Monday, June 13, 2016. Put 12 gallons of diesel in the tank from the
jerry cans. Collin, from MarinePro
showed up at 9 am to change the engine mounts.
He was done by noon. He then checked over the whole engine and
transmission and declared us “good to go”.
It is sunny, with puffy clouds and 94 degrees with no wind at lunch
time. We walked over to Travis Hardware,
a huge hardware store in Cocoa Village that is the same as it was 100 years
ago. Interesting place, interesting merchandise
( a bit or a lot of most everything), interesting people. It rained in the afternoon. We all took showers and went to Thai Thai for
dinner, but they are closed on Sunday and Monday. We went next door to KA (Korean American
Fusion). I had never had Korean cuisine
and I must admit this was not my favorite.
Probably not fair to judge all by one restaurant. Back to the boat and watched the movie Heart
of the Sea. Probably not the best choice
of subject matter when traveling by boat.
Good movie, tho’.
Tuesday, June 14,
2016. Off the dock at 8am. Sunny, 85 degrees, wind NW 5-10. Beautiful morning on the water.
10am Addison Point Bridge (used to be Nasa Causeway). They
are working on the bridge, only the west span opens and we had to wait 15 minutes
for that opening. We can see the Falcon
9 rocket that was supposed to launch today, but has been delayed.
11:40am, we pass the “rookery islands” at the north end of
the Indian River. These islands are home
to lots of birds, including the Rose Spoonbill, but we only saw one today.
Noon, out of the Indian River, past the Haulover Canal
Bridge and into Mosquito Lagoon. We are
making 7.5 knots motor sailing!
1pm Hot 90 degrees, humid, the water temperature is 92
degrees. Wind SE 10-15. Big puffy clouds.
3pm, George Musson Bridge (Coronado Beach Bridge).
3:20pm, we make it through the corner where the cut for the
ICW leaves the Ponce de Leon Inlet. Greenstone ran aground here on the rip
south, but it is almost high tide and we have 11 feet of water at the lowest
point today. Sunny, 90 degrees, puffy clouds, rain clouds to the south.
4:45pm, on the dock at Halifax Harbor Marina in
Daytona. Here, the dock hands bring all
the paperwork with them and check you in so you don’t have to trek to the
office. I made George Barlow’s chicken
curry for dinner. After dinner, Carly
and Jeff went exploring the stores and shops on Beach Street. Many were closed, but there were restaurants and
bars open. Jeff said there were also a
lot of used car dealerships. No grocery
or drug stores. We had rain and thunder
overnight.
Akasha (trawler we
met at George Musson Bridge) as is Grace
(an Oyster 48 (my dream boat) that said they saw us in Hopetown. I believe they were in the marina just
opposite our mooring.
67.8 SM, 54.2NM today. Three bridges, one scheduled. 29°12.20’N
081°00.79’W. MM 830.5
No engine issues today and we ran the engine pretty
hard. I sent Collin a note to let him
know that. Halifax Harbor is a huge, well protected marina. The only issue is that it is a long walk to
anywhere including the showers. Great
place for a quick stay tho’.
Wednesday, June 15,
2016. 8:30am off the dock. Sunny, wind NW 5-10, puffy clouds 85 degrees.
8:45am Main Street Bridge.
9:30am aground in 4 feet of water in the middle of the
channel just north of Red 24. Depth went
from 12 feet to 4 feet with no warning. Nothing in Active Captain or in Capt.
Bob’s. Made a note on the Garmin App on
the iPad for next time. Managed to spin off.
MM827.
10am Carly on watch as we continue north.
10:45am L B Knox bridge.
11am Jeff on watch.
2pm Crescent Beach Bridge.
3:30pm Rivers Edge Marina.
Paul there to greet us and help tie us up. This has become another second home for us.
53.7SM 43NM 29°53.13’N
081°19.36’W 3 bridges today, all
on request.
MM 780. No engine issues today. Dinner at Hurricane Patty’s!
Thursday, June 16,
2016. Beautiful morning. Sunny, wind
East @ 15-20. 80 degrees. Jeff and Carly went to town to walk the Old
Town and sight see. I worked on the
leaking forward hatch and replaced the bilge pump (it will turn on
automatically, but won’t turn off). We
had take-out from Hurricane Patty’s. We
watched the second Lord of the Rings movie.
It rained early in the evening and then cleared off. The forward hatch still leaks.
Friday, June 17,
2016. Another beautiful morning. Carly walked into town to meet her
Godmother at the Casa Monica Hotel. She
is the executive chef there (and several other hotels owned by Kessler). They are going to have breakfast and then do
some shopping. Jeff and I had breakfast
at Tammy’s (next to the marina), then walked next door to the farmer’s
market. We worked on that forward hatch
some more, and then went to pick up a rental car.
We had dinner at The Back 40, a small place that serves
Mexican and had quite a nice vegetarian menu.
We met Roger and Connie (Down Time) there. They live in St. Augustine. Great seeing them! We drove downtown and walked around Old
Town. Gelato at Café Del Hidalgo, but
they were out of limoncello, my favorite. Browsed some of the shops – a
beautiful night. Rained about 9, hard at
times, got soaked getting back to the car.
Supposed to thunderstorm overnight.
Saturday, June 18,
2016. Cloudy, looks like rain. 80
degrees, and the humidity is high. Visited Roger working on the latest
incarnation of Downtime (an Irwin 52).
He was grinding out cracks around the ports in the hull. Jeff and Carly and I went to the beach and
did some sight seeing and some shopping, making sure to stop at Aqua East Surf
Shop for t-shirts. We had lunch at Henley’s in Old Town, pub food that was just
OK. They have 100 beers on tap but were
out of many of them. In fact, we got the
bottom of the keg on two of the three we ordered. We did some more sight seeing, both walking
and by car. Nice afternoon. Dinner at
Pizzalies. Very good. Lots of rain.
Back to the boat by 8pm.
Sunday, June 19,
2016. Fathers Day. Cloudy, windy,
wind North at 15-20, rain off and on.
Ran errands (grocery and Home Depot).
Returned the rental car. Lunch on
board, then walked to visit the San Sebastian Winery and the St. Augustine Distillery. The winery really did not have any kind of
tour and they wines were all sweet. The Distillery
is a local endeavor and funded by local investment. The building is the old Ice House where they
used to store ice, then later made ice.
The tour is interesting and informative.
The tastings were interesting.
Certainly worth the time. We had
an early dinner at Georgie’s Diner. The
food was good. We walked back to the
boat and played a game of rummy and then to bed.
Monday, June 20,
2016. Sunny, puffy clouds, 80 degrees, wind East at 15+. Off the dock at
9:30am. Paul there to help us off. One
of our plugs on the 50 foot shore power cord is burnt pretty badly. The other end looks ok. Not sure if it is a problem with the cord, or
the stand we were plugged into. The
“splitter” which takes the 50 amp shore power and splits in to 1 30 amp
circuits is burnt up also. It could be
water penetrated the connections. No
matter the cause, the splitter and the cord will have to be replaced. New one ordered to be delivered to Brunswick.
It is almost high tide as we approach the Bridge of Lyons
for the 10:30 opening.
12 noon, Jeff is on watch for 2 hours. Wind now east @ 15-20.
2pm, Carly on watch. Clear, cool, wind N @ 10-15. I believe we passed through the stationary
front draped west to east.
3:30pm dredging at St. John’s River. Looks like a significant project. The channel has been moved, so watch the
markers! We saw three Navy gunboats
heading south as we passed Sisters Creek Bridge. The bridge tender says the new 65 foot bridge
will be finished before fall, so we won’t be speaking with him again here.
5pm We made it past all the skinny water south of
Fernandina. We consider stopping here
for the night, but with at least three hours of daylight remaining, we decide
to press on to Cumberland Island. At
7:30pm the anchor is down at Cumberland Island just north of the South Dock.
71SM
57NM today. 30°46.12’N 081°28.28’W. 2
opening bridges today. MM 711
Tuesday, June 21,
2016. Beautiful morning. 75 degrees, sunny, no clouds, wind East at
10-15, but we are in the lee of the island and it is like a pond. We called Brunswick Landing to let them know
we will arrive tomorrow. We also called
Hertz about renting a car to drive home. At 10am, high tide, we see the Navy
gunboats again. They are being followed
by a submarine heading out to sea. This
is followed by a couple of Coast Guard Cutters.
Quite the parade. We put the
dingy down and went to shore. Walked to
the Dungeness Ruins and visited other parts of the island. It is still amazing that someone could afford
to develop a whole island and have over 300 people working there just to
support the one family, and this was one of the lesser Carnegies.
We saw lots of horses including a new fold. Many people here and we understand the
campground is full. We have never been
here this late into the summer and the vacationers are here in force. The ferry from St. Marys is full in both
directions.
We had dinner on board and then Mexican Train. An early departure is planned for tomorrow so
we are at the skinny water at Jekyll Island at high tide.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016.
Anchor up at 7:30am. Another
beautiful morning. 68 degrees, no
clouds, wind South at 5. The tide is
with us as we leave.
8:30am Cumberland Dividings.
No issues. The charts and the
electronic charts a wrong for this area, so like several places on the Inter-coastal,
you need to mind the markers and not the charts.
9:40am Carly managing the boat. The tide is against us now.
10:20am passed north end of Cumberland Island (Saint Andrew
Sound). Shrimp boats are out working
here.
11:30am Jekyll Island Bridge exactly at high tide. In some spots in this creek, there is only 8
feet of water at high tide (which is 5 feet), so there is only 3 feet at low
tide!
11:50am Jekyll jetty on the north end of the island (where
we grounded in 2012).
2pm On the fuel dock at Brunswick Landing.
2:30pm in the slip on Dock 9 where Rhiannon will spend the
summer.
31
SM, 25NM today. No opening bridges. 31°
09.35’N 081° 29.99’W
Dinner
at Fox’s Pizza. Best pizza anywhere.
We spent Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday getting
Rhiannon ready for her summer layup.
Cleaning and emptying lockers, removing sails and covering her with sun
shade were some of the tasks. We pickup up the rental car on Friday and did
some sight-seeing including St. Simon’s Island.
Lots of people everywhere as summertime vacations are in full swing. We loaded
the car and left early on Sunday headed for our friend’s (Jim and Judy Foster) house
in Baltimore.
Monday, Jim took Carly and Jeff to see his motorcycle museum,
his Harley Davidson Store, and then out for pizza. They had a great day! We had dinner at Primo’s Pasta Kitchen, which
was excellent.
Tuesday we left at 7am for the long drive home. We dropped Carly off at her home in Duxbury,
MA, and were home at 9pm. A very long
day, lots of traffic. Great to be home. While she was home for 2 weeks before I got there, Lisa and her cousin Fred and our son James turned what was a closet and a store room off the garage into an office. Very nice surpirse!
