Titusville, Florida

Friday, October 9 - Wednesday, October 14, 2009
When our family and friends first got the SPOT message of our latest location, a few of them went HUH?!? The city of Titusville isn't nearly as well-known as its neighbor to the west (think "Mickey ears"), but it's a great stopover for cruisers. Titusville is on the ICW, about 45 miles east of Orlando and 15 miles north of Cape Canaveral. NASA's massive Vehicle Assembly Building can be seen from a number of T'ville vantage points, including our anchorage. If you're cruising in the intercoastal and want to stop somewhere that has easy access to Disney, NASA, Universal Studios, or any other central-Florida tourist spots, Titusville is your place. There's a spacious (albeit open to the elements) anchorage just outside the marina basin; the basin itself is too small to allow any boats to anchor (it's forbidden), but the city marina is extremely friendly to anchored boats. Some of our cruising guides have quoted dinghy and shower fees of $5-10, but we've found the dinghy dock to be free for the first week, and showers are $2pp. There's an Enterprise rental car office and a liquor store about 1.5 miles from the marina, and a good Publix grocery store and pizza place is 2-3 miles away. We've got a weekend rental so we can drive to Epcot on Saturday morning. We're meeting friends Sue & Ted at our hotel near Epcot at 8am, so we have a 6am wake-up call scheduled to get us there on time (it's supposed to be about 75min away). Who says we don't have alarms on the boat?? :-)

Having arrived in Titusville on Thursday afternoon, Friday is boat project day. Rene noticed the windlass acting up again while we anchored yesterday. Sparks started flying when he tried to use it, and it stopped working in the "anchor down" direction soon after. This isn't the first time we've had problems with it, and he figured it was likely a loose wire. Rene manages to crawl into the anchor locker to clean and reattach the wires, and voila! The windlass is working again. He's becoming quite the Mr. Fix-It! Friday afternoon we call Enterprise ("We'll pick you up!") for a ride to our rental car, only to find they don't have any drivers available. Rather than wait for another half-hour to try again, we decide to walk it. It's only a mile and a half, and we're ready to see some of Titusville's historical downtown district. Did we mention that Florida has been breaking heat records on a daily basis this week? Whew! Temps are 95 degrees, and humidity is probably just as high. It's bloody hot! We make it to the Enterprise office before we've completely melted and get upgraded from an economy (yes, we're cheap!) to a Ford Focus. We'll take it! After a quick stop by a nearby ABC liquor store, we run by the local Publix. Anytime we have a car we try to stock up on heavy stuff. It's much easier than carrying four 2.5-gallon water jugs and a couple of cases of beer on the bikes!

Saturday morning the alarm goes off at 6am and we're at the dinghy dock by 6:30. All of the hotels on or near Disney are full (we assume because it's Columbus Day weekend - who knows), but Sue has found a newly-renovated/opened hotel 5 miles from Epcot. It's a suite hotel with a bedroom, hide-a-bed, and full kitchen, and works perfectly. We spend some time catching up over mimosas and make it to Epcot by 10am. What a place! Neither of us has been here in 15 years, and they've added some great rides. Better yet, they've added a "FastPass" feature for their most popular rides that lets you get a ticket to return later in the day and bypass the long lines. A few favorites: "Soarin'", a simulated hang-glider ride that takes you over the California coast, wine country, and mountains; "Mission: Space", a geo-?? that lets you experience g-forces like an astronaut; and "Test Track", the fastest ride at Epcot. The record highs begin to get us again by mid-afternoon, but having a hotel close by means we can leave the park for a few hours to get a late lunch and a dip in the pool. Much better! We're back in the park by 6pm to wander through all of the countries of the World Showcase. We also happen to be here during the International Wine & Food festival...the lines are so long that we don't actually partake, but it's fun to see what pairings each country has to offer. We stay at Epcot for their fireworks and laser show, "Illuminations", before going back to the hotel for a very later dinner. Sunday Sue and Ted take us to Downtown Disney, a shopping and restaurant complex that didn't exist the last time we were here. It's a fun place to walk around (and no entry fee required!), and we have a final "refreshment" together at T-Rex (think "Rainforest Cafe" with dinosaurs). It's been a super weekend, and we hate saying goodbye.

Monday we're off to Kennedy Space Center. We get a late start, and only have about 4 hours to spend in the park before we have to leave to return our rental car. We hate cutting it short, because there's so much to see here! They still have a bus tour that takes you past the VAB to a viewing area near the space shuttle launch pads, but they've added two more stops: there's an entire building dedicated to the Apollo/Saturn V lunar missions, and another building that shows components of the international space station (you sometimes get to see astronauts training for missions to the station). There are also two Imax movies, the rocket garden, a Hubble telescope exhibit, a shuttle launch simulator, a "meet the astronauts" event, the astronaut memorial, and a mock-up of the space shuttle (orbiter plus external tank & solid rocket boosters). If that's not enough for you, admission includes a visit to the Astronaut Hall of Fame, located 6 miles west of the KSC visitor center. We manage to take the bus tour to the launch pads and the Apollo museum, and then see an Imax film, the rocket garden, and the Hubble exhibit. We try to extend our car for another day to finish everything, but we'd have to go to a daily rate (too expensive). Oh, well - it's still been a great visit! We get quite the surprise on returning our car: they can extend our rental for one more day at the weekend rate. We can go back to KSC tomorrow! The great thing about the KSC tickets is that they're good for two days, not just one. We assume a lot of people don't have time or don't bother with a second day, but it's a great opportunity for us. Once again, we get a late start to the park. When will we learn?! The bottleneck seems to be the tour buses, so we start by covering everything we want to see and do at the visitor's center. The second Imax film (astronaut-filmed scenes from the space station) is fascinating, and the shuttle launch simulator is a great time. After a few more pictures around the area, we board a bus at 2pm intending to see the rest of the center. We were hoping to stop in to the Apollo/Saturn V exhibit to see a few more things, but time is quickly getting away from us. No worries - we should be able to make it to the space station exhibit with plenty of time to spare...right? Wrong. We can stay on one bus from the visitor center to the launch pad to the Saturn V building, but then we have to transfer buses...which means going to the back of a very long line. An hour after leaving the visitor center, we finally board a bus for the space station exhibit. We end up with a very informative bus driver who also happens to drive 20mph under the limit, so it's 3:15 before we make it to the exhibit. Knowing we have to leave KSC by 3:30 to make it back to the car rental office by 4pm, we stay on the bus and forego the tour. Grrrr...this is NOT how we intended to spend the last 90 minutes! But as Rene said, thanks to being able to keep the car for another day, today really was "gravy". Maybe someday we'll learn to get moving earlier in the morning!

We're planning on staying for an extra day to do a few more boat projects, and will likely leave Titusville on Thursday morning. For our next anchorage, we have a couple of destinations in mind that will depend on tides and currents (i.e. what kind of boat speeds we have). After that, we plan to stop in Vero Beach and Port St. Lucie on our way to Ft. Lauderdale. We're hoping to get a watermaker in Ft. Lauderdale, so our crossover to the Bahamas will likely happen in mid-November. We still have plenty of open spots if you want to come visit! Till next time...

Pictures for this Blog chapter:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2009SouthboundV?feat=directlink

St. Augustine to Titusville, FL

Saturday, October 3 - Thursday, October 8, 2009
Ahh, St. Augustine...what a beautiful city! We've anchored right off the old fort, and are ready for a quiet night on the boat. We spend a few hours topside people-watching and enjoying the gorgeous full moon. By now, our friends in the Harvest Moon regatta (Galveston, TX to Port Aransas, TX) have made it through the storm and are sharing survivor stories over lots of rum drinks at the after-party. Have one for us, guys! Sunday we go into town for some provisioning and sightseeing. St. George street is a pedestrian-only area that runs parallel to the water and houses most of the tourist shops, restaurants, and bars. We wander from one end of the other, finding a new English Pub and ending up at our favorite wine & tapas place for dinner. We found The Tasting Room by accident on our northbound trip, and the menu, while changed, is just as good today as it was in June. We enjoy Moorish pork kebabs with Spanish olive and tomato soffrito, sauteed jumbo shrimp with grilled artichokes, chorizo, and peppers, and finish with grilled chicken and sausage paella. Yummy! We finish the evening at another St. Aug staple, the Rendezvous Restaurant (180 beers from around the world - 'nuff said!). After a couple of dessert beers (i.e. "trippels"), we make our way back to the city marina for the dinghy ride to the boat. All is well until Rene slips stepping onto the stern. Good news - he's fine; bad news - the phone isn't in such good shape. Thanks to all our friends on Facebook for their advise on phone repair, but that puppy isn't coming back to life. Oh, well...it's only the 3rd Razor we've lost due to water damage. :-)

We leave St. Augustine at 8:30am Monday morning for what we expect to be a 2-day, 52-mile trip to Daytona Beach. It's a good cruising day, with the current at our backs most of the day. We're able to average over 4 kts, and pass the ruins of Fort Matanzas & Marineland (now closed) on our way to our anchorage at ICW Mile 809. Stacy is a little wary of this anchorage; all we know is that it's up a small channel, past a Sea Ray plant, to a closed cement plant. Barges are known to pass up and down the creek, and friends LA & Susan warned us that they wouldn't use the anchorage again given a choice. It was way too shallow and narrow, with quite a bit of traffic. We get there around 3pm and slowly make our way into the channel. LA & Susan weren't kidding - there's barely enough room for our boat to turn around without hitting the shoals at the edges. And we're supposed to anchor out of the way of barge traffic? Are you kidding?? We idle up the creek for another 10 minutes, but Rene soon agrees that this anchorage isn't for us. One little problem...there isn't another anchorage nearby that's deep enough for us, and the nearest marina is 20 miles away in Daytona Beach. Stacy checks online: there's one marina at Mile 829 and another at Mile 831. We're chasing the sun as it is, and those two miles could make a difference between arriving in daylight vs. darkness. The marina is too far away to reach on the VHF radio, and we don't have a working cell. The marina closes at 5pm, and there's no way we'll get there in time. Now what? Skype! What a fantastic program. Stacy skypes Loggerhead Marina (formerly Caribbean Jack's) and they assign us a T-dock. We arrive at the dock at 7:00pm, and the sun sets at 7:04pm. Talk about timing! The marina is south of the Seabreeze bridge in Daytona, and has a pool and hot tub on site. After a quick dinner, we're off to a long hot soak. It's been a long day (52 miles in 10.5 hours), and we're thrilled to have a rest day in Daytona tomorrow.

First order of business on Tuesday: we're off to the Volusia Mall to the AT&T store for a new cell phone. After losing three wet phones in as many years, we're finally getting smart. They have a water-resistant phone that has a rubber back around the battery. Rene first saw it at our old marina, when one of the boat yard guys dropped his own phone into the water. Rene managed to retrieve it for him, and the phone came back on without a problem. They aren't cheap, but we highly recommend them if you live on the water! After the mall, we walk over to Stacy's alma mater, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The campus has really grown in the past few years, with new dorms, fitness center, auditorium, chapel, and classrooms. The main administration building, Spruance Hall, was destroyed by a tornado a few years ago; signs are posted advertising the upcoming groundbreaking of the new structure (maybe they're after alumni money!). Fortunately the cafeteria hasn't changed a bit, and we stop by for some much-needed air conditioning and a cold drink. Apparently we're getting used to the colder temps in north Florida and Georgia - Daytona is bloody hot! After drying off, we grab a taxi and head beachside to the Daytona Boardwalk. The boardwalk still has the usual kitsch-y shops - tattoos, souvenirs, gifts, pizza, a fun house, etc. There's also a new 3-level mall next to the Hilton with movies, Bubba Gump's, a Cold Stone Creamery, and lots of shops. A favorite college hangout and great German festhaus called "Bernkastels" is gone, replaced by more hotel rooms. Boo hoo! Thank god the Ocean Deck will always be there. That's our destination for happy hour and dinner, and we'll see if we have enough energy to stick around for the live music and dancing starting at 9:30. If you haven't been to the Deck, it's well worth a visit. It started out as a beachside bar - you can enter from the street or the sand - and a 2nd floor restaurant was added a few years ago. We stick with the downstairs area, and watch the volleyball players in the sand pit next to the bar. The Deck has Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale on tap...pitcher, please! A bunch of patrons are watching the last baseball game before playoffs, and things get pretty crazy as the game progresses. There's also a major downpour while we're there, but the lightning manages to stay well offshore. We have a great time - fantastic food, beer, and atmosphere - but don't quite make it long enough to hear the band. Oh, well - it isn't a reggae band tonight, so it's not as much of a loss. Back at the marina, we enjoy another soak in the hot tub...better enjoy it now, 'cause it may be awhile before we get this kind of luxury again!

Wednesday, we leave at 10:30am and soon discover this is "bad bridge karma" day. Our first bridge off the dock is the Main Street Bridge, only a half-mile downriver from the marina. Before we even toss our lines, we try to reach the bridge tender for an opening schedule. We can't raise anyone on the radio, and the phone number goes to a fax machine. A third call to the phone number finally reaches the bridge tender, and we're told that only one span is working. The west (starboard) span is under repair and won't open, so we go through the left span with a close eye on our horizontal clearance. Another half-mile downriver is a 65' high fixed bridge, only it has less than 63' of clearance 2 hours before high tide. What the...??? After our last experience dinging the VHF antenna against the underside of the bridge, we're not going through anything with less than 63' of clearance. We decide to wait until we have more water, but soon realize that it's going to be a LONG wait. We sit for 2 hours with almost no change in the water height, and eventually talk to the bridge tender from the Main Street Bridge again. She tells us there used to be signs indicating an additional 3' of clearance at the centerline; the city took the signs down a few years ago for liability reasons. TowBoatUS confirmed that there should be at least 2' of clearance, although you'd have to maneuver exactly through the center, being careful of the lights hanging down from the center of the bridge. Oh boy...maybe we'll wait for low water after all. After another hour, it's 2pm and we really need to get moving. The tide board still only shows 62.5' of clearance, but we're going to crawl through and hope that the bridge tender and TowBoat are correct. We edge towards the bridge at a fraction of a knot, and hold our breath as our mast approaches the side of the bridge. We're aiming for slightly right of the hanging light, since there's a chain that goes from the bridge to the left of the light. A few seconds later, our wind instrument makes it under the bridge, followed by the VHF antenna and finally the wind vane. Nothing touches, and Rene veers to the left to avoid hitting the opposite light and chain. Stomachs clenched and hearts pounding, we finally reach the opposite side of the bridge. We're through! We've lost 3 hours sitting at the first bridge, but the current is with us and we make it through 4 more bridges (2 fixed and 2 bascule) to our anchorage in New Smyrna, 15 miles downriver. There aren't any recommended anchorages between New Smyrna and Mosquito Lagoon (which would be another 15 miles downstream), so we're calling it a day. We were supposed to have a 30-mile day today followed by a 15-mile day to Titusville on Thursday, so we'll just reverse the order of those two. On the plus side, there aren't any fixed bridges between here and Titusville. Hopefully we won't get stuck again!

We leave our anchorage south of marker 43 at 8:15am Thursday. (FYI...some cruising guides say this anchorage has become too shallow, but we don't have any problems. As long as you stay away from the 2' charted shoal, there's plenty of 8' depths.) We seem to be outrunning the tidal change, and find ourselves in a perpetual state of slack tide. We aren't getting the push we hoped for, but aren't fighting the current, either. It's pretty quiet on the water, and Rene takes a few minutes to scrape the barnacles off the side of the dinghy that he can reach from the stern. We still can't believe it - he cleaned the dinghy a month ago, and its bottom is already covered with barnacles. It's the most god-awful smell! Hopefully he can get to the other side at our next stopover. Another boat project for Titusville...

We don't have much wind, but it's an interesting trip all the same. Our favorite spot is the Haulover Canal, where we see three manatees in less than 5 minutes - one of which is swimming alongside our boat! Our only "uh-oh" moment of the day comes two miles north of our Titusville anchorage: the BoatUS website has a post from another cruiser who was delayed for 3 hours last week because the NASA railroad bridge was closed for repairs. As we approach the railroad bridge, sure enough, it's closed. Stacy tries to hail the work crew on the radio, and another bridge tender comes on to say there's no way to reach the crew, and we'll have to anchor until the crew opens the bridge again (typically between 3pm-5pm). It's just after 2:30pm, so this could be anywhere from a 30-minute to a 2-hour wait. At least we can see our anchorage from here! As we begin our turn to drop the anchor, the work crew foreman waves to us and the bridge begins to open. Hooray!! Apparently our bridge karma is improving! We get to our anchorage soon afterwards and find a good spot in 6' of water near the channel to the Titusville harbor. We hear the municipal marina is friendly to cruisers and should be able to land our dinghy there this weekend. Saturday we're off to Orlando to visit Epcot Center with friends Sue & Ted, and Monday we'll go to Kennedy Space Center. Time to play tourist!

Before we sign off, we have to send big hugs to our friend Ron who became a daddy earlier this week. Little Sandra Birkhoff came into the world on Monday, October 5th, and we hear the whole family is doing great. We're hoping to visit Houston next Spring, and can't wait to meet the newest Birkhoff!

Pictures for this (and the previous) Blog chapter:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2009SouthboundIV?feat=directlink

Southbound part III: Fernandina to St. Augustine

Thursday, October 1 - Saturday, October 3, 2009
After leaving Fernandina early Thursday morning, we have an uneventful day through the ICW. The instruments are working perfectly, and we realize just how much we've missed them. Rene keeps kissing the chartplotter screen! :-) We only have one soft grounding south of the St. John's river, but Rene is able to get us out of there without a Tow Boat US call. We anchor a few miles north of Jacksonville Beach, about half-way between Fernandina Beach and St. Augustine.

Friday morning, we leave our anchorage at 7am to make the 35-mile trip to St. Augustine. We have a few 65' bridges to get through this morning, and want to take advantage of the two hours remaining before high tide. We get to our first bridge by 7:30am, and get a major reminder of just how much an almost-full moon can impact tides. This bridge is supposed to have 65' of vertical clearance at high tide, but clearance is already down to 63' 90 minutes before high tide. Noooo! Our official mast height is 62.5', but we soon learn that the instruments on the mast put us over the 63' mark: we can actually hear our VHF antenna hitting the bridge. Ugh...we can't begin to express what an awful sound that is! Imagine hearing an awful "twang" as your antenna scrapes across 3-4 cross-beams underneath the bridge, knowing that your mast is maybe 6 inches below that. We vow to wait for lower water at the next bridge if the clearance board shows anything less than 64'! (As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for...)

We get to the next bridge about 3o minutes later; we knew that the bascule bridge there had been replaced by a 65' fixed bridge, but we didn't realize that work was still underway to demolish the old bascule bridge. As we approach the bridge, binoculars in hand to find the clearance board, we realize that a massive barge is parked against the bridge. We can't get through the bridge! (Talk about a "you've GOT to be kidding" moment.) A motor cruiser ahead of us has stopped and turned back; apparently they've radioed the barge operator, and they yell to us that the bridge should re-open at noon. Great...now we have to kill four hours. At least we won't have to worry about high tide! We turn around and anchor a mile upstream from the bridge. Stacy spends some time working on the blog (I don't think I've ever done such "real-time" blogging before), and Rene calls around to local engine shops to figure out what's causing the white smoke he saw coming from the engine earlier today. (The verdict: it's likely sediment or condensation from our backup fuel in the jerry cans. The smoke is gone later in the afternoon.) Other than that, we'll hang out until the bridge re-opens. We certainly aren't the only ones to be surprised by the closure; there are at least 6-8 other cruisers parked in the ICW before the bridge waiting for it to open.

The barges finally move to reopen the bridge for traffic around 12:15pm. Currents under the bridge are 4kts, and the water "boils" around the pilings. We're going against the current; even with revving the engine to 3000 RPM (1000 RPM higher than our typical cruising speed), our boat speed drops to 2kts as we go under the bridge. Scary! The current is against us for the next few hours, and we rarely get above 3kts. It soon becomes evident that we're not making it to St. Augustine today! Time to look for alternate anchorages... Hmmm...Pine Island at Mile 765. That's about 12 miles north of St. Augustine, and we can probably get there well before dark. Sounds like a plan! In the meantime, we keep a close eye on the depth gauge. We're going through Palm Valley Cut, which has 7-8' depths in places (not to mention some funky boathouses - see picture). Rene does a fantastic job keeping us from grounding, but we're ready to call it a day. We arrive at the anchorage at 5pm, and are pleasantly surprised - what a gorgeous spot! Our cruising guide warned that the anchorage has shoaled to the point where it can hardly be recommended, but we have 8' depths down the center of the creek an hour after low tide. We're sharing the anchorage with two motor cruisers, and soon find ourselves experiencing the kindness of strangers again. Our neighbors stop by in the dink soon after we anchor to invite us over for drinks. The two boats are cruising together, and we meet David & Zoe on Misstress and Paul & Barbara on Bigwig. Drinks lead to dinner, and we have a fantastic time getting to know our hosts and touring their boats. After a fun evening, we join them again on Saturday morning for breakfast before saying goodbye to our new friends. We can't thank them enough for their hospitality, and promise to keep in touch. Who knows...maybe we'll meet up again in the Bahamas!

Thank goodness it's a short trip to St. Augustine...we're still a bit fragile from last night. We're thrilled to be cruising with the current this time - 5kts is a heck of a lot better than 2kts! The trip is pretty easy until we're within 2 miles of the city. All of a sudden, the ICW shoals to under 7', and that's on the magenta (ICW) line. Not fun. Next up, we arrive at the intersection of the ICW and the St. Augustine inlet to a traffic jam: first we get a fly-by from the pirate ship (aka party boat), and then a 50' fishing boat decides he's going the wrong way and does a 180-degree turn right in front of us. He's maybe a boat-length away from us (just enough room for a smaller speedboat to come flying between us and the fishing boat), but fortunately has plenty of power and maneuverability. Gotta love being on the water with the crazies on the weekends! We arrive in St. Augustine at 3:30pm and anchor off the fort. We're in 20' of water with plenty of swing room. There's an historical reenactment happening at the fort, with "soldiers" in period uniforms firing off cannons. What a fantastic spot! We're ready for a quiet evening on the boat tonight, but tomorrow we'll go into town for shopping, sightseeing, and dinner at The Tasting Room. We had such a great meal at the tapas restaurant when we were here in June that we promised ourselves we'd go again on this trip. Cheers!

Fernandina Beach Revisited

Sunday, September 20 - Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Yawn! After a fantastic week with Stacy's family, we're both trying to recover from the red-eye flight. Neither of us slept on the flight home, so we're pretty useless for the rest of the weekend. Wanting to take advantage of the rental car, we do some heavy provisioning on Sunday morning. We're supposed to get the car back to Enterprise by noon; since Publix is next door to the Enterprise office, Rene figures it's a good time to make sure there's a key drop. No problem, right? Wrong! There's no key drop, and the office is closed on Sunday. Okay, maybe there's an Enterprise drop off at the Fernandina Beach airport. Rene calls the local number and gets transferred to an endless loop. Next he calls the national number and is told that he can either return the car to the Jacksonville airport or pay for another day and return it to the Fernandina Beach office on Monday. Wait a second - we paid a one-way drop-off fee NOT to drop it in Jacksonville. Why didn't someone tell us we couldn't drop the car off on Sunday? The agent basically tells Rene that it isn't Enterprise's problem, and hangs up on him. Rene is ready to park the car in front of the office and tape the keys to the door, and damn the consequences. On the way back to the marina, Stacy calls the national number again and hopes to get a more reasonable agent. We're basically told the same thing, but at least this agent takes the time to check with a supervisor and tells us that we can return the car to Fernandina Monday morning, explain the situation, and it'll be up to the local branch manager to waive the second day rental fee due to the misunderstanding. Rene is there when they open at 7:30 Monday morning, and they do, in fact, waive the fee. Whew - one headache resolved. (Gotta love it - the local office tells us that we could've taken the car to an Enterprise branch in a local hotel; the national office was just clueless.)

Monday we begin feeling human again, and join LA & Susan for dinner aboard Genesis. Susan makes an amazing veal dish, and Rene brings a couple of bottles of good wine. We have a terrific evening - we're really going to miss them when they leave! We reciprocate with dinner on Pipe Muh Bligh on Wednesday night. LA & Susan have decided to leave Fernandina on Thursday morning, so this will be our last visit for awhile. We also learn that Susan's birthday is on Thursday - more reason to celebrate!

Wednesday also turns out to be one of those strange days that deserves a special mention in the blog. First we decide that it's "World Wildlife Day" or something. We start the morning with a dolphin fly-by, something that we rarely see in Fernandina. Later in the day, we see three manatees munching on growth at the dinghy dock. They don't seem too afraid of us, and stay on the surface for quite a few seconds before going back underwater. Back on the boat that afternoon, Rene sees a big sea turtle at the surface. That's definitely a first for us on the ICW! We also get a reminder of how small the cruising community really is: that afternoon, we see a familiar catamaran come in and moor on the buoy in front of us. It's Chris & Robin on Toucan Dream, the couple who used to live at our old marina! We last saw them in Beaufort, SC, back in early August. They're heading south after spending a month in Myrtle Beach. Unfortunately we have bad timing - our dinner goes late and they're leaving early in the morning, so we don't get a chance to visit with them this time. They're going home to Port St. Lucie, so hopefully we'll get to stop by to see them on our way to Ft. Lauderdale.

Thursday morning Chris & Robin are already gone when we get up, but we have a chance to wave to Susan & LA as they leave for Cumberland. We don't have a chance to get lonely, as we have three new visitors arrive in Fernandina around lunchtime. Matt is an old friend and co-worker of Rene's, and he and his wife and son are visiting from Atlanta. We were supposed to meet up with them in Jacksonville this weekend, but random occurrences kept us all here. First, our navigation instruments still haven't arrived, so we can't take the boat to Jacksonville. Second, Matt's sister, who lives in Jacksonville and was the primary reason for choosing that meeting spot, was kept out of town on business. Now there's no reason for Matt and his family to go to Jax, so we all decide to meet up in Fernandina instead. It works out really well, as they get a hotel near the beach and we get to spend more time visiting and relaxing with them. We have dinner in town with them on Thursday, and the rest of the weekend is spent poolside at their hotel. The hotel has just opened, and in addition to the pool and hot tub, it has a great BBQ area and putting green - perfect for Matt's 4-year-old son. They stay in Fernandina Beach through Sunday. We have a great visit with them, and plan to get together again next year when we pass through Georgia.

On another note, we finally have some good news about our navigation instruments! We receive the first set of instruments back from Raymarine on Thursday afternoon (9/24), two full months after our lightning strike. Everything but the chartplotter, GPS, and downstairs graphics module has had to be repaired. Rene installs the first set, including putting the wind instrument back at the top of our 63' mast, and finally sees a message other than "Sea Talk Failed". Yippee! We receive the rest of the equipment (chartplotter & GPS) on Tuesday (9/29), and motor to St. Mary's inlet on Wednesday for a sea-trial to calibrate the nav instruments. What a laugh! Sea-trial step 1: make two circles in your boat. Each circle should take at least 2 minutes to complete, and the boat should not be going more than 2 knots. Okay...shouldn't be too difficult, right? Well, after two tries and about eight counter-clockwise circles with no success, Rene calls Raymarine. Ah-ha...you MUST go in clockwise circles for the system to work. (If only the guidebook said so...) Okay, let's try clockwise circles. Wait a second, we have two massive ships coming our way. They're the military escort ships that usually accompany nuclear subs into Kings Bay Naval Base! Does this mean that we'll finally see a sub up close and personal? Yeah! Uh-oh, we've been doing doughnuts in the inlet for two hours now. We probably look a little bit suspicious, and the Coast Guard understandably doesn't have a sense of humor when it comes to protecting the subs. No problem - we'll stay out of the way and will listen to VHF16. If anyone comes to question us, we'll be perfectly honest. Okay, here they come...the ships are coming into the channel and pass right next to us. And...NO SUB. :-( They must've taken one out this morning, and the ships are returning to the base. We've heard that they accompany the sub about 60 miles out before they come back, so the sub probably left early this morning. Not fair! Between our northbound and southbound trips, we've spent about 10 days off Cumberland Island (across from Kings Bay) and still haven't seen a sub. Oh, well...we know they really do come through here. Our friends, LA & Susan, got some amazing pictures last weekend. (Guys - we hope you don't mind us sharing one of your Facebook photos...you two are terrific photographers!)

Anyway, as the navy ships round the bend towards the base, we go back to making our two clockwise circles...one circle, two circles, three...four...and still NOTHING. Rene calls Raymarine back for more direction. After being connected with a "calibration expert", he's told the compass thingy isn't talking to the brain thingy. "Check the wiring." Ah-ha...a loose wire! Rene puts it back in place (hey, a compass heading - cool!), and we try for two more clockwise, 2-knot, 2-minute circles. Woo hoo - success! On to sea-trial step 2: give yourself plenty of open sea to maneuver - at least 100m wide and 500m long - to let autopilot run a few zig-zags. Okay, we're out of the channel, careful to miss a rock sticking out of the water that isn't on our charts. We set the autopilot to "learn", and the boat starts tacking left to right, left to right. It goes through 18 different tests (getting awfully close to a channel marker), before we get those magic words, "LRN PASS". Hot damn - we have calibrated instruments again!! Maybe we'll get out of Fernandina tomorrow after all.

After a last provisioning bike run to Publix, we enjoy a final Fernandina Beach dinner. LA & Susan recommended a place called "29 South" before they left, and we found the menu online. Yummy! 29 South calls itself a "farm to table" restaurant, meaning everything is organic - either grown in their own garden out back or bought from nearby farms. Rene has their Sweet Tea Brined Pork Chop, which is served with macaroni gratin with blackberry ginger preserves. Incredible! Stacy has the catch of the day, which is coconut-encrusted grouper on risotto-style couscous. Also fantastic. Thursday morning, we finally let ourselves loose from the mooring ball to leave Fernandina. The 28-mile trip takes about 7 hours, and we anchor a few miles north of Jacksonville Beach. We should arrive in St. Augustine tomorrow (Friday), and will likely spend the weekend there. From there, we'll head down the ICW, stopping in Stacy's old college town of Daytona Beach, followed by 30-40 mile day-sails with a few stops until we reach Ft. Lauderdale. We expect to get to FLL by the end of the month, and hope for a good weather window in early November so we can cross to the Bahamas. Along the way, we plan to see friends Sue and Ted (from Tarpon Springs, FL) for a Disney weekend, hope to visit Chris & Robin in Port St. Lucie, and will see Tracy again in Ft. Lauderdale. Depending on when LA & Susan head south, we may even get to hook up with them again before we make the crossing. 'Til next time!

Seattle, Washington

Thursday, September 10 - Saturday, September 19
It's time for a family fix! We're off to Seattle to visit Stacy's family. We get to spend 8 days with them on dry land, and we're planning to make the most of it. Granted, it isn't quite as easy to travel these days as it used to be...

Living in a house (or even on a boat in a marina), you don't typically have to think about whether your home will still be there when you return. Will it still be in the same place you left it? Or will a storm have come up and blown it off its foundation? As a full-time cruiser, if you want to leave the boat to visit family and friends, you have three options: 1) keep the boat in a marina tied to a dock/slip; 2) anchor the boat; or 3) keep the boat on a mooring ball in a mooring field. The marina option is the most secure option, but it's also the most expensive. For a boat Pipe's size, we're looking at an average of $100 per day, and we wouldn't even be on the boat to enjoy the marina's amenities! Option 2 - anchoring - is a great way to save money (i.e. it's free), but we're not ready to leave the boat anchored for an extended period of time without being around to check on it. We've had a few experiences with a dragging anchor, and we'd rather not risk the boat not being there when we get back. Option 3 - a mooring ball - is a great compromise; it's cheap and secure, but there aren't a lot of mooring fields available in the southeastern US. Enter Fernandina Beach...it's a nice town with a city-run mooring field, and it's fairly close to a major airport. Perfect!

Next up, we need to figure out how to get to the airport. We don't have a car, and biking the 27 miles to Jacksonville airport with luggage is out of the question. How about a taxi? Nope, we have to get the cats to the kennel before we leave. Okay, a rental car...just as long as we're willing to pay a drop-off fee for the one-way rental ($35 each way) plus insurance coverage ($10-20 per day). Oh, well...it's not like we get a rental car often. So...transportation to the airport, check.

What else? Kitty care! Since we don't live in Fernandina, we aren't familiar with the local kennels. Thank goodness for the internet! Stacy finds a few vets and kennels within 10 miles of Fernandina Beach, and we get lucky with one. "Kozy Kennels" has kitty condos that will allow Tux and Tawny to stay in a 3-story space together. The people seem like real animal lovers, and the kitty condos have glass fronts that let their occupants look out onto the fish tank and resident birds. So...kitty arrangements, check. Oops, wait a sec...how do we get the cats from the boat to shore? Into the cat carriers they go, and Tux and Tawny get to experience their first ride in the dinghy. They aren't thrilled, but they handle it much better than expected. Fortunately we pick up our rental car the day before our flight, so we can drop the kids off at the kennel that afternoon and have plenty of time with our last-minute boat preparations. We even have time to get together with friends and boat neighbors, LA & Susan. They're talking about leaving Fernandina Beach before we get back, so this may be our last visit for awhile.

Thursday morning we load our luggage into the dinghy, move the kayaks and man-overboard pole into the cabin, and lock everything up. Nothing is left topside - even the wheel has been removed and locked in the lazarette. As we dinghy to shore, we're both struck by how strange it feels to be leaving the boat. This is the first time we've spent any real time off the boat in over six months, and we're like nervous parents leaving their baby overnight with a sitter for the first time! We're sure everything will be fine, and the trip to the airport goes off without a hitch. We take a commuter to Houston and use our last President's Club pass to enjoy our 3-hour layover in comfort; we finally land in Seattle by 6pm local time. Let the "vacation" begin!

The next week is filled with family dinners, visits with old friends, and a side trip to the mountains. We stay with Stacy's grandpa, but see her mom and step-dad every day. Mom has just retired (congrats!), so she and Ken are in the process of renting their house and heading to sunnier weather for the winter. The house is getting low on furniture and cooking utensils, so Papa's place makes for a much easier gathering spot! Saturday we meet up with Stacy's aunt, uncle, and 10-year-old cousin, Matt, for pizza at one of the family hangouts, Pegasus on Alki. Matt's such a great kid, not to mention an outstanding student and baseball/soccer player. It's great to see him and his parents, and we hope to see them again before we leave. Sunday we have dinner with Stacy's friend, Andie, and her kids. Stacy and Andie have known each other since they were 2 years old, and we try to get together every time we're in Seattle. Our visits are always too short, but at least we have a chance to catch up.

Monday morning we head to Mt. St. Helens with Stacy's mom. St. Helens erupted on the morning of May 18, 1980, killing 57 people in the process. The blast flattened 230 square miles of forest and blew ash over 60,000 feet into the air. The ash cloud could be seen from over a hundred miles away, and anyone living in Washington state at the time can still tell you where they were and what they were doing that day. The volcano was active as recently as 2004, but has quieted down in the past few years. Three visitors centers have been built near the mountain, detailing the eruption, its victims, and the return of plants and animal life that has occurred over the past 29 years. None of us has ever been to St. Helens - either before the blast or after - and we've been looking forward to our visit. Wouldn't you know...we've been so lucky to have beautiful sunny weather for the past few days, but the clouds have found us on our drive to the summit. We get to the Johnston Ridge Visitor's Center around 1:30pm, just in time for the 15-minute movie detailing the eruption. It's a dramatic presentation, opening with the last words of geologist and St. Helens victim, David Johnston, at the moment of the eruption, and ending with the raising of the curtain to reveal the crater at eye-level just 5 miles away. It's an impressive sight, and would be even more so were it not for the clouds covering the top of the mountain! Sigh... We wander through the center, reading survivor accounts and details of the blast, and head outside to follow the "eruption trail" that winds along the edge of the ridge facing the crater. Much of the landscape is still barren from the blast, and dead trees can still be seen on distant hillsides, flattened like toothpicks in the direction of the blast. As much as we cajole and threaten, Mother Nature won't listen to us, and we never do get to see the full crater through the cloud cover. We still have a great time, and make a few more photo stops en route to our hotel late that afternoon. The hotel is built on the edge of Silver Lake, 45 miles from the summit of Mt. St. Helens. We can feed the ducks from our balcony, and can even see the mountain (and yes, the clouds have thinned since we left the summit...grrr).

The next morning, we wake to a beautiful blue sky. We're going back to the summit! We make the 45 mile drive through the winding mountain road, passing the replanted forests on either side. The Weyerhaeuser Company owns much of the land leading up to the mountain, and signs tell us the types of trees and years planted of each section of forest. Back at Johnston Ridge, we walk up the trail below the visitors center for a good vantage point. The clouds have remained light, and we're finally able to get a close-up view of the crater. There's no snow on the mountain this time of year, so you can really see where the north face just blew away. It's an awe-inspiring sight, and we're really glad to have made the trip.

Wednesday we're back in Seattle. We've heard rave reviews from the family about a new waterfront restaurant in Tacoma, and make a date with Grandpa, Mom, and Ken for lunch at CI Shenanigans and a visit to the Museum of Glass. CI Shenanigans has fresh seafood dishes and incredible views of Puget Sound. (If you have a chance to go there, try to sit in Marcus's section.) The Museum of Glass has become famous, thanks in part to Tacoma-native, Dale Chihuly. (If you've been to the Bellagio in Las Vegas, you've probably seen his glass artwork on the lobby's ceiling.) The "Bridge of Glass" is a 500' overpass that connects the art, history, and glass museums, and includes both a wall and a ceiling filled with Chihuly pieces.

Thursday we have a semi-rest day at Grandpa's, and Rene makes his "world-famous" lasagna. It's the last chance for the entire family to get together before we go back to Florida, and we're thrilled that Sue, Don, and Matt can join us on a school night! We already know that we won't be able to be with either of our families over the holidays, so getting to spend this time together means even more to us. We're still trying to convince the family to come visit us, either in the Bahamas or on the East Coast next spring or summer. We'll see!

Friday night we take the red-eye flight back to Florida (via Houston). We arrive in Jacksonville around 11:30am, and are eager to pick up the kitties and get back to the boat. They're definitely a little freaked out, but seem happy to be back on the boat with us. The boat is fine when we get back, and we're happy to see that LA & Susan haven't left while we've been away. We'll get to spend a bit more time with them before we both head to our next destinations!

Pictures for this Blog chapter:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Rene.Foree/2009Seattle?feat=directlink