On Monday
Jan. 6 we departed Vero Beach
(which we really enjoyed), but it was time to book. We woke up to a little fog but not a big deal.
We headed to Stuart with about a 6 hour
day in front of us. After pumping out,
watering and fueling up in Ft.
Pearce we were ready to continue
south. As we left the marina it felt
like the boat had lost some of its steering ability, and right I was. Our starboard engine would only throttle to
500 RPMs - not so good. This is another
reason people love having twin screws. If
one engine fails, you run on the other. The
only tuff part is docking and maneuvering the boat without both engines. We survived. As we pulled into Stuart we called the marina
and decided to jump on a mooring ball which is much easier than cruising into a
slip with only 1 engine. All went well
at the end of the day.
I will
not go into great detail, but that same nite our dingy boat got loose. It didn’t help that we felt like we were in a
flipping ocean. The worst part is that after a full season of watching college
football I missed the BCS Championship Game.
I watched all the BCS games except for the FSU/Auburn Game. After hearing about what a great game it was,
maybe it was a blessing that Michigan
State beat us. FSU may have laid a big hurt on the Buckeyes.
The reason I didn’t catch the game was
that we had no transportation into the marina, no dingy, no swimmy in choppy
water. Maybe if the Bucks were playing I
would have dove over and freestyled into the dock - just kidding! Here is the great news – we found Mr. Dingy
the following morning. What luck.
The next
few days were windy, windy, and mo’ windy. Although Stuart is very cool the stinking wind
was holding us as prisoners. We were
planning on leaving on Thursday, but believe it or not the wind was way too
strong for us to take a chance. Remember
we take no chances. Did you forget who
my partner is?? Thank god she has a lot
more smarts than you know who. That nite
we only got 8 plus inches or rain. If we
left, we would have been in Palm Beach .
How about this, they only got 22 inches. 15 inches in just 3 hours. This is not a typo. It rained like a mother f#@*er!! You know how I hate cussing, so maybe I need
to be more careful with my sharp tongue.
Forget about it.
Not sure if this boat was a victim of the record setting rain and wind! |
While we were holed up with the wonderful wind we did get some work done on the boat. We had a heating/ac mother board thing happening, and we had it fixed. We also got the starboard engine repaired. It was very simple and pretty cheap so we were very happy with the end results.
We
prepared to head S. on Friday AM to Palm
Beach and had a nice 6 hour trip. We walked to some pub with my name in it - gr8
food and drinks. When we arrived the duo
was playing “Pirate Looks at 40”, some more JB and a bunch of Zac Brown music -
tuff to beat. We spent that nite in Palm Beach
then headed the next day to Ft.
Lauderdale .
Look out
here comes the Clampetts - Jed and the family. We cruised into the marina about
4PM on Sat., hoping to catch some NFL games that day and we did. The reason we kinda look like the Beverly
Hillbillies is that our little 42ft. Carver (total length) all of a sudden
became a 42ft. dingy. Holy shit where
did all of the $$$ come from. Between
the hundreds, maybe thousands, of mansions we passed and the money in this marina
we felt like the Jed Family. Of course
on top of it we had to bring the stern (back) of the boat in first. I don’t
know if we are getting better or just beginner’s luck, but no problemo. The most nerve racking part of this is the
average boat in our area was probably 75 ft. and maybe only worth a million or
2. Like I said, no problem - just a lot
of HOLY SHITS.
Mansion built by Mr. Flagler as a wedding gift for wife #3 |
Now we
are hanging in Lauderdale, and it rocks. We watched some NFL the next few days
and spent a few days enjoying the 82 degree sunny weather. The beach was about 500 yards from the boat. Any 20 year old that is living in cold weather
should check it out, they probably would never leave. Sunday was the biggest beach scene I think I
have ever seen. Young people, old farts,
sun tan lotion, surfers, cars cruising everywhere, Harleys, cocktails, and just
plain fun in the sun. Then there is me
flopping around in the water trying to look cool. (Sorry to say, but I fit into the old fart
category from up above.) We of course
found some fun beach bars for a few cold ones.
I am sure you all find that hard to believe.
A beautiful day on Ft. Lauderdale beach. The water was warm and wonderful. As you can see, the beach was crowded |
We had a
wonderful Sunday nite. Our boat broker
from Boston
spends his winters down here in Lauderdale. Scott and Robin had us over for a great dinner
and fun evening. Scott picked us up at
7pm on Sunday, and we got back to the boat at about 1am. What a great nite. The following day we kind of got prepared for
our departure on Tuesday - laundry, pump-out, and of course groceries. We are planning on leaving Tuesday AM for the
Miami/Coconut Grove area then a few days later we will be in the Keys. It is amazing we have been gone almost 2/3 of
a year - from Boston in May to Miami in January. Not bragging, but sometimes we honestly amaze
ourselves. What a trip!!
We stayed here 5 years ago for a couple nights before a cruise. This was Jack's introduction to the ICW. Had to stop by for a cold one. |
We took this same picture 5 years ago. Jack's still looking good. |
Looking
forward to my brother Terry and nephew Todd meeting up with us down in Marathon
Key. Should be a blast. That’s it for now. Tired fingers.
Later,
Captain Jack
She Said: It was an easy departure from the ball in Vero Beach , and we were
quickly under way. We had a little
drizzle along the way, but pretty uneventful until we arrived in Ft. Pierce
for fuel, a pump out and water. Our GPS
and charts showed one approach, but there were no markers where they were
charted. Come to find out the harbor was
under a massive updating project and a brand new channel was dredged. The marina talked us in and all was
good. We departed Ft Pierce happy with
our 2.4 MPG, but our happiness was short lived.
We were no sooner back on the ICW when Jack said we had no throttle on
our starboard engine. It was running,
but he couldn’t get it out of idle speed (about 500 RPMs and we typically
travel around 1200 RPMs). We had a mechanic
lined up in Stuart to look at a couple other issues, so we decided to limp the
remaining 25 miles on one engine and have the problem addressed in Stuart.
We had a slip reserved, but Jack
wasn’t comfortable pulling into a slip with only one engine. We called the marina and they were able to
accommodate us on a mooring ball. Stuart
is 8 miles off the ICW on the St. Lucie River (part of the Okeechobee Waterway
that cuts through the state of Florida )
– it was a very scenic trip. It was a
beautiful day when we arrived in Stuart – we opened all the windows and
hatches. We met up with Eric (from Cocoa ) and sat at the
outside marina bar and had a happy hour drink with him. Suddenly, the winds picked up and we all
decided to head back to our boats to “batten down the hatches.” We planned to meet with Eric later that night
at the marina lounge for pizza and the BCS Championship Game. The winds kept getting stronger and the water
choppier.
Jack and I were seriously debating
whether a dinghy trip back to the marina was really a smart idea or not. I went to the back of MTB for a final
assessment of the situation. I couldn’t
see the dinghy. It was dark, and I
thought maybe it was on the side of the boat.
No such luck – she was gone. It
was highly unlikely that someone came alongside MTB and stole the dinghy
(especially in the rough water), so the most likely scenario is that I didn’t
tie her off properly. I’ve been tying the
dinghy for months, and if anything Jack grumbles because I tie it too securely. But for some reason that wasn’t the case this
day. The constant tugging on the lines
due to the rough conditions apparently dislodged my tie-off. We definitely we’re watching the BCS game
that night. Instead I was on the phone
with the local police. They couldn’t
have been nicer. Office Fitzgerald came
over to the marina, met with Eric and together they looked for the dinghy –
based on winds and current.
Unfortunately, the dinghy was no where to be found.
Stuart was gloomy like this during our entire stay. |
It was a rough night on the ball,
but it was better than being slammed against a dock all night. Jack was up with the sun and on a mission to
find the dinghy. He had the binoculars
and was scanning the shoreline when he saw a dinghy on a beach in front of a
house. All these dinghies look alike, so
I wasn’t letting my hopes get too high.
There were still whitecaps on the water, but when the marina opened they
sent out a good sized boat to take Jack out in search of the dinghy. Sure enough, the dinghy Jack saw was ours –
it was embedded in the sand beach. Because
the dinghy was imbedded in the sand it kept it from floating out into the river
when the currents changed, but it also made it really difficult to dislodge. So I went out with Jack and together we got
the dinghy back to MTB. What an
experience.
While we were rescuing the dinghy,
mechanic #1 called to say he was on his way to fix our heat/AC unit. Because he had a used part, we were able to
get the whole job done for less than the price of a new part. The day was starting off on the right
foot. We went into town – we’d been on
MTB for too long. We had lunch and did
some grocery shopping. At 3:00pm
mechanic #2 showed up to look at the engine problem. He checked a couple things and quickly found
the problem – the bolt that held the throttle mechanism together had come
off. An easy fix. We had him look at a couple other things, and
he determined everything was just fine!
It was an excellent day! But the
winds and water conditions continued to deteriorate throughout the day, and we
were stuck on MTB for another night.
The weather conditions improved, but
not to the point where we could leave.
We kept busy all day and ventured out in the rain to meet Eric for
dinner. It was an early night since we
planned to depart the next morning. We
woke up in the morning to fog and drizzle.
The forecast was for more of the same so we decided to stay put – why
have a miserable travel day. It’s a good
thing we stayed put. That night there
was an unpredicted, hellacious rain storm.
The worst of the rain was 22” (15” in 3 hours) in Palm Beach where we had reservation for that
night. There were initial reports of a
tornado, but it ended up being only 80 MPH straight line winds. We only had 8 inches in Stuart so we felt
lucky to have stayed put. When the rain
let up, we bailed out the dinghy – what a mess.
The weather was good the next
morning so we unhooked from the ball (like many other boats) and headed
out. Departing from a ball is the
easiest departure, and we were underway in no time at all. The Roosevelt Bridge ,
which opens on demand, shouldn’t have been an issue, but it was. We had to wait about 30 minutes because two
trains were crossing. Not the quick
start we hoped for.
The trip to Palm Beach was the most densely populated
stretch of the ICW that we’d been on.
There were lots of houses – and most of them were BIG houses. It was amazing. (The next day, the mansions were even
bigger. I was also surprised by how much
new construction there was. Unbelievable!) We had reservations at a working marina – it
didn’t offer much, but we were only looking for a cheap, easy access place to
spend the night. We were pleasantly
surprised to find Jack’s Grumpy Grouper a short walk from the marina. It was a cute, fun place and the grouper was
excellent.
This is a dredging vessel - it's what keeps the ICW at navigable depths. It's interesting to watch |
Although we had only a short
distance to travel (35 miles) we left early Saturday morning because we heard
that this part of trip would be slow.
Let me tell you, slow is an understatement. There were 6 bridges in 10 miles – and about
½ of the bridges are low enough that we have to wait for them to open. With our antenna we need 23 feet of clearance
– if we could have lowered the antenna it would have helped a lot. Bridges weren’t the only issue. The water is warmer so that meant more
manatees and that meant slow speeds.
There were also slow speed zones because of narrower water channels and
dense population. And finally, we were
slowed down because it was a busy, congested Saturday - there were stretches
where the speed limit slowed to “minimum wake” on weekends. All and all, it was a long, slow travel
day. To top it off, the marina gave us
wrong docking instructions which had us going in circles around the Las Olas
Bridge in Ft. Lauderdale . When we finally got to our slip, Jack docked
us stern in like a champ. We were happy
to be spending the next 3 nights in the heart of Ft. Lauderdale .
A typical Saturday on the ICW near Ft. Lauderdale: boat traffic and bridge openings. Most bridges open every 30 minutes. |
Our last day in Ft. Lauderdale
was spent provisioning and doing a final load of laundry. We ran into friends from Cocoa Village ;
they were staying in Lauderdale for a month and had a car. They dropped us off at the grocery store
making provisioning much easier. The
weather forecast for the next few days wasn’t good, so we decided to skip South
Beach/Miami and head directly to Coconut Grove.
It’s a good place to wait for a good crossing to Marathon . I’m really looking forward to month in the
Keys!
A month in the Keys, huh.........Life could definatley be worse, huh :) !! Sounds like all is well on MTB. Glad everything is going so well !!
ReplyDeleteRemember the bar "Jilly's" just south of Z-Tejas right on Ray Rd and I-10 ?? Well it closed down and recently reopened as "Nabers", and guess who had his premier performance there last night ?? You guessed it, Charles Chuck E Baby. Good time had by all.
Safe Travels !!
Russ and Jen
Checking in and hope Terry & Todd found you ok. Your mom & Kobe were good tonight. I took her a brownie with Choc .icing. Terry's car is safe at home. We are suppose to get some snow, so if I get snowed in Troy said he would come get me tomorrow (Sat.) so I can help re-paint Kendall's room. Should I write you here, fb. or your email? Hope the weather for you all will be GREAT love ya
ReplyDeleteTook Maverick out at 1am. no snow yet. Back out with Maverick at 3:30am & had SNOW. Guess 3-4". So even if it is in the 60's there, it is so much better than here. Hope you have a fun day today. Love ya
DeleteJust checking in to see if you have posted any pictures of you guys with Terry & Todd.
ReplyDeleteLove your adventures and the wonderful sharing of your excursions. I am heading to AZ Thursday to thaw out. Today it is -14 temperature and -38 wind chill.....it Sucks! Going to Bruce and Salli's superbowl party. I hope to be able to connect in March to see you guys. I will be in touch. Hugs from the frozen Tundra!
ReplyDeleteHey, we have settled down at Merritt Island, FL at Harbortown Marina. http://www.harbortownmarina.com/travelers-transients/ There is a transient slip right next to us at "A" dock. You should stop by to visit on your way back up the coast. Sorry we didn't get to visit with you at St. Augustine, FL; you came in just as we were leaving. We went out on the ocean that day and sailed down to Ponce Inlet. Capt. Jim & Carolyn SV L a d y L o n g l e g s
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ReplyDelete