Palm Coast was quite nice and we found it was a rich town with their extra wide sidewalks that could accommodate bikes, which we used all the way to Publix. But some drivers tried to run us over even after they saw us on the road crossing the street! The Palm Coast marina was good with free wi-fi and sufficient bathroom facilities. This place was the second time we docked and we did much better than the last time with only a slight crunch on the wooden dock. If we would have had a better guy to help us dock it would have been good, but we had this really old guy that didn't help except to tie the ropes to the cleats on the docks. We radioed for help, but they sent a frail old man who couldn't and wouldn't do anything to help us significantly. After all the drama had passed, a younger guy came by asking if the old guy needed help, but the old guy just turned him away. I wonder where he was and what he was doing when we radioed for help getting docked. The marina was very protected so our boat felt like it was on land and not water. The next day we left and headed to Ponce Inlet to visit GR, Jessica, and Gia from San-San (Erickson 36', this boat was huge due to it's wide beam and length; we really liked all that space but we thought the draft at was a bit more than we would like for the Caribbean). We met them back in GCS when we were working on our boat in the mooring area. They were really nice and invited us to stay at their home. It was really good timing because JR ended up getting sick and it was nice for him to really rest on land and sleep comfortably. We deduced that he got sick from St. Augustine's boaters lounge due to the high traffic in that room and him not washing his hands enough. We hung out with GR & Jessica and really enjoyed their company. We liked the food at 100% Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria and Ponce Inlet Restaurant had good wings. The day before we left, GR grilled some tasty chicken for us and some other friends of theirs. I enjoyed playing with Gia (Jessica's daughter) and their cats, Provo and Caico. Provo would always swipe at you with its paws under the door, if it was closed because it didn't like shut doors. I admit to teasing the cat by tapping its paws as they tried to get at me from underneath the door. JR got supplies to rig the boat to steer the boat from the bow instead of the stern, which will allow him to sit and see much better our direction. It was fun hanging out with them, but we didn't want to out stay our welcome so as JR's health improved enough we were on our way south again on Sept. 12th, 2009.
We went off shore and into the ocean for the first time on Sept. 15th, 2009 at the Lake Worth Inlet just south of North Palm Beach. We didn't want to have to wait for 22 bridges to open to allow us passage down the ICW because they are all timed on when they will open and we don't travel fast enough to reach the bridges in time and have to wait until their next opening time. This would really slow us down as we traveled and we don't move very fast as it is with an average of ~5 knots. The conditions were good as far as the wave height between 2-3 ft., but the wind was only 0-5 knots so we couldn't sail too much. We were able to put all our sails out and motor-sail down to Ft. Lauderdale. The sails helped propel us faster up to ~8 mph at some times! We saw all kinds of jellyfish and JR saw a huge sea turtle that was floating on the surface like trash or some kind of debris. I was asleep on deck at the time we almost hit the big sea turtle, but JR was keeping watch and avoided it without too much issue. I had to sit in the front of the boat because the fumes and wave action were making me sick. I felt much better when I was getting fresh air. I ate pretzels to help settle my stomach. After a little while, I was fine. We got to Ft. Lauderdale after ~10-11 hours and moored at the Las Olas City Marina. They closed at 4:30pm so we were unable to use their facilities without the key card needed for entry. We ate dinner on deck and watched the sunset. Ft. Lauderdale is where the money is at with the awesome houses/ mansions and the mega yachts docked outside their summer/ vacation homes. We liked the marina facilities with their boater's lounge and laundry room, but their showers were like camp showers almost and their wi-fi wasn't working at the time we were there. But we were able to walk a couple blocks to get to the beach and several restaurants and there was even a West Marin nearby we could have gone to if we needed. We took the time to really scrub the deck down with boat soap and cleaned it well for the first time on the outside. We had a huge margarita and calamari at the Rock Bar next to the beach and then we ate dinner at a German bar-restaurant called Beirbraunn and we had bratwurst, weiner, and schitzel (breaded pork cutlet, which is just like tonkatsu only thinner and without the sauce). I like it, but tonkatsu is better. :) We leave after two nights at the Las Olas City Marina to head down to Miami. We again go off shore to avoid the bridges and see the same types of marine life as we travel within a few miles from shore. It takes us ~5 hours for us to get to Government Cut right before Miami. We had decided to go to Crandon Park in Key Biscayne because they were the cheapest place to keep our boat as we heard from fellow cruisers, but when we got there we found out they didn't allow live-aboards and didn't have showers. It would have been nice to have learned this over the phone or the radio as they didn't pick up or reply to the messages I left. And when we called back in St. Augustine they didn't say anything about it either. So we traveled back up to Mia marina because no one else would take us for a month. The other marinas only had space for the weekend, were full, or required a minimum of 3 months stay. So we had to pay the expensive fees to stay here as we had flights out of Miami in just 10 days and we had friends coming down to visit that day from Atlanta. We tried to tow our dinghy behind our boat and found that it doesn't tow well at all and began to fill with water from the wake of Frodo. JR had to jump out of the boat into the dinghy to bail out the boat and save our new outboard engine and then pull our dinghy on deck. During the process, one of the plastic pieces break which hold one of the three seats in place on the dinghy. This happened earlier with another one of the plastic pieces so we will need to fix this problem while we are in Miami. Miami is the most expensive place to bring your boat and we felt the pain in our wallet from the marina docking fees. I think we had to pay ~$80/night and ~$1000/month to dock at Mia Marina. The facilities here were the worst we had ever seen with no hot water in the ladies bathroom, one key to enter the bathrooms that had to be obtained and returned to the marina office, no boaters lounge, no wi-fi, and the pump-out station was not convenient to get to or you had to rent their boat to come out to empty your waste. The marina is right next to the Bayside Marketplace shopping center with restaurants and live music every night. The food at the restaurants weren't very good and the music usually was ranging from bad to awful to needing ear plugs to sleep at night. There are usually taxis at the shopping center, which is convenient and the bus stops are right outside as well. To get to the free metromover rail car, you only have to walk a couple blocks, which can then take you to the Metrorail trains costing $2 per ride to anywhere the lines go. But be aware of the fact the Metrorail doesn't take you to the Miami International airport, you will have to take the Tri-rail (an actual train) costing $5 to get to the airport with a free bus to shuttle you to the airport from the train station. You should take the bus, if you want to save money and have the time. But if you are running late, take a taxi because time is money. We like the food from Manolo's (sweet croissants, filled churros, Spanish tortilla), Joe's Stone Crab (duh, stone crab is awesome), Bali Cafe (curry beef), Puerto Sagua (Cuban Style Shredded Beef), and Foccacia Rustica (mushroom ravioli). Beware of South Beach and all their tourist traps, Atlantic Bar & Grill for example charged us $25 for a huge cocktail at buy one get one free, but you can't give your free drink to anyone else so you end up getting the second drink to go or not drinking it at all. It is just a waste and no fun to drink because you feel ripped off otherwise. This never ends well unless you drink like a camel because those drinks are not weak either, but then again I am the one who is gauging the strength so take that into consideration. Don't bother eating at the Latin America Cafe' (they pre-make their foods and it tastes that way, not fresh), Ham-bur-gesa (sad burgers), and Hard Rock Cafe (I don't know how they survive really). I am sure there are many other places to go and not to go, but I have yet to find out. Coral Gables has a really nice shopping mall called Merrick Park that has lots of high end stores like Betsy Johnson, Jimmy Choo's, Carolina Herrera, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Burberry, Juicy Couture, etc. There is even a nice courtyard to sit and relax or take a break from shopping.
We rode down the ICW using our new steering rig and people passed by wondering and even sometimes asking about our carriage-like system. It was funny when people would pass us and look like they couldn't figure out how or who was "driving" the boat. We take ~7 hours to get from Ponce Inlet to Titusville. We anchor with plenty of space all around because there is nothing in this town and we don't even go to shore. JR saw a huge manatee swim up to the surface of the water after we ate dinner and I was in the cabin doing the dishes. I missed it, just like I missed the tiger shark he saw earlier today while we were traveling on the ICW. Then next morning we continued traveling down south, but we anchor for an hour at Cocoa Beach to allow a bad storm to pass us. Then we end up in Melbourne and anchor out. We decide not to go to shore here either and continue traveling south to Fort Pierce the next day. We see the water change colors here just like we did at Fort Matanzas past St. Augustine due to the ocean water mixing with the brackish river water. After we finish anchoring outside Harbor marina, we see a pair of manatees come to the surface and swim under the stern of our boat. I could only see their tails, but it was better than nothing. :) We get more fuel and ice at the marina and use their shower facilities and eat at the restaurant there. The blackened fish sandwich was huge and tasty and JR said their blackened burger was good too. We heard about the gator called Tater that used to swim in the waters and became domesticated with people feeding it from the restaurant. The bartender lady told us it was like National Geographic over there with the gator in the water, the opossum hanging in the trees, and Tibby, the Siamese cat she was trying to tame. The next day we travel down to Lake Worth in North Palm Beach. We find the anchor site to be almost deserted. We actually find the whole area to be a ghost town so we don't go to shore. We figure this is a summer vacation town and that was why no one was around. We saw tons of catfish under our boat and in the morning we saw a sea turtle wave three times with it's flipper. What else would it be doing? :)
We traveled from Jax Beach down to St. Augustine in ~5hrs. down the ICW. We anchored for the first time here and it was not easy due to the strong winds and current. We put out two anchors just in case one got loose the other one would catch the boat. We anchored out right in front of Castillo de San Marcos. We met a lot of people here in the boaters lounge with really cold A/C, which had free wi-fi, cable tv, and a spacious laundry room/ area. The bathrooms were the nicest out of all the marinas we have visited. They were like nice hotel bathrooms with tiled showers. :) The location was great too at the city marina because it was right in the historic district with tons of places to see and restaurants to eat. We were also close to Sailor's Exchange, West Marine, Target, Winn-Dixie, Barnes & Noble, and many other places of interest, which we could get there via bike. We took it easy here and changed the transmission gear oil to correct our reverse issue. We met Paul & Malinda from Daydream who were fellow cruisers that were actually going up to GCS to work on their boat, where we had just left. They had cruised the Caribbean many times for many years and were at the end of their cruising days. We also met Al from Bojangles who had just finished circumnavigating the world and he told us about his travels and where to go and not go. He also talked to us about HAM radios and their usefulness on a boat. There were a lot more people in and out of the marina and we met people who worked in the area to get enough money to go cruising again or for the first time. We heard some crazy stories while we were in the boaters lounge as well. One was with some drunk guy that swam to a boat anchored out and began to raid the galley (kitchen) of some lady's boat while she was asleep in the middle of the night! He was caught by the police and did no real harm. Another incident was when the weather was rough a guy who was single-handed sailing put only one anchor out, which came loose with the rough waters, had his boat nearly crash against the walls of Castillo de San Marcos because he was on land and luckily a few neighboring sailors jumped into his boat quickly before it was rammed against the rocks. No thanks to the SeaTow people who were standing around watching and waiting for the owner to get there so they could charge him. We enjoyed St. Augustine more than Jacksonville and found some good places to eat as well. We liked the organic food from Casa Maya (chips & salsa and the flank steak sandwich "Pepito" were delicious), the Blackened Tilapia and Pulled Pork Sandwich from Havana Village Cuban Restaurant were also good, the HK style noodles from Fusion Point were tasty as well. Word of advice, you don't need to bother with the French deli & bakery place as it was not impressive with their pastries in the slightest and the other French bakery place was disappointing in their selection and high prices, the sangria special at J.P. Henley's was watered down so stick with the decent beer selection (food was ok), don't try the Mojito Margarita at Alcapulco it was not right, and Harry's Seafood & Grill didn't have good She-crab soup and the gumbo was a bit watery. Back to the boat story, the weather ended up getting worse and we were getting beaten up by the waves. It was like we were in the rough seas inside the cabin and it was hard to do much and even sleep sometimes. So the next morning, we decided we had enough and we pulled up anchor to move to the other side of the Bridge of Lions, which was so much better! We had the help of the bridge and the docks of the marina to reduce the waves hitting our boat. We could sleep much better on this side of the bridge. It was a tight fit, but we found a place to anchor our boat amidst all the other boats anchored out here. Once we anchored our boat we tied the dinghy to our cleat just like always and we went into the cabin to rest. I was writing in my journal and JR went to take a nap, until I decided to go outside to write. As I walked out to the cockpit, I found the dinghy was not there! I immediately looked for the rope and found it still secured to the cleat and then I thought maybe the dinghy drowned since the rope was still intact so I quickly pulled up the rope. I found it was very easy to pull up and nothing was attached to the end!? I determined at that point the dinghy must have gotten loose from the rope with all the rough waters it had undone the knot that was tied to the front of the dinghy. I looked around the horizon to see if I could located the dinghy and I couldn't see it anywhere. So I yelled to wake JR and tell him that the dinghy was gone. He immediately ran out of the cabin and appeared beside me looking around for the dinghy and he found it slowly drifting towards the rocky wall in between two docks. We were very lucky to have seen it when we did and that the boat didn't continue traveling down the ICW. JR hailed the city marina on our VHF radio for some assistance and they were able to find a fellow sailor, Sandy and her poodle, to go get our dinghy for us. We were grateful for her help and thanked her for her trouble, but she wouldn't accept any money we tried to give her. It was very kind of her to help us when we needed it. We felt the need to help others who didn't even hail us a few days later. They were drifting and having difficulty starting their engine for their dinghy. We watched them from our deck for a little while and then JR decided to go out in our dinghy to offer a tow, but they refused and continued to work at starting the engine. Eventually, we saw them get the engine started and travel to the marina. It was rough waters here because the inlet to the open ocean was so close and there were no obstructions to slow the rough seas and calm the waters. But if you ever anchor here stay on the south side of the Bridge of Lions and you will be much better off. We had the weather front stuck on top of St. Augustine for a week, which we were waiting to clear out so we could go out to the ocean using the inlet here. But after waiting all that time, we decided to not wait any longer and just continue down the ICW instead of going off shore.
This was our first stop after Green Cove Springs and we docked effortlessly for the first time ever at the Landing, on August 27th, 2009. This was pretty much a mall with restaurants and live music on the weekends. We didn't stay here very long because there are no facilities to shower and the bathrooms are locked when the businesses are closed. We just used the loo in the cabin at night when needed. We enjoyed eating at the Japanese restaurant Koja Sushi, which is supposed to be the #1 sushi restaurant in Jacksonville. We ate tempura udon, dragon roll, and Koja roll, which was quite tasty. Docking at The Landing was free and you were allowed to stay a max of 2/3 days at a time. Another bad thing is that anyone could walk up to your boat so we had to make sure we locked it down tight when we left it. We felt safe while we were on the boat as we were armed with a shotgun. We never needed it, but it gave us peace of mind with all the people walking around at night. There is nothing spectacular about Jacksonville downtown, but it was nice to get a change in scenery. We set off again to travel to Jacksonville Beach next. We saw our first dolphin and pink flamingo on the ICW as we traveled to Jax Beach. We docked at Beach Marine and found the wet slips to be very tight spaces and difficult to maneuver into with our sailboat. We learned at this time our transmission was bad when we threw it into reverse the engine stopped and wouldn't start back up until much too late. We rammed the bow into the corner of a dock, which luckily didn't do much damage to our boat (just a chunk missing from the thickest part of our hull) and no damage to the dock or any other vessel. It was embarrassing to say the least, but we had lost control of our boat without our engine running. We were worried our engine died, but it started back up and so we were relieved. We found the facilities at Beach Marine were mediocre with the bathrooms that had both the toilet & shower in the same room with no way to utilize both at the same time so if someone was in the shower, you couldn't use the restroom and vice-versa. But it was good there was just a code you had to punch in to enter and there was a place to put your shower stuff. Green Cove Springs (GCS) was better in that you could use the restrooms and still have the shower available. You also didn't need a key to get in to those bathrooms at GCS. Beach Marine also had free wi-fi so that was nice for our internet addiction, but it was very expensive at $70/night. Needless to say, we didn't stay more than 2 days. We rode our foldable bikes to the beach and picked up some groceries on our second day. I was attacked by mosquitoes and found myself very swollen due to the poison injected by the insects as they took my blood. It took a while to get the swelling to go down even with my detox oil. We learned to not traveled on the ICW during the weekend due to all the powerboats causing many big wakes that threw us around as we could not go very fast with our 20 hp Lister diesel engine. All the wakes from the powerboats erode the banks of the ICW, which cause shoaling and the bottom of the ICW to change frequently. We could see the plants and trees that were uprooted by the wakes as we traveled.
Green Cove Springs, Florida is not the place to visit in the summer or anytime really. There is really nothing here and you have to drive out to Jacksonville or St. Augustine to get to places you want to see or go. The weather was always hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms in the summer. You really can't be outside very long from noon till 4pm due to the extreme heat and humidity so we would go to the nicely air conditioned stores to pick up supplies and food. The marina was sufficient for our purposes with free wi-fi, air conditioned bathrooms & showers and a laundry room. There was only one shower so if someone was in there you had to get in line, this was the same case for the men's bathroom and worse in the fact they only had one bathroom stall with many men waiting to use the bathroom especially in the morning. But you must have a car to get places because nothing is close enough to walk to especially in the summer heat. There is definitely no night life if you want to be social, but there surely is a lot of wildlife here. Tons of mosquitoes and other insects during all hours of the day and even more after the rains have passed. I helped get baby turtles newly hatched into the river as they traversed the marina grounds. Baby rabbits running free in the tall grasses on the outer edges of the marina, which one was killed by a boaters dog. Cats roaming the marina, who may or may not have owners. Cicadas, frogs, and birds providing a symphony of sounds mainly at night. And one really old and lonely yellow Labrador barking with it's wheezing kind of bark that sounds like it has asthma and has been smoking for years. It would bark at everything and everyone and once we found it had gotten loose from its leash and was walking around the marina barking at everyone it passed until an old hand at the marina took him back to it's owner, who was still asleep. Most days we were the only ones working on our boat, but we met a couple others who worked on their boats after they got out of work. Chuck was a neighbor in the work yard, who would come after work to make progress on his boat every day the weather was good and even sometimes when it was not. One other person who was a regular worker was Hyott and he had sailed before to the Caribbean and South America. We heard many outrageous stories about his adventures in many places that I wouldn't dare visit. But he didn't care about the restricted areas and the places deemed unsafe for travelers for he loved the flora and fauna of the locations and it was always worth the trip even when he encountered machine gun toting individuals guarding their ganja fields. The rest of the people in the marina just lived in their run down boats in the work yard with a few exceptions of the people who worked at the marina and lived in their boats at the very few wet slips available due to the condemnation of the docks due to safety concerns. The moorings at Green Cove Springs are really close to each other so you need to be careful who you moor next to and their boats tendencies with both wind and current factors. The moment we got our boat into the water, we felt so much cooler with the wind and water helping to keep our boat bearable in the August heat as we had to do without air conditioning due to the lack of shore power. The wind generator helped us keep our batteries charged enough to use the lights and fans in the boat while we were in the water. Every day we worked from sun up to sun down and sometimes into the night so we could get our boat into the water. We worked very hard, but it felt good and rewarding to see the products of all our hard work. We could see we made a difference every day we worked, which we didn't see very much at our jobs. The stress I had from my job was released with my work on the boat. I felt so much lighter and happier even with all the hard work I did. It was definitely worth all the suffering in the summer heat and humidity of Florida. Once we did get Frodo into the water we could relax and not work so hard. We were elated to find we had no leaks in the hull and our boat was water tight after we reconditioned and installed the seacocks. Soon we finished all that we deemed necessary to get to Miami and we left on a Thursday morning as we were told it was bad luck to leave on a Friday. It was unfortunate timing that a big rain storm hit us three times on our way to Jacksonville, but we made it there just fine in ~5 hours at 5 mph on the St. James River and Intracoastal Waterway. Green Cove Springs was behind us now and we were ready to see another place!
way to Publix. But some drivers tried to run us over even after they saw us on the road crossing the street! The Palm Coast marina was good with free wi-fi and sufficient bathroom facilities. This place was the second time we docked and we did much better than the last time with only a slight crunch on the wooden dock. If we would have had a better guy to help us dock it would have been good, but we had this really old guy that didn't help except to tie the ropes to the cleats on the docks. We radioed for help, but they sent a frail old man who couldn't and wouldn't do anything to help us significantly. After all the drama had passed, a younger guy came by asking if the old guy needed help, but the old guy just turned him away. I wonder where he was and what he was doing when we radioed for help getting docked. The marina was very protected
so our boat felt like it was on land and not water. The next day we left and headed to Ponce Inlet to visit GR, Jessica, and Gia from San-San (Erickson 36', this boat was huge due to it's wide beam and length; we really liked all that space but we thought the draft at was a bit more than we would like for the Caribbean). We met them back in GCS when we were working on our boat in the mooring area. They were really nice and invited us to stay at their home. It was really good timing because JR ended up getting sick and it was nice for him to really rest on land and sleep comfortably. We deduced that he got sick from St. Augustine's boaters lounge due to the high traffic in that room and him not washing his hands enough. We hung out with GR & Jessica and really enjoyed their company. We liked the food at 100% Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria and Ponce Inlet Restaurant had good wings. The day before we left, GR grilled some tasty chicken fo
r us and some other friends of theirs. I enjoyed playing with Gia (Jessica's daughter) and their cats, Provo and Caico. Provo would always swipe at you with its paws under the door, if it was closed because it didn't like shut doors. I admit to teasing the cat by tapping its paws as they tried to get at me from underneath the door. JR got supplies to rig the boat to steer the boat from the bow instead of the stern, which will allow him to sit and see much better our direction. It was fun hanging out with them, but we didn't want to out stay our welcome so as JR's health improved enough we were on our way south again on Sept. 12th, 2009.
