While I have wifi, I thought I’d send some photos from our walk around Titusville. The town at one time was very prosperous, especially during NASA’s hay days! Now it’s somewhat depressed and the downtown was mostly empty on a Sunday afternoon.
Finally the day arrived – after weeks of jobs, we casted off our lines and sailed away (okay we motored away). We left the dock at 10:45am on Jan. 3. It was a beautiful day – sunny and hot but not much wind (hence the motoring). Mark spent some time calibrating our new wind/speed/depth instrument and we both got used to our new autopilot. Our new autopilot is awesome – no more loud noises or weaving back and forth. We arrived at our destination by 2:50pm. We stopped for the night at Metropolitan Park Marina in Jacksonville. We have lots of time to get to Vero Beach so we’re going slow.
By early afternoon on Jan. 5th, we were tied to a mooring ball at St. Augustine. We had a great ocean passage south from the St. Johns River and enjoyed a good paced motor sail. It was nice to hang out in the south mooring field and look at the display of lights left over from Christmas. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only early January! The weather tricks you into thinking it’s summertime!
We left St. Augustine on Jan 6th with the intention of travelling about 45nm to Daytona Beach. Our timing was perfect – we had the current with us and saw speeds in the low 7 knots all day (that’s very good for us – our normal motor cruising speed is 6 knots). We were doing so well that we decided to keep going further south to New Smyrna Beach. At one point we were cruising along at 8.3knots (with the help of current and wind). It sure was a great day for moving south.
We’ve had lots of wildlife company on our journey. There’s been pelicans, seagull, and many cormorants. We’ve also been treated to lots of dolphins splashing around us. Many of the dolphins are moms with babies. It was very interesting to watch how closely the babies stick to the moms’ sides as they surface and dive.
Our slip reservation for Vero Beach City Marina starts on Jan. 10 so having lots of time, we decided to stay on a mooring ball at the Titusville Marina for 2 nights. It only took us 4 hours to travel the 28nm to Titusville from New Smyrna – again we had the current helping us along. We spent the morning in the company of 3 other sailboats. 2 of those boats stopped at Titusville also but they headed into the marina. We’ll spend the rest of today (Jan. 7) doing some wifi-ing and tomorrow we have a bit of grocery shopping to do. On Monday we’ll travel another short day down to Melbourne and then on Tuesday we’ll head into the marina. Excellent pace for the start of the season!
We’re back on the water again for the second time this sailing season. Just thought I do a quick post before we make our way down to Vero Beach. We had a great day – our launch went smoothly and we’re all ready to leave the dock.
Our day began with heavy fog which lasted well into the afternoon. We had a few jobs to do before our launch. We filled our water tanks and moved our forestay back so the travel lift could pick us up. We did a few other minor jobs but were ready when the travel lift came to get us around 10am. Launching took about an hour so we were all tied up at the dock before lunch.
While we were back home, a fellow sailor here at Reynolds named Susan Fries, was busy making a new dodger for our enclosure. You might remember that I lost our dodger at the end of last season while I was cleaning the cockpit and washing the enclosure. I was inside the boat when I heard a splash but didn’t go to investigate – of course the splash was our dodger!! Well the new dodger is amazing – far superior to the old one because now we have an area that opens so we don’t have to remove the entire piece!! (See photo below). We’re super happy with the job Susan did and will hire her again to make another piece for us next season.
So the day is winding down and the sun has finally come out. We’ll relax tonight and then get off the dock in the morning. Next post will cover our journey south to Vero Beach Municipal Marina.
We had an amazing December break in Kingston. Christmas was celebrated at our house with Evelyn, Caroline, my brother and his family and my sister and her family! It was a blast!! We also saw Mark’s Dad plus all our siblings! It was a very fast 3 weeks and we certainly managed to get a lot done in that time!
It’s definitely good to be back at the boat. We arrived on Dec. 29 after a 2 day drive. For the last part of that drive through South Carolina and the top of Georgia, we were stuck in super slow traffic. It added about 3 hours to our trip and made us arrive in the dark! I hate ladders in the daylight so you can imagine how much fun it was to scale the ladder in the dark.
The boat was in great shape but still had cleanup work to be done. We also had to provision for the roughly 16 weeks we’ll be gone. Shopping for that much food can be fun. Our first provision day was Friday and we started with Aldi (it’s a discount grocery store that has amazing prices), then moved onto Costco. After our first day, we’d spent about $800 US! Our freezer was stuffed full of all kinds of yummy meats, cheeses, fish, etc. On day 2 (Saturday), we went to the ABC liquor store, Walmart, and Aldi again! I can honestly say our boat is full and we won’t go hungry!!
This season we have several visitors coming aboard!! Margie and Matthew will be with us somewhere around Jan. 10 and Mark’s brother John and his wife Sadhana will do a day visit around January 14. Evelyn and Caroline have a 2 week vacation with us from February 27 – March 13! Can’t wait for all these visit.
Tomorrow (Monday) the boat will be back in the water and we’re hoping to head out for Vero Beach on Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ll take our time moving south – our slip reservation at Vero Beach Municipal Marina doesn’t start until Jan. 10. Unfortunately while we’re moving south, we won’t have wifi so the next blog post will be delayed until we reached the marina at Vero Beach.
We’ve been on the boat for 5 weeks and have made some major improvements!! We’ve spent many hours installing new items and repairing / refinishing other items. It’s been a very busy time but the boat is looking great!
The last few days have been spent finishing the cockpit varnishing and cleaning it all up! We were using the aft companionway for 7 long days and we were super happy to go back to using the main companionway on Saturday morning! Although I complained a lot about this job (the smell mostly!!), it sure has turned out well!
Mark has been super busy finishing the autopilot installation and then moving onto replacing the old 120volt panels (they used breakers so old that you can’t buy them anymore). The 2 panels have been replaced with a single panel. This job has been on Mark’s list for a few years and after 2 days, we now have a new panel! There was lots of old equipment and wires being pitched from our boat – we’re probably lighter now!!
We did have some excitement at the dock this week on Wednesday. Mark and I were inside the cabin just finishing lunch when I checked the weather radar. I could see a fairly big rain storm heading our way so we quickly went on deck and brought in the cockpit cushions, all the tools on the pier and secured items on the deck. We were just about finished when the wind hit! It hit us hard, heeling us over and (thankfully) away from the pier. We had sustained wind in the 30knots range with gusts in the high 40knots. It was crazy!! The rain wasn’t nearly as bad as the first gusts of wind.
The big excitement came just after the high winds were starting to settle. Those initial high winds caused the bow dock lines of the first boat on the “big boat” pier beside us (it’s called Americana) to break!! This large vessel swung away from its pier, hitting the research vessel tied along the wall and ended up facing directly at our pier. The 2 stern lines were the only things holding Americana in place. It was a bit scary and I was very glad we were on the opposite side of the pier. It didn’t take long for 2 tugboats to show up – they pushed Americana back alongside the pier and it was secured with new dock lines. Mark and I checked out the lines the next morning and they were in bad shape. It’s no wonder the boat broke free!!
Our last few jobs are now being completed. Tomorrow (Sunday) we’ll move over to the haulout dock and wait for our haulout Monday morning. We’re hoping to be out of the water first thing and then to be on the road for Kingston by noon. This will be my last post for this part of our sailing season! Stay tuned for more interesting adventures in January!! Merry Christmas 🎄
Amazingly we are now in our last week of work before we head back to Kingston for Christmas. The jobs are moving along nicely and the last of the 3 big jobs is almost complete (that’s the installation of our new autopilot). The weather has finally improved and it’s sunny and warm most days.
A lot has been going on in the last 5 days. Mark completed the installation of our new wind instrument which meant 3 trips up the main mast. It’s always interesting hoisting Mark up the mast – the windlass (equipment that raises and lowers our anchor) does all the work pulling Mark up but I’m in charge of securing the lines and bringing him back down. All went well with the installation and Mark also put our lightning rod back up and washed the mast!!
On American Thanksgiving, our friends Julia and Brad left the dock and made their way to St. Augustine. They arrived safely on Friday afternoon and we took time off on Saturday to have dinner with them. St. Augustine was at the start of their “Night of Lights” festival – the downtown was all lit up and super busy!! We went to a restaurant called Pizzalley and had a great visit. Julia and Brad are now heading further south and will head to the Bahamas before Christmas. Hopefully we’ll see them over there at some point.
My varnish jobs are coming to an end. After 5 coats on the companionway hatch boards, we decided to take them home to finish them over Christmas. I have been working on them in the cockpit and because of that, they were always getting covered in dust, hairs, anything floating in the air. It was very frustrating so working on the final coats in the basement at home will be much better – a controlled environment!
Today (Nov. 28) Jane and Steve were splashed and are now tied up on the floating docks. They had a very smooth launch and it’s nice to have them on the dock with us. The boat yard seems to be emptying out and there is a constant turn over of boats on the floating docks and pier. People are making their way south and then across to the Bahamas.
We have a haulout scheduled for Monday, Dec. 5th. The boat will be put back on the hard while we’re in Kingston for Christmas. This is a first for us. We’ve never launched, worked on the boat and then put the boat back on the hard. It will be interesting!! We’re very excited to return home for Christmas – my brother and his family will be travelling from Australia to have their first Christmas visit in 30 years or so! We’ll have loads of fun and lots of celebrating to do!!!
We’ve been working away here on the pier and the days just seem to blend together. We get up, have a good cup of coffee and some breakfast and then we’re off! I head to the cockpit to continue the almost endless job of varnishing our cockpit wood and Mark stays down below to work on his 2 installations – the autopilot and the wind/speed/depth instrument. It’s become a very pleasant routine.
The weather has been quite chilly for Florida! We’ve been running our heating to keep out the evening chill and then again in the morning to heat up the boat. We’ve also had lots of rain which has made working on outside jobs a bit challenging. Yesterday we managed to get the dinghy moved from the bow to its place on the davits at the stern. It was a good day for outdoor work and the job went well.
Although we’ve been working hard on our jobs, we’ve also had some time to visit with our friends on the dock!! Julia and Brad (on Alizarin) are tied up at the floating docks right behind us – we can actually yell to them from our stern quite easily. We had one very fun night on their boat – a great meal and a bit too much adult drinks😁. We all had a slow next day!!
We’re now starting to look at our return to Kingston. Mark booked our haul out today – it’s scheduled for Dec. 5th. That’s our goal – get as much done as possible by then. We’re doing well and I’m confident we’ll be good to go by that date.
Time seems to be flying by as we continue working on our boat jobs. As always, there are many projects to be completed before we head to the Bahamas. Mark has 3 major jobs – the installation of 3 new items – lithium batteries, auto pilot and the meter for speed, wind and depth. My major project is restoring the exterior wood.
On Sunday, Mark started the installation of our 3 new lithium batteries. These batteries replace 2 lead batteries and this bank of 3 will be our house batteries. They will supply power to all our house systems when we’re not plugged in at a dock. The 3 batteries fit perfectly in the space where the old ones were and with a bit of McGivering, Mark got the batteries working properly. We still have one large lead battery that is used to start the engine and this battery will now be recharged through the lithiums. It was a rather tricky installation with lots of wiring running under the floorboards. It took 3 days to get all the parts working together.
The last few days I’ve been stripping the wood in our cockpit. We’ve not touched this wood in our 12 years of ownership and it’s in pretty rough shape. This wood will need to be varnished and that’s my next step. I also spent a bit of time washing the teak cap rails, rub rails and other deck teak to get it ready for a coat of Semco (this product protects the teak from the elements).
The weather has changed quite a bit after tropical storm Nicole rolled through. Our daily temperature has been lower which has made working quite nice. We’ve had some rain but not a lot and our deck is getting rather dirty. Once all the wood has had the semco applied, the deck will need a good scrubbing.
One of the fun parts of all the boat jobs is ordering stuff (like missing parts, adapters, new items etc). We’ve had lots of packages arriving to the office – it’s like Christmas on our boat! Today we picked up 5 packages with all kinds of goodies inside! Loads of fun!
The next job on Mark’s list is the autopilot installation. This will be a fairly complicated project but hopefully it will go smoothly. The autopilot allows us to relax at the helm as “auto” steers the sailboat. Our old system was failing at the end of last season so it will be good to have a new system.
I never thought I’d say this but we’ve just experienced our first tropical storm in Florida!! Hurricane Nicole hit south-eastern Florida early Thursday morning and we had tropical storm weather in Green Cove Springs.
We knew the storm was coming so on Wednesday we prepared our boat for high winds and rain. We stowed or tied down everything on the deck and we secured the boat with additional dock lines. At about 5pm, our dock neighbours (Barbara and John on Mojo) came to tell us to move our boat onto the solid wood wall of the pier because the rising river could put our fenders above the lower wood platform. So out we went and with their help, we moved the boat about 10ft forward and tied up to the wood wall. It took a bit of time to change all the dock lines for our new position on the pier. In the end, we had 2 bow lines, 3 spring lines and 2 stern lines. We were ready for the storm.
Things were not bad overnight. Hurricane Nicole came ashore at Vero Beach (the place we spent about 6 weeks at last year) at 1 am Thursday and was down graded to a tropical storm. We started feeling the full impact of the storm early in the morning. By mid morning the rain was pouring down sideways and we were seeing sustained winds in the low 30kts with gusts in the low 40kts. The wind direction had also changed from northeast to east / southeast. This new wind direction pushed our boat into the wooded wall. Thank goodness our boat has rub rails – these rails (along with the fenders) took all the force and weight of our boat. Several times during the day we had to move our fenders around to protect the side of the boat. The water level was rising and as we moved up the wall, some of our fenders got squished backwards. At one point, we had Steve, Jane and a guy we don’t know, help push the boat off the wall so I could move fenders into better positions. We also had some help from Holland Marine – they brought over another fender to help us out. By the end of the day, we had 7 fenders out!!
It was a long day with some crazy rain and wind but in the light of Friday morning, I can tell you that Crimson Kathryn and her crew rode out the storm well with only one casualty – our really big fender got squished and it popped!! Well we found that fender many years ago and it didn’t owe us anything!! Time to buy 2 new fenders!!
All the hard work this past week was worth it! Crimson Kathryn was splashed on Monday, Nov. 7th at 11 am! We spent one night sleeping on the boat in the yard and that was enough for me! I’m not a big fan of ladders and it’s worse when you have to go up and down at night (no functional toilets on the boat when we’re on the hard)!
Sunday and Monday were busy days as we finished all the must be completed jobs before launch. Mark worked on installing our new wind, speed and depth meter – part of this meter goes in a through hull so it has contact with the water. Mark removed the old speed meter that hasn’t worked in probably 10 years and used the same through hull for the new one! This job was completed first thing Monday morning – sure don’t want to go in the water with a hole in the forward bilge!!
I spent Sunday doing the last 2 coats of varnish on our main cabin wood! I was only putting 4 coats on the wood that was stripped down to bare wood so it only took a few hours to do this small area. Looking at the wood now I can honestly say it was all worth the effort and the sore muscles!! It looks beautiful!
Our Monday launch came earlier in the day then we expected but we were ready! Holland Marine did a good job getting the boat onto the travel lift and into the water. Once in the water and at the launch dock, Mark started the engine (and it worked well) and tested the steering. With the help of Jane, Steve, Julia and Brad, we got Crimson Kathryn moved to the Reynolds Park pier. We are now firmly tied up on the south side of the big pier.
The goal now is to slow down a bit and work through our other boat jobs. It won’t be all work now – we’ll have to time kick back a bit. Last night (Monday) we had a lovely get together on Julia and Brad’s boat. We were joined by Jane and Steve plus a couple we didn’t know, Jackie and Tom, from Georgetown, Ontario. It was a fun night and a great way to celebrate being back on the water!!
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 