Update; 3/19-3/28

Wow, been slacking off big time lately; my apologies. Last posted, Scooter and crew were in St Augustine, on a mooring ball, waiting out a nasty wind event. That eventually downgraded from gale conditions to mere small craft advisory conditions; winds up to 30 kts or so. So, away we went, north up the Tolomato river and associated environs to Harrison Creek. No major events along the way, no spectacular scenery to be mindful of. Pulled in, dropped Bruce,  the ground connector device, dried out the bilge; little more than usual, and settled in for the evening. About 2 in the am, the captain, as is his wont at times, got up to check on things; see if Bruce was doing his job, etc. The night time scenery was absolutely mind boggling. The water was awesomely still, not a ripple to be seen anywhere, the full moon was reflected in all its minute detail, as were the surrounding myriads of stars. A glistening, sparkling carpet, both above and beside Scooter. And out of the night stillness  what should I hear, but the "whufff" of a hunting porpoise. Stunning!

So,up and at'em in the morning; we had a tide timetable to match if we wanted to get thru Jekyll Creek without running aground. Engine room check; "Whoa, whats with all the water?" Bottom line, the heat exchanger on the starboard engine had a hole in it on the raw water side. When the engine ran, so did the water. MacGyver time, as there isn't really any other way. One engine might get us there, but I'm not sure we'd have enough food. So, PC plumbers epoxy, a #10 sheet metal screw, two small flat washers; Mix the "stuff", put the screw thru the washers, then thru the ball of "stuff", squash over the hole, tighten screw, wait 30 minutes; drive on to Brunswick, GA. 1/2 hour engine checks became routine. Got to Brunswick in good form. Asked the yard folks if they could, perhaps, repair the exchanger unit; braze it, etc. Laughable question. OK. Shopped, walked about, washed salt off boat, etc, and moved on. Next stop involved tidal timing for Little Mud River and Hell Gate, so we stopped for the night in Walburg Creek. Easy, peasy, then on to Herb River, just below Thunderbolt, GA. Lots of wind, black clouds and rumbling noise, a quick blast of rain, over and done.

Next morning Scooter and crew moved on to SC and Port Royal Landing Marina, just above Parris Island of USMC fame and pain. Not sure what is with the wind this trip, but we are certainly getting enough to last a while. A pleasant visit to Port Royal and neighboring Beaufort, SC. Provisioned, another term for shopped; (wonder when the other states will require recyclable plastic shopping bags?) Serviced the boat and headed north for Charleston, SC.. Coosaw,  Dawhoo, and Ashepoo rivers all passed under Scooter's keel today. Tomorrow will find us leaving our North Edisto river anchorage and heading into Charleston Harbor for some Harris Teeter experiences, perhaps a walk around that lovely city, tweak some boat issues, and get ready for more northerly travel.

Be safe, be happy, be thankful that Spring has started, and, above all, be careful out there. Catch you on the flip side.

Titusville forward

Eased into Titusville, well, blew into Titusville on a cool afternoon breeze, slipped into the slip (sorry), and settled in for some more Florida time. First item of business was to get the outboard repair guy and the ailing Tohatsu together. Our man, Justin showed up in good time, climbed on the boat, grabbed the starter rope, pulled, and the lil' bugger fired right up. He laughed, I felt a little dumb; certainly puzzled. Shut 'er down, tried a restart; again, and again, and again. I chuckled, and felt a little less dumb, certainly relieved. Bottom line: intermittent kill switch. As a preventative maintenance thing,we decided to update the carburetor. This engine is 8 years old, and sits a lot. Turned out there were some dry rotted gaskets. Also some mods to the needle valve  system on the idle side. So, we wandered around, did some boat maintenance stuff; as in washed the salt off, lubed the upper station throttle cables, etc. Question was asked about maintenance problems on an older boat like Scooter. Knock on wood, other than the holding tank issue, Scooter has been a very well behaved vessel. Problems do arise in any complex piece of  equipment. If you look at it this way: you have 20,000# of plastic wrapped machinery, akin to a small village; sewer plant, power and light producing plants, communication abilities, etc, moving thru an extremely hostile environment; the lack of problems is really an  amazing thing.

In the course of our wandering, we walked by one of the local LEO's. As we passed, he called out "has it been scrubbed". "Whoa". thinks I, "is this some kind of local ordinance?" Turns out he was referring to the shuttle launch planned for that evening. So, we scurried thru the shopping spree, and got back to the marina just in time for a snapshot of the event. Sorry, it was a quick snap with the phone. Man does some amazing things at times.

Speaking of which, our man Justin showed up at 1600 Friday afternoon, put the parts back on the Tohatsu, pulled it a bunch of times; it started and ran smoothly each time, so I figured it was good. I gotta tell you, its hard to go thru life as a slow learner. Next morning, off to the north. Windy, some sun, more clouds than sun perhaps, but still pleasant enough. Got to Daytona Beach and parked behind the Seabreeze bridge. Speaking of man doing amazing things,  I want to know how they get those cranes up there.

Out of Daytona, bound for St Augustine; windy and gray enough to run from the lower helm station. Overall, a good run, some scattered rain showers, but nothing that caused any problems. On arrival in the St Augustine mooring field, I rediscovered one of the issues with running from the lower station; you cannot see the mooring ball at all. Ah, well, after some wind induced veering , and guided by the picker-upper's corrective commentary, we got'er done in reasonable fashion. Once moored, I chose to take the dink in and pay up, etc. Remember it is reallly windy and rough. Mounted the lil'ol Tohatsu on the transom of the lil'ol rubber boat; slid in (literally) squeezed the bulb, choked it, pulled it twice, OK, maybe three times, and off we went, Bear in mind I am now going into  20 kts of wind whilst sitting on the rear tube of the lil boat; the bow is up, and rising ( stay tuned). Engine seems to be  running a bit fast, but I get to the dinghy dock in fairly good form, cut back to idle; "whoa" way too fast. Out of gear, now I'm going backwards; into gear, too fast. As long as you don't hit anything sharp, a rubber boat will bounce. Got in the slot between the finger piers, bounced around 'til I could grab something solid and get shut down. Fun!Took a moment and adjusted the idle speed.  Paid up and headed back to Scooter; With  the wind for the moment, so it was a pretty cool ride. Now, Scooter is a fairly flat bottomed boat, so there is a lot of swinging side to side while at anchor or on a mooring. Plus, the mooring moves as well; plus , well, when I went to idle the wind was so strong that, once again, I was going backwards; powered up, nothing happened... then. wham, in comes the power, up goes the bow; seriously! Finally figured how Scooter was going to move, and stayed centered until I got close enough to grab the swim platform and throw Ginny a line. was kinda like a three stooges moment. Apparently there may have to be some more fine tuning done.

At the moment, we are sitting in the mooring field, listening, and watching as 30-40 mph winds whip everybody around. Hopefully, the forecasts will  prove true and this will slow down by ten tonight. Plan is to head for Jacksonville tomorrow, Then  Brunswick, GA  on Thursday.

Stay safe, look for Spring; Catch you on the flip side.

Northbound

Question has arisen as to who is doing the rowing described in previous posts. Easy, peasy; one sits down, facing the stern, deploys, as in extends,  both oars. Next grab the good arm oar and pull rapidly for three pulls, quickly, but carefully, whirl around on the butt pivot point we are all provided with, grab the other oar, now on the good arm side, and push rapidly 3 times. Repeat as needed to reach the destination. There are, of course, other options.

As an addendum to the whole engine repair journey; yesterday the 85 degree sun/heat, altho' accompanied by a soothing breeze, heated up the gas tank enough to pressurize the whole system. When I bounded off Scooter into the "dink"and tried to get it started: yup, nothing but dripping gas, locked cylinders, etc. So another afternoon of sweat'n cuss. No spark showing; exciter, coil; I dunno... End result is that the lil' ol Tohatsu is tied to the back of Scooter enroute to Titusville's Tohatsu guys for repair, I hope; certainly beyond my pay grade at this point.

So, up and at 'em this morning; refuel, fill tanks that need it, empty those that need to be empty, and head North up the Indian River. We are currently sitting 27 miles south of Titusville, hiding behind the Pineda causeway bridge to duck the NE winds associated with a cold front that is working down Florida.

We'll be in Titusville for a bit, depending on what the repair folks say, then continue north 'til we get there. Be there by Spring, any luck at all; you folks stay warm for now, be happy; be safe.

New plan...and other things

So here we are, still at Vero Beach. First thing that you have to grasp is that once you are attached to the mooring can/ball, you are on your own for transportation to and from shore. A dinghy is a must! Either that or you walk on water; swimming is not a wise choice here.  Well, thas' al'right wid us, bud, 'cause we do have a dink. Another official nautical, "sailor cool" term, Chuckie; dink; aka, rubber boat, dinghy. What doesn't show in the pic, is that the dink has an outboard motor attached to the transom ( the solid part of the boat running between the aft ends of the tubes); clear on that part? The motor, in this case is a Tohatsu 8hp, twin cylinder motor. It will usually drive the "dink" fast enough to scare the pants off you. What makes it even more fun is that the "dink" has an inflatable floor; any chop, or waves and the floor ripples. Kinda wild to experience. Anyway, the combo has been behaving fandamntastically for the whole trip. One of the perks that the city of Vero Beach offers is a free bus that serves the marina and important local entities; Walmart, Publix, etc. We had need to visit those places, so into the dink, PFD's on, pull the starter handle; nothing, after lots of pulls; nothing, not even a pop. Now, mind you, it is about 80, and not a lot of wind; its hot! Flooded? A common thing with these engines. Pull the plugs; can't, don't have a 16mm socket. Call NAPA, they'll send one out. Gotta row in to get it. Fortunately, a nice guy gave us a tow along the way. Got the socket, pulled and dried the plugs; nothing. Got another tow back to Scooter. Boy, we're having fun now! Seeing the flurry of activity around the boat, several experts, nice guys, and certainly well meaning, appeared and offered their services. Talked to some of my people; got more info; all educational. Les' see; plugs are wet, carb has fuel, fuel looks clean coming out of the carb; no spark! Go to "bubba" and the redneck repair guys on the internet. Bottom line step one; by pass kill switch. Did so; pulled cord; up and running! 'Course you can't shut it off; "MacGyvered" it for now.  OK, mobile again, off to town, laundry, etc. Let's do dinner at the local hot spot; we can dinghy over... Great idea.......I must digress a moment. When I was younger, so many moons ago, my father decided I was tolearn how to ride horses and such. Mind, I was still in the snow suit stage. So, Dad goes into the barn, puts me on the back of Pedro, the donkey, grabs the rope, says" here you go" swats Pedro on the Butt, and out the door we went. Good ol' Dad is standing there holding the rope  that is still firmly attached to the wall. Pedro and I quickly reached an agreement; I'd get off,  he wouldn't kick me. So, back to the story; the trip over went smoothly, dinner was adequate, and the trip back to the marina dock was great; twinkling anchor lights, wind in your hair, motor (still) purring. In and out of the dock, heading back to Scooter, crew says" I think I'm holding the wrong rope". " Say, what" says the whiz bang Capt'n. "I don't have the right rope" " I'm holding the side rope, not the front rope" " Ah....soooo" says the Capt'n, now suspecting that the night will not be ending quite according to his plans. Throttle to idle; too late, motor just thudded to a stop. Out with the oars. Stroke, stroke. Tie it up, out with a boat hook, clear line from prop, good to go. Gotta tell you, Chuckie, took a bit longer than the telling. Fun part was shining a light into the infested waters while you waved a shiny arm around hunting for the line. Bait did not used to be part of my personal experience.

All turned out to be well; motor runs fine, folks that now share can # 50 with us are quite good. As to the new plan; after some discussion. looking at weather and some other things, Scooter and crew will be turning North on Tuesday. Timing and the desire to see some things on the way back to the Chesapeake have led us to make the decision.

First half of the journey has been fun, different from the last time we did this, but in an interesting way. We're looking forward to seeing some new spots; maybe a quick revisit to some places we saw on the way down, but, perhaps shorted in the time we spent. Hope you'll stay with us. Catch you on the flip side!

Vero Beach

Also known as "Velcro Beach" in the cruising community, reason seems to be that cruisers that get here, tend to stay here. Easy to get around; free bus; lots to do and see, reasonable prices, warm air; what more could you want. Anyway, we'll be here 'til Sunday; gotta wait for the mail and some parts to catch up to us.


Last night, and this morning for that matter, the winds howled, the boat thumped, pitched, and banged; sleep was a bit scarce. But, life goes on anyway, so up and get'er done. Couldn't cook breakfast, 'cause the stove won't hold still in any wave action; we certainly had lots of that going on. Cold stuff works; cinnamon buns, fruit, cereal, did just fine. Yanked the anchor; down the ICW to Vero Beach. Easy trip. Into the Vero Beach City marina; mooring ball/can # 50. Deal here is that there are a limited number of buoys available and an unlimited number of cruising boats wandering in looking for a place to stay. More boats than balls leads to the nautical miracle known as "rafting up". That way you can get two or three boats on one ball. Interesting exercise to participate in. At this point, we are the sole occupant of ball #50. Should a boat of similar size and type arrive, we will have a very close neighbor. The raftee, should they be present, gets to watch, try to direct, and twitch, as the rafter; the boat tying to the already moored boat, makes its approach. Situational control can bounce back and forth like cloud to cloud lightening. Throw in clashing egos, inept, or hesitant crew, and the whole process can get frazzled pretty quick. All part of the adventure.

Scooter will be here 'til the mail arrives, then on to Indiantown, FL to stage for the Lake O crossing. Until then, repairs, modifications(as in improvements), laundry, provisioning, etc will keep us busy for now.
In response to the request for a picture of Scooter; here ya go.
Thanks to all for following along; we've enjoyed having you aboard.
Catch you on the flip side.

Coconut point; 3/6/2019

Go to Green # 17 on the Indian River, turn left, drop the hook... and there you are; anchored off Coconut Point, FL. Actually near Palm Bay, FL. Did that help? How about just north of Sebastian Beach? Remember the pelican comments? Well,  today I watched two of them do the attack helicopter thing. Granted, we had 20 to 30 kt winds blowing, but they actually hovered over the water; dead stop, Chuckie, really! Then folded the wings, dropped straight down, and came up with dinner.

Sorry, trivia. Speaking of 20 kt winds; NOAA had posted a small craft advisory for today; essentially says " its gonna be rough and nasty, stay at the dock" In this particular case, it is cold 40's into the 50's; 20 kts, gusting on occasion to 30, but from the North. Tide was headed south as well. So, following seas and a fair wind. I know that you've all heard that expression, on at least one occasion or so. So I took it as gospel; came from the gov'mint, after all, gotta be right, eh. Even said the winds would die down by 1500 or so. I was concerned 'cause the only available anchorage is pretty, no, make that very, exposed to N/NW winds and waves.

Yup, here we sit bouncing around like the proverbial cork, tied to the ground with 120' of heavy chain, just waiting for the forecast wind reduction. Gonna be a long and noisy night. They got the cold part right, tho' so the lil' red Honda is purring away outside; so the little black box can do a hot hum away inside.

For dinner, well let me bring you up to speed on that story, Scooter is a 1984 vessel. Back in those days CNG was installed as a popular fuel for stoves/ovens, etc in lieu of propane. The difference being that CNG rises when it gets loose; propane sinks and forms pools in low spots; Boom,  goes the boat when the starter sparks. With the advent of all this modern tech, the hazards of using propane have been brought under control. The advantage of using CNG on the other hand, has faded away, particularly in boats. Interestingly enough, it has been gaining ground rapidly in vehicle use; it is relatively inexpensive and clean burning. Our problem was finding a source to fill our CNG tank(s). We hunted, unsuccessfully, until we got to Palatka; ah, ha; a source, and we had the adapter to use with the tank. However, when Bubba and Brett showed up to help us put it all together, we found that; 1.) the tank could no longer be certified; 2.) No tanks were available that would work with our system; and 3.) we were just plumb out of luck, and cooking fuel. Lest we look inept; I suppose I should be correct in that assessment; lest I look inept and guilty of poor planning, there has been a good deal of research done as to replacement units; even looked into getting something installed during the trip. For now, no luck; so, we are cooking with a single burner propane stove that requires  a non-bouncing boat to operate safely. We also grill, and do the salad thing. Advertised gourmet . meals pale in comparison to what pops forth from Scooter's galley.

Tomorrow will see us headed for Vero Beach, FL; hang for a day or two, pick up mail, provision the boat, etc then on to Lake O for the cross Florida adventure

                                                             
Stay safe, play hard; catch you on the flip side.

To be continued... continued

The Pelican. Have you ever watched a pelican fly? Truly a master of efficiency and ground effect aerodynamics. I've watched them drop/dive like a rock into the water and consistently come up with dinner. that in itself is fascinating to me, but their grace and smoothness in the air is equally enthralling. How many hours would it take human pilots to achieve a smooth formation like this one? They make it look soooo easy.


After wandering about and enjoying St. Augustine, Scooter's crew opted to head further down the waterway. Up and at'em, dinghy stowed, motor hoisted and locked on the mount, holding tank pumped, cooler iced down, and mooring pendant dropped, Scooter rumbled into the ICW channel; headed for...South. We plan a run of 40 to 50 miles per day, more if necessary, less if it works out that way. This leg was not as productive as we had hoped, 'cause the tidal flow was agin' us. Jamming the throttles up makes mostly noise; really doesn't do much for the headway, so we run along at a modest RPM setting; get there when we do. So, we ended up at Palm Coast marina in... Palm Coast FL. OK place, convenient for a fuel stop and stuff. It was handy 'cause we would not have been able to make any decent anchorage areas with the daylight that we had left. Travelling on the water in Florida on a nice weekend day is not  a wise move; lesson learned!

Out of Palm Coast fairly early; soon as the fog and drizzle cleared, and on down to New Smyrna Beach,  FL. Lotta boats and boatyards; pink, blue, and yellow houses jammed next to the water. Took some hunting and poking around, but we finally found a spot to drop the "hook" for the night. the "hook" in nautical parlance is other wise known as an anchor. there are lots of different style anchors; generally differentiated by the shape of the flukes, or parts of the anchor that actually dig into the sea bottom. Ours is a Bruce anchor, also known as a claw; looks kinda like a Manta Ray in flight with a long, straight nose; no tail. Truly nautical boaters refer to anchoring as"on the hook". Same folks refer to it as"  on the hard" when the boat is placed on land for repairs. Make whatever you want out of all that.

Anyway, this am found us easing into the ICW by green 45 in the rain, drizzle and fog that a passing cold front was burdening us with. it was sort of cool watching approaching boats ooze out of the mist like a foaming shadow. radar picked them up first, then .the eyeballs got it, and pretty soon, there it was. Three and a half hours, 28 miles, and we were in Titusville marina awaiting the cold temps and blustery winds forecast for tonight, With luck, tomorrow will see Scooter on the hook 35 miles short of Vero Beach, Florida.

Stay safe, warm and happy. Catch you on the flip side.

Catch up time.: part 1

Last we met, Scooter and crew were headed for the free city dock in Sisters Creek, Jacksonville, FL. Consistent readers of this blog will recognize that we must like free; we've been here before; may very well be here again. actually, it is a nice spot; floating dock, solid cleats to tie lines on, and nearby restrooms. Even running water to refill boat tanks.

Spent a peaceful night here; got up in the morning intending to get an early start for St Augustine, FL. Well, that just didn't work out real smoothly. Radar is great most of the time, but it doesn't work well with crab pots and sandbars, so we decided to hold for a bit. By 10:00 or so, things had improved to the point that the birds were out drip drying their wings. So, off we went, down Sisters Creek into the St. Johns river headed for Pablo Creek, turned the corner and; "holy, cow" These guys leave a monster wake and are really, really big!

An  arriving southbound boater is greeted by the sight of the famous Bridge of Lions. Started in 1925, finished in 1927, it is one of the greatest landmarks of the chaotic and expensive Florida land boom of the 20s. Due to the effort to make it a work of art, as well as a functioning drawbridge, it is said that it cost ten times more that a normal bridge. Ah, how politics have remained ever so steadfast. The bridge has long been known as a major part of the history of the nation's oldest city.  I gotta say, as a person partial to bridges, their grace, symmetry and strength as they arc across so much inaccessible space is sort of amazing to me.

OK, enough about the bridges, on with the journey. We picked up a mooring ball in the city's mooring field; ball # 7, to be exact. For clarification, in the case of Chuckie and the rest of you that have never played with a mooring ball, or, for that matter, on a mooring field, let me explain just a bit. A mooring ball may be shaped like; 1.) a ball, 2.) a can, 3.) a float, 4.) any daggone thing that will allow itself to be anchored to the bottom of the mooring field, and that some mooring field engineer has deemed suitable, or affordable. Attached to the bottom of the mooring ball is an anchor chain, or bridle, that attaches the mooring ball to the anchor that holds, hopefully, the ball, the chain, and any boat that elects to pick up the ball, firmly in place. Attached to the top of the mooring ball is the mooring pendant. This is sized to be able to handle the working loads that  boats of varying sizes impose on the assembly. Sometime the pendant will be supplied with a float that holds said pendant in such a fashion that it is visible to the picker upper. Often times not. As the boat approaches the mooring field; simply a generic term for the area in which all the mooring devices are placed, the crew will be assigned a mooring number, and given vague directions as to where to look; "in front of the white sloop, behind the blue trawler". Once spotted, the picker upper person goes to a position from whence the pendant can be grabbed with a boat hook and brought on board. Bear in mind that the boat steerer person generally cannot see the ball, or the pendant once the boat is close enough to actually accomplish something. It is sort of like blind man's polo with 20000# of boat. Ah, one more thing to add to the joy; grabbing an old pendant that has been hanging in the water for some time is akin to grabbing ten feet of lively slime. Then, when that dance is under control, the pendant is secured using a bridle off the bow of the boat; and, voila! You are moored!. Fortunately, Scooter has one of, if not the best, picker uppers in the business. One pass and done!

Boat and crew spent 3 days in St. Augustine, wandered a bit, laundered a bit, ate a lot, shopped  a bit, laundered a bit more after a surprise pop up T-storm caught us with the hatches open. A nice marina, a pleasant city with loads of history for those so inclined. All in all, a good visit.

To be continued........Catch you on the flip side! Stay warm and safe.