Stuart to Lake Worth, 2nd leg

This post should have gone out on February 28th.  I don't know how or why it didn't but here it is.

We have finished day one of our new journey, the trek Southward, to warmer weather.  Today we traveled 35 nautical miles down the ICW from Stuart to Lake Worth.  Tomorrow night should find us in the vicinity of Fort Lauderdale. Time,weather, tide and current will determine the outcome.

Today we did good.  Maybe could have been better if it was't Sunday.  Sunday brings out a lot of recreational boaters some of which have large boats with big power and they seem determined to use all the fuel they paid for with their credit cards before they have to go back to work tomorrow to earn the money to pay for it.  For sailors transiting the ICW on days like today it means a lot of surfing and dealing with waves breaking over your bow from the wakes some of these big boat inconsiderate boat owners create as they pass you.  Such are the hazards of traveling the ICW, or actually trying to navigate a sailboat anywhere on a weekend in Florida or any other popular boating area.  But, with the bitching aside, we've had a good day and are closer to getting where we intended to be.

I know I've mentioned it in some past blogs, but sunsets on the water are a great way to make the day worthwhile and encourage you to seek yet another sunset.

Here's one from Belmira's cockpit tonight.

And, here is a floating hotel heading for Nassau on a sunset cruise. 

These guys don't need to wait for a weather window.

Stay tuned. More to come.

The Southward Trek Continues

Well, it is the penultimate day of February, our journey Southward has been delayed but we are once again pointing south. We have been on a mooring in Stuart, Florida for three weeks waiting for a new bow pulpit to be made.  A bow pulpit for you non sailors, or boating readers, is the rail that extends from the front of a sailboat to keep you from falling off when you are up at the bow, watching dolphins play in your bow wake, or doing practical stuff like tending the anchor or trying to hook a mooring pennant.  It also serves as the forward support for the life lines that keep you from falling off the rest of the boat.

Why would we need a new bow pulpit, you may ask?  It seems, as we were busy watching some work being done on a new exit from the ICW and trying to read the sign, explaining what was being done, a red day marker jumped out, and hit us right on the nose. Day markers on the ICW, unlike the floating buoys that mark other waterway channels, that are afloat and usually move over on impact,  are mounted on telephone pole size pilings that are driven into the the channel bottom.  Most boats, tugboats excluded, lose an encounter with a day marker.  We did.  And so we took up a mooring at the Sunset Bay Marina, in Stuart, and found a custom marine metal fabricator to make us a new bow pulpit. It seems the company that made the original pulpit went out of business 35 years ago.  So, A custom made alternative was our only option.

We have waited two and a half weeks for the pulpit to be completed.  I got it on Thursday, installed it, we have restocked and will continue south tomorrow, Sunday, the last day in February, and the 1st Mate's Birthday.

Although it has been an unplanned delay and layover, we have been able to get lots of needed boat projects done and spend some quality time with friends.  Remember the sendoff from Fernandina Beach in the last post and the promise of a picture?  Here is a pic of Ed and Kathy Saltmarsh, sailing friends from New England, and Dean and Kathy Mendenhall, longtime friends of the Saltmarsh's and new friends to the Belmira crew.  Ed and Kathy were vacationing here in Stuart and helped us out immensely. We can't thank them enough for all their help.  Ferrying us around Stuart to find some one to make a new pulpit as well as back and forth to Indiantown Marina to get our vehicle then back again. Thanks You Guys!

Here we all are at a local restaurant.  Sort of a second sendoff on this next leg of our voyage,

and the promised photo from the Fernanda Beach, Tiger Point sendoff.

 

Kathy M's behind the camera.

So, come morning, we will be heading down the Port Saint Lucie River to once again head south down the ICW and to some warmer weather.

Stay tuned, I'll let you know how that works out

Finally Heading South

We spent a long January, getting ready to head south and start the season.  We are still working toward that goal but at least we are on our way.

Fernandina Beach, as tropical as it's name may sound, had a cold, unfriendly weather pattern for the the first month of 2016.  But, it apparently had a warm and humid summer judging from the amount of mold and mildew we found on and in Belmira.  Just another lesson learned about the care and feeding of sailboats in the off season and how it can change with latitude. What we learned in New England didn't translate to how you prepare a boat for off season in the south.

But, we got through it and with enough elbow grease and more than a few well learned, and practiced sailor's curses, were finally ready to make our way south and hopefully to a warmer Florida.

We had a great farewell dinner with Ed and Kathy Saltmarsh, sailing friends from New England, who were escaping the winter and were passing through Fernandina Beach.  Along with their friends, our new friends, Dean and Kathy, who have sailed for years and had many great tales of great sailing adventures to share.  We had a great evening and they all came down to the dock at Tiger Point to see us off.  Hope to follow up with a picture as soon as I catch up with Ed and his cell phone.

  

We did make our escape and once again entered the ditch, aka, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway , the ICW.  The ICW, original built and maintained by the US Army Corp of Engineers has fallen on hard times due to government funding cuts.  And although the Coast Guard and travelers reporting, attempt to keep users updated on current conditions, traveling the ICW at 5 knots, can sometimes be as stressful as driving I-95, down the Florida coast at 85 mph, in the pouring rain, with a flock of migrating snow birds.

But in spite of some difficult times, five days on our journey south has brought us to an anchorage north west of the Melbourne, Florida bridge.

This is where we posed for this selfie with our Carter Lake Sail Club burgee for a Facebook post to let folks know how we were doing.
 
Here is the pic and hopefully more regular posts as we make our way south.  Stay tuned.