Kennedy Space Center

Tuesday March 24, 2015
28 32.184 N
80 45.248 W

Each time we have passed the Kennedy Space Center over the last three years I have checked the NASA launch schedule. Yesterday I checked the schedule and discovered there is a launch scheduled for Wednesday. So we have made it 60 NM today and anchored in the bay next to the launch site. We can see the rocket on the launch pad.

The launch is scheduled for mid afternoon tomorrow, so we will be anchored here for two nights. (We are  not as close as the photo may suggest.) The weather forecast for tonight is OK but there may be some thunder storms tomorrow. At the moment, the wind is blowing quite hard and our anchorage is a bit exposed so we are rocking around a bit.

A bunch of porpoises just visited us. There must have been over a dozen. Maybe looking for a handout? Dinner was crockpot beef curry and rice followed by apple pie and ice cream. Its a hard life!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Interesting night. All night we could here what sounded like a relatively strong tidal current running past the boat. I was not concerned as we have 175' of chain and the snubber out in 10' of water, but it seemed strange as this location is a very unlikely spot for a current.

This morning the noise was still there, but more intermittent. So I took the flashlight out to have a look. Turned out the noise was schools of small fish (4" to 8") that were leaping out of the water. I assume they were being chased by predators and were using Tide Hiker as shelter.

We have had similar experiences before. When anchored in Stuart a few years ago we would hear definite "bumps" on the underwater hull of the boat. It really spooked us. We talked about it with other boaters and they explained that the small fish would escape a predator by swimming straight at the hull and then at the last moment dart left or right. The larger pursuing predator could not turn that fast and would crash into the side of the hull.

While on the topic of "things under the boat at night". When we anchor close to mangroves (like at Vero Beach the other night) the shrimp will come out and eat the algae that grows on the underwater part of the hull. On a "busy night"it sounds like a 100 people scratching their fingernails on the hull. At Vero Beach on Monday it was quite loud.

This morning is quite foggy. We cannot see the shore at the moment. NASA has its own TV station and so we have the TV on this morning. The launch is still "80% go!"

Vero Beach Mooring Field

Monday March 23, 2015
27 39.710 N
80 22.347 W

Don's birthday today so Deidre arranged a celebration breakfast before we tossed both of them off the boat and got underway! It had been a great visit, but now my sights are set on getting to Charleston on April 1. We had been promised an early pumpout but by 9:30 AM the crew had not arrived so we departed without.

Don's Birthday Breakfast

Calm and overcast morning. The scenery was great as we cruised between the Palm Beach homes of the rich and famous. We were getting a bit of a push from the tide and made good progress. About lunchtime thunder clouds began to roll in and we also watched them in the radar. A bit of wind arrived with the rain but did not slow down our progress.

Arrived at Vero Beach mooring field at 5:30 and grabbed our assigned ball. We do not plan to leave the boat, but we still like this place. It is now super calm, no sign of a breeze and humid.

Old Port Cove Marina

Wednesday, March 18, 2015
26 49.892 N
80 03.245 W

We decided to move into the marina a day early so we could clean the boat before the rest of the boats arrived for the Rendezvous. A total of 30 boats are expected. Perfect day, not a cloud, hardly a breeze, made backing Tide Hiker into the slip rather easy.

Spent most of the day washing and cleaning Tide Hiker.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Boats really started arriving today. It was fun to watch. Barb and Don arrived about 4 PM. Deidre made a great dinner.

Friday, March 20, 2015

The stabilizer guys promised to arrive today. Today is the first day of the Rendezvous activities. So I left my cell phone number at the door and we headed to the Conference Center. I kept checking on Tide Hiker, but nobody turned up.

Cocktail party with "heavy" h'orderves on the dock tonight. Lots of fun.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Today is our 43rd wedding anniversary and I completely forgot. Not a good start to the day.

The stabilizer guys promised to arrive "first thing" today. I left the same note on the door and headed off to the Conference Center. This afternoon is "open boats" and Tide Hiker is one of the open boats. The stabilizer guys arrived just as people started to visit Tide Hiker. So we had three guys working in the engine room and aft deck with tools and equipment.

The "official" dinner was tonight.

The couple we bought Tide Hiker from - Norm and Vicki on the left.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

This morning Barb and I made our Bahamas presentation to a packed house and critical acclaim! The four of us had dinner with Belinda and Jim ("Rickshaw")

North Lake Worth

Sunday March 15, 2015
26 50.413 N
80 03.236 W

I messed up leaving the dock. No damage, but I should know better. Oh well.

Great run north to Lake Worth. The sea was unruffled in 5-10 MPH breeze. Just long low swells. To make matters even better, we must have caught a bit of the Gulf Stream and cruised most of the 49 miles at over 8 knots! Like being in an aeroplane.

Like flying!

The Atlantic gets deep quickly along this part of the coast so we are able to cruise quite close to shore, and the good weather was bringing crowds to the beaches.

Busy beach at Boca Ratan

Peanut Island is just inside the entrance to Lake Worth and is a boating party place. We slowed all the way down to thread our way thru the crowds of boats and "floating objects". Hundreds of boats of every description were anchored in the shallows, crawling with appropriately clothed "young people" having more fun than they probably deserved. There was a good supply of the Coast Guard and local cops trying to keep it under control. We crawled at idle speed thru the crowd. It was a fun sight.

What a party

We headed another 4 miles north up the lake to our anchorage, being passed and re-passed by nuts in fast boats going way to fast and waking us continuously. Oh, to be young and hopped up.

The North Lake Worth anchorage was pretty full. We had to cruise around between the boats to find a spot. The anchor was down by 4:15PM. Its a good spot - high rise buildings to our West and lake front residences on the east.

The north lake worth anchorge

Monday March 16, 2015

Beautiful calm and sunny day. Launched the dink and had a look around the area. Otherwise just took it easy. Dinner on board.


Tuesday March 18, 2015

David's birthday. I remember fainting in the delivery room.

Another quiet day. Took the dink over to the "dinghy beach" under the highway bridge and walked up to the shops. Had some lunch and did some shopping, back on the boat by 3 PM.

New River, Ft. Lauderdale

Thursday March 12, 2015
N
W

Today is the third anniversary of moving onto Tide Hiker! So we celebrated by arising before dawn and getting underway at first light. We needed to get to our target marina in Ft. lauderdale by lunch time. Some time after lunch we had an appointment to sign the closing docs on the sale of the house in Scottsdale.

Going outside or taking the ICW was a "toss-up". It was still a bit windy and so it might be a little rough offshore, but faster. But going via the ICW would involve passing under 5 lifting bridges, all but one with "opening restrictions".

We decided to go offshore and headed for the channel as the sun rose. It is no overstatement to say that the passage thru the channel was simply violent. It seemed to be a classic case of steady winds opposing the outbound tidal current. Fortunately we had everything pretty secure below, but there was still plenty of crashing and banging from below. But we made it thru and once we could make the turn North, matters settled down. Most importantly, we were able to put the whoopee bowl away, unused.

The 25 miles north were lumpy but fast, as we had pick up a 1 knot current - maybe the edge of the Gulf Stream. We arrived at the Ft Lauderdale light by about 10:30 and headed inland and up the New River. I find the ride up this river simply amazing. This country is so wealthy. Were secure at the dock by 11:30 AM.

The dock is another one of my favorite locations. We are right in the center of the business district (Like being in the Yarra on the South Bank, but without the railway station.) The river banks have been landscaped and made pedestrian friendly. Some people might say that Ft. lauderdale is the epicenter of the American private boating industry - and to see the procession of amazing private boats floating past our windows I believe them.

The "notary lady" arrived on time - in a tight skirt and stiletto heels. Getting her onto the boat was interesting. We executed the docs and she hurried off to FedEx. The actual closing is Friday.

We made dinner res reservations at a "fancy" (table cloths, stainless cutlery etc) French restaurant on Las Olas Blvd, about 1/2 mile walk. We wanted to make the right impression so Deidre put on a dress and I wore shoes. We both had the trout. It was good.

Friday March 13, 2015

Today we have a few jobs on the boat and a scheduled visit from the stabilizer service man. First thing I rode to a local auto store to buy oil for the windlass and popped into the bank. Changing the oil in the windlass gear box was simple enough, but I was surprised how much water drained out with the oil. Surprised enough to call the manufacturer - their reaction was some water was completely normal! So I flushed it with diesel and then filled it with new oil.

The stabilizer man ("Craig") seemed to think our stabilizers were fine, but needed some service. So he will meet us at the Rendezvous in Palm Beach next week to do the work.

Tonight we took a cab to a movie (:The Second Hotel Paradise") followed by pizza.

Tide Hiker from the 3rd Ave bridge

Saturday March 14, 2015

Grocery shopping this morning. Then we grabbed our chairs and headed over to Las Olas for the St Patricks Day parade. We leave in the AM.

Miami Beach, FL

Tuesday, March 10, 2015
25 47.052 N
80 08.866 W

Another windy day, but slowly swinging from the East to the South East, so its more on our beam today. We have friends anchored in the Miami Beach area and that is our target.

We took a "short cut" thru the commercial dock area and it got a bit hectic.

I hope he knows where he is going!

We are now anchored in some crazy water between where the "rich and famous" live and South Beach. I say crazy because there are no rules here. Everyone seems to be playing, mainly by burning hydrocarbons at a rapid rate.

Party City

 Wednesday March 11, 2015

This morning we launched the dinghy and headed into Miami Beach. There is a small canal that provided us the opportunity to secure the dinghy.

This was my lunch. The thing on top is an egg. The rest was roasted potatoes, sausages and onion. It was way to salty and greasy for me.

Barnes Sound/Key Largo

Monday March 9, 2015
25 15.587 N
80 20 159 W

Very restful evening. There was one other boat in the anchorage and they came over to visit for a chat. Tide Hiker seemed to be 100% protected from the wind and so we had a calm night and enjoyed a movie and a good sleep.

Lots of very shallow water to cover today. The total tide range in this area is only 8" but even so we timed our departure to use every bit of it. We know we can get thru if we are careful - we did it two years ago. The difference today is that the bloody wind is still howling.

There are three depth gauge readings on the fly bridge - that give about a 12" range of depths under the keel. So today (at one point) one was showing 12", one was showing 6" and one was showing 0". I tend to believe the one in the middle. We were in shallow water virtually all day, but as far as I can tell we did not touch the bottom. It is quite stressful, however.

The great thing about this part of the world is that there are plenty of great anchorages. Tonight we are in the NE corner of Barnes Sound in 8' of water, tucked up against the shoreline of 40' mangroves.

Jewfish Creek - transiting from Blackwater Sound to Barnes Sound