3/23/05 - We've finally lifted anchor, (had to beat the barnacles off it) heading around the east coast of Florida. Our destination is Marathon via Newfound Harbor. We arrived at Newfound early afternoon, threading our way over the sandbar with a foot to spare. Shallow water always makes me sweat. That and 85 degrees. We anchored in our favorite spot about a half mile past Little Palm Island Resort expecting to see the flocks of egrets. Disappointment - no egrets.

3/24/05- Tony and Vicky, friends we'd made at Turner in Mobile (S/V Dangerous Love), joined us for a couple of days of cruising. We picked them up at Burdine's Marina in Marathon. It was great to see them again.

We stayed for the night at the marina in air-conditioned comfort as Vicky wasn't feeling well and had gone to bed right after supper. Tony brought us news that Marilyn and Andy, S/V Wind Child, had hit bottom enroute to Dustin, FL and their insurance company had totaled their 41'  sailboat due to broken internal frames. Tough news as they'd sold everything to retire and cruise. They are searching for a new boat to outfit. We'd also just heard that Fred's boat, M/V Love Story, was disabled due to engine failure and was on the hard 30 miles inland of Ft Myers. The River Class of 2004 is racking up casualties.

3/25/05- We stayed another day at Burdine's to give Vicky a chance to recover. Temperatures hovered in the mid 80's with high humidity and we felt the A/C would be better for her. Rick and Sandy (S/V Aquaholic, Pioneer) stopped by to see us. They have their motor home about a block from our slip.

We were visited by a Manatee in search of a drink. He found a leaky faucet and stayed a while. Beautiful creatures? Maybe to another manatee.

3/26/05- We returned to Newfound Harbor for the night after a day-sail. We anchored further up the channel than we normally do in an attempt to minimize tidal currents and maximize breeze. The anchorage accomplished those two objectives but didn't diminish the traffic. At dusk we had a fantastic water show, glowing squid. We hadn't witnessed that phenomena since our last charter in Tortolla, BVI. It was a warm evening, made pleasant by a 15-20 knot breeze.

3/27/05- We sailed into the Atlantic, just so our guests could say they had. Enroute I saw a rag trailing from under the boat. Thinking it caught on the rudder I tried to clear it with a boat hook. To my surprise a 24" nurse shark flipped past the hook. I'd seen its tail as it paced us at 7 knots. After a great sail we anchored off Marathon for the night. It's always amazing to be at anchor with no land in sight in two directions. Rick swung by us to plan a fishing trip for Bill and Jill. It started as a hot calm night. Around 2 am the wind came up to 20+ knots and we started rocking in 2 - 3 foot waves. By morning Vicky was still fighting her bug along with a minor dose of sea sickness.

3/28/05- We headed back to Burdine's to drop off Vickyand Tony who were headed back to St Pete's. We cleaned the boat in prep for Bill & Jill's arrival later that evening.

3/29/05- Bill and Jill are on-board; having arrived late last night. We spent the morning provisioning, then moved out to anchor off Boot Key. Rick picked us up with his fishing boat after lunch, taking us to a couple of his favorite spots. We caught 40 fish that trip: Yellow Tail, Grunt, Blue Runner, Mackerel, Lane Snappers. We lost probably another 10-12 fish where they cut the line or threw the hook. We had a hard time keeping hooks baited. That's the way fishing should be!

3/30/05- We sailed up to Key Largo to do some snorkeling the next day. Beautiful winds, 10 - 15 knots, and a great beat to weather - one tack. We anchored in 8' of water behind Rodriguez Key as our 5' 6" draft was too much to enter Key Largo sound or the Pennecamp Park marina. I'd forgotten how deep our Hunter Legend had seemed at 4 1/2 foot draft when we visited these sites almost a decade ago. We were joined by several sailboats. The two smallest were adult Outward-Bound type craft. Yes, they sailed, slept and cooked on their lifeboats. That's seeing the keys the hard way.

3/31/05- Bill, Jill, Ruth and I dove two of the Pennecamp Park reefs. Ruth and I saw a large sting ray; what a beautiful swimmer. We all saw parrotfish and a wide variety of reef fish. Bill and Jill tracked a large lobster. When Bill approached it spun and reared up at him. Bill decided it was lucky the lobster was protected. He didn't say lucky for whom. While Bill and Jill dove the second reef I removed the two prop shaft zincs as they'd slide down and were blocking the cooling water for the cutlass bearing. Working underwater with just snorkeling gear is no treat. I was physically shot by the time I finished the job. Bill and Jill returned earlier than expected. Bill had seen a 6 - 8 foot Bull shark and decided he didn't give a rat's ass; he'd had enough snorkeling for the day.

4/1/05- We hung at anchor all day off Rodriguez Key. I dove and replaced the two zincs on the prop shaft.  Putting the parts on went a lot easier than taking them off! The seas were too rough for diving on the reef. Bill caught a couple of blow fish off the swim platform - no keepers. For dinner Bill grilled some of the fish we'd caught earlier. It was a delicious feast!

4/2/05- We motor sailed from Key Largo to Marathon in 30 - 40 knot winds. A lot of 2 - 4 foot confused seas lead to a continuous sheet of spray going over the boat. We collected a layer of salt on everything topside.

4/3/05- The gang decided they wanted to take a down-day so we're staying a second night at Marathon Marina, shopping, provisioning and cleaning up the boat.

4/4/05- Spent the night at Newfound Harbor. Little Palm Island resort is at the mouth of the harbor. For fun we logged on to their site, the rooms ran up to $10,000 for 6 nights. They had a weekend special for a million dollars - you could bring 30 guests and had the resort to yourselves. Any weddings coming up?

4/5/05- Back to Marathon, Bill and Jill leave the 6th. Time to go out to eat and have a quiet night in the marina.

4/6/05- We hated to see Jill and Bill leave. They are loads of fun to have onboard. For us it's time to take on water and head north. We headed to Rodriguez Key for the first night.

4/7/05- We stayed on the outside (ocean) all the way to Key Biscayne (Miami) where we cut through the reef and anchored for the night.

4/8/05- Back to the outside and heading north with a vengeance. We came in the Palm Beach inlet late and anchored next to a 45 footer without taking time to do our normal circle to check the depths in our swing area. When the tide changed we swung over a ledge. As the tide went out we found ourselves laying on our side (see photo). For 6 hours as the water dropped we heeled further and further with items falling off the shelves all night as we leaned more sharply. Major whoops! We could only read and laugh... there was no way you could sleep with the boat heeled that steeply. In the morning the tide filled and we drifted back into deeper water.

4/9/05- We snuck out of Dodge, tail between our legs. We only made 11 miles because of all the weekend traffic and bridges (30 minutes between openings). Often the channel hid between high rise buildings. What a zoo! We made Hobe Sound by nightfall and anchored off a nature reserve on the ICW. Yes, we did check the depth this time.

4/10/05- From Hobe Sound we motor-sailed north to Vero Beach. We make great time arriving about 3pm. It was sunny, clear and mid-80's... hey, someone has to do it! The hurricanes' aftermath was visible along the way as we headed North.

4/11/05- From Vero Beach we sailed and motor-sailed to Coca, FL on the ICW. We are staying on the ICW because the winds are northerly and the ocean is rolling. It's a really interesting waterway. Very little commercial traffic so far.

4/12/05- We arrived a New Smyrna Beach last night and anchored out. We are going to try to meet with Ruth's brother, Lee, tomorrow.

4/13/05- No slips in New Smyrna. The hurricane decimated many of the marinas and the snow birds are motoring north like a flock of Cormorants. We called Lee with apologies and head up the ICW, anchoring a couple of miles south of St Augustine. We were running a little late as the result of pulling a sailboat out of the mud along the ICW. If you stray out of the channel you are stuck!

4/14/05- We crossed the St John's River, Jacksonville, and went on the Fernandina Beach before we could find a slip - had to get to Post Office to file our taxes. It was 60's, cloudy with strong 25-30 knot north winds... may as well have been in Wisconsin.

4/15/05- Tax filing day. Went to the PO and got the deed done. We'll hand around here for 4 days waiting for Dave Michalkiewicz to join us on the 19th. The sky is clear, winds 20-25 knots with mid 70's. Looks like we'll have a couple more days like this. Today we saw our first towboat with a single cargo barge. The few tugs we'd seen before were pushing dredges or cranes. The vast majority of the boats were pleasure craft.

4/16/05- Anchored at Fernandina Beach. The temp is in the 60's, the wind in the 20's and the sky clear. A small fleet is collecting here waiting for a "weather event" in the Atlantic off the Carolina's to clear so the Northerly winds change. It's been so windy that we haven't even wanted to dinghy into town!

The Florida ICW we've traveled has been very pretty. It started city lined, then mangroves interrupted by mansions, later taller trees lined the route as we came to areas between cities. The waterway is well market and maintained. Only a couple of times shoaling had reduced depths to less the the stated project depth - even so we had no problems with our 5' 3" draft. You definitely need to stay in the channel as it shallows rapidly along the edges.

St. Augustine was beautiful - the homes and Fort reflected off the waterway. We crossed the St John's River cautiously, disoriented because the ICW paralleled a shipyard, looking more like another slip than a waterway. After the crossing we entered a grassy marshland that reminded us of prairie.

We've seen a lot of wildlife along the ICW: eagles, 3 varieties of pelicans, cormorants, dolphins, turtles, white herons, hawks, manatees, robins and dozens more we couldn't identify. Every bend seems to reveal another glimpse life along the water. Once out of the cities the journey is through relative marsh wilderness. We're glad we elected to run this section on the waterway.

Fernandina Beach is a quaint ocean side village nestled between a pulp mill and a paper mill. The downtown street whispers tourist dollar and you stroll under the trees, taking in the restaurants and shops.

Continue to Charleston.

Return to the Loop Route.

Bad start to a cruise

Vicky and Tony, Atlantic bound

Hey bartender!

Ummm, cool water!

Bill and Jill at Marathon

 Bill sporting Rat's Ass for dising shark

Cruising the hard Way

Sometimes the channel hides

It's there, to the left of the left tower.

Ooops

This is how the world looks when you anchor in water that is too shallow and the tide goes out. All you can do is laugh and hope nothing gets broken.

What's the story?

Hurricane? Navigational error? All that's left is the boat marking the outcome.

Downtown Fernandina Beach

We'll be starting a new page when we move north from Fernandina, posting this page to history.