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Destination: Velcro Beach

Some days I would give my weekly ration of chocolate for an accurate forecast; however best to save that for a jump out or an overnight. One of the reasons we bid farewell to St. Augustine on Monday rather than Tuesday was the disintegrating forecast that made Thursday look like crap.  Before Monday night, the forecast was updated and Thursday looked decent. Not ones to let the weather out-smart us, we decided to take advantage of the good weather and explore a couple of new places along the Indian River. Our bridge and inlet shenanigans made sure we couldn’t get too far on Monday, so taking an extra day to arrive at Vero just made sense.

Tues found us anchored on the Indian River’s west shore at Cocoa; a cute town with a free dock, oodles of waterfront boardwalk and several small and low finger docks where you tie up your dinghy. We met up with Patti on Lutra and learned she will be in Nassau for a crew change at Christmas time, same as we.

The Haulover Canal Bridge is always an experience and the bridge tender with an attitude gets your attention. She chided a boat, about a half hour ahead of us, for not bunching up with the ones in front of him and then trying to “make the opening.”  I don’t think she kept it open for him. Ok then, we looked around- way around and concluded we were alone and no bunching required! Missed one little detail though, and that was what about northbound vessels? You can’t see the bascule bridge until you turn the corner and then it’s maybe 1/8 mile away. The canal is narrow- but two boats can easily pass.

Just before the turn we hear a northbound tug and barge call the bridge- uh oh. We radio the tug, then the bridge, confirming we will stand off before the bridge to allow the tug to proceed first. Not that we had a choice, a movement restricted commercial vessel wins over even the big cat!  A much smaller m/v behind us also radioed the bridge to confirm they’d wait behind us.

Here she comes, we wait patiently.

Almost close enough for an egg toss!

After we passed through, I looked back and for a few seconds the m/v and barge looked close to a collision. The bridge tender sure thought so because she gave the m/v heck for not getting out of the way. Poor guy, he said he thought he was. I think he was fine and don’t you imagine the tug captain could take of himself if he had concerns about the other boat? Like I said, an attitude.

Wednesday morning we bid farewell to Lutra and walked into town. Today was market day in the town center- quelle chance.

Ossarios has all the tasty treats

No problem finding your way in Cocoa

Anchor up and underway by 10:30 to another new spot; Melbourne Beach Pier. This would bring us to SM 920 which means we’d traveled 920 statute miles (800 nautical) since Hospital Point in Portsmouth, VA, mile zero. Our total miles since leaving CT would be a tad under 1,200nm. We’d sailed 63 hours, approximately 430nm of that total.

Melbourne Beach is on the east shore of the Indian River and you simply leave the ICW channel in the river, head toward the pier and anchor close, but not too close off the pier. The pier is quite old and an historic site. Steamboats would bring beach going visitors to the dock and a hand powered trolley would take them the several blocks to the beach.

The pier at Melbourne Beach

The pier has two lower docks, one on each side for easy accessibility by dinghy. We walked to the beach after lunch; by that time the sun had all by vanished.  Our great find of the visit was the Melbourne Beach Supermarket. Oh baby, did they have a HUGE assortment of bottled soda (we’re not soda drinkers just impressed). We ooh’d and aah’d over the meat case and the assortment of desserts. We came away with affordable sausages, lamb chops and a slice of chocolate mousse cheesecake. Russ couldn’t resist sulfite-free red wine at 4 for $10. Drinkable but a bit wimpy.

Misty afternoon at Melbourne Beach

Thursday found us sitting in the first fog of our entire trip. Closer to Vero Beach we held our breath passing under a bridge whose height board read a measly 62ft and 9 inches. Feel more certain that we need 62 ½ ft as we both agreed we had a few inches to spare. What’s with all this high water?

Before picking up our mooring a stop at the fuel dock was needed for diesel, water and a pump out.  A few moorings had rafted boats and plenty of open moorings too. We spent the next two days food shopping, both at Publix and the terrific every Saturday farmers market, doing laundry and getting ready for our raft buddy Polar Pacer.

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Number 100

I feel as though the 100th post should be fascinating, delightful and possibly worthy of Word Press’s “Freshly Pressed” status. However, that is too much pressure and honestly right now, nothing terribly noteworthy is going on along the way. So, since we’re talking numbers today and for those who know me as a “numbers person”, how about I share a few stats about our cruising life so far.

Number of days we’ve been cruising (this counts the summer when we hardly moved): 388 days

Average length of a typical day on the move: 7.8 hrs- this doesn’t include overnights

Longest travel day: 11 hrs- had a few of these- doesn’t include overnights

Longest overnight: 41 hours, 273nm (314 land/statute miles)

Most hours sailing in one trip: on Oct 31 we sailed 8 hrs of our 9 ½ hr day. The only time we sailed more was on a 38 hour overnight when we sailed 8 ¼ hrs- hardly counts

Top speed observed while sailing: 13.2kts- down a 4ft wave. Short period sustained: 10kts. Hours of sustained: 8.5kts (with one reef)

Scariest day/event: Year 1:dragging anchor into mangroves 5am Dec 26, 2010 and then working to pull the boat off with our 8hp outboard- the wind still 15+kts,only able to use one engine to steer into the wind as Russ pulled Ortolan away.  Year 2: so far- on Oct 31 approaching
Wrightsville Beach inlet we plowed against the current through 6ft rollers at the outer end of the breakwaters,wind 20kts. I had a death grip on the wheel as Russ was dealing with the main traveler at the stern. What is it about holidays?

Funniest event: when I fell overboard while anchored at Fort Jeff, Dry Tortugas.
Note to self- do not dip feet in water facing the wrong way and bring one leg over the side- you will flip right in. I held on though.

Best event:  Spring 2011 outside trip to Beaufort, NC when we had a large pod of dolphins having a grand time around us
for at least 15 mins- wish I had the new camera then.

Gee that was dumb: the time we hit a sandbar in Daytona Beach area, trying to get to an anchorage just off the ICW. ActiveCaptain reviews had provided good directions but we didn’t quite follow them.  The nice bridge tender gave us explicit directions in.

Days angry with each other: zero (minutes, yes)

Number of times caught in bad weather: define “bad”- a few times in fog, but the most tense was being in a squall off the Florida coast near Ft Lauderdale. The jib may have received its tear that time when we couldn’t get it in fast enough- in our defense, the furl line wasn’t long enough to wrap and tail around the winch; have since fixed that problem.

Last but not least, the number of times we’ve seen dolphins, pelicans, egrets, osprey and so many other wildlife creatures: too numerous to begin to count!

Our second sighting of a fresh water turtle

Number of regrets: none

Days we are happy to have this cruising lifestyle: nearly every day!

Today we crossed into South Carolina. Our day was easy, easy. Very little boat traffic with no pack traveling.  Pack travel  happens when you have several bridges with scheduled openings. We avoided a stretch of that by jumping outside at Beaufort, NC down 71nm to Wrightsville Beach. We also missed being delayed for exercises conducted at Camp Lejeune’s artillery range. Boats had to drop anchor and wait up to 1 ½ hrs before allowed to pass through. Announcements are made, but not everyone pays attention. We got to see three large naval vessels off
the coast, two had Osprey-type planes taking off and landing. A chopper circled, making sure no ghost or goblins approached.

Naval ship, chopper above and 2nd ship to the right

Although the wind and seas were more than forecast for what we figured would be a near-perfect sailing day, causing us to reef a couple hours in, I must say that the same event a year ago would have bothered me more. We had north winds, a following sea and a fairly comfortable ride in 3-5ft swells. We passed two monohulls early on and by 1pm caught up to and passed another cat (an older Lagoon).  The jib complains at less than 30 degrees off, so we reel it in. This day it didn’t cause any loss of speed as the reefed main was doing a fine job of keeping us flying along at 8.5 kts.

Did I miss any stats you are dying to know? If I can’t figure it out, I’ll make it up!