May 31, 2010

We decided to stay an additional night, we have spent the day doing laundry, and going to the store. If we left tonight it would be too late for us to pull into where we would want to anchor.
This place it a trip, there is a bunch of stray cats here. At the restaurant last night there was one cat inside the restaurant, she even went behind the bar. I didn't see them, but Chris said there was a litter of kittens too.
The word on the street is that there is a manatee and her calf that live in this little harbor, I am hoping to see them before we leave in the morning.

May 30, 2010

Wow!!!! Woke up at 2am because it started to rain, as Chris and I were rushing around shutting hatches I looked off of our bow to see a wall of dark grey rain coming straight at us. Literally 5 secs later, we where in a sheet of rain, and wind gusts that felt like 40 knots. The boats were all whipped around and the anchor chain sounded like it was whining for help. We actually got out our foul weather gear. I thought for sure that we were going to start dragging, but after 20 mins of feeling like I was going to throw up, everything got real quite again like nothing had ever happened. Deason and Dahlia slept through the whole thing, Deason even got rained on through his open hatch before we could shut it, and he didn't even stir. (I should start checking his pulse in the middle of the night)

After that Chris fell asleep knowing that if our anchor held through that, then we were OK, I on the other hand stayed awake to look out the window every 10 mins just to check and see if we were moving. I finally fell asleep around 5am out of pure exhaustion. Note to future self....self, leave Florida before Memorial Day so you don't have to deal with these freak, crazy, short storms...otherwise known as squalls!
We were up and ready to pull the anchor by 8:30, we moved out with a good breeze. Winds were out of the SE 10-15 knots, we set the autopilot and barely had to adjust the sails all day.Which left plenty of time to read, eat, and enjoy the scenery. We sailed at greater than 7 knots most of the day. Our course brought us to about 8 miles off shore, where we had dolphins off of our bow twice. By the time I got out the camera and out to the bow they were gone, so no pictures yet.
When we finally got to where we could jibe into St Pierce inlet it was 4pm. I don't like to jibe, it always seems so violent. We probably could have done a better job than we did if we had pulled in the main sheet real tight then let it back out and it would have made it a lot smoother, but with a strong wind it still seems violent. It seems like it would have been easier to turn into the wind.
We cruised to the inlet at a gentle 5 knots, once we got to the opening of the inlet with an outgoing tide the waves got kind of big, but kind of fun. Once in the inlet to St Pierce, on the North side there is an Island that reminded me of Washburn Is. on steroids, there was a floating bar, and at least 200 small boats. I can't be certain but I am sure that most of them were violating safety standards for weight and capacity.

We decided to spend the night at the dock:

1. we wanted to fill our water tank.

2. we wanted to get a few grocery items.

3. the first two were excuses we used for the real reason....we were both so exhausted from the night before that we needed a worry free night tied to a dock!

We looked like pros docking, I was so impressed by Chris's skills. Deason handled the stern line, I was at the bow, and Dahlia was in the cockpit with Chris. She was strapped in her feeding chair with some apricots to keep her busy.

We pulled in and were tied up in less than 5 mins.....sweet success!!! We rewarded ourselves with a fried food feast!

May 28-29, 2010-Leaving the dock!

After our renaming ceremonies we decided to head out. Not far, we just wanted to do a little motoring and get by a few bridges. Chris and I were so nervous we were both on the verge of tears, and I am pretty sure my stomach had moved into my throat. We tried to time everything just right to make the bridges. We pulled away from the dock without any hiccups, but when we turned onto the ICW we were fighting the tide. As we were turning the bend for Sunrise bridge we see it opening. When I hailed the bridge tender to see if we could pass she said we were still too far away. We sadly watched the bridge close and had to wait for the 7:30pm opening. Once we were through the bridge it eased my stomach a bit, having had to talk on the radio was a little nerve racking, but once I did it it was no big deal.

We made our way to Las Olas bridge. While we were waiting for the Las Olas bridge, a police boat came flying by, and it couldn't have been a watercraft emergency because a Coast Guard boat was right next to us. The police boat nearly ran over a family in a small inflatable dinghy. It is things like that that make me really glad to be leaving Fort Lauderdale. We will be glad to leave behind the hustle and bustle.
We pulled into Lake Sylvia to anchor for the night, which isn't so much of a lake, it is more like a cul-du-sac off of the ICW. We set the anchor on the first try. I felt that we were too close to another boat so I insisted that we set it again. The next two attempts to set the anchor failed, and I was beginning to feel incompetent. We decided to try a different spot, and it was then I realized that the anchor had swiveled and was landing upside down. Thank goodness we have an electric windlass that raises and lowers the anchor, really easy "up button, down button". Once I put the anchor straight we had no problems setting it.
I have to say that I was nervous falling asleep wondering if our anchor would hold. There was a light variable wind so all the boats in the anchorage were swinging back and forth, and made me nervous. 
When we woke up in the morning, of course we were right where we should be, and there was absolutely no breeze which it made going to the fuel dock easier.
As we set out for the fuel dock, it started to rain, but that's Florida! By the time we got to the fuel dock the rain was already gone. It took us a little longer to dock than most, and after a few laughs from the dock attendant, we were in.
We got through the 17 th St bridge on their 11am opening, a little later than we would have liked to have started, but we're not on any serious agenda. Going through the inlet was a treat, there was so much boat traffic, and it made the inlet really choppy. We shouldn't have been surprised, it's Memorial day weekend.
Once out of the inlet we raised our mainsail, and jib. It was a little hectic getting all of the sails set, but not bad for our first run. The winds were variable at about 7-8 knots, so we were only averaging 3-4 knots. Not that great, but at least we were sailing!
Around 2pm the winds died down and we were barely doing 3 knots, and at that speed, or lack there of, we were getting slapped around by the light choppy seas. Deason started to feel a little green, so with the auto pilot set we decided that he needed some distraction. We played a few games of "Hue Knew" (great game). That seemed to help him a little, but not much. So, I filled the kiddie pool with sea water, and the kids went swimming/sitting. That seemed to do the trick, a little cool down was what he needed. Deason was smiling again.
Around 4:30 the wind picked up from the East and we were able to do 7 knots all the way to Lake Worth Inlet and pulled in by 7 pm. We set our anchor on the second shot, and I made Chris swim down to check on it just to make sure. The current in this anchorage is crazy, there was a decent Easterly wind and the boat should have be pointing into the wind (like we are use to back home) but the current was pulling all the boats so the wind was on our starboard side which made for some strange boat motion. Again, I am going to bed nervous!

May 28, 2010

The things that I thought were going to be a big deal are not, and the things I never considered are. For instance, I never thought about what we would do with all of our trash. This whole garbage thing is a pain! We are at a residential dock so we don't want to ask if we can use their cans, so we have been using store dumpsters. Which requires us to carry our trash bag down the street quite a ways feeling like social deviants as we heave a trash bag into a dumpster. The whole time looking over our shoulders to make sure no one is looking. I hate it!!

Deason, Dahlia, and I were on one of these trash excursions plus Target run, and while on the way home we stopped back at the dumpster to throw out the boxes from the cereal we had just purchased (so they don't fill our garbage). While we were at the dumpster I stepped on a very large piece of glass. It was so big it went through my croc and jabbed me in the middle of the foot. My whole croc filled with blood! Thankfully, we had just purchased toilet paper, and bandaids at Target. What are the odds that Deason saw Hotwheels waterproof bandaids, wanted to get them, and thank goodness I didn't say "no". So, I patched up my foot to the best of my abilities, and walked home thinking that this all might be bad karma because we didn't preform the name change ritual for our boat!!!
I sent Chris to the store as soon as we got back to get a bottle of good Champagne, so we could ask the ancient gods of the sea and wind, Mighty Neptune, and Mighty Aeolus to forgive us, and accept our new boat name. Hopefully, we will have no more bad luck, or no more glass in our shoes!

May 27, 2010

Wow...it is hot! We had to walk to West Marine to get a few things...mainly a new bulb for the mooring light. The one that Chris had sent me was the wrong one. We could have walked straight there and it would have probably been 1.5 miles, but there is no shade to speak of along Rt 1. So we walked in a convoluted zig-zag of back roads and ended up past where we needed to go. We finally back tracked and when we finally got to West Marine we hung out a while to enjoy the AC. Then we hit our favorite bakery "Croissan Time", and then "Whole Foods". We must look so out of place here, Dahlia in a stroller draped with a cloth for extra sun shade, and one of us pulling a fold up shopping cart for all of our goods. We must look like a hobo family.

Once we got back to the boat the kids used their imaginations to "swim" in their pool, and for me it was time to go back up the mast to replace the bulb. This time we were prepared! I had a nice little pouch to put the bulb and lens cap, and an extra line with a foot loop so I could hoist myself up to see. We found out that it wasn't the bulb, it was the fixture that was screwy. The bulb wasn't making contact. After that was fixed we had light, and a little clear silicone for the broken cap and we were good to go!!

May 26, 2010

I hate learning things the hard way! I had to climb the mast to change the mooring light, but the main halyard (the line that holds up the main sail) didn't quite bring me up as high as I needed to go. So, I was up there trying to feel around with my hands on the very top of the mast to get the cover off of the light. I must add that there was about an inch of bird poop up there as well! So, I got the cover off and the bulb out, and this was where I started to think that a little more planning should of been done before going up. I had on a sports tank top, and shorts with no pockets. I had no where to put the light bulb and cover except in my tank top....why Chris or I didn't think of this before hand is still puzzling to me. So I had to describe to him what the bulb looked like so he could send up another one in a baggie using a different line. The line that he used didn't come up all the way to where I was, so I had to bend down to reach for it and guess what happened? The cover of the light fell out of my tank top...what a surprise! I should have been lowered down to where the bag came up to, but we didn't do that either.
As I watched the plastic cover falling from 66ft up, I yelled "OH MY GOD"! Chris said I should have yelled "CATCH"...and I would have yelled that if I had thrown it, but I didn't throw it, I dropped it. The plastic cap hit the boat, bounced to the dock, and finally landed in the water. We recovered it, it has a big crack in it that we can hopefully fix, and on the bright side it was just the cover and not me that tumbled! Next time we will be a little more prepared!!!
We finally got the decals for our boat, and it does look good, but I am a little disappointed! The transoms look great, but I wish the lettering on the bows were bigger!

May 25, 2010

New decals tomorrow! We are going to wait till we get to SC or NC to get the watermaker, if we order it now it will take at least a week and a half to get to us, they test all the units first before they send them out. We can get water anywhere up the East Coast so it won't be a big deal to not have it.

Deason finally gave up on the lures and started using shrimp as bait! It has been a whole different fishing experience! He must have caught at least 20 puffer fish today, as well as two different kinds of small snapper. If only they were bigger! It was very exciting watching him catch the puffers, but after the first 10 times I started to feel bad for them. They make this really sad/funny noise when they are blowing themselves up, and a bellyflop sound when they hit the water. They have really sharp teeth, so they kept biting through the fishing line, and sometimes right through the small hooks. He would just drop the hook in and up they came and I am sure he just kept catching the same ones over and over again. Although, Deason strongly disagrees with me about that.
The bummer of the day came after he had cut up his bait with his knife it got so slippery, that it slipped right out of his hands and into the water. We will have to see if we can see it during low tide tomorrow to attempt a retreival.
I found a great way to deal with our still leaky hatches.....diapers!! I just happen to have some of them around...thanks Dahlia!