Catching up

Allright- we have a good power connection and the internet, so it's time to catch up on everything since we left Scott and Jenette's for the last time.  We had an uneventful few days motoring up the ICW to West Palm Beach.  Mostly, we cruised past a lot of mansions, and went under a lot of drawbridges.  As we pulled into our anchorage in West Palm (this would be last Thursday), the alternator fell out. Again.  This time, one of the bolts that held the shiny new mounting bracket in place had sheared inside the engine block.  I messed with it for a while, but eventually realized it needed some professional help, so on Friday morning we moved the boat into a slip at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina.  We actually pulled off the bold move of sailing into the slip, because although I had the alternator jury-rigged, I really didn't want to start up the motor. 
At the marina, their on-site mechanic Jimmy came to take a look at the alternator: 

As it turned out, we really lucked out by going into the marina where Jimmy works.  Because the way the alternator had been supported was too weak, he "Canadian-rigged" (his description, minus several additional epithets that have no place in a classy blog) a new mounting system, which involved drilling out the sheared bolt, welding a new bracket that supports the alternator, and installing the whole thing.  And, while he was at it, rewiring the electrical output from the alternator, and helping me fix one of the starter motor cables that had also broken.  Then he cut us a huge break on the price.  So thank you, Jimmy Goulet.
One positive consequence of getting delayed in Palm Beach was that it made the timing work out for my dad, a most experienced sailor, to fly down from Maryland for a few days.  The engine was finished on Saturday afternoon, and he flew in Sunday evening, so on Sunday morning Erica and I dinghied over to Peanut Island, which is directly across the channel from the marina.  Interesting side story- when I was in West Palm several years ago helping deliver a boat, we stayed a night at this same Riviera Beach marina.  I was helping the owner get the boat re-commisioned from winter storage, so I spent the whole weekend working my butt off and gazing enviously over at all the boats pulled up on Peanut Island and all the people swimming and fishing.  So finally, years later, I got my chance to go there.  It was pretty nice:

My dad arrived on Sunday night, we got everything ready to go, and Monday morning bright and early we sailed out of the inlet onto the wocean. 

Goodbye West Palm

Hello Wocean

 The weather was beautiful- they were calling for an East breeze at 10-15kts for the next week straight, so we were hoping to (and did) cover a lot of ground.  It was a bit much for Erica, so she had to take a nap:

But when she woke up, she steered and navigated quite well.

Note the bimini

The young navigator

 Monday night we stopped in Fort Pierce.  Reveille at the fort woke us up around 6, and we took off again.  This time we stayed out overnight, rounding Cape Canaveral, and heading up to the Ponce de Leon inlet, just south of Daytona Beach.  Sailing at night was excellent- we saw two cruise ships leaving Canaveral, and that was it for other traffic the whole night.  The enormous almost full moon came up around 10 so we had plenty of light. The wind started dying around 2, and by 6 we reluctantly started the engine, but it picked up again the next morning and we kept on our way. 

The ocean blue

 We spotted many dolphins and a gigantic sea turtle- we threw him some bread, but he wasn't really interested.  All in all, the weather cooperated perfectly, and we had a really good time. 
We anchored out on Wednesday night, and cruised into a marina on Thursday morning.  As we were coming in, we had two funny experiences.  First, we ran aground right outside their entrance channel.  Turns out, their huge sign advertising the marina completely obscured the green daymark we should have rounded.  I think Erica might be right that marinas are in cahoots with the towing companies.  We ungrounded easily and started heading into the slip they had assigned us, when we got the call on the radio:  "Sailing vessel Ambiguous, repeat Ambiguous, yeahhh, we're gonna need to re-assign your slip... it appears that a large manatee is blocking the channel to the first one we gave you."
It was tough to say goodbye to my father when he had to leave on Friday, but it was really great having him there, both for the company and his wealth of sailing experience. 

C & D

C & E

All on our lonesome, Erica and I left the marina on Friday afternoon.  We had the wind with us, so we were able to sail up the channel, much to the envy of the other boaters.

Wing and Wing!

This morning we cruised past some really nice looking empty islands and beaches on our way in to St. Augustine. 

We got a mooring ball at the municipal marina, and dinghied our way in to explore the town. 

Erica and City Hall

 

 

Ubiquitous is second from right

Charlie at the fort

One special note for Patrick and Catherine- someone has beaten us to it- St. Augustine eco-tours were all over town. 

So that's it.  We're moving on tomorrow with the tide (as a wise man once said, "smoke 'em when you got 'em).  St. Augustine is lovely- it's just like Annapolis, except bigger and with a fort.