St. Augustine to Vero Beach and Jeff Arrives

St. Augustine to Vero Beach and Jeff Arrives

Tuesday, February 18, 2014.  We fly into Jacksonville today and are back at Riverside Marina in St. Augustine by 4:00pm.  We have dinner at Hurricane Patty’s.

Wednesday, February 19 through Friday, February 21, we clean, by supplies and get the boat ready to move south.  There is a farmer’s market right next door to the marina, so we are stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables.  We have a diver clean the bottom and change the zincs. Friday, we take a taxi over to “the island” to meet Kyle Goodwin at his studio.  Kyle does glas carving (as does Lisa), so it was interesting to meet another artist who works in the same medium.  www.goodwinglassworks.com .  If you haven’t seen Lisa’s work  www.lisajeansglasscreations.com  We lunched at the Gypsy Cab Company – just down the street from Kyle’s (all the locals say it is the best in St. Augustine) – great sandwiches! That night, we go into town with Paul Walsh (the Dockmaster at the marina) and his friend Laurie.  Nice evening, but we a back at the boat relatively early as we plan to leave in the morning.

Rivers Edge Marine, San Sebastian River, St. Augustine, FL  29° 53.17’ N 081° 18.32’W

Saturday, February 22, 2014. It was foggy and rain overnight.  Depart Rivers Edge Marina at 8:45am.  It is slack tide and we manage to get out of the slip and underway with minimal effort.  We travel along with a trawler “Night Heron” for a good part of the day.  We anchor in Rock House Creek, New Smyrna, FL, at 6:30pm (dusk).  There are 4 large power boats already here, 3 of them in a raft (tied together and on a single anchor).  This is not a large anchorage, but it is well protected. Partly cloudy, wind N @ 7.

4 bridges today, all on request.

29° 03.66’N  080° 55.92’W  65SM, 52NM, MM842

Sunday, February 23, 2014.  Anchor up at 8:20am. Sunny, 75 degrees. The aft refrigeration is not working properly this morning. We made the Coronado Beach Bridge at 8:40am.  We call Pete Brocker (diver and jack of all trades at Vero City Marina) and ask if he know a good refrigeration guy.  He gives us a guy named Ty Cobb (really) (772-388-5966).  We also called the Hedlunds and they suggested Helseth Marine Services (772-567-9552).  We will be in Vero by Tuesday, so we call and make an appointment with Ty Cobb for Wednesday.  In the meantime, we will do it the old fashioned way by putting block ice in the unit.

We arrive at Cocoa Village Marina at 4:45pm, just ahead of a front pushing through.  See the pictures for some pretty spectacular cloud formations.  Rain and thunder overnight.

Three bridges today – all on request.

28° 21.47’ N  080° 43.55’W  55SM today, 44NM, MM897.

Monday, February 24, 2014.  Layover day.  Lisa’s Uncle Franny and his wife Virginia come by and take us to see Lisa’s grandmother’s house, then shopping at Walmart and then over to see their house.  We lunch with them at Kay’s Bar-B-Que and Steaks and then head back to the boat.  George and Bev Major come by for dinner and we walked over to Cocoa Village and have dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant (Thai Thai). This was their first time for Thai food and we think they enjoyed it.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014. Hazy sun 70 degrees, little wind.  Off the dock at 8:00am.  At 1pm, Sebastian, wind NE 10-12, foresail out.  3:30pm, sunny, 80 degrees, Vero Beach Municipal Marina on a mooring.  No bridges today.  27° 39.32’N  080° 22.24’W  55SM today, 44NM  MM952.

As soon as we got settled on the mooring a couple comes by in their dingy.  The dingy has a cover on it.  I said to Lisa the only other dingy I have seen with a cover like that belongs to Jim and Judy Foster on Tug-a-Long, who we traveled with for a time last season.  Guess what!  It is Jim and Judy!  They left their boat in Vero last May and it is still here in a slip!

Wednesday, February 26, 2014.  We bring the boat into the dock for the refrigeration technician, Ty Cobb.  Yes his ancestor was the famous baseball player.  The verdict on the aft refrigeration is that the compressor is gone (dead short).  Ty will order the new unit.  In the meantime, we will continue to use the forward refrigerator and put ice in the aft one. Dinner tonight at the Southern Comfort Grill.  Home Cooking and reasonable prices.

Thursday, February 27, 2014.  The new refrigeration won’t be in until Wednesday or Thursday.  There are certainly worse places to be stuck than Vero.  We are supposed to pick up Jeff on March 8 in Fort Lauderdale, so we call Southwest and change ho destination to West Palm Beach, closer to Veru.  Dinner tonight with Stan and Judy Hedlund at the Disney Beach Resort in Vero Beach.  I did not even know there was one!  The food was great and Stan had a discount coupon, even better!

Friday, February 28, 2014. The Fosters leave for Maryland (by plane). 

Saturday, March 1, 2014. Lisa and I walk to town to the Farmer’s Market in Hummiston Park.  Lovely place.  Seems much larger than last year.

Sunday, March 2, 2014.  Stan Hedlund come to visit and we go to breakfast at the Southern Comfort Grill. Judy (Hedlund) is not feeling well as her back is giving her significant pain. Later, Lisa and I walk to the beach.  On the way, we meet a couple on bicycles.  At lunch, at Casey’s, we meet the couple on bicycles again.  They are from Maryland and we tell them we are at the marina and give them one of our boat cards.

Monday, March 3, 2014.  Jim Foster lends us his car, so we run errands, go to the thrift shop hunting bargains (found a couple of books and some wine glasses for the boat (plastic), and then grocery shopping.  While we are out, the couple we met on Sunday, come by the marina looking for us.  They leave their names and phone and when we get back we give them a call.  His name is Peter Stifle and hers is Ginny Hall.  They have a house in Vero and invite us to dinner on Wednesday. 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014.  Today is our son James’ birthday, so we call and sing him Happy Birthday.  He is home watching the dogs and watching it snow!  Peter and Ginny pick us up at the marina and we go to their house. I work on the blog most of the day (I know, it doesn’t appear so) and Lisa goes kayaking.  Her friend Anne (in NH) gave her a blow up kayak that we have been carrying with us.  Lisa is really pleased with it and says it is more stable than a regular kayak and easy to paddle.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014.  Very nice about a block from the beach.  Turns out they are good friends of Henry and Gale Petronis, who are good friends of Pam and Jerry Jana.  All of them have residences in Easton, MD.  We left the boat at Oxford, MD for the summer, because the Jana’s are close to the boat yard and are sailors and we have known them maybe 20 years now.  Small world.  Peter’s family home in Maryland was used by James Michener as the model for the house in the book “Chesapeake”.

Ty Cobb also called today and said our refrigeration would be in on Friday and he would come out on Saturday and install it.  Great!

Thursday, March 6, 2014.  Mainly boat chores today, but Lisa and I did take a dingy ride.

Friday, March 7, 2014.  Ty called and said the refrigeration came in!  I called Southwest and changed Jeff’s flight from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach.  We also called Hertz and rented a car for the week-end.  That’s cheaper than paying a limo service or taxi to pick him up.  Jeff is coming on March 8 for a week (his spring break).

Saturday, March 8, 2014.  Ty shows up at 9 and by 11:30, we have a new refrigeration unit installed and working.  One nice feature of the new unit is that it is much more efficient than the old one.  I leave at 6pm to drive to West Palm to meet Jeff.  We are back at the boat by 10pm.  Nice to have him with us once again.

Sunday, March 9, 2014.  Today is shopping day to provision.

Monday, March 10, 2014.  We return the rental car, make sure the boat is full of water and fuel.

We meet Stan and Judy for dinner at Sake, a Japanese and Thai restaurant next door to Mr. Manatees.  We can get there by dingy from the marina.  Judy’s back is still an issue and she gets and MRI on Friday.  After dinner, we load the dingy and get everything ready to depart in the morning.

Click here for pictures of St. Augustine to Vero