Additional Photos ICW

Here are some additional photos from our trip south.. I will post another blog about Cooley's landing over the weekend,

Fair winds 

L&T

CHT

another beautiful day 

Osprey are interesting birds to watch. Their cry is a high pitched
sound and I think mating season has begun as we saw pairs by nests

Juniper beach Light house

This was one of the Sailing Vessels in Palm Marina in West
Palm beach.. 

The tender 

Bridge procedures... Each bridge has an opening time..
on the hour -half hour... quarter- three quarter hour.
Some tenders are sticklers and will only open exactly at those times.
Some bridges are on demand.Some tenders are not very prompt in answering a hale, some are
great, chatty, and will  hold the bridge offering advise or calling ahead to next bridge.
After the tender sounds the alert it usually takes 5 to ten minutes to clear traffic,
lower arms, and then raise bridge.
While all this is happening the boats that are waiting are trying not to run into the bridge,
each other,a ground, run over a smaller boats, kayaks or fishing boat ( which can all fit under the bridge) and
to add excitement a power boat HAS TO BE FIRST IN LINE AND THROUGH THE
BRIDGE,  they will roar up, create wakes that you need to deal with.
One or two a day are fun
five or six a day -- interesting
18 in one day.............. drop anchor and grab a drink

Tidbits from the ICW

Hello everyone... we have landed in Fort Lauderdale, revisiting our stay at Cooley's landing from 2012. While we are here we will get a new Doyle sail pack, the AC recharged, worked done on the on our Generator, connect the wind generator, a lot of re-stacking, packing, knitting, and  other assorted 'honey do's"

We arrived at the Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach on Wednesday 1/7 - had a wonderful visit with 2012 traveling friends Dale, Patty and Oliver. Patty and I went shopping and I got a tour of Vero Beach. There was a very blustery day not worth the hassles of tossing around while waiting for bridges so we stayed on one extra day. We anchored out several days on our trip and had one very expensive night at Palm Beach Marina... wow the boats there. 

Here are the Photos in random order... 

Enjoying Florida sunshine

T&L 

CHT

We had a brisk wind while traversing Mosquito Lagoon.. Unfurled
Jib and and a good 2 -3 hour sail.  Yes we were running the engine
but just on idle 

not bad for just a Jib

Sun set and a calm night on the anchor

It is amazing how flat and still this body of water can be

Solar powered personal water craft, the gentlemen
driving said she can do 5 knts

a Shell getter... not sure fisherman is correct..
water temp was 66 degrees 

dang if I know, how or what this was

we went through a total of 28 bascule bridges in 3 days
18 of them in one day.  The bridge operators can be quite
a hoot

yes they do dredge the shallow spots in the ICW

I love the ICW, Always interesting

Early Saturday we left Beach Marina, haze on the water, calm, the promise of 77 degrees. I love the ICW... you never know what will pop up. The water remained calm in the morning and I got some great reflection photos. We had pelicans, hawks, eagles, osprey and various herons and egrets keeping me busy, and I dropped more than a few stitches. We even had a plane take off next to us on the waterway. We turned in at Marineland marina for the evening. Make our way to Vero Beach 40 + nautical miles a day. 

Squadron of pelicans

Hazy sun... I was in capris and t shirt

Large white heron... there were two wood storks, but camera was not handy
so I missed the photo opt. 

a plane, a plane 

Pirate ships at St. Augustine

White Pelicans resting on a sand bat at low tide

Spanish Fort outside of St Augustine

Leaving Lady's Island and the North Atlantic 1/1/2015

Lady's Island Bridge New Years Day

What a way to start the new year.  We left Lady's Island at 7:30 AM and as you can see we had a clear beautiful day to start out.  We wanted to go our in the North Atlantic and avoid all the marsh swamps of Georgia and low tides. It is 20 miles from Beaufort to the deep blue. When we got out we had about 8 to 10 knots of wind ( more or less ) and the waves were rolling 2'. We raised the main and had the jib out shortly after wards and could maintain about 5 kts going in the right direction - south. It was chilly and as the day progressed it was it got darn right cold, gray, misty, rainy, cold... did I mention cold. Tom took the watch and I supplied hot tea, hot coco, hot sandwiches, hot chili.

Tom and I put on our foul weather gear, he got out our safety harness, it got dark around 6:30 with the thick clouds hiding the stars and moon.  As usual we appeared to be the only crazy people out there. We brought down the sail for the night, wind was getting iffy and the rolling waves larger. I took the midnight watch --- and here is what makes it all worth the cold and discomfort. For 1/2 hour we had Right Whale Dolphins, Dolphins and if the stinky fishy breath is an indication I believe we even had Right Whales swimming along side our boat. It was so cool hearing their splash, exhale and seeing fins cut through the waves. We were not alone in our adventure. Around 3 AM the shrimpers and sport fishers dotted the horizon. Tom came back up to bring in the cloudy dawn and our entrance into the St. John River. 

In all we cover 151.7 nautical miles in 29 hours

farewell to Lady's Island Marina

rolling gray seas

coming into St. Johns River Florida

sails up and we are scooting along

Catching up Christmas to New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas, then started getting things button downed and stowed. We saw a weather window  from 1/1 to 1/3 to leave and make Jacksonville Fl. Christmas dinner with Joy and Tom, then New Years Eve dinner with Joy and Tom at Dockside restaurant, fireworks, then friendly talk with the other live aboards at Lady's Island Marina. Tom and I found time to go see the last installment of the Hobbit, stocked up and groceries and Tom installed the new faucet and the AIS. All was ready....

This is my quilt made by our daughter Meghan
the material was some that I purchased in the Bahamas
in 2012 

This is Tom's Quilt made my Meghnan  

Tom modeling his new tool belt

Jennie got us our 50/30 splitter for our boat..
We have already used it twice . This was
a great gift

new faucet for galley sink

Pulling wires through for the new AIS was a mind numbing
back breaking task.... yes it was team work and finally all
were in place.
We now can see and be seen on AIS

Dinner at Dockside New Years Eve