Sunday 12/3/2017  Vero Beach Layover

Since I'm usually asleep by 9pm, I'm usually up by 5.  And that means I'm working on getting the dinghy in the water and the motor as soon as daylight arrives.  I devised a sling and a block and tackle that I hang from my spare halyard.  It works pretty well but I'm sure I'll get better at it.  I would not have wanted an audience for today's performance.  The motor was another challenge.  I had a combination lock on the motor, mounted on the stern rail.  I had a piece of tape on the back of the lock with the numbers 6 24 22.  I spent almost an hour trying to get that lock off before I realized I had written it backwards.  Why do I do things like that?  At least I didn't have to cut it off with a hack saw.   Getting the gas into the tank on the motor was the next major feat.  I do love the new "spill proof" gas cans.  Between the gas leaking out of the spout fitting and the nozzle plugging the motor fill hole, I only lost about a pint of gas. 

My other task for the morning was to get the my two 50 watt solar panels set up and connected.  These are flexible panels and they lay on top of the bimini.  I have an older 65 watt panel that sits on the cabin top aft of the mast.  Getting the two 50s set up and running the cabling only took a short time.  However, I wanted to do some testing of the new controller and that took another couple hours. 

So, at around 11am, I took the dinghy to shore.  The engine started right up and ran great both going and coming back.  I spent about an hour at the marina but they make it hard for non paying cruisers to use any of the facilities so there wasn't much to do.  Tomorrow, I'll pay for a mooring (but stay at anchor) just so I can use the facilities (dinghy dock, lounge/wifi).

Saturday 12/2/2017 South Melbourne to  Vero Beach

I've been waiting two months for this day.  It's 25 miles to Vero Beach - my destination for traveling home for the holidays.  Like usual (finally), it was warm and sunny by 7am.  It's sure nice to be in the warm weather.  I haven't had any bad weather for a couple weeks now.  I could get used to this! 

As I approached Vero Beach, I was looking out for a small channel just north of the City Marina where I was planning on anchoring while I waited the 9 days.  I had lots of plans and catching up.  Active  Captain shows two anchorages in the channel and I was hoping no one would be there.  Boy, was I surprised when I passed the channel and spotted a large group of sailboats lining the channel. My heart sank!  Where would I go??  I motored south to the marina and then back up through the mooring field.  There were LOTS of BIG boats in the mooring field - over a hundred.  And almost every mooring ball had two or three boats on the mooring.  I sure hope they will have room for little True Blue!!  Luckily, I found a "vacancy" in the anchorage and dropped the "hook".  It was still pretty tight and after a couple hours I raised the anchor and moved west about 75'.  This was perfect.  Very secluded, no waves, very little current, 7' deep, less than a foot of tide.  Paradise!!  I spent the next two hours dragging the dinghy out of the quarter berth and getting it up onto the fore-deck.  Then I inflated it and assembled all the parts.  Having the dinghy in service was my next milestone that meant I'd be "cruising"!!

Friday 12/1/2017  Eau Gallie (Melbourne) to South Melbourne

I took on water, washed down the boat, and went out to breakfast with Fred - who was on his way out of town to visit his sister Ann.  She and her husband live on the water in the Fort Myers area.  Fred has kept his boat there numerous times in the past - but not THIS time.  I've spent several hours trying to resolve my email troubles and I'm currently reinstalling my Outlook email programs (with all 27+K) emails.  I keep telling myself I need to clean up all those old emails and now I'm paying for not having gotten around to it.

I left at around 2pm (with 6,000 email still left to go).  I motored about 10 miles and anchored on the south side of a causeway/bridge.  Like many, it wasn't a great anchorage but the wind finally died down and I got a good night's sleep.

The decorations at some of the marina's are really putting me in the "Christmas Spirit"!

Thursday 11/30/2017 - Titusville to Melbourne

My friend Fred Chance (who I met up with in St. Augustine almost a  week ago) had gone to Melbourne to visit an old high school friend.  He called and asked me to get together with he and his friend for dinner.  My plan was to motor the 30+ miles to Melbourne and meet up with them.  I wanted to anchor out of the "Squid Lips" restaurant on the north side of the Eau Gallie Bridge but with the north wind, it was just too rough.  It was just as well because my plan B was to go through the bridge and into the Eau Gallie River.  I was still planning on anchoring but I ended up going to the Eau Gallie Yacht Basin - a somewhat run down marina but with LOTS of character and a nice staff.  Did I mention that they have GREAT wifi?!! 

So, Fred and his friend picked me up at around 6 and we went out to dinner at the local "senior" restaurant.  It was certainly much more than I could eat for a very reasonable price.  

Wednesday 11/29/2017  Daytona Beach to Titusville

The days are starting to run together - especially when it involves only anchoring out, motoring, eating, and sleeping.  It's now Friday and I'm playing catch-up.  The big events for Wednesday were motor/sailing down the Indian River, passing through the Haulover Canal, and continuing down the Indian River to Titusville.  The wind was from the north so I thought it would be a descent anchorage to hide behind the East side of the New Max Brewer Bridge.  But, after I got anchored, the wind shifted to the NE and I still had a half mile of fetch with a 15 knot wind that lasted until around 10pm.  It finally calmed down and I had a descent night's sleep,

Wednesday 11/29/2017 - Daytona Beach to Titusville FL

I got an early start today and I was glad I did.  About 10 miles below the Daytona Beach anchorage, I missed a bridge opening by 5 minutes.  It's interesting how much diversity there is in bridge operators.  Some operators are very friendly and some act like the world owes them a living.  In addition to having to wait 30 minutes for the opening time, just before opening, a barge radioed that he was coming downstream and requested that I (and three other sailboats with me) wait until he had passed through the bridge.  After he passed through, he thanked us all.  Then we passed through. 

The other reason the day was long was that I passed through the Mosquito Lagoon.  It is just north of Cape Canaveral.  This body of shallow water is about 15 miles long and about 3 miles wide.  The ICW channel runs down the western side.  It was sunny and about 75 and there was a real nice NNE, 6 to 8 knot wind.  So I shut off the engine and sailed (genoa only) down the entire 15 miles.  It was nice to be moving with no engine.  By the way, I never did see a mosquito!

Tuesday 11/28/2017 - Fort Matanzas (inlet) to Daytona Beach

If my blog is beginning to seem repetitious, that's because my days are becoming repetitious. 

I was up early and underway at "first light" (about 6:40).  That means pulling up the anchor with my head lamp.  It was a fairly uneventful day.