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13 January  – Miami – Key Largo, Florida (finally)

Once we arrived in Miami the winds kicked up and didn’t make the prospect of an outside passage to Key Largo particularly desirable.  And so we waited.

After a week exploring Coconut Grove (Miami), Florida we were ready to move, and finally decided to take the “inside” route.  We had not given this route much serious consideration earlier because it was known to be quite shallow in spots and we just didn’t want to have to deal with continually watching our depth and dodging all the crab/lobster pots we had been warned of.

But as the forecasted winds continued to howl, we untied the dock lines and continued our way further south inside on what is still the ICW.

We set out at first light.  The wind was blowing 20 on the nose coming out of Dinner Key Channel and continued blowing on the beam as we made our way down the choppy Biscayne Bay.

Once we got into the channel we were more protected by land and the day was really quite pleasant as we meandered past the mangroves.

It felt good to be on the move again.

This section of the ICW is not as full of passing boats as the northern sections.  Most other boats were courteous, passing at a distance or at slow speed with the exception of two cigarette boats that felt the need to pass us while approaching a narrow mangrove channel near a bridge and going what seemed to be 60 miles per hour.  There was no harm or foul, just a bit of disruption tot he otherwise peaceful day and a reminder that we are indeed in south Florida.

We tied up at one of the only two marinas on the bayside of Key Largo that has enough depth, the Anchorage Resort and Marina.  This is a funky little marina associated with a timeshare/hotel with good concrete docks, swimming pool and jacuzzi and lovely clean showers.

A tiki bar was a dinghy ride away across the ICW, but believe it or not we didn’t go.  We decided to enjoy a quiet evening aboard with cheese and crackers as we plan to get up early tomorrow for a longer day to Marathon.

5 & 6 January, 2017 – Fort Pierce – Key Largo Miami

We welcomed our friend Ron on board on Monday and together started planning for our transit from Fort Pierce to Key West.

Looking at the weather, figuring an average boat speed of 5.5 knots per hour we waited an extra day due to forecast wind and rain and planned to depart Fort Pierce on Thursday, 5 January around 10am and arrive in Key Largo the next afternoon on Friday.  We would go off shore to Miami, not wanting to arrive at the sea buoy any earlier than 6:30am so we would have enough light to navigate Hawk Channel to Key Largo.

We left Fort Pierce and when we cleared the channel we turned the boat into the wind and raised the sail.  We really didn’t expect enough wind to sail, but figured motor sailing would give us a bit more speed.

We were pleasantly surprised when the wind picked up.  With 10 knots of wind on the beam we rolled out the genoa, turned off the engine and enjoyed the quiet of sailing!  Dreamtime sails well on this tack and we found our selves moving along at 6 knots per hour.

All good things must come to an end, and after a few hours of sailing the wind dropped, as did our speed, so we rolled in the genoa and motor sailed the rest of the way.

The Gulf Stream is a 62 mile (100 kilometres) wide very strong (maximum speed of 5.6 MPH/ 9 KPH) northerly flowing current that runs along the coast.  NOAA weather forecasts also include the Naval Oceanographic Office notices of how close to land to expect the Gulf Stream, this varies by day and location.  For this stretch the Gulf Stream was forecast to be 4 miles/6.5 kilometres off the coast at one point.  We are heading south and we know we don’t want to find ourselves in the Gulf Stream so our passage was charted to be closer to land than we usually go and planned to be between 2 and 3 miles (3.2-4.8 kilometres) off the coast.

As the sun set we were making good time and exceeding our necessary 5.5 knots per hour average.  As we were passing Palm Beach our speed suddenly started to drop, and drop and drop some more.  At one point in the middle of the night we were barely making 2 knots of forward progress with the engine running over 2100 RPMs.  Our knot log indicated that it thought we were going 6 or 7 knots per hour but our actual speed was only 2.5 thereabouts.  This means we had a current of around 4.5 knots coming against us.

Seeing a large cargo ship moving closer to shore, we followed suit and at one point were less than 1.5 miles off the coast.  We gained a bit of speed, but not much.  In all the research we have done, we have never heard about this phenomenon in this stretch of Florida.  Was it the effects of the Gulf Stream spreading over its reported edge, was it the Florida Current or was it something else?  Any ideas anyone?

It was frustrating and a bit worrisome at the same time, but there was nothing we really could do except keep moving forward, albeit very slowly.

With 3 people on board we scheduled 2 hour watches with 4 hours off between.  Bob slept in the cockpit to be available if Ron or Christina needed him, which unfortunately they both did at one point or another disturbing his precious hours of sleep.  Christina first because she saw a cargo ship on radar and AIS with a closest point of approach being an uncomfortable half mile.  This was uncomfortable because she couldn’t quite find it on the water until it was very close, she woke Bob up to let him know.  A problem with being so close to shore is that the lights from the land are very bright, making it more difficult to pick out shapes and lights from that direction.  It wasn’t until the ship was close that we were able to make out its dark outline, steaming light and green starboard light.  This light configuration confirmed it was coming from land and going out to sea and was on track to pass astern of us, so we were never in any danger, and just another lesson.

Several hours afterwards, still well before sunrise, Ron was on watch.  He kept an eye on a cruise ship as it was preparing to cross our path to enter Fort Lauderdale harbor.  He checked AIS to see the closest point of approach would be a mile, no problem.  But then that distance kept getting shorter and shorter and shorter until it was showing the closest point would be less than a hundred feet in 10 minutes.  Ron decided to wake up Bob to inform him of this upcoming close encounter.  Bob, groggy from sleep was a bit confused thinking the ship Ron was reacting to was the same ship that we had been following before he went to sleep.  It took a few tries before Ron was able to convey to Bob that no, this is a different ship and we are going to come very close to it.  They finally figured out that the cruise ship had slowed way down and thus we were now in an almost collision course.

At about this time, they heard the call over the radio “Dreamtime, Dreamtime, Dreamtime this is Caribbean Princess – we picked up our pilot and are ready to continue into Fort Lauderdale may we have the channel?”  Bob answered affirmative telling the cruise ship we would pass astern.  The cruise ship acknowledged and confirmed he expected us to pass astern and  was preparing to make way again.  Bob altered our course to steer behind the ship and when we were about a quarter mile away the ship took off and was already far down the channel.

Yes, we like our AIS for these situations where we can see them and they can see us and we can calmly call each other by name rather than the more vague and potentially confusing alternative of “southbound sailboat to our starboard approaching Fort Lauderdale…”

We continued on toward Miami.  Although there were times when we felt like we had cleared the adverse current, picking up speed to 6 knots, we would unfortunately find it again and slow down to 4.5.

We didn’t reach the Miami sea buoy until 9:30 – 3 hours later than planned.  With another 48 miles ahead of us to get to Key Largo, and not knowing if another mystery current would slow us down, we didn’t think we could make it to Key Largo in daylight.  New plan – we started calling around to find a marina in Miami.

This wasn’t as easy as it sounds, but after 5 calls, we found a marina with a slip available, and another marina with a fuel dock.

We entered the port of Miami with the famous South Beach on starboard, rejoined the ICW  and navigated Biscayne Bay to Dinner Key Channel.

The basin was very congested with moorings and anchored boats.  With more phone calls, because no marina in this area seems to use the radio, we eventually found our way to the fuel dock and then on to our marina for the night.

As we prepared to enter our slip at Bayshore Landing Marina we found our slip occupied by a large manatee which the dock master tried to shoo out so we could tie up without incident.

We were thrilled to find the Tiki Bar less than 25 yards feet from our slip.  Happy Hour here we come!

Happy New Year in Fort Pierce, Florida

We have been enjoying relaxing in Fort Pierce, but are both getting a bit antsy to start moving south again.

For the first time we will have a 3rd crew member when our good friend Ron joins us tomorrow for the next leg of our journey.

We confronted the challenge of transforming the aft cabin from storage garage to comfortable quarters.  There is no photographic evidence of this undertaking, but trust us, we were questioning whether it would actually be possible.  (The bigger challenge is when we have to convert this cabin from quarters for one to quarters for two when Ron’s wife Sandy joins us mid month. But, we will deal with that later.)

We plan to depart Fort Pierce and make our way down to Key West this week.  There are a few different options for this journey and we wrote out 4 different potential itineraries with multiple sub-plans within each.  Christina was in planning heaven!

Once we make it to Miami, all plans converge.  We looked at weather forecasts and distances to figure out what may work best.

Plan A – we could go inside on the ICW to Fort Lauderdale then pop out to the ocean to get to Miami (we have to go outside on the ocean because there is a bridge between Fort Lauderdale and Miami that our mast probably won’t fit under) – this would take 4 days.  Marinas were called to be sure there was slip availability.

Plan B – we could go inside on the ICW to Lake Worth and then pop out to the ocean to either Fort Lauderdale, Miami or Key Largo.

Plan C – we could go outside to Lake Worth and then inside to Fort Lauderdale

Plan D – we could do an overnight passage from Fort Pierce to Key Largo (160 miles and 27 hours)

If we were to do either Plan A or Plan C we would encounter no less than 16 opening bridges in the last 2 days.  Most of the bridge openings are timed and some are timed for faster boats and we wouldn’t be able to always make the sequential openings so that could mean that we would have a distance we could easily cover in 20 minutes (but not the 15 for the bridge opening) and have to wait for over a half hour for the next opening.  Neither of us thought those would be fun days.

We are both hoping Plan D will work out.  Bob got busy charting the route and setting up way points for the passage.

We are keeping our fingers crossed.  

 

24 December, 2016

While still in Fort Pierce, today we saw a new sight.

As we were enjoying our daily view we saw something floating across the fairway.

It took us a while to figure out it was not a stick…..what was it? 

If you guessed alligator – you are correct.

We confirmed with the dock master that indeed an alligator or two have been spotted in the marina recently.  They don’t usually hang out in salt water, it’s not good for their eyes and skin, but here they are.

This sighting has us thinking twice about going on shore to the bath house at night now!

13 December – Vero Beach – Fort Pierce, Florida

After a very short 2.5 hour motoring from Vero Beach we have arrived to Fort Pierce City Marina, Florida, which will be our December home base.  Yes it is 2 weeks later than originally scheduled, but we made it safely, and relatively comfortably.  Thankfully the marina was patient kept our reservation with all the changes we made over the past few weeks.

Bob wasn’t expecting much current today, and when the boat significantly slowed down for no apparent reason and the steering just felt a bit “different” he feared we had once again snagged a crab pot. What are the chances of that happening again?  The boat did pick up speed again after passing an inlet which would indicate that it was indeed current that had been slowing us down, but just to be safe we’ll find a diver to suss it all out.

When we arrived at the marina, a diver just happened to be working on a boat a few slips up from us, and was willing to dive our boat and see if were again dragging something.  We were pleased to learn that this time there was no crab pot attached to the rudder, although the rudder was a bit looser than ideal.  So, a new to do item to be added to our “to do with our next haul out” list – whenever that is.

The weather was beautiful, and the water calm as we settled into our slip and met our neighbors.

Our cockpit overlooks the main fairway and we are able to watch dolphins, manatees, jumping fish, and of course the pelicans.

 

This marina has not one but TWO on-site tiki bars —- life is good!

13 December 2016

Melbourne – Vero Beach, Florida

Amongst cruisers, Vero Beach, Florida is known as “velcro” beach, because once you get here you are stuck and never want to leave.  Although we could have made it to our final destination of Fort Pierce in one long day, we opted to stop by Vero Beach to see what all the fuss was about.

Along the way we officially entered “South Florida”.  Per the cruising guide at mile marker 935 we should start to see the turquoise waters of South Florida.  Do you see the difference in the photos?

To be honest we didn’t really notice much difference.  We were definitely entertained when we entered a dolphin zone where we saw quite a few.  They seemed to be adults and juveniles as they swam together.    

Throughout the day we would see many random islands in the middle of the Waterway which broke up the scenery of open water we couldn’t navigate due to being too shallow, as we were forced to stay in the 200 foot / 60 metre wide channel.

Vero Beach Municipal Marina has a large mooring ball field where boats can tie up for a very reasonable fee.  The area is so popular that boats often have to raft up with multiple boats on a single ball.  We opted for a marina slip as we were only going to be here for one day.  

We can see why folks stay here for extended times, as the marina and mooring balls are in a very protected basin.  We will plan to come back in the future for a longer stay and take the time to explore the area.

But for now, we are ready to depart for Fort Pierce in the morning.

12 December – Titusville – Melbourne, Florida

We untied the dock lines and were on the Waterway before 0700, before the sun was up but with plenty of light to navigate the channel.

Today was another quiet lovely day on the water, with many dolphin sightings along the way. We are still not getting tired of those dolphins.

Today is momentous as we passed by Cocoa Village Marina, last year’s winter home,  because it means we are now further south than we have been on the ICW (on Dreamtime).

We expected the wind to be on the nose, but were pleasantly surprised when the wind shifted to the west and we were able to unfurl the staysail to gain an extra knot of speed.

As we navigated the shallow channel to Melbourne Harbour Marina our depth sounder showed uncomfortably low numbers.  The numbers kept jumping all over the place ranging from 7 feet to 10 feet to 5 feet and more.  The keel of the boat is 5 feet, and when the depth sounder shows 4.5 feet, which it did a few times, that means we should be hitting bottom.   Guess we have a new chore on the to do list while in Ft. Pierce – adjust the depth sounder.

We had a quiet night at the marina and enjoyed our beautiful dock mates. 

8 – 11 December 2016 – New Smyrna Beach – Titusville, Florida

Today brings us to one of Christina’s favorite sections of the ICW because we pass through several manatee zones.  Manatee zones are good for two reasons, the first being the obvious of seeing manatees, (and dolphins), and secondly because power boats are required to also slow down and make no wake in the zones.  This made for a very peaceful day on the water.  Bob on the other hand doesn’t care for this section because it seems long, straight and shallow with small fishing boats always seeming to be where we need to go.

Manatees are similar to Dugongs in Australia and are large slow moving mammals that swim just below the surface.  They are a protected species in Florida having neared extinction by 1973 due to injury and fatality caused by boat propellers.  Due to their protection status they now number over 10,000, and are a joy to see.  We usually see them as they flip their tail and go under water, but one was a delight to watch swimming “doggy style” with his head above the water. 

If you think catching a photograph of a dolphin is hard, you should try the manatee.  Many attempts were made but with little success.  The blurs in these photos are manatees – trust us.

We arrived at Titusville Municipal Marina a few hours ahead of schedule due to our early morning, pre-dawn departure and favorable currents.  We tied up with little drama, having to do a 4 point tie to a fixed dock slip which takes a bit more effort than those preferred nice long floating docks we are getting accustomed to.  Dolphins frequently were seen in the marina, but this is the only one who was willing to be seen while a camera was in hand.

Tiki bar here we come.

Due to forecasted winds we planned a two night stay in Titusville.  We were quite thankful we had made the decision when we woke on Friday to rocking and rolling whilst tied to the dock.  There were whitecaps on the Waterway and it was downright cool. 

The wind forecast changed again and now it looks like similar conditions can be expected the next two days.  Our two night stay quickly became 4 — more phone calls and changes to marina reservations, but also more comfortable conditions for our last two segments of the trip.

7 December — Daytona Beach – New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Over the past week there have been many changes to our schedule.  First, we had planned to stay on the outside, meaning in 2 overnights we would be in Ft. Pierce and made marina reservations to accommodate.  But, due to the forecast of unseasonal southerly winds during that time we opted to go inside on the ICW.

Due to the damage to many marinas and slips due to Hurricane Matthew we wanted to call ahead and plan where there might be room for us, and booked accordingly.  As we continually get slowed down, that means regular phone calls to the next few marinas to shift our planned arrivals and departures.  By the time we had it pinned down for when we would be arriving New Smyrna Beach, it was the only day that they had no availabilty.  We had 3 options:

1. Make a long day of it and go straight from Daytona Beach to Titusville, bypassing New Smyrna totally
2. Find another marina with room — that took 3 phone calls on our part, but we were able to secure a slip on Ponce de Leon inlet 10 miles down the channel, which would make the next day’s run to Titusville a bit shorter
3. Stay in Daytona Beach one more day and arrive New Smyrna on Thursday.

Weather is again looking dodgy for Friday, so wherever we spend Thursday we will most likely also stay Friday.  Of the 3 locations, Titusville was the least desirable option for a two night stay, mostly because there is only one tiki bar style restaurant in easy walking distance and the rest are fast food – so maybe we will actually cook on board?  What a novel idea.

We had planned for option 1 above, making the necessary marina reservations.  Upon waking up, Bob decided he didn’t want to do the long day after all.  So, we called to see if there was a last minute cancellation at  New Smyrna Beach City Marina our preferred stop mostly because – you guessed it – many restaurant options.  But, no joy, they were full and didn’t foresee any cancellations.

So then we called around to other marinas between Daytona Beach and New Smyrna, and found one that had just reopened after making repairs due to the hurricane and they had availability.  Okay – so we’ll have an almost embarrassingly short day, but tomorrow will be that much shorter going to Titusville, so that was the plan.

We left Daytona Beach and continued to head south.  When we were about an hour out, New Smyrna Beach Marina called to say they just received a cancellation and they have room for us for the night.  Excellent — now time to make the other phone calls to cancel reservations and also make changes to existing ones for the change in plans.  A never ending process it seems sometimes.  The dock masters are beginning to recognize Christina’s voice on the phone as she calls almost daily to make changes for the next few stops.

The day was lovely on the water, seeing dolphins along the way as well as a few boats that didn’t fare so well with the hurricane.  

We arrived at New Smyrna Beach City Marina, without incident and did indeed enjoy a lovely dinner in town.

Tomorrow we head to Titusville, Florida and will stay there for 2 nights.

5 & 6 December – Palm Coast – Daytona Beach, Florida

   Back on the waterway, unhindered but the crab pot, we hoped to make good time, but alas the currents were not in our favor at anytime today.  Bob continued to wonder if the reduced speed was all current, or if there was still something wrong with the boat. (It won’t be until 2 days later when we have the current behind us giving us a speed of over 7 mph with low RPMs that he finally is comfortable that there are no other issues.)

Thunderstorms were predicted for this afternoon and we hoped to be arriving at Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona Beach by 1500 to be safely tied before the storms.

We were greeted to the marina by two dolphins playing in the entrance near the fuel dock.   After fueling and pumping out we made our way to our assigned slip and found ourselves docked next to another Gozzard cousin.

This older G36 model was a predecessor to our G37.  We never saw anyone on this boat, but did compare the differences between the models over the years.  Back then they had a lot more teak to maintain, including a wooden taff rail and handholds.

We had decided to stay in Daytona Beach for 2 nights due to the forecast for Tuesday being major thunderstorms.  The forecasters were right again, and we were glad to be tied to the dock, kept dry in the cockpit with  our enclosure and not on the Waterway during the storm.