12/20/14
Vero Beach FL, Vero Beach Municipal Marina, ICW
Position: 27 39.686N, 80 22.319W
Posted by Bill

The weather forecast showed rain and storms in northern Florida this weekend, but further south was going to be ok until Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we have been driving hard to get south of the weather trough. We made it. Yesterday was in the 70s with lows in the low 60s and it was sunny. Today was in the 80s and sunny. We were actually hot for the first time in awhile, definitely shorts and T-shirts. To us, this is the holy grail. When people we met along the way asked us where we were headed we told them, somewhere warm.

We made to Vero Beach. They have a great mooring field in an area that caters to cruisers. The cruising community calls it “Velcro Beach” because it is so convenient to the beach, marine stores, grocery stores, etc… The weather is supposed to be the same from here to Miami through Christmas so we figured this was a good place to spend the holidays.

We got up at sunrise today to get an early start.

The first 3/4s of the 52 mile trip was pretty boring again, except that it was the weekend. The weekend on the ICW brings out the power boaters and lots of wake and boat traffic. One stretch of the ICW was almost as bad as Lake Erie on a weekend! Then we started seeing more and more really nice houses:


And more derelict boats:

And then this chick on … I don’t know what to call this. Some kind of water jet shoes. She was doing flips and everything. Pretty amazing.

We arrived at the mooring field and I was exhausted from the last 10 days of passage. Here is our view from the mooring.

We also caught up to our old/new friends from Paperbird. It was good to see them again. They are also spending Christmas here. Tomorrow we will check out the area and maybe spend some time at the beach. It is only a 20 minute walk.

12/19/14
Cocoa Beach FL – ICW
Position: 28 20.925N, 80 43.152W
Posted by Bill

Well, yesterday I neglected to post a few pictures that I took with my phone, so here is an update:

In Daytona, we took a walk to the beach. This was on the south side of Daytona, much prettier than I remember the main drag being. You can’t drive on this part of the beach either.

Along the way we saw Frosty the Snowman-a-tee…lol

I love it when people have a warped sense of humor!

Today we departed our marina around 7:20 and followed a route through the Ponce de Leon inlet that the marina guys instructed me on. Based on the experience we had coming in to the marina the day before, I should have known that they aren’t the best at giving instructions, but I guess I am a slow learner. First, this inlet is known as a major shoal area and the published nautical charts are nowhere near accurate. The depths change daily and everything you read says to get “local knowledge”. Typically you get this from the marine towing companies or local marinas, so I trusted our guy. We set out as he instructed and within 20 minutes we ran hard aground, lurching to a halt. Fortunately it is all sand and all I needed to do was put it in reverse and move further away from the area they told me to avoid. They said “stay 150 feet off of the area that is marked by shoal buoys”, when in fact you needed to be more like 200 to 300 feet. Bad start to the day, but no one got hurt, so cool.

We had a long day, doing 51 nautical miles, one of our longest days without an overnight passage. This passage was pretty boring, with the most exciting stuff looking like this:

But we did have this lighthouse at the southern tip of Daytona:

And we saw the Cape Canaveral NASA launch site in the distance:

We saw lots of dolphins and I got a video on my phone of them by the boat, which I will post as soon as I can get it off of my phone. Plus, look at all of the birds….lots of poop….lots of poop.
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We are also seeing more and more derelict boats that have been abandoned or that are wrecked, and no one seems to try to clean them up.

Here is where we anchored in Cocoa Beach.

We took the dinghy ashore and checked out the town and the Cocoa Village area, which was pretty cool if you want to buy a bunch of stuff. They had an old hardware store that had everything you could imagine in it. I told the workers that I was glad I didn’t have to inventory this place…OMG!

Then we took the dinghy across the river to a place called Ms. Apples Crab Shack. You pick out what you want from a varied selection of fresh seafood and shellfish, and they will cook it for you, and you can eat it outside on the picnic tables. We chose lobsters…they were good!

Now we are planning where to hang for Christmas. It is looking like it might be Vero Beach. We should arrive tomorrow and will check it out before we commit. There is a weather front coming the day before Christmas Eve and running through Christmas Day, so we will want to be in a marina for that. Good news is…we are far enough south that the highs are consistently in the 70s and the lows are in the 60s. I ain’t gonna bitch about that! Vero is supposed to be a great place to hold up for a few days and we are weary from the long days we have had since we left Beaufort SC. We have been pushing hard, so we will enjoy a few days in one place.

By the way…alternator update…performing flawlessly for weeks. I don’t get it.

In closing…heard a good saying the other day in St Augustine. “5 knots is slow for a boat, but it is pretty fast for a house”. We loved it!

12/18/14
Daytona Beach FL
Position: 29 05.434N, 80 56.415W
Posted by Bill

We decided not to stay for additional days in St Augustine and awoke to this sunrise.

Then we motored to Daytona Beach. Along the way we saw some creative ideas for decorating, both Christmas and non-Christmas decorating.

We saw lots of more dolphins and some pink flamingos…not the plastic kind.

Ask Maddox to tell you what they are…lol! These are for him.

We went through a maze of bridges.

Saw the main Daytona Beach area.

And docked at Inlet Harbor Marina on Daytona Beach. Here we were next to a great bar/restaurant with live music.

We watched an awesome sunset.


We met a couple from New Jersey and talked to them until the restaurant closed, and then went back to the boat. Tomorrow we will
push to get to Cocoa Beach and fall back to Titusville if we don’t make it to Cocoa.

12/17/14
St Augustine FL, ICW
Position 29 53.720N, 81 18.590W
Posted by Bill

From Jacksonville Beach we moved on to St Augustine. We started to see more and more really opulent homes.

And landscaping creativity, like this guy putting.

And…

We ended up mooring in the northern mooring field at St Agustine.

St Augustine, the oldest city in America, was very picturesque. There was really cool architecture and old historical buildings.

There were tons of restaurants, bars and shops, but it was a definite “tourist trap” environment. This is not how we roll, so it was a major turn off, and too bad because the city was really cool and had an interesting historical flavor.

12/16/14
Jacksonville Beach FL
Position: 30 17.424N, 81 25.866W
Posted by Bill

First a confession….they say that there are 2 types of people cruising the ICW, those that run aground, and those that lie about it. I don’t want to be a liar so I confess. Yesterday we were making the run from Jekyll Sound to St Mary’s Sound and I was following a boat in front of me. With all of the distractions of using Active Captain, the Waterway Guide and trying to keep track of the shoal areas, I didn’t realize we got out of the channel at one of the shoal areas. I called on the radio to pass the boat in front of us and realized we were way out of the channel, and quickly diverted 90 degrees back into the channel. We dragged the bottom for about 100 feet. Thank God we were there at high tide or it would have been ugly. Today we ran aground again, but according to our charts we where in the middle of the channel. Sometimes the charts are wrong and they were in this case. It was not a hard grounding, the same for yesterday, so we powered through it, but just the same…we did go aground and do some dredging. Actually it is very tedious watching the navigation markers, the chart plotter (Garmin map for you land lubbers), the depth sounder, and the paper charts, and trying to find deep enough water to make it through. I also use Iphone apps that tell me the tides, winds, waves and hazard areas. Sometimes all of that is more of a distraction than an aid, much like texting and driving. So…full disclosure, we did touch bottom a few times.

First things first, not getting ahead of myself…I coined a new term yesterday after I posted the blog for the day. It was inspired by a boat that grabbed the mooring ball behind us. The term is “Ass Captain”. Take that where ever you want and you will be spot on, trust me. First, for you non-boaters, the way a mooring buoy works: It is a floating ball with a chain attached to it that secures it to the sea bed with either a big ass weight, or a permanent attachment. At the top it has a ring for you to grab or a length of rope called a “pennant”. You use your lines to attach to the pennant or the ring and then secure your boat to the mooring. Typically you need to add a line that has enough length to give the proper “scope” to the mooring so that it does not pull out of the sea bed. In light winds, you don’t need much scope or length of rope attached, but in strong current or strong winds, you need to add scope to keep the mooring secured. The Ass Captain award recipient of the day grabbed the pennant and pulled it up to the bow of his boat without any scope.

I have never seen anyone do this before.

Stayed tuned for future Ass Captain awards as people do stupid shit.

That being said, we learned a lesson from some other boats that did not allow much scope to their mooring (although none quite as crazy as the Ass Captain). There was no wind overnight or even during the day. As the tide reverses, it turns the boat around the mooring. As we got ready to leave, we realized our lines were wrapped around the mooring buoy and we couldn’t get them loose. We had already secured the dinghy, which takes some effort, but after trying to break free I realized we needed to launch the dinghy again so that I could try to free the lines. The lines had become wrapped around the buoy from the shifting tide and were fouled around the chain that holds the buoy to the sea bed. After about 30 minutes of man-handling the buoy, and getting cuts and abrasions from the barnacles, I was able to free the line. We secured the dink (dinghy) and were off, late according to our plan. Next time if there is no wind, I will pull the pennant up closer to the bow of the boat so it cannot foul.

During our transit we went through another draw bridge.

We also passed some Navy war ships being worked on.

And saw a shit load of dolphins…more than ever before.

We docked at Palm Cove Marina at Jacksonville Beach. It was 74 degrees and I wore shorts…yeah baby!!

Boat name of the day….Nice Aft.

On to St Augustine tomorrow, where we plan to spend a couple of days.

12/14/14
Fernadina Beach, FL
Position: 30 40.264N, 81 28.143W
Posted by Bill

We got to sleep in a bit today. Our major shoal area was primarily Jekyll Creek along Jekyll Island and high tide there was at around 2 PM, so we had to time our arrival for at least 2/3rds tide and rising, which meant getting to the entrance around noon. We were 6 nautical miles away in Brunswick so we left around 10:35 after getting fuel and our free pump out!

We made it through Jekyll Creek with no incident and had the tide with us almost the entire way to the St Marys ocean inlet, which was past the point where we were going to anchor. I was shocked to have the tide that far with us. Usually it pushes or pulls half way between ocean inlets and then reverses. We made such good time that we made it to Fernandina Beach Florida, which was our target for tomorrow, major coolness! Finally ahead of a schedule.

Along the way we saw dolphins…lots of them.

We are seeing more and more every day and we really like that.

Then we motored past Jekyll Island.

This Island was once a playground for families such as the Rockefellers, Morgans, Goodyears and Vanderbilts, and is now a state park. Under state law, 65 percent of the island must remain undeveloped (very cool, as it is beautiful). In 1885, a french family that owned the island sold it to a group of wealthy northerners for a hunting resort for $125,00. The 60 room clubhouse on Jekyll Creek (which I believe is in the picture above) was officially opened in January 1888. Golf courses, tennis courts and a marina to handle their yachts (the only way to get to the island) soon followed, as well as individual mansion-sized cottages. During the “club era”, a group of influential men met secretly in 1908 form what would become a modern monetary system for the United States that led to the formation of the Federal Reserve System. In 1915, Jekyll Island took part in the first transcontinental telephone call. (This paragraph is courtesy of Waterway Guide 2014).

Some cruisers that we met tonight said they paid for a historical tour of the island and it was fascinating. Might have to check that out on the way back north in the Spring.

In Jekyll Sound we saw this shrimping boat doing it’s thing. Look at all of the birds trying to get a free meal! Lots of poop…lots of poop!

South of Jekyll Island is Cumberland Island. It contains 36,000 acres of habitat and the only access is via water. It was absolutely beautiful from the water.

Check out the wild horses that inhabit the island:

Then we came to Amelia Island, our first time in Florida waters with Island Bound. Here is the first view of Amelia, Fort Clinch, which is reported to be the only fort in the US that was never attacked. You can go tour it which I think would be cool. If we have enough time, maybe we will.

Once you round the bend from Fort Clinch you come into a very industrial area with paper mills and who knows what else. To our surprise, Fernandina Beach and the mooring field we are staying at, is tucked between this to the right:

And this to the left:

Not what we expected of our first day/night in Florida! Not very picturesque…noisy…and a little smelly. But sandwiched in between is Fernandina Beach which turns out to be a very picturesque town.

We went ashore and walked around town and had dinner, then dinghied back to the boat. We are going to stay another day and will post some pictures of the town tomorrow.

12/13/14
Brunswick GA, ICW
Position: 31 09.056N, 81 29.979W
Posted by Bill

Today’s substantial shoal area was the Little Mud River. We left our anchorage with the plan to arrive at the entrance 2 hours before high tide, giving us a 2/3rds tide and rising. We timed it perfectly and had no incident. Coming out of the shoal area, we went into a narrow channel in the Altamaha River and we had a shrimp boat coming right at us with its net arms extended on both sides. Check out all the birds on the rigging.

There was not enough depth outside the channel for me to move over so he could pass and the channel was not wide enough for both of us, so I tried hailing him on the marine radio. I tried channel 16, which is the one everyone monitors, and when he didn’t answer I tried channel 13, which is the one that commercial ships monitor. No reply…

He was moving pretty fast toward us so I turned around and went back into the shallowest part of the Little Mud River which was wide enough for both of us and he passed without a problem. We only had 3 feet of water under the keel of our boat in that spot, that goodness it was close to high tide, but it was one of those white knuckle moments!

We had numerous dolphin sightings today. They are becoming more and more common.

We also saw a bald eagle!

Towards mid afternoon we passed by St Simons Island which is where we were going to anchor, but we made such good time we decided to go into Brunswick. There is a large marina there with cheap fuel, decent dockage prices, cheap electric and free washers and dryers. The town is also known for its charm and history. It has been so cold at night, getting down into the upper 30s, and the thought of running our heat pump helped us make the decision to grab a dock for the night. Coming into the marina we passed by the local shrimping fleet:

Approaching the marina:

The bridge going into Brunswick:

We checked out the farmers market that was still going on when we arrived, but it was pretty lame. Then we walked to dinner in town and came back and took advantage of the free laundry facilities…great Saturday night date night!

The town of Brunswick is quite picturesque, but the streets were mostly deserted, and it was Saturday night! There are quite a few restaurants for a town this size, but none in the downtown that specialize in seafood…I couldn’t believe it, since they have a fishing fleet docked 2 streets away from the area with the restaurants. Also, this is the place where Brunswick stew was created and no one had it on their menu.

Tomorrow we tackle the last of the major shoal areas in Georgia, Jekyll Creek.

St Simons pics:

12/12/14
New Teakettle Creek, BFE, Georgia ICW
Position:34 03.559N, 77 53.265W
Posted by Bill

Another 41 nautical miles in the ICW today. We had to time the next major shoal area, Hell Gate, for mid tide rising, and we hit it around 1 1/2 hours before high tide….perfect. The tides along our route lined up very well for another excellent passage, and we made it to the most further anchorage option on the route, so we were happy about that. It was also much warmer today…major happiness.

Most of our passage today was through the sounds and coastal marshes of Georgia and was very remote but beautiful. This is certainly God’s country and it makes you appreciate His creation.

Most of the boats heading south are already further south than us, due to our delay from spending 2 weeks back home, so we have the waterway and anchorages mostly to ourselves.

We saw lots more dolphins today. They are becoming routine the further we head south. We saw a mother and child swimming together this morning as we were raising anchor.

It doesn’t matter how much you see them. It is still very cool. We really want to see a manatee next, but will probably have to wait until we get in southern Florida because they have migrated south already.

We are anchored in New Teakettle Creek which is in the middle of BFE Georgia. Lots of birds making weird noises, but a beautiful secluded anchorage. Here is today’s sunset.

Tomorrow we tackle the next major shoal area in Georgia…Little Mud River!