5/4/15
Marineland FL, ICW
Position: 29 40.142N, 081 12.895W
Posted by Bill

We left at the butt crack of dawn again, and nobody got any sleep last night. First, the no-see-ums slipped through our screens and tortured us all night. We had the sheets pulled over our heads to escape them. Second, the boat next to us (yes, the one concerned about our anchor scope) ran a generator all night right next to our bed. Third, the boat next to Sofia Jeanne and Byrd Ketcher woke them at 2 AM to tell them they were dragging anchor on top of them. They were not. Some words were exchanged. Kurt and Matt ended up hauling the anchor and moving. After you re-anchor, you need to watch to see if you are well set, which takes at least 30 minutes. You get the picture.

We headed for Marineland Marina, a full day of motor sailing, and since we draw the deepest draft we needed to get there by 3 PM to make the tide so we could get our boat into the marina. We pulled ahead of the our buddy boats and used our speed to make the entrance with time to spare.

Along the way we had several bridges to deal with. Here is Byrd Ketcher and Sofia Jeanne coming under one of the tall ones at Fort Lauderdale:

We saw more derelict and sunken boats:

This marina is small but really nice and clean:

Across the street is a place called Marine Land that is an attraction with dolphin tanks and other marine life displays. We didn’t go. The beach is right across the street too, and we checked that out for sure. Pretty rough today. Beautiful beach:

I am always at awe looking out at the ocean. It is the perfect example of beauty and power that is as close to a view of God that we can get here on earth. So much respect for Him and the perfection of the creation.

Tomorrow it is up at the butt crack again, working the tides to get in to St Augustine to ride out some weather that is coming over the next few days.

5/3/15
Ponce Inlet, Rock House Creek Anchorage, FL
Position: 29 03.671N, 080 55.861W
Posted by Bill

Today we had another long day. Leaving at the butt crack of dawn and motor sailing to Ponce de Leon Inlet just north of New Smyrna Beach. Last year we grabbed a dock on the north side of the inlet, but this time Sofia Jeanne and Byrd Ketcher turned us on to an anchorage called Rock House Creek on the west side of the inlet. It has some sandy beaches and a great view of the inlet and light house. There is only room for about 8 boats in the anchorage proper, and it was pretty crowded mainly due to it being a weekend. We found some room and did our usual thing, Sofia Jeanne and Byrd Ketcher rafting off of one another and us anchoring solo. This is a great anchorage…good holding, a place to go ashore, good protection from the winds.

On the way we passed the islands that had the flamingos in the trees:

We also got some sailing in!:

Saw a few sunken boats:

And while watching our anchor for dragging, we saw a pod of dolphins come by right off the boat:

We all got together for dinner tonight, eating the rest of the mahi mahi that Kurt caught (yum!), and everyone bringing sides. It was really fun and also delicious! I also got a call on the marine radio from the boat next to me. They were concerned that we did not have enough scope on our anchor for the impending tidal shift. The guy was really professional about it and after I told him we had 60′ of chain out, his fears were calmed. Actually, I think his wife nagged him into calling us.

Before dinner we went ashore and took some pics of the inlet:

Long day…good dinner…nice anchorage!

Cruiser addendum:
If you are interested in anchoring here, I sounded most of the anchorage in the dinghy. To enter the anchorage, when you exit the ICW, stay on the north side going in. There is plenty of water to the right after you get in for about 150 yards, where a shoal develops to the right. If you go straight in hugging the north shore, you have 10 to 15 feet of water all the way to the beach in front of you for a width of about 50 yards to the right. Strong currents! Make sure you have swing room for the tides.

5/2/15
Cocoa FL, ICW
Position: 28 20.957N, 080 43.161W
Posted by Bill

Yesterday we took the bus and got groceries and liquor, and as usual, it took most of the day. Then we jumped in the dinghy and hit happy hours at Mr Manatees and Riverview Cafe. It is good to get fresh shrimp again. We were surprised that they didn’t have that in the Bahamas. Here we all are rafted in Vero (photo courtesy of Sofia Jeanne):

We left at 7:15 this morning and stopped at Cocoa…long day! We traversed the Indian River and this part of it is wide, leaving us exposed to the NE winds that were not forecasted to be this strong…go figure! It was also a weekend on the Florida ICW, which you all know is a lovely experience…not! it wasn’t as bad as south Florida, but there were several Ass Captain awards being handed out as large power boats came by us at full speed. Everyone was tired and we have all been here before, so we didn’t even go to shore. Tomorrow we head up to Ponce Inlet and will make our way to Saint Augustine from there. Most of the next couple of weeks will be long day trips to re-trace our steps back north. If we experience something new I will elaborate and post more pictures, otherwise you can check out the blog entries from last year as we made our way south.

Here is the anchorage at Cocoa:

4/30/15
Vero Beach FL
Position: 27 39.554N, 080 22.278W
Posted by Bill

We waited out another day of weather at Fort Pierce City Marina as the weather the last 4 days has been very unsettled. Good thing we left Lake Worth because we heard that there were 60-70 MPH winds in the storms that went through a couple of days ago. We were 50 some miles north and had a decent amount of rain and some thunder and lightning, but nothing even close to that. The next week is looking really nice weather wise.

Today we pushed off the dock in Fort Pierce and motored up to Vero Beach. We stayed here for several days and spent Christmas here on the way down last year, and were looking forward to coming back. It was a short 10 mile hop up the ICW and the boat traffic was very light, thank goodness. We took a mooring ball, and Byrd Ketcher and Sofia Jeanne rafted off on either side of us. We dinghied over to Riverview Cafe and took advantage of their excellent happy hour, the best value we have seen in 5 months. There is a free bus that will take you to a shopping area with Fresh Market, Publix, TJ Max, West Marine, liquor store and a great dive shop. Tomorrow we will go get some groceries and liquor and maybe hit the beach. It is really chilly here and I actually wore a sweatshirt and long pants! The lows at night are getting down in to the 60s…amazing how my blood has thinned.

4/29/15
Fort Pierce, FL
Posted by Bill

It rained and stormed all day yesterday. I am glad we decided to stay in the marina here until the weather improves. I got the blog caught up in the morning and we were looking to go out for lunch somewhere. The friends we are traveling with texted us and we headed out in the rain.

So what do you do when it rains all day…a pub crawl, of course! There are 2 tiki bars at the marina, and several other bars/restaurants within a few blocks, so we hit all of the ones that were open. We finished up at 2nd Street Bistro for Taco Tuesday and headed back to the boat. A good time was had by all!

4/27/15
Fort Pierce FL, ICW
Position: 27 27.087N, 080 19.249W
Posted by Bill

Today we got the anchor up without incident (and received applause from our friends) and motored to Fort Pierce City Marina.

Our friends have been here but we have not, so we wanted to check it out. It has been recently renovated with floating docks (a real treat), solid shore power, and great WIFI (also a real treat). It is supposed to rain all day tomorrow so we wanted to have the ability to get off the boat without having to use the dinghy. I think we will stay another day! We walked into town and had all you can eat fish and chips at 2nd Street Bistro, and received the best service we have had in a long, long, time. Food was good too, and so was the price…another contrast from the Bahamas (expensive)!

It was hot and humid so I turned on the air conditioners…we have 2 on the boat…only one worked. Bummer. After working on it for some time, I came to the end of my ability to trouble shoot it, so rigged some fans to try to use just the smaller working one. After a few hours, it finally cooled off in the boat. I’ll have to get some help when we get to Southport.

Island Bound resting at the dock:

4/26/15
Hobe Sound, Jupiter FL
Position: 27 00.312N, 080 05.741W
Posted by Bill

Our plan is to work our way north, arriving at Southport, NC the 3rd week in May. We are renting a house with the kids and grandkids at Kure Beach, NC, the first week in June so we need to be there with a week to spare. Other than that, we don’t have an agenda. As always, our life is determined by the weather, and we are expecting storms the next several days and big winds (over 30 knots) Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We want to stop at Fort Pierce and Vero Beach on the way up, but that is over 50 miles, and we are too worn out to do that in one day at this point. We decided to move about 15 miles up to the Sand Bar Anchorage in Hobe Sound at Jupiter Florida. It is a cool anchorage and very crowded today, but most of the people went home as the weekend wound down.

First things first…we started to pull the anchor up this morning and had some issues. We have an anchor windlass – an electric winch that deploys or retrieves anchor chain or rope. It makes anchoring much easier! I start bringing in the chain and hosing it down with the wash down pump (which pumps sea water through a hose to clean the chain and anchor). In some anchorages, mud and crud sticks to the chain and anchor, and you have to clean it off so that it doesn’t get into the anchor locker. I get the to point where the anchor should be coming off of the sea bed and it won’t budge. It was really windy, so I figured we had a deeply buried anchor, so we go to plan B. Plan B is cleating the chain off with a chain hook and snubber, and using the boats engine to pull the anchor out. We go all the way to half throttle and no budging! I was almost ready to dive into the murky water, but keep trying with both windlass and engine, and after about an hour we can see the anchor just below the water. We had hooked some sort of antenna that was attached to a cable and rope, that was attached to something under water.

I raised and lowered the anchor while Tricia used the boat hook to free the damned thing, and after an hour we finally were free!

Along the way we saw the floating version of the “taco stand”:

Love that!

Then we passed Tiger Wood’s’ house, which you couldn’t really see, but one of his other boats was there:

We anchored, made some drinks and swam off the boat…it was hot again today!

Then we had fresh Mahi Mahi tacos, and feasted like kings!! We drank a lot too…lol!