March 23, 2009

Hi all, By Monday the shuttle launch was a memory and we were underway, heading north! Saw grounded boats, dolphins, lots and lots of fishing persons, and by 6 pm we were tucked into Halifax Harbor at Daytona Beach. We spent two days in Halifax Harbor, and on Wednesday, with our tanks full of diesel fuel that was a mere $1.88/gal., we were off and running. We had an easy 50 mile run to St. Augustine. Tied up at the city marina, and got out our binoculars and cameras and aimed them at the Bridge of Lions. We sat on the deck for an hour watching a tug move a section of steel, then bring a huge crane into position to install it, then go back for another piece of steel. The Bridge of Lions is over 100 years old and in 2004 was in very sad shape. The City devised a plan whereby a lift bridge was built—concrete pilings spanning the harbor adjacent to the old bridge with a temporary lift cage in the center. A year and a half later, when that was in place, the old Bridge of Lions was taken apart and hauled away for refurbishing. The original steel spans have received structural work, and have been painted a soft green. Massive amounts of concrete have been poured under the supports to solidify them, and now it was the return of the side pieces of the span that we were watching. By December, the entire old bridge should be back in place and Lions will once again guard each side of it. Then the temporary lift will be taken away to some other job, and the temporary concrete bridge destroyed—a ten month job. The plan is that all this will occur in time for the celebration of St. Augustine's founding, 450 years ago! An amazingly ambitious project! We felt that we were watching a bit of history—not unlike the construction of the St. Louis Arch—men in hard hats and big machinery and LOTS of noise! As our American economy has shifted from the production of products to the providing of services, we found it to be refreshing to watch real, old fashioned, All-American labor. (Please don't discuss the wisdom of the plan to save the bridge. I'm enjoying my little bubble.) From St. Augustine, we again headed north and turned west into our old stomping grounds, the St. John's River. Had a moment of pause when we were about to pass under one of the many bridges that span the busy mouth of the river. Suddenly our path was blocked by LAVENDAR ACE—a huge ship being pushed into the channel by two tugs. We respectfully moved aside and let them pass, before heading on to one of our favorite stops, the Jacksonville Landing. This is a city that has made wonderful use of it's waterfront. We passed the stadium that hosted a recent Super Bowl, and tied up on the wall where free docking is available on a first come, first served basis. It was a lively Thursday evening with music blaring from the Landing and people of all ages and descriptions out enjoying the evening and talking on their cellphones. We joined the strollers, and finally settled at the American Cafe for a fine dinner. On Friday we walked a few blocks to the Farmer's Market and found some delicious berries and asparagus. Yum! The gazebo near the boat was crowded with a sixth grade class out doing an art project—they sketched the scene of their choice (boats and bridges, mostly) then water colored the sketch. Fun to see. We learned that a country and western concert was scheduled for the evening, so we changed our plans and stayed on. Concert was well attended and loud—fortunately, the speakers were turned away from YA. We were again surprised to see how many of the young people in attendance were talking on their cell phones. Who the heck are they talking to when they are out with friends at a concert? Must be a generational thing—we just don't get it. Saturday morning the wind was up to about 20 knots but YOUNG AMERICA doesn't mind, and by 2 pm we were once again tied up at the Reynolds Park dock in Green Cove Springs. We're docked next door to CAROLYNN ANN and Joe and Punk very nicely drove us to Orlando on Sunday where we found the Burb waiting at the Park to Fly where Jeff had dropped it off nearly a month ago. Tonite (Monday) we spent a delightful evening on CAROLYNN ANN with Joe and Punk (and Rocky) and Mike and Linda from SEA DREAM. The next few weeks will be busy with the repair and refurbishing of YOUNG AMERICA, a trip home with a stop in Charleston to firm up the cousin's reunion plans, and finalizing of plans to complete the Great Loop. The blog will he in hiatus until we return from New York and are once again underway, so thanks for joining us for the first half of our oddessy. Year two will begin in April, and we'll resume the recapping of the adventure then! Be well, and keep in touch! Fred and Linda

March 16, 2009

Greetings-- Faith and begorrah, 'tis nearly St. Paddy's Day as I write this! I trust all of you will celebrate appropriately, including our like-most-of-us-part-Irish President, Mr. O'Bama! For those of us who live on YOUNG AMERICA, this was a week of late departures, perfectly timed arrivals, visiting with friends and fellow Great Harbor owners and live aboards, and, culminating with a “cross it off the Things To Do Before I Die list” event, the viewing, up close and personal, of the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery! On Monday, we made it to the 9:45 am opening of the Flagler Bridge! To say the Waterway was congested is an understatement. There was traffic aplenty, including a very long ride for a large group on a tour boat called the “Manatee Queen” --seemed as if we followed them forever! We also passed a new sport—when I called out to this fellow “What do you call that?” He replied (duh) “Stand up paddle board.” There you have it. At Stuart, Fl, we meandered about five miles (in very shallow water) up the St Lucie River to meet our friend Bill from POTLUCK. Gen is in Annapolis this week, but the three of us had a yummy dinner (I cooked fish) and a delightful evening. On Tuesday our 'early' start was at 11:30 am. Fred says “We said we're leaving early and we're leaving, so it must be early”. No point in arguing that logic, is there? We passed MOONBEAM and CHUTAY as we went north and they headed south toward Stuart and the west coast of FL. We were on our way to Vero Beach, where we spent an hour or so visiting with Joan and Bruce aboard FOREVER 39. Boating should teach one patience. For instance, when I'm driving the boat, I'll look ahead, and often the water seems to simply end. Nothing ahead but trees, or rocks, or land of some sort. I'm learning that if I just wait, and continue along the way, eventually the landscape shifts and the opening appears, and it's possible to see where the bend in the river will take us. Sometimes I get impatient as I'm plotting our course on the paper chart, and want to turn the page before we get there. On the way to Vero Beach I got impatient with a large bridge for not being where I thought it should be, and decided, foolishly, to turn around and make a new run for it. Run indeed. We were passing the Ft. Pierce Inlet, where the water gathers up from the big, wide ocean, and necks down to a skinny little waterway. Think of it as driving a car (with no foot pedals, only hand controls) when you didn't know the road was icy and the car just changed direction at will. And speeded up by 25% (from 6-8 knots per hour). That is what the water did to the boat at this Inlet. I was oh, so very lucky that I speeded up my 180 turn in time to motor away from that bridge—it was getting very close very fast! Hooray for Fred, who arrived just in time to calmly take the wheel, complete the second turn, and drive us safely on our way. We thought we'd arrived in Cocoa on Wednesday in plenty of time for the shuttle launch. Sure did. The launch was 'scrubbed' and didn't take place until Sunday, but we had a really great time for the rest of the week! On Thursday, Fred found the hardware store of his dreams! Seven buildings with dusty old bins and every imaginable tool! He found the huge wrench and mallet he needed and soon was heading under YA to tighten those pesky propeller nuts, yet again. Later in the day, Barb and Randy (LAZY DOLPHIN) and Neil and Sheila (SILVER QUEEN) arrived in Cocoa after reluctantly leaving the anchorage where they could see the Shuttle on it's Launch Pad. Barb phoned Andy (SEA DEE) who lives in Cocoa, and the three of them came to YA. We then dinghied to LAZY DOLPHIN, where we dropped off Ollie and picked up Neil and Sheila. Dinner was in downtown Cocoa at the Black Tulip. Waterway Guide says this restaurant gets a lot of repeat business. Ask any of us why and we'll share their secret! Friday, Fred and I worked on mail, reunion stuff (we now have a dozen Mangelsdorf cousins coming to Charleston in April), and I read (the Shack). Late in the afternoon the dinghy arrived with our four live aboard buddies, and Andy and Annie arrived by car to take us all to Andy's condo on Merritt Island facing the Banana River. SEA-DEE is happily tucked into the condo's dock, and in addition to the beautiful condo and view, we watched a duck and a sea bird (is it a huge cormorant or an anhinga—snake bird?) in the water. Dinner was a Mexican affair with mango margaritas, lots of delicious food, and leftovers for tomorrow's lunch! On Saturday, we each did our own thing. For Fred and me, that included cleaning the boat, riding the local bus to Wal-Mart—I hate that they always have the hard to find things (skinny bottomed cup for our medicine chest) and that the food prices really knock Publix out of the park—but when you're walking, one stop shopping is a serious bonus! Saturday nite was Mardi Gras in Cocoa. The main street was blocked off—admission charged to enter—and people came from miles around for food and drink, carnival games and rides, and the parade with folks tossing beads from floats. It was fun. Not New Orleans, but fun, and we sat on a bench people watching until the last of the barricades was hauled away. Sunday will go down in our history book in a very, very special way. Neither of us has seen a Shuttle launch, and here we were! Andy is a ham operator and had an audio link to the mission control folks chatting with the astronauts, so we heard the count down live from the person doing the counting! No news commentators adding their two cents. We went first to a restaurant, thinking we'd see the lift off as we ate (7:43:44 was the appointed hour) but the place was so jammed that the consensus was to go to another place on the banks of the creek facing the launch pad. Andy and Annie both drove as there were too many of us for one car. They found parking places immediately opposite the shuttle, and we had less than an hour to wait before the moment arrived. It is hard to describe the sight—Fred's photo gives you an idea... Interestingly, we heard no sound from the launch until the shuttle was 200 miles away and accelerating to about 6000 mph. Within moments the booster rockets deployed and fell, and all we could see was the huge trail of smoke being lit by the sun as the spacecraft reached orbiting speed—an incredible 14000 mph. It was magnificent. And we were hungry. So we joined the long lines of traffic leaving the island—an early launch on a Sunday evening made it a big family event. Had a delicious seafood dinner and said our adieu's, as we all head off in different directions. So that was our spectacular week. Until next time, Be well. Linda and Fred

March 09, 09

Tuesday's winds were still 15mph where we were in Islamarada, but only 5 mph in Miami, where we wanted to go, so at 8:30 am we set off. By 10 o'clock I felt lousy, and so we decided to make it a short day. We crossed Barnes Sound to the west rather than continuing north and found Manatee Bay with a string of three tiny marinas. No manatees. At this time of year, they are further north. By 1:15 pm the boat was tied up for the night and I was down for the count. I slept for many many hours and on Wednesday felt fine and was ready to go. Uffda. The ride through Card Sound and Biscayne Bay was nice and easy.. This time we looked for, and found (but didn't go close to) the remains of Stiltsville, a community of homes built on stilts along the southern tip of Key Biscayne. We could see only five silhouettes on the horizon. These are homes originally built as fishing shacks, but improved and upgraded so they have survived countless hurricanes. Now legal problems may force their destruction in the future. The houses are located in Biscayne Bay National Park, which apparently wants them gone. If you are seeking a cause to support, SOS—Save Old Stiltsville could be just what you are looking for! Our stopover in Miami this time was on the mainland side, and our evening walk was an indoor affair—in the Marriott Hotel adjacent to the marina, where a Mariachi Band did their thing for a United Way group conventioning in the hotel. We got the music without the meetings! Nice. The +/- 30 miles between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale is solid city and on the waterway this time, solid boats. Way more traffic than in December—it is Snow Bird season now and the waterway was filled with boaters of all size and shape. Once again on a Thursday afternoon we docked at the Ft. Lauderdale canal home of Marilyn Markus, my high school classmate. Her daughter Pam was there to meet and greet—and cook! Pam made her first ever veggie lasagna, and it was delicious! The evening flew by with lots of laughter. It was interesting to see that Marilyn's neighbor on the canal is now doing as an emergency (collapse of dock with broken water pipes, etc.) the work on the sea wall that Marilyn did by choice a year and a half ago. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance! Friday morning I returned to my now familiar stores—Walgreen's, Target and Publix, and armed with fresh food and fresh flowers, we were ready to go! And, let the record show that this Thursday, March 6, 2009, marked our one year anniversary of moving aboard YOUNG AMERICA. We are still not only speaking to one another, but thoroughly enjoying this way of living! Fred has found a new display on the navigation system that measures distance to the next waypoint and spells out an estimated arrival time. Very handy with the many bridges of south Florida—we were able to speed up or slow down in between, and cut the 'hover' time dramatically. Actually, we only went about twenty miles before we were ready to tie up for the night. DelRay Beach has a sea wall by a park, and we paused there to check the town out. Were serenaded by a passing bagpiper, enjoyed the park, and walked down to the town marina and chose a slip for the night. Back to the boat, back under the bridge, and soon we were settled in. I didn't get an early enough start on Saturday for the Farmer's market, but I did enjoy the art show in the park, especially the gentleman pictured at the right who was using his time to create a new work of art, while most of his contemporaries read a book. If I were a painter, I'd paint him. It was a short trip to Palm Beach—all of 16 miles. We'd decided to stop there as a part of our 'Learn about Flagler' campaign, so we pulled into the Municipal Marina—the Brazillian Dock, fairly early in the day. We'd touched base with Helene Schillian, my camp nurse buddy from the Tel Yehudah days, and she and husband Bruce were able to come over from their home in West Palm. We had dinner and spent a most enjoyable evening together. On Sunday, we walked the mile or so to Henry Flagler's winter home, Whitehall. Took a very leisurely tour, including lunch in the Pavillion where now resides Henry's private railroad car #91, which he rode to Key West in 1912 when the East Coast Railroad was completed. Lunch was fun—one choice of items from the menu—a plate of tea sandwiches (you may recall that 'tea sandwiches' means 'no crust'). We were served 2 each of 7 varieties. The top layer of the Lazy Susan held 2 each of 5 bite sized desserts. All served with a pot of tea (or, if you prefer, lemonade). Linda poured. The house was, as one would expect from the founder of Standard Oil, opulent. We found it interesting that it was not as much the 'stuff' Henry accumulated, but the fact that after his and his wife's deaths, the niece who inherited the home couldn't afford the upkeep and gave away or sold most of the furnishings, After several years of existing as a hotel (with a 300 room addition which was ready for demolition after only 25 years) one of Henry's granddaughters was able to purchase the property and restore it. She asked relatives and others to return furniture, dishes, etc., and they did. (That was the interesting part). Today the home as a museum, is as it was when Henry and his wife would come to spend the 6 or 7 worst winter weeks there. Well, there it is, another week gone by. Before any more days pass, it is 'Post it' time! Be well... Linda and Fred

March 02, 2009

I did it again—missed Monday—passed it up as if it wasn't even there, although it was a busy day....oops. Our last week at Banana Bay was as pleasant as the first three. Days filled with beautiful blue skies and fluffy white clouds, and starry nights that sang the song of the everpresent winds. We walked and visited and swam laps for exercise and Go-Petted to West Marine and True Value hardware. Changed the oil in both transmissions, washed windows and generally prepared ourselves and YOUNG AMERICA for travel once more. Many live aboards have either completed or, like us, are planning to do what is called the Great Loop. The Loop circles the east half of America beginning in Florida, (or anywhere on the circle, I guess. duh) going north to our old stomping grounds, the Hudson River and NY Canal system, thence to Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan via the Canadian Canals, Gerogian Bay and the Northern Channel, then to Chicago, the Illinois, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, and the Tom-Tenn Canal back to the Gulf of Mexico and west coast of Florida. We spent much of Friday going over charts that Milton shared with us. He and Fran are, as we plan to become, “Loopers”. This journey north is the beginning our our Great Loop. Friday evening we tucked the Go-Pet into it's temporary home in the Dinghy. Talk about a perfect fit! With it's Kenmore cover (designed for a barbecue, but it was the closest we could come) it reminds me of a bad scene from a Chevy Chase movie sitting atop the boat. Bright and early on Saturday (well, ok it was 10 am) we cast off the lines and headed north. The wind was spinning poor Ernie the sea eagle kite into a frenzy indoors, so I took him out on deck. He flew to the end of his string and it was a fun ride for us both. By 4:00 we'd reached a Town Dock in Islamorada, and slid in behind the bulkhead (a mangrove hedge growing on the coral rocks) to tie up in time for the monthly Keys Community Band concert. Love city docks! Here again, we benefitted from new work done in the wake of Hurricane Wilma. The Hammock style bandstand, the tiny beach with a great playground, lots of recreational vessels--kayaks, hobey cats, etc., for rent, and the fitness walk with 17 stations for special exercise all made it a great place to bring the family! Sunday's winds were stronger still and the nassty chop on the Bay kept us tied to the dock—with extra lines, just in case. It is an ill wind, though, that doesn't blow someone some good. Three parasailers were out having a blast in the relatively protected but windy space beyond the mangrove hedge. I guess they'd passed the upper body strength stations in the park (that were waaaay beyond my strength level) as they hung on for dear life and swooped and somersaulted above the water! I thought we had pix of them in the air, but.....my computer skills lacking again. Monday's winds again precluded travel, and we hunkered down for the day. There is a boat a few slips that might interest you readers from Mid Hudson Power Squadron—a beautiful ELCO built in Bayonne, NJ in 1925! Original name was REUBEN, the current owners have christened her HERMIONE. With it's tender balanced off the port quarter it is a lovely sight. We bundled up against the wind, and took a long walk down to, and along Route 1. The drawback of this marina—not much to see or do within walking distance. Roger and Elise aboard TUMBLEWEED in the next slip offered to share their rental car tomorrow for a trip to the grocery store. We're watching the weather, and it looks as if Tuesday will be a day with fair winds. Will let you know next week! Be well! Linda and Fred