Saint Augustine

Traveling on the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) from Daytona Beach to St. Augustine near SM (Statute Mile) 793 and Fort Mantanza, we finally saw for ourselves what Chris and Alyse and several other experienced mariner's have taught us about "following the magenta line" on the chart plotter and not paying attention to the actual channel markers that delineate the true ICW. As we approached this area, the channel markers had been moved due to heavy shoaling in the area and contradicted what was being displayed on our chart plotter as the safe, correct route to follow. Luckily, our training kicked in and we navigated the correct route while watching the chart plotter depict us as being on dry land. To quote Sara, "this is uncomfortable".

Aviles St. (Oldest street in the U.S.)

The oldest fort in the United States. Under siege 15 times. Never surrendered. 

Firing of the canon. 

Sara at the sentry station. 

This is a Mexican "24 lb" Canon captured during the Mexican War of 1846 with the U.S. At Vera Cruz. The 24 indicates it could fire a 24 lb. canon ball. The cast bronze canon was heavily decorated with beautiful ornate castings. 

Below is the picture we took after touring a replica of a Spanish Galleon named San Pelayo. This is the type ship Spain used to colonize the Americas and to transport the gold and silver bullion from Central and South America. We were disappointed to learn, after watching the video on the construction in 2009, that it was constructed using a combination of old and modern ship building techniques. In other words, the hull is made of fiberglass with oak beams providing the internal support. What a disappointment!

This flower was sitting on a beautiful piano in the 18th Century Ximenez-Fatio Boarding House Lifestyle Museum.  I don't remember ever seeing this flower before. Lovely!

"Japanese Camellia shine in winter, with their glossy, deep green leaves and brilliant symmetry. Red, pink, white flowers appear in spring, and range from solids to stripes and single cups of petals to light double blossoms per" Nellie Neal. 

Staying in St. Augustine for another day. Thunderstorms, high winds and rain today. Hopefully, weather permitting, on to Fernandina, FL. 

Great Loop 2nd & 3rd Day

Some days in March on the water in Florida can be chilly. 

Our 2nd stop, Titusville Municiple Marine near the Kennedy Space Center. The Atlantis Space Shuttle exhibit...breath taking... Always proud to be an American. This day brought tears to your eyes. 

A beach walk at the Merritt Island National Seashore. 

The marina in Titusville was a Manatee playground. 

We thought we would travel from  Daytona Beach to Saint Augustine today. But, predicted high winds and rain kept us in Daytona Beach another day. Many wise people tell us it is never a mistake to choose to be cautious. 

We took a break from boat work and walked to a store front movie theater downtown. 

Cinematique of Daytona is a non-profit, arts organization with the mission to bring international, national and local independent film to Daytona Beach. 

Read more at http://www.cinematique.org/about-cinematique/#KsSmReEItPfubIOm.99

It is a large, single screen movie theater with two comfortable couches up front, 2 couches in back  and 4 top tables with heavily padded chairs in the center.  Surrounding the interior, they have high boys with directors chairs.  Inside the theater, you’ll find a Christie projector and a room-filling dolby digital surround sound system for a great movie-going experience.

You can order dinner or snacks from their menu and they bring your food to your table.  In addition to that, they also serve wine and cold beer. 

We saw "The Best Offer" staring Geoffrey Rush and Donald Sutherland. 

Definitely a one of a kind unique movie going experience. 

Saint Augustine is the next stop on our schedule. Low temperatures and high winds are predicted. Looks like we might be in Daytona another day. 

The weather has a major impact on our GO/NO GO decision making. 

This is pleasure boating. If the day on the water won't bring us pleasure, then we don't go. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well, it is not so simple for two recently retired go, go, go personalities to transform themselves into GO/NO GO people. Maybe this is our lesson to learn. :-)

Great Loop 1st Day

Today, March 19th, 2014 is the official day 1 of our Great Loop adventure. What an exciting day.  

Good bye Harbour Isle Marine on Hutchinson Island in Ft. Pierce, FL. 

Hello Intra-Coastal Waterway. 

We traveled from Ft. Pierce MM 967 to Melbourne Municipal Marina, MM 918.5 or 48 St M. or an average of 8.8 MPH. 

We ran at 1400 RPM as much as possible to make up for all the slow wake and no wake zones. Our normal cruise RPM will be about 1200. 

$1.75/FT for transient slip

5.85 hrs. of engine run time. 

This detailed info. about our run time is primarily listed for Bob and Catherine. They are friends and former owners of this boat. They completed the loop in 2013. Because Itaka knows her way around The Loop, Jack and I can just sit on the Sundeck and chiillax. Easy peasy. 

Once we were tied up at the marina. We had dinner at The Mansion Restaurant. It offered a unique mix of dining, drinks, gourmet food and spirit shopping.  At the Mansion, you can enjoy delightful cuisine, craft beers and unique spirits. In addition, you can take home fresh baked breads and imported cheeses from the deli, and specially selected spirits from the store.

Departure Date Delayed

I am two days past my self imposed deadline of posting a weekly blog by each Sunday evening.  :-)

We planned to begin The Great Loop on March 15th. We even planned to move the departure date up a day to the 14th, to be at Cape Kennedy for a space launch. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans. The launch was cancelled due to bad weather and so was our departure from Ft. Pierce, FL. 

So, what does a girl with time on her hands do? Hair, manicure, and pedicure. 

And eat..

Ft. Pierce has a wonderful Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. 

Of course a few last minute touches to the boat by Dave and Jeff. They are local marine super mechanics that can fix anything on a boat. 

This is Malcolm, the Dock Master. Great Guy who looks after things. Brings the pump out gadget (pumps out holding tank - NASTY WORK) to the boat periodically. 

And Jack holding the business end of the pump out hose. 

Good weather is predicted for tomorrow. So, tomorrow, March 19th is our new departure date. We have our fingers crossed. 

Trawler Fest and a New Anchor

We went to Lake Park Florida to attend the Passage Maker Trawler Fest last week. We saw old friends like Curtis and Gill Stokes (the boat broker and his wife who helped us find Ithaka.) Curtis is the World's Best Boat Broker. The two of them are the nicest people you will ever meet, really! We attended Captain's Chris and Alyse Caldwell's session "Routes of the Florida Keys. 

At the Trawler Fest, we ran into our slip neighbors from Harbor Isle Marina in Ft. Pierce, Jeff and Grace Bishop from Sea Glide. 

These folks are so nice and so giving. They spent generous amounts of their time tutoring us on the use of Active Captain and Garmin Blue Charts. 

We attended a session by George and Pat Hospodar. Authors of the following book. 

An excellent presentation, which included guest speaker Ken McDonald, Director of Marina Operations in Ontario, Canada. 

While I attend some presentations, Jack went to have lunch with Mark Mizell, a helicopter buddy from one of Jack's past lives as a career Marine. 

They say woman are shoppers, but at boat shows, men spend the big bucks. We are the proud owners of a shiny new anchor. A 46 lb. Ultra Anchor that set Jack back $ 1,960. Yeeee Gads!!!!

Jack spent all day yesterday installing this new beauty. She should keep us safe and tight to the sea floor, when we anchor out. Which could be as much as 25% of the time. 

Of course, once you buy a shiny new anchor, it has to be installed. That involves two people. One stationed in the anchor locker. 

I think I drew the short straw this time. 

Evidence that we are working hard to ready the boat to leave on our big adventure on March 15th. This is pleasure boating, right ??? Still loving it!!!

The Long Awaited February 2014 Post

Today is Monday, February 24th. My blog posts are way behind schedule. I would love to post every day, but that is not a realistic goal. Once a week is more likely, but as you can see I am not meeting that goal. Blogging is the last item on my to do list every day and every day it moves to the next days list. Jack and I are loving this life, but it keeps us both very busy each day. Lots to learn and do each day.  The major complication with regular blog posts will be access to WIFI. I finally found a free WIFI connection at the Laundromat up the road from our Marina. I am currently sitting at a little blue table in the corner of the laundromat typing the draft of this post. I would take a selfie and show you, but the boating life is not conducive to good grooming. :-)

My first attempt at drafting a post was on Saturday, February 15th. Until the 15th, I was too busy and too tired to work on the blog.

Living on a boat is great fun. We stay busy, running errands (Walmart, Radio Shack, Public's, West Marine, Dollar Store, Laundry, etc.) and checking items off of our TO DO list. Most days consist of three to five items off the lists and six to ten new items added to the list.

I guess I should start back on January 30th. The pile of items bound for Florida, looked like this.

On Saturday, February 1st the car was loaded and we crossed the bridge out of Indiana into Kentucky.

The car looked like this. 

On Super Bowl Sunday, February 2nd we arrived in Ft Pierce and had dinner at Chuck's Seafood Restaurant located across the street from Harbour Isle Marina, where Ithaka is docked. We stayed in a hotel, watched the Super Bowl, and decided to unload the car the next day.

Below are pictures of Jack measuring the distance of the car from the ground, right before we unpacked it. According to Jack's measurements, unloading the car caused it to rise 3".

We sadly discovered our favorite restaurant "The Ramp Raw Bar" went out of business shortly before our return. We have been restaurant hopping looking for a new favorite place. Great seafood everywhere we go.

We had Ithaka's hull cleaned on feb. 6 by Brian the diver. Lots of barnacles, algae, and scum like to grow on the bottom of your boat, when it sits still in the water for any length of time. 

Jack and I spend much of our time cleaning, provisioning, and tweaking minor boat repairs and upgrades. Here are some shots of busy boy Jack hard at work.

We do take breaks for an occasional movie and Valentine's Day Celebration.

I ask Jack to give me some docking training, before my formal training on the 18th with Captain Chris. So, the pictures below were taken one very foggy morning in the marina. We never went out into the intra coastal waterway that day. Just back and forth in the marina. 

On Tuesday February 18th, Captain Chris Caldwell of Captain Chris Yacht Services spent the day on Ithaka training me to dock (while Jack worked the lines) and working with Jack in the engine room.

Captain Chris had some additional training in mind for us. He suggested we take Ithaka out into the Ocean to get a feel for the portion of the "Loop" that will take us outside the Intra-coastal waterway into the ocean near New Jersey and then again when we cross the Gulf of Mexico. Since half of the training day was to be about me practicing docking, Captain Chris had me pilot Ithaka into ocean and Jack worked the lines. So, out the inlet we went and I had the joy filled experience of piloting Ithaka at 25 mph in the open sea. This is a very fast speed for a trawler. They usually travel at between 8-12 mph.

YAH HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
It was like I was a child again in the back seat of the family car with mom and dad. We were on our way to my grandparents house for Sunday dinner. To get grandma's, we traveled on hilly two lane country roads in Ohio. Sometimes dad would "put the pedal to the metal" on those rolling hills and as we crested the top of each hill (no seat belts) my throat would drop into my tummy. I had this same feeling on the first few sea waves.

This is how far out in the ocean we went. 

Jack also took a turn at ocean training. 

Wednesday, February 19th - We had dinner in Ft. Pierce at Cobb's Landing and walked the Marina Dock looking at boats (that's what boat people do for fun). We stopped to watch a fisherman clean his catch of the day.

Friday, February 21st - While having lunch, we watched as a boat load of folks docked at a fishing pier outside the restaurant. They came to have lunch. Unfortunately, they interrupted the fisherman who were fishing off the pier. The fisherman were not so happy to see the boaters.

Saturday, February 22nd - Captain's Chris and Alyse Caldwell invited us to a raft up with the Vero Beach Power Squadron at Faber Cove in Ft. Pierce. Captain Chris arrived first and anchored their Sandy Hook. We arrived second and tied up Ithaka on Sandy Hook's Starboard Side. Six more boats joined us. They alternated tying up on either side of Sandy Hook and Ithaka from largest to smallest with fenders between each boat. The only anchored boat was Sandy Hook. Once everyone arrived and was securely tied, folks walked back and forth across the boats visiting and eating the finger food each boat owner provided.

Sunday, February 23rd - Day of REST. Time to be thankful for our many blessings.

It's now Saturday March 1st, so the February blog is being posted tonight ready or not!!!