Explore 360! Explorations of the World and Mind

Dec 14th Vero Beach!

Rafted to Another Boat at Vero Beach

Two hours north on the ICW this afternoon brought us to our destination, Vero Beach. There are many boats here tied to mooring balls so you have to raft up to someone. What that means is one boat is tied to the mooring and we come alongside and tie to the first boat. You have to be careful not to ding your neighbor as you come in, we did well on that part. You tie up tight on the other boat with fenders between the boats to keep from knocking and scraping against each other.

We arrived at 5 p.m., just as everything was shutting down. The reason for the late arrival was to wait for low tide, to once again get under the low bridges. This morning we walked around Ft. Pierce and went to what I’m calling the Manatee Museum (not sure of the actual name). Haven’t see any manatees as of yet though. However, we still saw many dolphin and other big fish jumping around.

Tonight we were greeted by a the local Christmas carolers, on kayaks decorated with lights. Our song was “Frosty the Snowman.” They were all locals going out to various boats in the marina and singing, kind of cool and quite different, given that it’s about 80 degrees!

Settling down for a month here.

Dec 11th Kennedy Space Center

First Stage of a Saturn 5 Rocket

While waiting for a weather window for our last leg, we visited the Kennedy Space Center and it was quite amazing. They have an actual Saturn 5 rocket, the rocket used to go to the moon, opened up in sections. Also, the space shuttle Atlantis is on display. The bus tour drives around several of the launch pads, including the one that launched the moon missions and many (or all?) of the shuttle missions.

The launch we saw the other night from the ocean was from a separate launch pad, there are many launch sites on the cape. At the Visitor Center, ghe astronauts are front and center and promoted as quite heroic, which I guess they are in a sense. I never thought of them as heroes, I was mainly envious of them as a kid.

I really enjoyed the technical aspects of the NASA programs, being the nerd that I am. BTW, we used Uber to get there and back, amazingly efficient! It was a very worthwhile tour, especially given the industrial urban area where we are docked, nothing much to see on a walking tour.

Planning on heading south tomorrow on another overnight trip. There are no stopping places between here and our next destination and we estimate a 13 hour trip. We can leave and arrive in daylight if we travel overnight yet again. I’m not a fan of the overnight voyages but it’s better and far less hazardous than the ICW!

Launch Vehicle Assembly Building – Largest building in the Country

Dec 9th ICW Mile 895: Cape Canaveral, Florida

Another Atlantic Sunset

Wednesday morning we said goodbye to St. Augustine and after a 30-hour offshore passage arrived and docked at Cape Canaveral. St. Augustine was a quaint little town with a surprising number of tourists, but we were happy to get moving south spurred on by the passage of a cold front that reminded us we were not far enough south yet.

We made another long overnight passage mainly because there are no intermediate stops that are reasonable to do in a short winter day. We needed to pace our arrival at Cape Canaveral to about noon, we thought, and because we started early the day before, at 9:30 a.m., we needed to slow down over the night. No problem, it was very calm and warm. And eventful in very cool ways.

The first event happened at 6:53 p.m.: A rocket carrying a communication satellite launched from Cape Canaveral. We knew it was scheduled that night and were waiting for it. They launched at the earliest time in their 5o-minute window. We were 50 miles northeast on the half-moon lit ocean and could hear the low rumbling before a great flame lit up the horizon. It lifted slowly, passing behind the low clouds, I caught a video of it rising here. The video doesn’t look so dramatic, but when you’re out on the ocean surrounded by darkness, a rocket launch is impressive. We could see the first stage separate and fall away from the yellow flame as a dim red ember. It arced east for about 5 minutes before we lost sight of it.

Later that night, Shelly was visited and escorted by a pack of dolphins for about 45 minutes. The first one breached and exhaled, startling Shelly as she listened to her music. She said they were quite large too. Then a fish jumped up onto the deck. Shelly picked could hear flapping around and spotlighted it to see what was going on. She threw it back into the water (probably into the mouth of one of those dolphins). I of course missed all of this while taking one of my naps below deck. Shelly didn’t wake me. As a rule, you want to allow the other to sleep as long as possible during their breaks on these passages. We’ve been trying 3 hrs on/off, but really neither of us has been able to sleep more than a couple hours at a time anyway.

Today and through the weekend the weather is supposed to be windy and fairly cold – for Florida, but it’s still over 60F so not that cold. Our wind instrument shows it gusting to 17 knots and feels it’s howling as we sit in the dock. Same windspeed when we’re sailing doesn’t seem so high.

We are here until at least Sunday night or whenever we get another weather window to do the long passage down to Vero Beach, our Christmas destination.

And Another Sunrise

Dec 4th December in St. Augustine

Bright Holiday Lights On Big Boats

Sunny, and windy, St. Augustine is well known for their holiday lights this time of year. Both Shelly and I thought it felt weird to have a Christmas season in such a tropical-feeling town. We are used to cold, snow and much longer nights of a “real” winter holiday. We are happy to be nice and warm here.

Downtown At Night

We did a walking tour of the city and got several Uber rides to do our shopping. Uber has been fantastic so far, everything has worked out much better than expected.

Light-Decorated Lions Bridge and Sailboats at Night

Yesterday we were visited by a friend from many decades back, Tom, and his wife Beth. Tom is a wildly successful neuroscience professor at the University of Florida who has taken up a sailing hobby in the last few years. We had a lot to talk about, the old days and the new days sailing.

Today we were visited by another old friend from the same era, Roxanne and her offspring Jack. Went to a wine tasting and then walked along Anastasia Beach at sunset. It was great to see these two old friends after so long and reconnect.

We have a few more days rest here. Plans are in flux. Where will we be over the winter? Tune in to find out!

The Old Spanish Fort Castillo de St. Marcos

Dec 1st ICW Mile 780: St. Augustine, Florida

Ship Graveyard

We arrived at St. Augustine today after two nerve-wracking days down the ICW from Cumberland Island. The weather has been unsettled so we decided to stay “inside”. Yesterday we timed our departure to traverse the route near low tide because we heard the bridges were “low” for 65 feet. We moved out of our anchorage at a fast clip as we were going with the tide, but after about an hour we were fighting the current and moving at a snail’s pace.

Passing Fernandina Beach we started noticing all the damage from hurricane Matthew. The pic above shows what looked like a relatively new boat wreck, we thought from the hurricane. In the foreground are masts from a much older wreck sticking out of the water. Apparently this is where many boats go to die.

Most of the docks along the 65-mile stretch between Cumberland and St. Augustine were trashed. There were several large but empty marinas along the way. But this was not our main problem. The tide in this area is extreme and so are the currents.

As I mentioned, we spent the entire day yesterday moving at low tide and we ran into problems with shallow water. As sunset was approaching, we were within ten minutes of our dock when a motorboat passed us. Shelly politely steered to the right to give them room but their wake knocked us into the shallows and we grounded out. We were stuck! A primary rule on the ICW: Never, never, never move over for someone to pass, let them go around you. We knew that but being good guys we were trying to be nice…

We knew the tide would lift us off at some point, so we waited. I had almost no patience after the long day and being so close to our endpoint, but there was nothing to be done. After about 30 minutes Shelly noticed that our bow had moved and maybe we could back out of the mud. We tried it and it worked! Shelly the genius!

We grounded out two more times just after that but were able to immediately pull ourselves off. We finally got to the free dock outside Jacksonville and there was one tight space left. Fortunately for us there were about five people there to help get us into place, we couldn’t have squeezed onto the dock otherwise. One of the great things about the cruising community, lots of help from those who have been in the same situation as you.

We planned to go at high tide today, and though passing under no less than 7 bridges we had zero problems with our mast or with shallow water. The current was of a challenge, but much easier overall than the day before. Bottom line, sailing in the ocean is much better for Good Karma!

We are hanging out here for a week to rest and visit friends. More later!

Summer-Like Clouds Near St. Augustine

Posted in Sailing by Mark with comments disabled.

Nov 28th Cumberland Island, Georgia

Our Dinghy “Namaste” High and Dry

We tried to get into Cumberland Island yesterday but the waves were too rough. Sandra Fish advised us that we really needed to visit the island so we came in today. It was last owned by Thomas Carnegie, brother to the famous and wealthy Andrew, and is now a National Park.

We couldn’t go into the dock due to hurricane Matthew damage and so took our dinghy Namaste into the shoreline and struggled to find out how to tilt the engine out of the water. Shelly said we looked like Laurel and Hardy to anyone watching, and she was right. We maneuvered her to a tie-in and headed in to walk along the trails. Walked to Dungeness Beach on the Atlantic, below:

Dungeness Beach

 We neglected to pack a lunch and so were starving at this point. We made a beeline back toward our dinghy and came across several armadillos.

South Georgia Armadillo

It is quite strange to us to see animals such as these. We are Colorado natives and never deal with such strange animals. They are like moles or something and hardly care about you passing them.

When we got back to Namaste it was low tide and so we had to drag her 300 pounds about 100 feet  back to the water. It was not an easy task, but necessary if we were to get back to Good Karma. Later that evening we visited Jim and Cynthia on their sailboat Neverland for happy hour. We learned a lot from them about boat life, both good and bad.

Tomorrow we head toward Jacksonville.

Nov 26th ICW Mile 714: St. Marys River Inlet, Florida

Shelly Prepping the Mainsail Halyard at Sunset While Underway

This afternoon we completed our longest passage yet and made it all the way to Florida! Well, actually we aren’t technically anchored in Fla. tonight, but just over the border in Georgia. We completed a 160 mile offshore passage between Charleston and St. Marys River inlet, the border between Georgia and Florida. Had we turned left at the inlet we would be anchored in Florida, but instead we turned right and anchored in a more promising spot in Georgia.

 Our 30-hour passage allowed us to shortcut 250+ miles of some of the more difficult ICW sections in Georgia due to it’s winding path, large tidal changes (up to 9 feet), hurricane damaged marinas and high currents (in addition to the ubiquitous ICW bridges, traffic, etc.). One guy warned us that you would travel for an entire day in the Georgia ICW and end up only a stone’s throw away from where you started that morning because of the winding nature of the route here. We’re glad to miss that part.

Last night’s sail was a bit different in that we were crossing several busy shipping channels. We had to maneuver a couple of times in the darkness to avoid thousand-foot long ships entering or leaving the Savannah River. Our course kept us at least 30 miles from the actual channel but many ships arrived or departed in the night to all points on the compass, two of which crossed our paths within a mile. AIS is invaluable, though we could at least see the lights on these juggernaughts.

As seems to be the usual case, the most difficult time was at about 3:30 a.m. when the wind shifted and intensified, gusting to over 20 knots. I’ve discovered that when the wind starts to whistle through the wires of Good Karma, it is blowing greater than 18 knots and it’s probably time to make adjustments. I was trying to manage everything on my own so that Shelly could sleep (it was only her second hour of sleep that night) and was successful. We are both getting much better at single-handing the boat though we have made a few safety rules about actions we will not do alone, one of which is to go forward out of the cockpit (especially at night) without a tie-in or the other of us monitoring for problems.

I have been titling the posts for this section of the blog as ICW mile marks though we really haven’t been in the ICW for the last 410 miles. And why should we be? This is a blue water sailboat, made for sailing in the ocean, not traversing these freakin’ canals! Yesterday we saw so many dolphins we lost count and when we’re able to sail on a good wind it is smooth and peaceful. We’re pretty happy to be out of the ICW and getting our first taste of overnight passages, though it has been exhausting. As with anything new, the more we learn and experience, the easier it becomes.

One of the best lessons on these long overnight passages is that Good Karma is one hell of a sailboat. Tough, sturdy, sleek and maneuverable. I am certain she will never fail us.

Nov 24th Thanksgiving in Charleston

Summer-Type Clouds!

Beautiful weather today and it almost feels like summer! Well, for South Carolina I’m sure summer is far hotter than today was but it sure didn’t feel like fall or winter as it has for most of the last month for us. Spent the day relaxing on Good Karma.

View From the Marina Looking Toward the IC

Yesterday we Uber’ed in to Charleston and toured Fort Sumter where the opening shots of the Civil War were fired. South  Carolina, first state to succeed from the union by a unanimous vote of the state political leaders. For the first time we saw a Confederate memorial. The northern states have none. I take it back, there was a Confederate memorial at an intersection in Arlington, VA, but it’s not popular with the locals and they want it taken down.

Fort Sumter

We are thankful for good weather, good food and Good Karma! Tomorrow we continue the adventure!

South Carolina Beach

Nov 22nd ICW Mile 462: Charleston, South Carolina

Sunset During the Overnight Passage

Earlier today we completed another big jump around the ICW ditch as well as another first: An overnight sail. We decided to make one big jump offshore below Cape Fear rather than dealing with the problems of the channel. Shelly researched the options (as she has done for the last month) and the shortest hop we could do was a 60-plus miler which involves a long sailing day with either the beginning or ending in the dark. So we decided what the hell, let’s go overnight and get all the way to Charleston, the advantage being we begin and end in the daylight and cover a lot of miles.

The last night in Cape Fear was cold, getting down into the 30s F, and we were getting annoyed about constantly dealing with the fact that we left late in the season. We were also getting more concerned about avoiding winter storms that may form on the east coast this far north. And avoiding the ICW itself is always a good thing, so our plan was to cover approximately 135 miles in one shot. You can of course sail all the way to Florida and beyond from here in about 3 days, but we are also trying to ease into long passage making and a multi-day crossing was probably not a good step for us at this point.

So the story: We made a leisurely exit from the marina at Cape Fear at about 10:30 a.m. and headed southwest, following the coastline. The promised northwest wind happened to be from the west or southwest for most of the day, making progress slow. Over time the wind swung mildly west to northwest. Late afternoon faded to evening as we watched the sunset. It was strikingly red-orange due to many fires raging in this drought-stricken region.

Our plan was to take two hour shifts over the night but it didn’t work out that way. Shelly was too excited and concerned to sleep much and she only got about two hours sleep around midnight and another early in the morning. I tried to sleep on my breaks but it wasn’t easy. We had prepared to sail overnight with our smaller staysail, setting it up at dusk and that worked out well.

The only weirdness in the night was when a sailboat suddenly showed up on Shelly’s watch. It appeared on the AIS a few miles in front of us but Shelly couldn’t see any lights. She monitored the AIS track for a while because we were on a collision course. Because she couldn’t see the other boat, even in the relatively bright moonlight, she tried to spotlight it with our bright light. Very soon afterward they turned their running lights on (they’re supposed to be on all night in coastal waters), presumably because they saw us. This was at about 2 a.m. Shelly thought someone was sleeping or they just weren’t paying attention, it was a too-close encounter in what should be a big ocean.

We watched as thousands of stars rose over the horizon and arced overhead as the night progressed. The half moon rose at about midnight. A really cool thing I noticed is that you could see stars so low on the horizon they looked like sailboat lights, something almost impossible to see on land. The night was surprisingly warm and the wind increased from the north. We had to reef the sails a couple of times. Sometime after about 5:30 a.m., the sky began to brighten and soon after we found the sun also rises (sorry Hemingway).

We still had many hours to go and had to fight the waves to get into the Charleston harbor entrance. Got to a marina about 25 hours after leaving. Success!

Posted in Sailing by Mark with comments disabled.