Hello fellow adventurers and virtual crew members!
Eric here reporting on the latest movement of Still Waters II. She journeyed from Palm Coast to St Augustine on Sunday, July 19, 2015. Her journey entailed 32 miles, 3 bridges, and lots of beautiful views.
Lucky for the crew the voyage was all pleasure and no surprises. Mostly cruising in good deep water. There was one interesting site along the way. An old spainish fort, Fort Matanzas at mile 793.
Fort Matanzas
The fort was built by the spainish in 1782 to protect St Augustine’s southern approach. The fort is now a national monument.
The next major structure was the St Augustine Lighthouse.
Built in 1874
As the crew turned the next bend the old city came into view and the view was breathtaking.
St Augustine, established 1565
Docking is getting easier for our skipper and crew, and once they were tied up they noticed they were docked just south of Phase II. This is the third port that the two crews from Texas have crossed wakes.
After docking, the crew made things ship shape and went exploring into St Augustine. With 450 years of history to explore, this port call will be for a week as the crew tours all the sites around St Augustine.
The following link is a video of the run to St Augustine. It takes about 2 minutes to load the 3,500 pics taken on the voyage. So please be patient. The video is also 8 minutes long. This is a work in progress as we experiment with timing of the time elapsed pics. However, I hope the virtual crew members find it interesting. Any suggestions to the budding videographer are welcome.
Eric here reporting on the leg of journey from New Smyrna Beach to Palm Coast, Fl.
The journey included 43 statute miles, 9 bridges, the Ponce de Leon Inlet, passing thru Daytona Beach, and a few surprises for our crew.
The first surprise was about a mile north of the Marina. The George E. Musson, Coronado Beach Bridge was reported to have a clearance of 24 feet. With the antenna down, our air clearance is 17.5 feet. No problem getting under this bridge, except as they approached and got close (maybe a little to close) the skipper began to think there was not enough clearance to get under. He put the engines in neutral and began looking for the level marker on the bridge. With a little help from his binoculars, he found the current conditions with only a 15 foot clearance. He hailed the bridge and requested an opening, the bridge tender stopped traffic, and Still Waters II cleared the bridge.
We stayed at the city marina and headed out north.
As the crew made the left turn towards the Inlet, the lighthouse came into view. While observing the lighthouse rather than the navigational aids, our skipper missed the left turn at red marker ’18’. As the skipper reached the next red marker is was ’12’ and without the ICW yellow triangle. He quickly made a u turn and went back and found ’18’ and got back in the ICW.
Ponce de Leon Lighthouse
The tide was rising so the Atlantic Ocean was pouring in the Inlet and the crew rode the current all the way to Daytona Beach. The water in this area was a pretty tourqoise.
Claudia with lighthouse in background. Oops, we missed our turn trying to get this pic.
In Daytona Beach, there were two more bridges that the boat should have slide under, but because of the rising tide they were in the 16 foot range. The skipper hailed the bridge, traffic was stopped, and she maneuvered safely thru the current. However, at the Main Street Bridge, the crew was informed that only half of the bridge was working, so proceed at your own risk. The skipper once again maneuvered the boat safely thru the bridge, but I think he was holding his breath most of the way thru.
Stopping traffic on Main Street
Since the skipper was a bit nervous, he was going slow and cautious. Once clear of the bridge the crew looked to see how far the traffic was backed up. Yes, it was backed up for as far as they could see. Hope nobody was in a hurry.
Nice tile work on bridge in Daytona
By the time the crew reached the L.B. Knox Bridge (only 15 foot clearance), the crew hailed the bridge in plenty of time to cruise right thru with no issues or waiting. Amazing what a little practice can do for our new skipper.
From this point (mile 816) to the Marina (mile 803), the east side of the ICW was lined with large beautiful homes, pools, and boat docks. The west side, was raw undeveloped land. These folks have a great view.
West side of ICW
Example east side home
On the east side, there is always one in every neighborhood
Eric the Red reporting on the run from Cocoa to New Smyrna Beach, Florida on Thursday, July 16.
Our crew got up at 0700 to eat breakfast, read their Bibles, prep for leaving, engine fluid checks, disconnecting water, disconnecting shore power, and finally throwing off those dock lines and heading north. They departed at 0915.
The run was 50 miles, 5 bridges, and volumes of shallow water.
NASA Rail Road Bridge Normally open, auto shuts and reopens when a train passes over
The first twenty miles were challenged by a constant 15 mph side wind that continuously kept trying to push the vessel out of the ICW, but the newbie skipper managed to keep her in deep water between the navigational aids.
At the 30 mile point, the crew left the Indian River and entered the Haulover Canal. The canal is one mile long and only about 45 feet wide. Still Waters II is 14 ft 9 inches wide and was hogging a third of the canal. The crew saw their first manatees while cruising the canal. In fact, they spotted five of the beast swimming in the opposite direction of the boat. One group of three, and another group of two.
Entering the Haulover Canal
Upon exiting the canal, they made a hard left turn and entered mosquito lagoon. So named because of the shallow water and great breeding ground for the nasty skeeter. Outside the channel, which was running about eight feet deep, the rest of the lagoon was only 1 – 2 feet of water.
Brown Pelican hanging out
Crab fisherman
A look back west confirmed that a big thunderstorm was headed directly for the crew. They began preparing for more rain and the storm finally caught them with about ten miles to go. The rain was so heavy that the newbie skipper could not see the navigational aids so he asked the best mate to look for the next marker down course while he steered for the closest marker. They worked well as a team, but the strain wore them out as they continued to move forward while trying to stay out of the shallow water and avoid running aground.
After about an hour of this fun the weather finally broke and the sun was back out just in time for them to enter the marina. When they hailed the marina on the radio to ask for their mooring assignment, the dock master told them that they had no mooring balls, but had a slip assignment for them.
Oh no! They are not ready to dock, no fenders out, no lines ready, not mentally ready for this either. So much for mooring tonite.
Well, lucky for them they were assigned a slip just as you entered the marina, pulled straight in and tied right up. Some folks they met in Cocoa, but who are actually from Dallas, were parked two slips over and assisted in bringing Still Waters II to safe dockage. Looks like our crew is starting to get the hang of this docking stuff.
Safe and sound
After getting all the electrical and water hook-ups and lines securely fastened, it was time for a short stroll thru the town. Short indeed. Looks like they have one street, Canal Street, with all the business which roll up the welcome mat at 1700. They did find the ice cream store, but like the other businesses in town, the store was closed.
All was not lost however, as they did take the time to find two geocaches nearby.
Can you see the ammo can that is the cache?
Time for our crew to turn in since they have another 44 mile run to make tomorrow, as they make their way north to Palm Coast Marina.
Eric here to bring you up to date on the goings on of our crew. More specifically, about two shore excursions they have made during their stay in Cocoa, Florida. One, a trip to Kennedy Space Center and the second, a geocache named ‘A Walk Thru the Village.’
Saturday, July 11, the crew decided to head to Kennedy Space Center to explore an adventure into the last frontier. A short 20 minute drive and they were at the Space Center. After standing in the Will Call line to pick up the tickets they ordered on-line they were inside and headed to the Rocket Garden. The garden contains actual rockets of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
Just a few rockets growing in the Rocket Garden
They decided that the next stop would be the IMAX theater for air conditioned viewing of two 3D movies. Hubble documents the images of the Hubble Space Telescope, while Journey to Space documents current NASA projects such as sending astronauts to Mars.
Space Shuttle Atlantis calls the Space Center home now after traveling 126 million miles in space, and there is a wonderful exhibit that will leave you awestruck as you work your way around about 60 exhibits.
Outside the Atlantis building
For a virtual tour of the Space Center, follow the link to Kennedyspacecenter.com click on INFO, then scroll down to virtual tours. Check out the exhibits for yourself.
The Atlantis
At the Information Center our crew confirmed that there would be a rocket launch on Wednesday, so they decided to extend their stay to observe the launch from the marina.
Atlas V Rocket carrying GPSIIF10
The launch lifted off at 1136 as scheduled. The rocket and fire ball were visible for a few seconds, then made its way thru a low set of clouds and became visible again. This time you could track the rocket for another five- ten seconds before it disappeared into another cloud bank. The rocket reappeared in the blue sky and finally vanished into the clouds. About a minute later, you could feel and hear the rumble from the takeoff.
Follow the link to a video of launch. http://youtu.be/_bkojYvDAlk
The payload was a GPS system for both the Air Force and civilian population. Which leads us to our second excursion of geocaching. Need those GPS satellites to help find the treasure of caching.
The ‘Walk Thru the Village’ cache is a puzzle cache. The adventurer has to visit 6 landmarks in the village, solve a puzzle at each location, and then the six solved puzzles lead to the final location for the treasure.
With the initial stroll thru town, the six puzzles were solved and our crew was off to the final location. After considerable time looking and coming up empty handed, they looked at recent logs and determined that two of their solves were wrong. It was getting dark, so they agreed to return the next day to make the grab.
Main Street, Cocoa, Florida
On day 2, they rechecked the two puzzles in question. First was for a phone number at a gazebo. Seems there are two different phone numbers. Give a nuke a 50/50 chance, they will miss it 90% of the time. They needed the eighth number of the blue sign, not the eighth number on the gazebo post. Pretty tricky.
The second puzzle asked for the number of windows at the historic theater, and there were three. What the puzzle really wanted was how many ticket booths there were. There was one booth with three windows. Armed with these new numbers, they were off to a new location to make the grab. Again they came up empty.
This calls for a ‘phone a friend’ approach. Our newbie skipper e-mailed the cache owner with the coordinates and asked if they were searching in the right spot. While waiting for a response, it was time to cool down at the ice cream store. While eating ice cream the owner responded that they still had one unsolved puzzle. It was the phone number again. The clue said use the eighth digit, our newbie skipper obviously cannot count because he was using the ninth digit. Hhhhmmm that will make a difference in location of about 200 feet.
They moved to the ‘New’ final location since now they have solid evidence that they have the right coordinates. But again, still no find. Looks like the last person who searched for this cache came up empty also.
The name of our geocachers is Tex Snoop Dogs. They were unable to sniff this cache out so they logged the following Did Not Find:
Well our streak of finds is over at 223. Have spent about two hours walking the town gathering clues. Then when empty handed asked for help to learn that we were at wrong spot. Seems I cannot count to eight properly (but I can count to nine).
Finally got to right coordinates but still no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (or peanut butter jar either).
Guess we will head back to the marina to our boat wondering what went wrong. Maybe we should stop at the pub….. The Village Idiot.
Thanks for the tour of the town.
With the shore excursions and rocket launch over, it is time to make the boat ready for the next few days of travel. Planned itinerary is to motor to New Smyrna Beach and moor out one nite. Then move north to Palm Cost for two nights. Then finally, an extended stay in St Augustine. Founded in 1565 as a Spanish military outpost, St Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in the United States.
Our adventurers made their first solo run from Vero Beach to Cocoa, Florida on Friday, July 10th. The run was a total of 55 miles, 5 bridges and no locks.
The morning started with glassy smooth water and no breeze. They cast off the mooring ball at 0909 and headed north up the Indian River which contains the ICW in this part of Florida.
Newbie skipper pulling away from mooring field
Initially the shore line was still huge homes, but this gave way as they moved north to less populated areas. At one point they traveled along the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.
Osprey nest covering up the navigational aids. What marker was that?
The pic of the day was when a pod of dolphins decided to ride the wake of the big Viking. Back in the day when I was traveling between Iceland and Greenland, I could never get the crew to row fast enough to get a wake the Dolphins could ride. This was pretty exciting to see.
First Dolphin photosDolphins beside the boat
Another interesting creature was the several miles of jellyfish that were in the water today. We never saw a no swimming sign, but I think we will just stay out of the water today. No since risking getting stung by a jellyfish.
Can you find the jellyfish?
Claudia also spent about one and a half hours behind the wheel today. Gaining some valuable experience at the helm. But as the crew neared the destination, it was time to turn over the helm to our newbie skipper and see how he handles his first docking attempt.
After taking a slooooow approach to the slip (in fact the marina dock hand thought the boat got lost it took so long to get in the marina) our newbie skipper managed to safely dock the boat in the designated slip. However, when attempting to hook up shore power, the cable was about ten feet short. The marina reassigned the crew a new slip and they got to practice their docking skills again.
After getting the boat safely in the second slip, the newbie skipper spent another hour adjusting lines to be tied up to Captain Geoff standards. We hope he would be proud of the spring lines. One thing the crew has learned is, you tie up for the weather you may get, not the weather you have.
After cooling down and a little supper, our crew went ashore to stroll thru the town of Cocoa. The two block historic district is a easy walk from the waterfront and has many specialty boutiques and art stores.
Art work in Cocoa. Many of the buildings show historic scenes
The store that caught the eye of the crew was the ice cream business. Peach ice cream was ordered up to celebrate the days success.
Our adventurers made an uneventful run from Stuart to Vero Beach, Florida on Thursday, July 9th. The run was a total of 38 miles, 5 bridges and no locks.
Cruising past St Lucie Nuclear Power Plant.
Captain Geoff Gow was back on board to complete the training of our crew. Today’s training consisted of fueling at the dock, anchoring, man overboard, and mooring.
Practicing retrieving the anchor
Weeeeeell maybe it was not that uneventful. But first let me back up a bit. Our crew had previously inspected the anchor chain and concluded the last 5 feet needed to be removed. However, the crew presently does not have the tooling to cut the chain, so the job was put on the list of things to do.
While performing the anchor training in about 10 foot of water, the chain broke with the anchor set and about 100 ft of chain played out. Chain being chain and slightly heavier than water, the chain quickly disappeared into the water.
The weak link
The crew went back up to where they had first let the anchor out and let out the backup anchor.
Geoff made a galant effort to try snorkeling to find the chain of the lost anchor, but visibility was only about 18 inches due to the tidal current. After about 10 minutes, all agreed that this strategy would not work and it was time to move on.
A little watermelon was consumed while our crew licked their wounds and cooled off. When it was time to bring in the second anchor, Geoff asked what would be the chance of dragging the anchor and finding the first chain. All agreed that is was 1 in a hundred, but what the heck, never hurts to try.
First pass over the suspect area resulted in no anchor chain. However, on the second pass,the anchor took a grab on something and tightened quickly. After a little effort, anchor boy (Dave) finally brought the anchor to the surface, and low and behold there was the original anchor chain.
Geoff and Dave worked together to get hold of the chain and bring the anchor back onboard.
Sometimes it pays to be lucky rather than good. Oh, and a little prayer from Claudia and almost instant response is good also. Thank you Jesus.
A little celebration for snagging the chain
After the high fives were done, our crew set course for Vero Beach. Once at the Vero Beach City Marina, the last bit of instruction was completed in the mooring field. The crew practiced about three times and then finally settled down for a little rest.
Geoff was taking a rental car back to Stuart, so when the rental place called and said they were at the dock, it was time to motor over to the dock and say bye. Geoff promoted the ‘would be skipper’ to ‘newbie skipper’ and wished the crew well.
It just will not be the same without Geoff onboard
They managed to get away from the dock and back on the mooring ball #22 without incident.
Rib eyes for dinner to celebrate the removal of the training wheels, and then back to work to straighten out the anchor mess. Anchor chain and rope is all over the fore deck and needs to be stowed properly.
With all the work in preparing for life aboard the boat wrapping up, it was time for a real shore excursion and some sight seeing. Most locals all suggested the House of Refuge as the must see spot in Stuart, so our adventurers set out on bike to see what the fuss was all about.
The first stop was about a mile down the road to take in the Atlantic Ocean. The water was clear and the sand was brown.
” Looking out to sea. This area is called the Treasure Coast due to the number of shipwrecks back in the sailing ship days
After a short break and a little shelling, they left the beach and headed down to the House of Refuge.The couple was greeted by a little ole man who took the time to give a verbal history of the House of Refuge. He said the House was built back in 1876 as one of ten such houses to help ship wrecked sailors. According to him, there were only 200 people registered to Florida in the 1870 census. So when a ship wreck happened there was little assistance for any survivors.
The concept was to build the houses about ten miles apart, have someone live in the house, and walk the beach 5 miles up and down the beach looking for sailors.
The House of Refuge
The Gilbert Bar House of Refuge is the only house left.
The man also mentioned that they closed at 1600, so he cautioned not to linger to long in the porch rocking chairs. Seems some stay there all day. Hmmmmmmmm
Rocking the day away in the cool sea breeze
Inside the house revealed a small space, with even smaller rooms.
KitchenDining Room. Living Area
Check out their website, if you would like to learn more about the House of Refuge. Or check out the web cam of the Atlantic from the House.
No excursion would be complete without a little geocaching, and there just so happens to be a cache only 300 ft from the House. This was an easy grab.
Claudia returning log to the cache.
Time to head back and stop to provision the boat. As with most things with the boat, no task is as easy as it looks. A stop at Publix’s to get enough food for the next several days seems easy enough. However, when they went to leave the store, the wind was blowing about 25 mph and a sprinkle had started.
They made a decision to sit out the storm under the pavilion. Thirty minutes latter the storm subsided so they started the last half mile back to the boat. Check the radar just to be sure, all looks clear, and then when barely out of the parking lot, the storm lets loose round two. Our bicyclists make a detour to shelter at a gas station and wait another 20 minutes for the weather to clear.
Packed up for the ride to the boat.One soaked crew member
Finally, the weather really clears and they safely return to the boat.
On a better note, the AC is fixed, so on Thursday, July 9th the last day of on board training will take place as the boat heads to Vero Beach for anchoring and mooring training for the crew.
The fourth started innocent enough, a short little bike ride (5.2 miles) to pick up a few needed items to make life aboard the boat a little better.
Celebrating the 4th in Stuart, Fl. This flag once flew in Iraq. Thanks Mike.
This biking adventure started at about 0930 while it was still cool, but did not end until after 1430 after a few added detours, 90 degree weather, with 87 percent humidity. Total distance 15 miles.
First stop – Our bikers set out to get the ‘would be skipper’s, phone fixed. Seems it was dropped, broke, and basically dysfunctional since May 28th. The repair shop was over a mile long bridge with a 100 foot elevation gain at the center. The mate got a little help to make it over the bridge as the ‘would be skipper’ rode beside her with his hand on her back and pushed them both up and over. Coasting down the other side of the bridge brought them to the repair shop. Good News – The shop performed surgery and brought the phone back to life. Bad News – bunch of specialty shops in this area that need to be shopped down by the mate. More Good News – shops closed due to Holiday.
Second Stop – rain delay, had to pull in to another shopping center because of showers. They found a closed restaurant with outdoor furniture to wait out the storm. This gave the mate a chance to make a call to Judith Nix to see how she was doing.
Third Stop – top of next big bridge, another 100 foot, mile long bridge. Needed to take a rest stop at the top of the bridge. Boy, does it heat up fast here in Florida, or what.
Fourth Stop – West Marine, bought a grill for the boat, but now the ‘would be skipper’ has a flat front tire
Fifth Stop – 5 Guys Burger and Fries, you have to have a burger on the fourth, and if you have to have a burger………..they do not get much better than this.
Sixth Stop – half mile in wrong direction to get air for tire
Side stop. Like the verbiage on the sign
Seventh Stop – two miles in the wrong direction to go to Walmart to get patch kit for tire.
Eighth Stop – back at the bottom of the two bridges, rest up before tackling the first bridge.
Ninth Stop – top of first bridge
Tenth Stop – top of second bridge, mate informed ‘would be skipper’ to get to the boat and make sure the AC is working so it is cool when she gets there
Eleventh Stop – back home on the boat, where the mate was heard saying “I survived” as she was sitting down to rest and cool off.
After relaxing a bit, the two set off for a swim at the pool and some pool side reading and napping.
The fireworks were set to start at 2100 hundred so our crew headed back up the first bridge to get a birds eye view of the show.
View from bridge
Looking down the bridge
The Stuart show was upstaged by a river front homeowner who also started shooting his fireworks at 2100. The amateur show went for 20 minutes and the reflection in the water was spectacular. Amazing what you can do when you pass the hat in a multi million dollar housing addition.
From the perch on the bridge, one could see fireworks in 360 degrees. Very impressive!
After things slowed down, our couple hiked back to the boat to turn in after a long day.
Time to bring this day to a close
Hopefully the AC install will complete early in the week and the boat can set off to Vero Beach.
With our live aboard crew safely tucked away on their boat, expectations were high for the the three days of scheduled training. Unfortunately, what our crew learned is they had more work to do before they were ready to go anywhere.
Lane spent several evenings after work getting AC to function.
Captain Chris and Alyse showed up on Tuesday, June 23 to start the learning process. The Captains spent a day and a half with our crew teaching basics and fundamental skills needed to safely navigate the U.S. Waterways. However, they also discovered a few items that needed to be corrected before the grand adventure.
To assist with the needed repairs, Captain Chris contacted Captain Geoff Gow. Geoff arrived onboard Wednesday, June 24 and went to work correcting the issues. He provided lessons in marine maintenance to our new owners as they worked to get the vessel in the best shape possible for the upcoming adventure.
I heard the ‘would be skipper’ say something about the steep learning curve being steeper than the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. He went on to described that the canyon was so steep that he could touch the canyon wall with his hand while standing. Sounds like climbing a 2000 foot ladder.
With the repairs complete, it was time to turn the book knowledge to actual hands on training. The first passage would be from Sweetwater Landing to Roland Martin Marina near Clewiston, a trip of about 70 miles.
The passage is on the 140 mile long Okeechobee Waterway. Traveling east, there are three locks that raise you from sea level to Lake Okeechobee level. Then two locks that lower you back to sea level.
Okeechobee Waterway
Saturday morning started by some more training by Captain Geoff and then the first maneuver of leaving the slip. Claudia did well handling the lines and getting the gear stowed.
Goodbye Sweetwater Landing
The next test was negotiating the W.P. Franklin Lock. Luckily our new boater’s were the only ones locking thru. With the assistance and constant coaching from Captain Geoff ( port ahead, starboard aft, both neutral, port ahead, etc, etc, etc.) the ‘would be skipper’ managed to position the boat next to the lock wall where Claudia was able to grab a line and secure the vessel. All with no boat damage, imagine that.
Our deck hand prepping for first lock……looks more like primping or posing
The lock master closed the gate flooded the lock and the boat floated up about three feet. With the gate open, more constant coaching from the Captain, Still Waters II safely exited the lock with her crew in tow.
Water rushing in the lock to raise us
The crew then managed the Ortonia lock and then finally the Moore Haven lock. By the third lock this crew actually looks like they know what they are doing. During the approach to the marina, a huge storm blew in. High winds and a down pour so bad you could hardly see out the front of the boat. Did you order this Captain Geoff for our viewing entertainment?
Claudia handling lines as we lock. Notice the water level change on lock wall
Luckily the rain let up just as the boat approached the marina. The crew was welcomed by a very enthusiastic bunch along the pier cheering the arrival of Still Waters II. Our ‘would be skipper’ maneuvered the vessel into her spot along the pier and Claudia with a little help from Geoff got her safely tied up.
Day one is complete and by the looks of the crew, they look pretty spent as well. Who needs a gym membership when you can lug lines, fenders, and other material all day.
Advertised as most popular stop on the waterway. They rocked on late into the nite. So tired, sleep anyway.
Day two will be a 50 mile run to Stuart, Fl and entail crossing the 25 mile wide Lake Okeechobee, two more locks, and then into the St Lucie River, a U Turn onto the the actual Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway, and finally arrival at the Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort & Marina.
Lake Okeechobee, can you find the top of a sunk shrimp boat?
The day turned out to be similar to the day before except when they entered the St Lucie River and the water went from being > 10 feet to less than 6. Did I mention that the vessel has a draft of 3 ft 9 in. That is not much water under the vessel, and gave our ‘would be skipper’ more than a few moments of sphincter muscle constriction while floating past places less than 5 feet deep.
But hand it to Capatain Geoff, because he took this time to pass on a little tip of wisdom……..if you hit something, just keep in mind the thumb rule of $1K for each knot of speed for the repairs. Just go slow.
I think I overheard a thank you in there somewhere from the ‘would be skipper’, but he looked pretty focused as he was negotiating the vessel thru the shallow water.
As they were making their final run towards the Marina the wind really began to kick up again. At the final approach to the Marina, our ‘would be skipper’ handed the helm back over to Captain Geoff who graciously accepted the challenge of backing the boat in slip 16.
Pics from the flybridge
The crew will be in Stuart to complete final maintenance checks and install a new AC system onboard. That will take them past the July 4th weekend, so it looks like it is time to relax and sight see Stauart, Fl.
Eric here reporting on our adventurers. They finally left the safety of their Texas surrondings and headed to Florida. They left on Monday, June 15th about 1400. Something about loading the Jed Clampet mobile, dropping some more stuff off at storage, and running several errands to wrap up business before leaving. Also a goodbye lunch at Claudia’s favorite Tex Mex in Alvarado. Probably be awhile before they get some more good Tex Mex.
The Clampet mobile rides againMore stuff
They had an uneventful drive to Vicksburg and called it a day. That night they decided to head to Atlanta on Tuesday to sale Claudia’s car. She accused the ‘would be skipper’ of diverting to Atlanta so he could partake of a 5 Guys Burger at his favorite spot.
They arrived in Atlanta in the late afternoon, just in time for going home traffic. What a mess that was. So yes, they did go to 5 Guys and have a burger over in Smyrna. While there, they conducted business and made an appointment with Progressive Remarketing to sell the car on Wednesday. Tuesday evening saw repacking as they moved stuff from Claudia’s car into the truck. Bit of a tight fit, but there was a place for all the stuff.
Wednesday morning they met Brian Carswell (interesting last name for a guy in the car buy/sell business) in Roswell and negotiated a good deal to sell both the car and the truck. They left the car on the spot, and they will drop off the truck in Ft Myers just before casting off on their adventure.
It was lunch time, so a trip to Fudruckers on the way out of town for an elk burger was the next order of business. He made some comment that between restraunts not selling elk burgers back home and his son, he had not had an elk burger in almost 2 years, and that must be too long. Seems he took his son out to eat in the spring. The son asked his dad what to get. The dad said elk burger, so the son ordered The elk burger. Yes, THE elk burger. When the dad ordered an elk burger he was informed the boy had just taken the last one. The joys of parenthood.
The Fudruckers stop with the 1/2 pound burger must of hit the spot, because the couple drove ten hours and got to Ft Myers just before mid nite. Thursday morning found our couple trying to figure out how to move the boat from Owl Creek Boat Works to a marina so the couple could move aboard.
Once again, when a need arises, someone steps in and fills the need. This time it started back in May while our couple was attending a seminar in Norfolk. There was a couple (Jim and Carol Fidler) who had completed the loop aboard Fiddlesticks and hailed from Arlington, Texas. The couples crossed paths the last day of the seminar. Jim and Carol introduced our couple to Cathy and Glen Mayer. In the course of conversation our couple learned that Cathy and Glen have a son ( Brandon) who just happens to own a marina in Ft Myers. They scribbled his phone number down and tucked it away for future use.
Well the future is now. A call to Brandon was the answer. He agreed to drive the boat from Owl Creek to Sweetwater Landing (basically across the river) since our ‘would be skipper’ has no business driving this boat yet.
Owner of Sweetwater Landing
Unfortunately, the little motor across the river had more excitement than was anticipated. Only a few hundred yards from Owl Creek the port engine started coughing then died. Brandon tried to restart the engine but it would not start. Wow. This is not a good way to start! They limped into the marina and tied up out on the transient dock.
Brandon mentioned that there was a guy who lived in the marina who just happened to work on Cat diesels and just happened to be down on his boat. In a few minutes Mike showed up, asked a few questions and started troubleshooting the port engine. He found the fuel suction line closed which explained the coughing before death of engine. He opened the valve and the engine came back to life.
Brandon showed back up and piloted the boat into berth 18 at Sweetwater Landing. Sweet indeed!
Tying up at berth 18
Claudia had driven the truck around to the berth to make it easier to move aboard the boat. After tying the boat up, Claudia walked around the boat for the first time since sea trials back in February. She stepped out on the sundeck, looked at all the stuff in the truck, and muttered the phrase, “honey, who shrank the boat?”
Claudia aboard in berth 18
Claudia is working quickly to unpack and nest on the boat. Company is coming on Tuesday to teach our newbies how to operate the beast. After three days of training, the hope is to have enough confidence and skill to actually maneuver the boat without incident.
Berth 18
Our ‘would be skipper’ tells some pretty funny stories about people launching boats. Seems in his younger days his dad always camped near the boat ramps during summer vacations. His dad believed watching rookies launch their new boats was the best show in town. Our ‘would be skipper’ does not want to be THE SHOW at any marinas.
Voyaging America's Great Loop Aboard Still Waters II 