The Midwatch Log: January 2013

After two weeks in St. Augustine, we were anxious to get moving and to get somewhere warm. We travelled for three days almost due south, passing through Daytona and Cocoa Beach and landing in Vero Beach, where the City offers moorings for $14 per day. The temperature warmed considerably over those three days and we have been enjoying warm 70+ degree days since our landing. We are now approaching our US departure point and all those little items on the 'to-do' list that have been put off, suddenly have come to the top. Which all translates to "we expect to be here for a little while." We are shopping with Christmas gift cards and have had our mail forwarded here as we settle in at mooring 54.

Meanwhile, thanks to Uncle ted, I was able to save my Google Earth map as a JPG, only to be stumped by blogger. I was able to upload five photos but can't manage any more. I'll try again tomorrow. Meanwhile we are catching up on school, chasing down an FCC radio license, both Bob and I are doing some consulting, we have sewing projects, cell phone set up for the Bahamas and a myriad of little boat projects.

We arrived here on Friday and decided the kids did need a little break so we spent Saturday exploring the very cool area around the mooring field with sitings of manatees and dolphins and even an abandoned boat from Maine. On Sunday we hoofed one mile to the beach and had a ball, the water temperature was perfect! I've uploaded all the photos planned for this post on my Facebook page if you want to check it out there.

While underway, the starboard settee turns into a mudroom.

Bob on our sailing trip out of St. Augustine. He was very happy!

A welcome visitor!

The view coming into Daytona, we decided not to stay. A little too busy for us.

Manatees!

The Boston College Women's Crew

Day 15 to Day 29

After two great weeks in St. Augustine we finally released ourselves from the mooring ball this morning and headed south. We knew it would be a long day to get to Daytona but the anchoring options were few so we had a choice of 18 miles or 50 miles. It took a little while to get moving , we had to check out from the marina, reload the dinghy motor and get our heads back into the ICW.

We had a great time while in St. Augustine. We were able to spend a significant amount of time with Bob’s Uncle Ted and Aunt Carolyn and the kids even tried swimming in their pool, temperature 62ºF. The day before Christmas, Ted and Carolyn visited us on the boat and Ted, Bob and Finn had a great time fishing, catching whiting right off the boat. We spent several evenings including Christmas Eve with them at their house and the kids had a great Christmas morning thanks to Aunt Carolyn and Sue Fernholz! They did get stockings when they got back to the boat Christmas evening, filled with practical stuff.

Ted delivered us back to the marina, late afternoon on Christmas. We spent the next week catching up on projects including changing light bulbs on the mast. We also did a considerable amount of socializing including a great dinner with our new friends Scott and Tina on the Sangaris and dinner and a visit with the M/Y Morning Star Family, (including two kids!) on their great trawler.

We were able to compare notes on schoolwork with the Morning Star folks who seem to face similar challenges in finding time for school while traveling. In addition, the kids played together and had a great time. Anna and I spent a whole day studying Social Studies out and about on the town with a visit to both the Castillo De San Marco (old fort, downtown St. Augustine) and the legendary Fountain of Youth. We both tasted the water but with no effect. Ah well. We also went out New Year’s Eve for Pizza, a walk through the old town and miniature golf. We made it back to Midwatch on time to watch the fireworks from the cock pit, followed by a visit from the Morning Star kids. It was quite a day.

The one other goal we had while in St. Augustine was a shakedown sail out in the open ocean. Although we have been living on Midwatch since early October, we had only set the main sail once and never been on the 'outside' or open ocean. Day 28 we successfully navigated the St. Augustine inlet and had a great sail about six miles down the coast. The winds slowly increased over the three hours we were out and about and peaked somewhere around 20 to 25 knots, we buried the rail and Anna and Bob got to see the portholes awash with seawater. I saw spouts associated with bird activity and assume it must have been a whale! We have developed a long to-do list for the next time we go off shore which hopefully will be soon!

Bob did figure out tonight (Day 29 from Rockhouse Creek, 10 miles south of Daytona) that if you are adding coordinates on Google Earth, looking for our location, you have to add a place mark to get it exactly. If you just search a lat/long position, you end up at the nearest mailing address. I’ve been placing a pin in our position each evening on Google Earth but have not figured out yet, how to add that map to the blog. Thanks for reading!

Anna playing with the Bosun's chair, she had quite a ball!