Florida to Georgia

So we are finally ready to cast off and get going. We spent Thursday night (April 24th, 2015) on the boat, got up early and took the truck back to the house, closed everything up, unfolded our little bikes and bicycled back to the boat, about a 20 minute ride.

Cast off and went to the fuel dock to top off the tanks, 70 gallons, and get the holding tank pumped out. A very uneventful day south to our old hang out in Cayo Costa. Uneventful except for the new Garmin GPS packing it in! Motoring along and all of the sudden the screen went blank - perfect!

Up early and down the ICW to Ft.Myers and up the Caloosahatchee River toward the La Belle. The usual crowd of weekend warriors were out in full force.

Finally the crowd cleared out and we anchored just west of the first of many locks, Franklin lock.

Nice calm night and then through the lock at 8:00 and off up the river through two more locks to the large man-made Lake Okeechobee. The lake is about 25 mikes across; they basically drained part of the Everglades so the sugar farmers (US Sugar) had lots of water and land.

I continue to feel sorry for the 1% of Americans. Think of the upkeep and maintenance on these summer cottages! And what about paying for the fuel and crew for the boat? It's no damn wonder they need some tax breaks.

Saw some neat Cypress trees growing by the lake.

We decided to take to take the "rim route" around Lake Okeechobee rather than across it. Had a great little anchorage off to one side of the rim in a small pond. Happy birthday to my sweetheart, 39 again!

The next morning we went through the last manually operated swing bridge in Florida. This made the long run around the lake worth every minute. You call up buddy on the VHF, he rides to the bridge on his bicycle, grabs a pole about 10' long and starts unwinding the bridge.

Amazing.

Talked to him on the way by and he didn't seem out of breath or anything.Just another day. I'm really glad I got to see that. The last bridge in FL like that; I've never seen another one.

The last few miles across the lake were exposed and not nice but through the Port Myacca lock (down just a few feet) and under the 49.5' fixed railroad bridge which is a bane to sailboats.

Many (most) sailboats can't fit under that bridge and thus must either go around Florida through the Keys or get "tipped" (local guy drags barrels of water off your mast to tip the boat) and hopefully slide under. What can happen?

We had came up about 16' in three locks on the other side and then went down 14' in the St. Lucie lock; the final lock to Stuart. So that's five locks down and more than a hundred to go!

So we spent several days on a mooring-ball in Stuart replacing the GPS and out-living a nasty storm front with torrential rain and hail the size of walnuts! Some fun!

Then finally turned north and passed Vero Beach (affectionately known as Velcro Beach by many cruisers because you can't seem to leave).

And past Cocoa (not Cocoa Beach which on the Atlantic side) where we had spent several months on Zydeco years ago.

Up past the old Cape Canaveral. This bridge had us puzzled for awhile. Turned out one side was under construction.

And then the old buildings for the space shuttle appeared on the right.

Through the Haulover Canal, Nothing like a hard day of fishing.

And then there is the working guy. Got shrimp? Maybe crabs?

There are all sorts of boats doing the Great Loop. Here's one fellow who has just come down the seaway from Chicago. And he is having a great time! Nice Loop burgee!

Past a long stretch of houses with docks on the water. 

And then we bypass Fort Matanzas. Construction started in 1740 as part of the Spanish effort to retain control of Florida. This is a sister fort to the larger Castillo de San Marcos fort in St. Augustine.

This is a very shoaled in pass as we saw a sailboat aground as he had drifted just slightly off course.

We arrived in St. Augustine mid-afternoon and picked up a mooring ball in the north field just across from the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. We had very strong NE winds and this was a very rough and uncomfortable stop. We decided to move to the lower field (got the last available mooring) to await the arrival of Josh, Darcy and Ian.

St. Augustine is the oldest permanent settlement in North America (excluding the local Indians who were there a long time before that!). It was established in 1565 by Don Pedro Menendez of Spain. Very nice old homes along the waterfront with cobble stone streets.

We moved the boat to a floating slip at the marina (that was fun in the current and wind) and spent the day walking through the town, having lunch at Harry's and exploring the fort.

The fort is really massive. At one point the British attacked St. Augustine (this seemed to happen on a regular basis) and the entire town, 1,300 residents and militia (200 or so) spent 50 days in the fort until eventually defeating the attackers.

Lots of volunteers in period costume, cannon firing and parading.

These mortars could fire a 15" ball up to a mile and a half.

I don't think Ian totally trusts Josh on this one.

Poppi and Ian working on their computers while Grammy makes blueberry pancakes.

Nice barge.

Dry dock for huge yachts north of Jacksonville.

And found a very nice anchorage near Ameila Island in Alligator Creek. Hello Georgia, goodbye Florida.

Le Voyage - Part Deux

So after fours winters (five?) of working on the boat we are finally going to do the Great Loop.

Here's what the the loop looks like:

We start on the west coat of Florida, go across the state, head up the east coast to New York. Up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal (or perhaps all the way to Montreal/Ottawa) through the great lakes, down to Chicago, down the Illinois river to the Mississippi, and then to the Gulf and back to Florida, See you back home in about 8-9 months, 6,000 miles. What can happen? Some folks take several years to do the trip (wintering their boat along the way) but we think this is doable. If not, we'll store it somewhere.

Here's the boat:

Look's some smart! Who? The boat or the captain?

Fun's Over - Now the Repairs!

Well this should be fun, four years (winters really) of repairs. The repairs began as soon as we got off the boat back in 2011 at Salt Creek. The gelcoat below the waterline had started to fail and allowed small blisters to occur so the boat was "peeled" - all the old gelcoat removed (using a tool similar to a planer) and the hull was allowed to completely dry out over the summer. Repairs were also made to the bottom of the keel where we discovered voids in the fiberglass; a result of a poor original lay up job.

That fall the bottom was covered with three coats of a high-build epoxy barrier coat to seal against any further water incursion and then several boats of bottom paint were applied. We then moved the boat south to a covered storage unit where the real fun began.

 The first order of business was ripping up all the old teak decks, removing the fiberglass deck where we suspected rotten core, replacing the core and then re-glassing the decks. Here's an example from the bow were we cut off the old glass and pulled up the rotten core. We did this in the bow, the entire stern deck and about a third of the way up the sides of the boat.

Once everything had dried out we installed new core and then glassed that in and reattached the old glass.

And then applied 'epoxy fairing compound' and primer.

We did the same thing for the side decks and aft deck. Except for the aft deck we discovered the original mold had a hatch in the center that had been inadequately covered up and required the whole deck to be strengthened with beams below and totally re-glassed with multiple layers of glass and woven-roving.

We had to do similar repairs to the cabin overhang where we discovered rot and voids..

All told we went through 5 gallons of polyester resin, 6 gallons of epoxy, yards of fiberglass mat and roving, and pounds of fairing compound. We also painted all the teak window trim by first applying thinned epoxy and then epoxy primer.

That was enough for 2012! The following winter we started the final sanding and finishing and then started applying several counts of epoxy primer and final coats of Awlgrip marine paint.

 After we got the cabin painted it was time to tackle the non-skid on the deck. You apply a finish coat of the Awlgrip paint (horribly expensive stuff I might add) and then immediately scatter a fine non-skid material to the wet paint - a two person job. Then vacuum up the non-skid that didn't stick and apply several coats of finish paint.

 And then finally back in the water to see if it still floats after being on land for two winters.

Spent some time using the boat, then re-hauled that spring for another summer of storage and then back in the water for another winter (2014) of fun. We had new canvas made for the upper steering area, tackled the interior rot now that it no longer leaks, and installed new davits for the new dinghy.

We also spent significant time in the engine room, moving the house battery bank toward the rear, installing new battery charger, new hot water heater, new water pump and pressure tank, replacing oil pan on the generator, new oil coolers on the engine, rebuild the raw water pump and cleaning the heat exchangers as well as replacing all the coolant hoses while we were there.

We even managed to actually take a week long cruise down towards Captiva and Ft. Meyers Beach.

 And I even found time for a beer at the dollar-bill covered Cabbage Key bar. (Hey, who's that behind me?)

The it was back to the covered storage for another summer.The next winter (2015) we tackled the upper steering station. First the teak decks were sanded then we reamed out the old caulking (a miserable job), sanded any remaining caulking out of the grooves (by hand) and then taped off the wood and filled the grooves with new teak decking caulk (12 tubes altogether).

You re-caulk a section, let it dry about half an hour, and then pull the tape. Then do another section. Nine rolls of tape later the deck was done. Wait three days and then re-sand it all smooth.

Next up, repair and repaint all the fiberglass.

Yes sir, that's how we have fun!