Early start, Late(ish) Finish

Early start, Late(ish) Finish

Wednesday March 31, 2021

We departed St. Augustine this morning.  We followed a procession of boats out of the inlet (they had all come through the bridge at the 7 am opening).  As we were making our way out to sea like a line of ducklings, the sun was coming up.  One by one the boats in front of us vanished into the fog!  I was dreading a foggy passage but as the sun climbed higher, the fog was dispelled.  By 8 am we were out of the inlet and heading north.

For most of the day the wind was 10-12 kts and pretty far abeam. With our forward motion, the “apparent” wind was very light indeed.  The seas were about 3-4 feet.  The rolling of the boat was enough to cause the sail to flap continually.  However, as we got to St. Mary’s inlet, the wind picked up due to a squall and was blowing at 20 kts, now on the beam as we headed in to land.  The current was flowing out of the inlet, kicking up wicked swell. It was a pretty unpleasant experience. It wasn’t over quickly either as the strong current meant that our progress was slow.  Plenty of time to say your prayers! The one good thing is that St Mary’s is a class A inlet for large vessels in most conditions. As such it is straight and wide with good depth throughout (>40 ft) and effective breakwaters. We would not have wanted to go in a marginal inlet under these conditions.

Once inside we dropped the sail and motored the remaining five miles or so up the St. Mary’s River.  We anchored off the town of St. Mary’s at about 6:45 pm.  We are pretty tired and happy to be here.  So far it seems pretty still but a cold front will come through tonight.... 

Gloria

30 43.037 N, 81 33.099 W

Dolphins at sunrise inside the St Augustine Inlet

Sailboats heading out the St Augustine channel - "Don't cut out of the channel until you reach the sea buoy" (Sea Tow advice)

We saw many gannets on passage - this one is an immature gannet

The anchorage in the St Mary's River

Anchored off St Mary's

Last Day in St Augustine

Last Day in St Augustine

Tuesday 30th March 2021

Seeing the work that our friends are putting into their boat inspired us to do be a little more diligent with our boat. The weather forecast this morning predicted thunderstorms around midday so we opted to hang out on Cotinga and clean the cockpit and work on polishing some of the stainless steel fittings. It does feel good to see the progress. The thunderstorms never materialized and so after lunch we headed into town for a walk. St Augustine is an interesting history and played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement and it’s fascinating to wander around and see some of the buildings where local prominent activists lived and visitors such as Martin Luther King Jr. stayed. We were also fortunate that it’s now possible to walk around the grounds of Flagler College. When we were here in December that was not possible due to Covid. Now restrictions are easing up (perhaps prematurely) but the grounds are once again open, although it’s still not possible to go into the buildings. 

We are now back on board and preparing to leave tomorrow for St Mary’s Georgia, right on the northern border with Florida. We are planning to exit the St Augustine inlet, which according to local TowBoat US should be straightforward and then it’s about 50 miles straight up the coast to the St Mary’s inlet. It feels like ages since we actually sailed the boat on open water so we are both a bit nervous. Depending when we arrive we may, or may not, blog tomorrow.

Mike

29 53.955 N, 81 18.454 W

The Flagler University has an attractive campus right in the heart of St Augustine

One of the Student Halls at Flagler University

Inside the courtyard of the form Hotel Alcazar which was built to accommodate the rich travelers from the north who came south on Flagler's railroad. It is now home to municipal offices, small businesses and the Lightner Museum. It's quite beautiful

Sunset cruise on a schooner - shot from our boat in the anchorage

Help or Hindrance?

Help or Hindrance?

Monday March 29, 2021

Today we went with our friends Lynn and Lee to their boat at the Green Cove Springs Marina.  The theory was that we would help them out with some aspects of the work they are doing trying to get their boat ready to launch.  They spent three years living aboard ‘Serendipity’ before family issues caused them to put the boat on the hard.  All was not well with security in the yard.  The boat was broken into and the winches were stolen.  The companionway was left open to the elements.  That led to flooding of their boat and extensive damage to the woodwork. Even though they have made many trips back to Florida to work on her, there is still much to be done to restore the boat to her former glory.  

The interior of ‘Serendipity’ is largely teak woodwork.  There are many cabinets for storage, each with a louver door.  After the water damage, our friends took all the doors up to their home in Manhattan. There Lynn spent months sanding and varnishing them.  Now they are working on the frames of the cabinets—cleaning and sanding in preparation for varnishing to match the doors (that are still in NY).  I think it would be fair to say that they feel a bit overwhelmed from time to time. They have an entire excel spreadsheet of jobs that need doing on the boat.  

I’m embarrassed to report that we didn’t do all that much.  We cleaned the hull of the boat.  The wash down made ‘Serendipity’ look more like her old self—on the outside.  Then Mike worked on cleaning the foredeck.  I helped Lynn clean the dinghy.  While it’s much cleaner than it was, the dinghy is going to need some adhesive to re-attach many of the fittings.  By late afternoon, we were all flagging.  

Our friends kindly took us on a quick trip to Publix for some provisions. It’s now about eight o’clock and we’ve just finished putting away the grocery shopping.  Mike is starting to heat up some left-overs for dinner.  I think I might be a bit tired.

Gloria

29 53.955 N, 81 18.454 W

As you know I love hanging out in boatyards and taking abstract photos of boats. Here are a selection of shots from Green Cove Springs marina ...

Abstract - Metal boat prow

Boat Prow with some serious grinding

Serendipity - curves and anti-fouling

Serendipity - propellor

Serendipity - through-hulls

Serendipity - support stand

Serendipity - curves and through-hulls 

Sheila - the next two are for you! Grey cat hanging around the marina

Black and white cat

Too late to blog!

Too late to blog!

Sunday 28th March 2021

It’s almost 2 hours past “boaters midnight” and far too late to start writing a blog, so the following will be brief! We just had a lovely evening aboard Cotinga with our friends Lynn and Lee. We ate Kung Pao chicken and Dry Pot Cauliflower with rice followed by ICE CREAM! We never get to eat ice cream on the boat because our freezer just isn’t up to keeping it frozen. However, Lynn and Lee brought some with them and it was great! Gloria and I went ashore this morning and wandered over to a South African gourmet food store that was really nice and bought a few things. Then we had iced coffee and blueberry muffins sitting outside a café in the center of town. When we returned to the boat in the early afternoon the wind had picked up and there was a ton of boat traffic passing the anchorage so it felt really bumpy. By the time I left to pick our guests up from the dock it was blowing 15+ knots from the west. Happily it settled down soon after that and we had margaritas in the cockpit and watched the full moon rise before dinner. When I took Lynn and Lee back to the marina in the dinghy at about 10.30 pm it was practically dead calm and an absolutely beautiful night to be out on the water. We hope you all had a great day as well.

Mike

29 53.955 N, 81 18.454 W

Moonrise over St Augustine - a tough shot on the boat, 200 mm lens, 1/10 sec at F2.8 handheld, 1600 ISO. Not brilliant - but "oughts better than nought in a crisis"

Walk across the Bridge of Lions

Walk across the Bridge of Lions

Saturday 27th March 2021

I awoke in the middle of night feeling somewhat crappy and wasn’t too good this morning. I assume this is just the side-effects of the vaccine and a couple of ibuprofen helped and by midday I was feeling better. Gloria does not seem to have suffered any ill effects other than a sore arm.

We hung out on the boat this morning and then took the dinghy into the marina and walked over the Bridge of Lions to the St Augustine Light House. It looks pretty impressive but we opted not to go in because it seemed really crowded. However, it wasn’t a wasted journey because we really enjoyed walking through a quiet residential area filled with beautiful plants. Sheila – we saw a cat and tried to engage it in intelligent conversation but only got the expected outcome. Unfortunately I was distracted and I failed to take any photos!  

After a delicious dinner of pork chops, sautéed acorn squash and Brussels sprouts we had a nice conversation with Tasha. Then I happened to look out of the companionway and see that a neighboring boat, unoccupied and somewhat derelict, was about 10 feet from our side. We checked our GPS and determined we hadn’t dragged, but by some combination of current and tide (or the other boat dragging) we were now essentially on top of each other. We quickly put out a few fenders, which turned out to be necessary and then we started the engine and navigational instruments, pulled up the anchor and moved. We are now anchored about 250 feet away from where we were and hopefully we’ll will stay far enough away from the other boats and outside of the very busy shipping channel. What a pain in the butt! That’s the third time in the past month that we have had a boat close enough to bang into us, which is something that has never happened to us in the previous nine years. I’m starting to doubt my spatial awareness and ability to put the boat in good location even with the use of radar!

Mike

29 53.955 N, 81 18.454 W

Amarylis flower

Passionflower

Cove east of St Augustine

Tiny lizard on a picnic table

Sunrise St Augustine

Getting Lucky

Getting Lucky

Friday March 26, 2021

We went to shore early to register our dinghy with the marina.  Our plan for the day was to meet up with our friends Lynn and Lee.  They had offered to drive us to our vaccine appointment at the Solomon Calhoun Community Center.  The drive was fairly short so we arrived quite early for our appointment.  We were all a bit shocked by the sight of police cars and officers stopping vehicles on the way into the parking lot.  Our names were checked off on a list of people with appointments and we were directed to park and make our way to the big white tent.  When the officer asked our friends if they also wanted to get vaccinated, we started to think this might work out...

The whole operation was so well organized it was hard to believe.  The white tent led to a check in station where ID was checked and paperwork was printed off.  Then we were directed to another area to fill in our paperwork.  An EMT came to check over our responses to the questions and ask about allergies to medicines.  Then we were on our way to the actual injection stations.  The large room seemed to have twelve stations for administration of the vaccine.  A card was filled out with the information about our first injection, the time was recorded and we were directed to another room where our follow-up appointment was scheduled.  Then we were asked to wait until fifteen minutes had elapsed since our injection.  We then staggered out of the building and back to our friends waiting in the parking lot.  It was 11:10—still five minutes before our appointment time!  It’s hard to describe the sense of relief that we feel being on the way to being vaccinated.  No one seemed to care one way or another if we were resident in Florida or not.  Although Donna, who did my injection, seemed interested in the idea that we were living on a boat.

Our friends transported us back to their apartment.  Lynn prepared a delicious lunch of chicken Caesar salad—yum.  We went for a swim in the pool, a soak in the hot tub AND we did our laundry. 

Gloria

29 53.993 N, 81 18.473 W

Sunrise on a slightly foggy morning in St Augustine

Sunrise through the "dodger" covered in dew

Gloria swimming in the pool at the apartment complex where Lynn and Lee rented their AirBnB

Lynn and Lee in the pool

A portrait of Gloria under the waterfall in the hot-tub

Now that's a shower with a lot of water!

Return to St Augustine

Return to St Augustine

Thursday 25th March 2021

After a quiet and pleasant night in the Matanzas Inlet we awoke to a foggy morning. It’s ironic because on our way south we had thick fog from St Augustine down to the Matanzas inlet. We pulled up the anchor at about 7.30 a.m. and headed north. After half an hour or so the fog started to thin out and shortly disappeared altogether, which was a relief. It’s only about 14 miles to St Augustine but it’s a meandering route requiring close attention to stay in the middle of the channel and avoid the shoal areas. We made it in time for the 10 a.m. opening of the Bridge of Lions and then anchored off the Castillo de San Marcos in approximately the same spot we were in back in December. Having a city marina mooring would have been very convenient but unfortunately there are none available The current rips through here really strongly and we have 100 feet of chain out in 20 feet of water. We are confident the holding is good, but we aren’t quite so sure that our swinging room will clear all the other boats. It’s hard to judge with reversing tidal currents and not knowing how much anchor rode the other boats have out. So we have spent the afternoon aboard, doing some cleaning and cooking, but mostly checking to see that we are in a safe location.  Since arriving the wind has strengthened to 15 knots gusting to near 20 knots from the southeast. We normally expect current to be a stronger factor than wind in positioning the boat but this afternoon we have not fully swung to face the incoming tide so we remain a little concerned about how we might move relative to other boats if the wind were lighter. 

One of the main reasons we want to spend some time here is that our friends Lynn and Lee are in the area for a few weeks working on restoring their boat “Serendipity” which is in a boat yard on the St John’s river. Lynn and Lee are coming over for dinner and we are excited to see them again.

Mike

29 53.993 N, 81 18.473 W

The fog starts to clear on the ICW 

ICW south of St Augustine

I liked the look of this modest home!

N.O.L.S.

N.O.L.S.

Wednesday 24th March 2021

What’s worse than getting up in the dark at 6.30 a.m. for the third day in a row? The answer is getting up at 6.00 a.m. because you can’t sleep and you are waiting for the alarm to go off! Life seemed a little better once we had coffee inside us and we pulled up the anchor in Rockhouse Creek at around 7.15 am. We wanted to get as early a start as possible to make use of the high tide (5.30 am) to clear some shoal areas north of the Ponce de Leon Inlet. In fact it all turned out fine and we cruised through with relatively little stress. After passing a sequence of five bridges and covering about 12 miles there is an anchorage just off the ICW and we pulled over, dropped the hook and cooked up some eggs, sausages and toast for breakfast. Life seemed a lot better after that! We spent the rest of the day motoring up north in almost calm conditions, pulling in to the Palms Coast marina in the middle of the afternoon to pump out our holding tank (vital) and to fill up with diesel (not so important). It all went well and we are now empty and full respectively.

The journey was quite scenic with lagoons, woodlands and marshes along with some sections where there are beautiful homes next to the water. We saw lots of dolphins, herons, egrets and osprey. Perhaps the most exciting part of the day was being able to schedule an appointment for a Covid vaccination! If all goes well, on Friday morning Gloria and I will get our first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. 

Now we are anchored in the Matanzas inlet. The entrance to this channel is shallow and currents run quite strongly (~2 knots) but we seem to be secure and are happy to be here. We have covered ~180 miles over the past 3 days. You might be interested to know that even though we have been motoring pretty solidly our fuel consumption is still less than a gallon an hour. We only have ~ 14 miles to go to St Augustine where we plan to spend the rest of March.

Anyone who has done a course with the National Outdoor Leadership School knows that N.O.L.S. really stands for No Official Lunch Supplied and so it was today on Cotinga. After our hearty breakfast all we ate for lunch was half a "manky" banana and a nectarine. The former is what you get when someone (not me) cuts up a banana, eats half of it and leaves the rest! It’s no surprise that we were starving by the time that Gloria’s amazing meatloaf was ready for dinner and it really was fantastic!

Mike

29 43.046 N, 81 14.481 W

Sunrise in Rockhouse Creek

Boat wakes on the ICW

Powerboat traffic on the ICW - some boats slow down for a "slow pass", many just zoom by

A shrimper on the ICW near to Matanzas Inlet

An all too common sight on the ICW. We have seen literally dozens of wrecked boats in the last three days. Does Florida have a policy / plan to remove them?

Rough Start

Rough Start

Tuesday March 23, 2021

I fumbled around in the lazarette this morning to find the hose we use for washing the anchor and chain.  When I walked up to the bow to attach the hose, to my surprise, about four feet off our bow was the stern of another boat.  Much excitement ensued.  Fenders were placed all around.  Then, ever so carefully, we started to pull up the anchor.  At one point our bow swung toward the other vessel.  Mike was able to lean over the pulpit and push the stern away.  Once there was some separation between the boats, we finished hauling up the anchor and got underway.  There was no one aboard the other boat and we think it was perhaps just drifting around the anchorage. Happily, the rest of the day went rather better.

Much of the ICW in Florida is marked by pilings with attached placards that are either red or green and numbered.  Where there is a direction change, a light is affixed to the top of the piling as an indicator.  As much time as I have spent motoring up and down the waterway, it’s only recently that I realized that the pilings that are lighted also have a ladder attached.  This presumably allows maintenance crews to access the lights and do repairs (replace lenses, bulbs—whatever).  While motoring along today, I pondered what it might be like to have the job of working on these lights in the ICW. As it turns out these pilings are the favorite perches of many birds including the lesser-loved cormorant.  I started to think that climbing up these rickety ladders might be the good part of the job!  Certainly a strong stomach would be required (not to mention the need for a shower in bleach at the end of the day)!  Perhaps it’s not the job for me.  

Now after eight hours on the water, at times fighting against currents of 2 knots, we are once again anchored in Rockhouse Creek near Ponce deLeon inlet. Interestingly, the boat “Sails Call” is still anchored here—it was here when we came through in December.  Also present is the sailing vessel “Bees Knees” that we last encountered in Awendaw Creek, SC and then Beaufort, SC. We are happy to be on the ICW because there are still substantial swells offshore, despite the winds having abated. We can see surf breaking in the inlet from our anchorage … we touched bottom coming in Ponce de Leon back in 2012 and have no intention of transiting that inlet again!

Gloria

29 03.673 N, 80 55.895 W    

Looking back down the ICW to the bridge at Cocoa

The sun finally appears through the clouds after a foggy start to the day

Motoring up the ICW in near calm conditions - but note Gloria has on her foul weather jacket. It seems cold the last couple of days, an incredible contrast to the weather down in the Keys

Passing through the NASA Causeway bridge - that opens "on demand". Many of the bridges on the ICW are on a schedule such as every half hour and some have rush-hour restrictions

"Bees Knees" in Rockhouse Creek - the Ponce de Leon Inlet is barely visible in the background

Trucking up to Cocoa

Trucking up to Cocoa

Monday 22nd March 2021

It was dark and cold when the alarm went off at 6.30 am. Hot coffee helped us get going and by 7.15 am we were untying our lines from “Always Home” and on our way from Vero Beach. We had a great time there, catching up with Paul, Fran, Susan and Clark, but it was time for us to get moving. Our plan is to work our way up the Intra Coastal Waterway to St Augustine and meet up with our friends Lynn and Lee. As Gloria mentioned yesterday, if we get lucky we may also be able to get some Covid vaccine. 

Todays journey was about 50 nautical miles and took us to the town of Cocoa. On our way south we took two days to complete this section, stopping overnight in Melbourne, but today we were keen to push one. I have been wearing shorts for the past several months, but this morning I put on my fleece pants on top. The wind was only 5-10 knots but from a north-west direction and it felt really chilly. We motored the whole way but at times we also had our genoa up to give us an extra boost. It was a quiet trip. We saw lots of dolphins and osprey but not too much else. The flat water in the ICW makes it easy to cook and we had bagels for breakfast and ratatouille for lunch. We pulled off the ICW just south of the Cocoa bridge and are now anchored in about 10 feet depth of water. It’s pretty calm apart from the wakes of passing power-boats. 

Throughout the trip I kept looking at the sorry state of our stainless steel “brightwork”, which is very much in need of a good polishing. So once we dropped anchor we pulled out the Collinite stainless steel polish/wax. We only worked for about an hour and there is a tone more to do, but it felt satisfying to at least make a start. We are having savory rice, sausage and broccoli for dinner. Let’s hope it’s good or my reputation will be ruined!

Mike

28 21.164 N, 80 43.181 W

Anchored south of the bridge over the ICW at Cocoa

Looking to the south down the ICW from the anchorage at Cocoa

My version of "Dirty Rice" with sausage and broccoli - it tasted pretty good!

COVID-19 vaccinations

COVID-19 vaccinations

Sunday March 21, 2021

Yesterday, in response to some prodding from Tasha, Mike pre-registered us for vaccination in St. Augustine.  We were thinking that we would be there in a few days and probably spend a couple of days there, so we might get lucky.  To our shock, I got a phone call within about 3 minutes to set up an appointment for either Monday or Wednesday.  I requested one for later in the week (when we might actually be in St. Augustine) but was told they only schedule appointments for which they have the vaccine.  So after a quick consultation with Mike, I accepted the appointment for Monday.  Our thinking was that we could drive up to get the shot.  When we looked more carefully at a map we realized that the drive would be 200 miles each way—with some chance that we wouldn’t get the injection because we are not Florida residents.  We called back to defer the appointment.  The advice we were given was to call Wednesday or Thursday for a Friday appointment.

There was something about the possibility of vaccination that got us very excited.  It seems to us that being vaccinated would make the trip much more relaxing and fun.  We started to think it could really happen.  When we talked it over with Paul and Fran, they thought we should have driven up to get the shot.  Today, Mike tried to look at what might be possible here in Indian River County.  The state website makes it quite clear than you must be a resident (either permanent or part-year with documentation to prove this) to get a vaccination.  It seems a lot less likely that we will be able to get the shot here in Florida.  

It’s something of an emotional roller coaster.  Now I feel very let down at not being able to get a vaccination here.  Two days ago, I thought that we would have to get back to Massachusetts to be eligible and I was okay with that.  It’s strange how quickly my view of the whole thing was transformed by this vision of what life might be like with security of vaccination.  

Gloria

27 39.509 N, 80 22.272 W

no photos today

Celebrating St Patrick’s Day

Celebrating St Patrick’s Day

Saturday 20th March 2021

The highlight of today was dinner round at Clark and Susan’s house for a delayed celebration of St Patrick’s Day (17th March). It was an awesome meal and a lovely evening. We ate traditional Corned beef dinner with potatoes, carrots, cabbage and turnips in a delicious au jus. For dessert it was a cherry apple pie. Some of us had a beer or two and a glass of wine and all told it was a fabulous night. 

Unfortunately Larry and his wife Sara weren’t able to join us for breakfast as they felt they needed to make an early start on their drive back to Alabama. We spent the day quietly aboard Cotinga and it was relaxing just to hang out. When it came time to jump in the dinghy to go ashore we did so with some trepidation. By late afternoon the predicted winds had certainly arrived and it was blowing 20-25 knots from the north making it a somewhat choppy dinghy ride. Thankfully by the time we came back around 10 pm the winds had died down and it was a mellow ride over in the dark.

Tomorrow will be our final day in Vero Beach so we have some shopping and preparation to get done. 

Mike

27 39.509 N, 80 22.272 W

The following are a few more shots that I took yesterday whilst over at the T M Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area, mostly whilst out on Larry’s boat.

Great Egret dancing around the nesting colony

Great Egret in flight

Immature little blue heron taking off from the reeds

Great Blue Heron in flight

Limpkin

Male Boat Tailed Grackle

Larry on his boat in the TM Goodwin WMA

Gloria enjoying the tour on Larry's boat

The St Sebastian River Preserve State Park