Category: Boating

Karl and Dolly’s aquatic adventures after the Van’s RV7 aircraft was sold.

Posted on

Great Adventure: 7:55 a.m.

I am beginning to believe that uneventful days on a trip like this are great! We traveled to just north of Daytona and found an anchorage up from the Main Street drawbridge. The weather was pleasant, scattered clouds and moderate temperatures. The view was fantastic. Homes along the shores varied from tiny modest homes to highrise condos. There were a few inevitable dolphins and plenty of seabirds.

After passing through the drawbridge, we had another narrow passage under the next bridge, and waited for the below boat to pass through before proceeding. How fun is that boat!? One more bridge, and we anchored for the night. Only one other boat was here, anchoring shortly after we did. (However, they left before we even climbed out of bed… we are going to have to do better!)

That is Karl fueling up at Stuart, followed by me checking out the view at Titusville, and someone emptying his crab pots this morning.

Posted on

Great Adventure: 4/25, 9:30 am

We anchored at Titusville last night and were able to watch SpaceX launch. The last launch I was able to view was in 1998 when John Glenn went up in the space shuttle. The payload was much heavier for that launch and the sound and vibration was more physically impressive, but I must say that this was (in its own way,) more impressive. It is a work mission and it is deploying 28 more communication satellites.

Yesterday was a quiet day under sail. We were passed by another trawler that was heading north to Ohio. Nice looking boat. Maybe we will meet them again on the trip.

The anchor chain is having a few hiccups. It gets kinked in the locker and we have to fiddle with it to get the anchor to drop. But it does eventually go down and we rest for the night.

This post is rather sparse, but I will keep notes today about what we see, so that the next one will have more info… Dolly

Posted on

Great Adventure: Week 1, part 2

I left off with all the negative things about crossing Lake Okeechobee. There were positives, too. The sun was shining, the breeze kept us from overheating, and for quite a while it was just us, the boat, and the water. Not even a bit of land on the horizon. They say that three is company and four is a crowd, but it never felt crowded when we were overtaken by another boat.

We entered the St. Lucie Canal in Port Mayaca and continued in calmer waters. Well, it was calmer until someone in a small speedy boat passed us without slowing down. Then it was rock and roll time. We stayed the night tied up to a slip at the Army Corps of Engineers’ campground upstream of the St. Lucie South lock. We have stayed here before, and it is a nice spot. Friendly people, nice facilities and very reasonable rates.

We made the short hop through the lock and to Apex Marine in Stuart in the morning. If anyone is boating in this area and needs a place to tie up, I highly recommend this marina. The managers are fantastic (thank you, Dutch and Mary!) and their help are just as good. They have a great night watchman, Manny, who keeps an eye on things and makes sure he meets everyone who is staying on board. The only drawback is the train tracks that run just the other side of the road, but that quickly morphs into background noise. At night, just take your hearing aids out, and you don’t notice the trains even if you have windows open.

We have been here for three nights. We had an adventure on Easter Sunday. We decided to do our laundry, and Karl checked and saw the laundromat was open, called an Uber, and off we went, dirty laundry in tow. As we were pulling up to the laundry, our hearts fell… no cars, it was closed. Our driver said, ‘No problem, I can take you back.’ Then immediately slapped his forehead. He had accepted another ride while we were on our way. So we sat and waited for another Uber. We were in the shade with a nice breeze and enjoyed just sitting and watching traffic go by. Sometimes Life makes you slow down, and that is a good thing. While we were sitting, Karl started looking for his iPad. He left it in the first uber. We checked FindMy and it showed it was at Apex. Our driver had left it on the front steps. Uber drivers are the best!!!

We made a provisioning run to WallyWorld, and to Boat Owner’s Warehouse for supplies. Karl installed a new masthead light and we tidied up the boat. (Oh, dratted technology!!!! We were just sitting here talking, and I must have touched something, and my iPad started to take dictation of our conversation.)

Pause….

We left this morning and stopped for a pump out of the black water tank and to get fuel. We have passed under the bridge in Stuart into the inland waterway and plan on going up to Fort Pierce today.

That brings us up to date, and I will try to keep this updated every day or two. I’ll try to get some more photos uploaded, too.