No Sunshine in Florida and Proper Ferret Hygiene

March 31, 2005

Friday, March 25, 2005 - South of Titusville Marina Channel, Titusville, FL
By Tom

We got an early start this morning and set sail for Titusville by 7 am. I say we, but this really means I got an early start while Amy and Maggie slept in late. The wind was favorable for sailing today and so we did. Oddly enough, we were the only boat sailing, but thats ok too.

Not much happened on the way up except I caught another bird on my trolling line. As loyal readers will remember I managed to catch a seagull en route to Georgetown back in the Bahamas. This time it was a loon. I was trolling a white buck tail through a suspected school of bait fish when WHAMMO!

The loon struggled for a few seconds and then came up on plane. As I was reeling his feathery little ass in he managed to escape. Good thing too, because I bet he tasted just like chicken. Speaking of loons, did you know that the Canadian currency is called the loony?

It must be hard to take an economic crisis serious when your currency is called the loony.

Anyhow, we averaged 6 knots for most of the day and we arrived in Titusville around 3 pm. Minutes after the anchor was down several severe thunderstorms rolled in. The weather was pretty ugly for the rest of the night and we stayed below and hid.

Saturday, March 26, 2005 - Rockhouse Creek, , FL
By Tom

Up at the crack of dawn again. Maggie and I hoisted anchor and set off just as the sun broke the horizon. We had to motor today as there was not a breath of wind.

This part of the ICW is kind of narrow and swampy and it's not too enjoyable. I think I said the same thing on the way down, so I wonder why we didn't go offshore through here.

Around noon the rain clouds returned and with it came mega fog. Within minutes we were completely socked in. We navigated mark to mark for twenty minutes until we found a suitable anchorage. We dropped the hook off to the side of the ICW in 10 feet of water.

The fog didn't go away so we just stayed put for the night. Dinner consisted of garlic butter shrimp and salad with bread

Sunday, March 27, 2005 - Saint Augustine, Saint Augustine, FL
By Tom

I was up by 5 am and while the ferret and Amy slept in, I got us underway. Today's destination of St. Augustine is a good 60 miles away, so I wanted to get an early start.

I got the anchor up and stowed and headed north under a feeble sunrise and occasional rain shower. I don't know what it is about Florida and us, but it always rains when we're here. Sunshine state my ass.

Amy woke up around 9 and her and the ferret took over the helm while I slipped below and made us a breakfast of grilled cheeses and steamed crabs. I may have failed to mention, but we were able to procure a new crab whacker (trap) in Vero and I have resumed our ritualistic practice of crab whacking. I only caught two keepers last night, hence the need for a grilled cheese supplement.

The day was long and fairly boring. We motored or motor sailed the whole way and other than the 3 or 4 draw bridges we had to negotiate nothing much of note happened. In her spare time, Amy taught the ferret proper dental hygiene.

We arrived in Augustine by 3 pm and once we had the hook down we launched the dinghy and went into town. Today is apparently Easter and we got to see part of the parade here. It was kind of lame, but then how serious can you take a holiday celebrated with chocolate bunnies?

I'm not religous, but I don't get it. You had Crucifixion, Resurrection, and then chocolate bunnies and colored eggs?

Monday, March 28, 2005 - Saint Augustine, Saint Augustine, FL
By Tom

The foretasted front pushed through last night and by sun up the wind was howling at 30 knots.

Half of Team Dream Catcher (me) was up at 2:30 am to make sure we didn't drag anchor, or more correctly get drug into here. The other half or two thirds of the team stayed under the covers and refused to emerge until it warmed up.

St. Augustine really needs to do something about the derelict boats hap-hazzardly anchored or moored about the harbour. Lots of places in Florida have started doing something about these "squatters", so I imagine it won't be long here either.

During the morning I worked on our log application adding such features as automatic version updates and a spell checker component for text areas. Amy and the ferret read books under the covers until ambient air temperature reached 65 degrees.

In the afternoon we bravely crossed the two foot chop in the harbour to the laundromat to do all our sheets and towels. We have been getting moisture under our mattress and it was decided today was the day to combat it. Properly armed we tore up the insulation under said mattress and scrubbed voraciously at the ever resilient pin mold colonies.

It was a hard fought victory, but with my Brillo pad ferret I was able to vanquish the offending spore life forms. We reassembled the bed area and it looks and feels much nicer. Pin mold may fear me.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 - Saint Augustine, Saint Augustine, FL
By Tom

Today was a day of walking. I think I've mentioned it before, but no one walks anywhere in Florida. Needless to say when we mentioned in passing at our various destinations that we were in fact on foot, we were met with an array of incredulous and amazed expressions. I felt like I had two heads and could walk on water.

In the course of our travels, we covered just under 10 miles and stopped at Radio Shack, Autozone, West Marine, Albertson's and Friday's. We spent about 3 hours wandering about and then returned to the mother ship.

We ran into Dennis and Louise off of the boat L'impre Vu who we know from Georgetown and we invited them over for happy hour. They are from Quebec and while Dennis speaks almost passable english, Louise does not.

Amy speaks french reasonably well and with my spanish thrown in we were able to have quite good conversation. We feasted on $4 a pound jerk shrimp that I made on the grill and a good time was had by all.

We are waiting on a weather window to head offshore and it looks like maybe on Thursday we will head offshore.

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - Saint Augustine, Saint Augustine, FL
By Tom

Another low key day.

Early this morning Amy went into town to hunt for coffee and a bagel. I stayed on board and played with my log application some and fixed a few odds and ends.

In the afternoon, we went back into town and wandered around the touristy areas of St. Augustine. We had some buffalo wings - medium spicy - at A1A and then met Dennis and Louise for a few drinks at 7pm.

I think we all had a good time, but I can't be sure because the good time was had in french and I'm not sure it translated well. Everyone was smiling anyway.

Tomorrow we head offshore for South Carolina

Thursday, March 31, 2005 - Underway, Ocean, Ocean
By Tom

We left St. Augustine this morning and were well offshore by noon. We are planning on running over night and try to make either Beaufort or Charleston in South Carolina. Weather so far is rough and wet.