Velcro Beach

On Friday January 29th, Cece and I left Eau Gallie, and made a 7 hour run down the Intercoastal to Vero Beach, Fl.  We had read that Vero Beach had become a favorite for cruisers headed south.  So popular in fact, that many cruisers stop here on their southern migration, only to become "stuck".  It's often been referred to therefore as "Velcro" beach.  It is said that more than one boat crew has reached Vero, only to say "That's it, it's too nice to move.  Here for the winter"

Our impressions of the area only reinforced this reputation.  A sheltered mangrove harbor hides a cruiser friendly marina and mooring field from the ICW wakes.  The snug, protected harbor abuts a walkable, affluent beach community complete with good restaurants, parks, art galleries, theaters, and great recreational facilities.  Our first afternoon off the boat brought us to a quiet ocean side bar, where we sat with a couple cold beers and a plate of nachos watching the day disappear.  We were  accompanied by a soft, gentle surf and views of an immense ocean.  It was as close to paradise as we've been on this journey.

Saturday morning we were up early, and headed to a farmers market held in the center of Vero. Fresh fruits, oranges, breads, and more found their way into our bags, as we provisioned for the week.   We then found a free local buss service that ran us to the local grocery store where we completed our provisioning.  From there, we were back to the boat for a lazy afternoon in the sun, catching up on a couple more of the ever present "boat chores" that have become so much a part of our daily lives.  Saturday night we were treated to a fantastic fireworks display, whose purpose seemed to remain a secret to everyone.

Sunday we were up late.  Breaking out our bicycles from the forward hatch, we set out on a ride through the residential neighborhoods of Vero.  With the "Zillo" real estate application on our phones, home shopping has become one of Cece's favorite past times.  Before mid-afternoon, we had checked out dozens of houses.  Fortunately, we lack readily available financial resources to buy another house, or I am certain we both would have written a check before sundown.

Monday became a off the boat day.  Cece found a local salon.  I set out for the local tax office to file for a Florida Sojourners Boating registration.  Florida registration is mandated if you keep a boat in the state for more than 90 days, and we wanted to stay one step ahead of the tax man while on the boat.  All things considered, we find Vero Beach one of the most pleasant stops on this journey.  A place we will definitely return to again, god willing.  But for now, we'll unstuck and continue further south.

Weather

"I cannot command winds and weather."

                                              Horatio Nelson

 

Somehow, weather seems so much more important on a small boat.  Cece and I live by it, and move by it now.  For three months, we have traveled south, trying to keep up with acceptably warm temperatures.  We've lived by a 45 degree rule (If nighttime temps drop below 45 degrees, we tie up at a marina and swallow the higher cost to plug in the heater).  If small boat advisories (winds over 25 knots) are forecast, we stay where we are.  And, when heavy rains come, we would much rather hunker down in the cabin with some hot tea, than sit out in a wet cold cockpit.  We have become fair weather sailors.

 

 

 

I write todays blog from Eau Gallie, Florida.  We are holed up for three days waiting for stormy weather to pass.  Heavy rain throughout the day has resulted in a Scrabble challenge day with periods set aside for boat cleaning and laundry.  We are also starting to catch up on our reading.

 

Of course, the big news up north this week has been the blizzard that struck DC, Baltimore, and New York.  The same storm crossed Marineland, FL. where we were docked, and brought with it high winds, storms, and colder temperatures (40s - 50s).  But, behind the storms a high pressure system has allowed us three good days to continue our passage south.  We've run short days (7 hours), and stopped in South Daytona Beach, Titusville, and now Eau Gallie.  The Space Coast of Florida has proven to be a beautiful environment whose waterways included the Halifax River and the Indian River.  Much of the shoreline is lined with palms and tropical vegetation of all sorts.  These waters are dense with birds, pelicans, and dolphins.  The daily runs have gotten progressively warmer, and we're beginning to think that colder temperatures may finally have been left behind. Of course it is almost February.

 

The shoreline south of St Augustine is full of coquina rock - not your usual white sandy beaches of Florida.

 

We were able to watch the trainers with the dolphins at the Marineland research facility. It was a crummy weather day as you can tell by the sky.

 

This little fella wanted to join us for lunch!

 

Just hanging out in someone's front yard.

 

For friends that wonder what a boat day looks like underway, the routine has become set.  We'll climb out of our berths about 30 minutes after first light.  After checking boat electrical systems (refrigerator, anchor lite, heating systems, etc.) we start the day with our weather apps and a cup of coffee.  Breakfast and boat preparation follow, usually with a 9:00 departure.  Cece loves to start the day at the helm with her hot tea, and usually communes with the waterway till about noon, siting interesting birds and each pod of dolphins. The undeveloped areas of the waterway are best for these observations.  We will trade rolls about noon and Bob will take the helm.  We try to either anchor or pull into the slip by 3pm.  This allows us time to explore the area were we will dock. We will explore the area usually till sunset, which this far south is now 6 pm. Then there are chores around preparing dinner.  Our evenings are spent reading, playing Scrabble or, if we have any reception we will catch up on e-mail or even Dowton Abby, or college basketball. Of course this pattern will change when we arrive somewhere where it is warm enough to stay put.  That means the water has to be 70 degrees and the air at least 75degrees.  Until we reach that mecca, this daily routine will hold.  

 

Searching for the land of warm breezes and palm trees!!! 

Under-Way In A New Year

A more blessed holiday, we've never had.  We celebrated in Ponte Vedra Florida, before the holiday, with my 92 year old father and his wife, Keith.  Still living on their own, they continue to amaze us.  We spent Christmas in New Orleans where our daughter, Ryanne, and her fiancé, Andrew, hosted us in their new home and new city.  Our son, Bobby, and Chelsea also joined us.  Truly, a holiday visit we'll always remember.  Finally, we traveled back to Annapolis for a New Years celebration with family and friends.  A glass was raised with close friends, family, Justin, our daughter in law, and two granddaughters.  The joy and warmth of these visits, should sustain us for a long time.

But, we have now returned to our voyage south.  Embarking back onboard Second Wind in Jacksonville, we steered south through Saint Augustine and now we are docked in Marineland Florida.

Saint Augustine was founded in 1565 by the Spanish. It was named "San Agustín", for the feast day the Spanish settlers celebrated when they first sighted land in Florida.  The city served as the capital of Spanish Florida for over 200 years, and remained the capital of East Florida when the territory briefly changed hands between Spain and Britain. It was designated the capital of the Florida Territory until Tallahassee was made the capital in 1824. Since the late 19th century, St. Augustine's distinct historical character has made the city a major tourist attraction.  We docked at the city marina located in the heart of the historic district, just south of the "Bridge of Lions".  Docking was complicated by some of the strongest cross currents we've had to maneuver against.  Once docked, we went ashore to walk the historic streets of the city.  We walked by the Castillo San Marco, Cathedral, Flagler College, the old city, and the numerous historic districts that surround the city.  In the evening we enjoyed the St Augustine lights, a beautiful holdover from the Christmas holiday.

Wednesday, we  again got underway. This time we headed to Marineland, Florida.  In June 1938, "Marine Studios" (the name "Marineland of Florida" would later be adopted) began operations as a film studio, including a main attraction of trained bottlenose dolphins open to the public.  With its popularity, the studio gave way to tourist marine shows, with attractions and dolphin shows expanding through the 1950s and 1960s. Both of us remember going to the shows as children and taking our children there in the 1990's.

Apparently, by 1999, when major Hurricanes impacted the coast, the infrastructure of Marineland was near collapse.  In 2003 and 2004 demolition began on the original 1938 oceanarium and the age of the original dolphin show at Marineland ended. Today the park has reopened as a hands-on educational facility.  In January 2011, Marineland was sold and it is currently being operated as a subsidiary of the Georgia Aquarium, offering several dolphin programs as well as educational programs.

We are enjoying a few days touring the facilities, hiking the adjacent nature trails, and taking advantage of the educational programs offered before we continue south again.  We also plan a short sojourn across the state to St Petersburg Florida to visit with Cece's mother for a few days.  All in all though, we are glad to be under-way again.

Happy Christmas

Coc'nuts roasting in an open fire
Green moss tickling at your toes
Warm tidal farrows meet the sun by the mire
And folks dressed up in summer clothes

Everybody knows
A surf beach and has a mellow tan
Coast line stretching far and wide
Briney spots serving shrimp upon a wire
Won't find it hard to eat tonight.

We know that life in the F.L.A.
Is loaded with joys and goodies by the way
And every lover's wild is gonna sigh
To be in paradise for a while

So we're offering you this simple phrase
As we jump into our pool
Although it's been said
Many times, many ways:
Merry Christmas to you.
   (sung to Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)

We made Jacksonville Beach on Thursday December 17th.  By the numbers, we have now traveled 970 miles down the Chesapeake and Inter Coastal Waterway.  We've been 65 days on Second Wind, and been underway 26 of them.  We've averaged  37 miles a day at 6.2 mph.  And, for the real boat geeks, we have averaged 1.33 gals/hour in fuel consumption over 156 hours.

Cece and I have spent almost 1,600 hours togeather, nonstop.  We are still talking to each other.  And, yes, we've had a wonderful time ..... but it's time to get off the boat and celebrate the holidays with family.  And, possibly, spend a couple hours apart.

We start with a few days in Ponte Vedra, FL with my 92 year old father and Keith his wife.  It has been many years since we've celebrated Christmas with dad, and much to be thankful for in celebrating this year with them.  On December 22nd we fly to New Orleans to spend Christmas with our daughter, fiancé, son, and his significant other.  It will be the first Christmas we spend away from our home without entertaining the kids around our own tree.  Another in life's milestones. 

Finally, at the end of the month we will fly back to Annapolis to spend some time with family, friends, our oldest son, daughter in law, and grandchildren.

But, as the Holidays approach, we want to wish all our friends a very Happy Christmas.  And, remember we have an extra berth waiting as we start a new year.   
 
  Joy, to all, Happy New Year .
 
 
 
 

Georgia On My Mind

Georgia, Georgia,
The whole day through
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

Sunday, December 13^th , we left Hilton Head, South Carolina, and turned south towards the state of Georgia.  With a low pressure weather system parked over us, we had warm weather and light breezes forecast.  And so, we headed towards the Savannah River.  Georgia remains the forgotten region along the Inter-coastal Waterway, and for good reason.  Because it meanders, across a marsh grass horizon, Georgia’s 100 mile coastline translates into about 140 miles of slow methodical work against massive tides.  Many boaters choose to go offshore at Charleston rather than suffer the currents and switchbacks of Georgia’s Inter-coastal Waterway.

 Our plan however was to spend four days working our way through the state.  We planned one night at anchor and two nights at marinas.  During the days we looked forward to viewing one of the most pristine and beautiful coastal areas in this country.

Boat traffic headed south along this stretch was very light.  The snowbirds were about 30 days ahead of us, and it was rare to see other boats transiting the waterway. Birds, porpoise, and marshland, however, were not rare.  Daytime temperatures were in the mid 70s with sunshine.  This weather allowed perfect viewing of the vast vistas that open up around the many sounds, marshes, and rivers that we transited.  In its entirety, the days were almost dreamlike in their perfection.
There are not many cities along the Georgia coast, but the waterway does transit many sea islands.  These large unspoiled islands protect behind them low lying marshlands.  We measured progress south by passing the sea islands of Tybee, Wassaw, Ossabaw, St Catherines, Blackbeard, Sapelo, Wolf, St Simons, Jekyll, and finally Cumberland Islands.  Between the islands, open sounds emerge.  Many of these open to the Atlantic.  Traveling behind a protected island tends to be calm waters.  The sounds then give way to open choppy seas, often with much greater winds.  It is a progression.

Our two marina stops were at Delegal Creek Marina on Skidaway Island and Jekyll Harbor Marina on Jekyll Island.  The two locations highlighted significant differences between a contemporary upper class  sea island “private golf community” and an historic winter playground for the countries ultra rich.  Jekyll Island was used as a winter getaway between the 1890’s and 1940’s for America’s industrial tycoons.  It came to its demise during the Second World War when Nazi submarine activity off the coast forced the Government to close the island and purchase the property.  The island was ultimately deeded to the state of Georgia who has opened an historic settlement.  A bike ride across the island truly impressed us on the quality of architecture and wealth that defined the island at its height.  But, with the Holidays ahead, and schedules to be maintained we are pushing south to Florida.  Not giving either of these locations the time we wish we could give them.

 

We next push onward to Florida and the “Sunshine State” of mind.

 

Headed South Again

We left Myrtle Beach on Saturday after re-provisioning.  Most of the day we had residential development on both sides of the waterway.  This was interesting in its variety.  It was much like an art gallery that has hung all the different eras and styles of art randomly together on one long gigantic wall.  There were American palaces and ramshackle fishing cabins next to each other.  Like the art gallery it reinforces the truism that there is no accounting for taste …  We tied up for the night at a small marina near Murrells Inlet, with a golf club community on one side and a swamp on the other.  Here we discovered that even boaters get into the spirit of decorating for the holidays.  Both the marina and at least one large boat were gaily lit.

Christmas bear arrives by boat!

In the morning we floated out of the swamp into an area that had swamp vegetation mixed with beautiful marsh grasses.  The hybrid habitat included Spanish moss and some type of Cypress that has knees that emerge above the surface of the water, looking like wooden garden gnomes.  We also eyed a bird wading that look incredibly like a bald eagle, but we don’t think that eagles wade while they fished.  Any ideas?? 

 Cypress trees with their knees in the water.

 

Any ideas?  Ever seen a wading eagle before?

We eventually pulled into a small town, McClellanville, smaller then Oriental North Carolina, but just as charming.  This was once a very busy oyster harvesting and processing center.  Since canned oysters have gone out of fashion, they have managed to keep a sizable shrimping fleet on the water.  The town is full of Victorian and antebellum homes surrounded by live oaks dripping with Spanish moss.  Think of a scene from the Prince of Tides…

Monday morning did not dawn.  The rain pretty much drowned everything including the sunrise.  But we were determined that we were not going to spend a second day in McClellanville, having exhausted our curiosity the day before.  So we put on our foul weather gear and headed out onto the water in the rain – what the heck – water, water, everywhere… By 1000 we were soaked to the skin, but at least it was not cold – we have gotten to the point where we consider 60 degrees as warm.  Thankfully the rain stopped by noon and the sun came out just as we approached the beach area of Charleston – Sullivan’s Island.  Our entry into Charleston Harbor was gloriously sunny although blustery. 

We spent three days in Charleston and had a wonderful time.  We had a slip in a fairly new marina in town, that put us in walking distance to everything we wanted to do – Christmas shop, grocery shop, walk, ride our bikes and even take in a Christmas concert by the Vienna Boys Choir who did one show in town while we were there.  Charleston has grown immensely since we left 19 years ago. We visited old haunts and dear old friends.  We even made new friends at the marine, where half of the boats were going to stay in Charleston for the winter.  All the lady sailors bonded over breakfast one morning and shared stories and important information about places on the waterway. 

This was the view from our boat in the marina in Charleston.

We hated to leave, but we are still looking for temperatures consistently higher than 70 degrees.  We would like to sleep without the heat on at night and get back into our shorts.  So we departed early Friday to continue our push southward.  We had a wonderfully bright morning to photograph Charleston as we travelled through the harbor. 

 

The Charleston battery in the early morning.

The day was sunny, warm and uneventful until close to the end.  We were just about to enter a small creek where we were going to put down anchor for the night (since temperatures were going to be warm enough overnight to not require heat, and therefore electricity – hurrah, 50 degrees!!!  Anyway, as we rounded the bend just prior to the entrance to our overnight creek we came upon a very unfortunate soul who had not only run aground, but the tide had gone out and left him very high and dry.  He was sitting very dejectedly on the fore deck of his boat, but waved us on indicating that he did not need help. 

High and dry.  This makes for a very bad day.

We could only surmise that he had pulled to the side and anchored in order to sleep – although it was 3 pm .  When he woke the tide had left him very high and dry.  The tides in Carolina and Georgia can add or loose as much as 8 feet of water over a 6 hour period.  When we anchored, we had to be very aware that the tide would change at least twice while we were there and the currents would change direction and pull the boat different ways in the water.  Anyway, we anchored in our creek at dead low tide.  The water was so low we could see the oyster beds at the base of the marsh grass, but there was not a domicile or other structure in site; just birds, marsh, trees and water. We watched a beautiful sunset as the tide turned and came in quickly enough that the oyster beds were covered within 90 minutes.  The poor grounded soul would be floating in another 4 hours.

The views in our anchorage.

Saturday dawned clear and warm, and the tide was high, so we would be able to ride out with the tide.  This speeds up the boat as much as 30%, but then you will loose just as much when you are struggling against the tide.  One slightly disconcerting thing about another wise perfect morning, is that rather than the sun, we woke to the sounds of gunshots.  These were not particularly close and we guess that it must be deer or geese season.  We however made haste to ensure that we did not get between any hunter and their game.  We moved quickly through Beaufort and arrived in Hilton head in the early afternoon of a delightfully warm day with multiple porpoise sightings en route. They remain pretty camera shy.  I never seem to have my camera handy to document their existence.  Today, I had the camera, but both batteries were dead..  The weather and marina conspired to allow us to get a 2 hour bike ride around the island (they had loaner bikes so we didn’t have to bring ours up from the deep storage area}.  We were also treated to a colorful sunset, as we sat and planned for the less favorable weather coming in the next few days.

 

I've Got Plenty To Be Thankful For

I've got plenty to be thankful for
I haven't got A great big yacht To sail from shore to shore
Still I've got plenty to be thankful for

I've got plenty to be thankful for
No private car No caviar No carpet on my floor
Still I've got plenty to be thankful for

I've got eyes to see with Ears to hear with Arms to hug with Lips to kiss with
Someone to adore
How could anybody ask for more?
My needs are small I buy them all At the five and ten cent store
Oh, I've got plenty to be thankful for
                                                                 Bing Crosby


Cece and I have now proved just how busy life can get onboard Second Wind, and off.  Our Thanksgiving plans were very ambitious this year, as we had intended to spend the holiday in Jacksonville, FL with my father, then drive back to Annapolis to take care of house chores, and then finally on to New York City to meet our new Granddaughter, Johanna.  These plans translated themselves into a very busy two week tour of the Eastern Seaboard.  But, the execution of the plan reaffirmed for Cece and I just how much we have to be thankful for.  In keeping with the Holiday theme, here is our 2015 list of what we give thanks for with God's blessing (In no particular order):

1) Three remarkable children, and their spouses/significant others that bless their lives.
2) Two beautiful Granddaughters, Olivia and Johanna.  Two more beautiful souls God has never breathed life into.

3) My father, who at 92 years has lived a full and exceptional life .... and his lovely bride Keith.
4) Joan, my mother in law, who continues to live life with energy and so much caring.
5) Brothers, sisters and in-laws who make family real.
6) Friends, new and old, who mean so much to us.

On Thursday, December 3rd, after miles and miles in our rental car, we drove back to Myrtle Beach, where we had left Second Wind in the care of Sandy at the Coquina Yacht Club.  Friday was spent re-provisioning, and we now depart down the Inter-coastal waterway for Charleston, SC.  Cold weather chasing us, we plan a three day run into Charleston, with the hope of visiting some of our dearest friends.