse whoever stole my good outboard, I had gotten a nice 4 horsepower outboard not long before I left Maryland, and it was stolen just days before I left while I was visiting my parents for Thanksgiving. I returned from that trip only to find the cable lock cut and the outboard gone, just days before I set off on this voyage. So I have been stuck with my backup outboard, and stuck now is exactly where I am. I have been rowing everywhere for the past few days, granted it is great excersize, but not exactly the fastest way to get from point A to point B. I am going to give another go and repairing the motor today, and if I can't, not sure what I will do. Maybe use it as anchor number 4.

Tonight I will check the weather again, I hope that this front will have blown through, and I will be good to sail on Friday afternoon. Right now it looks that way, but then again, yesterday it looked like I would be leaving today. Who knows, just play it by ear, as I have been so far, and hopefully all will work out the way it should.

Off To The Islands

Either tomorrow or the next day I am going to sail over to Bimini, from the Port Everglades channel it is 47.3 NM southeast, and according to Passageweather, we should have a southerly wind most of the day tomorrow, which would put me on a close reach, and then later it will shift to the northwest, putting me on a broad reach. If I wait until Thursday I will be on a broad reach all day. I hope to be able to hold 5 knots, putting me there in just about 9 hours. Going to play it by ear, hopefully I will post from the Bahamas in 2 days, if I stay put for another day I will update the blog and keep everyone informed.

The Great Manatee Hunt

I will have to add pictures later, as my net connection is slow this morning, I am kind of getting used to this now, even though it is an absolute pain in the posterior.

Alright, we weren't really hunting manatees, but on Sunday morning after a late breakfast with Sven and family, we all (including Spook) piled into both dinghies and went off in search of manatees. My dinghy was basicly a barge - I had the kids, Julia and Carlos, aboard my dinghy, along with Spook, and of course myself - and Sven towed us behind his dinghy, which had himself, Gabi and his dad Claus aboard. We went up the main channel in search of manatees, and about a half mile from the boat yard, we found them. They were swimming up stream, and we started to follow the swirls in the water that their tails make as they swim along. It is hard to get a picture of a manatee from above, the water is tea colored from the swamps upsteam, and the manatees always seem to be just out of camera range, down a few feet and hard to distinguish. It is too bad the camera can't see what the human eye can, because it was amazing to watch them swim along, big groups of them together, all mozying along just below the surface.

After a few miles of cruising and being tourists we turned around and came back, and then we stopped as Gabi saw a plane sky writing. We never did see what it wrote - the letters were blurring and the words were moving away from us in the high winds aloft, but it was cool to see that, not something you see everyday.

We passed lots and lots of very high dollar yachts, one of them was tied up in a yard with the red, white and blue government no trespassing signs on it, seems it was in the custody of the US Marshall Service, probably a drug bust thing or something of the sort. As we got back to where Arden was anchored we finally saw a manatee out of the water, it was grazing on algae on the pilings and the containment booms in the area I had anchored in. Very neat to watch, they have a face alot like a hound, and very short front legs that it was using to hold the boom still while it ate.

The rest of the day was spent on land, I walked up to a boat supply place, the sail maker's, the grocery - you name it I walked there, Sven was amazed at just how far I had walked in the 2 hours I was gone. When I returned we sat out in Sven's cockpit and had pina coladas made from the rum I had stashed on Arden, and coconut juice from coconuts the kids had pulled from the canal. Elias from the mega yacht sail boat next door was there and we talked for hours and hours. Sometime around 8 or 9 I rowed back to Arden, no sense waking up the neighbors with my loud little outboard.

Monday was a maintenance day on Arden - I changed the engine oil and filters, the fuel filters, and cleaned out the engine sump and the bilge. I was in the middle of all this, the engine was draining, when I took Spook out for her walk. After she had run around a bit in the drizzle a cop in a pickup truck pulled up across from where we were. He signaled me over, and told me that I couldn't anchor where I was, the water rights to the basin I was in belonged to the property that was for sale, and that thanks to a barge company that used the basin for a few years illegally, they have to be pretty strict on people mooring there. It you Google Earth the last set of sunrise sunset pictures, you can see a set of barges in the basin where I am now. Needless to say, I had to find a new place to anchor, but before I left the area I really need to get diesel.

I went ashore to find Sven and catch a ride to get fuel, but he was off running errands himself, so I ended up watching the work crew on Elias' boat mount the huge awning for the cockpit, and then ended up helping them get it aligned and set into place. It was a bit warped for some reason, and we spent a good hour or so measuring and pulling angles on it trying to determine what exactly had tweaked the structure and how to fix it. Elias had to go and arrange to have the boat towed to another yard to have the mast stepped (it has to be towed because the boat is 105 feet long, and the engine installation is not complete) the mast, at the other yard, is 145 feet tall, and once it is on, the boat can't use the ICW, or really go anywhere other than marinas that have direct open water access. Really limits where you can cruise. I can't comprehend how high up that must be, and how massive it must look from the deck.

While Elias was getting the tow arranged for Tuesday, Sven grabbed me up and we went to a German restaurant down the road, he wanted to show me what real German food was like, and my God that food is rich. I had Jaeger Schnitzel, I think a fried pork loin smothered in a brown gravy with mushrooms and served with a type of noodle and red cabbage. The pork and noodles were good, I was not a fan of how the cabbage was prepared. We did a few things for his boat while we were out, and when we got back, Claus told us the police had been by to make sure I was going to leave today.

Sven and I dinghied over to Arden to make sure the boat was ok, and then we were off in search of a berth somewhere close in one of the canals. Needless to say I was bit stressed, I had to find a place closeby, as the bridges have times in the evenings that they don't open, so there was no way for me to get back to the ICW by nightfall. We saw a few empty berths up the canal behind where I was moored, but we discovered from talking to a guy on his dock that there is a new city ordinance that says that property owners can't lease out dock space anymore, the only boats that are allowed to tie up are ones that are owned by the homeowner or tenant, and their guests. We were about to leave, somewhat defeated, when a guy waved us over, and suggested that I tie up at a house next to his that was in foreclosure. He called all the neighbors to make sure no one would complain, and Sven and I went back to get Arden. I hauled up the anchors and motored over, and tied up to my new berth. All the neighbors came out, asked if I need help docking, needed power or water, and they all commented on what a nice looking boat Arden is. It was really nice having such a great reception, and I was quite relieved to have a safe place to go, and not have to worry about making the trip down the river in the dark.

After I was tied up and secured I headed back over to the boat yard, Elias wanted to take us all out for Thai food in thanks for helping him out with his cockpit awning, and so we all piled into his car and drove over to the restaurant. I am sure my stomach will be in revolt, German and Thai food all in the same day, not sure what the response will be to that. After dinner we went over to a dive shop for Sven, this place was open to 10pm, and then we went over to Bass Pro Shop, where Sven and Claus were just amazed at all the sporting goods and hunting and fishing stuff they have there. I suppose we take that kind of thing for granted here in the states, and there are not really places like that anywhere overseas.

To wrap up the night I had to row back, once again not wanting to disturb the neighborhood with my loud little outboard, and when I finally got to Arden I was about beat.

A Land of Canals

Spook went swimming yesterday morning first thing, not by choice but by a mistimed jump from the boat to the bulkhead. Have I ever mentioned Spook does not like to swim? She can, and does so very well, but it is definitely not high on her list of things to do. So there she was, swimming around the boat, trying to get up on the seawall, which was 6 feet of concrete, looking very concerned and panicked. I had to hop into the dinghy, paddle around, and with one hand around her tail and one hand in her collar, haul her into the dinghy. Very wet, very unhappy dog.

After her brief adventure, and a good walk in downtown Ft Lauderdale, I made coffee and waited until 9 for the 3rd Avenue bridge to open. It was a bit tricky getting off the bulkhead with the current running and the location I was moored at - the bridge fender ahead of me and a tree that had branches overhanging the canal behind me - but I got under way and started to wind down and around to where Sven und Gabi were. It took about an hour to get there, they are way up the New River at a boatyard, but it was a very scenic trip. I saw lots of beautiful and interesting boats, and some incredible houses. There are canals cut off the river everywhere, seems like everyone here wants to live on the water, and has a boat of some type.

There was also a lot of interesting wildlife - I saw my first manatee, one of many I would see throughout the day, a bull shark, I heard quite a few parrots, and saw many many feral iguanas. A friend of mine once sent me an email describing how the feral iguanas, adversly affected by the cold snap here, were falling out of trees in a state of suspended animation. It seems that when they are that cold they basicly shut down and start to hibernate, and so here were all these frozen iguanas falling out of trees. Very funny if you are a person observing it, not very funny if you are a frozen iguana.

I got up to the boat yard and moored on a bulkhead across from Sven's boat, and rowed in to see them. I spent the day helping Sven out, and enjoying the warm weather. Yesterday started out very mild, and then got quite warm. I think it topped out around 80 degrees, and it was no time before I was in shorts and a t shirt, and then just shorts. Who knows, maybe I will be able to get a bit of a tan.

Later in the day Sven and his father, Claus, and I went looking to see if we could find a dock for me to tie up at, as alot of the properties around here have empty docks. We had a bit of luck finding availible places, but, everyone of them wanted to charge me 30 or 40 dollars a night to tie up. In the end, I anchored in the basin of an abandoned marina just off of the boatyard, good deep water, out of the channel, and lots and lots of manatees. We must have seen 8 of them as we got Arden anchored. Manatees are huge. The ones we saw were all 8 feet or longer, massive in girth, and every one of them had scars on their backs from boat propellers. You might think that manatees are slow moving creatures, I certainly did, but they are not, they are pretty agile for as large as they are, and they can swim very fast. What gets the manatees into trouble with boats is that they lay right under the surface, and kind of float there lazily. If you come along in a boat slowly they dive away, but I can see where they would get overtaken by a fast moving boat and get run over.

Sven has been marketing me quite actively, there is a fellow here on a boat that Sven almost bought, that needs help getting his boat squared away and ready to go. There are alot of unfinished projects from another technician that need to be completed, and there is plenty of work, a few weeks worth I think, on that one boat alone. There is also the possibility of crewing on a 105 foot mega yacht sloop - we will see how that develops, but if it did, the money would be incredible, and the adventure would be as well. So who knows. Looks like I may be making a bit of money, just in time for the trip back north.

On the Water For Days and Days - Take Too

Wow, I think it has been about 4 days since I was able to make a post, so I have a bit of catching up to do. So, the post tonight is going to be pretty long, I have travelled a long way over the past 4 days....So here we go!

2-16-10

Today was one of those few days where I was able to really get moving under sail, and I mean the boat was flying. To top it off, I was in a fairly constricted water way, but the wind was perfect, perhaps a bit too windy really, and Arden took me south at an amazing clip of 6.5 knots. Ok, I didn't do 6.5 the entire time, but I did average 5.3, and the engine was not used at all today.

I took my time getting going today, I had hoped to see Kevin and watch him get underway, and I wanted to wash up good before I left. There is a nice public restroom in the park by the boat ramp, and they have a sink there with a very tall faucet, and hot running water. That meant one thing to me, time to get my hair washed. So we dinghied in after coffee and pancakes - Spook and I walked about a mile or so, I got a call in to Gary and Alice in Edenton, I stopped in the local hardware store to see if they had bronze wood screws, and then we headed back out to the boat. Once back aboard I made a bit of progress repairing the windvane (again) and got everything stowed and ready to go, washed up the breakfast dishes, and then set about raising the anchor. The holding here in central Florida is excellent, the bottom seems to be a very tough clay like material, and for only the second time ever I had to use the lower geared side of the windlass lever to get the anchor free. The wind was coming from the northwest when I left, and I was a bit worried about drifting in the anchorage once I got the anchor up and before I got underway, so I had the jib up and luffing as I hauled in the final few feet of anchor rode. Arden came free, I had the anchor stowed quickly, and then I sheeted in the jib and we were off and away. I had a bit of a time getting the main up, I really need to work on the gate in the mast - the main sail track slides are always getting hung up as they pass the gate, and I have to repeatedly go up on deck to free the slides before I can get the main sail up fully. No matter, I got the main up and set, and we were headed down the ICW in front of a steady 15 knot breeze, that put us on a good broad reach.

I think I have mentioned before that Arden is at her best on a beam or broad reach. I will further add that when under one of those 2 points of sail, she seems to really perform well in about 15 knots of wind. Much more than that and I usually have to put a reef in the main or the weather helm and her degree of heel gets a bit wild. Today everything was perfect. With a northwest wind I was heading straight down the channel on a broad reach, the boat held just over 5.5 knots most of the day, and every so often we got a good gust in the neighborhood of 20 or 25 knots and this old girl got up over 6.5 knots. Arden will, under the right conditions and proper trim, sail faster than she will motor. That doesn't happen all that often, usually where I want to go, and where the wind is pushing me don't quite equal out, so I compromise and give up speed for direction. Or I lose patience and motorsail, trying to get where I want to go in some reasonable amount of time. Not today.

I suppose I should explain some of the points of sail before some folks reading here get a bit lost or confused. If you sail, have sailed, or have taken a class, please skip this part, unless of course you want to see if I know what I am doing out here. For all practial purposes it is best to look at how boat approaches the wind much like one looks at a clock. Lets say that the boat lies on the clock face with 12 being the bow and 6 being the stern. Now we can go through the various points of sail. For most boats, a wind coming from the 10:30 to 1:30 positions is useless. The geometry of the sails will not let you utilize this wind direction, so you have to turn the boat until you fill the sails and can get her moving. When the wind is coming from the 1:30 to 2:00 position is called Close Hauled, or beating. Alot of folks call this on a beat. From 2:00 to 2:30 is Full and By. Usually most folks still call this Close Hauled, but it is technically Full and By. The position at 2:30 is a Close Reach. Like Full and By, this position is usually combined with and called a Beam Reach. The Beam Reach is from 2:00 to 4:00. From 4:00 to 5:00 is a Broad Reach, and from 5:00 to 5:30 is the Quarter Reach. Much like the Full and By, the Quarter Reach is usually combined with the Broad Reach. Any point of sail with the wind from 5:30 to 7:30 is called Running, or Running Before the Wind. I am including a diagram to give a visual to all of this.

Usually, if you are out for a day sail, you sail with the wind, i.e. you sail to the point of sail at which your boat performs the best. If you have a set destination, as it seems I so often do, sometimes this works out, most often it does not. When it does work out, life is great, and when it doesn't, you tack. Tacking is zig zagging back and forth to head in a specific direction, using the direction of the wind as best as you can. Most of the time when you are tacking you are on a beat or close reach. It often seems that when I am sailing, the direction I want to go in is the direction the wind is coming from, not sure how or why this is, but I am used to it by now, so I spend a good bit of my time tacking. Jack's Theory of Wind Relativity - You can be relatively certain that the wind will not be blowing in a directions that points you in the direction you want to go.  Once in a blue moon I will have a day like today, where the wind is in a favorable positon to push me where I want or need to go.

All that being said, today I sailed 20 nautical miles in just under 4 hours, and by the time I stopped I was cold and wind beaten, as the temps here did not get above 50, and as usual I was out in the wind all day. We stopped just south of a bridge going from Melbourne to Indialantic, tucked in out of the wind, in an unadvetized anchorage. I think we anchored in just over 7 feet of water, but we were out of the wind and waves, and it was a good clear evening.




2-17-10
Another great day of sailing. Today started with a dinghy ride over to Indialantic, Spook got to run a bit in a park by the river, then we took a walk over to the ocean. I guess we walked about 10 or 12 blocks, the barrier island is very narrow here, and when we got to the beach we found it was closed for rebuilding. It amazes me how much money they spend moving sand around, that in another 12 months or so is going to be right back where mother nature wanted it. You would think folks would learn sometime that barrier islands move, and are as close to being alive as geographical things can be.

I think we got underway around 9:00, it was fairly windy out, so I set the mainsail with one reef, and hauled in the anchor. I am more often than not sailing off the anchor now, even when I motorsail I try to do more sailing than motoring, it keeps the skills sharp, and every so often you will get caught in a situation where you learn something new.

The wind was brisk today, this morning we started out with the same 15kt wind we had yesterday, and with the help of the engine (set just above idle to charge batteries) we were going along at about 5.5 knots. That did not last for too long though, pretty soon the wind picked up, and we were cruising along at over 6 knots. I think the wind settled at about 20 knots, with some gusts to right around 27 or so, and that had me sailing as hard as I could, and I think Arden averaged her best speed ever - 5.9 knots over ground for the daily average. Our top speed was over 7.4 knots, and we held over 6.5 for what seemed like forever. When I am in a tight waterway like this channel it is quite a challenge to handle Arden when she is sailing this hard, it would have been slower and easier if I had a few more reef points in the mainsail, but I don't, so I really had my hands full with the tiller today.

We made 43.7 miles in just over 7 hours, and that put us in a really nice anchorage south of the Ft. Pierce inlet. When we got to Ft. Pierce I had to wait on the draw bridge, and that meant I had to stop and wait for a good 5 minutes, not really all that easy when you are under sail. I swung into the wind, and thanks to the high wind speed, I started to drift immediately. I didn't want to lower the sail yet, so I had to keep dipping down to get steerage, and then swinging up into the wind again. Quite an excersize, and I am sure it looked pretty comical from shore, but the bridge tender took his time getting the bridge open, so what are ya gonna do?

So all in all today was a banner day. We made great time and Arden sailed as hard as she ever has. I realized that I do need to get at least one more set of reef points put in the main before I do any serious sailing off shore, I need a bit more flexibility in my sail plan, and one set of reef points just doesn't cut it.

The water is slowly but steadily getting clearer, today I had more dolphins play around the boat, and I could clearly see them under the water before they breached the surface or dove down beside the boat. There were alot of dolphins along the way today, maybe not the most I have seen, but today did rank up there with numbers of dolphin sighted. I also saw what looked like an albino pelican, actually there were a few of them, I am not sure if these were really albino birds, or if there is another species of sea bird that is like a pelican but pure white.

Tonight we are in a little cove tucked in off of the Indian River (the ICW), you can see it on Google Earth just south of the inlet. It is very protected, and ringed with houses. I am dead smack in the center, and feel kind of out of place here in the middle of this neighborhood.

A few numbers to throw out there. As of today, I am 966 miles south of Portsmouth, VA in statute miles on the ICW. I am 192 NM south of Fernandina Beach. 312 NM from Charleston. 391 NM from Cape Fear (mouth of Cape Fear River in NC) 465 NM from Morehead City and 603 NM from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. All of these measuremnts are as the crow flies (with the exception of the ICW mileage) and do not exactly translate into how many miles I would have to sail to get from point A to point B.

2-18-10

Today I started the day as usual by taking Spook out on a walk. We landed at a dock on an empty lot just above where I am anchored. I think the house that was here was a victim of a hurricane, it was torn down for whatever reason, but there is a nice dock here, and that is where we put ashore. We walked about 8 blocks to the beach, and I got a good view of the ocean. It didn't look too bad, so I decided we were going to go outside today, and run down to Palm Beach, which is the next inlet.

I got a bit of a late start, and I was bucking the current and tide leaving, so I was running behind from the get go. Once I left the harbor channel and entered the ocean I found out 2 things. Number one - the wind on the ocean was not from the west northwest like it was supposed to be, and number 2-the swells on the ocean were larger than they appeared to be from shore. So the beginning of the day was rough. Really rough. I was running, not Arden's best point of sail, and I was running in front of the waves and surfing, which can be a very uncomfortable sensation, and can really give you a workout on the tiller. Spook was really not happy at all, and she was tucked into her nest on the port berth and stayed there nearly all day. Unfortunately the wind died off a good bit around noon, made for slower going, but that did mean that the waves flattened out a bit.

I was making decent time, but not great time, no where near as good as the 2 days previous. I pretty much figured out sometime in the afternoon that I was not going to make Palm Beach by nightfall. So then I toyed with the idea of just keeping on, and sailing straight to Ft Lauderdale. IO toyed with that idea for a good bit, on and off all afternoon, but in the end I was too tired from fighting the tiller early on, and I decided to head in when I finally got to Palm Beach.

On the way down the coast today I did see all kinds of interesting things though. I saw alot of dolphins, but the seemed to congregate near the inlet, so I didn't see too many of them as the day wore on. I did see a whale off in the distance, it was too far away to get a picture, but it was about 700 yards away and I could see its back in the swells. I also saw these fish jumping out of the water, I wasn't sure what they were, so I called Bill up in Port Canaveral, and he said they were probably what they call spinner sharks. Now I have no idea what species that really is, but as I got closer, sure enough, they were sharks. They would fly out of the water, spin and twist, and then splash down. I must have seen 30 or 40 of them leap from the water this way. I also saw a sea turtle, I almost ran him down, so I didn't get the camera out fast enough amd I was running behind, so I didn't turn around and get his picture.

I finally made the inlet to Palm Beach around 9pm, and I was beat. Luckily for me the channel was really well marked, and not all that long, so I was in, and off the ocean pretty quickly. The anchorage I was going to was just inside the mouth of the harbor, so I was in, anchored, and throwing together dinner just minutes after leaving the ocean. I was tucked in and safe, and bushed, so it wasn't long before I was in the sleeping bag and passed out.

2-19-10

This morning when I got up I peeked out and got my bearings, and looked for a place to walk Spook. I was off of a slew of very swanky marinas, I am sure they would not have wanted me landing there and letting Spook do her thing, so I looked over to the west and saw Peanut Island. I didn't know it from the chart, but Peanut Island is a park, so we rowed ashore, landed on this nice little beach, and after pulling the dinghy ashore, we went for a walk, sans leash. I made use of the bathhouse, washed up and washed my hair, and then we headed back to the dinghy. Remember I said I pulled the dinghy well ashore right? Well, one of the 2,000 sportfisher boats that went by and waked us out must have put out a big enough wake that the dinghy got washed off the beach. So there it was, bobbing around 50 yards off the beach. So off came the jacket, the pockets got cleaned out, and in I went. Luckily the water was pretty warm, I later dipped the thermometer in and found it was 70 degrees.

 I swam out, got the dinghy, and towed it back to shore. My first swim in Florida water! As I rowed back I couldn't help but notice how clear the water was. I was anchored in about 10 feet of water, and I could see the bottom. Not only that, but I could see the entire bottom of my boat, I think the first time I have seen all of it since I launched her back in October of 2008. Looks like the bottom paint is holding up well, I plan on diving on her here in the next week or so and giving her a going over, so I will see just how well it has worked then.

I changed clothes, and got underway, and we left the harbor by 8. Once we got out in the ocean I knew it was going to be a long day, there was almost no wind at all, so I motorsailed all day. The goal was Ft Lauderdale, and that was 47 miles away. The ocean was flat, no wind, and I was putting along, not much going on at all. I suppose the only saving grace was that the tiller lock was doing its job, so I was able to do a few other things as I sailed along. I did some reading, whipped the ends of a few lines (wrapped them in sail thread so they don't unravel) and replaced the ampmeter.

I also saw more interesting wildlife - another turtle, this one I got pictures of  - and more spinner sharks. I saw quite a few jellyfish that had blue sacks above the water, they were small, but my guess is they were Portugese Man of War. There was a ton of seaweed floating around, and some debris as well. Most of it looked like stuff that had washed out of a channel or river. A few dolphin, not many, and a huge school of fish being nailed by terns and sea gulls.

I saw the Goodyear Blimp today, and more boats out on the water than I have seen this entire trip. Most of them were fishermen, and most of those were sportfishing boats. I reached a conclusion today - most of the guys that drive those sportfish boats are assholes. I was the victim of 3 different high speed drive bys, and was waked out bad. These guys have 3 zillion square miles of open ocean to cruise through, and they have to get as close to me as they can. I felt the twinges of road rage, and if I wasn't hanging on to the tiller and fighting their wake, I can't honestly say that I wouldn't have gotten out the pistol and put a few rounds in their water line. Seriously.

I got down to Ft Lauderdale around 5pm, and made it into the Port Everglades channel, at the same time everyone else did. My God it is a busy inlet. I passed 2 outbound frieghters, a cruise ship, 3 HUGE yachts, and a slew of those pesky sport fishers. Got waked out again - by the sport fisher. I called Sven, he was up the New River a good bit, and I headed that way. I wound around and up and down, past all the canals and grossly extravagent houses. Sven had said something about 3 or 4 draw bridges on the way up the river, and sure enough, the first one didn't open from 4:30 to 6pm. Great. It was 5:45, I was in a very busy little waterway, boats docked on both sides, and a current running. A guy in a boat on the bulkhead popped out and said "hey, need a hand docking?" I asked him who I needed to call to tie up, he said he had no idea, they just tied up, and were going to head up stream in the morning. So, not to turn down a free hand docking, I motored over to the bulkhead and tied up.

So here I am, its in the upper 60's still and I am in a tshirt and WARM. There is still a ton of traffic on the waterway here and I can hear cars going by over the bridge just in front of me. I am right in the middle of downtown Ft Lauderdale, and it is kind of cool. I have had folks stop by and ask about my boat, had a ton of folks take pictures of her. One girl - Linda from Arizona - and her boyfriend actually came aboard and we chatted for quite sometime, they were really impressed with the fact I have lived aboard for 18 months and this is my home.

Its time to make dinner, not sure what it will be tonight, but I suppose I better get off my butt and make something. Maybe tonight is a spaghetti night, Linda noticed my collander (actually it is now part of the internet antenna) and that started me thinking about spaghetti...

How Fortunate Am I - And Moving On

This post was originally published 2-14-10, and updated 2-15-10.

Ok, that was meant as a rhetorical question, but one I am going to ramble on about a bit on here. I suppose that this trip has been a bit of a roller coaster ride for me - financially, physically, mentally, and emotionally. There are times I have been at extreme highs, and there have been times I have been at desperate lows, with all manner if experiences spaced somewhere in between. I think overall I have been very blessed and extremely fortunate with how things have worked out on this voyage of mine. I have met folks that have helped me along the way, made new friends, had people go out of their way to make sure I was ok and doing alright as I made my way along.

I suppose in more ways than one I am doing so much better than so many folks out here on the water. There are of course the average and standard snowbirds that sail south every winter - the monied folks with their big yachts, the big trawlers that plow south through the ICW drinking incredible amounts of fuel. They hit every marina along the way, staying overnight plugged in and having every convenience aboard their boat that they have at home. Then there are what I now call the boat people. If it weren't for their boat they would probably be homeless, and they occupy anchorages all over from South Carolina all the way down through Florida. I have met alot of these folks along the way, every anchorage has a group of them, and they form a community of sorts. Today I met a guy , actually a few guys, here in Cocoa like this. One fellow has been living aboard for 11 years, and has been in Cocoa for most of them. I am sure they do not view themselves as less fortunate, this is just how life is for them.

Me, I am somewhere in the middle. I have my boat, which is my home, my dream, and my magic carpet. If it weren't for the cold, and my emotions, I'd probably be doing quite well. In fact, if I could get my emotions under control, I'd probably say I am doing great. It isn't warm here by any stretch of the imagination, this morning it was unseasonably cold again - I think that is now how it is for everyone all over - but everytime I start to complain about how cold I am in the mornings, I think that where I am now is much warmer than where I came from. I still have plenty of food, that is not a concern, and I don't think it will be a concern before I make my return trip. I have refueled and have a full tank in the boat, and 15 gallons on deck. Once I get back to the boat today, I will be as well stocked on kerosene as I ever have been, the tank for the stove is full to the point of overflowing, and I will have 2 gallons in the refill jug. So I am not doing bad. I am still going to push a bit further south,and then in 2 or 3 weeks I am going to turn around and head back.

I think on the return trip I am going to do more sailing and less motoring. I also think I will probably do a bit more of the trip on the outside than I did on the way down. I know that this will not make alot of folks overly happy, but I feel it is what I need to do to challenge myself and my skills as a sailor. It will also serve to make the return trip a bit shorter than the voyage down. The weather will be getting warmer (I hope) and if I play it smart I bet I can make it back to North Carolina in 10 days or so. As it stands I am 893 miles from where I want to be, and that translates to 223 hours under sail at an average of 4 knots. I think I can do it, and I think I am going to try and find out. If it gets to be too much, I will duck back inside and motor a ways, but if I pick the weather right, I am banking on the fact that I'll be able to pull it off. I may make a stop or two along the way and anchor off the beach, dinghy in and have a day on the beach with Spook. Something I have wanted to do but have not been in a position to do yet, it has been too cold to spend much time on the beach, and everytime I was offshore I have had to duck in before nightfall. Hopefully it will all work out the way I envision it, and I will have positive adventures, and not adventures brought about by bad weather or boat problems.

Now it is the 15th, I am in a coffee shop in Cocoa. (there is a great pun in there somewhere I am sure) and I am heading out sometime this morning. Kind of vague I know, but there are no marinas or anchorages marked on my chart until I get down near Vero Beach, which is more than a days sail from here. So it would not matter if I left at 5am or noon, I would not make a charted anchorage anyway. Besides, I kind of want to get a chance to talk to Kevin about his schooner again before I leave. I am going to play it by ear, and I will find a spot to anchor this evening, and hopefully I'll be able to get Spook ashore and walked. No telling if I will have internet or not, I have no idea how populated this next section of the ICW is. So until I can tune in and write, well publish, again - fair winds and following seas.