New Smyrna to St. Augustine

Bike ride to breakfast. The first time on my $10. bike. To everyone's amazement it works very well. Just add air to tires and a bolt to secure the handle bars. The new bikes are the folding ones for boating. Peter bought them in Marathon. The owner wanted $80. for the pair, and they warned that they weren't pretty. Peter said he would give him $40. for the one bike, but he didn't want the other it was in too bad a shape. The owner being an astute salesman said; give me $50. and take both of them.

So that's the story behind the $10. bike, which became my bike.

After breakfast Peter wanted to add some diesel as we were getting low and Linda had made plans to have a fuel truck deliver to the dock in St. Augustine for a very reasonable price. He made 2 trips to the fuel pumps, getting 10 gals each time. Should be good. So off we go. We are still running on one engine only. The plan is to anchor at Flagler Beach canal.

The trip up is uneventful. Beautiful day, dolphins and manatee, and lots of wind that builds as the day progresses. Skipper Bob reports that boaters don't use the Flagler Canal anchorage any longer due to shoaling, but when looking on Active Captain satelite view it looks like we can make it in.

There is shoaling on the north and some on the south side of the entrance. Yesterday's Dream slowly makes the "S" shaped entry and are in the canal. The plan is for us to come in and anchor, and then they will anchor in the opposite direction and tie back to us and this unique anchoring will keep us straight in the canal.

Picture this .... I am driving the boat, and Peter is on the bow ready to drop the anchor. I am making our way in slowly, (Peter told me to go faster)but I was cautious and ran aground. So I back up to make another try. Guess what, I run aground again. Peter comes and takes over for me. He asks the water depth? 3'4". We draw 3.5". We know there is 7' of water on the other side of the shoaling. Peter alters our coarse, and tries another direction. Aground again. Peter backs up, and this time throttles through. We made it. Steve, who has been guiding us over the radio says ..... "well thats another way you can do it" Linda said she could see the bow wake and knew exactly what Peter was going to do.

We're through the shoaling and all we need to do is turn the boat around in the very narrow canal and anchor. Remember we only have one engine. The boat would turn, but would not stay straight in the canal long enough for Peter to get the anchor down. Peter's comment was that the boat will go anywhere ..... as long as it is left. He had control of the back of the boat, but the front would go wherever the wind blew it. After a long period of time, Steve offered to drop their anchor and we could tie to them and then drop our anchor. Whew! glad thats done. I need a drink.

Another lesson learned ..... "What happens when the boat draft exceeds the water depth ...... when mud and fiberglass come into contact." Peter's solution .... you have to either plane or barge your way thru. " And we know what his choice is.

8:00 am and we are off to St. Augustine. Steve and Linda have arranged a dockage at Riversedge Marina, a fuel truck for 1:30 pm and a car rental so we can go back to Daytona and pick up the new water pump and on to Fort Pierce to move our car forward.

Steve and Linda have some overheating problems along the way. The first stop they cleaned the strainer. A little further along it was still overheating and they had to anchor along the side of the ICW, wait for the engine to cool and replace a belt. We continued towards St. Augustine as we had to pick up the water pump before 5:00 pm closing time, and it was Friday so to miss it meant a 3 day layover the weekend. The Franko's were only about 30 to 45 minutes before they had the belt replaced and were on their way.

It was 11:00 pm before we got back with the water pump and car.

Saturday, breakfast out, return rental cars, install water pump. How hard can it be. Well Peter spent about 5 hours and about 6:30 Linda came over and suggested that perhaps she could help. By 11:30, Steve can't understand why it will not go in and he too crawls into the engine room. By 12:30 am, no luck and all decide to continue the next day.

A new day, a new strategy. Take off all of the old gasket material, put on a thin layer of permatex. And voila, installed. Linda got out of engine room by 12:30pm; pump installed. Now lets start this puppy up. It was not to be. The starter had died. But we have a spare one on board. Off with the old starter and on with the spare. It sounded good to begin with, but then an awful sound. Another lesson learned ..... "you cannot put the stbd starter on the port engine.", because it turns backwards. The label on starter said "CCW" turns counter clockwise.

While other boaters get off their boats and enjoy the tourist activities at each port, we seem to be working on the boat. In response to the question "what did you do at St. Augustine?" We respond that we replaced a water pump, and a starter. We also got a new element for the water heater, a new 12 volt light for the galley, had a starter rebuilt and installed. Every port has a different part replacement.

Monday morning, Steve and Linda had to leave for Jacksonville. They couldn't stay any longer. We said our goodbyes. Once again we have had a great time with them. Mid February we went to spend a couple of days with them, while the work was being done on Surona. We stayed 3 weeks on their boat, bought a trawler, and they have been helping us put this boat in shape for the trip. They have been our life support boat for 2 months now. Thanks for all of the help, we have had a blast!

Monday we found a starter repair shop and they said they could have it done by the afternoon. It sure looks pretty. A fresh coat of paint. When Peter asked what they had done .... the sharp mechanic said they only painted it to make it look good, and that will be $200. They had done a lot more in fact. Returned to the boat and installed it. And the test??? The starter works, but a horrible belt screeching sound. Back to the water pump. Peter took off the pulley and put on the old pulley and for some reason the water pump worked. Now the starter and the water pump are working. And it is only 9:00 pm. Where has another day gone?

Time for a drink, some cheese and crackers in our nice bright salon and galley. For tomorrow is another day. Get rental car and move our car to Edisto Island, South Carolina.

And when I was Seventeen my dad bought me a puppy

So I guess its been a while. My retirement years have been active up to this point.

I have learned that it gets too hot in southern Florida. Sometimes the heat will make you do strange things. A three day visit can turn into a three week stay forcing married people to occupy the same room all through the night.

I have learned that Perkins is an old indian word for "Land where no man fears sunburn". Those indians are still getting their revenge against the white man by forcing him to willingly go down into dark places and contort their bodies into unimaginable shapes causing pain that lasts far after the rescue team has extracted the would be mechanic from this innocent looking dungeon.

There is, directly beneath our feet an ecology where salt water, anti-freeze and engine oil combine to form an environment where ants thrive, towels thrash when wound around driveshafts and strange smells exude if we don't keep every available means of ventilation in play. Visits to this chasm become addictive. It seems that the engine can find small bubbles to hold safely within the injector pump until it is time to start her up in the morning when the engine fires up, revs way up and since the pump can't pump air the engine dies and you are once again hearing the lorily maidens calling you to their lairs.

I have learned that you don't have to wear your seat belt in Marathon. It just costs $116 for the privelidge if you get caught. The policeman says that I should carry my passport at all times while driving my car but he seemed upset so I made allowances for him.

I have learned that one should never casually read the classified ads in strange towns. It can be expensive, especially if you are vulnerable to "Boat for Sale" ads.

I have joined the "Fillet and Release" fishing academy.

That is all that comes to mind at present. Remember to "Keep your stick on the ice"

Captain Pete and Admiral Cheryl

Fort Pierce to New Smyrna Beach

We have just had 2 truly great days on the water.

We got back from Punta Gorda, after getting Surona all settled for whatever time she needs to stay there. The floorboards look really good.

We left Fort Pierce about 11:00 am and made our way north to join Steve and Linda. Just a perfect day for boating. Light winds and the ICW was almost flat. The ICW is fairly wide in this area so there is really nothing much to see along the shoreline as it is too far away. The dolphin activity was great. Every couple of miles we would see dolphin swimming. I got a good picture of 2 right at the bow of the boat.

We were meeting Steve and Linda behind Serenity Island for the night. What a surprise we had as turned off the ICW, our sistership was anchored there also. We had never heard of a Gulfstar before, and so often people have commented on the boat. They are quite recognizable, and people love them. Very popular. Who would have guessed, and now to see another wine at anchor. We each visited the other boat to see the similarities and differences. Still like ours better .... and that a good thing.

The second day out was another terrific day on the water. At Noon we stopped at Cocoa for lunch and visited the most amazing hardware store. The store is family owned for 3 generations now, and consists of 7 buildings joined together. You ask for what your looking for and an employee will take you to the building you need and help you. The owner said they have about $10 million dollars of inventory and I believe it. He said that they still have to order in about 60% of what they sell. Hard to believe it. There is so much stuff in this store. We planned to stop for a quick lunch and a little walk around ..... Well the hardware store was over an hour by itself. A fun stop.

It was very hot, and we decided to push on for Titusville to anchor. About 3 hours further. Usually there is a breeze on the water to cool off, but this afternoon there was little to no breeze, very hot. We anchored just passed the bridge that goes to Cape Canaveral's huge NASA Space Center. While we have visited there, it seems strange to be viewing it from the water. It is an impressively huge building. The bridge signs say that you can't travel under the bridge during space launches.

Steve cooked a wonderful dinner, and we played Blochus for awhile. Tonight I want to cook dinner for them. Steve has been cooking all of the meals, I am afraid I may forget how to cook.

We had an early start today as we originally thought we would get to Daytona Beach. A 48 mile run. Unfortunately, they only had room for one boat. The plan was to stop at New Smyrna Beach for lunch, and the marina had space for us, so we decided to call it a day. 32 mile run, and in by 1:00pm.

We saw the usual dolphins, and pelicans, .... but today we saw a lot of manatee. We travelled through a narrow channel out to Mosquito Creek, and there was a little bowl just off the channel ..... there were too many to count. And then as we travelled along the ICW there were so many again. You would see there back rolling out of the water and then the flip of their tail. What a sight. And, it is true, they are not afraid of the boat. They would come up very close to the boat, and one was right in front of the boat. I had to power down not to hit it. They sure make the time pass quickly. Manatee and dolphins, all morning for our viewing pleasure.

We are docked, and out for lunch at the nearby waterside restaurant .... Dolphin View. Perhaps Peter will fix my bicycle and we all could go for a bike ride later. There must be some ice cream somewhere.

In the meantime I had better work on dinner. Not sure what it will be. The chicken drumsticks are in the crockpot. Think that whatever it is will need some onions.

We had 2 days of not having to bleed the lines on the Port engine.

To Fort Pierce City Marina

We had a great trip across Biscayne Bay to Miami. Often saw flying fish. They can travel a long distance before they go back into the water. Making 8 bounces before falling under. We had often heard that Biscayne Bay can get real nasty, but we had a picture perfect trip. We could see the waterfront buildings of Miami for a long time before we actually arrived. Fortunately the traffic was minimal as it was a Monday morning. We were told to avoid this area on a Saturday and Sunday.

As we travelled along the ICW it was evident we were in the high rent district. Not sure where all of the wealth comes from. The homes are palatial, and the boats are huge. Everyone should post a sign so we could know how they made all of this money. There was a boat calling on the radio, saying the boat name was "Imagine" Peter figures it must be Paul McCartney's boat. A day later we saw the boat in a marina and it was flying a British flag ?????? Perhaps it is McCartney's boat. That's our story and we are sticking to it.

Steve and Linda made reservations to tie alongside a restaurant, "Joe's Tiki Bar and Sushi Grill" in Hollywood Beach area. They had been here before and had left their boat for a month. This is a really fun place. We were 1 block from the beach and the ocean. They have an oceanside boardwalk that goes on forever. After dinner we went for a walk and an ice cream. At 7:00 pm entertainment started at the Hollywood Beach open air theatre. They had bench seats where we could eat our ice cream and enjoy the music.

We returned to the boats, and Joe's Tiki Bar had great entertainment till about 11:00 pm. We had to sit on the bow of the boat and enjoy. Life is hard, but we are working up to being able to keep up with the pace. We enjoyed the first evening and decided to stay over one more night.

We got up to see the sunrise over the Atlantic and have breakfast. It was a good way to spend the first part of the day. Surprising how many people are out at that time of the day.

Peter had another day in the "bowels of the beast" to try and find out what was causing the stbd engine to overheat. He has had almost the entire parts of the engine off. He only had the waterjacket before the exhaust manifold to check. BINGO. He found parts of 1 or 2 zincs, and a lot of crud that had build up over the years. The waterjacket itself slants slightly to the back before it joins the exhaust system and due to the design it is a natural place for stuff to settle and block the exhaust. He cleaned it all up and VOILA. The engine now runs without overheating. SUCCESS. While it still runs a little hotter than the port, it is well within the zone.

Now if we can only find the air leak on the port engine. Peter plans to go through all of the connections, one by one, and work his way to the back of the system.

To celebrate our success, we had a late lunch in the Tiki Bar. Later we repeated our ice cream run and entertainment at the Hollywood Beach Theatre. It was OK, but decided to go back to boats and check out their entertainment. Drinks in hand and sitting on the deck of the boat, we realized it was Karoake Night. After a couple more drinks Peter and Steve decided to show their talents. The first song was a Simon and Garfunkel. In fairness to them, it was a slow song and really hard to sing at the best of times. They realized they needed more practice, so they sang not just one more song, but another two songs. They definitely were improving. We have the movies ...... and are threatening to post them if they are ever not nice to us.

We finally had to leave Joe's Tiki and Hollywood Beach and continue along the ICW towards an anchorage just south of West Palm Beach. This part of the ICW is one huge home after another, often with a monstrous boat tied to the wall along a side channel. This area knows nothing about a recession, or high gas prices. That being said there are a number of homes that are for sale, but not as many as you might think.

We travelled 8 hours, and the winds were up fairly good and we were tired. We pulled off the ICW into an area where there were a number of sailboats anchored. Figured if there was enough water for them, we should be good. The anchors held good on the first drop. The winds were to die down into the evening and night, and they did quite nicely. However by 5:00 am, someone turned on the switch and the winds started to build again.

We left in good time the next morning from West Palm Beach, and our destination was Manatee Pocket. Ended up being a 5.5 hour run. We are starting to see homes with more grounds. Homes set on 1 acre plus lots. More rural areas, with some small lakes to cross. You still have to make sure you stay on the marked channel. It doesn't take long to get out of the channel and you are in 3.5 to 4 feet of water. And I don't want to test the accuracy of the GPS when it says 1 foot of water.

Steve and Linda saw some manatee while we were travelling today. They also saw the paddle that had bounced out of the dinghy, but they did not think it was ours so they left it for the owners to return and get it. Peter saw a ray jump out of the water. We arrived Manatee Pocket about 3:30. Anchored in an area between 2 marinas; Marine Cay and Pirates Cover, fairly well protected. It was good to get out of the wind. Dinner with Steve and Linda, aboard Yesterday's Dream. Steve had made his always popular Conch Chowder. We sat on the flybridge watched the sunset, ate our salad, and then had chowder downstairs. While we were there, Steve caught 3 catfish, that he gave to Peter. Peter was cleaning fish till 11:00 pm. Did you know that those things can still get you with one of their spikes even after they are dead? Peter does now.

We want to travel to Fort Pierce for the weekend. The winds are building and are expected to stay high from Friday noon through Sunday. Severe weather warnings are out for this time. Good time to get tied to a dock. Steve has already made the reservations. We were up early and away in good time to get into Fort Pierce before noon. Only 21 miles and nothing to see, just a huge expanse of water with a narrow channel to try and travel in. 3.9 feet out of channel to port and 5.9 feet out of channel to stbd. Channel depth 8.5 to 10 feet.

Fort Pierce is a great marina to be right now. Tonight they have Friday Fest (once a month) and over 5,000 people attend. They have a lot of displays set up and we plan to go up and see what they have to eat for dinner tonight. Also this weekend is their Oyster Fest. We will miss it because we just rented a car; a VW Beetle to go back to Marathon and get our car and move it up. We also need to go over to Punta Gorda to Surona. The floors are done and laying in the boat. While they took over a month to do a supposed 1 week job, now that it is done they want to get paid ASAP. It has been done for over a week, and probably more like 2 weeks. This is the first time we have had time to make the trip.

There is too much wind to travel so now is a good time to look after this. Steve and Linda want to spend a day or so here, so if we can get this done, we may be able to continue to travel with them for awhile longer. At least to St. Augustine where they will be stopping for awhile.

No Green Flash

The sun set behind an island, so we did not get to see "Green Flash" #3.

We tried to set out in the morning. But it was not to be. The Port engine would not start. After about 2.5 hours of work Peter with the help of Steve and Linda finally bled the air out and voila, the engine started. We headed out and within the first half hour the Stbd engine overheated and we had to shut it down. Good thing for 2 engines. We travelled about 34 miles on the Port engine to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Marina. We invited Steve and Linda onto our boat for dinner and some old Saturday Night Live DVD's. It was their first evening on the boat. Not their first time on the boat. They have spent a lot of time on this boat helping us to get it ready.

This morning Peter wanted change the thermostat on the Stbd engine, thinking that perhaps that was the cause of the overheating. He did replace it, but said there was nothing wrong with the thermostat. The engine is not putting out as much water as the Port. The engine ran for awhile and didn't overheat, so decided we could leave. Start the Port engine. No not again, it wouldn't start. This time Peter bled the system in record time. The engine started and we were off for the day.

Steve and Linda were going out to the reef for some snorkelling and fishing, and we planned to meet and spend the night anchored in one of the small channels along Angelfish Creek. We travelled the 16 miles on a flat ocean. Unbelievable. What a great day on the water. We were joined by flying fish from time to time. We arrived about 3:00pm and anchored with a 1 knot current. Steve and Linda will be along about 6:00 pm. They snorkelled on 2 different reefs, trolled for an hour and caught nothing. No Mahui Mahui for dinner. Too Bad. And we already have the Creole Spice for it. Perhaps next time.

It is no stretch of imagination that this is where they filmed the movie "African Queen" at Key Largo. The creeks and channels look just like in the show and you expect to see the African Queen coming around the next bend. Apparently the actual boat is in Key Largo outside a restaurant.

Told them we could have leftovers from last night. Chicken Catchatori (? sp??) AGAIN.

Tomorrow we will cross Biscayne Bay towards Miami.