We begin our next travel adventure moving from Fort Pierce
FL back to Ohio. The plan is aggressive.
Part 1 has us leave May 1 to Virginia Beach by May 14. Part
2 gets us to Sandusky by the end of May. Very aggressive. But in the early
stages we have made much progress.
Sunday May 1: Fort Pierce to Titusville FL was uneventful. We
left at about 7am with Good Karma in the lead. We are traveling the entire way
with Miss NanSea, Dave and Nancy Stecker from Chattanooga TN. TShey boat out of
Sandusky. I know it is odd but just another testimony that Lake Erie is a great
place to boat!
We traveled the ICW which is the Indian River, a wide
stretch of water, pretty shallow but pretty straight. Set the cruise control,
watch for boats and stay calm. We waved at Dick and Dee at Vero Beach. But the
rest of the day we just read, I worked, took turns taking naps and generally
entertained ourselves quietly. Nothing eventful.
We anchored in Titusville in a tough anchorage given the
wind. In hindsight we should have tucked into the other side, the north side of
the bridge but we didn’t. It was a slappy night.
Miss NanSea is a 55’ Fleming. She stores the dinghy on the roof which makes it an event to take the dinghy down. Our dinghy is on the back on that great stand that Kermit and Paul Bates made. It is much easier to pop our dinghy in the water and dinghy over to Miss NanSea. We had a nice spaghetti dinner and a few cocktails then dinghied back for bed.
We slapped around a bit that night but the anchor held and
we slept ok.
Monday May 2: Off at 6:45am on Tuesday May 2, bound for St.
Augustine. We knew this was going to be a long day but it was longer than we
thought. The water was fine. That wasn’t the problem. It was just a long day.
We are attempting to travel distances over 2 days that we would normally travel
in 3 days or perhaps more. It is 80 miles as the crow flies but actually more
like 90+ miles.
We passed many places we’ve stayed before like New Smyrna, Hammock
Marina and a few we’ve not been to yet like Marineland.  |
| The best way to drive away dolphins is when I get out the camera |
We saw a bunch of dead boats and some sunbathers enjoying the beautiful warm weather.
Some critters - dolphins, osprey, and other cool birds. 
We got to St. Augustine about 7pm. We were at about ¼ tanks
of fuel so needed fuel. Here is where the bad part of the day started. The
current and wind in St. Augustine are notoriously terrible. They work against
each other to the point where we never know which to pay attention to. This time
the current and wind worked together to create a current about 6 to 7 knots.
For you non-boaters that is a lot.
We angled into the gas dock facing south with the wind and
current blowing from the east pushing us right into the dock with a huge BANG! We
slammed the front starboard quarter into the floating docks. A few fenders
would have been nice. My bad.
We fueled up and added water as the sun slipped behind the
city. $2.64 for diesel for those of you keeping track. 50 gallons on one side
and 65 gallons on the other side.
We opted for a mooring ball in the mooring field just south
of the marina in an effort to save some money. We didn’t have time to go into
the city anyway. We were tired. Miss NanSea was already settled in their
mooring ball. We would hear their story later.
 |
| This is that south mooring field before dark as we were about to try to moor |
We found our assigned mooring ball. I got up on the front
this time with the boat hook crouched in position to pounce on that hook while
Kermit maneuvered the boat in very tight quarters. I caught it on the second
try, lifting the hook while simultaneously trying to thread the line into the
hook. But the boat wouldn’t stand still in this crazy current. I tried and
tried, reaching out over the railing until something had to give. Either I was
going over the railing or the boat hook was going for a swim. I dropped the
boat hook.
It started to get tense on Good Karma! Kermit shouted, I
yelled. It was quite a scene. So Kermit decided he could do better. We switched
spots. I was at the helm. Kermit on the bow. He proceeded to drop the boat hook
3 more times as we maneuvered around the tight mooring field. No one was around
to help (not that anyone could help). It just did not seem possible to keep the
boat from dancing long enough to slide a line into that hook. We tried several
mooring balls hoping for a different result, getting more exhausted as each
minute ticked by.
At this point, after 4 tries, after dumping the boat hook
and retrieving it 4 times, we were exhausted and it was just about dark. I said
I was not trying again. No more. Period. I was done. We needed to drop the hook
and go to sleep. We argued over that for a while. Then we headed for the north
side of the Lion Bridge where there was an anchorage and a mooring field.
After some discussion (?) we agreed to drop the anchor outside
of the mooring field on the west side of the channel. We were near boats on the
mooring balls but we felt like it was ok.
I went to bed. There might have been some door slamming. Not
sure. It was total dark, probably 8:30 by this time and we were both beyond
exhausted to the point of shaking.
Kermit stayed above deck knowing I was not fit company for a
while. He fixed a drink and started up a cigar.
After a while I heard him on the phone talking loudly to
someone in that voice of his where he is really mad but he is trying hard to
convince someone of his point of view.
The talking stopped. He refilled his drink. A pause. Then he
came downstairs.
“We have to move the boat. I know you don’t want to hear it
but we have no choice.”
Turns out that the lovely sailboaters moored across the way
complained to the marina that we were anchored in a mooring field (we were not)
and that is a no-no. The dockmaster was nice as could be, very sympathetic. He
understood the problem we were having but he said that if we don’t move the
sailboaters will call the police and they will tow us away in the middle of the
night. That would be very bad.
So I put some clothes on and got to the helm. It was totally
and completely black. We could not see those stupid sailboats. Naturally they
did not have their mast lights on, or any lights for that matter.
We could make out the lights on the Lion Bridge. We knew
there was another two sailboats on the east side of the channel because we’d
seen them when we anchored. We couldn’t see them. Kermit got out the big huge
mega-light and shined it on the sailboats across the way and on the green
marker buoy. That was our target. If we could get to the green we could move a
little behind it out of the channel to safely anchor.
I got behind the wheel. Kermit got up front and pulled the
anchor. He stayed up there so we could shout at each other in an undignified
manner in the night. Always a good thing. I swung the boat out into the channel
being sure to kick up a big wake while I was at it just to say goodbye to the
sailboats.
It is really difficult to do this in total darkness. We
inched across the channel with that heavy 3+ knot current pushing us all
around. We could see house lights on the east side and the bridge lights on the
south. On the west we could see the city lights but nothing was highlighting
our short route.
 |
| These are the jerky sailboats who bothered us last night. This photo taken the next morning, early. |
I used the GPS to navigate while Kermit shined his big light
on the green marker and the other boats while we bickered about the best spot
to stop. Finally I was tired of it and just stopped the boat. This is where we
would stop, I insisted. Kermit shrugged his shoulders and dropped the anchor.
We waited a few minutes to ensure it held then went to bed at about 10am.
It was a long night. Kermit stayed up until at least 1:30am
after the evening’s stress and to ensure we didn’t run into anything or rather
that nothing ran into us. We were safe.
The next morning Miss NanSea called at 6:30am. We were
already up. The sun was peeking over the horizon outside of the inlet to our
north. We were ready to go before we had to confront those sailboats again. |
| Miss NanSea shining in the early morning light |
It was an exhausting day. We were safe. We didn’t hit
anything and nothing hit us. We survived another boating adventure!!
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