Thurs Feb 6 - In which we batten down the hatches

Melbourne anchorage to Vero Beach City Marina

I don't what it was, but we both woke up cranky.  Nothing to see, nothing to do so we pulled up anchor.  Which was encrusted with mud and tiny shells.  And the hose wasn't squirting strongly enough so it took me 20 minutes to wash it off.  And Rick's foot was hurting.  And the novelty has worn off, forcing us to start a deeper examination of our purpose, why we are boating, what we want to get out of it, what makes it fun/not fun and other existential questions.  All before breakfast...

This lovely sailboat cheered us up a bit

It was just water, water, water all day long.  The wind increased throughout the day; Mr Weather (and the rest of the weather services) were anticipating a big storm at night.  Rick had planned ahead and gotten us the last slip at the marina so we didn't have to be rafted (tied to other boats) at a mooring ball in a big storm.

Our arrival at the Vero dock was fairly dramatic.  Yes there was wind (this area how little current/tide), but it was really a matter of underestimating how fast we were moving, and poor communication.  We still have a lot to learn.  Let me put it this way - it's a good thing we haven't repainted the side of the boat yet.  There are POSSIBLY some new small-ish dings.

It was good we got there early.  We had time to batten things down, and Rick wasn't over-estimating.  Much of FL and lower GA was under a tornado watch, there was snow everywhere else and the wind was shrieking through the rigging of the sail boats around us.  It's an incredibly eerie sound, as the wind wraps itself around the cable and canvas.

Rick took the bus in to town for a visit to urgent care (HA!  It wasn't me for a change.  Not that I'm happy it's Rick.  Just sayin...) to see about his foot.  I got some alone-time to read, work and hunt for chocolate.  And to look through the marina bookshelf.  It's my favorite thing about every marina - the chance there might be the perfect book just waiting for me.  To TAKE!  FOR FREE!

Well, Rick seems to have a slight infection and .... gout????  Is that even a thing?  So now we are not only sailors but we have a medieval Henry VIII type affliction.  What is the message here?

For dinner we almost always have a variety of things on a salad.  It sounds boring but it's what we both like, and we try to be clever about coming up with new ideas.  Last night was buffalo chicken salad, tonight is cobb salad with egg, bacon, chicken, crab, etc.

It had been couple of hot sweaty days so we relished the unlimited water in the marina showers and then settled down to see how windy it was going to get.  Also there was the dilemma of the hatch - we needed it open for the air, but it was going to pour later.  We decided to cross that bridge when the first drops fell.  Fingers crossed.

Doesn't she look homey!!

Wed Feb 5 - In which we drop anchor in the middle of the freeway

Titusville to Melbourne anchorage


There wasn't much to note today. Rick is also in charge of fixing electronics, so he had some work to do before I was able to get on with work.

Rick had worked hard to find us an anchorage that would protect us from a south blowing wind.  We passed a couple cute possibilities on the Banana River by Cocoa Beach, where we took wind surfing lessons.  But those were not the anchorage we were looking for (anyone?  Star Wars reference? anyone?!)  Apparently THE anchorage was RIGHT by the freeway going over one of the 65' bridges that span the ICW.  So it was NOT ONLY scenic, but NOISY.  Somehow the long day and this combined to turn me into the crabby bitch from hell and I had to be given a vodka tonic, even though it's the middle of the week.

We are alternately amused and annoyed by the fact that in an anchorage ALL the sailboats behave like elegant synchronized swimmers and promptly and gracefully face into the wind, never moving from their determined positions.  Blue Horizon however, bless her heart, has a LOT of windage (yes, it's really a word = the air resistance of a moving object).  Because she sits up high and has a lot of surface area, she gets  pushed around more.  The effect is like being on a golden retriever puppy with ADHA - she's always twirling around to look somewhere else.  I am sure the sailboats are either snickering or rolling their eyes in well-bred distaste, but I have never caught them at it.  If you sit at the table and watch the lights on land go zooming past it IS possible to get sea sick.... Better to gaze down into your vodka tonic and wonder why there is not much left.

But, as Mr Weather predicted, we were sheltered from the wind and we got a lovely sunset with the high clouds and contrails being blown around like cotton candy. 

Is there anything to Melbourne?  We will never know....we never got off the boat.

Tues Feb 4 - In which I am the captain

New Smyrna Beach to Titusville mooring ball

I decided I would captain us off the dock this morning - since there was not a breath of wind and it was a straight back out... I knew I could make it look good! The overly friendly guys around us were all agog that there was a woman driver.  Heaven help us.  This might explain why an awful lot of Trump flags can be see on boats and in marinas.  It's a bunch of old white guys desperate to stay stuck in the 50s.  Not any guys I know.  Obviously...

It was another loooonnnnng stretch and, I'm not gonna lie, we are both not too keen on the fact that we have to go back this way.  It's just a bunch of driving by the dots - keeping the green ICW marker on the left and the red one on the right and making sure you are NEVER outside of the channel as that's the only place that's been dredged deep enough.  Even in a huge expanse of water the depth is only about 5" or lower outside of the channel.  It does make me admire that attention and money that has been spent to develop and maintain the ICW.  That's the kind of use of my tax dollars I am now appreciating first hand!

Whoever is driving gets to chose which book on tape we listen to, when we are not jamming to music.  We just finished a non-fiction examination of the major plagues, called Get Better Soon, which was terrific.  It was interesting and hilarious, which is not immediately what one expects in a plague book.  But the author's voice was so snarky and funny.  Now Rick is on to the Richard Sharp series by Bernard Cornwell, which I'm thinking will last us the whole Loop since there are 15 of them.  I'm listening to Dear Fahrenheit 451 by Annie Spence, which is so lovely and charming I want to eat it like ice cream. She totally GETS me.   It's a librarian writing love letters and breakup notes to the books in her life.  It's a must read for anyone who loves books.  And I love everything about books - the smell, the feel, the escape; I wanted to get married in the library that so influenced my childhood...but that didn't work out.

We are both happy to see Titusville - it was a long day of driving.  They are often longer than we expect, with weather or slow zones against us.  It's a mooring field operating on a first-come first-serve basis, but the real Loop traffic hasn't gotten here yet so we have plenty to choose from.  And I'm driving again!  The first ball we chose is so encrusted with barnacles that it takes Rick several tries to pick it up (lots of practice for me and very little yelling).  It's too over grown to feel good about, so we chose another and pick it up on the first pass.  Maybe we are getting better at this?

The dingy is a tremendous pain to get down - not for me, all I have to do is push it past the swim platform into the water..  Rick is the one who had to hand-lower it using pulleys - first the front, then the back, etc etc.  But he loves me so he gets it down so we can walk around.  Also he wants to find a plumbing store to try to fix the sink.  At the excellent suggestion of his wife he calls the store to find that they don't have the part he needs.  Good thing we didn't walk 20 minutes through a bad part of town to find that store.  A happy wife = a happy life, don't you know...

There is not much 'there' to Titusville.  A couple of cute downtown streets and the rest seems to be medium-city sprawl.  We tried to get tickets to the local production of Menopause the Musical, but it was opening night and sold out. The main sight is the Pritchard House, which is lovely example of restored Queen Anne blah blah blah.

 I was more interested in the restored comfort of the Playalinda Brewing Company which had a great smoked fish appetizer.

We are always entertained by the local sights, and so enjoyed the rest of the walk:

A quick episode of Virgin River (so so dumb but somehow so watchable) and we were off to bed. The frequent show nature puts on is so much more moving than anything on a screen...

Sunset - wind blowing up high

Mon Feb 3 - In which we have a perfect day

A New Smyrna Beach Interlude

Rapidly we have come to like best the days when we don't have to move on. Well, you reasonably ask, can't you just decide to stay put a LOT?  Isn't it, like, YOUR sea-batical?  Yeeeeeeeessss, but we have set a goal to get down to Stuart, which is the 'starting' place for the Loop.  This is important (only in our minds) because this is where we will come out at the finish of the Loop (sometime before we will die, hopefully).  So we are moving quickly because Florida turns out to be a LONG state (which one doesn't really grasp until one is moving along a straight, shallow, flat, repetitive water route seemingly FOREVER at a blazing speed of 8 MPH).  Long story short, today we get to stay in New Smyrna Beach - and it's worth the stay.

Its little downtown is cute as a button, and we have it almost to ourselves.

Mel on the old fort - now a park at the edge of 'town'.

We were looking for a breakfast place and ended up at Donna's Sugar and Spice/Creamery.  It was so cozy and homey, and the two young women behind the counter (tatted and pierced up - it was such a good look on them) had just made warm iced sweet roll, apparently JUST FOR ME! Their young friends kept coming and going, everyone got kisses on the cheek and yummy baked goods.  I couldn't help thinking that this is a life Claire would really like... Add a few cats and Bam!

Marina Kitty!

After breakfast I worked  (at a job that I get paid for)

View from my office!

and Rick did laundry (I love having a house boat husband) and worked to keep us afloat.  Have I mentioned that a boat is one great big To-Do List?  Rick does love a project, but even he is looking a little frazzled as the faucet started leaking at the same time as mysterious pink fluid appeared in the lazarette (hole in the back of the boat where the generator/exhaust systems/power systems sit).  Isn't it great that he has something to think about?!  All those years I walked around with the OS of the kids running in the back of my mind, never free from something to worry about.  Now I'm like, lah lah lah lah I see no pink fluid therefore I don't need to worry about it... Even better, things that we brought on board brand new with no problems (like the fold-able bikes) are now starting to rust and need attention.  He won't need to be 'entertained' for YEARS!!

Then we got out said fold-able bikes and headed out over the causeway to the beach. We read that New Smyrna Beach is, according to Travel and Leisure, the only town on the East Coast of the US to be on the top 15 list of World's Coolest Beach Towns (! ) and we expected that 'coolness' to bleed in to us via osmosis.    Great ride through a hip happenin beach town.  At the beach we discovered that we could ride our bikes ON THE BEACH, which we have never done before.  It's hard and flat, and set up for cars to drive (slowly) and park on it.  This distracts somewhat from it's beauty, but it would sure make it easy to get kids and gear right onto the sand.

We had a great ride and ended up at Publix and a....wait for it....hardware store. For the part the sink needs.  Sink, what sink is my attitude.

Back at the Marina we had showers and sank, tired and clean, in to our pillow top bed (clean sheets!!!).  I need to rest my brain.  It's really worn out from not worrying all day.

Our neighbors!  Judging from the size of the puppy's paws they are gonna need a bigger boat.

Sun Feb 2 - In which some of us watch the Super Bowl

Palm Coast Marina to New Smyrna Beach City Marina

After a great night's sleep it was such a treat to wake up to a sunny day!  You know, without those grey days you really wouldn't appreciate the sunny ones, would you?  Just like in life... It takes ALL the days to make the fabric of life - I try to keep my relentlessly cheerful and aggressively optimistic attitude going through every day.  If we spend the cloudy days waiting for the sunny ones, we miss so much...  Enough thinking - time to spring in to action to get us off the dock.

It was so calm (and everything seems easier when it's sunny) that we s l i d  off the dock like a shadow into shade.  One minute on the dock, the next away .... !

We have moved into more populated areas so there is less sheer wilderness area.  It seems like one long city from here on down to Miami.  Daytona Beach was really built up, and we learned that the wide firm beaches are where early cars were raced when there were no real roads.  This, eventually, moved inland to become the Dayton Race fandango. We went through a record (for us) number of bridges - 9.

It was a party on the bridge as we drove - I've made an 80s rockin play list and we took turns driving.  The person driving also got to work out with light weights and rubber bands - WHILE DRIVING.  That's multitasking, people.  This turns out to be what I was missing - I got some exercise and kept boredom at bay.

The New Smyrna Beach City Marina was small but welcoming.  In fact there was a little party in progress for a couple who had just crossed their wake (finished the Loop)!  Just as we are starting our own Loop.  Rick got to go and chat them up for a bit, and they were so excited to offer advice that we have their 'boat cards' and an open offer to contact them any time.  Loopers are a community within the larger boating community .

We had a lovely sunset and watched all the local birds come in to nest on a tiny island next to us.  There were so many it looked like it might sink, and there was a lot of noisy jockeying for position.  Meanwhile a dolphin circled the island, and we occasionally saw the snout of a manatee.  What an improbable, Dr-Seuss type creature.  Although, I suppose humans with no clothes on look equally ridiculous and improbable...

Then it was time to find a bar for Rick to watch the Super Bowl (or Super Bowel, as I lovingly call it).  He could watch on the boat, but it seems important to watch it with other guys and trade commentary how what a lousy job the players and/or refs are doing. We walked a short way into the cutie pea 'town' to find all the sidewalks clean but rolled up.  Fortunately, Yellow Dog Eats was open, and the menu was a real treat.  Some of us watched the first half of the fascinating sporting event, the rest of us played on our phones and watched the commercials.  And amused ourselves by saying 'is it over yet?'...

Nope, is the answer, still not over yet...  I'm going to bed.

I love the reflection

Sat Feb 1 - In which we have survived the apocalypse

St Augustine Mooring Field to Palm Coast Marina
How did it get to be Feb already??????  The days just KEEP ON COMING.....

We are in no rush to get up today, as we are waiting for high tide at 11am.  So, naturally, my eyes spring open at 7:30am.  Gosh.  Darn.  It.  A perfectly good Sat morning lie in, w a s t e d.
 

It's a spooky misty day and we are the only boat out on the ICW.

 It's a mix of developed and desolate.  This is especially UN-nerving when we get to a literal derelict boat anchorage.  It's a whole anchorage of abandoned boats.  Did everyone just vanish?  Is it like the Roanoke Colony of boats?  Or do people just anchor their unwanted boats here and leave.  There were at least 10+...

I expect that, when we pass this way again in a month, we will feel nostalgic for the time when we were alone on the water.  I anticipate a LOT of boats joining us on the water in the month to come.  But right now it can sometimes feel (to an over-active imagination such as mine) that the apocalypse has happened and we are the only people still left.

We passed the old ruins of Fort Mantanzas (the smaller cousin of the St Augustine fort), and we move in to grass land that has, for the first time, some height to it in the form of small twisted shrubs and trees.  

If you aren't sure if you should go for a dock or a house, why not both?!  A HouseDock:

Palm Coast Marina is nothing fancy, but super friendly, with the marina manager, Ro, making us feel at home.  It's an area full of bike/hike trails so we jumped at the chance to use the folding bikes who haven't see action in awhile.  We had a nice 8 mile ride without seeing other people - it's an area very full of time shares and other condo-type buildings but devoid of life.  Maybe it gets hopping in the hot months.  The 'notable' attraction is the Euopoean Village, which is a mixed use development intended to mimic a Euopean plaza.  A for effort, but having recently seen many a Euopean Village we felt it was amazingly average.  As Claire would say.

Panoramic of the European Village

Home for dinner and to watch an episode of Belowdeck - a reality TV show Rick's brother, Matt, says is like our life.  I really can't get in to the whole reality TV trend - I've got enough on my plate with my own reality shit, but we are open to trying anything....  Although, right away I can tell you, the swanky yacht life it depicts looks just like our life, only the EXACT OPPOSITE...

Fri Jan 31 - In which we eat 2nd best pizza

 St Augustine Interval

You know, I wake up curious about what exactly I am bringing to the table on this trip.  I'm not good at the mechanics, I have stopped cooking, I'm not into cleaning.....  I need to talk this over with Rick.  He seems to like my company on the bridge.  and I am good as Lieutenant Uhura - Communications Officer.  Hmmmm - she always wore really skimpy clothing.  If I wore a skirt that short people would run screaming from the room...  BUT - I am the only person with a paying job, at this point...

So we stayed in (on the mooring ball at St Augustine) and I worked, since it was a grey day.  This marina/mooring field has a boat that comes around every two hours to shuttle you in to town.  This is very civilized, if you ask me, and we took advantage of it around 2pm.  It's also good thinking, as those who can get to town tend to spend money in town.  We were going to take a walking tour of St Augustine and Flagler College, but the day is so lousy, we are going to wait until we come back.  So we just walked around

and then went for pizza where the shuttle guy told us the locals eat - I'm quite curious about the 1st best place...as one would be:

 Rick saw this sign, and wondered about trading me in.  HilLARIOUS....

We came under the Bridge of Lions to get to our mooring, here Rick decides to mess with the lions.  Of course he does, that's dad humor for you.  Little does he know they have their EYE ON HIM...

I guess the message is - fly, be free:

PS - Rick is worried about the pink fluid in the Lazarette (back hold), but I just can't with that.  I can only take so much worrying..  I'll think about it tomorrow, said Scarlette O'Hara...