Vero Beach to Cocoa, FL - February 21-26



Cool Change in Vero Beach.  Note the bicycle which is leaving rust all over the front deck.

Many people ask us what we can find to do on such a long trip.  If you know me (Colleen), you know I'm a bookworm and I've read untold numbers of books the past three-and-a-half months - some cerebral ones and many that are just "bubble gum for my brain."  Vero beach has an excellent local bookstore, Vero Beach Book Center on Indian River Blvd, and it's a place I would love to hang out in on a regular basis.  My book club back in North Carolina assigned me the topic of travel books so I've been trying to read several as I prepare to host the May meeting, leaning toward Florida and North Carolina books.  Two I've especially enjoyed are The Barefoot Mailman and A Walk in the Woods.  The first is a fiction-based-on-fact about mailmen who used to deliver the mail between Palm Beach and Miami before the state was settled.  They walked between the two cities via the beach - the interior of the state was pretty much impenetrable to anyone except the Seminole Indians at that time.  The second book is an entertaining true account of the author's attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail.  Another book I've read but wasn't so impressed with is Narrow Dog to Indian River.  This true account of a trip on the ICW of an English canal boat should have appealed to us as the boat traverses much of the same water we have seen. However, the author has a lot of trouble working up any enthusiasm for the people he and his wife and dog meet along the way.  That's a shame because our experience is that boat people are invariably friendly and helpful.


I don't recommend this one



This is very funny and interesting.

Our stay on the docks at Vero Beach was a welcome and restful luxury that we enjoyed for our last seven nights there.  We were a little intimidated, though, by the boats tied up around us.  See below.  Next to them, we looked like a dinghy.


The boat in front of us on the dock - a mere 95 feet long



The boat behind us in Vero.  Over 100 feet long

Our original plan was to leave Vero beach on Thursday the 24th, which promised to be a perfect cruising day - light winds and warm, sunny weather.  But.... Wayne woke up early that morning suffering from dizziness and nausea, pretty much unable to function at all.  I checked with the dockmaster to be sure we could stay another day and got the address of a walk in clinic.  It is very difficult to get Wayne to go to a doctor but he agreed to do this - a measure of just how bad he felt.  Before we left Wayne's brother, Howard showed up and said the emergency room was the place to go.  Wayne complied with his big brother's advice (Yippee!  He would not have let me drag him to an emergency room for anything) and we were off.  Thank you, thank you, Howard.

The problem was a fluid buildup in Wayne's inner ear, a relatively minor issue that could be controlled with some medication.  We got back to the boat, drugged him up and Wayne took to his bed for most of the day.  By Friday morning he was fully functioning and we fueled up, pumped out the holding tanks and were on our way.  The one day trip to Cocoa was breezy but mostly we had the wind pushing us along at a brisk 10 miles/hour.



There are "spoil islands" all along the ICW on the Indian River.  These are made of the dredged-up sand from digging out the waterway and, over the years, they have grown trees and bushes and beaches - serving as a wonderful destination for many of our family boating outings over the years.  We saw a lot of hurricane damage on them, though.

 One event was the highlight of our day - five dolphins decided to play for a while in our boat wake.  We watched, entranced, as they surfed our wake, then jumped and belly flopped to make a loud, purposeful "pop" as they landed in the water close to the boat.  We've seen lots of dolphins on this trip and are always captivated by them - they swim just close enough for us to have a good glimpse of their graceful movements through the water but are gone by the time we rush for a camera.  I've stopped even trying to catch them with a camera for fear I'll miss seeing their antics.

Approaching Cocoa and ready to call the dockmaster, we were startled to hear another boat named Cool Change calling in to approach the marina also.  We haven't seen this name on any other vessel but a large catamaran named Cool Change from Texas is indeed docked a short way from us here. 

The other Cool Change

Once we arrived in Cocoa we were delighted to meet up with some old friends.  Jim and Shaula are still members of the Central Florida Cruise Club, a group we boated with in Florida for 21 years.  The Cruise Club is here in Cocoa for an annual Mardi Gras celebration in Cocoa Village.  We joined the group for "docktails" Friday night and they were very welcoming.  We haven't cruised with them since we left Florida, almost thirteen years ago and we knew very few of the 30 or so people who were here.  It's great, though, to see that this group of boating enthusiasts who trailer their boats all over the state is still going strong after sixty years.  While we're here in Cocoa we'll also get to spend time with Roger and Marcy and Marla and Al.  We plan to stay for a week - enjoying the luxury of dock life!  

Lake Sylvia to Vero Beach City Marina - Feb.17 - 20

Bookish Wench

 Our journey from Lake Sylvia in the Fort Lauderdale area again took us past the extravagant mansions right at waterside.  We still cannot believe the size of these places.  The full scope of their properties just won't fit in a film frame.  Imagine a very elaborate guest house for, say, the palace of Versailles.  Got it?  Now multiply that by two or three hundred similar places.  We cruise along saying, "Look on the right!  Can you believe the one on the left?  Oh my gosh!"


This is one house!



We can only imagine the elegance of this yacht.

 Our travel through the many bridges after Lake Sylvia was one of some consternation.    We think that we wasted about two hours today waiting for bridge openings.  The bridges have established times for opening so that boats can adjust their travel speed to make the opening of the next bridge.  They open either on the quarter hour and three quarter hour or they open on the hour and the half hour.  This day we just could not get our timing right due to the limits on wake size as posted on the ICW signage.

These markers on the side of the bridge tell us if we can make it under.  Our height is 17 1/2 feet. 
We'll have to wait for this one



Castle Bridge.

A couple of handsome working tugboats

  We did have some heart stopping action in the Hillsboro Inlet area.  As we crossed through the inlet basin Wayne decided that it was time to run on only one engine.  Thirty seconds after shutting down the starboard engine, the port engine also shut down.  The engine alarm was sounding and it would not restart.  As things do in boating, the starboard engine also would not restart.  No power!  Fast current!  High winds!  Bridge coming up!  We started deploying the anchor and had 20 feet of anchor chain out when the starboard engine restarted.  We attempted to restart the port engine but were not successful.  We were lucky in that there was a rare anchorage just east of us in the basin.  Fighting the rapid flowing current and high winds we managed to get anchored.  What happened when the starboard engine was shut down that caused the port engine to shut down?  Nothing made sense.  After some real thought processing and some elemental checks, it was determined that the port engine must have run out of fuel.  But how?  We had a range of 300 miles on the aft tanks from which the engines were drawing fuel.  We had only traveled about 150 miles.  The answer will probably come when we refuel those aft tanks.  Anyhow, we switched to the forward fuel tanks and tried to restart the port engine.  No luck.  Wayne traced the fuel lines to the filters and to the engine.  He found what looked to be a plunger that might be a primer for the injectors.  After hand pumping about 20 times, pressure was felt and the engine started and then stopped and would not restart.  With another 50 or so pumps the engine finally did start and ran perfectly all the rest of the day.  When we got back into the ICW, the very next bridge had such high current that it would have been very problematic to have attempted a one engine passage. 

Our Lake Worth anchorage that evening was a welcome calm after our exciting day.  We traveled on to Vero Beach the next day in wonderful sunny balmy weather and arrived here on Friday.  We anchored on a mooring buoy the first night but have now moved to a dock space.  We had totaled up the number of consecutive days we'd been living at anchor.  It was 46!  Time to get our feet dry for a while.  Vero Beach is known as Velcro Beach by many boaters we've met.  It's easy to see why.  It is a beautiful, relaxed, friendly community and it will be difficult to tear ourselves away from it.


Friday night we walked to the nearby U S Power Squadron clubhouse and attended a social with local Power Squadron members  We went to the Saturday farmer's market downtown yesterday and stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables.  Last night we met Howard and Donna for a delicious meal at a restaurant that's rapidly becoming one of our favorites here - The Lemon Tree on A1A downtown Vero.  This is one restaurant that we can recommend with confidence.

This morning we finally got the chance to take Howard and Donna for a boat ride.  We went north on the ICW, stopping for lunch at anchor along the way.  As we ate we spotted three manatees about ten feet from the boat.  They surfaced; then sank down several times and we got a good glimpse of their enormous broad backs, wide tails and whiskery noses.  We've seen quite a lot of manatees along the way but it's usually been just the surface of their backs as they moved away from the boat.  This was a special event and we were so happy it happened while we had company to enjoy it with us.



Donna - I want a boat. This is divine.

 

Captain Howard



News from Ft. Lauderdale's Lake Sylvia anchorage - Wednesday, Feb. 16th, 2011

After a very calm and restful night  we left Tarpon Basin this morning.  A thought was given to not departing for Ft. Lauderdale because of overcast skies but we set out anyway at 6:40.  What a wonderful day we had as the skies cleared.  About an hour into today's travel we heard a popping sound like some plastic item flapping loose.  A sound like that gets your attention quickly on a boat.  When we looked back we saw what we thought was the gray tube of our dinghy jump up and disappear under water.  Eeek, we've lost the dinghy!  We soon realized that the dinghy was still in its place on the swim platform and that what we saw was a glimpse of a dolphin as it reentered the water after a jump in our wake.  But we were not sure what we heard and saw.  Several hours later in Biscayne Bay as we watched dolphins repeatedly come to our bow and dive underneath the boat we got our answer.  We saw that they came up behind us in our wake and they were jumping in our stern waves within 10 feet of the boat and then they would belly flop with a loud pop as they entered the water.  We don't know how many times they had done this before and we had just not noticed.  But it seems that this is their playtime activity with bigger boats.  What a sight!  The dolphins were probably pretty disgusted with the humans who did not know how to appreciate their game.

The day became quite pleasant except for strong winds that met us nearly head on from the NE.  Both of us wore jackets most of the day. 



Wayne's $40 bike

  

Bridge that enters the Keys at the northeast side.  Our exit mark.




One of the passages between sounds


After traversing sound after sound, Buttonwood Sound, Blackwater Sound, Little Card Sound, and Card Sound, we finally made it into Biscayne Bay and could see the tall buildings of Miami.  Through the binoculars, the bay waters looked to be up to the 4th story due to the curvature of the earth.  It looked eery.  From the time that we saw the buildings from 20+ miles away it took almost three hours to finally get to Miami's inner harbor.  We had to wait almost 30 minutes for one of the bridges in Miami.  Otherwise we were not delayed further by the many bridges along the way to Ft. Lauderdale.  We were lucky in that several bridges that had delayed us in opening on the way south were passable today heading north due to it being low tide at the time we went under them.



This sailboat against the Miami skyline was really beautiful.



One of Miami's many bridges

 We arrived in Lk. Sylvia about 3:30 and anchored for the night.  We lowered the dinghy, installed the outboard motor and other paraphernalia and then motored to a close restaurant for a nice mediocre dinner.  But it was a treat to go to dinner by dinghy.  It has been raining off and on this evening since the minute that I finished storing the dinghy and motor.  Perfect timing.

We will be off to Lake Worth for tomorrow's anchorage. 

The Journey Home has Started! Feb. 15, 2011

Today we set out at 7:40AM for North Carolina.  We will take a month with planned stops at Vero Beach and Merritt Island, Fl. to visit friends and family and also St. Augustine, one of our favorite cities.  We left Boot Key Harbor with some regrets that we were leaving some new found friends with whom we would have liked to have spent more good times.  The morning was rather cool and the winds were from the NE and building in velocity as we left the harbor.  The Keys run east to west this far down and to go east we first had to detour west for 4 miles to the high span of the new 7-mile bridge.  On the west leg the winds were at our stern.  But as we turned north to go under the bridge, we met 15 mph headwinds that combined with our 9 mph ground speed to give us the equivalent of a 24 mph headwind to fight.  After clearing the 7-mile bridge, we turned east and faced stronger winds but also sea spray that was coming onto the bow and up to our cabin windshield.  It was to be like this for the next three hours.  Finally we got inside of a sound that had exposed sandbars to our north.  This afforded us protection by not allowing the wind to have open water with which to build the wave height.  Thankfully, we kept this protection from sound to sound for the next five hours of travel. 

Along the way we encountered some playful dolphins that came within 15 feet of our bow and then swam along beside us for awhile.  What a wonderful sight.  As we traversed behind the Matecumbe Keys the water became very shallow due to low tide.  We hit bottom twice and we were stirring a lot of sand in our wake for many miles during which we slowed some to get the stern up and the bow down.

We arrived here at 3:40 PM after traveling 55 miles today.  As I write this blog edition, dark has descended on us at our anchorage in Tarpon Basin and a beautiful, almost full moon has risen.  Tarpon Basin is a lagoon that is about a mile in diameter and surrounded on three sides with mangroves.  The south side of the basin is part of the Key Largo shoreline of homes, RV and mobile home parks, a hotel, and several bars / restaurants.  US 1 runs just the other side of the homes and restaurants.  Pennekamp Coral Reef Park is across US1 here also.  This is a great anchorage for weather protection but the locals don't want dinghies to come ashore anywhere.  But, we are here for dinner, sleep, breakfast and plan to get back at the helm early tomorrow so this is a perfect spot for us for a night.



Photos of Tarpon Basin anchorage



Best wishes to all who are following our adventures.  We will blog again from Ft. Lauderdale's Lake Sylvia.

Wayne

Our plan tomorrow is to start early and cover 75 miles to anchor in Lake Sylvia in Ft. Lauderdale.  It will be a long day.



Sunset in Tarpon Basin



Waving ggodbye to Jann & Gary

LOOK AT THE GRASS GROWING ON THE DINGHY AFTER 3 WEEKS!!!

 

Leaving Boot Key Harbor mooring ball.




Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL - Feb.9-14

One last beautiful Keys sunset

We've been sitting on the back deck, saying goodbye to our last sunset in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon, FL.  It was a beauty in flaming orange and a fitting end to our lovely, relaxing time here in this friendly, laid back, tropical community.  Tomorrow morning we plan to pull out of the harbor and begin our trip back to North Carolina - not a fast trip, though.  We'll be traveling at our usual 8-10 miles/hour and expect to stop several times along the way.  The idea is to make it back to Charlotte by March 15th.  We will turn 10 days of travel into 30 days including stops for bad weather and stops for family and friends.  We plan to visit Howard and Donna in Vero Beach and Marcy & Roger and Marla & Al in Cocoa Beach  for extended stops on the way back.  Also, we want to make time for our old boating buddies of the Central Florida Cruise Club, Jim and Shaula from our hometown of Orlando at one of the CFC club events in Cocoa Vilage on Feb. 26 thru the 28th.  What a great coincidence to meet up with the club that we belonged to for 22 years in Orlando.  We were very active in the cruise club along with our boys for those many years with Wayne being commodore (president) 5 times.

This  past weekend was great fun as we welcomed our friends Roger and Marcy onto the boat.  They tolerated the not-so-spacious forward cabin and a sudden cold snap that brought serious winds with it.  Wayne and I have gotten used to the boat swaying back and forth on its mooring ball and the constant slap of waves on the hull.  We wish we could have shared some of the warm, calm weather we've enjoyed here but it was not to be.  The chill and winds showed up on Friday afternoon, just as Roger and Marcy arrived and departed on Sunday after lunch, right after we bid them goodbye.  Is it possible THEY brought the icky weather?  They will claim I fed them beans all weekend in revenge.  While they were here we all got together with Marla and Al and Marla's big brother, Bob, and her sister-in-law, BJ, for lunch one day and we also managed to watch a total of four movies in less than 48 hours.  Yeah for the inverter!  Roger assisted in the original survey of Cool Change when it was only a prospective new boat and then he piloted about half of the 505 mile trip to our home port of Little River, SC last July for a week.


Wane ready for Sunday morning in the Fl Keys!



No, Marcy has not put on 200 pounds.  The trip in on the dinghy was a windy one and inflated her jacket. She looked like the Michelin woman!



Roger and Marcy at Sunday breakfast on Cool Change

We attended the Pigeon Key Art Festival on Sunday afternoon and even bought a little art for our master cabin.  A photo of two old chairs sitting at the edge of the ocean made us think of ourselves and this trip and seemed a wonderful memento of our winter voyage.  The art festival featured lots of art, good music and food.

Our recent art acquisition




Pigeon Key Art festival, Feb. 13

Wayne and I both reached the point of haircut desperation last week.  My gray roots and constant windblown state meant there could be no more waiting.  Jann, my neighbor, kindly acted as a guinea pig, finding a salon and putting her locks under the scissors.  The results looked so good that I went today for a cut and color from the same hairdresser and I'm quite satisfied.  To Christine, my hometown hairdresser - I do miss you but seem to have survived our separation intact.  You get to do my next haircut. 

Many of you followers have been waiting on information on the inverter charger blowout that occurred several weeks ago.  Boy, did we miss that inverter.  While it was gone we were havng to run the generator to do anything 120 volt A/C.  We even bought a temporary inverter from West Marine for $99 to power Colleen's sewing machine and the cabin lights in quiet.  We will keep that inverter as a backup in the event of a future failure.   Xantrex, the inverter/charger manufacturer, repaired the inverter in one day upon receipt.  Overall downtime was only 9 days.  Xantrex recommended that I limit the battery cables to 10 feet to prevent a future failure.  My cables were 14 feet including connecting cables for the 300 amp fuse and the cutoff switch.  These cables are 3/4 inch in diameter and Xantrex wants them twisted.  Good luck.  I re-routed the battery cables across a new aluminum angle that I installed in front of the engine and under the floor panels.  The result was an 8 foot cable run.  Even better to prevent the ripple effect that failed the inverter.  Hopefully we will never see another failure.  All seems to be working well after more than a week.

Inverter / charger installed in original TV cabinet




New cable routing.  Note the 3/4 inch cables.

Next time we write we'll be officially underway, heading toward home.  We're both just about ready to get back to our tree house and watch spring come to the Carolinas.

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, FL - Feb. 1 - 8

It's hard to believe that we've been here almost three weeks and will be starting our trip toward home in the not-too-distant-future.  We've enjoyed having Marla and Al close by for the past week, going out to eat, joining them for activities at the RV park and going to the movies, and we will be welcoming Roger and Marcy onto the boat for the upcoming weekend.  The weather over the past week has been really beautiful, although the wind has picked up and it's pretty nippy tonight.


Jann and Gary's soon-to-be-renamed Sea Angel, a beautiful trawler

 We've seen more of our nearby boat neighbors, Jann and Gary, who have been having some not-to-be-envied boat adventures.  Think, broken refrigerator, escaping dinghy.  Jann came over a few days ago and we sewed together most of the day.  That was a lot of fun.  I'm still working on the quilt I told you about last time and Jann made a fancy 12" block to decorate an end table on her boat.

Being among so many boats (around 300), we can't help but notice the variety of boat names.  A few of the really good ones - Second Wind, Power of Two, Cat in the Hat, Miss Kitty and her dinghy called Marshall Dillon, About Time, Two if by Sea, and Camelot with her dinghy named Camalittle.  A huge number of people here in the harbor share their boats with dogs.  I've never seen such a variety of breeds of dogs happily commanding the front of dinghies as they motor to shore.  We are a little astonished at the guy who seems to be living contentedly with an enormous Great Dane on his boat.



This boat is called Cat in the Hat



Here's our "neighborhood."


We saw an interesting sight today.  A man and woman in a dinghy either were having motor troubles or were working on leaving a very small carbon footprint.  The guy pushed off from shore, pulled out a large umbrella, opened it up and positioned it so the wind would catch the umbrella and move his boat through the water.  It carried them along at a good little clip, both of them smiling happily.

Lots of books are getting read here on Cool Change.

You might like to see where we are.  Go to the link below and you can watch a live video feed that rotates through about six views of the harbor and the marina 24 hours a day.  On Saturday we got Patrick on the phone as we headed into the dinghy dock and told him to go to the site and we waved frantically so he could see us.  I'm afraid the people sitting on shore thought we were nuts as I vigorously flailed my arms through the air.  It's hard to see our boat as we're far back in the group but look for a big boat in front of a condominium on the other side of the harbor.  http://www.ci.marathon.fl.us/index.aspx?NID=600

January 27th-31st - News from Boot Key Harbor

We’ve had a busy week here in Marathon and have walked (and biked) for many miles.  We did eventually discover the island taxi services and when we’re REALLY tired of walking, they will pick us up and take us anywhere on the island for 4 or 5 dollars.  We both stepped on the scales at Publix today.  Assuming our clothes weigh three pounds (shorts and T shirts, yeah, right), neither one of us has gained any weight since we left home.   Last Thursday we walked down the street to see True Grit at the local movie theater.  The theater holds 105 people and was completely packed.  The line outside was so long, I’m sure they had to turn customers away.  We both enjoyed the movie.  This week The Tourist is showing and we hope to talk Marla and Al into going with us.  They are due to arrive in their motor home tomorrow to stay in a campground nearby.

On Saturday we took the dinghy out to explore the harbor we're in.  On the way we came across a couple from Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Nelson and Ondra. They were doing the same thing.  We followed them through a cut in the island out into the ocean!!!!  Not too far though.  The water was pefectly calm, winds maybe as much as five miles an hour, beautiful blue-green water.



Captain Colleen, occasional master of the dinghy



On Sunday afternoon we attended the Second Annual Florida Keys Traditional Music Festival.  What a treat!  All the artists were exceptionally talented and we heard five different groups, from a Cajun Trio, to Bluegrass and Acoustic Country, to Tex-Mex, to Appalachian mountain music, to a homegrown Keys group.  Some amazing banjo playing, singing, guitar strumming, Mexican accordion music, haunting mandolin pieces, and Cajun violins.



Joe Mama's Keys All Star Band





One of my six new quilt blocks



Here's another



I’ve been sewing pretty much every day.  I was part of an activity in my quilting group in North Carolina last year that produced nine different quilt blocks from nine people over the course of the year.  I brought those blocks with me and I’ve worked during the past week to make six more different blocks.  The plan is to put all fifteen together to make a small sampler quilt.  Doll clothes also must be stitched together as Wayne and I will be traveling to Boston in March and Jackie and Kate’s dolls need to be well-dressed.

A few days ago I checked the car GPS we have with us to try and find a fabric or quilting store nearby.  Found a place called Nimble Fingers.  Must refer to skills with a needle, right?  Not quite.  When I called I found out it was a barber shop.  The man who answered the phone was very friendly, though.  I’m probably lucky it wasn’t a massage parlor.  Unfortunately, I would have to travel 45 miles either east or west to find a fabric shop.  It’s a good thing that I’m still well stocked with fabric here on the boat.

Each morning at 9:00 we gather around the marine VHF radio and tune to Channel  68.  The “show” is The Cruiser’s Net, a thirty to forty-five minute sharing of local news and upcoming events, information about boats arriving and leaving the area, offers of marine related items to sell (treasures from the bilge)and requests for items boats need, and a boat trivia contest.  This certainly is a boating community!  Last night we joined our nearest neighbors out here on the buoys - Jan and Gary- and another couple, Mike and Barbara, for cocktails and sunset watching.  Jan and Gary are either our backyard neighbors or our across the street neighbors, depending on which way the wind is blowing.  Watching the sunset here is a bit of a daily obligation and is attended to with a certain amount of ceremony.  As the sun sets, people on assorted boats (probably on shore too) blow on conch shells to mark the moment.  It's a unique, haunting sound - something I'll always associate with this special place.



We're finally seeing some beautiful sunsets

One last note - Temperature today is 79 degrees.