IT'S SUNDAY. I'M ON VACATION, AND I'M SAILING, DAMMIT

It is blowing 20 knots, gusting over 30. The current is with the wind. It appears these sailors went downwind first. Now they are trying to get back.

PINEAPPLE

We have come to love pineapple when they can be had for less than $3.00, which is a good part of the time. It is amazing that pineapples are sometimes priced at $5.00 or $6.00.

Mom, this is what you are are missing!

RECRUITING

Members of the Atlantic Fleet of the Island Packet Navy recruit wherever and whenever.


One IP Captain suggests of these three, one fighter, two distractions!

T RAY'S

We possibly found the best greasy spoon diner in the world! T Ray's is probably best known for hamburgers, but it is one good breakfast. Eggs over easy. Two big sausage patties. Grits that a fork will stand up in. A biscuit as big as a saucer. And, good coffee, finally.


T Ray's does not advertise. Someone just has to tell you about the place. T Ray's fills the right three quarters of an Exxon station.


That is T Ray in the pink hat and shirt in the first picture. And, yes, you can eat, and get gas!

ST AUGUSTINE TO FERNANDINA BEACH

Anchor up at 06:30. Through the Temporary Bridge of Lions soon thereafter. Out the St Augustine Inlet with some swells before sunrise. Right into the Atlantic Lake!

Winds were forecast Southeast 10 to 15 knots. That would have been a perfect ride. As you can see below we found very light winds.


Ron is focusing on becoming a sailor. He drove most the day.

Barry took the wheel from Ron when we found some wind in the ICW after coming off the ocean at the St John's River. All in all we only got to sail about 20% of the time. We possibly should have stayed in the Ocean but Barry got to practice controlled gybes as we meandered throught the ICW.

FORT ISLAND PACKET

Island Spirit and Charmed, sailing vessels of the Atlantic Fleet of the Island Packet Navy, have successfully captured a fort in northeast Florida! Catspaw assisted, defending offshore. Tiller, with his exceptional night vision, stood sentry against advancing enemy ships and desires special mention.

Safe anchorage in the Matanzas River is now secure within 100 yards of the Fort for the entire Navy. However, be careful. Fly proper colors as you approach. Vessels without will be presented one warning shot across their bow. Vessels without will certainly be sunk if they then close on the Fort.

SNUBBED FOR HIGH WINDS

It all started with a steel chain hook. Steel because the hardware store in Sag Harbor did not have a galvanized hook. The hook tied to the middle of thirty feet of three strand nylon worked great until the hook rusted so badly it had to be discarded.

Next was a galvanized hook. That worked all of one night in Cocoa. Why it wore through the line is anyone's guess, but at anchor up the next morning the snubber was in two pieces, each piece hanging limp from a bow cleat.

So now, a simple rolling hitch tied to the anchor chain.

(The Captain of Cat's Paw would be proud of me for returning to simple.)

STAYSAIL (FOLLOW UP)

The facts: solo sailor, Mosquito Lagoon, moderate chop, wind 100 to 110 degrees apparent, eight to thirteen knots, staysail added 0.1 to 0.3 knots SOG, for a final speed of high fives, low sixes.

BAD DAY

It is not that we are looking for them, but we seem to see a fair number of bad things that happen on the water. These pictures show a 105 foot Feadship that learned there was not enough water at the dock in Ft Lauderdale at low tide. She sat like this for at least thirty six hours, through at least one next high tide and was reportedly still unable to get off. Two tow boats drug her off and rushed her to a boat works facility.

Charmed has bumped the bottom for sure. We have bumped over, and we have had to back up and go a different way. We have thankfully not been aground hard such that we needed assistance or such that we strained anything except nerves.

We have unlimited tow insurance. Even though our choice of tow service covers us in all waters, we think about backing up our one policy with the one from the other guys. When aground, we think it is important to get help from the nearest, most responsive service.

HATTERAS ON THE ROCKS

Unfortunately this Hatteras drug and landed on the rocks on the north end of Pumpkin Key. This tow boat was unable to get the Hatteras off. A second larger tow boat arrived and did. Aftermath, no water coming into the bilge and "some vibration at 1500 rpm."

Put out lots of chain when the shore is behind you!

STUCK IN THE SAND AT HURRICANE HARBOR

A beautiful classic sailing vessel attempted the entrance to Hurricane Harbor at lower than low water. The shoal stopped her. She draws 6.5 feet. Her backup was to offload a neighbor, who brought out a sportfisherman to pull her free.

BIRDS WALK ON WATER ON ICW?

Well, okay, these birds are not actually walking on water (as if you couldn't guess). Nor are they walking on a sandbar. These birds are actually on small sticks placed there to attract them so they can fertilize the seagrass. The seagrass in turn acts as a filter and protects the reef. We learned all this from Ben, who gave us a tour of nearby Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park (see slide show).

MARATHON MINIVOUS TWO

At Keys Fisheries:

 

CHARMED  Debbie and Craig

KAIROS  Alli and Chuck

PAPILLION  Jon, The Famous One

PLAN SEA  Loretta and Jim

OPTIMYSTIQUE  Judy and William

TANGO  Lana and Bob

WIND WHISPERER  Barbara and Terry

 

Unfortunately WITCH OF ENDOR  did not attend.

COCONUT FOOTBALLS

Mac, a good friend, has a good job. But, he is ambitious. He is always thinking. He has opened a gift store in Key West. His best branded product, Coconut Footballs! Place your order with me for a special discount.

Below are Debbie, Jean and Dan, displaying some of the available footballs. They can be customized!

MARATHON MINIVOUS

Dockside Bar and Grill provided the place.  Steff provided the service.  A casual minivous of the following boats:

ALTER EGO  Audrey and Griff

CHARMED  Debbie and Craig

KESTREL  Ed

OPTIMYSTIQUE  Judy and Bill

PLAN SEA  Loretta and Jim

TANGO  Lana and Bob

PAPILLION and WITCH OF ENDOR are here, but we could not raise them to have them join us.

ISLAND PACKETS IN MARATHON

At first it was disappointing. Two hundred plus boats and just two Island Packets! We could only look to the Krogen crowd for society. But then way deep in the harbor we found the IPs all nestled together. There are a half dozen of the fleet here. Enough for a Marathon Minivous.

MILLER TIME

The bump in the night was at three AM. We both bolted out of bed to find Miller Time, a fifty eight foot cruiser, up against Charmed. Pounding on their superstructure woke them. Their anchor had dragged in the calmest of conditions.

Miller Time had about twelve feet of rode out in water ten feet deep. We watched them retrieve it. The reply to the question of how much rode was out, “we have plenty out.” In ten feet of water and all chain rode, Miller Time should have had from forty five to seventy five feet of rode out.

GIRLS ROWING

Odd, harsh, and loud language broke the silence this morning. Thoughts of what, who, where’s the construction crew, ran through my mind as I raced into the cockpit. Whoa, turn around, and get properly dressed. It was a University of Miami Girls Rowing team. The coxswain of that team would make any sailor blush, or at least row like mad!

MIJAMI

With due respect to Captain Stengel, you just can’t say you have experienced cruising the east coast until you have spent considerable time in Miami.  It is easier and cheaper and more comfortable than New York City.  It gives you much the same, attractions, arts, humanities, sciences, services.  The gurls are way more beautiful, and they wear way less clothes.

First, the weather.  You just can’t complain when the weather is over eighty during the day in January and February, and a bit below seventy at night.

Second, the Columbian and Cuban food.  You just can’t complain about a $6.00 breakfast that includes bistec, huevos, arepa, arroz, frijoles, and café con leche.  Then, when you want a great jazz bar with more elegant food and entertainment, you go to Van Dykes!

Third, you find two Publixes within an eighth mile of the dinghy.  (Granted the dinghy tie up is less than ideal.  It is odd tieing up to a bridge and clambering over the guardrail, but it is normal here.)

Fourth, you find Enterprise Rental Car within a sixteenth mile of the dinghy.

Fifth, you have Miami International within a $20.00 cab ride of the dinghy.

Sixth, you find a world class beach less than a mile from the dinghy.

And it goes on and on . . . .

ANSWERING A MAYDAY

Charmed was just out Angelfish Creek for a short trip north in Hawk’s Channel to Key Biscayne and Hurricane Harbor, when a calm and clear “mayday, mayday, mayday,” was heard on Channel 16. We immediately turned greater attention to the radio. There was no response from the Coast Guard. A bit later the mayday was repeated. Again, it was calm and clear. Again, no response from the Coast Guard, or anyone. We were surprised. We also know we tried to contact the Coast Guard more than one time here in south Florida to determine whether Government Cut was open to us. We know our radio works well and cannot explain why the Coast Guard did not respond to us. We were pondering what to do when the mayday call came again.

We responded to the call. To two men in a twenty foot Proline in the ocean off Elliot Key. The engine wouldn’t start. The anchor just went over the side unconnected to the boat. There were no injuries. There was no distress. Lifejackets were available. Charmed relayed the message to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard did respond to Charmed, and the Coast Guard used us to gather additional information. Interesting, once the Coast Guard was involved Tow Boat US also got right involved and dispatched a tow boat. Tow Boat US could not hear the Proline either.

Locating the Proline precisely was challenging. The men claimed they were two miles offshore and could see Adam’s Key. Adam’s Key is on Biscayne Bay. But, the Proline was drifting safely. The weather was calm. Finally another boat hailed Charmed to tell us the Proline was near Green 17 in Hawk’s Channel, around a number of other boats, including them. They confirmed the Proline was safe.

During the time Charmed was involved, the Coast Guard periodically asked us questions. Some seemed irrelevant. Tow Boat US initially claimed a five minute ETA. Thirty minutes later, they stated their ETA would be thirty five minutes. Once Tow Boat US got to the Proline, we stopped paying attention.

It is surprising VHF communications were so poor for the Coast Guard and Tow Boat US. At worse, the Coast Guard was twenty nautical miles away. Lesson learned for Charmed, if a mayday call goes unanswered, respond immediately. This call did not require immediate attention. It was not even a proper mayday. However, you just never know . . . .

MORE ON SHARK FISHING

While we think it cool to be able to jump on "Monster Fishing" and go out into the ocean and catch a shark, we are now reading the story of Kon-Tiki and find it a bit more fascinating. 1947. A sailing raft made of balsa logs with a bamboo hut atop. Six guys. 4500 miles from Peru to Polynesia. A day's catch included 9 sharks. The best part ... the sharks were caught by hand!

SWIMMING WITH THE FISHES

Between Boca Chita and Ragged Keys there is an unnamed pass with a wreck, a few ledges, and a few holes. At high tide, slack current, you have about twenty minutes of safe snorkeling.

Among the bajillions of small fish, you see sharks, rays, snook, and blowfish.

A nurse shark, about four feet long:


A spotted ray:

I must get better with the underwater housing for my digital camera. There are twenty buttons and levers to operate a Canon Powershot S1 IS. You can't read what they do when they are in the housing. You have to remember.

CLASS ON COCONUTS

There are some things you just cannot learn from a book . . . .

Small green coconuts have soft gel like meat that you can eat with a spoon. Large brown coconuts have thicker meat that tastes more like what you buy in the store. The meat of larger brown coconuts must be carved off with a sharp knife.

Medium to large green coconuts have sweet milk. Even when the Sun is up and heating everything it shines on, coconut milk is cool.

Harvesting coconuts is fairly easy. Opening a hard brown coconut is as simple as throwing it down on a hard surface, hard on its end. You get what you get when it busts open.

Green coconuts can be opened methodically. First, you carve off one slice from the branch or stem end:

Then you carve off another slice:

And another slice:


Once at the three eyes of the coconut, you poke around for the one that is soft, and open the coconut at that eye. You end up with a fine drink from a fine drinking vessel:

VIOLATION OF USCG REGULATIONS?

We wonder if this cruiser is violating the U.S. Coast Guard rule with respect to the number of guests permitted onboard:

Notice the plastic owl, which is supposed to scare birds away.

MONSTER FISHING

Real or not:

We were excited to see this "catch" and called over to the guys on the boat that they must have had fun! They replied affirmatively. Then we saw the boat again a few days later with a plastic shark that looked suspiciously similar to the one in the photo. Hence the question.

WHISPERING SEA AND CHARMED ACROSS THE BAY

Whispering Sea, pictured above, with Tom, Joyce, and Skipper aboard is holding in upper Biscayne Bay, waiting for a weather window to the Bahamas. Charmed is just enjoying new water and geography. Whispering Sea decided to leave No Name Harbor for a mooring at Crandon Park Marina. Charmed followed.

It was an IP day, with winds strengthening from the high teens in the morning to over twenty later in the day. Whispering Sea carried full main and staysail. Charmed carried staysail and single reefed main. Charmed's Admiral will not allow more than 15 degrees of heel, registered objectively by a leanometer in full view on the coach roof instrument panel.

Whispering Sea with Downtown Miami behind:

Charmed:

MIJAMI DAY SAIL

Yesterday with VIP guests we cast lines at 10:30 am, and headed out of Government Cut for a daysail. Sailing east with light winds from the southeast and head seas we made only 2 to 3 knots boat speed at 50 degrees apparent. Falling off to 80 or 90 degrees provided higher speed. Charmed sails comfortably about half wind speed in close to broad reaching conditions, when being set by a head sea. Boat speed falls to a third of wind speed when Charmed points to 35 or 40 degrees apparent against head seas. Once winds strengthened to 9 knots or better we were able to point 55 degrees apparent or better against the seas and make half wind speed. Charmed plows along on train tracks.

After finding the edge of the Continental Shelf and having depth exceed the limit of the Raymarine instrument at about 500 feet we turned back toward Miami. With the light winds and following seas, we were able to easily sail 40 degrees apparent and make half wind speed. In winds 6, 7, 8 knots we were able to comfortably run downwind, with boat speed only 2 knots, but with jib filled. When the wind gets to 10 knots, Charmed will make 6 knots in any direction from about 40 to 160 degrees apparent, with fair seas. Above 10 knots performance just gets better.

Our sail ended after dodging a huge Maersk container ship who wanted Government Cut the same time as us, and after learning the Main Channel is sometimes closed to recreational vessels without securites or some other warning except a police boat zooming at you when enter it.

VERO BEACH WELCOME

What do two Island Packet Captains get when they arrive Vero Beach, Florida,
two days out of Beaufort, South Carolina? An IP welcome with IP Flags
aflying!

Carey and Craig departed Beaufort Monday, January 7, 2008, at 09:30, on Catspaw, IP 380.22, on a fair tide. We left Port Royal Sound for the
Atlantic and headed south. After 300 or so offshore miles on a heading
within 5 degrees of 180 Magnetic, and having exited the Atlantic at the Fort
Pierce Inlet, we met our welcoming committee just after noon, January 9, at
the Highway 60 Bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway in Vero Beach. The
committee included Radeen and Hayden, Island Spirit, IP 35.165, and Debbie.

Catspaw, Island Spirit, Charmed, Whispering Sea, IP 420.**, Plan Sea, IP
380.33, are the fleet members currently lying Vero Beach. Life is IP Good!

NAVIGATION ON THE ICW

For our nonsailing friends:

Daymarks and floating buoys mark the Intra Coastal Waterway, the highway we have traveled on and off for a thousand miles. Marks and buoys are a certain shape, a certain color, and a certain number, providing three chances for proper identification in varying visibility.

In this first picture you can see color and shape reasonably well:

In this picture you cannot see color or number, but you can see shape:


The two pictures above were taken within minutes of each other, one forward and one aft. The sun is ahead of us. The marks ahead are backlit making color and number difficult to see until they are very near.

To make things challenging, marks and buoys along the ICW also have a waterway designator. See the yellow triangles in the pictures below. They confirm these are waterway marks, and they tell you which they are by shape. The yellow designator could also be square in shape. All is simple when the mark shape and waterway designator shape are the same, as in the first picture. When they are different shapes like in the second picture it gets complicated. This might be the case where the ICW follows or intersects creeks, inlets or rivers. The second picture indicates both the left edge of the Beaufort River off Port Royal Sound, when returning, and the right edge of the ICW, when returning, hence the different shapes.

STAYSAIL AND HOYT BOOM

With due respect to a fine Island Packet sailor who has tossed the boom overboard, the staysail and Hoyt boom on Charmed will remain as rigged by the factory! And I opine, no IP should get sold without the boom and staysail, now an option on some models.

Today was a pleasant and fast downhill run from Cocoa to Vero Beach. Wind was 20 knots, with gusts and long periods of wind well over thirty knots. Direction varied from about 150 degrees apparent starboard tack to 150 degrees apparent port tack as we meandered down the waterway. The staysail added well over a half knot, maybe a whole knot at times, to motoring speed, and it smoothed the ride on the “very rough ICW”. There were whitecaps the whole way and two to three foot seas in the bigger lakes.

The picture above shows the staysail set from the cockpit. You can see you need the boom to manage the clew of the sail in heavy winds from behind. Singlehanding the sail including controlling the gybes was easy even in the narrow waterway.

AW COME ON! SNOW FLURRIES IN MELBOURNE FLORIDA

After a wonderful warm, even hot, fall and beginning of winter, we found ourselves reading weather reports that included snow flurries for our trip from New Smyrna Beach to Vero Beach. While sailing in New England we never had to worry about snow while sailing. Now sailing in Florida we have to worry!

Yesterday and today were without a doubt the coldest days ever spent sailing on Charmed. Temperature measured on the boat remained in the forties. Wind chills measured in the mid thirties. We are glad temperatures last night were as low as they will get this weather event, and hope we are gone for the next event.