Time to get ready to go back to North Carolina! On the 29th we rented an Enterprise car and drove our car to Cocoa and left it at a friend's house. We plan to rent again after we motor the boat to Jacksonville and go pick the car up, take it back to Jax, get the boat ready to leave at a new marina we've picked out, pack up the car and head home just in time for springtime in the Carolinas.
Our total for this last boat leg will be about 400 miles, Ft. Myers to Jacksonville, and should take 9-10 days.
March 1 - Ft. Myers to Franklin Lock
Wayne found that the Corps of Engineers maintains an RV park and docks at the Franklin Lock on the Caloosahatchee River With our senior citizens discount we had dockage for $15.00 inclusive of water and electric. Quite a deal with good showers and restrooms. It was just a short hop from Ft. Myers but we've been thinking we want to check this out and were glad we did.
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| The lower route is the one we take to get around Lake Okeechobee. We can cut at least an hour off our trip by taking a route straight across the lake but it is shallow and often rough with unpredictable weather. Remember, we're in no rush and are only a little bit adventuresome.. |
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| RR bridge leaving Ft. Myers |
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| Franklin Lock Park Really nice |
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| Looking over the waters from our dock at the Franklin Lock |
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| Most marinas have a take one/leave one lending library. Many of them are full of what I call "books that have come to die," terrible yellowed pages on aged paperbacks with ripped or missing covers. Franklin Lock's was a standout composed of all hardbound books in good shape. You weren't allowed to just drop one off but had to donate it through the front gate, I assume requiring approval by the powers-that-be. |
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| We took this shot of the water rushing through the Franklin Lock. Lake O is very high due to heavy rains this winter and the Army Corps of Engineers is dumping lake water in huge amounts. Like 6 billion gallons per day. In Fort Myers there were lots of complaints about the brown water coming off the lake and discoloring the beautiful blue Gulf, adversely affecting the winter tourist industry. |
We had a good day's travel and dropped our anchor in the same spot we've been in before, just before open water on the Lake O rim route. Last month we were swarmed by little tan cockroaches here and they invaded the interior of the boat. We've been fighting them for a month. We were on the lookout for them this time but, whatever they were doing back then, they seem to have finished it and hopefully have not left eggs to hatch in our boat later. Ugh!
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| Sunrise on the waterway |
March 3 - Lake O to Ft. Pierce Anchorage
An easy day with great weather took us to a new anchorage, a little pocket of a lake just east of the bridge going to the beach in Ft. Pierce. We'll definitely anchor in this spot again. We enjoyed a beautiful, calm evening, just cool enough to make for great sleeping weather. We decided to stop over in Vero Beach tomorrow and contacted friends and Wayne's brother to see if we could get together.
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| Lake Okeechobee at its best....as we left our protected anchorage |
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| And its worst. The smoke is from burning off sugar cane stalks during the cane harvest. The ash from it floats onto our boat when the wind blows toward us and makes a big mess. The cranes are building new concrete spillways to try to control the lake water better. |
We've never seen this process before but have heard of it. There's a fixed railroad bridge just as you get to the eastern side of Lake O. It's too low for most sailboats to maneuver under. But, for a price a guy will come to your boat and load you up with big barrels that he fills with water to weigh you down on one side and tilt your mast just enough to slip under the bridge. You can see the blue water barrels being loaded onto this sailboat.
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| Another RR bridge along the Okeechobee Waterway |
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| The last lock, St Lucie Lock with Lk O at 16 feet above sea level |
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| 16 feet of water drop later and we were at Atlantic sea level and head east to Stuart, FL |
March 4 - Ft. Pierce to Vero Beach City Marina
After serious discussion we decided to try for a dock space at the city marina. After all, we've managed to keep our dockage rates to $15.00 for the last three nights. Marina space generally goes for anywhere from $1.75/ft to $2.00/ft, For us that's between seventy and eighty dollars. Ridiculous considering that we supply our own linens and towels and soap and bed...and breakfast. The marina gives us a docking space and water hookup. Electricity is an additional charge!
Wayne's brother, Howard, came and took us to lunch and then we met friends Gil, Donna, and Rob for supper and fun conversation that night. Tomorrow we'll make it to Cocoa for sure and maybe even Titusville.
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| You can't imagine how many goofy partial shots we got before we managed this selfie Gil, Rob, Donna, Colleen and Wayne We're looking forward to meeting up with you again. |
March 5 & 6 - Vero Beach to Titusville
We did make it to Titusville today - a whopping 73 miles which is an eight or nine hour trip for us. We faced a cold, northerly wind most of the day and were wiped out when we arrived. Another marina stay so we could avoid the rough weather. I grabbed the opportunity to wash clothes and we were so happy to have Roger, Marcy, my friend Marla and her granddaughter, Mia, join us for supper at Cracker Jack's. I think the food was good. The three dollar margaritas were fantastic.
The next day 25 mph winds were forecast and we were having battery issues so prudence suggested another day in port. Well spent - reading, napping, sewing.
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| Marker 63 on the ICW. This was a family destination when our boys were little. We never pass it without remembering our guys playing with hermit crabs, exploring the island, fishing, swimming, and camping out. |
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| Marla, Mia Wayne, Marcy, Roger |
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| Marcy made me a pair of socks. Aren't they cool? |
March 7 - Titusville to Hammock Beach Marina
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| Sunrise over the NASA Causeway Bridge. One of the many beautiful sunrises we see each year in Florida |
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| Wow! Up on plane and running 18.4 mph! |
So, when you've got lemons......... We called Larry and Margaret and begged them to come over and help us clean out our refrigerator. They graciously agreed and we had another fun evening with friends. Thanks for being so flexible Larry and Margaret. And...thanks for the wine and conversations. Getting together with you was a pleasure.
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| Larry and Margaret |
Don't you all just look forward to this part of the blog?
We have had two issues on the trip to Jacksonville. One has been the short time that our battery bank is lasting. The house bank of 4 deep discharge batteries is only lasting until early morning before auto-shutdown occurs. The charge should last two days. What we found was that the batteries were not being fully charged when we run on one engine half the travel time. An eight hour travel day was only giving us 4 hours of charge. Also we had turned off the 130 amp charger on our inverter - don't know why we did that. Two simple cures, one - turn on the 130 amp charger for when we hook up at marinas and two - switch to "Both" on the battery selector switch when we are motoring and switch back to bank 1 when we stop. Hope that we remember to do that.
The second problem was we had the FUEL LEAK on the port motor. After we put in at the Hammock Beach Marina, Wayne started to look for the leak. Immediately it was apparent that the smaller engine mounted fuel filter was leaking at a seam. Wayne replaced the fuel filter but what a mess to clean up. Wayne used all eight bilge diapers (these are 16 inch square oil absorbent pads) plus 6 more that the marina manager gave us to clean up the mess. There were probably 3 gallons of diesel fuel spread along eight feet of the ledge under the motor and it had spilled over into our bilge water and was spread throughout the boat. The boat now has a pungent diesel smell that will take a lot of cleaning to remove.
We had a second scare today when it appeared that we still had a diesel leak. We shut down the engine and reevaluated our options. There was no way that we were going to make it to Jacksonville today. The current at St Augustine had slowed us to 6 mph. We decided to pull off and anchor in a creek that we had previously used to see if we could find and stop the leak. After spending much time crawling all over the engine there appeared to be no further leak. Wayne concluded that what looked like more leakage was merely pockets of puddled fuel spreading across the hull fiberglass and staining the bilge diapers. Better to be safe than sorry later.
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| I know that there is fuel leaking here somewhere??????? |
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| We always enjoy seeing this tugboat sitting amongst beautiful homes on the ICW. It appears to be inhabited. |
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| One of the pretty bridges that we passed through |
March 8 - Hammock Beach to Pine Island Anchorage
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| Our anchorage near Pine Island The middle of nowhere |
Wayne seems to be prepared to go back to North Carolina. He says he's ready for more mundane problems than what he's faced over the past few days.
We received word today that Roger and Marcy picked up our car in Cocoa and drove it to our marina in Jacksonville. What a huge favor. Thank you both so much!
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| The Atlantic ocean viewed from the ICW at Matanzas Inlet |
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| This leaning buoy gives you a good idea of the fast current at Matanzas Inlet and all the way to St, Augustine and beyond. Three hours traveling at 6 mph against this! |
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| The final sewing project is finished. I'm thinking it will be a good gift for my good friend - me! |
Today was the last leg of our nine day journey from Ft. Myers to Jacksonville.
This is the scene that greeted us this morning as we left our Pine Island anchorage and pulled into the ICW. So much a typical scene in the Florida wilds - palm trees, morning mist and beautiful waters beckoning us onward.
Such a great start to the day......and then Wayne went below to make sure the leak issue was completely resolved. No such luck! We still had a fuel leak. With Colleen running the boat Wayne went down into the engine space with hearing protectors on and could finally see the leak this time. We shut down the port engine again and continued on to Jacksonville on one engine. Now that we can actually see the source of the second leak we will be able to fix it. The leak will have to be fixed at our new marina home, not on the water.
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| Downtown Jacksonville is right on the water too. In the distance you may be able to make out two of the four bridges that connect one side of the river to the other |
Thanks to all of you who have followed our travels this winter. We so much enjoy hearing from you and always look forward to visits from many of you along the way.
Boat friends
By Colleen
Ships that pass
We’ve met you at pot
luck get-togethers in marinas
In laundromats and
shower rooms
Swinging on a nearby
buoy in the Florida Keys
In marina Captain’s Lounges
from Little River to Brunswick to Jacksonville
And points south and
west
You pass our boat on
a dock and see me quilting on the back deck
Or repairs in
progress
Or you notice our
lettuce garden in its bowl
And you stop to chat
We get together for
cocktails or dinner or late-night hot fudge sundaes
Boaters exchange personal
cards and read each other’s blogs
And they connect but
usually in a most casual way
Because they know
they will be moving on
And might not see
each other ever again
So for however long we had to know you,
Howard and Joanne,
Dale and Mary, Rob and Donna
Gil and Charlene,
Alan and Joyce, Paul and Sue
Terry and Christy,
John and Kay, Benny and Lisa,
Indra and Nelson,
George and Debra, Jann and Gary
It was a pleasure
Looking forward to having you back at guild!
ReplyDeleteHope our paths cross again. Vero next February?
ReplyDeleteFair winds.
Gil and Charlene
Another winter of great sea tales (or at least intercoastal tales). Harlan & Pat
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