Sailing Imelda in the Land of the Mega Heinie

October 23, 2006

Sunday, October 15, 2006 - Underway, Ocean, Ocean
By Tom

Normally, when we are sailing overnight offshore, I just enter a "no log - offshore sailing" comment. The reason is two fold. One, I am usually too naseaus to sit in front of a computer in offshore swells, and two I am in fact lame.

That I am writing to you while offshore should be an indication of how smooth it is currently. We left out of Beaufort, SC after taking on 100 dollars in fuel. We cleared the outer buoy mark (and the one I hit on the way in last year) by 10:30 am.

The weather is completely flat. The ocean has maybe 6 inch ripples and virtually no swell. The only downside is our auto pilot is currently not working. It looks like the drive belt has stretched beyond the maximum allowable limit and the drive teeth will no longer engage. Needless to say, we have been reduced to hand steering! Ack no!

Except for that, so far the trip has been great. I have 3 of the 4 fish whackers deployed, but as of yet we have had no action. I hate these American fish.

Without the auto pilot, we are reduced to standing 2 hour watches. This works out for me as I prefer to do short 1 hour cat naps, but Amy likes to sleep in 3 or 4 hours bursts, so she is having to adjust.

We have been motoring at 5 knots on one engine since we hit open water, but the wind is forecasted to pick up after 10 pm, so I expect to be able to switch to sail power then. We opt to motor on one engine for the open water trips in an effort to reduce fuel consumption and to also allow for a more comfortable ride for the off watch crew members.

In other news, Milo invaded Columbia today, or at least the Columbian coffee on board the boat. He found a two pound bag of coffee beans and decided to space them out evenly and individually over the entire inside of the boat. We now have a fine coffee flavored aroma lingering in all ferret accessible areas of the boat and Amy is working to locate, isolate and remove the individual offending beans.

Ok, more to follow.

Monday, October 16, 2006 - Saint Augustine, Saint Augustine, FL
By Tom

The wind showed up around 1 am this morning and we are once again an actual sailboat. We started out making 3.5 knots and the wind steadily increased over the next 12 hours or so. By the time we got to the outer marker off of St. Augustine, we were doing 8.5 knots.

I trolled 2 or 3 of the fishing whackers the whole way and got no love. Apparently, American fish are still impervious to our fishing capabilities. We did have quite a scare when a 5 foot Skipjack Tuna jumped out of the water in front of us, smashed into Amy's kayak and then flopped back into the sea. I wisely dove for cover while Amy yelled at me to stab him. I think she cares less for my safety then she does for fresh tuna.

We made the turn in, got under the Bridge of Lions and put the hook down in the ghetto field. After putting the boat to bed we assembled the dinghy and went to shore for wings and a beer at the A1A Brew Pub. Once again, however, my attempts at finding a draft beer were thwarted! Apparently the floor was collapsing in the brewing area and had to be condemned. They are working at rebuilding, but the bar tender said it would be months before they are back to brewing.

We returned to the boat and I made another culinary break through with my own personal rendition of grilled potato skins. See photographic evidence side right. Afterwards, we played with the ferrets and were asleep by 7 pm. Tomorrow we tackle laundry duty before heading down to Daytona

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 - Matanzas River, Fort Matanzas, Fl
By Tom

We dinghied into the marina this morning to do laundry and to avail ourselves of the shower facilities. After two days offshore nothing beats an unlimited hot water shower.

Chores done, we returned to the boat. It was only 11 am, so we decided to up anchor and move the boat 3 or 4 hours further south in an effort to shorten the trip tomorrow. We broke down the dinghy and got the motors running, but I couldn't get the anchor up.

I fought and fought, but to no avail. Eventually with Amy, Milo and I all pulling, we were able to get the anchor off the bottom of the sea, but not out of the water. We motored up to the fuel dock to take a look. The nice guys at the Municipal Marina helped me haul the anchor on to the dock. Turns out we hooked a 60 year old, 500 pound rear differential out of some big ass farm truck.

Fifteen minutes later we were back under way with the anchor safely stowed. The dock guys said there is so much junk in the harbour here that there is a plan underway to sonar map the entire area and then have a crew with a barge retrieve all of the junk. That will be sweet if it ever happens.

With an hour or two later start than planned, we settled on only going as far as Fort Matanzas and anchoring in the mouth of the river there. To call it a fort might be a little bit of a stretch. I think it should be something more like "Garden Shed Matanzas".

Anyway, we got the anchor down without problems. I made chicken finger, bacon, tomato, cheese, and lettuce wraps for lunch/dinner and the crew retired for the evening around 7 pm in an effort to catch up on sleep

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 - Rockhouse Creek, , FL
By Tom

Underway early this morning as we had lots of miles to cover. We did our usual 1 hour on, 1 hour off watches. On one of my off watches, I assembled the new wind generator.

I may not have mentioned it, but the KISS people who distribute our brand of wind generator stopped by the water front of St. Augustine and dropped off our new wind gen. They were suppose to mail it to my dad last week, but they "accidentally" sold mine to someone else at the boat show.

I was about to fly off the handle and threaten to kill people when Libby(the KISS person) said they were on their way home from the Annapolis Boat Show and would pass near us. She offered to call when she got close and I could dinghy shore to meet them.

This worked out good, except they had no blades for the wind generator. I'm sure you can imagine how much good a blade-less wind gen does. Libby said she would overnight me the blades when we get to Vero Beach in a few days. Ok, I guess we'll see.

The KISS people are really nice and all, but they are really disorganized. I mean I appreciate them taking the time to stop in St. Augustine and all, but if they would have mailed the damn thing 7 days ago when I ordered it, this wouldn't be an issue. If things don't go well in procuring the blades, they may end up on my manufacturer's wall of shame. I'll let you know how it works out. Anyway, the wind gen is now re-installed and awaiting blades.

The rest of the day was spent watching Florida stroll by. There is a motorcycle festival going on in Daytona and so we got to see lots of motorcycles at every bridge crossing. Team Dream Catcher even starred in two adult themed action adventure film extravaganza's along the way. Milo and I did our best to look tough for the two biker women filming us. Check your local theaters for playing times near you.

We ended the day's travels at Rockhouse Creek. We have anchored here several times before and have found the holding to be good, but from time to time there have been no-see-ums in the area. This was one of those times.

After a dinner of grilled Mahi and rice, we buttoned up the boat and hid from the bugs. It got pretty warm and we ran our fans all night. Tomorrow we head for Titusville and hopefully the propane company is still in business there as we are down to our last few pounds

Thursday, October 19, 2006 - Titusville Bridge, Titusville, FL
By Tom

We arrived off of Titusville around 1 pm after 5 hours of boring motoring along the ICW. This section of Florida is pretty swampy and there isn't a whole lot to see. We got the anchor down without problem and assembled the dinghy.

If you find yourself anchored in Titusville, you can dinghy ashore at the local municipal marina. They have a small dinghy dock that is open for public use. We were here two years ago and neither of us were really impressed.

I have to say the intervening two years has been good to Titusville. The once run down and decrepit waterfront area is starting to show signs of revitalization. The local grocery is a Save-A-Lot and it too has been completely remodeled and is a much nicer place then it once was.

Our guide book said there is a propane filling station near the grocery store, so we hiked our empty propane cylinder out there. An old dude was happy to fill our tank for $7. While I waited with propane man, Amy went to the Save-A-Lot and spent $4.50 on an assortment of vegetables. She reports that she came away feeling as if she had in fact saved a lot.

Back at the marina we went inside the little provisioning store for some soda's. While inside, I found that the marina sells the most impressive beer ever! Take note dear reader of said beer at right. The ferrets were equally impressed with the mega-Heineken and the dutifully drank their share.

All in all, I now recommend stopping in Titusville if you are passing through.

Friday, October 20, 2006 - Eau Gallie, Eau Gallie, FL
By Tom

Another short day. This time we find ourselves anchored off of Eau Gallie (oh golly). We stopped here because there is easy access to a West Marine (Prince of Darkness) and we had a pretty long list of stainless hardware that we needed.

It was mega hot today and we both sweated our butts off walking out to the store. Once there, we spent a good hour walking around inside the store and cooling off in the comfort of West Marine air conditioning. During that time we were able to purchase most of the parts on our list as well as some things that were not.

You didn't hear it from me, but in the ultimate female stereotype come true, Amy purchased yet another pair of shoes! What is it with women and shoes? I always thought that was a stereo type, but now I'm not so sure. Actually she got herself a pair of the Crocs shoes. They are one piece rubber construction that looks pretty much indestructible, which is good, because they are not attractive in the least. Most cruisers out here have at least one pair of Crocs as they are great for going ashore on rocky or thorny beaches.

I'm starting to feel like I'm sailing with Imelda Marcos (you know, that shoe lady?).

After West Marine, we headed back to the boat by way of Walgreens (for more soda's) and then a seedy little dive called the Lazy Dog Saloon. The place would have been ok, but we had the surliest bartender ever. I had to ask her 4 times for a diet Pepsi and there were only 6 people in the place. Perhaps the should rename it the Lazy Ass Bitch Behind the Counter Who Won't Get Off Her Fat Butt to Wait on Anyone Saloon?

Bartender aside, the place had cold, cheap draft beer and air conditioning, which was all we were really looking for anyway. We waited out the heat of the day, and then returned to our dinghy and then the mother ship.

Back aboard, we hoisted up the dinghy and made sure the boat was ready for an early departure tomorrow morning. In what is becoming an increasingly recurring event, I cooked dinner outside on the grill. Tonight it was Johnsonville Brats with onions and green peppers. We are currently out of bread, so we had Brats just.

Speaking of the grill, I can't say enough about how nice it has been having this new one. Our last grill was one of those Force 10 round guys. It worked well enough most of the time, but it was so small that you had to cook in different waves, where as now I can just throw everything on at once.

I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I was actually able to bake bread on the new grill a couple of days ago. I used my standard bread recipe and bread pan, except this time I cranked the grill up to high and threw the bread on. The grill seems to get much hotter, much quicker than our stove does. Not to mention it keeps the heat outside instead of in the cabin. The bread cooked in record time and turned out indistinguishable from when it's done inside. Nice.

Tomorrow we head for Vero Beach and several well earned days down from traveling. I have a bunch of things to either fix or maintain on the boat and we plan on doing our final provisioning there before jumping off for the islands.

Saturday, October 21, 2006 - Vero Beach Municipal Marina, Vero Beach, FL
By Tom

We left the anchorage at sun up and headed south towards Vero. During one of Amy's turns at the helm, she asked me to put one of our new and improved fish whackers in the water, just in case. I humored her and laughed to myself.

At least for 15 minutes, then the single fish whacker started peeling off line and Amy yelled "Fish on!" I came up out of the cabin and proceeded to man said whacker. After a brief 3 or 4 minute fight, I reeled in a 28 inch, 4 pound Spanish Mackerel. Our first fish of the new season!

With the fish safely on board, Amy got us back underway (albeit with an "I told you so" attitude) while Milo and I cleaned our catch. We ended up with 8 single sized portions of which I kept 4 in the refrigerator for immediate consumption and sent the other 4 to the frozen section in case of a fish emergency. Milo says you never know when a fish emergency might strike.

With the larder now full, we put away the fish whacker and drove the rest of the way to Vero Beach. We picked up mooring #16 around 1 pm and then assembled our dinghy. After registering at the marina office, we found that our wind generator blades did in fact show up, so I guess there will be no wall of shame entry for the KISS people. (Yet)

We stowed the blades in the dinghy and then caught the 2:05 pm shuttle bus into town. We hit the grocery store for a few necessities and then waited outside for the bus to come back. And waited. And waited.

I'm not sure what happened, but the bus never appeared. We rechecked the schedule several times, but to no avail. The bus never materialized.

After waiting for over an hour in the hot sun, we walked across the street to an Irish Pub where I asked the bar tender if she could call us a cab. Well, it turns out she was just getting off and was going right by the marina, so she offered us a lift. Nice!

Stella dropped us off right at the dinghy dock. I tipped her $5 for the lift as it would have easily cost three times that for a cab. I wanted to ask her how she got her groove back, but Amy wouldn't let me. Sometimes she can be a real kill joy.

We dinghied our grocery selections back to the big boat and put everything away. For dinner we had grilled Caribbean jerk mackerel, 6 spicy tequila lime shrimp and roasted bell pepper potato wedges along with a small side salad. Quite a feast.

Right after sundown the no-see-ums showed up. It was mega hot today (90 or so), so I turned on our generator and we ran one of our air conditioners well into the night. I'm sure that sounds lame, but at least we slept well. More to follow.