WALLCAST, ARTS FESTIVAL, BOAT SHOW, DC CONSERVATION CONFERENCE, MAZU

This post doesn't have as much about our boat repairs as we are happily spending much less time doing them this year.  Other than having to clean up everything the other day when we forgot to close the hatches before a torrential downpour, we're having pretty good luck.  Knock on teak.  We've heard stories of rats aboard.  They actually swim from land and climb up boat lines onto the boat to steal food and eat through cables; incredibly destructive.  Dogs evidently keep them off.  Yeah Mazu!
  We went to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club for the Svalbard presentation that really made Drew and I know for sure we are happy to be in a warm climate.  Here is their boat slowly making its way through icebergs floating in the sea.  They are bundled up in every frame.  Hopefully you saw the youtube she produced.  Aside:  Svalbard is the location of the largest seed bank in the world.  Thank you Norway for providing the cold place and $$.

We sailed up to Miami Beach from our mooring at Dinner Key and anchored close to the canal entrance so we could dinghy and walk 1/2 a mile to Wallcast, a free outdoor concert projected on a 7-story wall.  The New World Symphony is in Miami.   Michael Tilton Thomas is the artistic director.    We sat on the ground with our friends, Hayden and Radeen Cochran and a few others.  It was incredible.  You can see a small part of the building to the left.  This is famed, Paula Robeson, flutist.  The program included Beethoven and Sibelius.  Wonderful to see and experience.  Should go back and click the building in the daylight.

On our sail back Drew decided to solo the whole day - do all the sailing from bringing up the anchor and sailing off to anchoring at Virginia Key with Island Spirit, (Hayden's boat) and swim off the beach.  No dinghys are allowed on the beach so we had a cold healthy swim off the boat.

The next day we attended the International Miami Boat show where we ordered a  new dinghy, a yellow AB we'll also name Tweety at the boat show price.  To get there we used the Miami's metro service from Coconut Grove that was easy.  And it was preceded by the Coconut Grove Arts Festival where we got these:

Very sadly Mazu was attacked by a big, unleashed dog who came at her ferociously as we walked in the parking lot.  We returned to the vet later because there were more wounds under her fur than are shown here.

I put this on my facebook page too.  She is a lover not a fighter.  Loves to be pat and continues to ask you to keep it up.

On Monday Feb. 23rd I flew to Washington, DC for the Garden Club of America's (GCA) National Affairs and Legislation Convention.  GCA has 201 member clubs and 18,000 members all over the country.  Representatives come each year to lobby our state Senators and Congressmen about conservation.  There are 8 position papers. We hand deliver and talk about a few issues.  The main points we made this year were:
 * Save the Pollinators! - The Monarch butterfly population has decreased 95%, 30% of bee colonies are dying and we are now importing them from Australia.  Pollinators make 70% of produce possible by pollinating nut, fruit and vegetable plants.
 *The Land and Water Conservation Fund amendment that was supposed to get $900 million each year and has only received $350 to $400 million, not funded by taxes but off-shore drilling profits of oil and gas companies was defeated in the Keystone Bill veto.  However we'll continue to fight for that fund (not Keystone).  The fund was set up 50 years ago and is vital to clean air and water. 
 *We lobbied for the Environmental Protection Agency appropriations to be restored to the original intent of the law passed by congress. 
 *And the recognition that humans influence climate change.  We can do things to try and reverse the trend.  Before lobbying we listened to many inspiring speakers such as Ted Turner's daughter , Laura Turner Seydel, an international environmental advocate and chair of the Captain Planet Foundation, Lucinda Robb, granddaughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Colin O'Mara, President of the National Wildlife Foundation and Senators Whitehouse (D-RI), Shaheen (D-NH), and representatives Welch (D-VT) and McCollum (D-MN) among others. 

  We visited NH reps: Senator Shaheen's, Senator Kelly Ayotte -R, Congresswoman Kuster - D and Congressman Guinta - R.  Here we are with Senator Jeanne Shaheen .  She's in the pink jacket.

Here's Senator Kelly Ayotte's  (R) office - so New Hampshire.

After meeting with reps and hearing speakers we celebrated at Union Station, a magnificent building.  Susan Peters and Deb Chag, GCA members.

The next day I simply went to cool buildings and museums to get my cultural fix before heading back to the boat.  Here's the capitol where they are repairing 1300 cracks in the iron dome.  The 11th architect of the capitol, Stephen Ayers, spoke to us.  He oversees the maintenance and restoration of various buildings around the capitol, the botanical gardens and constitution garden.

I went to the botanic gardens because I love gardens.  Looking down from the new upper level.  They now have explanations of each level of the garden.

 And the orchids:

A selfie in front of the Supreme Court.

And last was the Newseum, a museum I had not visited.  Since my family was in the newspaper business I felt it was a must.  There were many exhibits but this one of the Berlin Wall, east and west sides, was memorable.

East side of the wall

 The west side of the wall showing freedom of expression in West Berlin.

Be glad you're an American.  So back to the boat  : )

P.S. Here are the DC fantastic restaurants I recommend: Nora's, 701, The District, and a surprise - the Smithsonian Native American cafeteria.

Much ado at Dinner Key Moorings Coconut Grove, FL

 Miami                                                        a  New Hampshire driveway hmmm

         Jane Ansaldo and Korty Church's photo




I have been reading (New York - Rutherford, All Our Names - Mengestu) and lazy; not keeping up with the blog blurb.  
Soon after we arrived at Dinner Key we walked over to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club where Hayden Cochran of the Island Packet Yacht Owners Association organized a meet and greet with Judith Jacobson, a Danish captain on an Island Packet 350 and her husband, Hakon, who sailed to the 80th latitude, to Svalbard, 600 NM from the North Pole, north of Norway.  She is speaking at several seminars at the Miami International Boat Show, one of the best in the world.

Check out her youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yaWGWdYlSY

Pretty amazing to see the wildlife in Svalbard, former Spitsbergen.  She said it is the law to carry a gun when anyone walks out on the tundra because of the Polar bears - not to shoot them, but to scare them and for self defense if necessary.  Others on the Cruising Northern Latitudes panel who  spoke explained what they did to reinforce their boats for the ice.  However, Judith just bought an Island Packet and sailed up there in the summer - no reinforcements to the boat.

Here we are at the meet and greet with friends.

We took the metro, an easy ride to the free Inner Loop in beautiful downtown Miami on the waterfront at Bayside to attend the Boat show, Strictly Sail, and then a bus ride over to Miami Beach (power boats) to view a new AB dinghy that we think we are going to purchase - yellow, of course.  Old Tweety is getting old, and is an item to replace before she implodes while we are in her on the water.

Another huge spectacular event is the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, one of the top 5 in the country according to the vendors.  I have never seen a greater variety of art, 2 D, 3 D, paint, all mediums, sculpture, jewelry, wood working, fiber, wood cuts, etc.  It's huge.  We spent the whole day there.  We could have had our own tent with all the people who stopped us to ask about Mazu.  She was allowed in only because we had her Pet Partner papers.   She is a therapy dog and she worked today.  So many smiles from everyone and lower blood pressure.

Mazu watching Drew eat a turkey leg.

 Mazu next to the poster for the Coconut Grove Arts Festival taking a break.

Fortunately there isn't much boat info.  We haven't fixed anything or gone for a sail since we got here.  We have taken Tweety, the dinghy, daily to go in and out of town.   It's been nice to have a car to shop, and maybe we'll see AJ, my daughter-in-law when she comes down on business.
Any sailing plans?  We may go over to Boca Chica, a state park, recommended by Hayden Cochran, for a night, 14 miles away and more protected from the winds that are predicted to hit here beginning Thursday.  We seemed to be living minute to minute with few daily plans.  All is well.

traveling outside from Titusville to Dinner Key Marina, Miami

 Our house in Exeter, NH after the storms. 

We have a device controlled through an app "Wink" that tells us the temperature in the house. Last night (Wednesday night after we arrived.) while having a beer with friends on Island Spirit, another Island Packet, I showed them the app and how it works.  My daughter gave it to us last Christmas.  As I showed it to them I was surprised because lo and behold the indicator showed 46 degrees (instead of the 55 it's been since we left), 2 hours later 44, and now it's down to 42.  From afar Drew has called shovelers to shovel out the furnace vent that was covered with snow on the outside of the house and the heating company to start up the furnace again.  The forecast for tonight is -7 in Exeter.  Hope the pipes don't freeze.  We'll drain them next year before we leave.

The winds were just right Tuesday through Wednesday, just in time for us to leave Titusville and motor/sail south OUTSIDE.  We took it.

Before we left I finally captured one dolphin on video.

I took Mazu jogging with me through a nice little park before we left.  Osprey on top of pole in the park.  The palm trees look like Dr. Seuss 's Trafulla  trees.

Before we move we figure out exactly how fast we must go and how many hours it will take to arrive at our destination during daylight hours.  Our rule - never enter a harbor at night.  On  Navionix we type in a route from Titusville to Miami.  Going 6 k would take us 34 hours. 
4 hours down the ICW to the Cape Canaveral Inlet that opens to the ocean.   We went through a canal and had to wait a half hour for one bridge that opens on the hour and half hour.  We arrived at 12:03, and we waited a half hour for the opening.  I took a little video of the area while we bobbed around.

 
I'm at the helm with swirling currents, looking back quickly and took this picture of  the three lifted spans.  The bridge tender told us workers are closing the lock ahead from 1 to 5.  We immediately radioed the lock to say we would be there by one.  At full throttle we thought we could make it.  Birds were flying around behind the boat I guess to get some lift from the 18K winds across Banana River out from Port Canaveral.

We arrived at the lock at 1:02, and they held it open for us. After the lock we unfurled all the sails because of favorable, fair winds.  Love sailing in the evening.  Sails stabilize the boat and give it the extra lift.  We were going 8 K so some of the time we could turn off the engine.  6 k is the usual speed and route estimates are used with 6 k.

A full moon to Miami. 

 We picked up the mooring ball at 4:00 pm in Dinner Key Marina 30.5 hours after we'd left Titusville. Mazu at end of trip.

     

To show the hardiness of an Island Packet I've included a link (9 min youtube) of a boat, the same model as ours sailing above the Arctic circle.  fox, polar bears, walruses, icebergs.   This woman is scheduled to talk at the Miami Boat Show this month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yaWGWdYlSY

However, we plan to stay in warm waters.  The water is 74 degrees here.  It's a rainy day and the outside temp is 70.  We'll be staying here in Dinner Key for the month of Feb.

Inside on ICW watching depth or Outside on N. Atlantic close to shore in higher seas?

I just added a new page on the blog: "Recommended places" that will include places we found especially fun in different cities,  also parking options if you have a car, and dog places if you have a dog.  "Marinas and anchorages" is the most visited page.  I keep adding to "boat words" as I use one that seems to crave definition, like maybe I'll explain why boats have zincs.

This was one of the 8 bridges we passed through as we motored down the ICW from Daytona Saturday.  This is a RR bridge that stays up almost all the time.  Other times we call the bridge tender on the VHF, "This is sailing vessel Shawnee requesting an opening."

We came into the slip Saturday late afternoon and tied up.  (Titusville Municipal Marina $1.44/' a night with Boat US discount.)  We can plug-in and can use our new heater. I must say it is much warmer here and less need for it.  Mazu loves a tie up.

We walked into a cruisers Saturday night pot luck that was fun with so many friendly people.  Good party. They are planning to do them monthly at Titusville.

DO NOT PAT, FEED OR GIVE WATER TO MANATEES.  Of course we all want to pat the manatee.  They love fresh water.  These signs are everywhere, but we fail to see them.  Seen a few dolphins.


Sunday night saw the Seahawks and Patriots play it out on the Arizona field for Superbowl XLIX (49) with a rousing, suspenseful interception at the goal line by the Patriots to save them from defeat in the last 30 seconds of the game!  [I hear next year the NFL isn't going to  use Roman Numerals because it would just be L.]  We watched at Dixie Crossroads Bar on a big screen TV by ourselves until the bar closed before the end of the game.  We walked 20 minutes back to the marina and finished the game with 4 people gathered around a tiny TV on a screen porch. 
  During the day today Drew looked at the auto pilot that had been rattling and tightened things up.  This did require emptying the entire cockpit locker and placing everything all over the cockpit and taking out all the tools in the salon occupying every surface there as well.  I read.

Monday:  We need to decide how to proceed south.  There's 15 to 20 k winds today with seas to 6', a spot of rain and spotty blue skies.   That's rather our limit - 6.'  If we go out it will only be 36 hours on the water to Miami (200 miles) v. 4  eight hour days.  Not sure yet.  Mazu always votes for the least amount of time on big waves.  I always want to try to sail, but I can't remember the last time we unfurled a sail; sometime in November I believe for a few minutes on our way to St. Augustine.  We say we don't want to sail on a schedule but even without people to meet or things on land to do we are scurrying to avoid weather or forced to catch a weather window that only lasts a few days. Or if it isn't weather it's repairs to attend to at a certain marina.

   Slow going today except for the diver who came and cleaned the bottom of the boat  - $60 for an hour and half underwater.  "Wasn't too bad," he said, and he also replaced the prop zinc that was worn down to the nub and loose.  Here's Drew, Mazu and the diver with his baby stroller full of fins, hose, scrapers, and one air tank.  I worked on this blog.

 

on the ICW anchored north of Twin Bridges in Daytona

After 50 miles today over 8 hours we slid into an anchorage at 4:30 thanks to Mark and Diana Doyle's On the Water Guides - anchorages.  We aren't big on anchoring, but with team work and encouragement we made it into an 8' anchorage for the night.  We  immediately ate our homemade tacos for dinner.
    Yesterday before we left, Drew installed the impeller, thankfully, since here is the old damaged one. 

What can happen is that the rubber bits can disintegrate and clog the engine so it just stops.  The impeller keeps raw ocean water running through the engine to cool it through the heat exchanger, that cools the exhaust and exits the exhaust pipe.  That's the water you see going out the back of boats.  It's essential to keeping the engine running. It's essential maintenance.
   While he was working I did errands with Mazu.  First we went to the ONLY place in town to get a real latte, Kookabura, right on the main square.  We stopped at a pocket park with a statue of St. Francis. Not sure how old it was.
 

St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, had a major catholic population.  There was a poem inscribed on a plaque.
  
  Lord, Make me an instrument of your peace...
  Where there is hatred let me sow love...
  Where there is injury pardon...Where there is doubt faith...
  Where there is despair hope...where there is darkness light...
  And where there is sadness joy.
      ~ St. Francis of Assisi 

I picked up a T-shirt I mail ordered at the Black Raven mail service store.  It's to celebrate freedom of the press and my dad's life work as a newspaper publisher.
    

One of the major errands of the day was to buy anything that could calm Mazu down during passages, to figure out how to get her not to shake and pant on the boat when we take a trip.  It's weird because we can go in the dinghy with the motor on, run the engine on Shawnee or even take it out and around and she's fine. But when we are out for a while she just shakes.  So today we tried Benedryl that someone said would make her sleepy, calming treats, and a collar that gives off pherenomes that smell like what a dog that's just had puppies gives off for 3 days to calm her puppies.  Don't you wonder how vets captured that on a dog collar?   Well, she shook and panted most of the day, but not all of it.  We'll have to decide if she can continue cruising with us.
    Just finished a good book today by Malcolm Gladwell, What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures, essays he wrote in the New Yorker also finished an Irish novel, Nora Webster by Colm Tolbin.
  On to Titusville tomorrow morning, for another 50 miles.  We'll stay a couple of days for a diver to clean the disgusting bottom of the boat after 2 months sitting in St. Augustine harbor, and be American and watch the Super Bowl.  Go Pats.

Back on the boat and back to the blog at St. Augustine mooring

Summary for the days we've been here:
  We arrived January 19th after watching the wonderful birth of Isabelle, Sarah and Yeang's first and our fourth grandchild in New York.  All were born at Cornell Weill, First Presbyterian Hospital.  So much fun to be there and hold her, see her face to face.  Already she seems calm and wise.

   
















We drove our own car this time, again non-stop, 15 hours to St. Augustine

to find the boat in fine condition with no bird droppings.  Our inventive use of flags and tin foil worked.  Shawnee is the white one.

s

It's nice to have our car here to drive to the beach,  

movies and explore. 
   Glad we could avoid the great snow drop of 2015 and be in warmer clime except our heater quit after one night.  We are like camping now without a campfire in the cold of 39 degrees at night and 55 during the day.  As soon as that sun goes down I am in the bed with 4 fleeces and a sleeping bag.  Our heat is one kerosene lamp in the forward cabin.  We turned on the stove and heated up terra cotta pots that held the heat a long time.  I placed one in the bed to warm up the sheets.  Still, cold is cold.  Drew worked on the Espar heater for 4 days with many calls to the Rhode Island Espar Service before giving up and sending the unit to them.  

Have no  idea when they'll send it back.  He said he had never had it serviced in 10 years since it was installed.  Plug-in heaters don't need service so why would this one?  It is a real incentive to sail south sooner.  On top of the cold we are just recovering from the flu/cold complete with severe congestion, cough and temps.  It kept each of us in bed over 2 days, taking turns dinghying Mazu to shore twice a day.  That's lingering.
    We found our two favorite French coffee houses have closed or stopped morning coffee service.  We found another one a mile walk to the north end, "Petite Pleasures."  Good walk and good coffee is worth it.  On our way we passed the old wall and gate to St. Augustine 1729.

  and the warrior outside of Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum

  Another favorite is Smokin' D's BBQ about 5 miles south on route 1.  It's "a  vegetarian recovery center."  Just like last year it serves every day until they run out.  Always cars there, always a fast moving line.  Deeelicious barbeque like I've had no where else.

  One day while the Subaru was getting its 30,000 mile service in Jacksonville we walked Neptune Beach and visited the Cummer Museum and Garden.  Put it on your list.  What a little gem.  The Cummers were Michigan lumber barons making a fortune and building a winter mansion on the St. John River.  The mansion is long gone, but the modern museum took it's place and is well endowed with major corporate and philanthropic supporters.  It has a cafe, shop, Meissen porcelain galleries, modern and impressionist art and rotating art exhibits.  The 2 1/2 acre garden is exquisite with English, Italian and Olmsted designs.  It's centerpiece is one of the oldest live oaks in Florida, just huge, spreading 150'. 
  

  I've walked through the sleepy, quiet, beautiful, Old Florida residential districts that dominate St. Augustine with Mazu. 
   Other days Drew and I have watched three great films:  "American Sniper" where the whole audience applauded the true story. "Into the Woods" was terrific, fun and such a great score.  And "The Imitation Game" a true story about Alan Turing, the inventor of the computer and code breaker during WWII.
  The good news is we bought a heater today so I'm able to write this in the warmth of the fore cabin. : ) now 65 degrees in while 44 out.  It runs on low with the engine running : )   : )  Other days the temp was 54 in and 44 out.  Now we have the lamp and the heater as our new heating system. 

Lamp and ceramic heater also view of vitamin C and cold meds.

  My job is to check tides for the possible trip Friday to Daytona (50 miles south) and search for anchorages though none we've seen have fit for us.  The requirements are a depth of 5.5' for our boat's draft and land access for Mazu's daily pit stops.  There is a notable ICW trouble spot at the Manazas River Inlet with bad shoaling/shallow spots.   We will not be going through the area, 13 miles south of St. Augustine at high tide given our early morning start.  That will be a challenge.  We have 10 hours of daylight at 6 k/hour so we figure we can make it even with all the low bridges.  Since we aren't sailing outside (because of high winds in the wrong direction) sailing 24 hours a day, it takes many more days to get to warm Miami.  We have to wait for 5 Bascule, draw, or swing bridge openings as we go the 50 miles to Daytona.  Now I am sitting in our sun room before the sunset, very cozy in a shirt, fleece, parka and windbreaker, very comfortable.  Searching the "On the Water Chart Guides, Anchor Guide for the ICW"  I find 2 anchorages possible, one 13' to 10' at the Memorial Bridge mile marker 830 and one a mile farther south in Daytona 11' to 7', slight current, both with shore access by dinghy.  When we get there we'll see ; -    Sleep tight everyone.  Thinking of you all in cold places for the most part.
  Think of Drew tomorrow replacing the impeller (engine part) and starting up the water maker.

Christmas for the boat

Thinking ahead we have a better idea how to keep the birds off the boat with a device my roommate from college uses and recommended.  It sings a high pitched noise we can’t hear but keeps the birds off.  Check it out.

http://www.deck-guard.com/index.html

  

Also found a secondary anemometer that fits onto a smartphone.  It’s available at West Marine and on my Christmas list.  I’d like to be on the boat and check whether that anemometer at the top of the mast is accurate. Or use it at the beach when the wind blows. We also wouldn't have to turn on the instruments to find out the wind speed.  

 VAAVUD wind meter from Denmark

See it work at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPfRTmGrU90

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/ronstan--wind-meter-for-smartphones--15100605  about $40

In the next few days we’ll be enjoying a few parties, seeing my sister, Chris, my niece, Susannah, Drew’s brother, Bruce and zipping to NYC for the holiday.  In New York Sarah and I are going to make graham cracker gingerbread houses with the grands.   I hope we all sing Christmas carols around the piano - one of my favorite things about Christmas is the music.   Christmas day we’ll have breakfast and stockings at my pregnant daughter’s and son-in-law’s. In the afternoon we'll drive 20 minutes to my son and daughter-in-laws with his three children 6, 2, and 6 months. Fun Chaos. Sarah is due December 28, the same day her in-laws arrive from Malaysia for the event, Lei Peng and Seng.  They are so excited to see their first grandchild.  We’ll be there too.

The plan is to return to the boat Jan 14.  More then.