Archive by year

In our last update 2.5 weeks ago we were in Sunrise Bay near Fort Lauderdale. From there we motored north in the ICW to Lake Worth. About 10 miles from where we planned to anchor Aaron went below to check on the propeller shaft seal which is supposed to slowly drip. It was dripping aggressively (not a significant problem) but there was also a lot of other water in the engine compartment (a problem). After a little looking it seemed to all be running from above the engine but we couldn’t find anywhere that it was spraying upwards to get there. So it was probably coming from the anti-siphon valve that is located up there. This prevents the seawater that cools the engine from siphoning through the exhaust mixing elbow and filling the engine cylinders with water while it is not running. Enough water was still coming out of the exhaust pipe so it seemed to be OK to keep motoring. We went a couple miles further to a good place to anchor within reasonable distance of a boat ramp and West Marine.

With the engine off we confirmed that the anti-siphon valve had indeed broken off and that the nearby store had one in stock. So we took the dinghy and Louise to the boat ramp and then walked about a mile to West Marine. It was very hot so we took a hailed ride (brand agnostic way to refer to Uber/Lyft, right?) back. The part worked and we were back on our merry way the next day.

We spent the next night at Peck Lake which is just a few miles from where we stayed for 2 months in Stuart. Some of our neighbors in Stuart would go to Peck Lake for a few days when the weather was good and they wanted to visit the beach. Louise played with another dog for a few minutes on the ICW side of the barrier island--we didn't make it to the ocean side. No-see-ums were terrible!

We anchored near Sebastian, FL the next night. We had a hankering for groceries but the boat ramp that we planned to dinghy to didn't have a very good dock. So we dinghied a mile or so north and found a restaurant named Squid Lips with a decent one. Their food was very good, and then we took a hailed ride to and from Wal-Mart for groceries. Somewhere around here we were hoping to see a rocket launch but it got postponed a couple times until eventually we were out of the area.

I believe that the next night was spent just south of the NASA Causeway Bridge. This is the main road out to Cape Canaveral and in the morning and evening it will not open to boat traffic due to all the commuter car traffic. We arrived at 3:45 and there were no openings between 3:30 and 5:00 so we just decided to anchor there. It was a very nice quiet spot. Surprisingly none of the passing drivers honked in appreciation of the guy running around on his sailboat in a speedo!

We did some nice motor-sailing the next day with another sailboat leading the way up the ICW. It was the weekend too so lots of locals out boating…fun to see. We anchored in the New Smyrna Beach area just inside of the Ponce de Leon Inlet. There were about 7 boats already there and we tried to fit into one spot but almost backed into another guy in the process of anchoring. It was tricky with opposing wind and current and I swear that guy's boat majorly swung while we were dropping anchor. Anyways, we went and anchored between another couple boats, and a few more filtered in after us too. One guy perfectly positioned himself near us and we joked that if everyone could anchor as well as him then there would be room for 20 more boats in that anchorage. Good inspiration!

The next day we made it to about 10 miles south of St. Augustine and then our engine died. First time! I was pretty sure we had fuel left but put in 5 gallons of the 10 that we carry on deck. Then I made my first attempt at bleeding air out of the fuel lines and it didn't seem to be working. Of course I had always told myself that I needed to practice that but had never gotten around to it. I peeked at the fuel filter and it looked pretty dirty. It is a 300 hour maintenance item and we only had about 200 hours on it but it seemed like the most likely cause. Then I couldn't find any of the spares which the prior owner left that I'm sure we still have on board somewhere. So we took a 10 mile tow from TowBoatUS up to St. Augustine where we anchored in the bay near the marina. We paid $12 to park our dinghy at the marina dock and ride-hailed to West Marine to get three fuel filters. Back at the boat the engine started up immediately after installing the new filter and bleeding the lines. On our way out the next morning we filled fuel and figured we did in fact have about 7 gallons left in the tank at the time the engine stopped.

We are heading north from Southport, NC this afternoon. The next post will fill in between St. Augustine and here.

We started our trip to Boston today (same day Eliot and Caroline left Fargo for Boston). We left Miami and made it to Fort Lauderdale. We experienced our first rain squall while traveling--fortunately we reduced sail early enough even though afterwards we realized that we did it the hard way. As the front hit we saw 40 mph gusts!

We didn't do well with lift bridges today. For the first one the bridge attendant did not respond on the radio until after we missed one opening (every 30 minutes). So we waited about 45 minutes total to get through that one. We are guessing that he couldn't understand us on the radio due to water in our radio handset's microphone.

Then we tried twice to anchor in Lake Sylvia. Twice our anchor did not hold firm. It was 15' deep so we would need to put out much more chain than normal but it was kind of crowded so I was a bit miserly about it, hence the dragging. Also it was not very windy so all of the boats had their chain hanging straight down. Therefore we didn't have a very good idea which way their chain ran along the bottom (depends on which way it was most recently strongly blowing) so if the wind did come up we would possibly end up too close to someone. Anyways, we weren't feeling great about it so decided to move on.

Upon leaving there we saw the next bridge wide open as a boat had just gone through. We weren't close enough to also make it through so ended up waiting 30 minutes there. Lots of nice big yachts to look at there. We saw the 285 yacht Lonian loading two jet skis and a 30 foot sport boat into a huge opening compartment on it's side!

Now we are in Sunrise Bay, just a couple miles north of Lake Sylvia. We stayed here on our way south too.

Changing oil today. The dinghy is done already (except need to do the gear oil soon, too wavy today) and now the main engine and transmission. The oil gets sucked out via the dipstick tube since there is not room underneath to access a drain plug. It is a 150 hour maintenance item. We have no hour meter so I keep a paper log.

Watched the sunrise and now I am off to ride the rentable scooters to a marine shop called Crook & Crook ("We don't aim to live up to our name") to get some fins for snorkeling.

Anna's friend Cassie arrives today. Yesterday we moved 1/4 mile from anchoring to stay on a mooring ball. Paying for one night of the mooring ball allowed us to use the marina's laundry facilities rather than paying for a ride to and from a laundromat.

We both ended up going to Crook and Crook for fins, and also some plain old snorkel/masks. Fun scooter ride there, but Anna found a scooter for herself first and then it took Aaron about 15 minutes of walking to find one for himself. We think the scooters might be a better buy than the folding bicycles that a lot of cruisers get, but we are fine renting for now.

Then Anna's friend Cassie arrived and we took her out to the boat. After some chatting and lunch we moved 1/2 mile from the mooring ball to our favored anchoring spot and then decided to test out our snorkel gear. For about two hours we swam around the boat, looking at the anchor stuck in the ground, cleaning the hull, testing the GoPro, and just looking around. Aaron saw a ray of some sort with about a three foot wingspan. There were a few 8" fish around. Visibility was only about 10 feet as the wind had come up, creating a little churn.

Then Aaron sat on his mask and shattered the glass. He will be up early tomorrow to go get a replacement before we leave.

We went to Monty's (well known local seafood place) for supper. Aaron forgot to put the plug in the dinghy so while we ate, it too ate...about 6" of seawater (2nd time we have done this, thank goodness it is an inflatable dinghy so no harm done). We borrowed a bucket from a neighboring dinghy at the dock and got most of the water out before heading back to the boat.

We arrived to Dinner Key in Biscayne Bay yesterday around 4:00. We sailed "on the outside" (in the ocean) from Port Everglades near Ft. Lauderdale to Government Cut in Miami. The AICW was not an option for any significant part of the trip due to a low bridge in Miami and a low cable over the first inlet north of Miami.

Anchoring here was pretty cool as we found a spot just one foot deeper than our boat and could see the bottom. This morning we went for our first swim around the boat. There was negligible growth on the hull but quite a bit on the propeller shaft and propeller itself. We will get that cleaned off soon.

We recorded a quick video of a swim around the boat, enjoy!

We are on the move today! We left Stuart, FL (our home for exactly two months) at 7:00 this morning and are sailing on the ocean for the first time since sailing school about a year ago.

We have the sails about 1/2 up so that we don't heel too much in the 20 knot winds but want to go a little faster so have the engine going too. As we get more experience we can get crazier with the sails!

We anticipate arriving in Lake Worth around 3pm.  Also, we saw a couple cool boats today:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_(yacht) Entered the inlet about an hour before us, 290 feet long, 47 feet wide (compare to our 37 foot length!), and holds 74,000 gallons of fuel

http://brooklinboatyard.com/sonny-2018/ Drove past us about an hour after we anchored.