Jensen to Palm Bay

Yesterday we motored the 15 miles north to Ft. Pierce to say goodbye to our good friends Arthur,Kelley, Aiden, and Sachi. Besides being great company, they helped us out in so many ways while making our preparations on the way down. So, for the second time in a few weeks, we said goodbye and spent the night anchored near the entrance to Faber Cove. N 27 27.308 W 80 18.551 Last night we were the A-holes anchored in the middle of the channel. Not intentionally, we had dropped the hook out of the channel between two boats on moorings. Because the water was about 20' deep we put out a lot of chain, and with east winds predicted and east/west current we should have been fine. Oddly, when the west setting current flowed against the east wind it made us pull all our chain in a straight line to the North, as well as spinning 360's in both directions, putting us right in the channel we had tried to avoid. Oh well, there was still plenty of room for the small boats that were buzzing by and we set out our full array of lights. Sleep was ok until about 3:30 AM when the wind started kicking up to 15-20 against the tide. We got up early and were underway by 6:15 at first light.

The engine seems to be doing fine now. Still a little nervous about it, and I was doing hourly engine room and coolant(visual) checks today, but all seems well so we're confident to keep pushing on. We saw a couple of boats that we knew today, one was Lo Que Se A which I helped build at Mirage, and the other was Sea Trek which I immediately recognized from having read Chuck & Susan's blog. We made 45 more miles today to the southern end of the Melbourne area, just south of Palm Bay where these consistent East winds that we're having allow us to anchor out in the wide open by ourselves, yet still protected from the seas. I don't think there is another boat anchored within several miles of us.

The next stretch of ICW through Melbourne is nice and wide, so we're looking forward to finally being able to sail some of this and give the engine a break. And for those who know us well, we're going to take pictures to prove it!

Comments

Pine Island to Fernandina

Sunday was spent idling around the boat taking care of small projects, both of us moving a little slowly after a great time Saturday night with Fred and the acrobatic Rick from 'Freedom'. Pine Island has such a snug little anchorage it was a great place to hang out and avoid the Sunday boat traffic and we were able to scrape the waterline of 4 inch long grass and miniature barnacles that have accumulated already. Star made good on her promise of making my favorite dish after we crossed north of our starting point in St. Augustine. Lapin a la moutarde . For those like me who don't ' parlez vous ' very well, that's Rabbit in mustard sauce. Today we were underway at 7:15 heading north with a couple of stopping options available, but we were staying flexible and had no certain destination. We crossed the St. Johns River and transited the Sister's Creek area at low tide and were on a just barely rising tide for the notoriously shoaling Nassau Sound area. To say

Fourth of July

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll spend all day in a boat drinking beer. We've had a great 4 th , hanging with Wes and little Wes. Fishing, riding in boats, loitering on the sandbar in Jackson Creek, grilling out, and every other fun thing that we could think of. Tomorrow we head to Tappahannock for a little while to stay at my Mom's place and then back to Deltaville to get serious about work. The weather has been great, about 10 degrees cooler than it ever was in South Carolina, and we barely even need the air conditioner up here at night. It's great to be in a sailing area also, unlike Florida where 3 out of 4 boats are power boats, here the marinas and anchorages are full of masts and when you look out at the Bay during the afternoon all you see are sails. Sailboats, sailboats everywhere! Nice protected waters all around, we're looking forward to being able to take some day sails soon. For those who read this a

The Surreptitious Crab Pot

You can not teach a crab to walk straight . -Aristophanes 450-385 BC Travelling the waterway from South Florida up to South Carolina has taught us a lot of different things, but one of the more surprising is the art of crabbing. Having grown up on the Chesapeake, I thought I knew a thing or two about catching crabs, but apparently I didn't understand the stealth involved. You see, the crabs down here have incredible eyesight, a requirement for surviving in the murky brown waters. The local crabbers have needed to develop some especially crafty techniques for working around the blue crab and stone crab's defense mechanisms. One of the first things that a boater notices when watching these crabmen is that the proper color of the float buoy attached to the pot is critical. Bright orange or yellow are out, the crab would see those from down below in his muddy lair in an instant, and avoid the baited pot like a Congressman avoiding his conscience. Likewise red, chartreuse, or any o

Sail Felix

Search This Blog