We left Fernandina Beach just as TAMURE pulled into the harbor. We were tempted to stay another day to see them, and the dinner invitation from CONSORT was hard to turn down, but after talking to everyone on the radio we realized that they were planning to head outside to St. Augustine so our two day trip would be one day for them and we would see them in a couple of days. We had an enjoyable trip to Pablo Creek where we anchored for the night behind a couple of “islands”. The islands looked more like tall swamp grass than real islands but we had a calm night with thousands of little round brown jelly fish floating by in the three knot current.
Monday, Nov 15
As soon as it was light enough to see the navigation markers we were under way through glassy calm water. The water was calm on the top, but moving fast under the surface. The current going through the first bridge brought our speed down to about 2 knots and the swirling cross current made for a wrestling match with the tiller to avoid running into the bridge. After that things settled down to the point of being boring. The first 3 or 4 hours of the day the ICW was dead straight and about 150 feet wide. The east side was lined with houses, the west side was swamp. I spent most of my time sitting so my back was to the houses so I could watch the birds and pretend we were in the wilderness. This kept me amused for about an hour then I gave in, found my ipod, and listened to NPR news while driving the boat. In the late morning the river widened out so it was more interesting. We pulled into St. Augustine just in time for the 12:30 opening of the Bridge of Lions. We spent the afternoon walking around town and splurged on ice creams.
Tuesday Nov 16 and Wednesday Nov 17
We spent a couple of enjoyable days in St. Augustine. TAMURE, CONSORT, and POLAR PACER were also in the harbor so we had plenty of company for walking around town, and dinners on boats. Bill found an external speaker for our radio so that we can hear it in the cockpit without turning the volume up to a deafening level down below. This has made our life much more enjoyable.
Thursday, Nov 18
We left St. Augustine at 6:45 and for a change had the current with us all day. It is a huge treat to have the increase in speed and not have the frustration of fighting for every tenth of a knot of speed. TAMURE and CONSORT left about 15 minutes behind us and didn’t catch up to us until we were anchoring in Daytona Beach. We are usually the slowest boat around so when we are not passed by everybody we are happy. After being on the boat this long small things amuse us greatly.
Bill spent the afternoon helping Scott with a plumbing project on his boat so Kitty and I had a nice visit on our boat.
Friday, Nov 19
Yet again we left slightly before the crack of dawn. We spent about an 2 hours actually sailing the boat without the engine. It has been so long since we used the boat as a sailboat we had been starting to talk about going over to the dark side and getting a powerboat, but now we remember that sailing is fun.
We anchored for the night at Titusville with TAMURE. There was a satellite launch scheduled for the evening, but unfortunately it was postponed.
Saturday, Nov 20
For once we had a late start and did not get under way until almost 10:00 a.m. because a bridge was having some maintenance work scheduled and would not open until 11:00. We motorsailed almost to the bridge and heard the announcement that they would not open until 11:30. Everyone else anchored and waited for the opening, but it was such a nice day we just turned the motor off and tacked back and forth. (Yes, we do remember how to tack…)
At 11:30 the bridge tender announced that due to technical difficulties the bridge would not open until 12:00. Other people were grumbling to the bridge tender over the radio, but we were having fun sailing. For lunch we had chocolate cake with strawberry jelly and whipped cream as we were sailing around. About the time we finished our lunch the bridge tender announced that it would be another ½ an hour before the opening. Scott had given Bill a Halloween mask so Bill put on the mask and we sailed by TAMURE to amuse them. We then sailed by a little catamaran that we didn’t know. They know think we are crazy, perhaps dangerously so. Oh well, we were on a sugar high and having a great time playing with the boat. After the bridge finally opened we put up the mainsail and had a great sail all afternoon. Most of the other boats were also sailing so it was like a little race. RONDO does surprisingly well against the other heavily laden cruising boats, especially Island Packets! Scott was able to take a couple of pictures of us with the sails up.
We anchored for the night in Cocoa with TAMURE. Scott and Kitty picked us up in their dinghy and we went ashore. The hardware store in town is supposed to be amazing and have everything you could possibly dream about needing. We got there 10 minutes after they closed so we window shopped the tool section until Bill yelled “come here, you have to see this.” We thought he had spotted some great gadget he just had to have, but it turned out to be the biggest rat he had ever seen. Kitty and I were no longer disappointed about the store being closed. After walking around town Scott and Kitty treated us to a delicious meal at a Thai restaurant.
Sunday, Nov 21
We had a fantastic sailing day! We spent most of the day under sail and were sailing fast enough to make the dolphins want to come over to play. Three dolphins swam with us for about 5 minutes. Two would surface on the port side and one on the starboard side, then they would all swim under the boat and one would pop up on the starboard side and two on the port side. When we are under sail we have very little freeboard on the leeward side so we could almost touch them. Later in the day one large dolphin stayed with us for quite a long time and would turn on its side to look at us while he was underwater.
In the early afternoon we caught up with TAMURE who had left about 15 minutes before we did. They had slowed down because they thought they had engine problems. We sailed along beside them for a while in case they needed Bill’s help. Scott was impressed that at one point we had to reef the jib to slow down so we did not pass them while they were motoring. We had to take the sails down about an our before we got into Vero Beach as the channel was narrow and winding. Oh well, we needed to charge the batteries anyway.
Monday Nov 22 - ?
Vero Beach is known as Velcro Beach to the cruisers. Once you get here you tend to stick here as it is convenient and relatively inexpensive. The moorings are 20 per night and there are usually two or three boats rafted on mooring, with the crowd hanging out for Thanksgiving it is mostly three to a mooring. We are sandwiched in between a 28 foot boat called SEARCHER with a very nice singlehander named Steve and his elderly collie Danny, and a 30 footer, SANUK, with Chris and Tracy on board. We fritter our days away riding the bus to the grocery store, Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot, and the beach. It is very social here as by this point in the trip everyone knows so many other boats. The hardest part is deciding which cocktail party or dinner to attend.
Thanksgiving was a lot of fun as over 60 boats signed up for the potluck, which translates to around 120 people. It is truly amazing what people are able to cook in little galleys. There was plenty of turkey, ham, pork roast, side dishes, and a huge variety of desserts. I made two loaves of white bread, a batch of rolls, and a loaf of maple oatmeal bread.
Friday was the first day of the entire trip that was relaxing and lazy. About 10:30 in the morning as we were hanging out on SANUK drinking coffee and talking we all realized the same thing. Cruising sounds laid back and luxurious, but most of the time is spent getting from point A to point B and working on the boat.
We went out to dinner in the evening at the Riverside Café with Lynn, Walt, Gail, Bob, Kitty, Scott, and Evan. Everyone is planning on leaving sometime soon so we all wanted to have a get together.
Saturday we rented a car and drove to Orlando to visit John Ewing who is in the hospital. The Ewings have been friends with Bill’s family forever. John looked great for someone waiting for surgery to relieve pressure from blood on the brain. Jane looks beautiful as always, she never seems to change. Bill enjoyed catching up with Jack who he hasn’t seen for about 40 years. Bill and Jack had been close friends through their entire childhood. Please keep John in your prayers.
Our new plan is to tear ourselves away from Velcro Beach on Monday…
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