East Coast Travels

12/1 to 12/15 2007

We're working our way south, the weather has warmed to the point of being to hot and humid some days... rough.

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 12/24/2007

12/1/07 - Wow, another month has passed! 7:30 departure, sunrise. As we trekked south we heard a radioed report of 5' water at Ponce Inlet, markers 1 to 3. AA led the fleet past marker 1 and around a snaky bend.  We saw nothing under 7'. Shallow water is often the result of wandering off the centerline of the marked channel. The weather was sunny and warm, t-shirt time. As we motored through Haulover Canal we saw wild pink flamingos - real ones, not the plastic type. We also saw a manatee along with our ever-present dolphins, pelicans, cormorants, and osprey. At Titusville Ariel took a slip as they were expecting guests from Orlando. We anchored out and towed Fourth Watch's dinghy over to them (we've been towing it to increase their speed). It finally felt like Florida as we enjoyed cocktails with them caressed by a balmy breeze as we watched the sun setting. Then we motored into the marina to meet Diane, Laureen's childhood accomplice. 12/2/07 - Snow last night - in Wisconsin. We stayed at Titusville, did a little provisioning and set up the bimini frames for Fourth Watch. Actually too hot today, we're not acclimated to that yet. We can see the Cape Canaveral shuttle assembly building from here. This is one of the areas people come to to watch launches. Big tourist thing. Beautiful night, after a dinner of pork tenderloin, peas and mashed potatoes we retired to the cockpit to let the balmy breeze caress us. This is what we cruise for! 12/3/07 - Hazy sunrise, we left at 8 because the NASA Causeway bridge is closed from 6:15 to 8am. The weather was beautiful with a 10 knot west to NW wind. After motor sailing a couple of hours we shut down the engine and sailed, maintaining close to the speed we had before. With the engine off a pair of dolphins decided to accompany us for half an hour. Way cool watching them run alongside the cockpit like they were playing with us, occasionally changing sides or running one on each side. When they got tired they fell back to forage for food. We had a long run planned to Vero Beach. After lunch it was apparent we'd be coming in in the dark so we sent Ariel ahead. They were moored before dusk, finding Jon and Bobby Jo on Don't Look Back in the marina. We weren't going to make it so we stopped at a favorite dock, Jones Fruit Dock, marker 104, for the night. We were saddened to hear that Richard Jones, 88, was in the hospital; but pleased to hear the prognosis is good. He is a treasure worth getting to know. 12/4/07 - Time is sneaking up on us, Paula and Bob fly out the 10th. Miles the 11th for a meeting, back the 12th. Miles and Laureen out the 18th for the holidays. Ruth home for Christmas the19th. I started a bimini for Fourth Watch, they have been in the sun and rain the whole trip. I also ordered material for a new dodger as the start of a system that will let them enclose the cockpit against the weather. Bob helped me set the frame and pattern the fabric. 12/5/07 - Vero Beach, we call it Velcro Beach 'cause you can easily get stuck there - everything is too convenient. Laureen is calling it Viral Beach as she is fighting a nasty fever/cold. At $11.00 per day it is hard to leave Vero. A free bus takes you to the mall, beach or town. Very nice! We always come here for a day and stay several. Just get stuck! 12/6/07 - Still Vero, I worked on the bimini for Fourth Watch, finishing it... Ruth and Paula went to the beach looking for shells and beach glass. Found a little glass and a number of nice shells. Ruth used some shells with holes to decorate the salon for Christmas for Buddy and me. It looks great with the shells, lights and a garland. Laureen has rejoined the human race, seems to have her cold cornered. They celebrated by going out to dinner with Jon and Bobby Jo. 12/08/07 - We left Vero Beach at 8am, headed for Lake Peck. You can tell it is a weekend by the number of power boats and the wakes. Ruth is helming and I'm sewing a door for a sister ship of Ariel. Fourth Watch led the fleet again today. No hits, no bumps, no errors. At Lake Peck they felt their way into a very nice anchorage... better than the one we chose. They had a pair of dolphins play with them for about 15 minutes. When Ruth tried to photo them they came alongside and played with AA's wake. At lake Peck we anchored in 10" of water. Ariel took a slip in a nearby marina as they hope to have a guest tonight. 12/09/07 - 8am is getting to be a routine... anchors up, meet Ariel and head south with Fourth Watch leading. Beautiful day, scattered clouds and wind - 15 - 20 knots worth, not an issue in the ditch. Lots of bridges today, we are getting to Palm Beach. We met a 175 foot yacht at one bridge, waiting to let it come through north bound. Fourth Watch learned that if you don't talk to the bridge you don't necessarily get let through. They were lucky and got a special opening that let them catch up by the next bridge. By early afternoon we were anchored for lunch on AA in North Lake Worth. Ariel and AA were to spend the night. Fourth Watch was going on to Palm Beach and the marina where they will leave their boat until early January. I repaired a screen door for Ariel and sewed a new one for friends of theirs that have another of the 3 A47's. Packers over Oakland, how about those special teams? Buddy is proud to be green and gold! 12/10/07 - Monday morning, sunny but with large cumulus clouds on the horizon - a typical eastern FL scene. We lazed around our North Lake Worth anchorage until noon. I did some design work on Ariel, little touches to make the boat easier to keep organized and visited with Miles. At noon we lifted anchor and motored down to West Palm Beach where Ariel took a marina for a couple of days so Miles could head north on business. Ruth and I continued south for a couple of hours to a small anchorage below the Lantana Bridge. Soon the grill was fired up and marinated chicken breasts were sizzling - another day ending in Paradise. 12/11/07 -  Another beautiful morning! Man, it could get boring. We decided to stay another day in our Lantana anchorage and do exciting stuff like top off the water in the batteries, check the oil, clean the office, clean the oven, do e-mails... even here daily life makes its demands. Our anchorage neighbors all left, headed south. Our next stop is Boca Raton and we'll be in that area until about the 10th of January when Ruth comes back (she leaves the 19th). Jeff's next go fast boat just idled by, powered by twin jets. We're not talking water jets... we're talking real jet engines like you'd find on a Lear. At about 50 foot and sleek as a tear drop it was quite the sight to see. I have no idea where you could open it up and why - but it sure was different. I doubt any piston engine could touch it. 12/12/07 - After a lazy start, 10am, we motored south in a building fleet. By the time we reached Lake Wyman there were 13 of us. This is a stretch of the ICW Ruth and I have learned to jump offshore, weather and schedule permitting, to miss all the bridges, some on the hour and half, some on 15 and 45 after the hour, some on request - problem being that they seem to change the schedule annually. At Lake Wyman we hung a right into Marina Solbu, John and Nell's home, for the night. It was the first time we'd gotten to met Nell. She and Ruth must have talked for 2 hours. John and I went over some projects I can help him with. He is recovering from knee surgery which limits his ability to kneel down and do some of the tasks like the leak under a rosewood floor that is causing the floor to cup warp. 12/13/07 - After croissants and coffee with Nell and John we attacked the floor. We drilled a 2" hole and connected a shop vacuum to try to suck out any standing water, also to prevent the area from spreading. Then I drilled some small diameter holes in the flooring seams to allow an air source. It's not going to be an easy fix as the sub-floor is on concrete with vapor barriers. Next step will be a good dehumidifier - got to get the moisture out. We found and repaired the source of the water, a leaking fitting on the back of an icemaker. Little details can cause big issues. 12/14/07 - Back to the floor. They had an older portable dehumidifier that didn't collect any water last night so we went out and got a new one. We'll have to let it run a couple of days to see if we are gaining any ground. If not the floor will have to be torn up and replaced - ugly thought. Ruth learned that Domtar is closing the former G-P mill in Port Edwards in a couple of months. Another 500+ papermakers out of work in Wisconsin. The ripple effect of that in little Port Edwards isn't healthy. The mill was once a good source for Ruth. Miles and Laureen arrived just after noon. They've met John in Annapolis but were meeting Nell for the first time. John offered them a place to leave their boat while they go home... so I may be watching over Ariel for the Holiday. Works for me. 12/15/07 - We just got word from Sampatecho that they are turning around and coming right back from the Bahamas as they're having engine problems.  Everyone is very disappointed as all of the kids were going to be with Bradd and Maeve for a Bahaman Christmas. I spent part of the day driving John to West Marine, Costco and other Boca establishments as we prepared to start mounting a second wind generator and dinghy hoist on Our Way, their Hunter Passage 42. Laureen invited us to Ariel for an excellent spaghetti dinner... delicious.

Fourth Watch's new bimini Ruth's dolphins Man can they fly Saturday racing Ruth's decorating for Christmas Decorator caught Another Adventure in Marina Sol Bu Ariel tucked in for the Holidays Our Way with twins Time to get moving... John, Marsha, Miles & Laureen

Visit earlier portions of our east coast travels...

Boca Raton to Charleston, 4/1/07 - 4/15/07	Charleston to Elizabeth City, 4/16/07 - 4/30/07
Elizabeth City to Deltaville, 4/31/08 - 5/15/07	Deltaville to Barrington, RI, 6/12/07 - 6/30/07
Barrington RI (Ariel), 6/30 - 7/14/07	Barrington Boatyard Blues, 7/15 -7/29/07
Barrington to Salem, 7/30 - 8/14/07	Salem, MA to Rockland, ME, 8/15 - 8/30/07
Rockland to Salem, 9/1 - 9/14/07	Salem to Baltimore, 9/15 - 9/29/07
Baltimore to Solomon Landing, 9/30 - 10/13/07	Tangier Island to Elizabeth City, 10/14 - 10/29/07
Elizabeth City to Hilton Head, 10/30 - 11/15/07	Hilton Head to Titusville, 11/16 - 11/30/07