Palm Coast, FL to Cumberland Island, Georgia

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Well, the repairs took a bit longer yesterday. Seems the new fresh water pump to the engine didn’t quite fit.  Fortunately Rupert had a grinder and was able to shave some metal off the top of the pump. It made us realize that even if we were knowledgeable enough to swap out the pumps we would not have had the tools to get the job done.  Who takes along a grinder?

We left Marina at Hammock Beach about 9 am on Wednesday morning.  My job once we leave the dock is to return the fenders  and lines to their spots on the steel whatever you call the fency thing on the aft deck.  As I was busy with this job, Rusty poked his head through the canvas opening on the fly bridge and with a pained look on his face said, “The autopilot doesn’t work”.

We tried all the switches on the power panel.  The autopilot would not come on.  As it turned out the switch for the autopilot is above the switch for the windlass.  The day before, Rupert had connected the power for the raw water pump out to the windlass.  Perhaps something was jarred.  Rusty called him when we got to St. Augustine around noon.  Rupert offered to come by tomorrow.

After a lunch of homemade beef noodle soup made last night, cheese and crackers, and strawberries, we piled into the dinghy and strolled the historic part of St. Augustine.  It’s a fun and interesting part of the city.  Tomorrow we will try to get in to see the Flagler College.  We came upon a small bookstore and they had a used copy of Master and Commander.  A friend had given me the entire series with the exception of the first book in the series.  What a find! 

Our second dinner out on the trip was to a recommended restaurant OC near the Marina.  Locally owned and our dinners (crab cakes and flounder) were excellent.

We checked our email and our mail forwarding company, St. Brendan’s Isle, left a message that there were was some mail for us including the missing wifi antenna booster and a returned item. Hmmm.

Thursday,  April 14, 2011

We googled St. Brendan’s Isle and found they were located only 27 miles from where we were docked.  We weighed the pros and cons of having the mail fedexed to us, or mailed to a marina up the coast, taking a taxi or renting a car.  We (I) were anxious to get the wifi antennae booster so it boiled down to a taxi or car rental.  The car rental won out.  It was half the cost.   Now this was figured out after we took the dinghy to shore and the person with the driver’s license on them was me so me it was who made the trip.  Rusty ended up spending quality time with Gigi and went back to the OC for lunch.  I lucked out too. 

Of course, because all of this was decided on shore, we didn’t have our Garmin with us.  No one we asked knew where Green Cove Springs was located.  One of the Iphone apps located it for us and when we called St. Brendan’s Isle to let them know we were on our way they informed us that the address on their website is not their physical address.  So we got that sorted out and I set out alone.

The  mail forwarding company was located in a strip plaza.  It was one huge room with rows of stackable bins, the kind that you might find at Walmart or Target.  At the head of each row were number ranges.  Each customer has a numbered bin where the incoming mail is placed.  Customers can either come in and pick it up or more likely, they login to their account and designate which mail they want shredded, scanned, held, or forwarded to another location.

Five minutes and I had all the mail and the package with the antennae booster.  The returned mail was a package to a marine supplier.  It needed more postage.

Green Cove Springs is a small, sleepy kind of town with a bypass a couple blocks away from the main street.  Curious to see the old part of town,   took “Center Street” and within a few blocks appeared a post office.  What luck! 

The local McDonalds was running a special on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6 chicken nuggets for $1.  It was Thursday.   This was shaping up to be a good day.

The road signs back to St. Augustine were excellent and before I knew it I was passing the outlet stores.  While I had brought along a dress for the wedding now I had the perfect outfit, purchased within thirty minutes.  It was that kind of a day.

A few grocery purchases, a return of the car to Enterprise, and Rusty just happened to be at the dock when I pulled up.  Sweet.  Rupert had just finished looking at the autopilot.  It seems that there were a couple of loose wires in the panel.  We were all relieved it was nothing more. 

It was a good day.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Today we made it to Fernandina Beach by 5:30. It was one of our longer days so far: nine hours.  Another trawler, Calvadoes, from Toronto  did the same run and we kept in touch by radio periodically during the day as either of us noticed obstacles or tricky passages. 

We had called ahead  to the city marina to get a mooring ball and had been placed on a waiting list.  Fortunately someone left just before we arrived.  We have been putting double lines on our moorings just in case and were glad we did.

Tiger Point Marina had a fedex package for us which meant we would have our credit cards again and we arranged for our broker to pick them up for us as we would be seeing them the next day.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The weather predictions were not good for a trip to Cumberland Island so we stayed put for another day.  The fedex package turned out to be only Rusty’s debit card so we will have to make further arrangements to get the credit cards.  A local farmers market added a chive plant to our herb collection and a local church arts/crafts sale added oatmeal raisin cookies to the pantry.  We noted that the Presbyterian church had a service at 8:30 the following day. Mike and Mary, owner/brokers Paradise Yacht Sales, took us for a provisioning run and then we headed back to the boat.  The wind was picking up.  We tied up the dinghy with three lines but left the motor attached.  Regretable decision.

Our anemometer indicated gusts to 30 MPH but sailboat owners were reporting gust of 40 MPH.

We spent the afternoon reading and hooking up the wifi antennae booster. Gigi was clingy and didn’t quite know what to make of the rolling waves.

About 6 pm, we heard “Cooper, Cooper, this is the Ellie” on the VHF radio.  “Your dinghy turned over” was the message.  Sure enough the dinghy was turned over with the engine still attached and the gas tank floating in the water but tethered to the engine.

We attempted to right the boat but the wind was just too strong and we were just too weak.  (Maybe we should have kept the boom on the boat but we won’t go there as this was a protracted topic of discussion before we left.) We glanced over at the Ellie and the owner was motioning to us to get on the radio.

Ellie recommended that once we get the dinghy up that we needed to put it in a fresh water bath.   Another boat owner joined the conversation.  He was a former mechanic and said the best place for the motor was just where it was until we could service it.  He told us we needed to drain the oil a few times and other stuff but really it was beyond us, at least today.  Rusty found an engine service company that would come out in the morning, put the engine in a barrel of fresh water, and service it on Monday.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

The engine service company was supposed to come at 8:30 am.  Eric had a delay so by noon were beginning to think we might be here another night.  Not going ashore is tough for Gigi. 

By 2:30 our engine had been picked up but the promised loaner engine was not available.  And the water was still a bit too rough to row ashore.  So we  cruised up to Cumberland Island just inside the Georgia border where we had an invitation to have dinner with our broker and an offer to use their dinghy to get to shore.

Oh my goodness!  Cumberland Island is beautiful and has an interesting history.  The National Parks service is now the custodian of this one-time playground of the rich and famous.  Walking trails, wild horses, interpretive center, white deer, tall & wide oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, and only 300 people are allowed on the island per day.

Following a delicious dinner with Mike & Mary on their sundeck trawler, we called it a night.

Indiantown, FL to Palm Coast, FL

Wednesday, April 6th
We left Indiantown Marina by about 9 am and headed for Stuart, FL.  The scenery along the way was beautiful.  We elected to stay at Sunset Marina on a mooring ball.  It gave us the usual privileges (showers, restrooms,and dinghy dock).  The mooring balls were different from the ones we encounted in Naples.  The balls had a length of rope with a hoop at the end.  We snagged it first time and pulled it up onto the bow where we slipped double lines through the hoop and secured them to the two cleats on the boat.  In no time at all we were in the dinghy and off to explore Stuart.

Stuart has a historic area within walking distance of the marina, full of touristy stores and restaurants.

And it also has sections of town that hold shattered dreams.

That evening Rusty took Gigi in the dinghy to shore for her evening walk.  We are not sure if it happened then.

Thursday, April 7th
Early morning we picked up a few groceries at Publix, about 1/2 mile away.  It was a pleasant walk and we treated ourselves to a latte at Dunkin Donuts. I paid.  You will soon understand the significance of that statement.

We got the boat ready to go when Rusty did a rather thorough walkthrough to locate his wallet.  It was not to be found.  It had to be either on the boat or in the water.  If it was in the water, it was gone.  If it was in the boat, we would find it.  So off we went.

Along the way we made the call to our bank and they informed us that my debit card was still ok because it had a separate number.

About 4 pm we passed Vero Beach where our new friends from the Cassie Lea were moored.  Not sure whether the debit card would really work and with only Canadian money (or so we thought), we opted to find an anchorage.  The one marked in the chartbook looked like we would have to go over some flats so we motored on.  We saw a boat anchored in an inlet, made contact, and as they welcome us to join them, they informed us there was probably a shoal between them and us.  At that precise moment there was a slow down in our forward motion.  We backed off the shoal and found the anchorage. And we did another search of the boat for the missing wallet.

Friday, April 8
An early morning departure made for any early anchorage in Cocoa, FL.  It was a marked anchorage except that all the boats were anchored off to one side.  We approached one of the boat owners and he told us where the shallow water was so we followed suit and stayed with the rest of the boats.  The wind was blowing a bit more that usual but we needed to take the dinghy ashore, for Gigi and to try out my debit card.  The dinghy motor cut out just as we let go the lines.  The motor would not come back on.  Fortunately we have oars.  Unfortunately there were waves.  Rusty got a workout.  A minor adjustment fixed the motor for our trip back to the boat. 

Cocoa is touristy but it does have some practical  shops.

Bonus time:  the debit card worked and we had USD again.  We had finished the banana bread the night before and needed some more dessert.  Upon the recommendation of the best stocked hardware store in the state, Travis Hardware (we purchased a crowbar  to adjust the belts on the engine and springs for the windshield wiper), we took home bread pudding from a local restaurant.  Did you get that?  I called the boat "home".

Saturday, April 9
The winds had settled down over night.  After an uneventful dinghy trip to town (for Gigi) we motored on to New Smyrna Beach.  On the way Gigi got a bath in our bathtub.  She loved it as much as she normally does which is "not" but I'm bigger than she is.

We anchored out again.  Gotta make up for the lost cash that was in the wallet.

There are no public dinghy docks in New Smyrna Beach.  And we did want to go ashore.  So we found a stretch of shoreline that appeared to be public domain, tied up, and of course we got our shoes wet.  Lesson learned:  we'll pay for dinghy dock space rather than do this again.

Stores again were in the touristy range.  We ended up in the old part of town and there happened to be one of the best antique car shows Rusty had ever seen lining the main street.

Sunday, April 10
No church so we we listened to Mozart's Requiem as we cruised to Daytona Beach, arriving there about noon.  Along the way we saw the floating snack stand and the rookery:

We stayed at the Halifax Harbor Marina, home to Monk36 owners Don and Rebecca (Becky).  They are AGLCA harbor hosts and could not have been more generous with their time.  Becky took me shopping at Publix.  Don poured over the charts with Rusty and provided hints and caveats for the rest of the ICW to Norfolk, VA.  The exchange of information from "experts" to "greenies" was so very apppreciated.

Rusty had noticed that there was anti-freeze leaking under the engine.  And our raw water washdown pump had finally failed.  We decided to sleep on it.

Monday, April 11
Rusty woke up determined to get a few things out of the way.  He also remembered  in the middle of the night that the bulk of the cash had been transferred from his wallet to another safekeeping spot.  And it was on the boat and it was there.  So our cash loss was minimal.  Hooray!

The driver's license bureau was two miles away and they opened at 8 am.  Rusty got on the bike and off he went.  I finished up some laundry and before I knew it, he was back with a new driver's license.  He had photocopied the lost license and with that he was able to get a new one.  He was in and out within 10 minutes.


Finally a posting to the Monk Association forum regarding our anti-freeze problem yielded some very good responses but not before we contacted a terrific mechanic (Rupert Vaughan) who had helped us out last November.  He is based at the Marina at Hammock Beach in the Palm Coast, only 25 miles north of Daytona Beach.  What luck!

We pulled into the marina about 2:30, let the engine cool down and Rupert went to work.  Rusty had purchased spare pumps and parts on the recommendation of a Perkins dealer and we happened to have a spare pump for the raw water washdown in the compartment under the bed.  Up went the mattress, the moisture barrier foam, and the plywood. The pump was installed but it was discovered that there was no on/off switch and it was drawing the water from the same thru-hull as the air conditioner.  Rupert recommended we consider making this safer.  So now the pump is hooked up to the windlass switch.  As the pump is used only when we anchor (at least in salt water), this combination makes sense.

The anti-freeze was leaking because of a faulty fresh water pump at the Perkins 135.  And wouldn't you know it, we remembered early the next day that we had one of those spare pumps on board.  We are getting good at accessing the compartment under the bed.

That night we tried out the cheapo pressure cooker I bought at Target.  It cooked a chuck roast in an hour.  It was tender and tasty so I guess it was a good investment afterall.  Keylime pie was our dessert along with a cup of chrysanthemum tea from China.  Mmmm.  We are eating well.

Tuesday, April 12
It's about noon and the work is almost finished.  We may even get out this afternoon and head to St. Augustine.

The Marina is gorgeous and it is a beautiful place to relax but it is not accessible to anything close by.  The rates are $2.25 per foot per night with all the amenities.  Without the amentities it is $1.75.   The amenties don't allow dogs but it does include the spa-like showers.   Time to get moving.

Goodland, FL to Indiantown, FL

Wednesday, March 30th

We settled in on the boat in the evening.  Our neighbors brought us to the boat after dinner and the adventure began.

Thursday, March 31^st.

Winds of 15-20 knots prevented us from cruising to Ft. Myers.  We took the time to install the screen windows, install a hook in a hanging closet, and make arrangements for the electronics person to fix the spreader lighting and radio cracking problems.

Friday, April lst

The electronics person came and we found out that the screw to hold the flag halyard on the mast cross piece had caused a short for the spreader lights.  Off came the halyard and we have spreader lights again.  It was recommended that we consider redoing the wiring at some point.  Lesson learned:  be careful where nails and screws are inserted.

We left Goodland about 10:50 am and travelled the Marco River to the Gulf of Mexico at Isle of Capri. It was blowing and the waves came quickly causing the boat to rock and surge.  Sandwiches and strawberries  (our lunch) flew to the floor of the flybridge.    We turned back to the River and continued to Naples and attempted to go out again at Gordon’s Pass.  It was still too rough.  After looking at two possible anchorages in beautiful Port Royal, but with no dinghy access, we went to Naples.  The City Docks has a small mooring field and for $10 you have access to the ball, the showers/washrooms, the dinghy dock, and a mandatory pumpout.

There must be a technique to hook up to a mooring ball.  We had never done this before and it was challenging.  The dock master suggested we hook up using the dinghy.  We thought that was a good idea until we realized that only Rusty know how to pilot the boats. Lesson learned:  Rusty and I decided that I need to learn to pilot the boat and dinghy.

A nice dinghy ride and then a walk over to 3^rd Street in Naples completed the day.  Gigi was terrific the entire day.

Saturday, April 2^nd

We left the Naples City Docks rounding Gordon Pass by 8:10.  We headed out to the Gulf and made good headway for Cape Coral .  The seas were slightly choppy but not anything like yesterday.  A few minutes after I brought up sandwiches and fruit for lunch, we encountered rollers.  Things started to fly including lunch, deck chairs, etc. etc.  We were on autopilot when this happened.  This is what we learned today: 

• Always have breakfast before leaving the dock or anchorage
• Always take the dog out for her business before leaving the dock or anchorage.
• When you  encounter rollers on the beam, turn off the autopilot immediately and turn the boat.

We made it to a lovely anchorage at Glover Bight next to Tarpon Point Marina not far from Ft. Myers Beach.  It cost $10 to land the dinghy for 24 hours which we had to do for Gigi.  Our friends, Mike and Bev, picked us up in their boat and we had a nice dinner together. 

We were ready to go to bed when Rusty mentioned that he heard something strange.  Sure enough, there were crackling noises  in the bottom part of the boat.  Rusty went to the engine room – everything checked out.  We popped the mattress and looked at the running gear and the water pipes – everything check out.  We put our ears to the fiberglass hull at the stern, at the bow and in the middle – there were crackling noises.  There were no pumps on or generators or main power.  We were stumped.

An email that night to the previous owner (PO)  resulted in this explanation:  little fish eating stuff caked on the bottom of the boat.  Someone else we met the next day confirmed the same thing.  The bonus was that our depth finder gave readings again.  We had been docked at a marina in Goodland that had fixed docks and we were regularly on the bottom at low tide. Things must have caked on the bottom of the boat and affected some of the instrumentation.

Sunday, April 3^rd:

We had a tasty cheese omelet  for breakfast and took a dinghy ride so that Gigi could do her business.  We are learning. Unfortunately the area was devoid of any place to go to church.  We started the day’s trip at 8:30.  We discovered that it was easy to employ the autopilot even for short distances.  It was so much more enjoyable this way compared  to standing at the helm and steering manually as we did last November.

About noon we came to our first lock.  There was a boat in front of us that happened to be the same make as ours.  Monk36 don’t change much and so they are easy enough to spot once you know what to look for.  Don and Wilma (Cassie Lea)  had just purchased their boat and were taking it back to their home in the Carolinas.

Thanks to them, they knew of an anchorage that was not marked on the chart (but it was noted in Skipper Bob's boat which we did not have)  and that is where we spent the night.  It turned to be perfect – an old quarry.  Protected.  Clear water.  Deep.  We let out the chain anchor and after 100 feet out came the rode (rope).  The rode had a hard time grabbing the cogs of the windlass as it was pulled up (not manually thank goodness). We decided we would rather not do that again.

Monday, April 4^th:

We needed to cross Lake Okeechobee today or bad weather might force us to stay put for a few days if we delayed.   A beautiful sunrise sent us off early.  Along the way we were hailed by Bonnie Jean, captained by Tom.  Tom is an inspector with the Naples Power Squadron and he was one of the inspectors for our boat a few weeks ago. Tom is returning up north on his trawler.   We were grateful for the company going across the Lake.  Cassie Lea also crossed.
 

This time we were prepared and everything was nicely lashed down with bungee cords.  The Lake is 25 statute miles across and in the middle we were bouncing around a little.  What made the trip so tolerable, and even enjoyable, was the autopilot.  We set the autopilot on a course and were then free to sit back and enjoy the scenery much like going on a river cruise where some else does the piloting.  One of use would keep the remote autopilot in our hands and make adjustments periodically.  It was a bit like playing with a joy stick.

It’s good to note that when we were traveling together we were sometimes a few miles apart and would keep each other  updated via the VHF radio.  Channel 16 is the hailing channel (and the one we monitor) and then we would go up to Channel 17 to have our conversation.

We had called ahead and made a reservation at Indiantown Marina, about 15 miles west of Stuart, FL.  The other two boats elected to anchor out in different locales.  Indiantown Marina is an AGLCA sponsor.  What a pleasant surprise to find out that they offer the first night free to all Loopers.   It didn’t matter that we were planning to move on the next day or so we thought.

As an aside we ran into a number of Canadians who had come down to Indiantown to take their boats out of storage and were busily getting work done on them.  Some of them go down to the Bahamas and others cruise back up north, and then they bring the boats back to Indiantown for storage after hurricane season. 

A delicious stir fry dinner with red wine,  some cheese, followed by homemade banana bread and coffee and we were ready to call it a night if it wasn’t for the laundry. $1.25 per load to wash and $.75 to dry and the machines did a great job.

Tuesday, April 5^th

The weather was supposed to get nasty so we decided to stay an extra night in Indiantown.  We took out the bikes for the first time and rode into town about one mile away.  Both of us carried a satchel and we took it in to the supermarket.  When both were full we stopped shopping and then could be sure that we could carry it all back to the boat.  We discovered something that we knew but didn’t fully grasp. Stores are well stocked and we don’t have to stock up on the boat.  The local IGA had ready to ribs and we couldn’t resist.  It proved to be a delicious lunch while we waited out the storm.

We can’t seem to hook up to WIFI with our computers.  It is proving to be a bit of an inconvenience.  Actually it’s a bit of a pain.  Something to do with a missing IP address.   Thankfully we have our IPhones so we can keep in touch.  We are almost resolved to getting an air card. I also can’t find my camera but Rusty brought his so we are covered.

We watched a movie that Rusty had downloaded on my computer previously.  In the middle of the movie Rusty noticed that the wifi was working and I was able to do a cut and past from WORD to the blog.  The marina personnel said that the server in Indiantown was at fault and that sometimes it worked great and other times not at all.