Anchoring Heaven

I'm anchored in Sisters Creek near Jacksonville Florida tonight. I found a spot that is 12 ft deep and very protected. I deployed the Delta Quick Set anchor and it set perfectly. As soon as I determined that everything was good at the anchorage I made supper (beans) and did my required phone call. Then I read more of my book and took a little nap, or was it the other way around? At any rate I am going to finish this posting and go out and enjoy the evening with an ice cold Coke. Life is Good!

Lightner Museum in St. Augustine

I had a day to spend in St. Augustine so I headed for the Lightner Museum. Mr. Lightner was a newspaper man from Chicago who thought up the idea of selling advertising in newspapers. He made a lot of money and when the stock market crashed in 1929 he bought up artwork and other collectibles from the bankrupt tycoons of the age. He bought entire estates for next to nothing and stripped out the goodies and sold the rest. He couldn't find a big enough place for all his stuff so he went to St. Augustine and bought a defunct hotel which was the former Hotel Alcazar (first photo) which was built in 1887.
The hotel was built by railroad magnate Henry M. Flagler who built the Alcazar and the Ponce de Leon Hotel (second photo) which is now a college. The Hotel Alcazar became the Lightner Museum when he suddenly dropped dead in 1950 and the city took over as trusties.

It is an amazing collection of costumes, furnishings, mechanical musical instruments and other artifacts. The Lightner collection includes beautiful examples of cut glass, Victorian art glass and the stained glass work of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Many of the musical machines still work and the staff will play them for you. There are many pieces of hand carved furnishings and original paintings. The tycoons of the early industrial age spent money and time scouring the world for beautiful stuff so they could "out do" their fellow tycoons.

Daytona Beach to St. Augustine

I started early (7 AM) and was able to get through the Daytona Beach lift bridges before the rush hour restrictions. My ideal goal was to make St. Augustine, the oldest city in the nation. There are storms predicted for tomorrow so I will hole up in St. Augustine for a few days and let them pass.

The ICW has been through some very "swampy" land so far but this stretch is different. The Fox Channel (first photo) is man made and is rocky which is out of character for Florida. In the second photo you can see that not everyone living along the ICW lives in a mansion in fact there are many nice regular homes here. The ICW south of here looks like the Everglades with swampy land and alligators. In fact NASA at Cape Canaveral consider the 6 thousand alligators on the property their unpaid security guards. The ICW through Georgia and most of South Carolina is also very swampy.

I was fortunate to meet a very helpful trawler captain (Don) who had just arrived southbound on the ICW and gave me a wealth of local information regarding shoaling. He told me to "favor" the "reds" from Red "40" to Green "31" to avoid a bad shoal that nearly closes the ICW to drafts of 5 ft or more. I took notes on everything he said and am glad I did. At Red "40" a fellow sailor was anchored in the ICW and when I got close he hailed me and said that a 5 ft shoal would not allow him to proceed. I followed my friend Don's advice and REALLY favored the "reds". No problem and I had 6 ft or better all the way. I called back to the sailor and told him the secret passage so he followed me through.


The winds had built to a sustained 20+ knots so I found a slip at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina and made ready for a relaxed few days. The next photo is the pirate ship I followed into the marina. I also include photos of a few power boats for John although I don't think these would work for Fountain Lake ;>)


The cold front bringing the storms will pass through tomorrow (April 28th) so I will leave here on the 29th.

Anchoring Hell

Today was a good day, right up until the end. I made 48 miles with no problems until the very end. The good part included dolphins, manatees, open railroad bridges, and friendly boaters. The bad part was the anchoring at the end of the day.

Let me try to explain. You can’t just throw out the anchor, cleat the rode and expect the anchor to do its job. No, there is a whole procedure to properly anchor a sailboat. First you must select the proper spot and I won’t get into that because it would make a long posting on it’s own. You must deploy enough rode to maintain proper scope and the formula for normal conditions is 7 times the water depth plus your bowroller’s distance to the water. Summer Snow’s bowroller is 4 feet above the water. The water depth that I want to anchor in is about 8 ft so 12 times 7 equals 84 feet of rode.

There is a nice looking anchorage just south of downtown Daytona Beach and I see several sailboat anchored there. I turn west off the ICW and head into the anchorage. I do my usual zigzagging and circling to find just the right spot to drop the hook. Did I mention that the wind is blowing at about 18 knots? Well, I drift up into the wind to my perfect spot and, using my single handed anchoring set up, I lower the anchor and began to lay out the proper amount of rode (90 ft). This is where things start going wrong. My new “quick set” Delta anchor doesn’t set and I’m dragging backwards with the wind. DARN!! Maybe it’ll grab, maybe it’ll grab, it grabs! But now I’m too close to the boat behind me, BLAST! So I throw Summer Snow into gear and pull in the anchor rode as I creep forward. This works pretty good but I know that when I reach the chain to nylon connection I will have to go forward and help it through the bowroller. I can’t have the boat in gear when I do this so there I am on the foredeck pulling a 12 thousand pound boat into an 18 knot wind. Not so good! Also, now I have a pile of chain on the foredeck so my single handed anchor set up is not going to work again. Bummer! But I get it up.

The anchor is up and I try it again. This time I move over a bit and go up into the wind more. Now I have to go forward to deploy the anchor so I drift up into the wind and as the boat drifts to a stop I go forward and let the anchor down. I let out rode as the boat drifts back. I cleat the rode at the appropriate length; the anchor sets and I’m safely anchored. Yippee!

Back in the cockpit I check the depth meter, it’s at 7 ft. Hmmm, I wonder what the tide is at? I check it out and we are at high tide right now and the tide range is 4.04 ft! That means at low tide I will be in 3 ft of water! Yikes! I need at least 5.5 ft for Summer Snow!

Up goes the anchor again. I am so shot from pulling the boat against the wind that it takes a good half hour to get the anchor in. Once in I am heading for a marina! So here I am in the Halifax Marina for 50 bucks and ready to crash and burn!

Lesson learned - When the wind is blowing hard go to a marina!

To Dragon Point

I didn't get an early start today because Jim insisted on buying me breakfast in town. Breakfast was great and I cast off my lines and headed north at 9:30. The wind was light so today was a motoring day.


You can see in the first photo what the ICW looks like; it's like motoring on a river at times and then it can open up into a large lake. It is very shallow in most spots. The big lakes I crossed today were 3 to 6 ft deep with the ICW varying from 15 ft to 5.x ft deep although I did not touch bottom today. You have to stay in the channel when you have a sail boat or you will definitely hit bottom. The channel is marked on my GPS chart plotter and there are signs like in the second and third photos. Green squares are to the starboard going north and red triangles are port. They are spaced so you can usually see the next one when you pass one. On a rainy day or in the dark it would be impossible to see all of them because only a few have lights.



I got to the anchorage at Dragon Point at 3:30 this afternoon. Dragon Point is at the mouth of the Banana River which flows into the Indian River. Someone made a large dragon out of rocks at the very tip of the point and covered it with carpeting to make it look real. It collapsed a few years ago and you can see in the last photo what is left.




There are so many dolphins here you can't count them all. They come so close to the boat you can hear them breath. Sometimes they will come all the way out of the water next to you and scare the heck out of you. What a beautiful spot, there are about 8 boats anchored with me and more coming in every hour.

Heading North on the ICW

I left North Palm Beach at 7 AM and waited about 5 minutes for the 7:15 opening of the Parker Bridge. Getting out side from here would mean motoring south for an hour first so I decided to go up the ICW today. I had prepared for a long day so I had my cooler, a loaf of bread, peanut butter, jelly, hand-held VHF, chart book, camera, and dock lines all within easy reach at the helm. I can put the auto pilot on and run somewhere but I don't like to be away from the helm more than a few seconds because the ICW is quite narrow in most places.

My ideal goal was to get to Vero Beach Marina which is about 70 miles away. I planned a "drop out" anchorage at Ft. Pierce if I felt too tired to make it all the way. Vero Beach Marina was recommended by my friend Phil when went up the ICW a few weeks ago.

I had 6 bridge openings to go through along with 4 fixed bridges to go under. The fixed bridges are all at 65 ft and Summer Snow is 50 ft tall so they presented no problem. The depth of the ICW is set at 12 ft and I only need 5.5 ft. I found several places, particularly near ocean inlets that had shoaled to 6 to 5 ft and that was a problem. I didn't touch the bottom but was careful to have some "tide help" in those spots. Never-the-less there was some 5's showing on my depth meter at times.

I made good time motoring at 5+ knots and much to my pleasure I was able to put the sails up in some of the larger lakes and maintained 6+ knots for 3 or 4 hours. This really put me ahead of schedule so I knew I would meet my ideal goal. Often I found the best combination was to use the head sail with the motor at a lower speed which made it very comfortable. I did pass a sail "purest" who was just under sail power but obviously not trying to make a distant destination in the daylight. The ICW is not a place I want to be in the dark because there are lobster buoys all over including right in the ICW, go figure!

When I reached Ft. Pearce it was only 3 PM so I was confident to proceed the last 10 miles to Vero Beach. That is when the tide turned (figuratively and in reality). Where before I was fortunate to have the tide flowing with me, now it was against me. The knot meter was reading 3 knots or less and this added over an hour to my ETA. I finally reached the marina and got a slip at 7 PM and I was very tired and hungry. After securing Summer Snow and signing in I headed for the restrooms. Before I reached them I met a very friendly and interesting ex-Marine (see photo). Jim was very helpful and offered to take a fellow ex-Marine to a restaurant in town. We were in Da Nang at the same time and had many common experiences in the Marines. What a great conversation we had! There are so many good and friendly people in this world. I got back to the boat at 9 or so and zonked out for the night.

Thar be phantoms

The night was dark as a pirate’s heart and the winds and seas were calm enough to call us out. We cast off our lines at 4:30 AM and used the “big light” to find our way out of West End harbor. Once clear of the harbor entrance buoy we made a SW heading and began to relax. Our sailing plan included a 2 to 3 hour motor into the light wind to get our “Southing” in early. This is to partially compensate for the northern flowing Gulf Stream. Suddenly a huge post appeared right on our starboard beam! It couldn’t be more than a few feet away! I say “a post, where the &%#* did that come from!! Mike says “WHOA, what’s that for?” It’s not on the charts, it has no light or reflector! Where did it come from? Is there any more?? This leaves us pretty shook up and we have the “big light” out again scoping out ahead. We don’t find any more and our only explanation is that it was a “Phantom” because we are in the Bermuda Triangle. The post was huge and most likely sitting on a pile of rocks so it probably would have sunk us.

We get our “southing” in and set a westerly course for Florida after raising our sails. Stars have finally appeared but no moon so it is still very dark. All we can see is the foamy top of the larger waves that are now on our beam. I see a red port light and a white steaming light on the north west horizon and comment to Mike about it. He confirms the lights and I check the radar and saw a large blip about 12 miles away. The boat was rapidly CDCB (closing distance, constant bearing) and I was getting ready to make a move. Suddenly it disappeared, no lights at all. Mike says “where’d it go?” And I am straining to see the lights. I quickly check the radar; the last blip was at 2 miles. NOTHING! Where the &%$# did it go?? Suddenly a green light appears, whatever it is must have turned around because green indicates the starboard side and now the blip appears on the radar as dead in the water. We watch it for a while and then it disappears again! It finally reappeared behind us heading north. Another Phantom!

The sun came up and the rest of the day we slogged along trying to keep the sails full. We end up running the motor with full sails but only making 2.8 to 3.5 knots. It was just like something was dragging or pulling us back out to sea. We finally tied the dock lines at North Palm Beach Marina at 7 PM.

Back In The Good Old USA

Mike and I arrived last night at about 7 PM at North Palm Beach Marina. We had a real long day crossing. The winds were light (too light) and the rollers were only 1 to 2 ft as we exited West End at 4:30 AM. The rollers increased to 5 to 8 ft as we got closer to Florida and the winds remained light so it was just a rocky-rolly crossing that seemed to take forever. The current seemed to be right up next to the Florida coast because when we turned to make our last bit of "southing" we could only make 2 to 3 knots (all sails up and motoring) right up to the entrance to Lake Worth. I thought we were dragging something or the prop had something on it but as soon as we got to the inlet we poped right up to 5+ knots. I should have taken a more northerly route.

We cleared Immigration and Customs this morning and are ready to hit a few "places of interest" in Florida. I know a great used boat parts place, a great breakfast place, a great hamburger place, and of course a great West Marine store.

Heading To Florida

We left Marsh Harbor at 10 AM on April 2nd and motored over mirror like seas to Loggerhead Channel. We could see that the Atlantic beyond Whale Cay looked good so we proceeded around and re-entered the Sea of Abaco through Whale Cay Channel. This channel is the most dangerous in the Bahamas due to the Rages that develop there. Once around the Whale we proceeded to Spanish Cay and arrived at 5 PM to spend the night.

On the 3rd the wind had picked up and we motor sailed, sailed, and then motor sailed to Great Sale Cay. This island is not inhabited and is actually for sale for 9.9 million dollars. It is 6 miles long and maybe a mile wide at the most so if you are interested in owning your own island in the middle of nowhere this would be it. We anchored with several other boats at 6 PM.

We switched off and on with being on watch and in the second picture you can see Mike on watch. This sailing stuff is really stressful sometimes ;>)

A pod of dolphins visited us on the Sea of Abaco. There were several in the pod and they played around us for several minutes.

We made spaghetti for supper using some of the great canned chicken that I have aboard. We made garlic toast to go with it and no one got sick so it was a successful supper. We had an extra piece of toast so we through it overboard and were practically attacked by seagulls. Then we couldn't get rid if them and they sat on the dinghy until we forced them off. We were both tired so it was lights out at about 9 PM.

We got up at daybreak with a breezy ESE wind. It was all sails up with Mike at the helm. We made 5.8 to 6.x knots all the way to Mangrove Cay which is over half way to West End. At Mangrove we changed our heading so we were beam reaching and eventually close hauled with the winds a strong 20+ knots. We were really getting knocked around and couldn't hold our heading. The route through Indian Cay Channel is not forgiving so I dropped the sails and motored the rest of the way. Never the less we touched bottom multiple times before getting out to the Straits of Florida. We didn't get stuck because it was the rough seas that caused us to "bottom out" in the shallow water. We were really happy to see the depth meter go from 6 to 30 feet as we exited Indian Cay Channel.

We rounded Indian Channel Rock and headed into rollers and 4 ft seas as we proceed at 2.5 knots toward West End. Once in the harbor we called in on VHF and were assigned slip C31. Yippee!

We have some weather coming in so we'll stay put and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream to Florida. It looks good for maybe Thursday or Friday right now.

Mike Is Here

Mike Jacobs arrived in Marsh Harbor at 7 AM on Thursday. He was delayed a day because of a late flight out of Minneapolis and then again in Orlando. It worked out good because the weather here was pretty bad. You can see the sundown picture with the sun setting into the smoke because they have had big forest fires on this island for the last few weeks. The wind has been howling for the last few days and we were expecting and we did get gale force winds on Friday morning.

Mike is here to sail with me back to the USA. Since we couldn't leave right away we went over to Hope Town so Mike could see the coolest of the cruising destinations. We had a great time and I got to be "tour guide" again. We ran into Di and a few other old friends when we stopped into the Edge restaurant and had some Conch patties and then went to the Coffee House for some great coffee.

Mike is pointing at the "castle" which was build by a famous Marsh Harbor resident who became the doctor of the islands many years ago.

Our sail plan is to sail April 2 and hope to get around "The Whale" which includes a passage that can be bad if the weather isn't just right. It looks good now but we will make the real decision when we can actually see the passage.

Once beyond the Whale Cay Passage we will stay at Spanish Cay or someplace close and then sail to Great Sale Cay and then to West End. I figure we can stay in West End for a few days if necessary to get good weather for crossing the stream.