12/31/09 The end of a decade happens once in a Blue Moon...

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Vero Beach, Fl

It really feels like Florida now. I was kicking the covers off most of the night then hiding under the covers the rest of the time from the “no seeums”. It’s nice to have the port windows open again. Now if I could just stop itching. I have so many bug bites my arms look like I have the measles.

After coffee we gathered up the garbage to haul to the dumpster, then hit the showers. Mmmmmm…. Hot water and clean hair! Does it get any better than that? It’s kind of funny how some things you take for granted at home can seem like luxuries when you’re removed from them. For instance - hot showers and not having to worry if you have enough fresh water. Clean hair! Next up - A trip into town on the bus to get groceries at the Publix and a CUBAN sandwich!!!! On the bus ride we had a discussion on home schooling versus public schooling. I questioned two parents on how they handled this with their seventh graders. While it seemed a bit confusing to me with all the standards that the kids need to meet, these kids seem to come out ahead of the game. We had an interesting discussion that ended to soon as we all started getting off at our various stops.

Back to the boat to unload the food, beer, and pop for then next few days. Then to settle in with a good sandwich! Yum. I’ve been craving one of those sandwiches (gobs of ham & cheese on Cuban bread) & they still have them at the Publix Deli, which is quite an extensive deli.

It’s hard to believe that it’s the end of another decade. We’re ushering out this decade with a Blue Moon (two full moons in one month) and it was brought to my attention from a past favorite student (thank you Charles) that the next full moon that we’ll have on a New Years will not be until 2028. So hopefully, everyone will get a view of this one tonight? As the sun sets on the end of the year tonight – it’s getting clloudy. I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to view it.

The beginning of this decade and actually the new millennium found Wayne and I in Hong Kong. We stood among the masses of people that clogged the streets to ring in the New Year. To ring in a new tentative dream of beginning to travel again. I actually began to think about looking at boats. Tonight, at the end of this decade, at the start of a new decade, we find ourselves sitting on our own boat, heading south, down to the Bahamas. I’m not sure where life is leading us? We all eventually come to the same end. I only know that we’re living it. One day at a time.

12/30/09 Dragon Point to Vero Beach

Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Dragon Point N28 08.519’ W80 36.109’ to Vero Beach Fl N27 39.686 W80 22.319’

It was nice to be greeted with temperatures in the mid-40s instead of the lower 30s this morning. The temperature continued to increase throughout the day to the mid-70s and it was a marvelous summer type day.

Raised anchor at 9:00am. This was after coffee and after taking pictures of a bird that decided to land on our secondary anchor on the bowsprit, as we were getting ready to haul up the primary anchor. It was a snakebird known as an anhinga. It’s called a snakebird because after diving and swimming when it comes up to the surface, only it’s head and neck show. Hence people think it’s a snake as it swims through the water. It’s also called a water turkey because when it flies, it looks like a wild turkey with it’s long fanned tail. Anhinga means water turkey in S. America.

After raising anchor and finding another little friend - Wayne picked a little crab off the anchor, set it free and we were on our way again.

My spirits were buoyed so I put some music on and sang along with some nostalgic tunes while playing helmsman. The Righteous Brothers, Peter Paul and Mary, Neil Diamond, Toto, Enya, then a switch to some country – more modern day, then back to the 70s. The only one to hear me was Wayne so no foul! Some boaters looked at me strangely though as I passed them or they passed me. I thought my dancing in place at the helm was pretty spiffy actually! Hmmmm… I wonder if they could hear me belting out the tunes after all. Anyhow it seemed like a perfect summer day, singing and dancing at the helm, cruising through the water. Blue skies, blue water, dolphins, seabirds, strange camouflaged boats…

“Five hundred miles, five hundred miles, you can hearrrrr the whistle blow…” Actually we’re more like 1600 miles from home, but the song doesn’t say that… Then Puff the Magic Dragon came on. That song always makes me cry. Then I started thinking about the dragon at Dragon Point and Puff the Magic Dragon. All magic disappears in the long run. Whether dragons in song, or dragons of stone. Both sad remnants of the past magic that was once felt…

At 3:00pm we pulled into Vero Beach, got our mooring assignment (#42) and had dolphins following by us to our mooring assignment. I tried getting some pictures since they were hanging out but don’t think I got any good ones. It’s hard to steer into a narrow channel, find your mooring, and snap pictures at the same time LOL. It looks like we have a mooring to ourselves tonight. Wow.
We got checked in and had a package waiting for us – Thank you Steph – it was terrific! Tanner sounded sweet on the alto sax with Rob in accompaniment and the cookies weren’t tooooo smashed!  The Chemistry shirt was perfect!

We dinghied over to the Riverside Café for one of their wonderful burgers and slaw and then back to the boat. Still no neighbors and it are getting dark and very calm out. The sunset was nice but not one of those spectacular ones. I can hear an owl hooting. It sounds like it’s coming from the mangroves.

12/28/09 From Daytona to titusville

Monday, December 28, 2009

8:00 am From Daytona (mile 829) to Titusville (mile 878) 4:00pm

From the land of Daytona where they let cars tear apart the beaches (but not dogs) to Titusville the beginning of the space coast. It was a pleasant day of “find the buoys with the sun in your eyes” all day. No problems really, except once when I couldn’t figure out the color of a buoy and ended up out of the channel surrounded by 5.5 feet of water.

Luckily, Lady Good Wind had been following us for a good part of the day and after going through the cut, Haul Out Canal (which was crowded with little fishing boats in a very narrow channel), and past the lift bridge after I’d lost sight of the markers – he let me follow him. Whew. It’s hard on the eyes looking into the sun all day. It was nice to follow his boat and let him search out the markers LOL. The closer we got to Titusville the higher the winds got. We had seawater spraying up over the boat and coating the dodger window in white.

We both entered the anchorage in front of Titusville Marina about 4pm. We anchored next to Green #1 right outside the channel and they anchored behind us. The winds are supposed to increase tonight gusting to 30 and the temp is supposed to drop to 30. It’s a 30/30-day. Wendell called to let us know that they won’t be meeting us in Vero Beach for New Years. I guess Di has to work. Maybe next time. We were talking about cutting through to the west coast next year if the Okeechobee and its rivers are deep enough. Then on to Guatemala and further South West. We’ll see. Sad news that we can’t visit, but good to hear my bro’s voice :)

I made a rendition of beef stroganoff but over mashed potatoes for dinner. I think I added to much Worcestershire sauce – Wayne said the onions were to hot. Nice hearty meal for a cold night though.

12/27/09 Ft Matanzas Fl to Titusville Fl? Scratch that. Daytona Beach Florida

Sunday, December 27, 2009

51 miles to Titusville. It was a beautiful sunrise. Why can't I capture on film what my eye sees?
We got an early start so we could make it before dark (no running lights). Pulling out this morning at 8:00 I was a bit apprehensive but followed the buoys listed on the chart plotter instead of the buoys on the water. Cordelia was right. We saw 6-12 feet all the way out (2 hours before low tide). After leaving the anchorage we kept running into shoals reading 6-8 feet but never ran aground. After a couple hours of being in the clear, I went down to make sandwiches and work on the computer.

At 11:30am, at a place called Smith Creek , Wayne throttled back so I came up top. Wayne thought another boat was coming at us and the buoy marker behind it was green. He was trying to go around the boat and green marker (green should be to our left). He said when he went one way; the boat coming at us turned the same way. So he turned the other way and the boat then turned that way. Thud! We ran aground… The boat he was trying to avoid was a derelict boat at anchor just outside the channel. It was swinging at anchor. The marker was red. But in all honesty it was just a stick with no sign on it. The red part was missing. Wayne thought it was a green one on the chart. We were outside the channel, in the mud, in between two crab pots. We ran aground in 4.0 ft of water (5 foot actually) according to our depth sounder. Happy. Happy. Joy. Joy. At 12:30 a boat came by and waked us. No success. The wake didn’t move us at all. If anything it pushed us into shallower water. Ran the engine in reverse, no luck. We couldn’t move forward or back out. We’d run aground at to high a speed I guess. We waited an hour to see if the tide would raise us up. Nothing. Cordelia came by and asked on the radio, if we needed assistance. Wayne said, “No, we’ll wait for the tide to lift us off”. Half an hour later we still had no luck and I finally called Towboat US. “Are you the boat we heard on the radio with the other one talking about needing assistance?” “Yes sir”. “Where are you?” “I’m not sure, but I can give you our latitude and longitude?” “No I need a geographical location.” “Um oh… we’re by red marker…” “no ma’am. I need a geographical location – what city are you near?” “Um gosh, I’m not sure (we weren’t by any city that I knew of).” “We left Ft. Matanzas and went under two high rise bridges…” “You haven’t gone through a bridge you had to open yet?” “No. I think we’re not far from it though, I heard other boats calling for an opening.” “I’m trying to figure out which boat to send. Which place you’re closer too.” “Oh Okay.” Wayne pointed out on the chart – Flagler Beach. “Here. You talk to him.” “Okay. We’re south of Flagler beach near green 21.” “Oh, okay sir. We’ll send someone right out.”

An hour later they pulled up next to us and threw us a line. We were wedged in the mud tight. He couldn’t budge us. He kept cranking up his engine to higher speeds. First one way, then another. Finally we slowly started move. Inch by inch, then we busted out of the mud and back into the channel cruising at 6.5 knots. Very fast, up to the towboat. Free at last! After leaving us, we heard him on the radio calling the Coastguard. He informed them that he’d just pulled a boat out of the shallows because of a missing channel marker. He probably should have mentioned the derelict boat there too. But it was impressive that he let the Coastguard know about the missing marker. So with two and a half hours gone, there was no way we were going to make Titusville today. We stopped at Daytona in front of the Bascule Bridge past the twin fixed bridges near the Sea breeze Marina and Calico Jacks. We noticed a familiar boat there. Cordelia. But her dinghy was gone so they must have gone ashore to walk the dog - it’s a cute little one that is so mild mannered :0) They came by and said hi before going to their boat. I guess they had a problem taking the little one to the beach and had to take her elsewhere. Wow.

While chatting with them another boat (Lady Good Wind) came in to anchor and asked if we were a Bayfield 36 or 40? Well yes. We’re a Bayfield 36. I had a Bayfield 29 and turned it in for this one. Why didn’t you get a larger Bayfield? There wasn’t one. Oh. They have an Erwin 40, which is a bit bigger than ours.  It's always nice to talk to a fellow Bayfield owner, or, previous owner :)
Below is a picture taken by Daytona

Saturday, December 26, 2009 St. Augustine to Ft. Matanzas, Rattlesnake Island, Fl

Wayne communicating with our Christmas Guest
After a nice sunrise and coffee topside, we dinghied over to the marina for a last shower here. They really have nice showers here – very clean and a lot of hot water. I think that this is probably one of the nicest facilities but it should be since they charge you $10 a day to dock and use their facilities. We ran into Cordelia coming back to the dinghy and it looks like they’re heading to Ft. Matanzas also. So we’ll probably run into them there. They’re a nice couple (the couple from Marquette).

We left St. Augustine’s and pulled into the Matanzas inlet round 1:50pm (picture above us in inlet at the fort). It was kind of skinny coming into the Matanzas inlet and we saw 5.0 on our depth sounder (the transducer that measures depth is a foot below water level) turning in south of Green 81A. This was worrisome because we should have been at high tide and had room to spare. After we got anchored I was looking at our chart plotter and the 81A I followed last time into this spot was not the one we went around this time. This one was 81B the last time which explained the depths. Hate when they move things and then they’re not correct! Cordelia pulled in closer to Green 81 and told us they had depths of 12-13 ft range, which sounded more appropriate. We’ll have to follow the chart plotter out in the morning. What’s worse is we’ll probably be leaving somewhere around low tide and the charts say that the depths to this spot at low tide are 5 ft. I’ll have to check the times and make sure we don’t leave at low tide.

We dinghied over to the park landing to take the ferry over to the fort for the grand tour. They don’t allow docking over at the fort. Going over to the headquarters, everyone was pointing up in the trees. There was a horned owl up there snoozing away. Cordelia pointed it out to me. It was a beauty. I couldn’t get it to open its eyes though no matter what sounds I made. I was told that it had beautiful yellow eyes.

The tour was informative but sanitized. They didn’t mention the slaughter of the 300 people on those grounds or that the mode of death was by stabbing the people to death. Matanzas means slaughter. They only mentioned there were a couple of slaughters that occurred here. We were told that it was unknown if it was for political reasons or religious. I also learned that La Florida means the flower or the flowers. I never knew that Florida was named for flowers – it makes sense.

It was interesting to see the fort quarters. The first level had cannons set up to protect the harbor from invading ships that shipwrecked on the shoals. 7-8 soldiers stayed in one room on the first floor. This was also the level that the cannons were located.

The commanding officer, which was the equivalent of a sergeant, had his own room with the ammunitions and stores (food) on the second floor. He even had a little fireplace and writing area.

The top level of the fort was the roof. You climbed through a hole in the roof with a ladder. Once there the view was spectacular. Looking down it looked like we had a cannon pointed right at Kolibrie!

 

There was a gentleman there dressed in early soldier garb that was entertaining and informative. He did a very nice job. He asked one fella how many teeth he had? Then said he definitely qualified to join the garrison. Soldiers were required to have 4 teeth or they couldn’t enlist. He told me I probably didn’t want to kiss anyone unless they had at least double that. Right? LOL.

Right before heading back to the ferry dock, we spotted Cordelia’s crew heading back to their boat and I took some pictures of them. On our way back to the boat, the dolphins started putting in their appearance. It was getting close to sunset. The sky was turning vibrant shades of pink. I took some pictures of the fort and surrounding area then I reheated the rest of the pork roast and we had hot pork sandwiches for dinner.

Friday, December 25, 2009 Christmas on the boat; St Augustine Fl

What a beautiful sunrise this morning. It just seemed so spectacular in shades of gold, orange, pink, and turquoise. The air was still and warm on my skin with the sound of seabirds calling to each other and beginning their daily flights. The osprey on the mast of the boat next to us gave a shrill call and launched into the air in search of breakfast.

I thoroughly enjoyed sipping my coffee and snapping pictures of the sunrise. What an awesome present to greet me on Christmas day.

A little seabird decided to join me for breakfast. At first it landed on the dinghy, then on the Taft rail of the boat. She kept her eye on me and I on her. She kept coming closer and I remembered that I had a little bag of birdseed below from the wedding. I went to fetch it thinking the little bird would be scared off. But when I returned, it was still there, sitting on the teak. Watching me. I put seed into my hand and held it out to the little bird. She danced around, trying to figure out if it was safe to approach or not then decided it was. She grabbed a seed and disappeared. Then came back. The same little dance but not as long, and she snatched another seed. We kept this up for a while until she’d lost all fear of me and had a full belly. Or so I thought. Then she returned with another bird (this one male I think – darker coloration). So my little Christmas visitor enjoyed her present of wedding seeds and in return left it’s little gifts all over the boat.

We ate chocolate covered cherries that we’d bought for our moms and thought about Christmas’ past with loved ones. I spent most of the day downloading my pictures and sorting them. Then catching up on posting to my blog. We had a rainy, drizzly day so we tried to catch some rainwater into our holding tank too. I’m not sure if we got any into the tank or not but we gave it the ole college try.

It was wonderful to hear family voices and catch up briefly on the phone. I actually hadn’t thought anyone was reading my blog until talking to Joey & Di and Pat. Sorry for the scare Wendell. But in another vein, it was nice to know that you were concerned. I love you bro. It was a long time between posts. I’ll try not to do that again. I sometimes think nobody reads my musings. I hope we get to catch up with you on New Years Day – I miss you.

I put a pork roast on for dinner with mashed potatoes, corn and applesauce. We had an apple pie for dessert (no I didn’t bake this one). The roast turned out wonderful!

Tomorrow we head back out on our trek southward. St. Augustine is starting to feel like home. I love the old town. The atmosphere, the vibrancy that remains in the old buildings draped in moss, made of stone… the buildings hum with a life all their own.

Merry Christmas

Christmas.
A time for reflection of those we love. A time for remembrance of days and Christmas's past. A time for living in the present and dreaming of the future. But still... for living in the present.  The best gift you can give yourself, and give to others is to LIVE your life and allow others to live theirs. Don't feel guilt for what you have, or what you don't. Don't feel guilt for who you are or who you are not. Live your life the best that you can. Don't be a tourist in your own life. Don't wait until its to late. You don't always get that second or third chance. Live your life. It's what you're supposed to do. For those I've hurt, I'm truly sorry. I've never meant to purposefully hurt a living soul and if I did, it was never my intention. Hurt and hatred can hold you back. Get on with your life. Love life. Love those in your life. You're really the only person that holds you back from living your life. Don't begrudge yourself or others of a life. Give yourself the gift of life. That's what Christmas is after all... a gift of life.

Merry Christmas to all the people I love or ever have loved. Merry Christmas. Pass it on...

Thursday, December 24, 2009 St. Augustine, FL

I still love sunrise. My favorite time of the day. Everything is filled with promise of fresh beginnings, new days.

Spent the morning sipping coffee in the cockpit and enjoying the warmer temperatures of the last couple days. I spotted a kingfisher on another boat - that took me back home. I can remember mornings sitting out mornings and listening to them. One used to perch on the mast of the little sailboat.

While I was drinking my coffee and looking in the water a little green sea turtle popped its head up to say hello! By the time I got my camera it was underwater next to the boat again. It watched me from under the water and I watched it from in the air.

After making breakfast (eggs, sausage, hashbrowns) I spent the rest of the morning putting some pictures to notes for my blog. It can be time consuming figuring out which pictures to put on and which ones not to. After that we went into town to wander a bit and explore and grab some pizza again. We went through the old town and over to the fort, then walked back to the marina.

There’s supposed to be some weather coming in tonight and I can tell. The wind is picking up – our wind generator has been silent of late, but today it’s spinning away. I may get to spend tomorrow actually posting to my blog. Sorry all – it seemed this trip that we either had internet connections when we didn’t have power to both write on the computer, then download and edit pics, or we had the power but sparse connections.

I can’t believe that it’s the end of the year already.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 St. Augustine, Fl.

What a beautiful morning this morning. It was warm enough to enjoy my morning coffee up top with my camera. The ospreys like to catch fish and perch on top of people’s masts, booms and spreaders to enjoy their breakfast. Yummy. I liked to capture picture of them having their breakfast on other people’s boats. Then we had some cereal and headed to the marina for showers.

We spent the early afternoon exploring more of St. Augustine and looking at the architecture of the buildings. What a lovely old town it is. Then we had lunch in a little place a came back to the boat. We seem to be swinging closer to a couple of unoccupied boats as the wind picks up. But we seem to be okay. Spaghetti & salad for dinner. Then I need to download some pictures from my camera and start catching up on blog postings.

Many of the old buildings had protected patios that hid fountains and statuettes.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009 Quiet/shopping day

St. Augustine, Florida

I read some this morning while Wayne worked on the battery systems trying to figure out what the set-up is to it. Our starting battery is supposed to only come into play to start the boat. But it appears to discharge with the house batteries. So something isn’t set up right.

When Wayne finished putting the batteries back together again we ran the generator for a while to charge everything up. After that we loaded my collapsible hand truck and canvas bags into the dink to hike to the Winn Dixie. It’s about 2 miles from here so we had a nice hike. The air was cool but it was a nice walk. Got to look at more historic buildings on the way. Got some groceries and headed back to the boat with a rotisserie chicken and potato salad for dinner. Mmmmmm… It was terrific!

We ran into the Marquette MI people that were anchored at St. George River at the marina. They’re planning on going to Guatemala.

Monday, December 21, 2009 St Augustine, Fl and Winter Solstice!

St. Augustine Harbor, Fl

Happy Winter Solstice! It’s the first day of winter – longest night of the year here as the sun starts it’s trek to longer days in the northern hemisphere again! The gulls are excited about it too - longer days means more feeding time.

I polished off Tess Gerritsen’s book – good twists & turns – Thanks again for the recommendation Sandy! We then went and paid our fee to use the dinghy dock, showers, and laundry here for the next 5 days. We decided we’ll stay in St. Augustine for Christmas. It’s a nice little town even if it does have cold temperatures. It got to 30/32 last night. We decided that nothing would be open anywhere else so this is where we’ll stay, then head south again the day after Christmas. The weather is calling for rain Christmas Eve and Christmas.

After showers we wandered into town. I found a post office to mail off my Christmas card to Aunt Joyce. I can’t believe my address book is missing & my mom’s house is the only address I know by heart (besides my own). Sorry all for the lack of Christmas cards this year. We stood in line for 45 minutes to get a stamp – the place was crazy and we were told that their stamp machine hasn’t worked for a week.

After that we went down George Street to Pizza Alley and got some pizza and beer/ice tea for dinner. The old architecture in the buildings is wonderful. Stonework of coquina (shells) cemented together with a sandstone cement matrix and massive black iron chain fence with spiked black iron balls to give variation to the chain.
We wandered into the old town market plaza. A young man was sitting on the cement steps playing bongos. This is the old market shelter where venders set up their tables on a open pavilion, cement shelter. They have the Christmas tree and plaza all lit up with Christmas lights. The street lamps are draped in ribbon and greenery like a dickens scene. The gazebo styled bandstand was all decorated for the holidays in red bows and flocked ribbon making the columns look like giant peppermint sticks. It was surrounded and decked in holly, mistletoe, poinsettias and bells.

It looked like something was going on at the bandstand and we discovered that a wedding was about to occur. Yes, we attended a public wedding. It was quite romantic. The bride and her bride’s maids all pulled up in a horse drawn carriage a little before 6pm.

They planned this well, right down to the second because as the couple was saying their vows and “I Do’s” the church bells started chiming for 6pm. The whole thing was very elegant and romantic. They had a white satin runner leading from the street where the horses pulled up to the Gazebo. The preacher gave a wonderful ceremony and I was given a little bag of birdseed to throw at the happy couple as they fled back to the carriage. They must have been freezing though because it was in the 40s.

I tried but couldn’t get to the line in time to throw my birdseed at the lovely couple. So some lucky birds elsewhere will have it.

We dinghied back to the boat and on the way, the dink “conched” out on us. We had problems earlier with it too. Might be old gas. It’s a nice clear night out. The stars are bright and all the Christmas lights look wonderful.