Our sailing experience on a 1987 Catalina 34 which we named 'Eximius' which google showed as the Latin translation for 'Special'
We hope that our posts will help others looking to take their boat beyond the local waters as well as provide entertaining reading.
I'm a Brit, so my view of entertaining may not match yours ;)
See you on the water.
The Journey Starts Here
Paul
The HISC's Octoberfest was held on Sunrise Bay, just North of Sunrise Blvd Bridge on the West side of the Intracoastal Water Way. (ICW)
We had at least 15 boats attend and several more club members arrived by water taxi (Dink Rides), some of us arrived Friday (extra Cruising Point) but most arrived Saturday in time for the EXCELLENT cruise dinner of Brats, Red Cabbage and Roasted Potatoes followed by some awesome deserts and, of course, beers for the sailors.
Hosts were Intermission, Imagine and Wind Punk.
On the bay that night were:
Eximius, Diversion, Intermission, Wind Punk, Cheshire, Alebjie, Dalcarlia, Affection, Pegasus, Imagine, Lady Gray, Fandango, Haven (Cookie Monster - Eduardo's new boat), Po Poki II and Duet
Many of the club cruises include a 'best dressed' competition, resulting in prize for the best Gals Costume, Best Guys and Best Couples costumes.
Here's the winner:
Costume from Amazon, Hair by Peggy, Dinner by Cheryl, Fun by HISC.
We have been really busy around the house for months and the feeling of 'Why aren't we sailing' grew daily. So we planned on a Day sail outside of Port Everglades and an overnight at Lake Sylvia.
The Tides & Weather cooperated for a Tuesday sail, so we went down to the boat on Monday to tidy up the cabin, cool down the Fridge/Freezer, and load up the few things we had taken off the boat after the abandoned sail up to Lake Worth for Labor Day.
Tuesday we headed down to the boat for a 9:30am departure from the dock, just after high tide and after the bridges open from their lock down during rush hour road traffic.
At the dock we saw some heavy Algae on the surface of the water and just below. Yuck!
Leaving the lines on the dock pilings, and passing down the canal to the New River, we were the only moving boat, everyone else is still tied up to their dock in various stages of repair, recovery, or, sadly, seemingly abandonment.
We eased into the New River checking for boat traffic, it's rare just there, but if there is any, it can be an awkward turn as it's pretty narrow due to a few boats tied up opposite the end of the canal. Turning downstream we headed past the many boats that are tied up at various homes, most likely for additional income, some homes have a half dozen boats at their docks.
Rounding the bend towards the 11th Avenue Swing Bridge, we call them on the radio requesting an opening
"11th Avenue Swing Bridge, 11th Avenue Swing Bridge, this is the Sailing Vessel Eximius, Outbound, requesting an opening" ---- No reply ---- try again "11th Avenue Swing Bridge" etc. By now we are insight of the bridge and slowing down while anticipating a delay in the bridge opening.
"Vessel hailing 11th Avenue Swing Bridge - Sorry folks, there's a delay in opening due to a control problem.... might take a few minutes to fix"
"11th Ave - Eximius, Roger, we'll just turn a few doughnuts out here waiting" This has happened before, and the last time it took about 15 minutes for the bridge to open.
We did a half dozen doughnuts (just going around in circles) as the wind was trying to move us from an easy holding station. After 30 minutes we called again asking how they were progressing.
Their response, not sure, might be an hour or more.
Now we have a potential problem. We can only get to and from our dock about 2 hours either side of High Tide as at the Andrews Avenue Bridge. So if we waited at the 11th Ave bridge beyond 11am, we would be stuck until two hours before high tide that evening, about 7:20pm, that's a long hang out time! We decided to head back to the dock while we still could and try again Wednesday.
Back at the dock, we left the cold food in the Fridge/Freezer and took the non-perishable home - not wanting to leave any food for vermits!
Trying again - Wednesday
Yep, down to the boat, an hour later Wednesday (tide times) we quickly prepped the boat, including adding some Diesel Kleen +Cetane Boost to the fuel tank, we were ready to leave but had some time to kill so I took a pic of my latest sewing project - Gas Can Covers
This pic shows the Sunbrella Cover for a plastic Gas Can.
It's secured to a Stainless Steel tube rail that's attached to two of the Lifeline Stanchions. The cover has built in webbing straps with plastic buckles which wrap around the tube rail and buckle together while holding down the cover.
Back to the trip out. We called the 11th Avenue bridge by phone from the dock to confirm they were in operation. They are good to go, so we cast off and head down the canal. Approaching the 11th Ave bridge, we call on the radio and they start the opening procedure - without any issues today WooHoo!
All the other bridges are quick to open when we call them, and the FEC rail bridge is open, so no delays heading down the New River. We only had to wait a couple of minutes for Andrews Ave Bridge to open, no boat traffic so no problem.
Peggy took the helm as we passed around Tarpon Bend while I prepared the sails and running rigging. The wind was forecast to be in the low to mid teens, so I put in two reefs, the boat sails really well even with 2 reefs! We passed under 17th Street Causeway bridge, passed the turning basin and headed out of the Port Everglades channel. Tide was ebbing and wind was from the E - ESE, so the ride out of the channel was a bit bumpy, nothing more than that.
As we passed the last pair of channel markers, we raised the Main sail, using our trusty electric winch handle, then turned towards the NE and unfurled the Jib to the 2nd reef point (stopped the un-furl when we could see the first black dot near the tack of the sail). Dropped the traveller a few inches off center, engaged Otto (the Auto Pilot) and headed N-NNE.
The boat was beautifully balanced, our speed through the water was nearly 5 knots even with 2 reefs, and Otto handled the steering easily. It was a great sail. We headed up towards Hillsboro Inlet, did a few practice tacks with Peggy taking over the helm rather than work the Auto Pilot (something I need to practice if ever I want to single hand Eximius)
There were several other sailboats on the Ocean within a couple of miles. Peggy was feeling very comfortable with the way the boat behaved, and that's important as we work our way up to going on longer trips (Keys, Bahamas, and further).
After a couple of hours, we turned back into Port Everglades - Now the Tide was in Full Ebb and the wind had picked up to a consistent 14 knots - Wind over tide is never very nice, it was really bouncy as we tried to run downwind inside the channel. So we turned into wind, dropped the main, turned back towards the Port and furled in the Jib, still bumpy, we may have been better off leaving the Jib out to take some of the bounce out of the channel waters.
Passing under 17th Street bridge heading North, we had over 2 knots of tide against us, our speed dropped from 6 knots through the water to less than 4 knots on the GPS. Once past the bridge fenders we picked up some GPS speed and headed up the ICW towards Bahia Mar, turned into the channel into Lake Sylvia hugging the East side to stay away from the really shallow sections. The tide was still heading out, but now it was behind us as the flow from the ICW is split between the ICW and the channels out on the South side of Lake Sylvia.
Surprisingly, Lake Sylvia was not crowded, there's normally a lot of Liveaboard / Derelict boats anchored in the Lake, but only 6 or 7 that day, so plenty of room to pick for our overnight anchor.
Peggy got the boat going astern as I started to drop the anchor, with about 75' of chain out, I called for her to put the engine (Geeves) in Neutral, as I did so, the Anchor Dug in and the chain sprung taught, we were dug in! We should sleep well that night.
Once the anchoring process was complete, anchor alarms set, electronics turned off and Beer & Wine were ready for a mid afternoon break, I setup the Generator (Honda 2000i) and the Air Conditioning.
The boat astern of us was flying a Gulfstream Sailing club burgee, so I hauled up our Cruising Flags onto the Starboard Flag Halyard just in case anyone was there to see them. The only person we saw was rowing his dinghy from the South end of the Lake to his boat which was anchored NW of us, no mast, no boom - live-aboard with his dog.
The boat cooled down in about 30 minutes, while we sat in the cockpit talking about how the sail went and how well the boat handled. A nice finish to a great day - it's always a great day when all's well on board in the evening.
We had dinner, Chicken & Pasta, watched a movie on the TV, showered, checked on our Emails and FB. A quick check up top to see that all was secure and no lines to clang against the mast.
When I turned to look toward Bahia Mar, I could see these two really bright lights. They would ruin the night vision of anyone plying the ICW that night (if you click on the image you can view it full size)
I raised the Dinghy up from it position on deck just in case we wanted to turn the AC off and let some air flow in from the V-Berth Hatch. Time to turn in, so we turned off the Generator, turned on the berth fan, opened the hatch and that was it for the night.
The wind was up and down like a yo yo all night, but we manged to sleep most of the night, a sailors sleep.
Thursday Morning
Workers on the house construction around the lake greeted us early Thursday morning, no consideration ;) We had Salmon, Avacardo, Tomato, Toast, and most importantly - strong coffee for breakfast, the Sun gleaming in through the open ports. Paddle board exercisers were navigating around the lake and the Guy with the Dog was returning to his boat, again.
Best time to be at the dock was between 10:30 and 12:30 as the tide would be coming out and it would be easier to hold station with the tide on the bow rather than on the stern. We opted to visit the Pump out near Smokers Park (West side of New River) and called the New River Dockmaster to check that it was working and available, it was. So we headed out of the Lake around 9:45.
The wind was higher today, and the tide was still flooding as we came along side Smokers Park, but Peggy did a great job of stopping the boat within inches of the pilings. I was able to step ashore and secure a midships line to a dock side cleat and a bow line to another.
Peggy started to put a snack together while I setup the Pump out. With the hose attached to our adapter screwed into the Waste Port on the Port side of the boat, I headed up to the park's exercise area where the Pump control timer is located and set the time for 30 mins.
Back to the boat I operated the pump out valve but no suction - dang - probably someone has left a valve open on one of the other pump out stations. So I set off to walk the docks - but none found. I add another 15 minutes to the control timer as I pass it on the way back to the boat. Still no vacuum. Time to call the dockmaster.
The New River Dockmasters office is very responsive, I had to leave a message but they answered the 2nd time and had a guy come out to the pump out. Turns out the system is due a rebuild and has to have a vacuum leak manually held closed to facilitate the pump out. Once that was taken care of we easily pumped out the holding tank, cleaned up and had a snack.
Listening to the radio and watching the boat traffic head up river, we knew there was a hold up at the FEC bridge as it was closed for a Brightline Train, so we decided to stay tied up at Smokers park till the bridge reopened. Once we heard the boats that were waiting in line report on the radio that they were passing the FEC bridge, we cast off from the park and headed up towards 3 Avenue Bridge. They reported back that a large vessel was outbound, and they were going to wait for it to get past Andrews before starting the lift, we had no problems holding station and the the 90' vessel passed us Port to Port.
As soon as we were past 3rd Ave bridge, called Andrews for an opening, but we could see that the FEC bridge had gone down again - they must be getting close to their limit of 60mins in any 2 hour period. We held station for a while, but it became obvious that this was going to be a longer delay. So we moved over to the East bank of the New River and tied up temporarily. I reported to Andrews what we were doing just so that they didn't think we were dropping our request for an opening.
The FEC bridge was down long enough for me to strike up a conversation with a tourist family that admired the boat and asked us about the Iguana population. After nearly 30 minutes the FEC bridge started to open and we cast off just in time to go under the opening Andrews Avenue Bridge.
From there it was a simple motor up the remainder of the river, turn right at the Fork and head back to the dock. Peggy is getting really good at coming alongside our dock, I was able to step off and start swinging the boat around for our next trip.
It took about 25 minutes for us to unload the boat and take the truck home.
A short sail, but better than staying home any day!
We motored down to Port Everglades Friday morning and tried sailing up to Hillsboro Inlet, but the wind was somewhere else, the sea was calm, and the motor ran smooth!
Peggy smiling as we left Port Everglades. See that big ship astern? We did, and we kept to the South side of the channel just to keep out of it's way.
The flag tells a lot! It's drooping!
I shook out the reef shortly after exiting the channel. Didn't make a difference, we were motoring at idle and the wind was on the nose a knot faster than our speed. We were creating more of the wind.
But it was a beautiful day to be out on the Ocean.
We stayed pretty close to shore all the way up to Hillsboro Inlet. The HI bouy has been replaced - finally - after getting dragged ashore during Hurricane Irma last year.
As we navigated into HI, we saw the depth drop down to below 5' In theory we were aground, but the bottom was really soft and we barely felt a thing, perhaps our depth was being impacted by the turbid waters.
After a few doughnuts we passed under HI bridge and headed North, easily making the bridge opening and then 20 mins on to Camino Real Bridge, barely had to wait.
Lake Boca was already filling with power boats, but a few sailboats were in the North Eastern end of the lake. We could see Diversion (Bob & Joyce Tiger) at anchor. We dropped anchor on the East side of the lake in 9' of water. Shortly after our arrival, Time To Go (Paul & Debbie Maloney) arrived and dropped anchor South of us. Sjöfn arrived and tied up along side of us with the plan to slip off and anchor alone later that night so that Dave could get a good nights sleep - hope it's not something I said ;)
I had proofed Bread overnight and baked it Saturday Morning, two loaves so we gave one to Pam & Dave.
Baked in our New Non-Stick bread pans from Sur La Table in Coconut Creek.
Turned out really nice - Sesame & Fennel Seed
1st attempt at cooking two loaves at the same time. Very pleased.
By Saturday afternoon, the Host boats were rafted up - Sjöfn, Eximius, Lizzetta and Into the Blue.
Other boats from the club were: Diversion, Cheshire, Into the Blue, Hallabaloo, Margarita,
Moonlight, My Sanity, Rabbit, and Time to Go, but I'm pretty sure there was a couple more boats!
The club Commodore arrived mid afternoon and was greeted with a traditional Bosun's Call
Around 5pm, crews started to arrive, bringing food, drinks, deserts, drinks, Shepherds Pie (Thanks Janet - Delicious!) Brisket, and if you consider that we had about 10lb of Corned Beef, and loaves of Soda Bread (Winn Dixie) and Rum aboard - it was a party!
After the crowd ate most of the food, drank most of the bear, and the Rum, it was time for our Party Games.
We started with the Trivia Contest - it's complex - hey, it's my job to confuse! Here you see some of the participants trying to answer a question using a direction. It was, as expected, the drinks and questions ensured that.
Tom managed the Sailing Limerick contest and Pat & Dave selected the winner of the Best Irish Costume, well done Vicky!
The coin toss was a challenge when held on the 4 mono hulls, but it worked and several earned extra bottles of whiskey.
Finally Jeff Miskin provided us with a few Irish Jokes, I cannot repeat them here ;0)
As the Sun was setting, our guests started to return to their boats or back to their cars via Dink Taxi's
Most made it but Jeff Miskin and his crew seemed to get lost in the 200 yard trip from the host boats to the raft up of Diversion, Hi Nina and Chesshire (see those 3 power boats in the background of the pic above - they were Wey Hey'd over there.
The weather was perfect all weekend. Saturday morning we prepared breakfast for any that were up. We had plenty of coffee, ton's of muffins, and some brought more food! Tom noticed that I had Grand Mariner on my boat and asked for some with his coffee - I obliged, but only after he passed his coffee mug, I was not going to let my bottle of GM get off my boat!
We had a blast, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
After breakfast we learned that Hillsboro Blvd Bridge had a problem and was Locked down - sailboats could not pass! That meant wait till the bridge was fixed or go out through Boca Inlet.
We have never gone out of the inlet, it's risky, but boats with greater draft than our 5'7" have done it. It's just not worth the risk for us. So we opted to wait for the bridge to be fixed. It didn't take long but several boats still went out via Boca Inlet.
Oh, nearly forgot! Friday afternoon, a commercial Catamaran got wedged on the rocks outside of the Boca Inlet Bridge which created a bit of a stir. Several tow boats went to their aid and successfully pulled the boat and the bunch of guests aboard.
Back to Sunday morning after breakfast. We were the last ones to leave the host raft up. It took a few minutes to untangle the anchor chains, but no sweat. We hoisted our anchor, turned to the North end of the lake and called Camino Real Bridge making the Noon Opening.
At the Hillsboro Inlet bridge there was a dozen boats waiting to go out, we dropped back to let them go and easily ran out of the Inlet. Once out, we turned back into wind and hoisted the Main, turned South and unfurled the Jib, no reefs in at this time and No wind either. So we furled the Jib and motored down about 1/2 to 3/4 nm off shore.
We saw Sjöfn flying her Genneker about a 1/2 mile further out, sure looked good! I hailed Dave on 16 and switched to 68. Dave had left before us and had gone out of Boca Inlet, we knew it was Sjöfn because we could see the Red Dragon on her sail! How do you spell ENVY?
Our motor down to Port Everglades was uneventful, but when we turned to go North towards the 17th Street Causeway Bridge, there was a flotilla of vessels waiting for the bridge to open, we motored past them and wondered how many were thinking - They'll never get under that bridge! We had about 6' to spare. Within a few minutes of us passing, safely, under the bridge, it opened and the flotilla began to head through, I don't think we have ever seen the ICW that busy, it was like I95 for a while.
Travelling from Lake Boca down to Port Everglades on the outside is so much nicer than racing to the next bridge (Six of them) especially on a calm day like today.
Sticking to the ICW, we peeled off South into the Lake Sylvia entrance, skinny water at low tide, but we stayed deep enough and anchored in the North West corner with 60' of rode. A nearby vessel expressed concern that we were too close, and I decided after watching the swing and learning that he had 90' of rode out that it would be prudent to re-anchor. So we pulled anchor and headed over to the South East end of the lake. An easy anchor and we secured for the day. Time for a late lunch of Cheese, Grapes, the bread I had baked on Saturday and a glass of wine. Then a 60 minute snooze!
I made a bit of progress on the installation of our Dry Bilge system. Figured out the best location for the discharge vent, just below the Aft Water Tank Discharge fitting. Of course, the new vent will make the old one (30 years old) show it's age. I realized that I'll have to get a hose fitting that will convert the 5/8" barbed end down to the 3/8" hose that will connect the vent to the pump.
We opted for just a snack instead of Dinner, and solved many of the world problems, or at least recognized they were beyond resolution. I browsed Facebook to view the pics that club members had posted and read the comments that members of the Cooking on Boats page had made about my bread. Pierre (Charity) noted that he avoids Gluten, so I'll have to plan on a Gluten free bread for when they come along side.
The Crunch
Sylvia Lake on Monday morning was like Glass! not a ripple! There were about 23 boats on the lake, most of them well cared for, a couple that are junk and give the rest of us a bad name. Don't get me wrong, after all, our boat is 31 years old now, it's not the same high gloss it was back in 1987 but we maintain the boat and keep her in good condition, it can always be improved. But the Junk boats are wrecks - canvas draping over the sides of the boat, no engine, mast laid down, what used to be a fender hanging in the water over the side. If it were on land it would be condemned.
We stirred a few ripples as I pulled up the anchor, my morning exercise, and Peggy motored us clockwise around the lake and out of the channel and into the ICW where we turned to Port and started up the New River.
Our plan was to stop at the Pump out station just downstream of the Third Avenue Bridge. Last time we had to deal with some pretty strong current, so we were prepared this time just in case. I had the lines ready and we approached the dock astern of Musette and made a perfect docking. I stepped off the boat that was barely touching the dock pilings and not moving at all. Good Job Peggy!
Then a City Employee called out that we had to leave the dock immediately! Apparently another vessel had 'reserved' the dock for using the pump out, and they were just passing under 3rd Avenue bridge, he demanded that we get off the dock.
Dang! At least, that's the publishable word I can use that describes my frame of mind. My military training kicked in and accepted the command and calmed Peggy down before we moved off the dock back into the river.
As we pulled out, we could see a bunch of other boats waiting on the bridge opening, but 3rd avenue bridge opens really quickly and they were waiting far too long. We were getting pushed around by the current from behind and from the wind out of the North East, and hindered from movements by the vessels ahead of us. I made the command decision to tie up along side on the East side of the river where there was a gap between other docked boats. Peggy took the helm, but the current was much stronger than either of us thought. The current pushed our stern up river and we hit out bow on the concrete dockside, my fault, it was a bad decision to try and dock on that side of the river. Now we have a scarred bow that needs some TLC.
I went back to the helm and was able to get us motoring astern to get away from the dock and back to the middle of the river. Once safe, I contacted the vessel ahead of us and asked his intentions. He radioed back that they were waiting on a 110' Yacht outbound, so I held station astern of her. It was not easy, it took a lot of concentration, quick decisions to deal with both the wind and current while staying away from the very unfriendly dock on the right (while going upstream) side of the river.
Of course, all of this was while I was internally trying to ignore that I had dinged the boat! But that's what you have to do, get over it and deal with the current (no pun intended) issue.
The big yacht come through 3rd avenue bridge and the vessel ahead of us started to make way under the bridge (I say Under, but it's really 'Through' as the bridge is open). I called Andrews Avenue Bridge requesting to follow the vessel ahead of us through the bridge, but then realized that the FEC Railroad bridge was closing! Wow! That's Fantastic! (WTF) There's very little room between Andrews and the FEC bridge, and the vessel ahead of us would be stopped while we try to keep station in the not so nice conditions. I called Andrews and advised that we would cancel out passing due to the FEC bridge being down. But the Bridge Tender at Andrews responded that I should proceed as the FEC Bridge was closed for maintenance but was opening for our passage (and the vessel ahead of us) So I confirmed and throttled up to get up to speed in order to follow the boat ahead of us.
We passed both Andrews and the FEC bridge. Next it was 7th Avenue Bridge, and as we got around Sailboat Bend the bridge was already open and we motored through.
The yacht ahead of us came to a stop just south of the Fork in the New River, they confirmed it was ok for me to pass on their starboard side as they were waiting on another vessel coming out of the South Fork and we were heading up the North Fork.
Other than Peggy and I having a few words about the Crunch incident, we continued quietly up to our dock and, again, Peggy made a perfect docking. The wind from dead ahead (West) which could hinder our turning the boat so that it faced back down to the open end of the channel, but I had a line setup on the Starboard side midships cleat, then forward and back to the Port side where I stepped off onto the dock. Securing the turning line, I walked the bow off the dock and to the East. As the bow neared the end piling of the dock, I picked up the bow lines and put them on the cleat on the fore deck. Back to the turning line on the other end of the dock, I easily pulled the stern of the boat around and along side the dock.
Phew!
Despite the crunch, which is not a disaster, we had a great weekend and as always - learned a lot.
See you on the water (but not till after I fix the booboo on Eximius' Bow!)
In our little ship, in the darkness of our cabin, we lay quietly, hearing the gentle ripple of the surrounding waters bubble past the still bow. They gurgle a short while later as they pass the, not so far away, stern.
Occasionally, gently clanging rope lines running down the mast disturb for but fleeting moment, no need to go up top and quiet them, their elusive skill at being quiet when observed is almost magical.
Warm beneath our hugging covers, we sleep, toss, turn, dream, as our ship wallows, mostly smoothly through the night, but not without a reminder that we are guests on the water as a more energetic wave passes by.
But, we sleep, as sailors do, drifting off to dreams of further ports, and meeting with other cheerful souls in other waters.
We sail, but we do not sail to escape, nor to get away. We sail to relax between the stresses of life, to share time with the World wherever we are.
It's not always easy, things happen at sea as they do in port. Good things, Bad things, a sailor has to deal with both every day, in every port, in every sea.
We're sailors, we offer our friendship, our knowledge, and always ready to hear a good tale of others about their sailing adventures, wherever they are, or whenever they were.
What a great weekend - Friday through Tuesday, we learned a lot this trip so we're really glad we made it.
Departure - Friday Nov 24th.
The day after Thanksgiving. Due to the tides, we decided to head away from the dock around 10.30am. I had already gone a fuel run, getting 15 gallons of Diesel and 5 Gallons of Gasoline for the Generator & Outboard, but we decided against taking the Generator as temperatures over the weekend were forecast to be in the 70's / 80's and being cooler at night. We still took the Gasoline as I keep a 1 gallon portable tank on the boat, small enough to refuel the Outboard engine with ease.
Peggy prepped the Food & Bedding so we quickly loaded the truck. I took along our beach cart to save trips from the Truck to the Boat.
We navigated down the New River, called the bridge tender before we could see the 11th Street Swing Bridge and it was open by the time we got there. It was an easy motor down the River.
Once anchored, we dined on Chilli for dinner, a quick freeze a meal.
Detour - not again!
Yes, again! During breakfast, I realized that I had not included some of my meds in our kit, no choice but to go home and get them.
Choices: Go back to the slip and drive home - Tides and Bridges dictated that would have to be later in the morning - too long. Go up river to Sailboat Bend, tie up and get Uber to home and back - again, too long. See if we can tie up at Bahia Mar and get Uber to home and back.
I called Bahia Mar on #16 (switch to #68) and asked if they had facility to allow me to tie up for a couple of hours. Not sure if they recognize the name of our boat, but they responded that we could tie up North of the fuel dock. So we quickly pulled the anchor (actually I got the engine running, pulled the anchor and went back to the wheel getting us underway while Peggy was still below sorting out the cabin. We tied up at the dock about 10 minutes later, scratching the hull slightly (hope it will buff out) on their wooden dock edge. Requested a Uber ride and walked up to the Bahia Mar entrance to meet him.
Requesting an Uber from the Dock is not the best way to get a ride - walk out to the entrance and request the ride from there. When I requested the ride, the Uber app incorrectly identified my location as being at a residential community just North of the Bahia Mar, probably because there are no residences at the Dock! It took the Uber driver about 10 minutes to navigate what would have only taken him 2 if the App had correctly identified my location.
Chirs (Uber Driver) did a great job. We chatted all the way to my house and then he waited while I picked up a few things (you know it's always more than one thing!).
N.B. Uber Round Trip Option
Upon arrival at our house, Chris, Uber drive, closed the ride and I tried to book a new ride back to Bahia Mar. But, despite that Chris was sat in his car at the end of my driveway, he was not selected as the driver, so I cancelled that request. Tried again, same thing, cancelled again. Chris suggested he should exit the App and I should try to request a ride from inside my house. Tried that, same thing! Grrrr.
Second N.B. There is no 'Return Trip' option in the Uber App - I confirmed this with an email to Uber help.
Hear's the reply from Uber:
Hi Paul,
Happy to explain. There is no feature in the Uber app to request a round trip ride.
After requesting a ride, connect with your driver to let them know you would like to take a round trip. If they agree to take the round trip, be sure to enter the address of your first destination in the app. When you’re approaching your first destination, update the app with the address of your final destination.
Please note that because you are altering your destination while on-trip, the quoted price will not apply.Because I didn't know that (nor did Chris) Chris offered to take me back directly.
We got back to the Bahia Mar around 10:15am. Peggy had finished prepping the cabin, taken the garbage ashore and was ready for departure as soon as I got back.
We motored away from the dock at Bahia Mar, under the 17th Street Bridge and out onto the Ocean. Beautiful day for a sail, Otto von Helm did most of the steering, we just had to make a few minor course adjustments in order to go around the hundreds of fishing boats that were anchored over every available reef!
Wind was offshore hovering around 10 knots or less most of the time. It was a relaxing sail, about time!
We kept an eye out for Duet (Bill & Colleen), guessing they had spent the day at Fowey Rocks bug hunting, but no sign of them. We motored past Government Cut in Miami down to the channel just South of Bill Baggs State Park lighthouse, then we motored up the Channel keeping to the deeper parts. There was a very busy crowd on the Beach on the South side of the Park.
Turning up on the West side of the Park, we passed No Name Harbor and the few boats that were anchored off, then Westward in order to keep in the channel and finally North, up towards Nixons Anchorage.
There had to have been over a hundred boats, many of them blaring their boom boxes and thudding the airways around the anchorage. But, typical of Miami, we expected they would depart at Sundown.
No sign of Duet, so we anchored on the North side of the anchorage. I figured they had spent Friday afternoon at the anchorage and decided they would head south to the Boca Chita or Elliott key area to get away from the noise.
Before Sunset, Duet called on our Cellphone, they wondered if we were in the area. Bill informed me that they were on the outer limits of Nixon's Anchorage, up on deck, I could see their hull and black sail bag, so I waved. It had been a long day, and I didn't feel like re-anchoring, so we agreed to just hang out and call in the morning.
As the Sun went down, Miami Lit up. It's a beautiful city at night. Click on the pic to see the big picture. I should really get Peggy to take better shots, she's a much better photographer than I.
It was a pretty quiet night once the power boats departed. We dined on Chicken & Sauce a bottle of wine and a Tot o Rum.
Slept pretty good, very pleased with our progress today.
In the morning, the boom was swaying in the wind and squeaking with each swing.
I investigated the squeak, turned out to be due to the Gooseneck Securing bolt (the long vertical bolt in this pic)
It's pretty corroded. I applied some Super Lube and that stopped the squeak, but that's a critical bolt - will replace that next week.
While preparing for the morning sail, I decided to inspect the Furler Drum which I repaired just over a month ago, the line was bunching up at the bottom of the furler making it tough to furl in the sail.
Easy solution, I moved the block (the one on the rail to the left of the Furler Drum) up by about an inch. That moved the angle of the line parallel to the drum base. Problem solved, it's easier than ever to furl in the Jib.
Note the corrosion on the tang that is below the Furler connection! More on that later.
Bill & I had agreed to spend Sunday night off of Elliott key Harbor. We sailed off the anchor in the morning and passed Duet which was getting the crew up for the day 😏
It was another great day for a sail.
I chose to tack downwind as the wind was directly along our route. We initially headed over to the West side of the Bay putting the wind off our Starboard quarter (as can be seen from the Wind Instrument) It was a great sail!
We watched as Duet hoisted their sails and turned south, it looked like they were running downwind, they have an advantage but we kept our course.
When we tacked (gybed) over to port, we passed ahead of Duet, that surprised me, I thought they would already be ahead of us.
They stayed mostly on the West side of the ICW line down to the Featherbeds Channel, we continued to sail off the wind slightly, it's far more comfortable for us than sailing dead downwind. (But wait till we get our new spinnaker up and flying.)
Wind had piped up to the low teens by the time we got to anchor. Bill & I decided it was not a great night to raft up. They came over to offer a dink ride along the shore, but we were not really feeling the need and decided to just have dinner onboard that evening.
Turned out it roughened up a bit after Sunset.
The pic is just one of several that I took hoping to get a good one. I posted it on Facebook noting that I was glad it was not a mile further North else I would have been worried. (Turkey Point Power Station is up that way!)
1st test of our new Griddle on the Stove top (have only used it in the Oven up till now) and it works like a charm, fit's like a glove and I love it!
I boiled the Spuds and Green beans, then finished them off on the griddle. Meanwhile I cooked the small Filet Mignon and then added some Almonds to the cooking beans.
Turned out really good, the griddle came seasoned, but it's taking a few uses to complete the process, hardly any smoke at this point compared to that when we first used it in the Oven.
Despite the bumpy night, we slept pretty good.
In the morning we motored off the anchor and headed for the Feather banks with a destination of Nixon's.
I don't have any more pics of that trip! Pity, because we had plenty of time!
After passing the Featherbeds, I set the Auto Pilot for a course back to Nixon's, but got tooo comfy letting Otto steer. Peggy & I were discussing the number of fishing traps on our course. I mentioned that I had found a Crab Trap in the locker that came with the boat and pulled it out.
Just as I was reading the instructions, out of interest, Peggy exclaimed - We've Stopped!
AGROUND!
Yep, we were solidly aground on Black Ledge. Wind in the mid teens, sails with a single reef set, but pulling hard and we're going nowhere!
Checking the tides, we were at Low Tide and rising, that's the good news. The wind was trying to push us towards the center of the ledge and we were about 170' from the shallows West of it.
I wish I had a pic that showed me hanging out on the end of the boom! I had moved the Main Halyard to the end of the boom and secured that so that both the Halyard and the Topping lift were supporting the outer end of the boom. Then, with a line attached to the end of the boom and led back to the Port side winch, we eased the Traveler and the Mainsheet so that the boom could swing out all the way to the shrouds on the Port side. With a loop of line on the end of the boom, I put my weight on the loop and swung out as far as the shrouds would allow. Well, that did nothing! The good side of that is that our boat is really stable, the bad side of it is that it did nothing to lean the boat over so that we could raise the keel off the bottom. So Peggy pulled me back aboard - just in case you're ever tempted to try it, it's damned hard work hanging off the boom even with a loop for my feet.
We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the tide to come up and gradually the depth gauge read above 4' 4", when it got to 5' I pushed the engine to very slowly turn us towards the nearest edge of the ledge, within a few minutes, we were free.
Lesson Learnt
When using the Auto Pilot, make sure that we're aware of when we need to change tack. Our GPS has a feature where we can mark a boundary line or area, so it would be easy to put in an area where the the GPS would alarm us that we need to check things out. Somehow I think we'll be using that feature a lot!
We motored the rest of the way into Nixon's anchorage and found Duet already nestled in for the night. We've been to Nixon's several times now, but tonight we had a real problem anchoring. Each time we set the anchor and backed down to dig it in, it just dragged along, failing to dig down into the sandy bottom. Normally our Delta Quickset Anchor has no problems digging in, but tonight we tried 4 times without success. Finally I suggested that we move further to the East in the anchorage to test the bottom there. As we moved over to that side of Nixon's, a 47' Catana Catamaran pulled in even further East and they dug in right away. We dropped the hook, backed down as the anchor chain was paid out and it dug right in, WooHoo!
We were pretty pooped, and when Duet called he offered to dink over to pick us up for dinner aboard Duet. They had the Lobster, we had the Filet Mignon, so we packed the cook gear up and Bill came over in his Walmart Dink, which seems to be a pretty good deal so far.
Over on Duet, I opened the Wine and Colleen brought out the Cheese, Crackers and Rum. Big shout out to El Dorado Rum! That stuff is so Smooooth! I wonder if Jeff from Cheshire Cat will read this and guess where the Rum came from 😎
Bill took us back to our boat in the dark, his boat light stuck to the top of the motor, wind picking up and it was forecast to rise up to the low twenties overnight. It did! At two o clock in the morning our Anchor Alarm sounded, a quick look showed that we were drifting South and had already drifted 180' (alarm set to 150') but it looked as though the anchor had dug in again. I turned on the Nav instruments and checked the wind speed, it was up to 28knots directly from the North. But the anchor had dug in, it held for the next 20 minutes. I had reset the anchor alarm and knew that we could drag South about a half mile before hitting the shallows on the South side of the anchorage. I elected to keep watch and suggested Peggy goes back to bed, fully dressed she did and was ready to help out if we dragged again. The wind subsided after about a half hour, we hadn't moved other than swing as the wind moved us in an arc to the East and West of our anchor point. The GPS showed a nicely bunched up track indicating that we were just swinging and all was well - for the time being.
After an hour, I felt confident that we were set and I too went to bed, only to be woken up at 6:30 by my phone alarm in prep for the start of the trip home.
Tuesday morning I refueled from our portable diesel tanks and we left about 30 minutes after Duet, they were considering going up to Port Everglade on the outside while we had decided to go up the Ditch (ICW)
We motored off the anchor and headed out towards the center of the Bay before we turned to go North and follow the route for the ICW to the Rickenbacker Causeway.
The wind hit 26 knots several times and we were both glad of our decision to go up on the inside.
Colleen called and advised that they too had decided to take the inside route.
This is not the first time we have taken the ICW up from Biscayne Bay. The ride up the outside would have been exciting, but perhaps a little too much so.
On the route up we had to push the engine some of the time to make the next bridge and other times we had to dawdle wasting time in order to not have to sit doing donuts in front of a closed bridge.
We did plan each bridge, so it was unexpected when we had to delay for nearly 30 minutes South of West 79th Street bridge. Our Waterway guide book reported that the bridge was open upon signal, but when we called for an opening, the bridge tender replied that the bridge next opening was on the half hour, apparently they have changed the opening from 'On Signal' to 'On the Hour and Half Hour'.
As we passed Dania Beach Blvd bridge there was a 2 1/2 knot flow against us, we crawled past that bridge, but once past we kept an eye out for the Dania Beach Cut Off canal. We'll be heading down there in a few weeks (January) to have the boat hauled out at Playboy Marina for some hull cleaning and a few other jobs.
The New River was not particularly busy and we easily navigated the bridges up to the junction between the North Fork and the South Form of the New River, then as we approached the last bridge on our route home, we saw that the 11th Street Swing bridge was open before we called and we had not heard anyone else call for an opening. Still, we called them on the VHF radio but got no reply. We carefully approached the bridge and noticed that the roadways on either side of the bridge were blocked off - seems the bridge was undergoing maintenance.
Peggy took the helm as we passed the bridge and steered us up the canal towards our dock.
As we approached the dock, we felt the first few drops of rain. I still needed to hose the deck down because of all the mud that was left from the anchoring demonstration the night before.
We've pretty much got the process of unloading the boat down to an art form. I take care of the topsides, wash the deck, securing all of the lines. Peggy completes the bagging of bedding, food, clothing and laundry while I moved the truck from the parked position to the load position nearer to the front of the house and then load the bags, fuel cans, coolers, etc. etc. By the time I have everything ashore, Peggy is set to go and all I need do is secure the boat - Close all hull valves, check the electrical panel turning off everything but the bilge pump supply, setting up the damp rid and moth balls (they seem to help deter pests like rodent's and lizards), lock up the cabin, ease the dock lines and a quick check that everything is ready to leave so that we can go home.
All of that was done by 5.15pm, yep, Rush Hour! But by 6pm we were home, unloaded the truck and headed for a shower before dinner at home.
Exhausted, but what a great weekend!
As usual, we found a few 'GotADo's and we'll take care of them on Monday, including taking the boat for a dump!
Our first trip out since Hurricane Irma departed from South Florida and we were looking forward to a great weekend with buddies from the Hillsboro Inlet Sailing Club (HISC).
During the week, we had pretty well put the boat back together after the Hurricane: The Main and Jib Sails were setup, the Dodger was back over the companionway to provide shelter if the weather turned grumpy, and we had loaded most of the heavy stuff (Generator, Fuel, Extra Diesel) in order to reduce the loading on departure day - why does that never work? The back seat of our F150 Crew Cab was FULL. Bedding, Clothing, Frozen Foods, Drinks, Non-Perishable Foods, more Drinks, more food, Towels and there must have been more. It's like we were going away for a week rather than just the weekend.
We have to consider the tides when leaving the dock. It's skinny water nearby and we try to avoid that by moving to/from the dock within 2 hours of high tide. So we had plenty of time to load the boat, get everything stowed and prepare for sea. We cast off the lines around 2pm and headed down the river.
Due to the Hurricane, it's been weeks since we navigated the river, and it's surprising how much things change in just a few weeks. Some buildings under construction were apparently finished, trees that had been damaged in the Hurricane were gone, several nav aids were missing and replaced with temporary markers, and it looked like a lot of boats that were normally tied up alongside the river were gone!
We had an easy motor down to Sandbar Park and turned North towards Los Olas Blvd Bridge, then headed up to Sunrise Blvd Bridge and the anchorage at Sunrise Bay. It was Empty! None of the usual liveaboard boats, not even any passing visitors, just us. So we anchored in our preferred spot near the North side of the Bay. Our anchoring technique is getting better, we easily anchored, backed down to make sure it was dug in and then I setup the Snubber, even that is getting easy with practice. The Snubber makes a big difference, it almost totally diminishes the noise of the Anchor Chain grinding on the Anchor Roller at our bow as well as providing some shock load reduction thus keeping the anchor grounded in the mud below.
With everything setup at anchor, we just chilled, a glass, or two, of wine and some reading before dining on Chicken, Sweet Potatoes cooked up in a skillet. Start of what turned out to be great weekend.
Friday morning I checked my email and a buddy was going to be passing our position around noon, but we decided to head up to Lake Boca early. As I took the helm most of the way, Peggy prepared a lunch snack in the Galley below. We arrived at Lake Boca again - nearly Empty, just two liveaboard boats at anchor, neither looked like they could navigate but you just never know, sailors are resourceful folks.
We dug the anchor and setup the snubber and had an afternoon relaxing, some music, some reading, studying and clean up. A sailors life.
Later on, Sjofn arrived, Pam & Dave considered rafting with us but the weather was pretty blowy, so they moved South of us, and anchored in preparation for the other event host boats. Anticipation arrived a little later and tied up with Sjofn.
More reading, boat watching, and some Rum! Having a Rum Tot is a luxury that I enjoy aboard the boat and it's restricted to being tied up (the boat that is) to something, including an anchor. Rum & Ice and 2 parts of water. Luxury!
We ran the generator for a few hours to bring the humidity down in the cabin and cool off before bunk time, but most of the night we had the v-berth hatch open to provide some ventilation. Still, didn't sleep to well, it happens.
Saturday morning breakfast of Salmon, Cheese, Fried Bread, Grapes, OJ, and that very important 1st Cup of Coffee. My 2nd choice for breakfast but still a great one.
It was time to get the dink inflated and the engine setup. Moving the 80lbs of Mercury dinghy from the Cockpit up to the foredeck is an effort! It's not just the 80lbs, it's that huge bulky bag of boat. The electric air pump made short work on inflating the dink and then Peggy assisted in hoisting the boat over the lifelines and into the water. Once the dink was tide off on the port quarter, we lowered the outboard engine and locked it in place on the dink transom. It started up pretty easily, but it took about 10 minutes of clutsing around to get it to run consistently at idle.
As I finished preparing the dink, some other boats were turning into the lake. We could hear them calling the Camino Real Bridge or the Boca Inlet Bridge for opening. Endurance gracefully passed our Starboard side to head over to Sjofn and Affection. The host boats were in place.
With the dinghy ready to go, with Peggy listening to some music on her cell phone, I headed over to the host boats for a chin wag. Dave was keen to show off his latest electronics on their boat, and I was keen to see it. He has a great setup which I think is based on a Rasberry Pi and includes an attitude sensor which provides real time data for display on a monitor in the cabin. But even better is his TV system, very cool, basically rabbit ears antenna - digital converter and a monitor, so they have access to many local broadcast channels. On our last boat, JD, we had a 19" TV but the total cost was a bit high and not in our budget for Eximius, there are much more important things to spend money on than an expensive TV. So I was really interested in Dave's setup. Very cool.
Back to our boat for lunch and to prepare our Appetizer for the Oktoberfest party that evening. This was a first for me. My plan was to cook a Flaky Pastry Cheese & Spinnach Swirl in the oven on board. The only thing I had cooked in the over previously was a tray of Shrimp, not 'Baking'
In preparation for the baking, I had made up the ingredients in tupperware so I just needed to put everything together. Flaky Pastry can get messy pretty quickly when it warms up. So I created the swirls in a single roll and put the whole thing back in the fridge to cool down before trying to cut them into individual swirls pieces. It worked out great. Once cooled, I was able to neatly cut them into 1/2" pieces and lay them out in a baking pan that fit inside the oven. The recipe suggested 15 mins at 400ºF but I knew it took longer as I had practiced them at home earlier in the week. After 25 minutes they were a nice golden brown and the pastry was looking very nicely 'Flaky' And the timing was perfect, we just had to pop the tray into our cooler and head over the host boats.
I said 'We just had to pop over' - but that's not what happened! I was loading the bag into the dink and the seat decided it didn't like to stay in it's designated position, just as I was trying to stand on it. Yep, time for an unplanned dip. I was actually laughing as I hit the water realizing what was happening, and then I'm soaked - Oh! Did I mention that I was wearing my auto life preserver? It works!
Once out of the water and back on board, time to strip down all my wet clothes and dry off. Probably less than 10 minutes and fresh clothes we tried again. No problems the second time around.
As we were heading over to the host boats, we stopped by Rhapsody to see if they needed a ride, but they were going to sit it out tonight. Then we stopped by Peder & Maria of Dalecarlia and gave Peder a ride over to the host boats too.
A bunch of club members were already aboard the host boats, they know the unwritten rule - come early, come hungry and come with good cheer. They were already diving into the many plates of great food, our appetizer was gone in minutes. Not sure if the judges got to try them, but no matter, if the food disappears quickly that's a good sign.
We got to enjoy the flavors that others bought over for the party and had a German Beer - Dave was in charge of that. Then I had the chance to indulge my boat envy thanks to Jeff on Endeavor - What a nice boat, it was not just great quality, but the attention to detail was amazing. My envy did not dissipate easily. One of the many many features that I liked was the galley stove cover that was part of the counter top and folded back behind the stove top to act as a splash guard. Very neat concept, I'll keep that one in mind when I redo the galley counter on Eximius.
Soon it was time to head back to our boat. Dry! Dinner and some Rum. It had been a great day.
During the night it rained a couple of times, and early, before dawn Peggy heard a 5 blast signal - someone was having a problem. It was none of our boats. I was looking around from the cockpit and could see others aboard their boats, most likely they too heard the blasts. It could have been a boat further south by the Boca Inlet, there was definitely no issues on any of the HISC boats. It was tool close to dawn to go back to the bunk, so we got up and I cooked breakfast - Fried Eggs, Ham, Tomatoes, Toast and Coffee. My kind of start to a Sunday.
By dawn a couple of the club boats had left, but tide predicted that we didn't need to leave until nearly noon. Chip on Stargazer was waiting for us to move as he was concerned that he might drift back toward us if he pulled his anchor being alone on his boat. We stood by the fenders while Chip prepped his boat to pull anchor. Perfect procedure, he had time to secure the anchor to his bow and walk back to his cockpit and navigate away from the anchorage with us having to even wipe our brow.
At 11:30 we decided to head out for the 11:40 bridge opening, Peggy got the cockpit ready as I prepared to pull then anchor. We turned around to go West along the North side of the Lake, past the temporary marker due to the broken permanent green marker in the North West Corner of the lake, than South towards Camino Real Bridge.
The motor back was almost uneventful except for the weather. As we neared Hillsboro Inlet, it started to rain, and then it really rained! We had our lightweight foulies on, and the rain quickly soaked through them, it got so bad that we had to put the running and steaming lights on due to the poor visibility.
But, other than the rain, we made great time all the way back to the New river. We did need to visit a PumpOut and there are several on the South side of the New River either side of 3rd Avenue Bridge. Our first stop was at Sailboat Bend, just east of the bridge, we were focused so much on the approach to the dock that we missed the signs, yes, more than one, that warned of Shoal Area. Just as we turned parallel to the dock we felt the bottom. Good news was that we were within stepping distance of the dock so I was able to get ashore and tie up the lines. We were right next to a pumpout station, but it did not seem to be working. I walked the path from the East end to the bridge, but could not see a control panel to turn on the pumpout timer. We're stuck for about an hour with the tide rising to high tide in two, so not worried.
A fellow sailor walked over and commented on the shoal area. Turns out, he lives aboard his boat a few docks West of us but had previously docked here. He was very aware of the shoal area and pointed out that they disappear just a few yards further West, but the overhanging tree was a constant pain as it dropped debris on his boat all day long. Still, it seemed we could just move forwards once the boat floats.
Once I saw the boat bob about, I took the lines off the cleats and walked the boat forwards off of the shoal area, easy. There was a large catamaran further ahead by I only wanted to move about 20' West of our original position. That's when I found out how strong the current was at that point of the tide. The stern moved off quicker than I could wrap a line around a nearby cleat and the boat was doing a 180 all on it's own. I pulled in on the bow line and cleated up, the boat completed it turn clearing the other boat by about 10' phew! Another lesson learned. Peggy came up from below and noted we had moved, apparently the move was subtle enough to not freak her out down below. So we prepped for moving to the other side of 3rd Avenue Bridge where there were more pumpout stations.
We docked adjacent to a pumpout that had a hose and looked in good condition and I headed down the dock path to find the control panel - not to be found! Remember it's Sunday afternoon, but the dock notice states that they are available 8am to 5pm, so I called the New River Dockmaster via cellphone. The very helpful guy answered and walked me through to the location of the pumpout timer control. It's located on the North side of the Smokers Park Monument sign (it is nicely painted with local scenic art right now), there's a small metal lidded box, just lift the flap and the timer is inside. I set it for 20 minutes and then high tailed it back to the boat, that's about a 5-7 minute walk, but I jogged back. At the pumpout there is valve that has to be open and a button above it that has to be pressed to open the vacuum line. I had already setup the hose with our own poop connector, so it only took a few minutes of holding the button in to empty the holding tank. Like a good neighbor, once the tank was empty (and Peggy had added a gallon of fresh water to flush it out) then I disconnected the hose from our adapter and dunked the hose into the river, a few seconds holding the button down cleared any poop residue from the hose. All done.
We called Andrews Avenue bridge before casting off the lines and joined in with some passing traffic to go under the bridge and head up the remaining part of the New River.
Today's trip started at 11:30am and we arrived at the first pumpout station around 3:00, just 3 1/2 hours. That's reaching all of the bridges with no wait time, pushing the boat on a couple of the legs, but not overdoing it.
Back at our dock, we tied up, spun the boat Stbd side to for the next trip. Packed up and loaded the truck and headed home. Time for a shower, some wine and dinner.
Takeaways from this weekend.
If we're going to move the boat along the dock, don't do it alone.
Use the waterproof cellphone covers before getting into the dink - my phone's usb charging port died and it cost $95 for a wireless charging station.
Use the galley oven more often, it smoked pretty bad, but worked great once that cleared.
We really could do with a Tank Monitoring System so that the holding tank poop level is not just a guess.
Install a T with cap to enable easy clearing of the through hulls for the engine and the Air conditioning raw water supplies.
Use the generator to run the AC overnight, way to sweaty here in SoFla in the summer.
I'm hoping for some input from local (South Florida) Sailors on this trip.
We took a driving weekend up to St. Augustine at the end of August (appropriately) and checked out the Anchorages, Moorings and Dock options close to the St. Augustine Municipal Marina, we also chatted to a couple of sailors that were visiting the area by boat.
So, we're looking at cruising North from Port Everglades with possible destinations of anywhere between here and Jacksonville (St. Johns River)
If you have cruised in this area and have any input I would appreciate that. And yes, We have access to Active Captain, The Waterway Guide, Navionics, and Garmin Maps. It's the Local knowledge we're looking for.
Major Points of Entry in from Ocean to Florida.
Despite one of the highest boating densities on the East Coast of the USA, there are surprisingly few Inlets from the Ocean between Jacksonville & Miami, for our trip which will be from Port Everglades, these are the Inlets that will allow our boat passage (draft restriction of 5'7")
Port Everglades - 11nm
Hillsboro Inlet - 36nm
Lake Worth Inlet - 52nm
Fort Pierce - 30nm
Sebastian Inlet - (Fixed Bridge) 10ft. 35nm -> 65nm.
Port Canaveral - 58nm
Ponce De Leon Inlet - 100nm
St. Johns River Entrance
Total Distance as the Condor Flies to St. Johns River - About 300 nm. But we'll add 20% to that for going around the corners. So about 360 nautical miles. If we 'Sail' or 'Motor' we'll be doing around 5knts or better.
Which will take about 72 hours of sailing and, realistically we would sail about 6 hours a day, so a 12 day trip if we didn't take any excursions, which we will!
We can look forward to a 24 day trip plus time off, let's say a month.There's a challenge. We're not committed to going all the way to St. Johns River, just going to Lake Worth would be a good start, but I do favor the longer trip. We have motored from Stuart to our Dock, but that was our delivery trip from the boat purchase to our dock in Fort Lauderdale, we really didn't have time to stop and look around any of the marina/anchorage areas on that trip.
A quick and dirty day# plan:
Home dock to Port Everglades to Hillsboro Inlet - 4 hours.
Hillsboro Inlet to Lake Worth - 9 Hours
Day at Lake Worth
Lake Worth to Fort Pierce 12 Hours (long day)
Day at Fort Pierce
Fort Piece to Sebastian Inlet - 7 Hours
Day at Sebastian
Sebastian Inlet to Port Canaveral - 9 Hours
Day at Port Canaveral
Port Canaveral to Ponce De Leon Inlet 13 Hours (long day)
Day at Ponce De Leon
Ponce De Leon to St. Johns River - 20 hours ( Overnight)
After working at cleaning the hull for over a week and not feeling ashamed at how grotty our boat looked, we loaded her up for the short trip down to Bahia Mar for the 2017 HISC Independence Day Cruise.
Saturday we left the slip around 3pm and arrived without incident at Bahia Mar by 4pm as planned. From our previous arrivals there and recent arrival at the Big Game Marina in Bimini, we were a lot more prepared to make a Pro arrival. We prepped the boat with lines ready at the Bow and Stern and Amidships on both sides of the boat, fenders ready to deploy and a note pad to write down the Slip position during the radio call to the Bahia Mar.
We were designated to Slip H828 which is in the North Basin, Eastern most dock facing A1A port side to when tied up aft end in.
When we arrived, we could see Esprit Du Vent, Bob & Pat's boat already tied upon the next dock. Plan was to dine out with Pat, Bob, Pierre and Åsa of Charity. Dinner was at the B just over the street on the East side of A1A.
Pat led me to the Mermaid Show while Bob & Peggy confirmed the reservation. Once Pierre & Åsa arrived, we sat down for a delicious dinner. I'll add 'Two Beet Salad' to my list of favorite dinners.
Pierre & Åsa returned home after the dinner as they live just about 10 minutes away from the Bahia Mar and they planned to bring their boat to the dock on Sunday.
Sunday we went out for a day sail on Eximius with Pat & Bob, just cruising around outside of the Port Everglades channel. Not a lot of wind, but hey, we had nowhere to go in a hurry and it was a beautiful day on the water. And sometimes it's really worthwhile just to sit back and enjoy, relax and let the Autohelm do it's thing.
Back at the Dock, Peggy took a bunch of pics as club boats started to fill in the empty slips. We ended up with about a dozen club boats, another dozen boats from the Seabird power boat club, and probably over 100 boats around the marina.
The Bahia Mar was having a problem with the marina bathrooms and showers and they were all closed off for repairs. The hotel provided a room that we could use for showers, but it was not very well managed. Peggy & I waited 45 minutes for the room to become vacant and were then told that the current occupants would be at least another hour! We didn't make a fuss, why spoil our mood, and so we returned to our boat to have a shower on board. Several other club members commented on the poor state of the room when they were able to use it. Good idea but bad implementation.
Bahia Mar was not the only one having a problem! Our AC quit and in the Florida Sun in July that's no fun! After our experience in Bimini last month, I figured the problem was a blocked raw water supply line and that was it. So, using a a hose spout, I back flowed water through the Raw Water system and was able to clear the blockage. We need to do something about that. Joe - Rhapsody, told me about Barnacle Buster and I was able to order some online for pickup at the local West Marine Store. So I have job 1 for when we get back to the slip. The AC required back washing several times over the weekend, but at least it kept us cool over night which was really important in this heat.
We dined on board Sunday & Monday, just being a bit frugal as dining out tends to hit $100 most nights. But that meant we had the chance to chat with many of the other Club members which is always a treat. We learnt about things to do in places that we plan on visiting later this year. In particular, we sat aboard Diversion and had the chance to grill Bob & Joyce about their cruise up to St. Augustine. We're going there in a couple of weeks to celebrate Peggy's birthday and later this year we plan on sailing up there. Getting that kind of personal experience is a huge plus and stories of their adventures are always worth while.
Tuesday, July 4th arrived. I got up and made coffee & breakfast then dressed ship! Ironically, Eximius was the only boat in the marina that was dressed up for the 4th. Come on guys! It reminded me of the time we were in France aboard a Destroyer alongside an American ship and one of our Petty Officers took a tray of Tea over to the US Skipper - great sense of humor on both sides of the dock and both sides of The Pond.
Later that day we helped with the setup of the Celebration at the Skippers room at Bahia Mar, most of the work was done by the Host boat crews - Bob & Pat, Pierre & Åsa. They must have been exhausted with the number of balloons they had to inflate.
Food & Drinks started to arrive around 4:45pm (remember the HISC Cruising rule - Get there early - Get there Hungry & get there sober!). Bob & Pat had set up their Jeopardy game, the Jenga blocks were ready to grab the attention of the first players and the Billiards table was just crying out for someone to setup the balls and prove how skillful they thought they really were! The Seabird club guys started to arrive, kids, adults, everyone just joined in the fun. Food - Fantastic! everything from Salads to Hams, Beans to Pulled Pork, Coffee to Vodka, and, oh! those deserts by Pat Schuldenfrei! Peggy took a bundle of pics and I have posted them on the HISC smug mug site (visit hisc.org to find the link) and I also put them in a video clip.
Tuesday night the Fireworks were just off Fort Lauderdale Beach. Several of the club members went down to the beach - not our thing - We just walked to the end of H dock and the end of the T pier where we had a great view of the 30 minute awesome Fireworks Display in company with Bob & Joyce Tiger - Diversion.
Wednesday morning it was time to take the flags down, assist some of the club members with departure from the Bahia Mar and then, finally, for us to cast off. We're getting better at doing this and managed to leave the dock without so much as a puff of smoke from our Diesel.
We headed out behind Jeff & Janice - Cheshire, Joe & Barbara - Rhapsody, Bob & Joyce - Diversion as everyone else was leaving early. We were the last ones to leave the dock. Motoring under 17th Street bridge into the turning basin, we raised our sails and headed out of the Port Everglades Channel. The wind was from the East, so we furled the Jib and motored out to the outer marker, then letting the jib fly, we turned to the South East leaving the Port behind us.
We set our sails for a SE course and headed out for a relaxed sail. The weather decided to go dark to the South of us, so we turned back towards the North, with the Gulf Stream and flew up past the Everglades entrance. On the radio, we heard Cheshire & Pegasus call each other as they approached the Hillsboro Inlet to the North of us. By that time, I'm sure that Pierre & Åsa were already tied up at their dock just North of Bahia Mar.
We missed the dark weather as it turned and passed over Hollywood to the South West of us. So we did a lazy run back into Port Everglades with the wind behind us and barely making 4 knots, which was fine as we need to time our arrival at the slip to be at least 2 hours after low tide.
Ambling back under the bridges was easy, we only had to turn a couple of doughnuts before 7th Avenue Bridge to await the opening, simply because we were not in a hurry and didn't need to rush after the boat ahead of us to get through the bridges.
We called 11th Avenue Bridge - Mary was on duty - and it opened. We motored through but then had nearly an hour to kill before getting back to the dock. So we dropped anchor just West of the bridge and had a late lunch of Snackables. Come 16:30 we pulled anchor and slowly approached our slip without incident.
It took us about an hour thirty to pack up our bags, move the food to the coolers and cart if all to the truck. We also moved a couple of Palm Tree fronds that had dropped into the yard / canal rather than leave them to rot. Then we took the drive home.
A relaxed weekend but we were still exhausted! Go figure! Now we're already looking forward to next year - not sure if it will be at the Bahia Mar, but things can change a lot in a year.
Now, well, we're planning our trip to St Augustine in a few weeks to celebrate Peggy's Birthday, that should be a great trip and we hope to check out the city marina with the intent of sailing up there later this year.
Time to fix a few more things on the boat - It's just fun to sail, to motor and to fix!
