Thursday, April 23, 2015

Northern Florida is Great

We have had 2 absolutely perfect travel days. We went from Daytona Beach to Palm Coast Marina yesterday under absolutely perfect weather. We had a very favorable tide part of the way too. The Temps and wind were ideal.

We got into the marina around 11:30am and easily tied up. After a quick lunch I had to tackle a very despicable job -- that Y-valve I cleaned and lubricated the other day is leaking and needs to be replaced! I hate sanitation plumbing.

I used one of those "chucks" or inconstancy pad rather than sacrifice a towel. Worked Great!!

The job was just as daunting as I thought, since I had to remove 3 1 1/2" hoses from the valve that had been on for 7 years. A lot of wiggle, screwdriver plying, and the heat gun got the job done. The new valve is working great with no leaks.

Karen and Vickie went to the Publix here by taxi and bought a few groceries -- mainly a cart full each for both of them!! Oh man we are going to undo all our weight loss from the Bahamas in short order.

After my job I went to Victoria Gaye to help Buck with his leaking fitting on the water heater. Boy that barb fitting was shot and nearly broke off. We had to break it the rest of the way then extract it from the pipe. Since it was nylon we got it out easily -- just drove a knife into it and turned it out.

Buck was able to get a ride to the hardware store and get a replacement -- working fine now.

We had a nice evening and got to sleep in this morning. We needed to navigate the Mantanzas Inlet and need to do that near high tide. We left around 10am this morning and had a great ride to the Mantanzas with a favorable current pushing us along at nearly 7 knots. The inlet was not too bad with one area around 8.2 feet for a hundred yards then fine after that. We made St. Augustine at 1:30pm which was a good run.

We took a mooring ball for 2 days and then will go to a slip at the marina for 2 days to weather some really bad storms expected this Saturday and Sunday. Ohhh the mooring ball is number 69 and the second to the last in the mooring field. It is a L O N G dinghy ride to the marina to tie up.

St Augustine is a great place to spend a few days. So much to see and do in the downtown historic district for example a jewelry store called "Jewelry for the Filthy Rich"! Lots of places to eat drink, art stuff and just other cool stuff. Karen wants to tour the Lightner Museum too.

Looking forward to enjoying St Augustine since the weather is putting a crimp on our travel plans -- this is what it means to be a cruiser -- don't keep a schedule and stop to enjoy when the weather makes travel difficult.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Great Travel Day

Yesterday was a hot humid stormy day as predicted. It was a good choice to stay at the marina.

A cold front came across yesterday and today was just beautiful. We left the marina early and motored on up to Daytona Beach under friendly cumulus clouds and anchored in the Halifax River just north of red 44. Oh it was a very good day. We had a favorable current most of the way -- only one bridge opening and we waited only 3 minutes! We hit all the trouble shoaling areas at just after high tide and saw no skinny water. Just a great travel day.

Lots of boats left the marina this morning all headed north. I think we were in a pack of 12 - 15 boats -- a combination of trawlers and sailboats. Unfortunately one sail boat came to grief just short of the Haulover canal. He was exhausting steam instead of water from the engine exhaust and obviously was overheating. I hailed him with the PA system and told him the bad news -- better I told him before the alarms went off and the engine seize up

The anchorage here after Red 44 is not as shown on the chart. There is no 14' water and deep water areas have shoaled in. Several boats in storage on moorings here. I would not recommend this area in the future. Try the deep area on the East side of the channel just before R44. I see a fine Cabo Rico 38 sitting there all by their lonesome.

Tomorrow will be a short 3 - 4 hour hop to Palm Coast. St Augustine is just too far for a single day and you need to work the tides.

Should be in early enough to enjoy the marina with light work and then off to St Augustine the following day.

Today the temperature is great. Started at 65 and headed up to 78 degrees -- low humidity and should be fine sleeping tonight on the hook.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Tempus Fugit

WOW Time has been flying by.

We easily made Vero then just forgot about time. It really is that easy there. Multiple trips to the grocery - Publix, Karen forays in the clothing stores, mine at the dive shop, and just hanging out with the cruisers we have seen along the way.

It was quiet when we got to Vero. Only a couple of mooring balls had multiple boats on and at least 20 balls were empty. We just grabbed one and reported in.

Well it wasn't all fun and play. I had to rebuild the forward head flush pump, install a new toilet bowl gasket -- yes you had to remove it to do that, and clean and lubricate a sanitation y-valve. I also had to install a new damper plate in the fresh water pump and clean the shower pump filter and fresh water filter -- whew that was a lot of work!! no wonder I haven't written a blog in awhile.

Still time to meet a group of cruisers at a pot luck on Thursday night and have a big luncheon at the Riverside restaurant on Friday -- all that packed in 4 days and we did 3 loads of laundry.

Saturday We got underway to head north. We made it to Dragon Point near Melbourne and for the first time went behind the swing bridge there to anchor -- that is the place. We found lots of room in 10 - 12 feet of water and a no wake zone. Unfortunately it was HOT. They set a new record high of 92 degrees that day and it was windless. It was uncomfortable on the boat. We had to run fans all night to make sleeping bearable. The normal high for this area is 81 degrees so there is hope it will cool down soon.

Today we were up early and made the run to Titusville Marina. It's another very hot day with temps in the 90s. Strong thunderstorms expected tonight and tomorrow so a good place and excuse to duck in and run the Air Conditioner. It was already hot when we got here around 12:30pm and we stopped first on one dock for a pumpout which didn't happen -- pump is broke -- then moved onto another dock for fuel -- 45 gallons. I haven't bought any since Treasure Cay. Then into a slip on E-dock. I should have called earlier than today for a reservation. E dock is the only old floating dock with all the livaboards, deserted boats, and boats for sale -- not the best location but the Electricity is FINE. This will only be for 2 nights and then we will be on our way to Daytona. Today is the day for multiple showers in their facility, maybe a bucket of Kentucky fried chicken tonight, and tomorrow a quick bike ride to the NAPA store and drug store (for batteries and candy), and of course a minor trip to the grocery store -- need fresh limes and lettuce.

Time for a nap now and just enjoy the cool air conditioning on the boat.

Oh yes and enjoy the GREAT WiFi here. It is the best we have encountered on this whole trip so far!! AC - WiFi -- we may never leave the boat today except for SHOWERS. LONG ones.