Heading North in Florida

Tuesday, April 9^th, 2002, Day 330

 We decided to stay in Miami another day. We were exhausted after the weekend of wedding activities and get togethers. Gypsy was glad to be back on her boat.

 Wednesday, April 10^th, 2002, Day 331

 We headed up to Ft. Lauderdale and it was very slow going because of all the bridges. We made it to Cooley’s Landing Marina. It’s a very nice Marina. The Laundry facilities are some of the nicest we’ve seen. 6 washers and 4 dryers costing $1 per machine. The computer phone line hook-up is right there in the Laundromat as well as nice showers and a book exchange. I exchanged 17 books.

 Richard’s comments:

Cooley’s landing Marina is in downtown Ft. Lauderdale on the New River. It has 30/50-amp power, water and ice. The marina is run by the city which has 2 others, one of which participates with BoatUS but this one doesn’t (found that out after we were hooked up), however the rate was reasonable at $1.00/ft but again, as in all Fl. Marinas you add tax and electric and it cost us $53 per day.
It is in walking distance to the Las Olas river front. Gold Coast car rental will pick you up and their rates are good.  
While there we had a small world moment. I was sitting on the back deck and heard my name called, looked up to see our friend Manny Lasiter from Little Rock on a passing trawler. He was helping to relocate it from Chesapeake area. A small boating world.

 Thursday, April 11^th, 2002, Day 332

 We rented a car for the day so I could get to Office Depot and get some invitations for my Dad’s coming 70^th birthday Roast and Toast.  
We had lunch at the Lonestar Steak house then Richard went off to Boat-US while I had my nails done. We picked up groceries and headed to the boat.
I did 4 loads of laundry and shopped on the internet while doing so. Richard always gets scared when I go shopping on line because it’s so easy to use a credit card and there’s endless opportunities for purchases. Ha! Ha!
We had a nice dinner on the boat of bacon wrapped pork filets, mashed potatoes, corn and salad.
We listened to Jimmy Buffet and had a nice breezy evening.

Friday, April 12^th , 2002, Day 333

 We took off around 10am for North Palm Beach Marina. The wind really picked up today. The trip was uneventful except for some of the rude boaters going around you so fast that you don’t have time to turn into the wake. We had dolphins playing with us along the way again and nothing eventful happened during the trip. That always makes for a good day.
When we arrived, our friends, Ron and Peggy Carter, were there to greet us, and their boat; “Fenix Sunday” was just 2 slips away from ours. They helped us settle in then we all had happy hour drinks and walked up to a nice Italian restaurant right by the marina. The food was good, the atmosphere was nice and the friends were great.

Saturday, April 13^th, 2002, Day 334

We woke to a very hot and humid day. Ron and Peggy joined us and we all biked about a mile to a Fridays restaurant for lunch. If you are ever in North Palm Beach, do not eat there. The waitress was dingy, the food was bad and the service was slow. Oh well, that’s part of the total experience of the trip and the good certainly out weighs the bad.
 Richard was trying to find a place to buy salt for our sanitation system so we biked to a nice strip Mall where we found a Publix grocery store. This was the first time Richard had attached our dock cart to the bike. After he and Ron discussed and cussed the situation, he finally managed to get the cart secured to the bike and it seemed to work out fine with the 40 lb bag of salt it carried home.
After seeing the hat that Peggy had and deciding that I needed one also to protect my hair from the sun, I looked in several stores before I found what I needed. It had to have a tie at the chin so the wind wouldn’t blow it off when we were on the bikes. The only one I could find was a bright orange straw hat. Of course everyone laughed at me when I wore it on our bike ride back to the boat. They said that I now had a Granny Clampit hat that I could wear in my Granny Clampit perch on the boat.
We went to a steakhouse close by for dinner and the food was good. We had a good time as always with the Carters.

Sunday, April 14^th  2002, Day 334

It was pouring when we woke, and we decided not to leave. I spent all day designing and printing the invitations for my Dad’s Roast. Richard spent most of the Day watching baseball.
Richard called his Grandson, Jason, to wish him a happy 6^th birthday.
It finally stopped raining just in time for happy hour. We took snacks to Ron and Peggy’s boat and watched Tiger Woods win the Masters golf tournament.
We made an early night of it and headed to the boat for TV and bed.

Richard’s comments:

The North Palm Beach Marina is well maintained and has helpful staff. They have 30/50-amp power, cable, water and gas and diesel fuel. The slip rate was $1.24/ft.

Monday, April 15^th, 2002, Day 334

I woke and biked to Mail Boxes etc. to mail the invitations to Little Rock. I waited for an hour for it to open and it never did. I found out later it closed a month ago. Oh well. When I got back to the Marina, Richard found that there at the Marina they could box and mail them for me. I should have asked them in the first place.
After saying goodbye to Ron and Peggy, we headed out for Vero Beach.
The boaters seemed to be getting a little better as far as slowing down when they came around us.
We made it to the Vero Beach Municipal Marina around 4:30.  We were placed at the fuel dock. There’s no store or restaurant here. There are showers and bathrooms and a small laundry, which I didn’t check out.
The grounds around the Marina are nice with a large park and nice walking paths.
We had dinner on the boat of microwave frozen dinners.
We were allowed to dock in this last available slot if we agreed to leave by 8am tomorrow, so we hit the hay early.

 Richard’s comments:

This marina is a popular place with cruisers as they have very low cost moorings. The moorings fill up fast and they raft off people. We got the fuel dock as sort of the last spot before the raft ups. They have gas and diesel, 30/50-amp power. They rate was $1.00/ft.

 Tuesday, April 16^th, 2002, Day 335

 Today is Gypsy’s 1^st birthday. We had to spend it traveling all day so will celebrate it by dinghying her to an island to run tomorrow or the next day.
There wasn’t much boating activity out today.
We passed the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral.
I was very upset to hear that since September 11^th the lighthouse on the base is closed to the public and you have to keep your boat 4 miles off shore on the waterside. One more example of how Bin Laden has affected all of our lives.
We docked at the Titusville Marina. It’s a nice Marina with a small store. A laundry with 3 washers and 3 dryers. Restaurants, Grocery store and Downtown are 4 blocks away.
We were sitting on the aft deck of our boat after having a taco dinner when a couple walked by and saw that our boat was from Seabrook, TX. They as it turned out were from Kemah, TX, which is just across Clear Lake from Seabrook. We invited them aboard and said Hi we are Richard and Kathy Armstrong. They laughed again and said Hi we are Richard and Cathy Lewis. How ironic. It is indeed a very small world. Their sailboat, “Sand Dollar”, was anchored out a ways from the marina and they had dinghy’d in for dinner.
They remembered us passing them along the way and thanked us for slowing down.
We had a nice visit discovering that we knew some of the same people.

Wednesday, April 17^th, 2002, Day 336

We discovered I had a flat bike tire that would not hold air so Richard had to bike several miles to get the tire repaired and an extra tube for next time.
What a guy! He totaled around 8 miles on his bike. I’m proud of him.
We went bike riding around Titusville. He said he wasn’t too tired. We had lunch at the Renaissance Grill. The atmosphere was very nice. The food was good as well.
We found a Save-a-lot Grocery store. A very different little store, with mostly generic foods. All the food has the Earth City label and it’s packaged in Earth City, Mo.
Later when we went back to the boat, there was a huge manatee drinking water from a hose 2 slips down from our boat. We were finally up close to one.
  Peggy and Ron Carter decided to join us here at this marina. So around 4:30, they pulled into the slip next to us.
After they got settled, I took happy hour food to their boat and afterwards we all took a cab to the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant. This place was known for it’s “Rock Shrimp” I think Richard and Ron had their mouths all set to try and out do the Apalachicola oyster night.  They were sorely disappointed because the famous “Rock Shrimp” were out of season. So Richard  and I had Shrimp and Ribs. There was so much food piled on our plates we took mass quantities away in to-go boxes.  Peggy and I were feeling musical, so we serenaded the cab driver on the way back to the boat (couldn’t have been alcohol related, could it?) with Gene Pitney’s “Town without Pity”.

Thursday, April 18^th, 2002, Day 337

We decided to stay one more day, but will have to miss the Shuttle landing tomorrow. What a shame, but we have to be in Jacksonville by Sunday night to fly to Little Rock. Sheesh, another dang deadline to meet.
I did Laundry. There were only 2 machines that were working and it took forever. While I was in the laundry area, I noticed a sign that said do lot let pets go swimming in these waters because there is an alligator in the marina. We later learned that he had eaten a German Shepard.
Ron, Peggy, Richard, Gypsy and I , took our dinghies out to an island and explored. I wanted to let Gypsy off her leash to run, but after the alligator sign, I was afraid she would be one bite for him. She had a ball anyway. Running on the sand, playing in the water, and finding all kinds of dog important stuff. She ran and played so hard that she curled on her towel and was ready to go before we were.
There is an internet phone connection conveniently located on the outside of the office with a small desk and stool there. I hooked up and checked my email when we returned.
A guy named Bill Weiler found our web site a few weeks earlier and he and Richard had been corresponding by email. He lives in Titusville so we called and told him we were there and he came down to the boat to meet us. He has a 34 ft. Sea Ray that is docked just a few feet from his house. We ended up as usual all on Ron and Peggy’s aft deck. We all visited awhile and then opted out of going to dinner at the Mexican Restaurant across the street with Ron and Peggy.
We went to bed early cause we are going to have a long day tomorrow.

Richard’s comments:

This is a good marina and after the BoatUS discount we paid $0.95/ft. They have marine supplies, 30/50-amp power and gas and diesel fuel ($1.20/gal for our fill up).

Friday, April 19^th, 2002, Day 338

We said goodbye to Ron and Peggy, then headed out around 8am, sorry we would not be able to join them and Richard and Cathy Lewis to watch the Shuttle return.
We saw more manatees as we were pulling out.
We did make it to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse after some careful maneuvering. The lighthouse is bright red and gorgeous. If you decide to make the trek by water our suggestion is hail SeaTow and they will direct you in and out of the very shallow channel. They were very helpful to us.
We arrived at the Conch House Marina in St. Augustine around 5pm. This Marina has a lot to offer already but is still definitely a work in progress. There’s a great outside bar and they have very good bands there. We could sit on our boat and listen and watch the bands. Just past the outside bar is the Conch House Restaurant and motel. We ate that night at the restaurant. The food is good and the atmosphere is also good with tables over the water.

 Saturday, April 20^th, 2002, Day 339

 We rode our bikes to the St. Augustine Light. This is another great lighthouse. It’s just a few blocks from the Conch House Marina.
After going back to the boat, we called a cab and caught one of the hop-on hop-off tour trams. The price is $12 for 3 days use. We found the tour guide very informative and we hoped off at old town and browsed all the shops and restaurants. This is the oldest continuously settled city in the United States. It’s quite lovely but also a bit touristy. A lot of history and things to photograph.
We went back to the boat and had dinner again at the Conch House restaurant then went to the outside bar to listen to the band.

Richard’s comments:

The Sightseeing Trains are an excellent way to get an overview of the city. They will pick you up at the marina and return you there if you call before 2:30 PM.
We are now getting into higher tide levels. This marina has new floating docks which is an advantage as the tide range was 4 ft.
The marina has 30/50-amp power, gas and diesel fuel and helpful staff but it is expensive at $1.49/ft, $10.00 for electric and $3.00 for cable or water.
The fairways are also narrow and we had to back out.

Sunday, April 21^st, 2002, Day 340

We pulled out of the Marina around 10am and headed to Jacksonville. We had an uneventful cruise thank goodness. We arrived in Jacksonville early evening at the River City Marina. We Had dinner on the boat and hit the hay.  

Navigation note:

Between St. Augustine and Jacksonville Beach lies a fifteen mile section of the ICW called Palm Valley. This section is basically a ditch that is very narrow in the best of tides. All along the East bank are homes with long docks protruding into the channel. The day we went through we were at low tide. Most of the docks were out of the water and it was apparent that there is a 4 ft. or more tide range. It was really slow going.

Monday, April 22^nd, 2002, Day 341

Woke and started preparing the boat for our month long trip to Little Rock. We packed a box full of clothes for our month trek and shipped it Fed-Ex cause we knew we wouldn’t be able to pack enough clothes to take on the plane. We will continue our Cruising Log when we return from Little Rock.  

A discussion of the navigation system we use:

We have the Maptech electronic navigation system on a laptop on the bridge. I have it set up so that The GPS NMEA output goes to a switch which allows me to select that output to go directly to a Navico autopilot or to the computer then Maptech output drives the autopilot. I upload routes to the GPS and this gives me a backup in the event that the computer crashes. I also have a fixed Furano GPS and a portable Garmin so I have a GPS backup to feed the computer.

I have both the CAPN and Maptech ECSs. I prefer Maptech, possibly because I have used it for years, however, it does have tides, currents and Marina information right on the chart. 

This example of a chart shows part of a route I plotted with the waypoints on it. You can also see the current, tide and marina info. 

I have found this system very helpful, as the pre-plotted routes help figure out where to go in complex channel intersections. Also a right click on the marina symbol gives you the services they offer and a phone number. A right click on the current or tide symbol produces the respective graph.

I use the CAPN when we are on the inland waterways as up until now it reads the Softcharts of the rivers, whereas Maptech does not. Using these river charts connected to the GPS is very helpful in allowing you to know exactly where you are when you talk to the towboats. 
You can click on the chart to see a larger view.