Nice week in FL to escape the 15" snow and cold

Back to the boat after an easy Jet Blue flight to West Palm Beach with well behaved Mazu at my feet for 3 hours.  Such a good, friendly, fun dog.

Then our hour drive to Fort Pierce and delicious dinner at 12A Buoy - I think the best food in Fort Pierce in spite of little atmosphere.

To Shawnee, to Shawnee - neat as a pin and welcoming.

Day 1,  Monday 12/9.  I am starting a new daily routine: A morning walk around the marina docks to see the beautiful new pool, a new morning coffee counter at the marina dock and checking the license plates from all points across the US from Alaska, Tennessee, Colorado, Texas, and Massachusetts.
  Drew suggested a morning walk on the beach with Mazu who always loves it, tears around, does her 360 spins on the sand and in the air and dances through the warm water wavelets.  She's so much fun to watch and play with.

  Next, we drove to the Latin coffee place, Mervis, for some great breakfast on the way to Nelson's farm market near Winn Dixie.  We got the freshest veggies and fruit - a deelicious cantaloupe.  At the Dollar Store, we also bought tiny white lights to put around the lifelines on the boat for Christmas and a wreath for the bow.

Day 2, Tuesday the routine. After figuring out the male and female plugs for the lines of lights it looks great.  I put the cord down the dorade vents to the outlet in the galley.  Also, I put up battery fed tiny white lights around the cockpit.  A little festive. Several boats have colored light strung from the top of the mast to the deck.  Next year.

 I also hosed off the deck from the osprey and other birds that sometimes poop out these tiny hard beads when roosting on the high lines. 

Day 3, Wednesday --  I was Online with an all-morning meeting with NH Master Gardener Alumni Association as treasurer via zoom. My afternoon project -- get the dinghy down so I can motor out to the uninhabited nearby island with Mazu for a wading walk around the whole little place.  BUT, after lowering it and adjusting the lines and lowering the engine onto the dinghy, when Drew pulled the cord -- nothing, the engine didn't even turn over.  New project for Drew - he thinks it's the carburetor.  Off to buy Mechanic in a Bottle at Home Depot (as well as a Sonic chocolate shake.)

Not sure if it works, but it's in the gas tank.  The project will continue when we return in January.


Later it began to sprinkle so we went to the movies and saw Harriet.


Day 4, Thursday --  It absolutely poured all day - never seen such rain - must have gotten 3-5" from what accumulated in the dinghy that Drew bailed out since we didn't lift up the dinghy before the storm.  Read a lot, did emails.  I went up to the work-out room and actually used the treadmill for a mile.  I also started a jigsaw puzzle.  Ate a light dinner on board instead of 12A Buoy prime ribs because of the pouring rain. We finished watching the last of Unbelievable on Netflix and another episode of Kominsky Method.
  
Day 5, Friday -- beautiful day, morning routine. On my walk, I picked up lots of plastic litter off the beach after the storm.  When we got back and rinsed off, we found Drew tracing leaks again - down the mast through the boot, and one behind the propane locker.   He ordered material to seal the mast boot better.  We had a nice lunch at the marina restaurant with Mazu at our feet.
  I'm making a list of things I can bring back to the boat when we drive down in January:  bike or use the free one here, paddleboard - I can pump up and go with Mazu, tennis and pickleball rackets - hope to find places to play, and playing cards or app solitaire games.    Tomorrow we fly back to Boston, home for Christmas in Bangor with Sarah, Yeang and the grands.  Can't wait.
  Off to do the exciting laundry then maybe Vero Beach Museum.  Drew projects on...
 I also cleaned out three water filters, defrosted the freezer, designed and ordered our picture Christmas cards, and completed this blog.
                      Merry Christmas to all.  Deep breaths for 2020.

A day around Fort Pierce

Friday, Nov. 1
  They rented a car and toured about Fort Pierce.  The car was also rented to drive down to West Palm Beach Airport, Saturday morning at 5 AM to catch flights.

Adam, Drew and Reuben


Here's the nice jetty walk.  The top of the rocks was paved for access.  Adam and Drew looking out at the Fort Pierce inlet.

The day must include a swim at the broad beautiful beach in 82-degree water.  Nice and deserted.



Adam swam out beyond the breakers. 

 That night they ate at the new, a bit pricey Braford Steak House in FP. 

Lots of well-roasted veggies for Adam, the perfect meat for Drew, and a good steak for Reuben.

Another night after everyone left Drew went to the famous Buoy 12A Restaurant for rack of lamb.




 And so the end of another voyage from Marblehead to Fort Pierce, for the 6th time.

As the sun sets slowly in the west ... Shawnee at anchor (previously on the trip.)

Landed at the slip at Harbortown Marina Hurray!!

"Break open the champagne!" says Reuben.  "We're here!"  Always a high after a journey at sea.  They did take showers on the way down during a calm stretch.  Shawnee has a large water tank and enough energy to keep it warm.
   Nice to be on terra firma.  And it's 87 with a pool nearby - NICE.  All fixes aside it's been a perfect trip south.
  The crew, Adam and Reuben, fly home on Saturday.   Drew, happiest I've heard his voice in a long time, will finish tidying up the boat, plugging in at the dock for A/C and cable TV.

On this map, you can see North and South Hutchinson Islands north and south of the inlet.
Much of that coastline is public state parks, especially on either side of the inlet.  Don't know why it's not marked in green.  The whole south side of the inlet is restaurants, hotels, US Coast Guard, public beach, and an aquarium with a waterside walkway part of the way from the jetty end.  I sometimes walk from the blue arrow, Shawnee at the dock, across the north bridge to the beach.  Both sides of the roadway are all state parks, palm forests, boat launches, fishing docks, kayak launch places, and facilities.   That's why we like it - not so built up...yet.  Good biking too - free bikes at the marina.

18 hours to Fort Pierce 82 degree Gulf Stream

Oct. 31, 2019
Drew and I Faced time today so they have connection closer in.  He said they've done more sailing than ever.

You can see on the map they are close to shore as they travel for the last day to Fort Pierce.  It's a little north of Port Saint Lucie.  They are scheduled to arrive at the Fort Pierce Inlet around 8:30 am.  Drew always wants to arrive at an inlet during daylight hours so he keeps his speed accordingly.  Can't go too fast or they arrive in the dark.  

If there was an emergency(that's the way I think) there are only a few inlets down the eastern coast of Florida for anchoring or getting into marinas:  starting from the north:
1. St. Mary's River - the Georgia/Florida border near Mayport, then 45 miles south to
2. St. Augustine Inlet (best at hightide and follow markers into great City Marina, call Boat US for local information) 70 miles to
3. Ponce de Leon Inlet at New Smyrna Beach then 50 miles south to
4. Port Canaveral Lock near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station south of Titusville, then 40 miles to
5. Sebastian Inlet  to the Indian River and ICW that leads 14 miles down to Vero Beach City Marina (hardly call it a city, mostly a town, but it has a couple of great movie theatres and big malls)
There are bridges over some of these inlets, rivers, and the ICW. Sometimes you have to wait for a draw bridge on the inside to get to your marina.
Then 26 miles to
6. Fort Pierce Inlet into Harbor Town Marina
Total of about 250 miles or 40+ hours by boat to Fort Pierce from the top of FL. Via Route 95 Florida, excluding the Keys Florida is about 442 miles long.

What doesn't show up on the map are the many public ocean and river beaches and unoccupied islands to explore north and south of Fort Pierce.  Almost the entire North Hutchinson Island coast up to Vero Beach is State-owned and South Hutchinson Island is also almost all state beach down to Stuart.  In Fort Pierce, a long, stone jetty public park is heavily used; it's a walkway on one side of the Inlet where you can watch the water traffic, birds, beach life, and eat at one of the many restaurants or stay in a hotel.  Not fancy.

Pictures along the way as the boys were out at sea.
Nice breakfast of Lox and tomatoes (no fresh bagels).



The biggest entertainment is the morning or evening sky. A little telltale showing on the left with the breeze.



Instruments at night showing radar on the right  -12 miles out from the boat there are no boats around, track upper left - 186 compass degrees, depth 82' and speed is 5.5K, and bottom left is the direction of the wind - indicator showing it's on the nose.  Bottom right,-the dark, round thing is the real compass - not digital or electrical.

 


Nice speed showing on the iPad's Navionics program, going 7.2 k. That's a good clip.



A clear, full moon night - not sure if it's moonrise or set.  Bright planets too.
 


Adam on starboard, near the coast in the background



Nice

Passing SC to GA, passing Cumberland Island

Shawnee is sailing a lot and has moved past Charleston, SC, past Savannah, GA and closer to one of my favorite spots, Cumberland Island National Sea Shore www.nps.gov/cuis.  (see pics on their website.) It's a little, beautiful, protected island where John F. Kennedy and Jackie spent their honeymoon.  We biked there a few years back and brought Mazu too.  Live Oaks enshrouded with Spanish Moss spread over dirt roads - no cars - where wild horses roam about, and we walked the wild beaches.  Only accessible by boat it's a great place to explore.  The Park Service has a ferry from St. Mary's, GA, right on the GA/FL border. There's one place to stay on the island. We stayed in St. Mary's at a little BnB.  Photos are probably in our archives.




Out at sea, life vests or PFDs (Personal Flotation Devices) are required for safety.   They fill up with air when you hit the water (though I've never tested one.) Or you can pull the cord.  They are lighter and easier to wear than the big orange PFDs.  A cord from the vest clamps on a Jack line, lines that are tied from the bow to the stern, port and starboard sides, on the cabin top of the boat.  If anyone goes outside of the cockpit they are required, and some people wear them during the whole voyage.  We also have a bright yellow lifesaver and an attached line system that is thrown if there is a Man Overboard, MOB.  I want to buy a diver's aide, like a tall colorful noodle, that would shoot up to see MOB from behind tall waves. Scuba divers use them; markers up to 7' tall, a Promate Scuba Diving Inflatable Safety Tube Sausage Signal Marker Buoy Tube.

From St. Mary's, GA it's another 265 miles down the coast of FL to Fort Pierce and Harbortown Marina dockside slip with electricity for air conditioning and cable hook-up.  It's a balmy 87 there today : - )   At 6 k per hour, that's about 45 to 50 more hours at sea.

Heading south to Fort Pierce

Shawnee left the mainland just south of Cape Hatteras, a major eastern point of the US for big weather, and off of Cape Lookout, NC.  Now 9 hours after leaving Shawnee is just north of Cape Fear and Frying Pan Shoals, making good time.

Before he left he installed the nice clean, fixed Esbar Heater in the cockpit locker.




And wiring work.

Maybe we need a few labels for the wires.

He also put a jerry jug of fuel in the bow of the boat for ballast in the anchor chain locker. It evens out the weight in the boat.

 

They also had a nice dinner out again at Floyd's.  Judith in front, her husband behind, Drew on the left, Reuben and Adam, our new crew member, on the right.

 

 Two IP380s left the yacht basin about 8:30 am, Shawnee following identical Touche´ with Judith Jacobson and her husband.  Destination sunny Florida.

From Belhaven to River Dunes to Moorehead City Yacht Basin

A perfect sail down to River Dunes with nice winds that allowed an engine off period.

A couple of nice sailboats to see along the way.




Photos courtesy of Drew Sunstein (on Shawnee).  Blog courtesy of Deborah Twombly (at home)




 
 They followed the Pungo River to the Neuse River and tucked in at River Dunes.

    Arrived dockside, such a wonderfully protected marina, and hurricane hole, always calm. 


 



Saturday morning they ate breakfast at the River Dunes cafe and left at a reasonable hour for Moorehead City Yacht Basin, about a 5 hour motor at 6k.  When they arrived Drew's Esbar heater was waiting for him.  He actually did install it in a couple of hours.  Yea - fixed!
  They had dinner at Floyd's 1921 with a couple who have sailed from CA thru the Panama Canal and up to NC.  Reuben ran into Judith Jacobson on Touché, an IP380, who has sailed the globe.  They are headed through the Panama  Canal and down the South American coast.  See this little Youtube of them in Svalbard in 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yaWGWdYlSY
   Luckily, he's found a leak in the mast collar so there will be another project when he arrives in Fort Pierce as well as new blocks to replace that I'm sending to him Monday.  Adam arrives Sunday afternoon to add to the crew for shorter, nicer watches at the helm on the 3.5-day off-shore trip. 
  Seventy-seven degrees today in Moorehead City. Rainy all day in Exeter, NH with temps about 48. Fair winds, you guys!

Headed to Coinjock, NC to the anchorage, to Belhaven and to Oriental - River Dunes

After a night at Centerville Marina Shawnee headed east then south, across Currituck Sound back into the canal - ICW and to North Carolina to the famous
 Coinjock.  Reuben was ready for a prime rib.
 Before.                                                  and After -


 He ate the whole thing!

On down the ICW you see a lot of things.  This is 120-foot cruiser with his tender in tow just easing out!   You can see it's in front of another large yacht.


A barge.  This time of year the ICW is pretty crowded.
Some insurance policies don't cover boats for hurricanes or storms down the ICW until after Nov 1, but that doesn't seem to be stopping a ton of boats this year.


 Another Island Packet, I think, like Shawnee - no yellow Tweety on the stern.
:
 Note few are sailing. The waters show how calm it is with little wind.

 If you see whitecaps in a picture then the wind is at least 14k

 
 anchorage one night.
Always light appetizers and a drink at the end of the hard day of boating.



 On to Belhaven where they stayed at the town dock.


  

 In Belhaven, NC there is a grand restored house used for events, River Forest Manor https://riverforestmanor.com/.  Many times we've walked the grounds. For years it was under construction.  Now it's open.


 



Pretty calm this evening. Drew walking back to the cockpit.

 

The next day they sailed to Oriental and turned off the engine!!  The wind was taking them to 6.4 K! 



 

Map shows Belhaven to River Dunes Resort near Oriental.  One more leg to Moorehead City on the NC coast.


The captain
likes those calm waters.  Fair winds.
No things to fix ... at the moment.






























[The repaired Espar heater https://esparparts.com/ is being mailed to Moorehead City where Drew will install it. "Just take a couple of hours."]