Plans Change Stuart

Tim (a.k.a. Maca) would eventually have to fly back North so … my original plan was to get the boat close to Fort Lauderdale or Miami international airport. Then as I was passing Jensen Beach I thought ..o0( Why not cut through the middle of Florida so Tim could catch a flight out of Fort Myers Airport on the west coast? ) The plan changed in that moment. I quickly thought up a new anchorage within daylight’s range of Jensen Beach.

Our new location took us into Port St. Lucie and it’s beautiful waterfront homes.

Dolphins are plentiful around Port Saint Lucie and this pod was enjoying swimming along with us.

With the sun was getting low, we only had to get through the Britt Point Railway Bridge and Old Roosevelt (Dixie Highway) Bridge to make it to our chosen anchoring location. When we arrived at the railway bridge we found a very-very long train passing over it.

The train finished the bridge raised and we hailed the Old Roosevelt (Dixie Highway) Bridge on the VHF for an opening. Soon we made it to my chosen anchoring location (shown by the blue dot below)

Winter #3, leg #23 looked like this.

The sun was down and it was time to bring out the green lights and start fishing.

The battle of the fishermen had begun and the captain walked away with bragging rights 😉

South to Sebastian

When the sun arose the next morning it treated us to an orange sunrise over Mosquito Lagoon.

“Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day, when the sun is higher in the sky. More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes. … This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange, and red.”

Going under the Cocoa bridge – Look up & around and you’ll find workers trying to get right with the world again.

…”The Cocoa Bridge gives male inmates an opportunity to get their lives back on track. The foundation of the program is the Therapeutic Community Concepts, which are essential to maintaining a drug-free lifestyle in social contexts. With clinical supervision, this peer-led, peer-driven environment encourages the men to become active participants in their recovery.”
Bridges of America, Inc.

…”The NASA RR bridge is normally left in the open position, except in the case of approaching rail traffic (infrequent). This bridge is the main thoroughfare for shuttling heavy equipment and supplies to and from the JFK Space Center. Spent solid rocket boosters, rocket frames and other various material for the space program are normally shipped on rail and pass over this bridge.”
ActiveCaptain.com

This boat has a super bright light bar atop of it’s hardtop. Heck it was not even that dark out and that light bar was blinding when they were coming straight at us for a moment. I like the idea of having more lights on MV Simple Life. There are some nights when traveling in the pitch black that it would be a big help. I tend to only put my searchlight on for brief moments to not affect my night vision. Maybe I’ll install something smaller under the bow pulpit for lighting the crab/lobster pots at night without destroying my night vision?

I just love sunsets & stars every night on the boat. Too bad I can’t photograph or video the latter.

Our day’s journey took us from Mosquito Lagoon to Sebastion, FL.

Sebastian has a great live music scene. With visiting bands like, Mumford and Son’s and Joe Bonamassa. If we were not trying to get somewhere near an airport, we’d definitely have gone ashore for some live music.

Instead, we spent the night on anchor just inside of Sebastian inlet near coconut point.

…”Sebastian Inlet is 36.5 miles southward of Cape Canaveral Light. In May 1983, there was a reported controlling depth of 5 feet. It is further reported that the velocity of the tidal currents reaches 10 knots, and turbulence exists between the bridge and the end of the jetties. Anchoring east of the bridge is extremely hazardous, particularly by the stern. Except during flat calms, breaking and confused seas exist off the mouth of the inlet and inside the inlet as far as the bridge. Conditions worsen with increasing seas or winds and on an ebb tide. Small boats departing the inlet on a flood or slack tide can find it impossible to return on an ebb tide.”

By the morning, we had spun around with the Sebastian Inlet’s incoming and outgoing tide

Maca Climbs Aboard

Docked in Halifax Harbor Marina and waiting on Tim a.k.a Maca, I walked the docks and found SV Cool Change which had some interesting additions to the exterior.

Wind and LPG

I first noticed a vertical axis wind generator. Google seems to think it’s something called a “lantern style” and can be purchased from Chinese distributors. Heck, you can find them on Amazon too.

Plastic lantern-style vertical axis wind generator

Next I noticed that there were a total of eight, 20lb (size of your gas grill’s bottle at home) LPG tanks (4 on each side). 160lbs is a lot of propane! For those unfamiliar with sailboats: A few progressive sailors use propane for their dingy outboard.

More common is the use of propane for sailboat stove/ovens. Electric stoves use too much power to be run off an battery/inverter and require a diesel generator which many smaller sailboats either don’t have or want depleting their auxiliary engine’s diesel reserve. I have even spoken with southern sailors who have gone to the extreme of using a solar oven.

When I built MV Simple Life, I chose to outfit with an electric stove over propane.

I hate to think about propane leaks on a boat. I also hate going ashore to find a propane refilling station. MV Simple Life has a 9KW Northern Lights generator and 440 gallons of diesel so why not just start the genset when you want to use the oven and never spend time tanking an Uber to somewhere ashore to refill a propane tank.

NORTHERN LIGHTS M773LW3 – 9kW 1800 RPM 60 Hz MARINE GENERATOR

There are many Chinese systems that can be commonly found on US cruising boats, chinese-diesel-fired-forced-hot-air-heaters is a common one as are the cheap mopeds and much more portable kick scooters that you see everywhere.

Halifax Harbor Marina had given me some tourist maps when I arrived. Lots to do and see…

Tim arrived and we set out south down the ICW. We passed many interesting sights that first day.

As the sun sunk low we prepared to anchor in Mosquito Lagoon that first night.

Our day’s journey looked something like this.

W03L021 –
Daytona Beach – Mosquito Lagoon

Daytona Jay

While sitting on anchor in Daytona, I connected with my friend Jay who I had not seen in years. Jay mentioned that there was a marina a block from his house so I gave them a call and requested a slip. The marina replied that MV Simple Life was too big for their slips as they stop at 42′. When I explained “that was too bad as my friend lives right around the corner”, the marina manager said “if you want to attempt to come in, we’ll find a spot for you on our fuel dock”. I kindly accepted and weighed anchor and headed the 5NM south to the small marina.

When I arrived at the entrance channel the wind was honking and the channel was very narrow. I had to crab the boat into the wind (keep the bow pointing into the wind while moving sideways) and squeeze through pilings that mark the channel edges. Once inside the dockhands were helpful in catching my lines that I had pre-set draped over the sides of the hull.

MV Simple Life safely tied up at Seven Seas Marina in Daytona Beach. You can see the wind in my American flags is hard against my port side.

Once tied up Jay pulled in and off we went to grab some Mexican food.

It was a ton of fun to connect with Jay and we started by stopping over a friends house who introduced me to his dog. He told me it was a Corgi-Pit mix. So I had this picture in my head.

I’ll let you decide how accurate he was…

Corgi-Pit mix doing some tree trimming

Soon it was time to find some live music so we set out on a tour of Daytona Beach’s hot spots.

Daytona Taproom

Booze and axe throwing… seems legit.

I’m not sure I’d want my girlfriend practicing her axe throwing?

We decided to make a run to New Symrna Beach and we found some 80’s music.

Any Way You Want It

We walked into the back door of a pub and found friends of Jay’s playing on stage.

The Click Playing in a small venue in New Symrna Beach

At some point we wound up in a smokey little dive bar called YAYAs for some karaoke. What to sing?

NIB

I returned to MV Simple Life and snapped this picture… I’m thought it was me that was blurry?

By the morning’s light the wind had let up enough to get off the dock. I had a friend flying into Daytona International Airport and this marina is on the wrong side of the ICW. I called Halifax Harbor Marina and rented a slip that was as close to the airport as I could get.

The marina was a great place to visit. In the morning I grabbed a coffee and walked the docks and more.

Memorial Bridge Anchorage

The trip from my Pine Island which is just north of St. Augustine, FL to Daytona, FL looked something like this.

As I came into St. Augustine there were surfers who were catching some pretty good waves in the St. Augustine inlet. I tried to video the surfers but with the current on my stern, I was passing a bit too fast to capture it.

Next I had to hail the famous Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine on VHF CH#09 to let them know I would be waiting on their next opening.

The Bridge of Lions bridge tender let me know that only half of the bridge would be opening. This meant that with a strong current and only one side of the bridge opening, I’d have to hail any north-bound vessels and arrange which boats go through the narrow opening first. The rarely known convention is that the vessels with the current on their stern go through first.

While passing through St. Augustine I had a nice view of the city and some boats.

Just south of Flagler Beach, FL I came across this amphibious excavator driving on the water.

Amphibious Excavator on the ICW

The weather was warm but showed the next few days were going to be cold.

I was coming to Daytona, FL to hopefully meet up with an old friend from high school as well as pickup a childhood friend who was flying into Daytona airport to come aboard and travel south with me for a week or more. I chose this anchorage (located just south of the closest ICW bridge to the airport, Memorial Bridge) because it is only 5 miles or so from Daytona International Airport.

Daytona Beach International Airport located next to Daytona International Speedway – Nascar as well as Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

The weather when I awoke on anchor was cold and rainy.

Storms were moving across the area.

But my anchor was holding fast. This screen capture of my Anchor alarm app shows the boats motion as I swing back and forth with the wind & current on anchor.

Screen Capture of my Anchor! iPhone App. The colored lines are my path as I swing about on anchor.

While I sat on anchor I was treated to the woman’s crew team rowing by for most of the day. I’m not sure if this woman’s crew were affiliated with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University or the Halifax Rowing Association? Update: After actually watching the video and seeing the “H” on their oars… I’m going with Halifax Rowing Association (grin).

Woman’s Crew Team

Now off to find my friend Jay…

Cumberland Island to Pine Island

It’s 3AM do You Know Where Your Boat is?

It’s 3AM, the wind is gusting and I’m up checking weather and tides.

It’s almost low tide and I’m anchored in a narrow creek with the wind blowing me towards the creek bank. Oh great, I only got another 3 hours and 19 minutes till the that burning disc comes up.

The USCG Gale Warning is still in effect till about noon today.

USCG Gale Warning Still in Effect

Into the Mystic

OK, the sun is up and I’m underway with that still ominous sky above me.

The offshore cold front has dropped the temp. Fog is building on the waters surface. It’s a strange thing to be piloting straight down a river that has the fog blowing by you from behind.

King’s Bay Naval Base

At the end of the above video you can see the USCG boat appearing out of the fog. Below is a video of them circling around me before hailing me to explain that the US Navy was carrying out exercises in Cumberland Sound that could interfere or damage my electronics if I got too close. They wanted to know what my intentions were. I explained that I was an ICW boater and would be crossing Cumberland Sound bound for the Amelia River in Fernandina Beach and points south. They politely asked me to stay 2000 yards from the naval ships or as far away as possible while still safely navigating.

USCG Approaching MV Simple Life

USCG Boat moored on the CG mooring ball near entrance to Amelia River

Cumberland Sound is home to the King’s Bay Naval Submarines Base. There are six Trident-class submarines stationed here. There is a a long deep channel cut through the shallow coastal shelf and muddy tidal Cumberland Sounds, to the Atlantic ocean. This allows for the submarines to pass. Every time I cross Cumberland Sound I have interactions with the Navy security boat or USCG. Recreational boaters are not permitted in the King’s Bay area west of the ICW Channel.

Entering the Amelia River I passed this USCG boat.

USCG Boat in the Amelia River

Welcome to Florida!

The St. Mary’s River divides Georgia from Florida. The town of St. Mary’s is on the northern Georgia side of the river and Fernandina Beach is on the southern Florida side. When you sail into Fernandina Beach you’ll find the WestRock Industrial wood pulp plant and CHP (Combined Heat & Power) plants along the shore. Industry began here after the great depression with a wood pulp plant. Now there is a cluster of both power, wood and packaging plants located here partly due to the railway and harbor.

I think it was Hurricane Matthew that caused a lot of damage to the Fernandina Beach area and boats.

Hurricane Matthew Oct 2016 just offshore of Amelia Island

MV Acadia had followed me through the Navy exercises area and was now breaking off to go anchor in the Amelia River. I’ve anchored in the Amelia River a few times. Today however, I planned to use of all the daylight to get south of Jacksonville, FL. That would allow me to make Daytona Beach the next day.

FV Gina Ann with all her gear proudly displayed

I often see this police line-up of birds on the shore. I wonder why they group like that?

It was lunch time and I have to keep the boat moving so I bring all my ingredients to the helm and make my lunch while I drive.

Soon I came to Jacksonville, FL and I cross over the St. John’s River and into Pablo Creek heading south. There is a tight bridge that I have gone under many times but as I approached it I could that the strong current was producing 2-3′ standing waves on the down current side of the bridge.

Pablo Creek Bridge Jacksonville, FL

I use a user sourced digital cruising guide called Active Captain to keep me aware of all the marinas, anchorages and hazards along my route. Below I pasted my review of the AC strong current hazard located at Pablo Creek bridge.

Please note: There is a current station for this bridge. In order to see it in Aqua Maps, I had to zoom way in. It was hidden under the tide station located just north of the bridge. The current station is named. “Pablo Creek bascule bridge”.
I have been under this bridge 4 times without concern. This time I hit it right at max ebb 5.67kts on a full moon with strong opposing winds (gale warning ended 2hours earlier). There were 2’+ standing waves on the down current side of the bridge. The strong current was catching my full keel causing me to make huge port and starboard rudder corrections.
It’s narrow between the bridge fenders. With no boats behind me… I kicked it in neutral and it spat me out like a toddler does to their first taste of broccoli.
I chose to anchor in the Active Captain Anchorage called “Atlantic Blvd Br.” Just NE of the bridge. I waited for it to slow down a bit. Waiting meant I’d have to burn more fuel to get to my chosen “Pine Island Anchorage” before dark. I’d rather pay a fuel bill than a fiberglass bill. Be careful if you are a full-keel trawler with low power and/or a small rudder.
Capt Mahty

Waiting for the current to slow slightly had cost me time and I would not make it to my chosen anchorage until dark. I still say it was the right move rather than risk getting slammed into the bridge’s fender boards.

This leg of my winter journey looked something like this.

North Palm Beach

Our trip down from Vero Beach yesterday looked something like this.

Leaving the Marina

We left around 7AM as we had 60 miles to travel to our planned anchorage. After pulling out of our slip we put her in neutral to take a 360 degree view of the marina.

Looking back at our empty slip and friends Yachts

Trip Down the ICW

Low Bridges

Beautiful Homes on the ICW

Corner lot

Beautiful palms

Yacht is longer than their home

Perfect lawn

Humble abode

Cool trees

Anchorage

Happy & Brody are loving the sun on the cockpit grass

Moonrise pics are hard from a moving boat

Listening to the Counting Crows from the cockpit

Bahamas Bound

Tomorrow’s 4AM departure for West End Grand Bahama Island

Vero “Velcro” Beach

Our route down from Titusville to Vero Beach looked like this.

Suntex Marina

We booked a slip in VB’s Suntex Marina for a week. The plan was to install the watermaker and fans for the Bahamas. The install was taking me longer than expected so when we went to add a second week, we learned that a two-week stay cost the same as a month. When the month ended and I was making probably my 6th Uber ride to Lowe’s to buy more needed plumbing & wiring parts, we added another two weeks, oh wait … make that another month! That’s why we like to call it “Velcro Beach”!

Friends

During our time in Vero Beach we enjoyed visiting friends and making new ones.

Watermaker Install

The watermaker is a nice addition if you plan on spending lots of time in the Bahamas where water can cost upwards of $0.50 / gallon. More than the cost is the convenience of being able to fill our 440 gallon water tanks while on anchor. Now how do we install a diesel maker onboard?

Watermaker high pressure pump is an actual pressure washer that uses the water to cool the electric motor

20 micron then 5 micron filters incoming seawater. Carbon removes chlorine when flushing system with municipal water

Product water flow meter, total dissolved solids meter. High pressure gauge and pressure vessel end-cap.

Check valves keep saltwater and fresh from mixing

Product water manifold to send fresh water to either tank or the swim platform for filling water jugs for other boaters

Components mounted using starboard brackets onto pressure vessel

High pressure gauge with pressure adjustment knob

Other Purchases & Install Projects

Electric Receptacles with built-in USB charger ports

Cabin fans – 4 in Master, 2 in guest, one in head, 2 saloon

Satellite communication device to text while out of cell rage as well as track our location

Kelly is Baking Bread

Bread bowl

Home-made pizza

Titusville at Night

We awoke to the sound of rain hitting the topsides of the boat. We weighed anchor in the rain and it poured for the next few hours.

We passed these hearty Jeepsters camping in the rain.

Myself, I prefered to tent in the dunes at the beach

The weather just hung over us all day. It did not help that we were motoring South, straight into the thick of it.

Rainy Day

The wind was on our beam and listing the boat to port. You can see the flags are flying out straight.

We passed two sunken sailboats and an aground catamaran.

Sunken Sailboat 1
Sunken Sailboat 2
Catamaran on anchor aground

This guy wins the award for the largest boat house on the ICW today and also the most dilapidated boat house. I wonder how it’s even still standing after some of the storms?

We still had a long way to go if we were going to make Titusville, FL and the sun had just set.

We kept on into the night while Kelly cooked an amazing steak tip dinner while underway. We may be pulling 10-12 hour days at the helm but we are eating well. Soon we picked a spot to anchor which was tucked in a corner between land and a railroad bridge. A bit shallow but well protected for a good night sleep. It’s very dark with only a thin waxing crescent moon but you could see the distant lights of Titusville.

Today’s leg of our journey looked something like this finger drawn route.

W02L023 – St. Augustine, FL => Titusville, FL

Fort Matanzas

We had a peaceful night on anchor in the Amelia River. We awoke early before the sunrise.

Somehow we did not get moving till 8AM. We have a thing about trying to cover as many miles as we can each day and that means you need to use all the daylight there is on the ICW. Not so much this morning. The good news was that we were leaving on a high tide so little worry of running into a shoal with the added 5′ of tide.

Two tugs raced past us and I was reminded that you can tell when a full displacement boat is running at near ‘Hull Speed‘ by simply looking at the bow wake length vs the boat length. You can see the smaller tug’s bow wake dips and then crests almost at the stern of the tug. They were running hard and burning fuel. They must be in a hurry to get to the next job cuz running fast = diesel = $ = expenses for them.

Where the ICW crosses the St. Johns River in Jacksonville we always see large ships either underway or being repaired in the boatyards dotting the shore.

MV Pegasus
Ship Ocean Evolution’s fwd heli pad
Georgia Queen in Dry Dock
Underway Ship passing drift fishing boats

Last year we passed this sailboat on a small island and it still looks out of place. How’d it get up on the island? I can only assume a barge with a crane placed it there to keep it out of the way of navigation but why leave it there?

Derelict Sailboat on stands on small island

We passed this other sailboat that was using their dingy to reset their anchor. Their sailboat was too close to the ICW channel.

There are some beautiful homes along the banks and this was just one of them.

As we approached this bridge in Isle of Palms, FL we noticed 3 16YOish boys tied their boat to the bridge and were fishing beneath the support. This is a NO-NO in the boating world. It’s a federal law that you cannot tie a boat to any navigational buoy or bridge’s fender system (the boards that protect the bridge supports from boats as they pass through the center span).

As a boater you must treat bridges with special attention. When you pass under a bridge you must do so at no wake speed (about 6.4 knots for MV Simple Life). For the boats hanging out under bridges (usually fishing) you must not block the marked channel through the center span. You must also be careful as boats passing through the fender boards may not see you if you are hidden by the boards or bridge supports. Also after 9/11/2001 Homeland Security legally restricted areas under certain bridges and it’s a felony if you break that law. Individual states may have laws about simply being near any bridge in their state.

Florida Statute 327.44 refers to interference with navigation and states that anchoring underneath a bridge or adjacent to heavily traveled channels constitutes interference if unreasonable under the prevailing circumstances. There’s a lot of gray area here and not everyone has the same understanding of “unreasonable interference,” but you likely won’t get in trouble for anchoring under a bridge if you are well out of the way.

FWC (Fish & Wildlife Conservation) officers may stop you if you attempt to anchor under the bridge. It should be noted that the area around a bridge is more likely to have un underwater cable that either brings power to a lift or swing bridge or simply crosses over to the island. You don’t want to hook your anchor on these power cables.

Aside from all the bridge rules of boating, I was more interested in the expansion joint on this bridge.

We pass many engineering structures like bridges and this pier. I’m sure the first piers were only for boats to dock but soon “pleasure piers” emerged that were simply for people to stroll out onto or fish off.

I guess they want boats to know the name of this pier?

We find it interesting that “birds of a feather flock together”. It’s like all these white pelicans said … “Hey, why don’t we all me on the banks of the ICW over where Jimmy found that big pile or old crab shells tomorrow?”. They clearly enjoy each other’s company.

Soon we were waiting for Saint Augustine’s ‘Bridge of Lions‘ to open (every 30 minute openings). In line in front of us was a boat called ‘Yellow Bird” from Cape Cod.

MV Yellow Bird – Cape Cod @Bridge of the Lions St Augustine FL

We attempted to get a mooring ball in Saint Augustines FL but alas the City Marina only had balls for boats with drafts under 3′. I hear it’s a fun town but our plan is to continue on tonight and find a quiet place to anchor. As the sun was setting we settled on anchoring just off Fort Matanzas. Fort Matanzas was built by the Spanish in 1742 to guard Matanzas Inlet.

Our Sunset @Fort Matanzas did not disappoint

Our leg today looked something like this…