Still in Miami Beach

There is a beautiful weather window to the Bahamas today, and some of our friends have left to take advantage of it. We, unfortunately are still here. We are not ready to go, we should be, but we're not. Serena's cold finally caught up to me right after the last blog entry, and put me on my @$$. Serena finally got over the cold 2 days ago, and then put her back out, so she is even more layed-up than she was before. And people laughed at us because we wanted to go cruising as soon as possible, before our bodies started to break down and prevent us from doing it. Well, its starting to look like we might have been too late. All kidding aside, this cold has really put a damper on getting jobs and provisioning done for the trip, so we decided to just hang out in Miami for a little longer. Its not like its snowing, or something!

So the last few days have been very uneventful. We managed to go to the grocery store a couple of times, but not for provisioning, mostly for already cooked food, chicken and coleslaw. Who wants to cook when you feel like crap and the temperature in the boat is already pushing 30 deg. C. We went for a walk one day, and had lunch a little spot, just to get off the boat and do something different. We did a couple of loads of laundry another day, because I made a mess when I dropped the groceries in the bay, then we had a day and a half of rain which made a mess of the boat.

After the rain, the poor dinghy had about 60 gallons of water in her. It was apparently a record rain fall for Miami, and we had over 3" over night. Anyway, I had to go bail her out, but spent a long time playing in the fresh water. It was like a big bathtub. Went for a quick dip in the bay, and rinsed off back in the dinghy. Sick or not, I gotta be me. Lucky for me, my friends on Anthyllide decided that photos were in order.

Yes, I had shorts on. Hard to tell in the picture, but they are there.

I am pretty sure that the dinghy sitting this low in the water, is because it is full of water, but there could be a little extra weight from the little guy in the front.

I wish my camera took pictures this good. Our friends labeled the picture, "toosexyformiamibeach". I'm not so sure I would agree, but if any of the ladies out there find this intriguing, send me your email and a picture of your boat. You never know when Serena is going to get sick of the "Polar Bear", and kick me out.

Miami is tourist hell. They are everywhere. If you can dream up some kind of tour that could be put on here, it already exists in at least 4 or 5 different places. The aqua bus tours above are all over. The pirate ship below, and those rental jet skis by the dozens. The waterway here is so busy, that the only peace is during the week, late at night. Otherwise its like being in a washing machine with all the wakes. I am sure everyone has heard of "no wake zones", where boats must keep they're wake to a minimum. Well, I think our anchorage is a "maximum wake zone". It must be. We watched a large power boat yesterday slow down to the point that he was throwing the absolute maximum wake that he could, and it was a big one, 3-4 foot rollers, big boat. Then just as he passed the anchorage, he dropped down to idle reducing his wake to nothing. Our friends with a 64,000 lb boat were getting tossed around. Vita was getting thrown off a cliff. Rude seems to be too soft for these guys, but I can't come up with anything else. I must tell you though, its a good thing I don't have a gun on board, because I would be in jail, and the subject of an inquiry.

And these bad boys below are part of the reason there are so many tourists. We have seen up to 7 of these cruise ships tied up in Government Cut at once. Just for reference, the bridge in the foreground below has a clearance of 35 feet under it, how tall is that floating shopping mall!

Anyway, nothing too interesting again, aboard the sick ship Vita. Just recuperation, and wait for the next weather window, which looks to be at least a week away. We are not completely without things to do though, as we have found a problem with out current battery charging system. The charging system, using the solar panels, with the occasional engine top up, has been working great up to this point. But we have discovered the flaw. After several days of overcast skies, and with us being layed-up, we use way too much power, and don't produce enough. Its been almost a week since the batteries were fully charged, and that's too long, its too hard on them, and it reduces their life span. Luckily, it was kind of planned for while we were at home, and we have a high output Balmar alternator in the boat, waiting to be installed. So today's project is to plan the installation, go buy whatever parts I need, and then install it today or tomorrow.

Maybe this week we'll finally get a chance to explore Miami Beach, and we'll have something fun to report. Take care everyone, and have a great New Year.

Happy Holidays from Miami Beach

Happy holidays everyone. We hope that everyone is having an absolutely wonderful time. We are doing well, although we have been quarantined away from our fellow cruisers. Ok, it was by our own doing, but we managed to pick up some cold bug while in Lake Worth, and by the time we got to Miami, it was beating the crap out of Serena. Then, a couple of days ago it started in on me. Luckily for me it didn't hit me too hard, because I am a bit of a baby when I am sick, "so I am told". Serena on the other hand has been body slammed into submission. Cough, snuffy nose, sore throat, all the good things. Oh, and apparently when someone who is susceptible to seasickness gets a cold, they are even more sensitive to the motions of the boat. Serena is one of those. The good news is that she has already started to feel a little better, and spent the day yesterday sorting and storing the two dinghy loads of groceries I brought back to the boat for her.

There hasn't been a lot going on the last week. With Serena sick, and provisioning, doing laundry, and shopping, there hasn't been a lot of fun stuff happening. Hopefully it'll pick up after we are feeling better. We would like to do some sight seeing, go to the beach, and maybe take a dinghy ride through the canals. Not to mention spend some time with our friends. We are avoiding them as much as possible right now because we don't want to get them sick. So we have been limited to chance encounters in town and the odd dinghy-to-boat chat. We did manage to get the the diesel topped up, the gas for the dinghy, water, 8 cases of beer, a go-pro camera for taking Bahamas underwater video, look out youtube, and enough food to feed a small army,"forever". I wish we could say we were done, but there is still a pile of stuff to buy. Mostly limited to refrigerated and/or fresh foods, however, fumble nuts, aka "me", dropped a pile of groceries into the bay yesterday, so we need to re-buy those too.

I wish I had video to show it, in fact I would have like to see it myself, but we'll all have to settle with an explanation from my view point. And lets face it, this had to happen sooner or later. I had dinghied back to the boat with yet another load of groceries, there was a lot of chop in the anchorage, so it was a little bumpy, plus it was raining, so I and my cargo were getting wet. I handed everything over the life lines into the cockpit, no problem, then it came to the big bag, weighing 70 - 80 lbs, so a two-hander. I tied the dinghy to the boat so that I could use two hands to lift it, and just as I got the bag up on top of the lifeline, the painter let go and the dinghy pulled away from the boat. So, down goes groceries and Rob towards the bay. Serena and I have still not figure out how I managed to stay in the dinghy, the only thing that I can figure is that my body decided that it wasn't going swimming, and reacted appropriately. The groceries however did not get so lucky. I managed to get up and grab the bag, lifting it into the dinghy before it sunk to the bottom, start the dinghy motor and head back to the boat, but a lot of the groceries did not survive the saltwater swim. So, I need to add some items back to the list, brown sugar, white sugar, powdered potatoes, pasta, lots of pasta, and a few other things. Out about 40$ and a couple of pride points. Next time I'll open the big bag and take out the little bags one at a time.

Other than that, relatively boring. It has been hot. 30 deg. C. most days, or close to it. Today a norther, (air mass from Canada), has come in, so the temperature has fallen off a bit, its only 26.5 deg C. in the boat. However, because we are not accustomed to the heat, we have really been cutting back on the dirty laundry. Mind you, the cloths we do wear are good for one wearing only, and when we take them off we just tell them to go put themselves in the dirty cloths bag. Most of them are pretty good, but sometimes one or both of my socks will get a little rambunctious, and we'll find them hiding somewhere else in the boat. It adds to the enjoyment of living aboard, kind of like having pets.

Speaking of pets, here are the two "pretty birds" that live on MV Barbara, with our new friends Ken and Barb. Serena made a comment that one of them would likely bite her, and Barb reassured that they wouldn't. Well, she got bit, or rather mouthed(beaked) by the big green guy. Apparently he was enjoying his new perch and it was his way of letting her know that he was not ready to go back onto the cage. Ironically it seems like everything in nature likes to take a nip at Serena. It makes sense to me, I've always found that she tasted kind of yummy. 

Here is my little pet. I didn't bother to give him a name since he had obviously been dead for about three days when I found him on the back deck. He must have landed on the boat during our overnight to get here. Our first flying fish, you can't save em' all.

While in Miami, on a boat, this bridge is very important, as it is the road way to the grocery store. And no, its not the one on top, its the one underneath. In fact there are two of them. This little canal allows us to take our dinghy right to the Publix Grocery. 

And this is the second bridge on the way. I checked, no trolls.

There are a lot of man made islands here, and lots of little canals and man made lakes to explore, with lots of little bridges to go under. Perhaps when we are feeling better, we'll pack a lunch and check some of them out. 

One day while dinghying back to the boat I found this message in a bottle. My first clue should have been the screw on metal cap which wouldn't survive long in salt water. But I opened it and read the little note. Some teenage girl was bored, and jotted down some nonsense, rolled it up, stuck it in a small whisky bottle, and tossed it off a pier. I threw it in the garbage so as not to disappoint the next finder. But it did get me thinking, wouldn't it be neat to throw one into the gulf stream and see where it gets. After all the gulf stream makes it to Europe. Now to find a bottle that can make the trip.

That's it, that's all. The crew of Vita is sitting back on this beautiful Christmas day. We are running the engine for a bit to make up for some of the loss in our batteries. We would like to dinghy over and say Merry Ho Ho to our friends, if the winds will let up a bit, but otherwise its just chill. We might get an opportunity Saturday night to make the jump to the Bahamas, but until then we'll just sit tight and try to get well.

As I was proof reading this entry, Santa showed up in the form of Ken and Barb, with a little goodie bag. They were dinghying around to all the boats handing out little bags of goodies for the cruisers. I wish we had of thought of that, it would have been nice. Oh well, there is always next year. Thank you  Ken and Barb.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, "an absolutely fantabulous" New Year.... Kisses and Hugs.

Miami at Last

And our last customs call. I am so sick and tired of calling Customs and Border Patrol every time we move the boat. The Customs officer today told me I didn't have to call again until we return from the Bahamas in the spring. This is my happy dance. ///\/\//\///\\\\

Its been a bit, and a lot has happened, so please be patient, this blog is likely to be a long one, and I'm a little long winded to begin with, ok, a lot long winded, but I was trying to be nice, I have feelings too. Our last update was 6 days ago, but internet was hard to come by in Lake Worth. We managed a quick update to facebook in McDonalds, and check the weather a couple of times, but that was it. Miami on the other hand is wonderful, they have free wifi provided by the city, how cool is that?

Last Thursday after a wonderful evening aboard MV Barbara, we left the Pine Island anchorage at sunup, hoping to make a few miles so that we would have a short trip into Lake Worth on Saturday. The wind was still strong, and coming from behind, and we were making good time, so we made the executive decision to push on to Lake Worth in one day, 68 miles, and 8 bridges. Now that we've done it, we know the flaw in "my" planning. Bridges never work out the way you think they should. You think we would have learned that from two days earlier, but one of us is a slow learner. So, after a frustrating delay from the last 6 bridges, and an unexpected opposing current, we dropped the anchor in the dark, in an unknown harbor. Luckily it worked out well and we were in a good spot. We received a text from our friends on Anthyllide, "where are you guys", and we texted back and forth, flipping our anchor lights on and off, and finally figuring out that they were right behind us in the anchorage. Too funny. They had waited up by Saint Marys for a weather window and had just gotten in the day before after 3 days at sea, where as we slogged our brains out for 7 days. Having listened to their story, I am not sure which route was harder, but I can do simple math 7 vs 3, so I know which one was longer.

On the bright side, we did get to see our first manatees. We found out we hate bridges, and the people who make their schedules. We also found out that the Florida ICW is a beautiful place, probably the nicest part of the ICW, definitely the cleanest water, and the towns are boater friendly, something that seemed lacking in a lot of other places.

Our plan was to leave immediately Saturday morning to head further south to Miami. That plan didn't last long, as we woke up completely worn out. I guess our 7 day rush needed a recuperation day. Besides that, our friends were here, and we hadn't seen them in a week. Catch up... Saturday night I sat down and figured out a possible itinerary with the 27 bridges that still needed to be lifted for us to get through the ICW. It turns out that even  if everything went well, as planned, it would still take us 3 very long days to make the short 74 mile trip. And, as I am learning, nothing goes well when bridges are involved. I wanted to adopt the manana attitude, but I knew I would end up racing to get to the bridges, and possible do damage to the boat, my marriage, and my sanity. Which by the way, hangs precariously by a strand most days. For the uninitiated, "manana", (sounds like man-yaw-na), is Spanish, I think, for tomorrow, but is more loosely translated to whenever mon! Besides that, all the guides said stay away from this stretch on the weekend.

There was a weather window opening on Tuesday with north winds and light seas to push us down the coast on an overnight. So we opted for option 2 and spent Sunday and Monday doing some provisioning. Okay, we blew our kids inheritance. Sorry kids, but at this rate there isn't going to be anything left. But, we have some nice new cloths, a pole spear, some dive skins, and a bunch more parts for the boat. We also took the time to hook up the pressure salt water in the boat, reorganize, clean, and get some general maintenance done.

So yesterday we made the jump outside. We left to absolutely balmy weather, hot sun, fresh breeze, and beautiful seas. But that's where it ended. The trip wasn't bad, but the waves outside the 3 mile mark got rather large, and our speed was knocked down to 0, so we had to stay between 1 and 3 miles off shore. We did manage to sail for 7 hours before we gave in and started the engine. But it was hard going, uncomfortable, and usually not in the direction we wanted to go. The problem was that the winds were not strong enough to push us over the large waves, so the boat would flail around causing the sails to lose their wind, which would allow the waves to toss us around, which would cause the sails to lose their wind which would.... Nuff said. We did however make it safely to Miami, then ended up sleeping the afternoon away, as we were exhausted. We'll spend the next few days visiting with friends that are already here, those that are on their way, provisioning and getting Vita ready for 3 months in the Bahamas.

Yes ma'am, misses helms(person).

Bye bye Lake Worth

Hello Atlantic Ocean

Bye bye sun.

Hello moon.

Good morning sunshine. You just don't get views like this everyday. Some things can never be measured with money.

Hello Miami Beach.

Not all the boats you meet in the channel have pointy fronts and squat rears. Some have wings.

This is our sea berth. One of those little jobs that I finally got finished in Lake Worth. It is perfect when the boat is rocking around like a tilt-a-whirl. It holds you in a nice comfortable little cocoon.

Merry Xmas everyone, and have the bestest of the New Year.......

Movin' Along, No Time to Smell the Roses

Wow, are we bookin'. We made 62 miles today, a new record for us, and in only 9 hours, which is also a new record, for us. Averaging about 7 miles per hour, normally we average only 6 mph.

Yesterday we left Ponce De Leon Inlet. It was an early morning, but we weren't in a huge rush, we were low on fuel, and there was a bridge that needed to open at New Smyrna Beach. We traveled along uneventfully until 2:00 in the afternoon, when we stopped in Titusville to fuel up and pump out the poo tank. All was going well, but we needed to make the bridge at Addison Pt for its last daily opening at 3:30. We had the engine at max throttle, the sails all up, tweaking and trimming, watching for little movements, nerves on the edge. And yep, we missed the bridge by 2 minutes. If the operator had of lifted the bridge at 3:30, we'd have sailed right through by the time it was up, but no, the bugger was not going to let us through, no matter what. To add insult to injury, the next bridge opening wasn't for 2 hours, instead of the usual 1 1/2 rush hour shut down, due to construction and restricted operating hours. Oh goodie.

So, at 5:30 we finally got through the bridge, but since the sun was down, there was no where to go but drop the hook out of the channel. Unfortunately, we didn't go far enough to the left behind the breakwater, and ended up with a nasty chop throughout the night. Live and learn. It makes for a rough night when you are on an automated rocking horse. At least we didn't have to stay there until the bridge opened this morning at 08:00, we could leave any time we wanted. Sun up was at 07:00, sounds good to me.

Today was awesome. We had a destination in mind, but the winds were so strong that we had already reached it shortly after lunch. Not to mention that the waves were so big because of the wind that there was no way we could have anchored there. So we pushed on to a little spot called Pine Island, just a few short miles north of Vero Beach. Our friend Fred, whom we had spoke to on the phone earlier was here with his friends on Barbara. They invited us for dinner, so Serena whipped up a sweet potato casserole, while I got the engine oil changed. Fred played taxi, and we had a great evening, good food, and good friends, who could ask for more.

Tomorrow we are going to push on again, and then hopefully get into Fort Worth on Saturday. After that there really is no rush. The weather man has decided that we probably won't get over to the Bahamas before Xmas, but he may yet change his mind. Besides that, how bad could Xmas in Miami be.....

Cruisin’ Down the Florida ICW

We woke up in St. Augustine to clear skies, and by the time the coffee pot had boiled, we couldn’t see the bow of the boat. Oh goodie, another day of fog. At least we were only planning to make 12 miles to the Matanzas Inlet. We needed to dinghy into town, send out the Xmas presents to the kids, and take advantage of the showers at the marina one more time. By the time we had walked to the Post Office, the fog had still not let up, yet when we walked out of the building, the skies were the clearest we have every seen. It was eerie, but very welcome.

We dinghied back to the boat, and got ready leave. Sitting in the cockpit we got the opportunity to watch someone try to cut over the shoal, and see them hit it dead on. Later we actually talked to them, and they figured that the tide was 5 feet, and they draw 5 ½ feet, and since they couldn’t see the shoal at low tide, there must be enough water. Even to me that seems logical. Just goes to show that cutting corners can be a dangerous thing. We went around the shoal, but we draft a lot less, and probably could have made it. Lesson learned.

If you read the last blog, you know that we never got to see the Bridge of Lions that we went through on the way into St. Augustine, well, here is what it looks like when there is not fog. Very pretty.

Vita in the mooring field. $20 per night, reasonable, but we wouldn’t have even paid that except we needed to get into town to mail the Xmas presents, and there just wasn’t anywhere to land a dinghy for free.

So we left St. Augustine around 11:00, check out time, and made the quiet 2 ½ hour trip down the ICW to Matanzas Inlet, where we anchored just off of the Matanzas Fort. We launched the dinghy, and headed to the beach. The visitors centre offers free ferry rides to the Fort, and free guided tours. It was really cool. And, although this is probably the smallest fort ever built, it was one of the most enjoyable visits I can remember. The park Ranger made it all worth while. Refreshing to meet someone so passionate about his work. Full of information, and friendly, friendly, friendly.

Guard Serena. I’m scared.

This was the hole to climb up to the roof of the fort. Getting up was easy, but getting back down was a little more difficult. I guess the old Spaniards were a little smaller than me.

The working deck. With the original guns.

From the top of the roof I took this picture of the boats at anchor. Vita is the left most boat. There were a couple of others further up that I couldn’t get in the picture. At the beginning of the tour the guide explained the boats out in the anchorage. It was weird to listen to someone tell us about ourselves.

The boats from the fort. Friend or foe!

Main floor of the fort, 6 men shared this room, food, booze, and games. The whole fort only held 7 men.

It was a quiet night, and we woke early to clear skies. So clear that we actually hauled up the anchor and left before the sun was up, with great visibility. It was going to be a long day, we were trying to make 48 miles, and most of it against the tide. So we needed an early start.

We saw this little guy along the way. Far from home, but still see wildlife all the time. In fact at one point today the dolphins were only about a foot from my outstretched hand.

This tug was someone’s home.

So we dropped the hook in Ponce De Leon Inlet, just south of Daytona Beach Florida. It was a good run, and tomorrow we are hoping for another good one. Racing down the coast may not be the most fun way to cruise, but we are trying to get to the Bahamas before they close down the borders. You just never know….

We Escaped the Saint Mary's Vortex

But just barely. The day we were supposed to leave, our friend Kim managed to borrow another friends car, and offered to take us to Walmart. We just couldn't pass that up, so delayed yet again, but for good reason. Thanks Kim. We spent 4 hours in Walmart, provisioning and finishing our Xmas shopping, but we are stocked up big time. Enough to get us all the way to Miami.

Friday morning we rose to a thick fog, and faced the possibility of being stuck again, but after an extra hour we could see far enough that we were willing to make the attempt, and hope that it cleared out before the day got too far along. So we weighed the anchor, said a quick goodbye as we swung passed our friends on Anthyllide, and headed out the channel, against an incoming tide. The vortex was trying hard, but Vita was in good form, and we were determined to make the transition into Florida.

We had a relatively uneventful day cruising down the ICW. The first thing we noticed that was different, was that the crap pots extend well into the channel, sometimes right across the channel, so vigilance was important. We do not want to get one of those crab pot floats wrapped around our prop. A difficult thing to do on our boat, but not impossible, and a real pain in the neck. Our first excitement of the day was pulling into the Jacksonville free town dock at max ebb tide. I had expected to be there at max tide - slack water, which would give us lots of water and no current to deal with, but as luck would have it, I read the current chart as the tide chart and got it completely backwards. A mistake I am not likely to make too many more times. As a result of my error, we were trying to dock in a 2 knot current, in an area that did not provide a whole lot of space and lower water levels. We ended up in backwards, and had to turn the boat around during the next slack water so that we would be able to leave in the morning, as the current would be coming the exact opposite direction, only at max flood. The good news was that we had a great afternoon, even though it was hot as hell, and we enjoyed sundowners with some new friends. In fact, I think Frank is the most enthusiastic Bahamas fan we have ever met. I hope I get the chance to go spear fishing with him in the Exumas one day. My guess is that he has far more to teach than I could possibly learn this season.

This morning dawned to the thickest fog yet. It was bad, pea soup bad, bread batter bad. We waited for an extra hour, and it seemed like it might lift soon, so we untied the dock lines and headed out into the river, expecting it to burn off like the day previously, but it never did. 7 1/2 hours later we tied up to a mooring ball in St. Augustine Florida, after spending the entire day trapped in a little smokey cocoon. It was so bad that Serena had to keep a constant look out while I steered by the chart plotter, the paper chart, and the compass. We would strain our eyes looking for the next mark, and keeping an eye on the depth sounder to make sure that we didn't stray into thin water. It was crazy. I was nervous most of the day, but Serena of course was having a blast. Little miss adrenaline junky. It took both of us to make sure that we stayed in the channel, and didn't hit any of the other boats. Serena did eventually manage enough time to make a quick breakfeast, coffee, and lunch. And I managed a little 45 min cat nap at one point during an easy stretch, but other than that, it was constant game of where the hell are we.

Here was our world for 7 1/2 hours. Every once in a while something would appear out of the fog bank, just to keep us alert.

Coming into St. Augustine, this pretty little ship came out of the fog to greet us, him on the wrong side of the channel and us in the middle of the channel trying to get onto our side. Turns out these are theatre/cruise boats. They put on theme based shows for the paying crew. It looked neat, and maybe one day will break down and pay the $40 a head, but not today. The bigger problem was the twit in the big power boat that was following this boat out of the inlet instead of using his own charts to navigate. He was so worried about losing the track of the boat in front, that he almost ran us over. We managed to get out of his way, but it was close.

The picture above shows us waiting for the Bridge of Lions at St. Augustine. The bridge is right in front of the power boat off of our bow, but we can't see it. We barely saw the power boat, but we knew it was there, because he had just trashed us with his wake, in the channel, and we heard him talking to the bridge operator.

St. Augustine is amazing, even in the fog. We walked around the downtown area, had some ice cream and fudge, and soaked up the atmosphere. Xmas lights everywhere, people everywhere, and dozens of cute little shops, and bars and restaurants. It can't be explained, it has to be experienced. However, true to form, I couldn't get over the fact that I was going cruising to get away from the kind of commercialism that spawns this type of setting, and the observation that this place is made of money, lots and lots of money.

Now its time to relax. Tomorrow we are not planning on going far, but we need to get into town and send off the Xmas presents to our kids and grandbaby back home. Then its off to somewhere we can prepare for the trip to the Bahamas, either West Palm Beach or Miami, we'll see when we get there.

Cheers. And happy holidays.

Saint Marys GA, and Cumberland Island

Our friends told us that Cumberland Island was a magical place, and I hope they don't mind me stealing their term, but it is exactly that. It is Jurassic Park meets Jules Verne. And it truly is a very unique and magical place. We could probably have spent months there, but will have to suffer with a day trip and a couple of beautiful evenings at anchor.

So we left off the last blog having just arrived in Saint Mary's. We went to the oyster bake, and tried oysters for the first time. I was okay with them, although the mess didn't really seem worth it. Serena was unimpressed. But we did have fun hanging out with all the cruisers, and drinking cheap 2 for 1 beer. The Riverview hotel here really goes out of their way to welcome cruisers.

The thanksgiving dinner was excellent. Good food and good friends. Our friend Kim called our table the "kids table", as the six of us were definitely among the youngest at the dinner. All of our ages falling between 35 and 49.

We managed to get some things done, but at the cost of our tired feet and legs. In 4 days we walked 22 miles, to the bank machine, for laundry, for food and beer, for propane, and boat parts. We still need to find a good grocery store as we are starting to get low on some of the staples, fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurt, munchies, etc...

The weather hadn't been all that good until a couple of days ago. So nothing really exciting happened until we made the short 5 mile trip over to Cumberland Island. Now we are back in Saint Mary's for a couple of days, and the weather is beautiful. We received the parts for our engine, and this morning I put a new seal in our engine raw water pump to stop the leaking. I also rebedded the forward hatch that has been soaking the bathroom every time it rains. Serena stayed below tearing apart and cleaning the entire salon area. It seems we have finally managed to grow our first mold farm. We've heard that it is a constant problem on a boat, but until now we have been lucky. The good news is that it wasn't bad yet, and Serena managed to get rid of it. I guess we are going to have to be a little more diligent with our spring cleaning. Which, in a house, happens ever spring, and on a boat happens ever 4 or 5 weeks.

Our first alligator. Mind you this one isn't going to scare anyone. It is part of the display for the Saint Mary's Visitor Center, and made of plastic I think.

Pizza. Serena makes a killer pizza, and it is quickly becoming a staple aboard Vita.

Cumberland Island. And all these freaky looking trees are oaks. Not like any oaks we have at home.

This is Dungeness. An estate that was originally built on the island way back in the 1800s, and after being destroyed by fire, was rebuilt a few years later, only to be destroyed by fire again. Maybe somebody's trying to tell them something. There is a sorted history that goes along with this place, but I couldn't even begin to cover it here. Suffice to say, if you ever make it down here, this is a must see.

The trails are even freakier looking. See Jurassic park!!

The eastern side of the island borders on the Atlantic Ocean, and has some of the biggest and most beautiful sand dunes we have ever seen.

Fixer upper anyone?

Now this is a beach. To bad the water is so darn cold.

The island is also home to a bunch of ferral horses. We got our first glimpse of them out on the beach. We got pretty close to them, but this stallion made it clear that he wasn't entirely happy with our presence. Mind you, he didn't go anywhere. We finally decided to leave him along and let him eat.

We had no map of the island, so we were kind of stumbling around based on a look at a map from several days before. It was fun, as we stumbled across things that we didn't know were even there. Like this boardwalk in the middle of nowhere. There were geckos all over sunning themselves. The little guy above was caught by the tail. No worries, the big mean human didn't harm him.

We walked out of a wooded area into this desolate area with sand and dead trees. Neat, but more freaky.

We eventually ended up back at the Dungeness ruins. The tide had gone out, so it gave us access to the area where we could dig for sharks teeth in the tailings from when they dredged the entrance to the ocean.

I would say poor stranded jelly fish, but I'm not a big fan of them.

Above, these little crabs were everywhere, scurrying around. Below, lots of them.

We spent about 2 hours digging for sharks teeth, and we left with one black one. Oh well, better luck next time.

We even got to see a bambie while we wandered through the trails on our way back to the dock where our dinghy was tied.

Yep, gnarly trees. Cool, but definitely gnarly and freaky!!

A week and a half we've been here. Bad weather, broken boat, sight seeing, friends, and parties. Its time to move on. People jokingly say there is a vortex at Saint Mary's that is difficult to escape. We'll see how it goes tomorrow morning, cross fingers, knock on wood.

Onward and southward.