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Boat Ramblings 1
Greetings...grab your coffee for here I go again with a new edition of
ramblings, but this time my ramblings are not from Mandy the RV, but from Halcyon, the boat. So who is this new edition?
She is a 42ft Grand Banks, trawler type power boat which we purchased last year with the intention of doing the Great
Loop...that being Florida, up the eastern seaboard to New York, the Hudson River up into New England, Canada and back via
the canals into the Great Lakes, then down the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers into the Gulf of Mexico and on back to Tampa,
maybe over the summer of 2014, maybe it may take two summers. For the enthusiasts among you who are so moved to
follow the trek, we have our trusty "Spot" operating, that satellite position device which marks our position each
day, on a map of the States. Go to the website www.rfmolony.com and click on "display track" and all will become plain, assuming
we are afloat and still moving in the general direction of north, albeit a little too quickly it would seem based on the weather
we are encountering.
So Richard, Walker, the hound dog, and I were somewhat tardy in our departure date...we had planned
to slip our lines where Halcyon was docked in the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs on Feb 18th, but that was pushed out to March, Sat. 8th due to weather, paperwork and a
need for me to fly to Texas for 4 days to renew a certification which had become due. Actually the delay was fortuitous
because it allowed us time to figure out all those little things we did not have aboard still or even, gulp, had forgotten.
It would seem a law that no matter how well planned, we still overlooked something.....aaah, but all is well now and
we are missing, well just a couple of things which only rank in the nature of, well, minor. Our friend, JoEllen,
moved into our house and will manfully fight off the weeds that persistently grow in the garden and endeavor to keep the pasture
somewhat tamed while we explore.
Blue skies with temps in the mid 70tys (around 23/24 degrees celsius) welcomed us on
our way the morning of departure, and a couple of friends (with last minute forgotten stuff, what a surprise) to bid
us bon voyage.. At this point, we have now completed 1 1/2 weeks aboard and it has been truly uneventful. The
biggest two events were Walker finally deciding he could hold his bladder and bowels no longer and found an appropriate place
on deck to off load that cargo, amid cheers and cookies from us. He seems fully adjusted to life aboard now, but does
smell the land wistfully as we move through some narrow areas with land just a few yards away on either side of us.
The other "event" was running aground coming out of the St. Lucie River at Stuart on the east coast of Florida.
Even that was not a biggie though, we just missed a marker buoy (of which there are copious numbers) and ran up on a
sand bank. Thank heavens for powerful engines, which powered us off again and put us back into deeper waters....phew!
Initially we headed south to Fort Myers and hung a left into the Caloosahatchee River (alligator territory). Traversed
3 locks, which were most interesting to experience from the deck of a boat. Then onward, across the Ockeechobee Lake,
shallow but massive, and into the St. Lucie waterway where a further 2 locks awaited us. The last of the five locks, the St.
Lucie, was fascinating with a 13ft difference between the upside and downside of the lock. We both kept a death grip
on the ropes hanging down from the sides of the lock which is the only method of securing the boat as she descends,
or rises, within the moderately turbulent waters as they fill or empty the lock. Walker was unsure about these
turn of events and would start barking in true hound fashion, which set up an echo within the walls of the lock and
kept him baying at his own bark. Very amusing, especially to the handful of on lookers who always seemed to be present to
watch a boat go through a lock.
We have decided traveling on the weekends is painful, there are soooo many pleasure
craft out and about that you need eyes in the back of your head and the wake they stir up is most off putting. We tied
up at the town pier in Moore Haven, just before crossing the Lake, thinking we would grab a few groceries while there and
stay the night. Very pretty along the boardwalk , but otherwise the town appears to be dying or dead. They just
forgot to put up the sign, "the last person to leave Moore Haven, please turn out the lights" or something
along those lines. Walked a couple of miles seeking at least some fresh milk, but everything was shut down, dead
and gone. Walked back through a residential area, talk about dog city, obviously not the wealthy part of town and more
pit bulls chained up or behind fences, than we could count.
For the most part we have been anchoring out of a
night where ever we find something suitable with enough depth under our keel and that has been tricky in the river and along
the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). We are now moving north up the Florida east coast following the markers of the ICW,
so we are in waters that, for the most part, enjoy a little protection from the weather...."a little" being the
operative words here.
I was wondering how I would go once aboard, moving from a life that was full on to one that
now moves at a snails pace. Enjoying it!!!! We have kept to ourselves so far, enjoying the transition. Our
days start leisurely over a cup of coffee and breakfast, then around 10am
we engage the winch which rattles the anchor up from its night bed in the mud and off we go, traveling at the dizzy speed
of 7-8 miles an hour. Navigation is full on in the ICW, so that keeps us occupied for the 4 hours or so we motor along
to the next chosen spot to drop the anchor for the night. Then we put our feet up, fire up MIFI, the internet connection,
and catch up on line, or pull out a good book along with a glass of wine, or perhaps do some sketching, practice on
my flute, work on a crochet tablecloth I have been working on for some 30ty years (!!!...cannot rush these things) or just
sit quietly and watch the world go by along the shoreline, feeling far removed from its chaos. We are usually in bed,
lights out by around 9.30pm.
Yesterday
afternoon the winds picked up to 25knot, gusting to 30. With no good anchorages to be found in the area, we pulled off
the ICW and dropped anchor for the night, wondering how Halcyon (and us) would handle the strong winds and nasty chop which
was forecast to remain all evening. Love this boat, she sat beautifully and it was quite comfy below deck, with minimal
movement despite what was going on outside. Decided to head to Cocoa today and a local marina as the weather is forecast
to go further downhill. We are now quietly tied up in a lovely marina with full amenities but alas the supermarket
is 2 miles away, and we need to restock. So tomorrow Walker and I will hoof it there and get some exercise while R will
ride his bicycle and bring home the heavier stuff. I see they have a Farmers Market on shore also tomorrow, yeah,
life is good.
Okay another week and a half has gone by, at this time we are in Jackonsville Beach, Fl. We have
now been underway 3 weeks. Poor Richard is pulling out what little hair he has left trying to navigate our four and
half foot draught vessel (our underwater depth) in a land of 9 foot tides where the deepest waters sink to a staggering 14ft
but quickly gives way to silting, reducing the depths to 6 ft or less in many places of the ICW. This makes finding
suitable overnight places to drop an anchor, without ending up high and dry at low tide, a little challenging (for him, I
just have another glass of wine and commiserate on his behalf). Each day after we have secured the boat for the night,
Richard pulls out all the charts and cross references and ponders on the next day's travel for a couple of hours, then throws
up his hands in despair and says "it's a crap shoot again".
We were holed up for the last four nights in St
Augustine, the oldest settlement in the USA. Very quaint and full of history. Again the weather had turned extremely
lousy, with 35 - 40 knots of wind howling across the deck, rain and coooold. The marina there, which is excellent, had
mooring buoys to tie up on for $20.00 a night..a good deal to ensure a good night's sleep considering the conditions, and
they were in great demand by the many transiting boats, who like us, were also seeking shelter from mother nature. (...just
in case you are not familiar with this language, a mooring buoy is like a floating line permanently secured to the seabed
in somewhat protected waters. We maneuver the boat up to the line and secure our boat to the buoy using
the line). In such poor weather it is a wonderful option to have rather than dropping our anchor and trusting it will
hold in the high winds. It is also much kinder to the seabed and one does not have to worry about other boats
around you dragging their anchors and ending up on top of you at 3
am in the morning. The marina kindly provided a free water taxi service between all the boats and
shore, setting us down right in the middle of the old Spanish township. Walker definitely preferred this option over
our dinghy. Getting all 95lbs of the big boy in and out of our dinghy has proved interesting. I suspect a video
of such would fair well on the TV show, America's Funniest Videos. So far, however, none of us have ended up in
the water....yet. Again, as when we were traveling with him in the RV, he draws so much attention to himself that he
almost seems to achieve celebrity status. No doubt the continual baying of a hound heralding our way as we walked
the narrow, tourist filled streets of St. Augustine is not what one expects to hear in an old Spanish seaport. There
were people who actually sort out "the voice" and once found, had to come have a chat with him, they
had no interest in us, just Walker, we were incidental....I never cease to be amazed. I am just startled at the
endless numbers of huge homes that dot along the banks up this way, just one after another, and another, each seeming to rival
the previous for "massive" status.
We arrived late this afternoon here in Fernandina Beach, the northern
most city in Florida. Interesting day today, we both were fully involved in the navigation as the ICW left behind
the homes beautiful and wound its way through wetlands. The current ran so strongly, we were doing 8knots, with
the engines just running at idle speed (that is fast for a cruiser like us). Sand banks and massive swirls of currents
abounded everywhere as we dog legged back and forth through the marshes....I was reminded of the movie African Queen. It
is now Friday March 28th, so I will finish this first ramblings up.
Hope everyone is well, and enjoying themselves also,
Hugs,
Diane
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