Monday, December 15, 2008

Hi all-- Here's the news beginning on Monday of our last week of this part of the trip. Happily, the Indian River in the Cape Canaveral area of central Florida is wide and deep. Wide, we see often. Deep, not so much. It is not at all uncommon for the ICW to be a channel of 8-10 ft. depth in what appears to be a huge, wide body of water. Suddenly, you see a bird obviously standing on the bottom. Or you hear the depth sounder beep to say there is less than 4 feet of water under the bottom of the boat. Or you see a boat sadly lying in the mud. OOPS. With wide and deep, navigation was more relaxed than it has been and we each had some free time on Monday. Sure will be happy when the GPS is back. We found a boatyard in Sebastian River, FL that can do a 'short haul'--which means lift Young America out of the water so the right rear propeller can be inspected. On Tuesday morning Thomas put the straps around the boat and up she went. And the nut holding the propeller on the rudder shaft could be freely turned by hand! We are soooo happy that Fred rotates the rudder shafts from the engine room every morning. His hearing that telltale 'clunk' prevented learning about a big problem by losing the ability to steer when the prop fell off! In less than an hour the boat was back in the water, and Mike and Dave, the two a/c guys (who'd driven over from Tampa) came aboard to do their thing. They installed another blower plus gave Fred lots of good info. These are the guys who write the manuals explaining the systems! What great service. With all that, we were underway by 10:30 am. A big morning! By 4 p.m. we were at Ft. Pierce, FL, and what a beautiful city marina we found there. We've consistently gone to Municipal marinas when we find them, and have not yet been disappointed. At Ft. Pierce, we were treated to a music and light show that plays electronically from 6-10 every evening. It was very well done and lots of fun for lots of families. There was also an enormous Christmas tree surrounded by at least a gazillion pointsettas. Planted, no less. It was beautiful. Not to be outdone, YA is decked out with her wreath that came aboard in St, Augustine. Like all the municipal marinas we've visited, the area around this marina was clean, well lighted, had lots of shops and restaurants—and lots of people just walking, sitting, and taking advantage of a neat space! Hated to leave, but leave we did. Another place added to the “let's come back here” list. Wednesday was our last night 'out' on this leg of the trip, and it was spent near the Jupiter Inlet. The ICW runs pretty much along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Every so often, there will be an 'inlet'--opening to (or from) the ocean. These are the places where commercial ships leave and enter, and where boats like us can go 'outside' to make a run along the coast. Today we considered that in order to avoid the minute to minute navigating, the manatee 'slow' zones, and the bridges, but the weather decided for us. Wind and rain make the ocean choppy and uncomfortable—not to mention dangerous, so with south winds at 25 mph, we stayed 'inside' . By the way, Knute, the new anchor, rocks! He set himself in a second, grabbed the bototm and held, and pulled the boat to him. Very impressive! We thought we'd seen bridges last week! South Florida is (surprise!) very heavily populated and people in automobiles seem to want to cross the water everywhere! Imagine. Many of the bridges are 65' above the water, and present no problem for even the tall sailboats. Along this stretch, there can be as many as 6 bridges in just 10 miles, and at least half of them are less than 20' off the water. That is too low for us, so we just ride along and wait for the scheduled openings. One bridge tender read our home port(Newburgh) on the stern and told us she was from Middletown, NY. Fun. Despite the bridge and manatee delays, we arrived at the Ft. Lauderdale Commercial Blvd. Bridge before dark, and sure enough, on the fourth canal to the left, we saw MIRAGE docked with a long open space off her stern. Fred eased our Mirage in as Marilyn Markus, my high school classmate, caught the lines. Marilyn and I had talked at our 50th H.S, reunion last August, and when she invited us to come to Ft. Lauderdale and dock at her home, we happily accepted. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we've been catching up, eating, touring the city, visiting, eating, preparing the boat for a bit of a vacation, eating, watching the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Parade—from the upper deck of YA, and generally having a great time. Now it is Monday. We leave our floating home and fly to Newburgh tonight. We will spend the jolly Holidays at our 'vacation condo' with family and friends. Young America will stay here and await our return. We leave you with the understanding that right now there is a lot to be concerned about, and also a great deal to raise our hopes for the future. So please accept our best wishes for good health, prosperity and much joy as you celebrate this festive time of the year! We'll be back in 2009! Fred and Linda PS The GPS arrived Friday, is re-installed and seems to work fine. Hallelujah! A/C remains a bit of a problem. The new blower also works just fine, but now the unit drains lots of water onto the dinette floor. It does keep Fred busy!

December 8, 2008

Man, am I late this week! No excuse, and here goes..... When last we 'spoke' we were anchored near “Fred's Island”. On Tuesday morning in Jeckyll Island, GA, we had ICE on the deck. Last week snow, this week ice. We pretty much decided we are just not moving fast enough to outrun the cold! Well, at 1 p.m. Wednesday we crossed the St. Mary's River into FL, and by 3 p.m. the doors and windows were open with sunshine streaming in! At last! We spent a night at Jacksonville Beach, then two at St. Augustine. A workman came to the St. Augustine marina to install a new blower on our air conditioner—the original had a factory defect. That evening we went to dinner with a local couple, Ken and Holly, whom we'd met when they had their boat serviced in Kingston at Certified Marine. Had a very pleasant evening. Ken was a Rockna anchor dealer, and so we spent Friday morning installing “Knute' our new VERY large Rockna anchor! In the afternoon, Barb and Randy, who have LAZY DOLPHIN tied up in Green Cove Springs, drove over to St. Augustine and we had a fun time shopping—West Marine and Groceries—and then enjoyed a great seafood dinner! Our slip at St. Augustine was right next to the 24 hour crews working to restore the Lions Gate Bridge. It's a 1928 bridge and in the country's oldest city, so it will remain a part of the history—at any cost, apparently. A 90 foot temporary lift bridge has been installed to span the water until the Bridge of Lions is updated. Then the temp goes away... Amazing. Saturday morning we headed for Daytona Beach, and tied up around 3 p.m. in Halifax Harbor. We took a long walk down Beach Street, and by 8:30 p. m. were both falling asleep over dinner. We are a lively pair--or maybe my cooking just isn't that exciting? Sunday seemed to be a big day for FL boaters. They were out in full force—sailors, fishing boats, kayaks and jet skis all over the place. Not to mention the airplane boat—a flat bottomed affair—very loud, and it can go wherever it can skim the surface of water. Funny. The books all say there is an abundance of wildlife in Florida's east coast. We've been followed by seagulls and pelicans, but aside from the occasional heron (egret?) and the plethora of dolphins, we've not seen much else. 'NO Wake-- manatee zone' signs are much more frequent along this section of the waterway, and for long stretches slow speed limits are strictly enforced in order to protect these slow swimming critters from propeller injuries. We've seen one maanatee, and that was in GA last June. We have certainly stayed out of the way of a lot of them, though—we guess. Sunday night we docked in Titusville, FL, where Fred worked on the air conditioner—it is making very loud noises again. Not good. Then the starboard (right) propeller went 'clunk' when he rotated it by hand this morning. This is also not good. We're making plans to get it checked, and will let you know For now, I'll say adieu—till next time! Linda and Fred

December 1, 2008

Happy Monday. Happy December, or to quote my favorite sweatshirt—Happy Everything! We are, once again, in an iffy internet area, so photos will phollow when we can get the signal. Last week it was Sunday morning. Who knows? I'll keep trying all week. Last Monday, we set out from Charleston, and went all the way to, well, Charleston. Waved to Fort Sumter as we crossed the harbor and tied up in the Ashley River. Boat work. Had to remove the non-working GPS and ship it off for repairs. Charleston has an awesome Post Office, complete with a mini museum! And you never know who you'll run into. We set out Wednesday to resume our trip south, which in this area takes us west, then east by south, then more southwesterly, then back east. The Waterway really winds and twists as it follows creeks and rivers, joined by cuts through the deep muddy marshlands. Our stop for the night was a shrimp dock in the Mosquito Creek off the Ashepoo River! Bought diesel fuel for $2.75/gal—lowest price since VA. Also got some fresh shrimp and were entertained by the little kids watching a critter in the muddy shore. We got there late—only saw the tracks We tied up in Beaufort, SC (that's b-yoo-fort SC, as opposed to BO fort,also spelled Beaufort, NC) where the Big Chill, Prince of Tides and Forrest Gump were all filmed. We were planning a shrimp scampi Thanksgiving Dinner, but changed our minds when we saw fliers and were encouraged by other boaters to join them at St. Helena's Episcopal Church for turkey with all the trimmings. What a great job the community did! Food was delicious and the atmosphere festive—made more so by the official greeter! On Friday, Fred's cousin Gene and wife Betty drove over from Hilton Head for lunch, and then Fred and I spent the rest of the day doing boat work! Scrubbed the outside, cleaned inside, and changed the oil in both engines and the generator! It felt sooo good to have it all done—we were as happy as this Beaufort resident. At least as happy. ( Saturday was an icky weather day, and we were happy to stop in Hilton Head and get out of the rain and fog. Sunday more of same, and again we did only a short run, this time to Thunderbolt, GA. What a great stop, and we got right into the spirt of the season as we followed this huge snowman up the ICW. We'd have liked to stay on in Thunderbolt—it is 6 miles from Savannah, and the city bus runs into that wonderful city every day—but alas, we must press on. Florida calls, and now that November and the Hurricane season have ended, we are legit to go. Our boat insurance stipulates that we must stay North of Savannah until the end of the season. Our timing was spot on! So today we did more twisting and turning, dolphin and bird watching and tonite are anchored in the Wahoo River. The 7 foot tides and the currents that accompany them are interesting and exciting. The island in this picture was not visible when we passed it—Fred read the water, though, and foretold it's arrival. A beautiful spot. All in all, a very good week. Hope yours was, also! Good nite and good wishes to you all! Fred and Linda