Bad Day for Thin Wallet

It was a bad day for our meager retirement income.  Batteries were extremely low and didn’t seem to be taking a charge.  Stopped in at Harbortown Marine and met Joe from Whiticar Yacht Services.  He was stumped, too.  So we stayed at the marina - $80 instead of $0 to anchor.  In the morning, Joe came back for another look and everything was great.  Did some testing and pronounced the batteries and alternator healthy and fit.  Glen was able to locate the culprit.  The refrigeration system takes its power directly from the batteries without going through the electrical panel so loads of power was sneaking out without us knowing.  We now have full batteries and we know that our fridge is a hog.   Joe was great but Joe is not cheap!

So off we went, gallant explorers, but backing out of the slip (which is 4 pilings – 2 at the bow and 2 at the stern, Captain Chaos managed to come too close to one of the pilings.  Our new marine barbeque valiantly tried to protect the boat from the piling but alas, the barbeque is now in the water at the end of slip H-37.  Six feet under, so to speak.

We forged on to Stuart and we are currently anchored in 5 feet of water in Manatee Pocket – right near the St. Lucie Inlet.  Walked to the nearby West Marine and replaced our noble BBQ.  They are setting up for a huge seafood festival http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/jan/23/seafood-festival-celebrates-fishing-industry/ so lots of fishermen are bringing in their catch to be prepared and sold.  We bought a “Blue” (?) and Glen expertly filleted it.  It is ready to cook for dinner tonight.

Dinghy ride into shore at Stuart

Big Fish

Tomorrow we will hopefully go to sea from the ICW and sail to the Lake Worth inlet to wait for a Bahama crossing.  If the weather is poor we will continue on the ICW – but there are at least 6 bridges that open on the hour and half hour.  Let’s hope for sailing on the outside.  If we get out there... and it's great... maybe we should head across.  The reports call for a good day tomorrow... but 5 days of not so good crossing days.  We are 25 miles north of our ideal crossing location.  From the Lake Worth Inlet it is 57 miles to West End on Grand Bahama.  Pythagorus suggests that it is only 62 if we go from here.  Hmmmmm!

Hanging out in Vero Beach

January 23, 2010 Vero Beach Municipal Marina

Took about 8 hours to get from Cocoa Beach down the ICW to Vero Beach.  We are at the Vero Beach City Marina – on a mooring buoy.  Found that the school supplies that we had volunteered to deliver to the Bahamas were here.

Homework for Bahamians

Had a look at the facilities – not bad – showers, laundry, boaters’ lounge with book exchange.  They were having a social but we had neither wine nor cheese so we elected not to join them.  Saw several guitars, mandolins, etc.

January 24, 2010 Vero Beach Municipal Marina

Went for a long walk along the beach road – high class stores with expensive clothes.   Bought Glen a pair of shorts off a clearance rack.  The weather is not great – windy and muggy.  We will stay here for a few days.

Not needed in Abbotsford schools!!!

Get the solar panels running and do our next to final provisioning.  We listen to people on the Cruisehiemers Net – on Single Side Band radio.  Lots all around the Caribbean, the Bahamas and in Florida.  There are several boats in here – waiting to resolve their own circumstances to get ready to head south.  Endaxi caught up with us today.  They were our neighbours in Brunswick, Georgia and left there the day after us.

January 25, 2010 Vero Beach Municipal Marina

Rented a car.  Left this morning for Ft. Lauderdale and Miami to pick up a water gauge and solar panels.  Took 2 hours of driving each way but the day was a success even though one of the places isn’t open on Mondays but someone answered the phone so we went anyway.  Found a “Total Wines” store and a Costco so we are loaded and ready.  It was a long day.  Transferred a dingy load of goodies to the boat in the dark.   Tomorrow we will hang out.  Pam will find cubby holes for all the good stuff we bought and Glen will install the solar panels.

We have had some battery problems.  We noticed that the batteries were low – even after so much motoring.  Glen was concerned that the alternator was defective – but this morning he checked the belt and found it to be very loose.  Tightened the belt, started the engine and we could hear the change in the engine tempo as the alternator started to charge the batteries.  We’re not happy using the engine to charge.  That should be the job of the solar panels, a wind charger or a separate generator.  But we have steaks to keep frozen so we are running the engine to top up the batteries.  Tomorrow, hopefully, the panels will kick in and take over.

January 26, 2010 Vero Beach Municipal Marina

Got up early and set about installing the solar panels.  By noon they were in place, and connected.  Glen sat in the lazorette watching the connections where the regulator is temporarily installed while Pam pulled the cardboard off the solar panels.  They immediately started providing 10+ amps to our poor starved batteries.  Yayyyyyyyyy!

New Solar Panels

There's one..

... and the other!

We left the solar panels to do their work while we took off in the car to do our last (we hope) provisioning.  Stopped off to look at a manatee viewing area – with the cold temperatures there are a lot of concerns about manatees, fish, etc.  We saw thousands of dead fish as we travelled south.  This area reports about 20 manatee deaths due to the cold spell.

Got a bucket, some other junk, and $300 of meat, fruit, vegetables and booze from Publix.  Pam wonders if we have too much.  We might need visitors sooner than later.  We have enough for 6 months.  Our lockers are full and even with an excel spreadsheet we aren’t sure if we have the right things and amounts.  (Truly, we have an excel spreadsheet).

We will head down to Fort Pierce tomorrow.  Then outside to the Lake Worth Inlet near Riviera Beach to wait for the appropriate time to cross to the Bahamas.

Down the Intercoastal Waterway

January 19, 2010 Pine Island north of St. Augustine

Pulled over to the edge of the ICW for the night at about 6 PM. Anchored in 8 feet of water near 3 other boats. Got up and left at 7:30.

January 20, 2010 Halifax Harbor Yacht Club, Daytona Beach
Glen called to see if the yacht club would honor our connection with the Royal Marsh Harbour Yacht Club and they said, “Fine.” So for $30 we tied up at their dock overnight. VERY POSH. Glen definitely did not meet the dress code!

Halifax River Yacht Club

January 21, 2010 New Smyrna, near the Harris Saxon Bridge
Left to head to Titusville or even further but after less than 3 hours we ran into some incredible wind. We were going to forge on but we struck up a conversation with another boat while waiting for a bridge to open. He indicated that he was planning to pull over and anchor because it can get really rough in these shallow lakes and rivers. On the assumption that everyone else knows more than we do – we chickened out and pulled over. We spend the day reading, doing chores and snoozing. Pam did some cleaning. She is really quite something. The boat looks like it is brand new and up for sale. Glen is sure to screw things up.
Turns out there was a hell of a storm. Lots of wind, rain, thunder and lightning. Pam rigged up the deck-fill by putting a cloth to act as a dam to catch the rainwater into our tanks. We added several gallons of fresh rainwater. Completely filled the tanks!

We are meeting lots of like-minded people, on their way to the Bahamas. I hope they have patience. We will be asking them lots of dumb questions.


January 22, 2010 Cocoa Beach, near the Twin Bridges to Merritt
Came down the Mosquito River, through the Haulover Canal, into the Indian River. Passed Titusville around noon. Dolphins everywhere chasing the boat, ignoring the boat, jumping etc. Makes Pam crazy – she shrieks every time she sees one. Lots of shrieking!!!

Dolphins Everywhere

Had the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building in our sights most of the day. No shuttle on the launch pad though.

The NASA Vehicle Assembly Building

Got into Cocoa at 3:30, anchored in 8 feet of water and went into town. Jeans are too hot – Glen wished he had worn shorts. Went through the biggest hardware store on the east coast – according to them.

Now that's a wrench!

Walked to a nearby marina and met a guy on an IP 380 headed for Isla Mujeres, Mexico via the Keys. Back to the boat for boat drinks and the best hamburger ever!

Best Burger

Tomorrow we meet someone at Vero Beach to take on donated school supplies destined for a school in Georgetown, Exumas.
We will find a place in a couple of days where we can wait for a weather window. We’ll do our last provisioning, hook up the solar panels, any other last minute details – and then go!

Heading South

Jan 18
We’ve left Brunswick, heading south for our transit to the Bahamas. It isn’t warm – but its sunny. We had a good run on the ICW from 10 AM to 4 PM accompanied by Sid and Linda in their IP 40.

Sid and Linda on Quest, IP 40

We tied up to a mooring ball in the harbour. We were at Fernandina last summer so we knew the area. Had a grouper sandwich at the Marina Seafood Restaurant for supper. This morning we are going ashore for a coffee at the Marina office before we head off to Jacksonville Beach and points south.

Pam enjoying the warmth

Capt. Chaos at the helm of the Blue Pearl

Sunset at Fernandina

Brunswick to the Bahamas

Leaving home to get back to the Blue Pearl was more challenging than we thought. The month leading up to our departure was very emotional – a beautiful new grandson and the end of Glen’s career in education. Jackson David Closs surprised us coming a week early on December 23. (We are excited about a potential visit while we are on the boat in the Bahamas.) Glen went through a range of emotions leaving a job, colleagues and students he loved. It was not as easy as we thought it would be to just pack up and go.

Jackson and Grandma

But – off we went Thursday, January 7, 2010 to Seattle and Friday to Tampa so Glen could take a course on the Island Packet electrical system on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday was a four and a half hour drive to the boat.
An interesting weather development has been overshadowing our departure. Florida has been experiencing record low temperatures for several weeks. It was colder here yesterday than Vancouver ever gets. We stopped at several spots along the way to try to buy a ceramic heater – our boat is built for the Bahamas, not the Arctic – they were sold out at every place we tried.

So last night, we slept in our clothes under 3 quilts. It was quite comfy although Pam’s nose was running. This morning Glen found the coveted heater at a local Target so tonight we are warm and cozy.

Tomorrow we are having a marine radio installed, we have some boat chores and we are watching the weather. They are forecasting better weather, about 20 C. It looks like we will be off in the next few days for our trip to southern Florida to cross to the Bahamas.

Pam making coffee with our new equipment - Thanks, Pat and Don!

Done for now

We are writing this from a hotel near the Orlando airport - waiting for our plane home.

We left Amelia Island on Monday debating whether we should go outside or continue up the ICW. The last person we talked to was Patty from "Knot Dreaming," who said they always go outside. Just clear the North Jetty Buoy at the end of the inlet and head north. So we did. Pam had a "sell the boat" moment as we crashed through the huge waves in the inlet. We think they are caused when the big ocean waves "wash up" in the inlet and they are made worse if the tide is going against the wind. Anyway - we stuck the nose in the troughs for about 20 minutes before we finally got the sails up and things smoothed out.



We had a good sail all the way - but the depths were a little disconcerting. A couple of times we only had a foot or two below the keel and once we had to change course to avoid some obvious shoals. Made it into the Brunswick cut and under the bridge (our 53rd) in about 8 hours. Tied up with help from the marina staff at Dock 15 at Brunswick Landing Marina and started to get the Blue Pearl ready to leave.

Pam remarks that this isn't like trips on our little boat where we could hardly wait to get home to shower and get comfortable. The "Blue Pearl" is very comfortable and has become our second home... our summer cottage. The heat has been oppressive but when we come back in January we think it will be incredible.

Wrapping the Main	Checking the lines
Cleaning up "Murphy	Rehydrating
The Rack	The Wine Rack

New plan

OK... still coming home on August 20th but things are a bit different.

We rented a car and drove to St. Mary's. Very do-it-yourself. Rocky and his Aunt Mabel run the show and it is very rustic. We have to do a ton of work - maybe more than we are willing. We need to remove the backstay to get the travel lift around the boat. Also, all sails off, canvas off, cover the boat with netting. We are also a little worried about getting there - with all the twists and turns in the river! All this in 92 degree, humid heat!

So, friends had suggested Brunswick, 40 miles to the north. A bit discouraged, we drove the extra 40 miles. Took us less than an hour. We're not used to those kinds of speeds. Pam wanted to make lunch on the way - just like on the boat.

At Brunswick we could see why our friends had recommended the place. There are hundreds of boats at the docks. The salty old bird that runs the place made our adventure sound very mundane. People leave their boats there all the time. Getting ready for their winter in the Bahamas. You mean we aren't the first? Very normal. Bring the boat in, put it to bed like we do with Miss Pearl every year in the Pacific Northwest. Get all the bumpers out, lots of lines, don't leave any sandwiches in the fridge and ... leave!

So, one more adventure coming up. We will leave here on Monday early and exit the Saint Mary's River entrance. Sail north to the Brunswick entrance - and tie up at Brunswick landing. Plan B would have us go up the ICW in the event of bad weather.

We've been toting this canvas bag around with us... supposed to be a spinnaker so we pulled it out the other day. Wow... we've got big sails. Looking forward to trying that.

So we are doing lots of little chores, changing pumps, building a wifi antenna, installing a wine glass rack (very important), installing speakers (for Jimmy Buffet music for Charlotte), cleaning the raw water strainer, getting the who's who organized so we can get some maintenance done while we are gone. Also a little sight-seeing.

Leaving on Monday for Brunswick.

St. Marys

St. Marys closer

St. Marys up close  - hmmmmmm

Brunswick

Brunswick - closer

Spinnaker