2021: Titusville to Vero Beach to Lake Worth FL

 25 November 2021

Depart: NASA Causeway Bridge anchorage 7:25

Arrive: Vero Beach Private Dock 2:30

Distance: 60 nm

Conditions: Partial Sun, 70s, Cool breeze on water

It took a long time to clean the anchor this morning before we could get underway. While I watched Clark work on the anchor, I slipped out a couple of times to capture sunrise pictures.

As we left the anchorage, we got a couple more pictures of the Causeway Bridge to Kennedy Space Center.

We passed a few small islands through this section of the ICW.

Kayak on this island

We even saw a stop sign on the water!

We did not stop!

Channel 16 on the VHF radio is for haling and distress calls only. Sometimes folks stretch the point, and when they do, someone from the Jacksonville Coast Guard comes on the radio to reprimand them for their improper use of the channel. I had a good laugh today when a boater came on the radio after a coast guard person had been talking on the radio and said, "If you're not haling or in distress, stop using this channel ... Coast Guard!" 

We, or I should say Clark, pushed the extra hour yesterday to get us as far along as possible to get to Vero Beach tonight to have Thanksgiving dinner with our Mainship boating friends - Cathy and Franklin. When we arrived at our mutual friend's dock to tie up, Franklin was there to greet us and help with lines. As soon as we got the boat settled, we jumped in his car for the ride to his house and a sumptuous dinner prepared by Cathy. 

Being able to share the day with friends made it very special. Prior to Cathy and Franklin's invite to dinner, I had been joking that we would be having turkey sandwiches at anchor for Thanksgiving. 

Ev and the side dishes

and here is the carved turkey as well!

Cathy, Franklin, Ev, and Clark - ready to eat!

We stayed and talked until quite late and then Franklin drove us home to "Sunset Delight". What a lovely way to spend the day!

26 November 2021

Depart: Vero Beach Private Dock 8:10

Arrive: Lake Worth 4:30

Distance: 63 nm

Conditions: 70s, Sunny

I slept an extra hour this morning. It felt good to snooze a bit longer, but I paid the price later. When I came out to the salon, Clark was ready to leave. He started the engines and I threw off the last of the lines. Since I refuse to leave line cleanup until later, in case I forget, I tidied up all the lines and the power cable. Cleanup took 20 minutes and I was more than ready to sit down to a cup of tea to truly start my day.

When I was working to remove the last of the lines, I had a bit of a problem with the bow line wrapped around a pole. Clark kept saying, "Just flick it. Just flick it!" I told him I was ready to "flick" him right off the boat! He is taller, stronger, and has a longer reach than I do. I got the line off, but I did it my way and I did not "flick it"!

I asked Clark what the travel plans were for today, and he said we would be going out the Fort Pierce inlet to run on the ocean.  Knowing I would be looking mostly at the ocean today, I grabbed a bunch of pictures as we traveled from Vero Beach towards the inlet.

Billboard advertising Florida style ...

Trees along the ICW ...

Coming to Fort Pierce inlet, we saw less trees and more boats ...

We noticed one boat with a blue hull that almost perfectly matched the color of the water, Clark jokingly suggested perhaps it was a 'stealth' boat for drug smuggling. 

After we passed the "stealth" boat, we traversed the inlet towards the ocean.

Lots of folks on the jetty

Waves splashing on rocks -
very little wave action today on the ocean

As we approached the Lake Worth inlet aka Port of Palm Beach, we got to see large buildings indicating a city was coming into view.

Clearly the weather was great today as folks were out enjoying the ocean.

Beach umbrellas lined the shoreline

"Palm Beach Inlet"

The view of people sunning themselves on the beach felt surreal. Even in Florida the temperatures thus far have not warranted sunbathing. Today, however, with the temperature approaching 80 it made sense it just shocked me into Florida reality.

I could tell we were near Palm Beach based on the scenery.

Expensive homes ...

We passed not one, but two, expensive Trumpy boats. Sea Tabby passed us as we were looking for a place to anchor. I was too busy gaping to get a picture. The boat was built in 1938 and is used by a Miami realtor to entertain family and clients.

Didn't catch the name of this Trumpy at anchor

What else? A golf course!

Clark said we needed to start looking for a place to drop anchor. Yeah right! The anchorage looked more than a little crowded to me.  It was mostly full of sailboats that drop chain straight down usually. We put out over 100 feet of line plus chain and need a good amount of swing room!

We kept moving south until we found a pretty empty spot with lots of swing room. 

With the anchor down an hour before sunset, Clark decided it was finally time to dive under the boat to see what happened when we hit something up near St. Augustine. He checked the water temperature and found it at 72 degrees to be just slightly cooler than the air temp of 75. He donned his shorty wetsuit to take a quick dip. Being concerned that the port side was not on the sunny side, he was pleasantly surprised to find the water clear and visibility good to take a look under the boat. 

The strong current and buoyant wetsuit did not do him any favors as he repeatedly dove under to survey the situation. When all was done, he decided that the situation could be left as is. The cutter is damaged, but fortunately, it is not impairing the prop action as the bent portion of the cutter is spinning with the prop. It will need to be addressed, but the work can wait until another day. 

After his analysis, he ran to take a shower to get rid of the saltwater in his hair and on his body. While he did that, I watched the sunset.

Setting sun lighting up house across the way

Lake Worth / Palm Beach sunset

2021: Jacksonville to Titusville FL

 23 November 2021

Depart: Lamb's Yacht Center, Ortega, FL 6:40

Arrive: Marineland, FL 3:45

Distance: 70 nm

Conditions: Cold chill in the air - 50s with a wind gusting to 25 kts

We decided to target departure at 6:30 and rose before the sun. Given the level of dark at 6:00, when I walked into the salon, I wondered if the sun would actually appear in just a few minutes. Sure enough it put in an appearance as scheduled. Our departure from the dock was slightly delayed as we had to wait for a passenger train and a freight train to clear the RR bridge before we could get a lift. Fortunately, the freight train was not excessively long, and we were on our way just a little behind our plan. 

"Here comes the sun ..."

Jacksonville in the distance

RR Bridge

The trip through Jacksonville revealed mostly the same sights we had seen on other passages through here. The vessel Isla Bella, that we saw on our way to Ortega, was still at dock. Instead of being unloaded, it was now being loaded with containers. 

One picture that never gets old however ...

Unique Jacksonville Art

The reason we left so early in the day was to catch the outgoing tide on the St. Johns River. We got a good push for about 2 hours and then the tide turned. About an hour later, we finally departed the St. John's River and rejoined the ICW to continue our trek south. At the intersection of the river with the ICW, we had a tide reversal. Where we had 1.5 kts of current against us, we now had that 1.5 kts pushing us. We went from 6.3 knots where we joined the ICW to 9.3 kts after we made the turn!

We studied the charts and the ICW guide that we have looking for a place to stay tonight. Unfortunately, anchorages were few in number, and after St. Augustine almost non-existent. We decided to try for a mooring ball at St. Augustine. Unfortunately, when Clark called, they said the mooring balls were all reserved but we could get position 3 on the waiting list. We took them up on that offer to wait-and-see. When we arrived in the St. Augustine area, we still had not heard back from the marina about a ball.

Crowded Bird Island on ICW

Twin Naval Vessels - "Mulberry" and "Schronie"

St. Augustine Inlet - truck on beach

Ocean Waves at St. Augustine Inlet

St. Augustine Lighthouse in background

Since we had not heard about the mooring ball, we weighed our other options. We read up on two anchorages - neither sounded wonderful. The more likely of the two at Matanzas Inlet had reviews the repeatedly stressed the swift current. 

Finally, we decided to look into staying at the Marineland Marina. Overnight temperatures were predicted to be in the 40s and electricity, and therefore heat, sounded attractive. When we called and inquired as to price and found that it was only $1.25 per foot of boat, we decided to go for it. The decision to carry on to Marineland would also put us a lot further along on the ICW.

Ironically, as it turned out, while Clark was on the phone with Marineland making a reservation, the dockmaster at St. Augustine left a voicemail - he had a mooring ball available. Clark called him back to tell him we had made other arrangements, and the ball could go to the next on the list. 

As we traveled the ICW, we heard a call on the VHF radio from boaters we know from Faro Blanco. We knew "DanCyn" was headed north to North Carolina, so we were not totally shocked to cross their path on our way south. The VHF conversation was an interesting one, however, as "DanCyn" had no idea who "Sunset Delight" was. 

It did not help that Clark started the conversation with, "You are going the wrong way!" After some confused exchanges, I explained to Clark that Dan had no idea who was calling him, and therefore, did not get the joke. Once Clark said, "It's Clark!" the conversation became a lot more comprehensible.

We pulled into Marineland around 3:30. The winds were whipping. The dockhand was fantastic and had us tied up quickly and securely. We ended up with multiple lines doubled to take the strain of the boat pulling to get away from the dock. Due to the constant pulling on the lines, we put chafe guards to protect them. We had a continuous sound of the lines rubbing on the hull, but there was nothing to be done about that.

Sunset at Marineland

We took advantage of the heat and had a cozy stateroom for the night!

24 November 2021

Depart: Marineland, FL 7:05

Arrive: NASA Causeway Bridge near Kennedy Space Center 5:30

Distance: 79 nm

Conditions: Warmer than yesterday, still windy, hot in sun, cold in wind

After a night of listening to the lines rubbing on the hull, we got up when the alarm went off at 6:30. Strong winds were still pushing us hard off the dock. We set our lines for quick release and were able to be underway just after 7:00. To save time, we eat breakfast underway.

Once again we had a Plan A / Plan B strategy for where we would stay tonight. Only time would tell where we ended up. 

Twenty-two miles after leaving Marineland, we hit something in the middle of the channel kachunk! We looked to see if we could see anything floating behind the boat to give an indication of what we might have hit. We saw nothing. 

When we sped back up, we could hear a very loud clickety-clack coming from the port side of the boat. Our plans for a long day on the water just got real iffy! Clark thought he should probably dive under to look to see if anything was wrapped around the prop. He checked the water temperature and it showed 62 degrees. He told me he would need a bathing suit, his goggles, and a wet suit to brave the chilly water. 

While I pulled these items out for him, he tried running the boat in reverse to see if he could spin off whatever might have wrapped around the prop. Even though it was the middle of a busy channel, we suspected a fish trap had gotten in our way. Clark studied the charts looking for water deep enough for us to anchor that was out of the channel. He could find nothing closer than 8 nm away which would mean running for an hour before he could dive under. 

We decided to try to get a feel for the noise levels depending on speed. Clark and I donned our headsets so I could be in the salon and listen for the clatter and he could adjust speeds at the upper helm. As we played with it, it became apparent that the worst of the clickety-clack was gone and any noises coming from below were basically normal. Given we had no good place to drop Clark in the water, we cautiously continued on our way.  When we reached the spot 8 miles from where the incident occurred, we agreed to continue on. We still heard no unusual sounds, and  the water temp here was worse at only 60 degrees.

Continuing on, we saw lots of things to take pictures of on the way to wherever.

Fisherman using a very fast moving pedal-drive kayak ...

Pedal-drive Kayak

Multiple boats that have seen better days ...

New Smyrna Beach offered lots of photo opportunities ...

We even passed by a boat that was the result of a "hit and run" accident. The event made the news. Clark found an article describing the accident. It sounded real nasty.

New Smyrna Beach Inlet Lighthouse

New Smyrna Beach Welcome Sign

Plane passing overhead 

Sailboats in anchorage

Park in town

Sailboat resting against the Slow Speed sign. Worse yet, it is obstructing the view of the Green Marker on the same post!

Bird house?

As we passed through Mosquito Lagoon, our first option for a place to spend the night, Clark said it was too early to stop moving and kept right on going towards our second choice of Titusville.

When we got to the rather short, but busy Haulover Canal, I got real busy with the camera as there was so much to see.

After seeing buildings and parks at New Smyrna Beach, we enjoyed the rustic look of the tree-lined canal.

Fishermen on shore

Boats being launched

Cranes looking for food

Kayaks

Source of Kayaks

Fishermen in boats

We saw plenty of dolphins today but all were too shy for the camera. Some even played along the side of the boat, but as soon as I appeared with the camera, they disappeared!

Twice today we ended up lowering our mast to pass under bridges without requesting an opening. At the first, I thought it was crazy that Clark refused to wait 5 minutes for the bridge to open. He explained that he would have to wait in line and that would put us behind a bunch of slower boats including several sailboats we would have to pass later. 

At the second, the Main Street bridge at Daytona Beach, Clark lowered both the mast and the antennas to be sure we could clear. He can lower the mast by himself using the pulley system he installed, but it takes both of us to put it back up. We put the boat in autopilot, run to the back, pull up the mast and then run back to the helm. It takes only seconds, and we make sure we have a clear path ahead before leaving the steering to the autopilot.

Clark told me that his second choice for an anchorage was Titusville. As we approached Titusville around 4:30, I was more than ready to stop for the night. When I asked Clark which anchorage he had in mind, he told me it was one 7 nautical miles ahead. Noooo! That translates into almost another hour of travel. Moan and groan as I might, Clark just smiled and continued on towards his ultimate goal. 

Finally, as the sun was setting to our west, Clark pointed out the anchorage just on the far side of the NASA Causeway Bridge near Kennedy Space Center. Given our late arrival time, we took sunset pictures while dropping the anchor. 

NASA Causeway Bridge

Pelicans fishing at sunset

The sunset kept changing, so the camera kept clicking. 

By the time we got settled at anchor, it was time to make dinner, etc etc. After dinner, I spent the rest of the night working on the Blog updates. Tomorrow is another early-rise day as we head for Vero Beach for Thanksgiving dinner with close friends - Cathy and Franklin.