Huntsville, AL, to Coconut Creek, FL

Huntsville, AL

Once tied up at Palm Cove Marina, we decide it's a good time to check out zincs. Adrian dons his SCUBA gear and heads down into the murky water. The zincs need replacement, and Adrian manages to remove one, but the tide is dropping and the boat is starting to approach, and settle into, the mud bottom. The visibility is reduced to zero, and Adrian can't replace the zincs using the Braille method. An extremely frustrated skipper heads to the nearby dive shop to see whether they know someone who can do the job while we're away.

John runs a boat detailing service out of the dive shop, and for $25, he'll replace both heel zincs and the prop zinc. We think "What a bargain!" and make arrangements, informing John that it's much better done at high tide. Meanwhile, we connect a zinc to our bonding system and hang it over the side.

We rent a car to drive from Jacksonville Beach to Mobile, AL, and, after securing Canto, we hit the road. We drive to Mobile and, from there, borrow Adrian's sister's Explorer (they just bought a new car and still had one extra) to backtrack to Pensacola, FL, (Adrian's father), Sunny Hills, FL, (Angie's mother), and then up to Huntsville, AL, where our niece has a room in which we can stay for the holidays.

We have a great time with family and friends in Huntsville, during which time we accumulate baby clothes, a stroller, carseat, and numerous other things. We are sad to leave! Eventually, though, the time to depart arrives, and we backtrack to Sunny Hills (to drop off Angie's mother), Pensacola (to make another visit to Adrian's father), Mobile (to return Adrian's sister's car), and then drive a late model rented Chevy Impala to Jacksonville. (The Chevy is a nice car, and amazingly holds all of the stuff, including the stroller and carseat!).

Jacksonville Beach

Back at the marina in Jacksonville Beach (1/7/2002), we must load our boat with stores and the new stuff we accumulated on our road trip - always a stressful experience. The only place we could find for the stroller and carseat was the shower. This is a serious disincentive for taking showers in the shower. Good thing we had installed a cockpit shower in New Bern (which is working very well, incidently). However, no one is taking a shower outside anytime soon, since we have FROST on the decks in the mornings! It is way past time to head south!

Two days later, after running ourselves ragged buying provisions, stowing them, and doing laundry and school, we scrape the windshields clean, cast off at high tide (0700), and head off.

Aground!

Two hours after casting off, Angie is below doing the schoolwork and the skipper, noticing that the fenders and lines were still all attached, decides to tidy up a bit. The Waterway Guide mentions that this is a shallow portion and to be wary, but we have had no problems, so the skipper engages the autopilot and starts cleaning up the lines and fenders. Alas, the autopilot drifts off-course a bit, and we find ourselves quite aground, having hit at over 6 knots and on a falling tide with a range of over 5 feet. To make matters worse, this is a no wake zone, and folks just don't want to throw us the wake we need to get off.

None of our tricks are working, and our situation is somewhat desperate. We ask a passing trawler for a pull, but their crew is not very knowledgeable (trying to maneuver their boat with the towline under strain) , and there is great risk that someone will get hurt, so we wave them off. Towboat/US is an hour away, at which time we'd be too aground to help, so we are feeling a bit low.

We are pretty much resigned to drying out, and are going over procedures (shut off diesel tanks, close toilet seacocks, set a kedge anchor, etc) when a runabout with a couple of young guys (20s) comes close aboard throwing a big wake. The skipper discerns that these are folks who are not being rude, but are actually trying to help. We quickly start our engine and try to power off on the wake, but we're stuck fast. The runabout comes back and asks if we need a pull. We tell them we're really quite stuck, but they insist they are willing to try. So, we pass them a line and tell them that if they could pull us into the channel, that would help. These words are unnecessary, as these guys evidently know what they are doing, and maneuver their craft into position before putting strain on the line. They pull hard, their prop wash pushing against our keel, the line pulling hard on our boat, and Adrian helping to heel the boat over, and we're off! They decline the offer of a beer, and we go our own ways. We are very relieved to be off the accursed shoal (which was, incidently, very close to mid-channel), and decide that hand-steering is the plan for awhile.

St. Augustine

We arrive in St. Augustine around 13:30. Alas, our engine is running a bit above normal. As the reader may remember, we ran hot intermittently on our approach to Fernandina Beach. The engine ran a bit hotter than usual when we were trying to get off the shoal. We check the strainer and top off the coolant in St. Augustine. It checks out OK. The engine is running cold at idle, and it hasn't really been that high except under extenuating circumstances, so we decide to let it go at that.

We are anchored just north of the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine - a wonderful anchorage. We carefully set our hook, as the guides recommend. St. Augustine is in the midst of its "Nights of Lights" season (December thru January) and the bridge, buildings and even palm trees are bedecked with tiny white lights. We also have a great view of the Castillo de San Marcos. We find a sandy area just at the base of the bridge where we can land our dinghy (not recommended for inflatables!) and save the $5 landing fee that the marina charges.

St. Augustine is the oldest settlement in the US. It was established by the Spanish, led by Pedro Menendez, primarily in order to provide protection for the Spanish galleons, loaded with gold and headed, via the Gulfstream, to Spain. Of course, Ponce de Leon also was here, where he found the fabled "Fountain of Youth." The city's name came about because the land was sighted on August 28, St. Augustine's feast day. The first Catholic mass in the Americas was celebrated here with Menendez' arrival, and a 208 ft. stainless steel cross has been erected near the site, now part of the grounds of the Mission "Nombre de Dios" ("Name of God".) Also on the grounds is the Chapel of "Nuestra Senora de la Leche" ("Our Lady of the Milk.") The milk part was puzzling until we read that the extended name was "Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery."

The architecture in St. Augustine is, of course, Spanish. St. Augustine was originally a walled city, and the old city gates, which were closed each night, still remain. Within the original city, the streets are narrow and straight, and the house walls come almost up to the road; the design was ordered by the king of Spain. The narrow straight streets channelled the cooling ocean breezes to the city in the summer, and the high walls retained the sun's heat in the winter. Here, the typical Spanish front door leads, inevitably, into a garden, not into the house. The result is a quaint and comfortable "old town."

The Castillo de San Marcos that stands today is the ninth fort built on that spot -- the previous eight forts, made of wood, having all been burned. (The photo to the left is of Canto, as seen from the Castillo.) The fort is made of a naturally-occuring substance called "coquina," a mixture of limestone and shell, which crumbles very easily. However, coquina makes a great fort wall because it doesn't fracture under the impact of a cannon ball; rather it just absorbs the impact, and keeps the cannon ball! It's also great because it won't burn. Plus, it's cheap and easy to get. Coquina seems to be holding up better than many of the (newer) concrete fortifications we've seen.

Before there was a fort at St. Augustine, the French, who were envious of the Spanish wealth freeway and wanted a piece of the action, built Fort Caroline on the St. John's River near Jacksonville, FL. Fort Caroline was completed before the Spanish learned of it, but, soon enough, the Spanish found out and took a large contingent for reconaissance and/or battle. As luck would have it, the French simultaneously decided to sail down the coast to St. Augustine to plunder and claim that town. Thus, as the Spanish headed north by land, the French headed south by sea. Arriving at Ft. Caroline, the Spanish were pleasantly surprised to find it only lightly guarded, and soon destroyed it. Meanwhile, the French were not so fortunate, and were caught by a hurricane, which sank their ships and left soldiers shipwrecked on the island just east of St. Augustine (even then, the inlet was too tricky to run without local knowledge). The returning Spanish found the stranded French, and, unable or unwilling to think of anything else to do with the Frenchmen, the Spanish summarily executed all. To this day, the inlet south of St. Augustine Inlet is called Matanzas (Spanish for "Slaughter") inlet, and the bay, Matanzas Bay.

The Spanish could now clearly see that their plundering of Caribbean riches was being noticed in Europe, and construction of the Castillo de San Marcos sped up.

We discuss the fort and its history during school, and Kristina and Luke decide that they (as English soldiers) are going to try to capture the fort. One of the park rangers is our first victim (we had warned her the previous day that her fort was going to be seized by our children). When she asks Kristina why she should cooperate with her demands, Kristina simply replies, "if you don't comply, we'll kill you." That motivates the hapless park ranger and (with the help of tickets) we are soon inside the castle. This is a wonderful learning experience for the children, who had to study the castle in some detail in order to plan an attack.

We do the touristy things, including the sightseeing buses. In town, there's a restaurant named, "Columbia's," with Cuban cuisine that is good but pricey. We also visit the majestic Basilica Cathedral of St. Augustine and a brother from the Trinity Mission Monastery gives us a personal guided tour, and answers deep questions like "Why doesn't Judas have a halo over his head?"

Engine Overheating and Daytona

It's time to move on again. The anchor's up and we slip through the Bridge of Lions at 0730. Half an hour later, Angie's sitting in the cockpit drinking coffee, but suddenly yells, "We're overheating!" Adrian quickly kills the engine while Angie races down below to lift the floorboards. The temp is very high and this time there are no extenuating circumstances. We coast to the side of the channel and drop anchor. It's really not a bad place at all to have to do this, not like the in the C & D canal. Adrian first checks the belt - OK. Then he checks the intake strainer - clear. Engine seacock - did we suck up a plastic bag? Clear. Hmm. Only one thing left - the impeller - and it's potentially catastrophic. If the impeller is broken, bits and pieces could be inside our heat exchanger, which would be a major job to clear. Sure enough, one of the impeller blades has broken off, but, with great relief, we find the missing blade inside the pump, just covering the exhaust line to the heat exchanger. The impeller was only 1 1/2 years old, and, over the winter, it was visually inspected by The Skipper, who thought it could last a bit longer and replaced it. What was he thinking!? (Of course, we did put a lot of hours on the engine since then). We put in a fresh impeller and are underway again. The engine is now running cool, and it occurs to us that this vane probably broke off in St. Mary's Inlet, when the engine first began to sporadically overheat. Thank God that it didn't disable us then- THAT would've been a bad place to lose engine power!

We arrive in Daytona and anchor near marker 44. With 6.5-foot draft, we have to go approximately 1/8 of a mile south of 44, then cut towards the west over a 6.9-foot "bar". Even so, our anchorage is only 7.5 feet deep, a bit less at low tide, but hey, we're not aground! It's far from peaceful here, because we can hear race cars practicing at the Daytona International Speedway. Finally, around dusk, the racing stops and it gets quiet enough to hear the surf breaking on the other side of the barrier island.

The very next day (1/16/02), we head for Adventure Yacht Harbor, which has a slip available. We wait for high tide and slip through the channel with at least 5 inches under our keel. At low tide, Canto, owing to "abnormally low tides" is on the ground in the slip, but, no problem, the ground is mud over sand and won't do any harm. Here, we tie up in preparation for our trip to Disney World.

Adventure Yacht Harbor and Disney World

The folks at Adventure are very friendly. It's a little pricey to stay here, but we figured this into our Disney budget. Besides, as marinas go around here, it's cheap (about $1/ft/day). While we're here, we take the opportunity to put on a coat of Epithanes varnish (good stuff!) and do some laundry. Angie shops around for a rental car to take to Orlando, and we find a place, U-Save, which is reasonable and will pick us up.

Adventure Yacht Harbor is about two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, on the other side of the barrier island. We take advantage of our close proximity to go walking on the beach. We build sand castles, search for shells, take a long walk, and (later) study the stars. We really enjoy ourselves.

We pack our bags and go to U-Save, only to find that the 4-door mid-sized sedan we were going to rent is still out; instead, we get an Astrovan for the same price! We pile in and we're off to the Orlando Westgate Howard Johnson's, for which we have special rate coupons. We swing by the Orlando airport to pick up Chris and Suzanne, who are flying down from Raleigh/Durham to meet us and join us at Disney. We're soon checked into the hotel and enjoying a cup of tea. (To save eating out dollars, we packed a coffee pot, hot pot, mugs, etc, and plenty of snacks.)

Adrian's definition of paradise, stated before leaving North Carolina, was a place where he could wear shorts and T-shirts and hand-pick grapefruits off the trees. So Angie points our that "We're there!" since it's 75-80 degrees and we have orange trees growing next to the hotel. (Adrian, for the record, wants to point out that there wasn't any mention of a HoJo in Paradise.) Soon we have more citrus than we care to eat.

Magic Kingdom! All bags are now examined by security guards, and ours are loaded with so many snacks that our guard turns to his neighbor and jokes, "HEY, I found all of us food for coffee break!" Our first stop is Space Mountain. (Yes, Angie went on it, notwithstanding signs reading "Caution: Expectant mothers should not ride.") Since we are there early, there is no wait. Unbelievable. The next stop is XS - a virtual reality experience, but don't bother. It's pretty creepy, and, had we known, we would rather have gone on Space Mountain again. We liked the runaway train on Thunder Mountain so much, we rode it twice. In the evening, the light parade is easily one of the most memorable things. We really give Disney good coverage, and stay until closing, when we wearily leave.

The next day, Chris and Suzanne must be at the airport at 3:30pm, so we just hang around the HoJo pool all morning, then visit Disney's town of Celebration (you, too, can live in Disney, where everything is clean and tidy!) for lunch. It's great to have time to sit and talk with Chris and Suzanne, and are sad to see them leave.

Epcot Center

On Monday we go to Epcot. In Huntsville, the father of one of Angie's niece's friends had some partially used multi-day "Parkhopper" passes. He said they went for 3 days and he thinks the passes were good for 4. Trying these passes out at Magic Kingdom was problematic, since the ticket reading gate is a long way away from the ticket vending booth (if the tickets didn't work, we'd lose an hour or more going back to buy some). At Epcot, the ticket booth is very close to the gates, so we decide to give them a try. Angie takes one of the passes and makes it through, and the rest of us immediately follow. The ticket reading machine throws some exceptions, and we are expecting some trouble, but we all make it through, saving close to $200!

Our first stop is Spaceship Earth. (No lines.) There really aren't that many people here. We spend until lunch time at the exhibits, and, as luck would have it, there's a tastefully-done film, The Making of Me, with Martin Short, who tactfully explains how babies come into being, from the twinkle in the eye to the actual birth event. We've been answering the kids' questions along these lines anyway, and this film helped put it all in perspective.

After the exhibits and lunch (from our backpacks, of course), we head for the World Showcase. We check out Mexico, Norway, Morocco. . . Adrian wants German or Scandinavian food, but we compromise by getting a German beer and eating dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. Here, Kristina and Luke have their photo taken with Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, who just happened to be around. The Epcot evening ends with a fantastical parade, great balls of fire in the lake, magnificent fireworks (first rate, bar none), laser light and bombastic music. Incredible.

Kennedy Space Center

Before we return the rental car, we make a trip to Titusville and Cape Canaveral to tour the Kennedy Space Center. No large bags are allowed in the Visitor's Center, metal detectors are used, and all handbags are checked. It's strict, too; Angie has to return her Swiss Army keychain knife to the car before she's allowed in (like any damage can be done with a 1 inch blade!) The Space Shuttle was supposed to have been moved to the launch pad, but mechanical difficulties happen. We don't see it at all; the shuttle is still in the Vehicle Assembly Building, and the bay doors are still closed. Nevertheless, we have a full day seeing the Apollo/Saturn V exhibit and touring the center.

Onward to Fort Pierce

Back at Adventure Yacht Harbor, Canto is just fine, and we prepare for the next leg of our journey. We decide the weather is favorable for an offshore run, so we make our preparations and head out the nearby Ponce Inlet.

Our transit of Ponce Inlet is uneventful, and soon we are in the ocean once more. We set a course which will leave Cape Canaveral about 10 miles to the west, set the windvane steering, and relax. For the first time since coming in at Fernandina Beach, our depth sounder reads above 20, 30, 40. Finally, we are at about 70 to 80 feet, a comfortable distance from shore. Some Atlantic Spotted Dolphin race towards us and give us a good send-off. The water is very clear.

Far off in the distance, just before nightfall, we can see the VAB (vehicle assembly building) and launch pads of the Kennedy Space Center far off in the distance. We round the Cape with no problem - in fact, we have a bit of south-setting current helping us along. The wind stays steady from the north for the duration of our trip, and we make good time. During the evening, near Port Canaveral, we see a number of cruise ships out in the Gulfstream (farther east). They don't seem to be moving much - perhaps they are casino ships, heading into the Gulfstream to gamble, then heading back in a few hours later. They are no threat to us, and we sail quietly on. The wind is dropping, but Monty (the windvane) steers without complaining, and we opt for this over running the engine.

Early the next day, we have covered as much distance as we would have in 3 days of ICW depthsounder-watching motoring. Travelling offshore like this is like travelling in hyperspace! However, we have now slowed to 3 knots, less at times, and decide we must run the engine to make progress. Thus, we decide to go ahead and head in at Fort Pierce rather than pressing on offshore, edging closer to the Gulfstream and trying for Lake Worth (the Gulfstream runs only about 2-4 miles off Lake Worth Inlet). Ft. Pierce inlet is pretty easy (stay close to the rocks), and we are soon in. We continue pressing on until we get to Jensen Beach, where we anchor in about 7 feet of water just below the bridge.

Lake Worth - West Palm Beach

From Jensen Beach to Palm Beach is a short day's run, though there are a number of bridges. At Parker Bridge, we bump on a very shallow spot just to the north side of the bridge. It's scary, but we just hop right over whatever it was and still make the bridge opening. We're in Lake Worth by 3:00pm, and, since we had trouble getting into the anchorage just north of Peanut Island, we anchor just southwest of the inlet, east of the spoil bank. We now need to decide whether to press on to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, or just to stay in Palm Beach.

Many, many phone calls later, the decision is made for us - we'll stay in Palm Beach. There is no anchorage for us south of here to the Keys, and marinas are either too shallow, too full, or too expensive (upwards of $2 per foot!). Adrian dinghies around trying to find someplace to get us ashore. One marina wants to charge us $50/day just for landing our dinghy! (The key, perhaps, is not to say you're a "liveaboard" but "on vacation.") He meets Capt. Pete, who lives on Au Barge, a barge complete with palm trees. (See photo, left.) Capt. Pete's mooring neighbor is gone for a month or two, so we get directions on how to avoid the shoals and move Canto to the mooring ball. We find Riviera Beach Marina reasonable, but the neighborhood is less than desirable. We have some dear friends living in Ft. Lauderdale (Coconut Creek, actually) who have invited us to stay with them for a week, and who are holding our new (used) mainsail for us, so we pack up, they pick us up, and we head to their house.

Mainsail!

Adrian and Angie leave Kristina and Luke happily occupied (playing in the pool with other kids) at our friends' house, and take the new mainsail to Canto. We manage to get it, and us, into the dinghy and from there to Canto without losing anything. No small feat; the sail is BIG, even folded into a sailbag. We take off the old sail, and hoist the new. It's not quite fully battened, but close enough, and it has a nifty Doyle "StackPack" system, in which the sail, when lowered, goes into a sail cover that stays permanently mounted on the boom. No more tying up the sail with sailties, then digging the sailcover out of locker and putting it on. We figure this saves us about 15 minutes - more time for those pina coladas, right??

Waiting

We're mostly ready to go. Our taxes have been filed. We all have snorkeling gear. We have our necessary Bahamas charts and guides, and have shopped for non-perishables (paper products, drink mixes, snack foods, cereal). (We've heard that Bahamas prices are 2x mainland prices, so we want to bring what we can.) We've learned that our AT&T cell phone plan won't work in the Bahamas, so we will have to resign ourselves to finding land lines to call family. Sigh. Having a cell phone has been such a convenience, and telling our parents that they won't be able to phone us for 2 months won't go over very well. We are really enjoying our friends' company, and Krisina and Luke are reluctant to leave them, but we think in a few more days we'll be off. We need an absence of northerly winds so that the Gulf Stream is settled, and maybe a mild southerly wind to help us the 60 miles or so across to the Abacos.