Well we sold both cars and 'a funny thing happened on the way home'. My van leaked brake fluid
and I had gotten use to pumping the brakes before I actually needed them. I drove it to the
tag office and we transfered the title. I fully informed the buyer, the dockmaster at Telemar,
all about the brakes and other fluid leaks and he implied to me he understood. He drove us back
to the marina and did well at all stops...except the last one. NO BRAKES, he screamed before a
ka chunk and a BAM! I couldn't decide whether to open the door and jump or sit still and hope I
don't mess my pants. As the van ever so slowly creeped further over open waters, I just knew we
were gonna get wet. The bumper of the van was caught on the deck of a 40'+ houseboat, "That's
Amore", (I love that boat), and the boat's spring line kept us from rolling in to the water! Whew!
I wanted to bust out laughing, but looking over at the pale face of the new owner, I felt wiser
not to. All ended up OK, a large rope around the van and forks of the forklift raised the front
of the van and rolled it back to it's intended parking spot. Paul had the van towed to the brake
shop and was driving it the next day. Not too much damage to "Amore", 1 bent railing and some
gouges to the fiberglass deck. All in all, very lucky, or blessed, which is probably the more
likely!
The day before we are to leave... What a whirlwind week, month, really the whole year. Lots of folks with lots of good advice, some new, some the same, and even some conflicting. We will take all advice knowing they are given with good intent and are relative to the individuals giving. Some we will use and enjoy, some we will not use and some we will use and wish we hadn't. It's all a part af the adventure.
The day of departure, Wednesday 11/14/00
Out of marina by 1000, lots of well wishers on the dock. Toni took us out past the dragon as I
raised the sails to a NW 10 knot breeze. We were heading south. A pod of dolphins gave us look
around Grant Island, looked like there were some babies with them. With the wind directly from
behind I decided to put the whisker pole on the jib to keep it from flopping. BIG TIP...don't
put the hook through the d-ring on the sail. We were unable to get the whisker pole out of the
sail in a good breeze later that night. If I would have put the pin through the sail instead I
could just pull the pin. But, the hook was there and there we were, sailing past our first
planned anchorage, Sebastian, and into the tight channels of Wabasso. The wind eased around
Wabasso and we were able to pull down the sail and motor. Night had fallen.
We confered and decided
it was a lesson learned and we would just go with the flow and see what was next.
We pulled into Vero Beach around 8:30 pm, no one home, so further south we go. After trying
several "7ft" indicated on the charts that turned into "4ft" we finally anchored in the Mooring's
channel just south of Vero at 10 pm. All is well.
Up anchor at 8:45, Thursday the 15th.
Motored to Ft Pierce around to the south side of the southern Causeway Island. Fairly protected
and deep. Anchor down by noon. There is a grocery and hardware store up to the west of Coronado
"Yacht Club". Good calzones at Kristie's Pizza close by too!. Took solar showers which worked
just fine, (nah-nah-nah Margaret). I had to repair the running lights, the soldier had broke free
from the fuse holder. My K-mart $35 350 watt inverter ran the soldering gun great! It also charges
the laptop in about 20 mins. I found that my arm won't quite reach the bottom of the deep
bilge after dropping a mini-mag flaslight down there. Even after removing the boat's batteries
and battery box! My fingers just did reach the little strap on the end of the light. Whew! Let's
not do that again...OK? BBQ chicken, fried green beans and mashed potatoes for dinner.
Friday & Saturday were spent just hanging out, a little maintenence, a little reading and a little exploring. There is a public park on the SE shore of this bay. It has a smim beach, 2 small boat ramps, tennis and handball courts, kids play/gym area, picnic pavilions, restrooms, (although they are a little too 'public' for Toni's liking), and fresh water outside showers. There is also a beach side of the park just across A1A. Very nice to check out the sea conditions before actually taking the boat around the corner!
Sunday morning Toni baked the "just add water" cake mix, (thanks to Bill & Maryanne on 'Family Feud' for that), only Toni "just added" crushed pineapple and coconut and we saved the chocolate icing for another time. Wouldn't you know it, the propane bottle ran out. We have used this bottle since buying the boat. It came with two, so it was simple to close one valve and open another. I had been trying to run this one out before we left the marina, so I guess it was good to run out before we left the states. Anyway, the cake partially cooked before we realized the gas was out, so the bottom was a little dark but the cake was delicious! I liked the 'more done' part, anyway! I did run the engine for an hour this afternoon to ensure the batteries were up for the night. I belive the inverter and tv take their toll on the batteries and I have a feeling the SSB radio does a little number too. More monitoring will tell!
Monday, sunny but COLD! We are definately fair weather sailors. Didn't want to be in the cockpit
in this weather. We did go in to buy our Thanksgiving turkey...ok, it's a chicken, but we can
play, can't we? Another day just 'retireing'. We are quickly running out of warm shirts and socks,
but the cold weather doesn't appear to hurt the tropical sunsets...
Tuesday, 11/21, some folks from the west coast of Florida ,"Jandavina", anchored next to us and
swung at night to find her stern up on a mound. They just waited for the tide to turn and off
they went.
Wednesday we headed south to Jensen Beach, sailing the whole way. It was cold and the wind was right on our backs. I put up a wind block and it was comfortable, but warm clothes were still the attire of the day. We hiked around the town and found it to be cute and quaint, in a touristy sort of way.
Thanksgiving morning we upped anchor, deciding the traffic would not be bad today. We were right,
though the channel south would not allow us to raise sails, the motoring was peaceful and beautiful
through a scenic section of the intracoastal south of Stuart. Then came the money....
Large waterfront 'homes', with large boats tied to large docks....get the picture?
Jupiter pretty much starts the metropolitan part of the cruise.
The briges are timed here in the greater south Florida area, opening only on the hour, 20 after and
40 after the hour. Not bad, however, if you have a 37' boat who has to wait and circle in a 60' wide
channel, it gets a little close, especially when you are not the only boat waiting.
Gary
~~~_/)~~~
We made it all the way to West Palm Beach, dropping anchor in the NE corner of Lake Worth.
We found a nice dingy landing in the NW corner, just behind a Publix on the end of a very exclusive
shopping area. It is kinda weird to see valet parking at a restaurant ajoining the Eckard's.
The 3rd night we were here, we did the "Jandavina" dance. The wind clocked around to the SW
putting our stern right atop a 4 ft deep mound. We leaned well over and Toni got a bit excited.
While she searched for her rosary, I put out our large anchor to keep us from drifting further
into the shallows. I tried to explain, it was no biggie, all we do is wait for the tide. The tide lifted us off
at about 3am and we motored over to the NW corner of the lake to drop anchor, as it was the only
open spot left. The anchor gave us a little trouble holding, but I figured it was mucky and if
we could just let it settle in, it would provide the hold we needed. And it has. 
Calliope seems to be doing quite well, Toni planted a little yard of rye grass for her belly and she
went right to it! She even runs around and plays in the mornings, then sleeps in the afternoons
just like the condo. She doesn't like the dingy floating behind the boat, I even heard her hiss at
it once, and the big sportfisher boats really frighten her. I don't blame her. I get nervous when
they come at me, too!
We finally had our 'turkey' on saturday the 25th. It was delish! Best turkey I have had yet! It
even beat out Doyle's turkey 'ham'! We have some other things to do around here, and the weather
is not favorable for crossing anyway, so we will stick around here for a while.
Until next time...