"Live to boat another day".

   We set out from Safe Harbor Marina in Stuart this morning bound for Black Pearl Marina in Jupiter, about a 30-mile run. I was a little nervous about backing the boat out of our open slip with a 20 MPH cross wind and neighboring boats just a few feet on either side, "other boat owners tend to get hot under the collar if your boat bumps into their boat". Fortunately, we got underway without any issue.

  The trip down to Jupiter was pleasant except for the gusty winds and a light rain shower.

  I had spent several hours yesterday calling multiple marinas in the Jupiter, West Palm areas looking for a slip that we could lay up in overnight (possibly for 3 to 4 weeks until the weather is suitable for passage to the Bahamas). It seems that spending the winter months on your boat in South Florida is popular and dockage is booked well in advance. The Black Pearl Marina in Jupiter agreed to rent us a "wet slip". A wet slip has 6 poles, with rigging that you tie your boat off to, and a rather short, narrow dock to access your boat. Fighting the 20 to 30 MPH winds, it took a dock hand, Connie, and me an hour to get the boat secured. I have a video in this Post of the boat at dock, when you watch the video notice the dock access and try to imagine getting 45 pounds of Cooper off the boat.

  Last night I checked the forecast for the open ocean between West Palm and the west end of the Bahamas, (I have a copy of the report below). We decided to leave the boat in Jupiter, drive up to Hilton Head to enjoy the rest of the week, and "Live to boat another day". 

Leaving dock this morning.

"Wet Slip Video"

GUANABANAS Restaurant in Jupiter.

A day at the beach and a sandy rental car,

  Connie arrived yesterday and after catching up on missing sleep was ready to start enjoying the Florida sun. The winds were 20 MPH+ so we opted not to take the boat out. A fellow boater and dog owner here at our marina told me about a dog friendly beach nearby so we drove over to let Cooper burn off some pent-up energy. Coop ran, played in the ocean rollicked with a dozen other dogs and had a great time. Afterward we stopped for lunch at a seaside diner that allowed dogs on the patio, Cooper enjoyed some french fries and a bowl of water. I now have a lot of cleaning to do on my rental car.

  When we got back from our beach adventure, we played a few games of AZUL on the flybridge then went out for dinner and a movie. Cooper was dog tired after a big day.

  We hope to take the boat down the St Lucie River tomorrow if the winds subside a little.

Jeff who?

   Jeff, Cooper, and I, piloted the boat exclusively from the flybridge during this voyage. Anytime Jeff or I would leave the flybridge to go below deck for something, Cooper would whine and bark until the missing sailor returned. Cooper carried on the same way in the evenings if one of us left the boat, I wasn't sure what to expect when the three of us drove to the Orlando Airport this morning and Jeff left to fly home. Cooper was in the back seat for the two-hour ride. As Jeff left the car, he said goodbye to Cooper and told him to be a good boy. Jeff shut the door, Cooper jumped into the front seat, and never looked back. Jeff who?

  Today was a laundry and cleaning day. I took 2 filled garbage bags to the marina laundry (bedding, towels, and such). I have utilized many marina laundries and never found one as nice as this. They have a waiting area with seats and a large screen TV. The washers and dryers are large, commercial units and accept credit cards, so you don't need rolls of quarters.

  After driving all morning, doing the laundry, vacuuming the boat, cleaning the bathrooms and galley, it was Coopers turn to get cleaned up. I located a nearby PetsMart that had a U-wash your dog set up. The price included a full bottle of shampoo and all the towels you need. Now the boat and the dog will look good when Connie arrives tomorrow.

Laundry, Tide and Bounce dryer sheets, and a bag of trash (make the most out of each trip).

What a laundry area.

Coopers new perch, damn dog thinks he's a cat.

A new shore power cord with 5 minutes to spare.

   My new boat has two shore power receptacles, one on the stern and one on the bow. We found out yesterday that the bow receptacle is not functional, this wasn't a big deal until today. 

  We had 20 MPH winds all day with gusts over 30. Our new dock at Safe Harbor Marina in Stuart, FL was tight with a BIG sailboat docked next to my slip with only three feet of water between us. I had a hard time docking "bow in", there was no way I was going to attempt to "back in" with this wind and a gazillion $$$ boat next to us waiting to be bumped. We docked successfully but our shore power cord was 15 feet short of the power hook up. 

  I rented a car today (drive Jeff to the airport tomorrow and pick up Connie on Friday), so I was able to purchase a 50-foot shore power cord after I got the car. When we tried to connect the power cord, we found the plug was defective and wouldn't twist into place. I called the store where I purchased the cord, they told me to bring it back for a replacement, tomorrow. I told them I needed it TONIGHT, I got to the store 5 minutes before they closed, and the new cord worked fine.

Left dock this morning at 10:00, I had to UBER to West Marine this morning to purchase a new antenna, the old antenna snapped off yesterday, I do not want to be on the water without a working VHF radio.

This trip is getting expensive :-)

Spaghetti and sausage for dinner (Jeff fixed dinner while I was purchasing power cords).

Asleep at the wheel.

   My dog Cooper is an 8-month-old Field Spaniel. Cooper goes to the office with me every day, his routine is to race about greeting everyone in the shop, snoop in the trash for hidden treasure, then curl up under my desk for a 6-hour nap. 

  Coopers' routine on board is being awakened early, taken for a quick walk, climbing up to the fly deck with Jeff and I, and spending the next 8 hours watching sea gulls and trying to keep his balance. Today Coop was just worn out after 5 days on the water. Most of the voyage today consisted of long straight travel so I was able to use the autopilot to steer the boat and didn't need to man the wheel. Cooper finally got his nap, "Asleep at the wheel".

  

  We had dense fog this morning followed by heavy rain in the afternoon. The sky finally cleared just before we docked at the Vero Beach Marina. We are now only 70 miles from West Palm Beach where Jeff will leave to fly back to frozen Ohio on Thursday and I will meet Connie at the airport when she arrives on Friday.

  We had dinner out tonight at Riverside Cafe, just a short walk from our dock (more like a death march in a light rain).

Jeff could almost touch this dolphin when he took this picture.

Navigating under these conditions is really difficult!

Winner by a nose, FLIPPER.

  Just south of Daytona we passed a pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphins. We have seen many Dolphins on this trip, but this group was different, they wanted to play. We had 4 or 5 of them gliding alongside the boat for quite a while. They would roll on their sides and look at us and leap nearly out of the water. Jeff took a video which I clipped shorter so it would download onto this blog.

  We were on the water for nine hours today. Seven of those hours were great, the last two hours, not so great. The weather started getting bad around 2:00, rain, wind, threatening thunderstorms, and we had 20 miles to go to our marina. We were fortunate, the thunderstorms skirted around us, but we still got soaked docking at Westland Marina near Cape Canaveral. 

  140 miles to West Palm Beach (two days travel)

Dinner tonight was beef tips in gravy with sweet corn and mashed potatoes.

How tall is the boat ?

   Now that we are entering truly populated Florida, we get to enjoy boat traffic, No Wake Zones, Coast Guard and Sheriff boats, and BRIDGES. The first bridge we encountered had a clearance of 18 feet. There was a sailboat waiting to pass through, so we waited behind the sailboat for the bridge to open. The bridge was scheduled to open every 1/2 hour, we arrived at 11:55, perfect. We passed through without incident.

  The next bridge had a posted clearance of 24 feet. I was not sure of our overall height (with antennae's and the radar mast) so we stopped and tried to measure the distance from the tallest part of the boat to the water (that was fun). We estimated the distance to be 20 feet, we were sure it was not more than 21 feet. Jeff went onto the bow of the boat as I SLOWLY approached the bridge. We got under the bridge, but not by much (pictures show how close we were). 

We approached the bridge slowly.

Glad we were centered on the opening.

  We did see a death occur today, a new experience on the water for me. Shortly after leaving dock this morning, we heard two shots. A moment later a small boat motored from the far shore and stopped directly in our path, we watched two hunters retrieve a duck they had just shot.

  We cruised the rest of the day without incident, fair weather and light winds. We are docked at Palm Coast Marina where we were able to fuel up and top off the water tanks.

  Tonight's dinner was kielbasa and sauerkraut.

                 

They're a damn liar.

   Some years back, an old sailor told me,

  "Any sailor that claims to have never run aground is a damn liar."

You probably think this is leading up to a story of how we ran aground today, and you are correct.

  Jeff was at the helm, and we had just crossed into Florida. This section of the ICW reminded me of scene from the movie African Queen, where Bogart was navigating through a swamp maze.   I was sitting at the table behind Jeff, looking through a guide to find a marina for the night, when Jeff stated "Dick, we have a problem here". I looked at the electronic chart and the boat was sitting in an area that had NO WATER (never a good sign). We were able to back the boat off the mud and idle over to the main channel. Other than a bad case of nerves. everything was fine...

A picture of our electronic chart, the dashed line is the track of our boat.

The weather was good today, other than the gale force winds. We had to cross several large bays (over a mile across) where we hit waves that were high enough to break over the bow. This was a new experience for Cooper, he was actually quivering at one point.

  Being back in civilization (out of the Georgia swamps) means more boat traffic and bridges to go under. The tidal currents we encountered were so strong we had to use full throttle to power under a bridge where the channel was very narrow (at full throttle we were moving at 6 MPH). This trip is getting exciting.

  We are docked at Palm Cove Marina, just south of Jacksonville and plan to have dinner at the Marina restaurant.