Adventures of Obiewan and Jo

Monday, April 09, 2012

Easter Monday MM914

Dragon Point, (poor dragon)

28deg08.5min

80deg36.1min

Went under 900 miles today isn’t that great; only 860 to go. We are North of Cape Kennedy, way out in the boonies.  It was a very strange day, started out a little hazy and became progressively worse as the day went on, very still, hot and muggy, could not see the next markers for a while, thank god for the Garmin, then all of a sudden as we came out of Haulover Canal, the wind picked up and blue everything away, also became cooler.  We picked our way thru some very shallow water to arrive at our anchorage for the night, just south of New Smyrna Beach in Mosquito Lagoon.  Actually it turned in to a pretty nice day after all, poor internet coverage out in the boonies but we can live with that. Anchor down at 5PM we did 54 miles to day we are getting pretty good at the anchor stuff. Dinner tonight is Shrimp Scampi and salad. 

We took off at 9:15 chugged out to the first obstacle of the day, the North Fort Pierce Bridge, on demand, no problem.   It is a little cooler than we have been experiencing just a jacket with shorts.  We did have some sail up for a while today but when the magenta line became twisting and winding around islands with not much water we decided to take it down. We arrived at Dragon Point in the Banana River with anchor down at 4:30PM we did 51 miles today.  A little windy but this anchorage seems well protected we pray for calm winds when we are on anchor. We were a little disappointed because we had very few dolphins, the last time we were here we had a whole  pod. We had Tolipa tonight, with rice and asparagus (KISS), is my motto. We ate our dinner and watched the sun go down, lovely anchorage. 

Harbortown Marina, FP, FL MM965

We walked to the Farmers market down town, lots of stuff there, also fresh veggies.  I did find a Birthday gift for my son Jeff (he is hard to find gifts for). I may copy it for the rest of the, man grillers in my life. The city of Fort Pierce was having an oyster fest we walked around, had some lunch, then took a cab to an auto store for oil and back to the boat to change the oil and grocery shop. Candy picked us up from Publix’s and West Marine (next door to each other) also drove us to a liquor store for Rum.  Than back to the marina we showered, to have dinner with Ben and Candy.  Today is John’s Birthday! We had another wonderful evening with Candy and Ben.

Harbortown Marina, Fort Pierce, Florida MM965

N27deg28.1min-80deg19.6 min

Staying put today the wind is fierce out there, Today is a work day, we took a walk to West Marine, CVS and Publix, had lunch at a little New York (Italian deli) walked back to the boat. John washed Harmony down (she was full of salt) and I did to 4 loads of laundry the good news is they had 4 Machines. That took most of the afternoon, we went to the pool and showered and met up with my friends from Vero Beach Lilly and Bill Taylor.  They took us to Fort Pierce Yacht club, met lots of their friends had a good time. Lilly is a very accomplished artist and had an art Show in the club that night.

Hobe Sound, Florida, MM998.4, 27.2 degrees 80.8

Forgot to mention we went under the 1000 mile marker yesterday. really is difficult to go backwards on the charts.  Moving early so we could have more time when we get to the marina only had a few bridges today and 30 miles that is an easy day. We even had some sail up,  we could not keep it up for long, the wind was gusting up to 28knots and the channel was too narrow, even though there was plenty of water between us and the shore it was all shallow water.  Pulled into Harbortown at 1: PM Went straight to the fuel dock (we learned our lesson in Marathon) as long as the fuel dock is open do not wait till the morning. Then to our slip, great slip, nice long finger pier to get on and off the boat (that is an important consideration) for little people with short legs like me, also had good protection from the wind man grove not far from us. We had A long walk to shore but it felt good to get off the boat and walk.  We went to the pool and just floated for a while, than a shore showers and met Candy and Ben for dinner at the Harbor Cove Restaurant right at the end of our dock.  They are staying in Fort Pierce for the winter, what fun we all had, good to get to know them better.

Loggerhead, Lantana, Florida, N26deg 35.06 & W80deg 02.74te

Left late made our first bridge about 11:45AM only did 10 bridges today.

We found Hobe Sound with out a problem but the wind was blowing something

fierce, it all did not look safe. We chugged around for a while not liking the area,

then I noticed, there was an anchor symbol on the chart (we are using Guy’s charts) about a half a mile farther north in Hobe Sound, we found the perfect spot by a strip of land  protecting us  from the wind coming out of the southeast,

some very nice houses on our left and behind a green Marker on our right,

the exact spot where Guy had the anchor symbol on his chart.  We stayed that way all night did not move. We consumed a lovely dinner watching the sun going

down, other boaters came by and talked to us while they were on their

evening, after dinner boating adventure(something like an evening stroll).

Lake Sylvia, 26deg 06.3min, 80deg 03.9 min

Anchor up heading for the first bridge, the Los Olas Blvd Bridge at 9:45 AM.  Today is bridge day, we did 16 bridges in all, what a job that is, coordinating how many miles between the bridges, what time they open and if the boat can make it in the time allowed. We were doing great 14 down and 3 to go, it was hot and we were tired when I thought we were approaching the Ocean Avenue Bridge, when in reality it was the South East Bridge. John was busy with other things, I was doing everything myself the bridge tender became abusive and nasty with me but finally opened his bridge because it was on demand.  Over the radio someone, said, “Get His Last Name”. The last bridge the Lantana Bridge was open for repairs did not have to ask for an opening.

We stopped for the night at Loggerhead Lantana, went straight to the beautiful pool, I swam laps which felt good and we also included a drink in my bag.  Took showers and went out to dinner at “The Old Key Lime Pie House” (great Key Lime Pie) which was a nice walk from the Marina.

Monday, April 2, 2012, No Name Harbor, outside Miami

Pulled up anchor about 9:30, no wind so we motored all day in the Atlantic Ocean we were in 20 feet of water and could see the bottom, seaweed etc. that was exciting. Also passing all the tall building along the shore of Miami and Hollywood it was amazing to see all the smog above the major cities. I was at the helm when we were approaching the cut at Port Everglades, there were two huge container ships one coming out and one going in the entrance, and we waited a few min for the 17^th Street Bridge and entered Lake Sylvia about 3PM, with the anchor down about 3:45.  Time to read and catch up on planning for the next day,

All day on the water looking out for other boats and stuff in the water is tiring, my eyes burn at night.  We fixed a good dinner of Pork tenderloin,( John cooked on the grill) wild rice and asparagus,  did the dishes and called my sister and went to bed.