2008 Cruising
5/1 to 5/15/2008
This is our log for 2008; the 2007 East Coast and other voyages are now in Prior Voyages.
We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!
Updated on 05/17/2008
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5/1/08 - May day! Yes, another beautiful morning. As the sun rose TowboatUS went by with yet another sailboat in tow. Yesterday they hauled 3 sailboats in to the boatyard. This must be where old engines come to die. Quiet day, pretty windy so we stayed on the boat all day. If not for the wind it was a beautiful 80 degree day. Ruth worked on paper and tax information most of the day. I puttered and read. Still no word on the house inspection or financing. If they want to close on the 16th they're running out of time. Talked to Bradd, Sampatecho, last night. They were in Miami trying to change out their cutlass bearing (new last year). Given the age of the bearing I suggested he look at the couple, engine mounts and transmission output shaft. Got an e-mail from them this evening. Big thanks, the problem was the coupling coming apart. Retightened it and they are back in business... heading our way. 5/2/08 - A mix of sun and clouds this morning. Checking e-mails one from Laureen says their song goes "We've gotta get out of this place, if it's the last thing we ever do...". Going stir crazy in Ft Pierce. Last word is the Yanmar distributor is trying to "Pull the part from stock"... meaning? Don K sent a video clip on dinghy boarding... noting it's getting about time for drin..., boating season at Quarterdeck. Later we got an invite to a dock party. Sounds like fun! Damn, let's see, at 6 knots, 2400 miles... nope, ain't gonna work. Spent most of the afternoon up Ariel's mast. The main halyard had caught the steaming and deck light module, liberating it from the mast. Miles and I installed a new fixture and a guard he'd had build to protect the fixture. Nice view from up there! Yanmar is indicating the new transmission will arrive Monday along with a bill for same. Likely no warranty... too bad, so sad, you bought Yanmar. 5/3/08 - We had a series of dawn showers that did a good job of rinsing down the boat. Afterwards the sun came out and the sky cleared. Boats being ongoing maintenance projects that one moves from place to place... we've come to the conclusion that our freezer is croaking. Time to dig out the manuals and see if we can fix it or if we need a service guy. Rode to Vero Beach with Miles & Laureen, went beaching. Not much to be found though we did stop at a beachside bar and watched a rock band with a Tom Weiler look-a-like drummer. Sue, do you know where your hubby is? Ruth is heading home from Palm Beach Tuesday to clean out the stuff we still have in the house. She arrives in Appleton at 12:49pm. The house closing is scheduled for the 16th. Following that she'll be visiting the kids and grandchildren. During her visit I plan on a surgery and to start heading north to get past Morehead City before our insurance deadline. Ruth is likely buying 2 round trip tickets with our frequent flyer miles. One to get from Palm Beach to Appleton and one to get from Appleton to where I end up when she's ready to return. Can't get one way tickets with frequent flyer credits. 5/4/08 - Sunday, sunny morning with light winds. Just the weather Miles needs on Monday so the welder can finish the repairs on his arch. Ruth spent a couple of hours trying to clean the covers for our cockpit cushions... big improvement but she's not happy with them. I think I'll sew her a set of black covers so they don't show the dirt. ;-> Haircut today, courtesy Ruth. I can see again - thought I was going blind. Our refrigerator and freezer have elected to take a dump. I have to get a service tech aboard as I suspect that at least the refrigerant is low - worse case is that both compressors are shot. Only way to know is to get a tech. These systems are way short on self diagnostics and the troubleshooting on their websites sucks (sorry, it just does). Fortunately the freezer is almost empty and the refrigerator does cool. I'll make some calls tomorrow. Making a part for Miles, almost done. It will protect the sheave at clew on his jib. Should finish it tomorrow in prep for moving out this week... in part dependent on my Biopsy. Given that it's taken two weeks to get results it can't be too critical. Ruth is busy getting her records and lists together for the trip home to clear the house. The inspection went as expected... enough of a discount in price to pay his wages twice. What a racket. 5/5/08 - Cinco de Mayo - Olay. Very light shower at dawn, then on to a beautiful 80 degree day. Ruth and I got some paperwork done before Ruth went shopping for provisions with Renee. I helped Miles, making a small spacer block to improve the performance of the job outhaul... details. We rented a car for tomorrow so I can drive Ruth to Palm Beach (60 miles) for her flight to WI. We also arranged for a refrigeration serviceman... both the freezer and refrigerator have issues. Block ice is our short term solution. The yard is talking end of the week before they can get to the refrigeration. Ariel got their transmission replaced today - no one can tell them why it failed at 600 hours. I suspect it is a poorly engineered power train by Yamaha... only time will tell. Based on experience they can expect to replace this one in 600 hours. Having traveled with them from day one I can vouch for the fact that the system was never abused. In fact, they've run slow to accommodate us. They still have a welding job and paint buffing before they are ready to leave. I'm guessing Thursday. I may have to send them north while I try to get my issues resolved, catching up with them later. Ruth is in a packing frenzy, trying to take minimal with her as she has to empty the house while I try to get medical attention and move the boat north for insurance purposes. It's a mess, but once cleaned up we'll be in much better shape. Ruth and I are on each others cases - but that's to be expected given all that's going on. Lots of company in our little anchorage tonight. One is a little close. If the wind stays up we'll be okay. If not we'll bump - lightly, due to tides. Little excitement, a sportfisherman came into the anchorage after dark, wandered around looking for a place to anchor before hitting our anchor chain and us. His dinghy got caught on our starboard side and his vessel on our port... dah, he powered up and tried to pull the dinghy around us, causing our anchor to drag. I told him to release the dinghy or I'd cut the dinghy line. He released it, leaving the dinghy with us. He went on to just clear the boat on our port side and tangle with two other sailboats downstream of us. Got free of one, cut the other loose. SeaTow had to rescue it. Got his name, phone and boat name. Tomorrow when I get back from the airport I'll have to check for damage. I think our chain protected AA though he hit hard enough to knock Ruth off her feet. Oh, the boat on our starboard side, Soul Mate, called the USCG (within sight of our anchorage), within 25 minutes they arrived (no, they didn't swim) and carefully avoided getting involved in the problems at the anchorage (no aliens, drugs or terrorist involved... therefore out of their jurisdiction). Called SeaTow to assist in cleaning up the mess. What a night... didn't get to bed until midnight. 5/6/08 - Up at 6 to drive Ruth 60 miles to Palm Beach for her flights. We missed most of the traffic and arrived in plenty of time for her flight. On arrival at the harbor I found Ariel in a work slip getting the welding on the arch and paint polishing taken care of. She'll be like new. Miles next battle is with Yanmar. They say it's his fault the transmission died after 600 hours. They can't tell him why... it's just because it isn't their fault. Sound like the story they gave Bob on Fourth Watch when his fuel system died after 650 hours. "Sooo sorry... must be something you did - Japanese engineering is perfect". Miles has the new generation 4 cylinder diesel. It's going to be interesting to see if BoatUS or the USCG has any thoughts on how these systems are standing up. The yard called, AA goes in tomorrow night to have the freezer & refrigerator compressors checked the following day. Right now the refer's limping and I have block ice cooling the freezer. Biopsy's back, diagnosed as Squamous Cell Carcinoma... outpatient surgery late Monday afternoon. Now AA is holding up Ariel. Damn, hate it when that happens. Laureen & Miles invited me for dinner on Ariel... an excellent meal featuring tenderloin and spicy snow peas. Delicious! Ruth called, her flights went well and she'd borrowed Laureen's car for transportation. Big task ahead of her - getting the house cleared out and closed. 5/7/08 - No wind at dawn. As the sun came up I noticed that a late arrival at the anchorage had grounded an was now stranded by low tide. Been there, done that... not fun but what goeth away cometh back - then you get off the mud. Got a call about 9am, the dermatologist had an opening for 2:30, could I make it? Rented a car and had Miles join me so he could drive back. First we had to move AA into a slip so the refrigeration tech could board her tomorrow and work on the refrigerator and freezer. Then off to Port St. Lucie for the surgery. After 2 hours in the clinic I'd donated a hunk of my hide, picked up 22 stitches, and was on my way back to the boat. My hide was headed for the lab to make sure they got everything. Two weeks before the lab reports so we'll be headed north. The Dr Marder says about 250,000 of these little devils are treated annually. Had to call Miles for an assist after supper. Apparently chewing opened the stitches somewhat as I felt a sticky substance on my tee shirt and on checking in the mirror realized I was leaking blood. A double compress stayed the flow. When Miles arrived he found I'd stopped the leak so he redressed the cut... photographing his work. Off to bed, going to be interesting trying to sleep with this beast on my neck. 5/8/08 - Tense night sleeping, awoke to another beautiful Florida sunrise. Miles dressing held - no bloody bed. Have to call Dr Marder this morning. My meds say "Take 1 tablet by mouth twice a day for 2 weeks"... the pharmacy gave me 14 tablets, not 28 as I'd expect, with a notation "no refills". Either someone can't count or I can't read. A quick call revealed the doctor had errored in multiplication... 2 X 14 doesn't equal 14. The refrigeration tech, Randy, showed up a little after 9am. He quickly found a leaking fitting in the freezer and went to work on that. Pressurizing the freezer didn't solve the problem so he called in Joe, an electrician. After some research we found that a loose terminal on the master battery switch was not allowing enough amperage to support the draw of the compressors. After tightening the contact both unit ran okay. While they were working I sent Karen at GOB a series of photos for an article that will appear in their December issue. It's still amazes me that capabilities the internet provides. I can remember when fax displaced telex - providing a whole new range of possibilities for transmitting information. Looks like I'll be in the service slip another night while Whiticar gets my bill figured out. Then Ariel and AA will likely head offshore for Canaveral. Traveling alone I'll have to train Buddy to stand watch. After supper with Miles and Laureen, Dr. Cherkasky redressed my stitches. His skills are ramping up quickly. 5/9/08 - As the sun rose a heavy layer of dew became apparent. Days in the 80's, high humidity and cool nights give this area an August feel. I talked to a tired Ruth last night - she's getting things done as she had expected. Her brother Pat helped for a day, then Amy lent a hand and now Angie is coming up to help over the weekend. Ruth says it's hard not to do the flower beds, but knows what she needs to get done before the 16th which is coming fast. Miles helped me move AA from the slip to the anchorage. The refer & freezer totaled $230 - not as high as I expected but high enough, $79.00/hr - however I got two nights at their slip with power and water. A great deal! Grilled out on Ariel for dinner celebrating our pending departure from Ft Pierce. 5/10/08 - A bright red ball rising out of the ocean to the east announced dawn. As I sat in the cockpit watch a long parade of sportfishermen head out (tournament today) I noted the horizon to the north was darkening. Within minutes a gray bank of fog had oozed over the anchorage, cutting visibility to about 1/4 mile. Ran from 8am until 7:30pm... long day - 70 miles. The fog starting lifting at 8am and was gone by 9 - very accommodating. The wind was pretty much on the nose so we ended up motoring most of the distance. At least we're moving again. Buddy talked a streak most of the morning in the cockpit. Wore himself out. We grilled out again on Ariel, then I returned to AA and talked to Ruth on the phone. She'd had a busy day with the girls conducting an estate sale at our house... cleaned out everything. She's sitting in a basically empty house, has only a bed left that one of her sisters wants. I can't imagine what's going through her mind as she views the now empty house that we restored, remodeled, furnished and spent our entire married life in. I wish I was there with her! Ruth's next task is taxes - the IRS says last year's filing is wrong and we have to do this year - filed an extension because we were out of the country. I'm still working on the concept of paying as much as you take in but I guess we're not unique in that. We've changed our mail to a forwarding service in Florida, it's now:
The next issue is domicile, we'll need to renew drivers' licenses, etc. Likely they'll be in Florida also. Weird, I've been a Wisconsinite all my life. Not sure I know how to be a Floridian. On the plus side they have no state income tax but high sales taxes. Also on the plus side, if we register the boat in Florida we can cruise their waters over 90 days without feeling like fugitives. We're exploring the other downsides. 5/11/08 - Awoke at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. As the sun rose it became apparent that we would again start the day with fog. Ariel was visible behind me but the Cape Canaveral shuttle assembly building was hidden. We ran 50 miles to Daytona. Boy they sure missed the weather forecast today. We were motor sailing with 10-15 knots from the west. Just what they forecast. We were treated to a couple of fly-bys of pink flamingos - brilliantly highlighted by the early sun. Then the winds increased to mid 20's with gusts in the 30's. The wind was so strong it blew the bandage off my stitches. I couldn't hold AA on course sailing alone so I furled the headsail and motored. Enroute I heard a squeal from the engine blower duct - then it went away. Hmmmm? In Daytona my first attempt to anchor didn't work. The boat was blowing so fast the anchor was planing. For the second attempt I left the engine in forward, idling and set the autopilot. That let the anchor hit bottom before the wind overpowered the autopilot. Ariel went a little further and took a marina slip for the night - time to find a good restaurant. For me it was time to check the engine. Belts looked good. While I was at it I did an oil change... levels looked okay. Next I tried to jump the thermostat to turn on the engine compartment blower. Nothing! I hot wired the blower... still nothing. Looks like it's time for a new blower. I can run without it for a while, likely do it in Deltaville. Chuck Morrell called, they are one day behind us. In fact, we unknowingly passed them in the Titusville area this morning. 5/12/08 - At 6am my mind played reveille, dragging me out of my dreams. Still pretty dark out, though the shoreline was taking on definition. Wind gusts still buffeted AA as she danced like a tethered ballerina on the end of the anchor chain. The cold front has passed through, jacket weather this morning given the winds. We've passed through light smoke the last couple of days. Apparently there are wild fires in our area. The smoke is not dense, more like being around the campfires in a state park. Ran until 3pm, stopped at Red 18 and anchored outside of St Augustine in a eddy formed by a bend in the ICW. The wind is still very gusty and I didn't want to risk trying to anchor in the densely populated St Augustine tidal river alone. It sounded like a terrible way to meet people. Ariel took a slip for a couple of nights as they want to revisit the city. I had my fill of cities when I traveled heavily for Menasha and K-C, don't crave seeing them. Too many cars and people, too much dirt and noise. After a day in most marinas you need to wash down the decks to get the grit off. If the wind dies tomorrow I'll go to the marina for fuel then anchor north of the city in another area I want to try. 5/13/08 - Beautiful dawn - light wind and cloudless sky. I enjoyed my cereal and coffee in the cockpit as the sun rose. It was chilly, low 70's, but very pleasant in a tee shirt and shorts. Buddy wanted to share breakfast so I gave him a corn flake which he slowly ate. He and I kept waiting for Ruth's morning greeting of "good morning, good morning, good morning..." but it didn't materialize. AA was the only occupied boat in the anchorage... surprising as it has normally been fairly crowded when we've passed it on other trips. I pulled the engine compartment blower today and confirmed that it is deader than a door nail (how dead is a door nail? Where'd that come from?). Star Gazer, Chuck & Bonnie, motored by calling me on the cell phone to say hi. They'll be a day ahead of us given their destination of Fernandina Beach tonight. At 11:30am I moved AA to the anchorage just off the Municipal Marina south of the Bridge of Lions. I took the dinghy in and walked 2 miles to West Marine, picking up a new blower. Got a couple of grocery items on the way back along with a nice dose of exercise. Back at the boat I tested and installed the blower - all systems are up again. 5/14/08 - At 7:30am we cleared the Bridge of Lions and headed north. Another beautiful day, though just cool enough that you needed a jacket when in the wind on the water. We lucked out in that the construction barge that has been blocking the McCormick bridge north of Jacksonville during daylight hours had moved to one side leaving the passage through the bridge open. No more lift bridge there - they have a nice new 65 footer. Good for the cars, good for the boats, bad for the bridge operators. We had strong gusty winds and were able to motor sail most of the journey making good speed over the bottom - usually 7 knots and as high as 8.5. With the twisting waterway I was constantly trimming the sails, wore me out! Enroute I had to transfer 5 gallons of diesel into the boat's tank as it looked like I'd be landing on fuel vapors. Took on 62.3 gallons on arrival at Fernandina Harbor Marine before anchoring out. Ariel took a mooring for the night. Later I joined them as their guest for dinner downtown. They said they need to get me out as I was turning into a hermit (hermit crab?). I had shrimp and fried grits, a low country meal - very nice! 5/15/08 - Sunrise in Fernandina Beach, the northern edge of Florida. We ran the ditch again today though we really wanted to jump offshore. The way I'm feeling I just didn't think I should try a 20 hour run single-handed. These 8-10 hours days drain me... I can't imagine running 20 without a break. Adrian and Jan, and English couple had traveled with us the last couple of days. They had sailed over from England (15 days) and had cruised Venezuela and the Caribbean before working their way up the coast from the Bahamas. I finally got to met them at Jekyll Island when we had lunch while waiting for the tide to rise so we could transit Jekyll Creek, a notoriously shallow section of the ICW. With the tide rising we ran the creek, we also hit Mud River at high tide - talk about luck. We did better than a tug and barge that grounded yesterday and was blocking the ICW until late today. It's still aground but has been able to swing enough to open the channel. Luckily it occurred after we passed the area. May have been one of the two southbound tows we met yesterday. After a 65 statue mile day we anchored in the Darien River (about 70 miles south of Savannah). I made a can of chili for supper and settled in for the night. The weather forecast calls for 30 knot winds and possible thunderstorms... could be a long night.
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Vessel sailing south past our anchorage on the ICW
Dawn reveals fate of a late arrival
Miles' handiwork stops the leaker
Ariel in fog off Cape Canaveral
Shuttered windows protect vacant condos from hurricane winds
The low painters' tent tells how often NASA uses this railroad bridge Florida ICW The waterway has improved each of our treks. Remedial dredging has improved area that on previous trips were marginally passable with our 5' 6" draft even though the waterway's project depth ranges from 12 to 8 feet as you travel south. It is great to see the progress!
Saw Miles eyeing this one up, let's see, we're motoring most of the time...
Then again, this one has a better layout and the price could be right
Sailing down the ICW...
Palmettos along the ICW
Looking SE from AA's St Augustine anchorage - no city!
Looking NE from AA's St Augustine anchorage... it's nice & quiet here. Bridge of Lions From my second St Augustine anchorage I watched the cranes working on restoring the Bridge of Lions. In the background the temporary lift bridge provided a link for the two halves of the city. The old bridge was completely dismantled and is being restored with a new foundation. St Augustine is a architecturally rich city in touch with its history. In two years the new bridge will be gone and the Bridge of Lions will look like it did when it was originally built.
Restored bridge tenders buildings
Tug moving crane at Bridge of Lions
We motor sailed along with a trawler
ICW scenery... for miles and miles
Working paper mill at Fernandina
Fernandina commercial harbor
Fernandina Harbor Marina
Sheds keep submarines out of the rain
Georgia shoreline
Crews from Ariel, C'n America, and Squander - lunch at Jekyll Island waiting for the tide to rise
Ariel and Squander anchored in the Darien River |
Visit earlier portions of our 2008 voyage...
| Boca Raton to Miami, FL - Jan 1 to 15, 2008 | Miami to Key West, FL - Jan 16 to 31, 2008 |
| Key West to Marathon, FL - Feb 1 to 15, 2008 | Marathon, FL to Nassau, Bahamas - Feb 16 - 29, 2008 |
| Norman Cay to Georgetown, Bahamas - March 1 - 15, 2008 | Georgetown to Royal Island - March 16 - 31, 2008 |
| Royal Island to Green Turtle Cay - April 1 - 15, 2008 | Green Turtle Cay to Fort Pierce - April 16 - 20, 2008 |
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