Thursday, January 21, 2010

Fort Lauderdale


We’re at a mooring 2 blocks from Fort Lauderdale Beach and the swimming is fabulous. It was well worth suffering all those cold days to get here.

We’ll wait here for the rest of this week until our friends John, Lorie and their son, Christopher from catamaran “Felix” arrive, then we’ll move to No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Miami, before “buddy-boating” with them across to the Bahamas.

Act III and Felix had been crossing paths down the ICW until we met again in Cocoa, FL last week. Since we’re both crossing for the first time, we’ll watch out for each other as we cross the Gulf Stream. I hope it’s more of a psychological crossing than a physical adventure; we’ll make sure to have a good weather window before departing.

While in Cocoa, Christopher climbed our 62.5’ mast, wearing a harness and supported by 2 halyards. He can be our mast boy any day: you’ll see in the video how easy it is!

Dophins became frequent and bold over the past week of cruising down the Intracoastal; they love to play in the bow wake as we motor. We stopped in North Palm Beach for our first visit with Bill’s sister Edie, and her husband Frank, then had a glorious sail outside, from Port of Palm Beach into Port Everglade, the entrance to Fort Lauderdale. It was a warm, sunny day, the wind started at 5-10 kts, then increased to 15 kts, and we flew down the coast at 7.5 kts. along the beautiful Florida beaches.

Here in Fort Lauderdale we visited Heidi’s aunt Jacqui and her husband Bill, and some cruising friends of theirs, and they’ve all traveled to the Bahamas many times. I’m advised to provision heavily here as it’s expensive to get staples in the Islands, so we’ll fire up the freezer and lay in a good stock of meats. We used the freezer to store gallons of drinking water, but now the water-maker makes that unnecessary. And the wind generator will help keep the freezer running. Life is good.

We’re learning more than I even knew possible about gasoline “phase separation” which has clogged our outboard motor. The carburetor is currently being sonic cleaned and the motor will soon be purring. We also discovered that the little steel balls we were finding on deck were coming out of the jib roller-furler, but fortunately Fort Lauderdale has a rigger shop that can help (and every other imaginable boat service.) Bill is eager for his new balls to arrive tomorrow (heehee) so he can repair our old but trusty Hood Pro-Furl 5 system. The last(?) big project is to get a booster that will amplify wi-fi signals so we can better keep in touch.

In between, we’re swimming in the warm ocean and loving life. Dear friends: it’s time to start packing your bathing suits to come visit in de Islands!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Palm Coast


St. Augustine deserved a longer stay, but we're eager to move to warmth so we moved on this morning, just 25 miles south to Palm Coast FL, where tonight's forecast is still for low 20's. You'd better stock up on citrus juice before the prices skyrocket.

We'll try local Southern restaurant Barbara Jeans tonight for crab cakes and she-crab soup, but it will be tough to beat last night's Cuban food with live Cuban jazz. Have we mentioned that we hope to visit that island before it becomes overrun with cruisers?

Dave from Nellie D took this nice photo of us in Fernandina Beach. Someday when we're sweltering around the equator, we'll look at this fondly and remind ourselves we once needed so many clothes.




Saturday, January 9, 2010

Sunshine State?





St. Augustine, FL still has no warmth. It’s not heartening that NPR reports the world has never had this experience of frigid weather everywhere in the world: North America, Europe, Asia are all freezing.

I woke pre-dawn at Golden Isles Marina in St. Simons, packed my bag to go up to shower, and poked my head out the hatch in the dark. You can imagine my heart-pounding start when I met a man in a ski mask stepping on Act III and reaching into the cockpit.  “Uh…good morning,” I stuttered. “Good morning,” he replied, calmly, “I’m just going to leave this here,” and he started to put a plain bag down on the cockpit cushion. “What is it?” I worried. “Muffins.”  Who would expect?

We met Dave and Bicki from Nellie D again in Fernandina Beach. We sailed outside from St. Simons to Fernandina, while they came down the ICW, and we arrived at the same place within an hour or so of each other. We enjoyed a fine meal out at The Crab Trap, and wondered over “Trailer Park Treasures” across the street. Bill and I enjoyed a little jazz saxaphone at Smithwick’s, a classy all white (the decor, that is) after-dinner bar, with some fine wine tasting to boot.

The cold weather and long passages are keeping us on the ICW. We stopped overnight at Jacksonville Beach, where we admired someone's winter boat building project (see photo), then here to St. Augustine, a great funky town with lots of live music. We love the Sailor’s Exchange and kept our purchases reasonable, and Bill scored a great new toy at the local music pawn shop: a laptop snare drum. He had stowed sticks and brushes, so now we can join any jam.


We’ll likely stay an extra day here before heading toward Daytona Beach, as it’s extremely pleasant and expected to warm up day after tomorrow.




Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Georgia Sounds





Tuesday, January 05, 2010: ACT III, Golden Isles Marina, 31 10 N 081 24.5 W (St Simon’s Sound, GA)

If all goes well, this will be our last stop before Florida. Since Hilton Head, we have awoken to temperatures in the lower twenties. Afternoons have felt almost balmy when they sometimes reach the lower forties. However, we know not to expect any sympathy from our friends in the north.

When we hoisted the mains’l in Hilton Head on Sunday morning, chunks of ice fell to the deck. After a fast sail down the coast, Sunday afternoon found us in a beautiful anchorage in Ossabaw Sound, GA. Dolphins accompanied us down the coast and in the sound. Heidi found this unmarked and unmentioned anchorage on the chart. Our only company was a shrimp boat that appeared to have gone aground on an uncharted bar that almost caught us, and a very bold pelican. Heidi was startled when she looked up in our cabin and saw a large oval shape on our hatch. She knew she had stowed the fenders, so it was a mystery until we noticed the webbed feet and butt crack.
The pelican must have been enjoying the warm hatch on her feet and butt because she didn’t even fly when Heidi went on deck to take her picture. The crabber stayed anchored for the night and left by sunrise. We followed about 0800.

After reluctantly leaving our cozy cabin Monday morning--we start the engine early for heat--we set sail for Sapelo Sound. It was very satisfying to sail along the beautiful GA coast, listening to the waves, an occasional blow from a playful dolphin, and the hum of our water maker filling our port tank with delicious pure water (Salinity<300ppm). It was another easy downwind sail, and we entered the sound about 1330. Having gained confidence in our ability to select deserted anchorages not mentioned in the cruising guides, we picked a perfect one with protection from the NW. With warm sun and frolicking dolphins everywhere, we completed a couple of easy projects. I admit we felt rather superior to the sailboats we saw chugging along the ICW: offshore is so much nicer.

Damn it was cold this morning! To add to the chill we had steady 20 to 25 kt NW winds instead of the predicted 15 to 20. We had no trouble averaging over 7 kts. Sitting in the lee of our dodger, we kept a sharp eye out for right whales, which had been reported in the area. No luck, just lots of white caps and a couple of dolphins. It was a long slug up the ship channel against 25 kts of apparent wind and an opposing current of well over 2 kts. Nevertheless, we arrived at the dock by our projected ETA of 1600. The route in here is a little tricky, and we passed a sailboat hard aground the wrong side of a can. We couldn’t see any way to offer assistance, but we hope that if the towboat we saw going to help her is not able to free her she is shallow draft so she won’t heel too much at low tide. Tonight we’ll treat ourselves to hot showers, clean laundry, and our electric cabin heater.

Happy sailing, literally and metaphorically, friends.

Bill and Heidi aboard ACT III

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Year 2010



Have been frustrated with iffy wireless connections, and I’m tired of lurking outside marina offices in the cold and dark, so haven’t posted lately. After Murrell’s Inlet, we anchored in beautiful Price Creek, right off the Intracoastal and figured we’d be alone there until Nellie D. came in right behind us. They launched their dinghy and Bill, Bicki and Dave took a 1.5 mile jaunt down the creek to the ocean. We then went aboard Nellie D for cocktails, supper and great conversation.

Next day we tied up at the Megadock of the Charleston City Marina. Yeah, we could have anchored and saved a few bucks, but we had several free marina nights due to the holiday, we needed provisions (free shuttle to Harris Teeter) and we appreciated electricity to run the heater at night. Act III was at the end of the 1,000’ floating concrete dock and it took 7 minutes to walk to the restrooms. Planning ahead was necessary. Bicki and Dave anchored out on Nellie D, but brought their dinghy over to our spot and we spent more quality time together.

We were all set to leave on Tuesday morning, excited to finally go outside the Intracoastal, when Bill discovered the problem with the generator was not simply a faulty wire connection. Fortunately Carolina Auto Electric shop was a short taxi ride away; they did a fast, high-quality rebuild for a fair price while Bill waited, so we were back in business by Tuesday evening, with the generator working better than ever.

We left Charleston at 0430 hrs, in order to arrive at Hilton Head in daylight. 20-25 kt wind from the NE at our back, we averaged close to 8 kts over 6-8’ seas. (A far cry from the predicted 10-15 kt, 2-3’ seas they continued to predict while we were sailing.) Act III loved stretching her canvas and rolled with the water beautifully. We came in Port Royal Sound, hooked up with the Intracoastal again and stopped at Skull Creek Marina, the first we came to. It was getting dark and our planned destination of Harbour Town Marina was still 9 miles away.

Thursday morning we motored the short hop to Harbour Town, a cutesy tourist destination, but the main attraction was visiting Heidi’s long-time family friend, Elizabeth Lewis. Elizabeth took us to lunch at Yummy Chinese buffet (yes, it was!), and gave us a short tour of this famous island. It is indeed gorgeous here.

New Year’s Day, Elizabeth arranged for Bill to play tennis with her neighbor Glenn. As she pulled into the driveway to drop Bill off, she casually mentioned that Glenn’s son was here on Hilton Head to attend the Van der Meer Tennis Academy. The 13-year-old son is one of the top 20 players in the country of his age group. Needless to say, Bill was whupped (6-1, 6-1, 6-1), although most of the games went to deuce. Glenn is also active military and has daily physical paces he must go through to stay fit. While Bill played, Elizabeth ferried me to some shopping for a whistling tea-kettle so I won’t put water on the stove and forget about it, wasting propane (just thinking ahead, of course. I would NEVER actually do that.)

We just returned from a divine dinner with Elizabeth and will hop into bed to be ready to leave early tomorrow for another outside run, planning to anchor in Bradley River, at Ossabaw Sound, about a 50-mile day. Weather is still unseasonably cool, but the wind should be in our favor (we'll give NOAA another chance to get it right.)