Monday March 22, 2010 

The weekend party on Monument Island. The locals didn’t invite Bill.

 The Miami skyline as we were leaving. In a few days the scenery will be different.

 

A conch horn blowing statue. A monument to all conch horn blowers everywhere. 

 Weech’s Bimini Dock. Home for a few days.

We finally made it to the Bahamas! We are tied to the dock at Weech’s Marina in Bimini. The water is beautiful, and it is finally warm, around 80°.

Our trip down the ICW in Florida was a long-motoring-waiting-for-34-bridges-to-open kind of trip. Every day the temperature was warmer, so like snakes we shed our clothes layer after layer.

We anchored one night in the Matanzas River south of St Augustine. In the morning we left, and I was steering. I was following the markers, about 50 ft from a green buoy, and should have been in the middle of the channel, but ooops, we bumped the bottom and stuck. The depth sounder showed 5 feet, but the boat was in the channel and there should have been 12! It took several tries to get off the bottom and several more ooopses, but we finally found deep water near the starboard side bank where both our paper and electronic charts showed shallow water. A week or so later we found several websites with tales of boats being stuck in the same place. We feel so proud… we did not have to call a towboat like the others.

In Vero Beach I noticed that our oil pressure gauge read no pressure (like almost 0) although the alarm had not yet sounded. I told Bill, and he shut the engine off and checked the oil. Although low, there was still oil in the engine. Whew. Bill looked back at his log and realized the engine had been using much more oil than usual since the last oil change. We hadn’t noticed any strange engine noises or clouds of exhaust, but we decided when we got to Miami we would go to the local Yanmar dealer, Anchor Marine, and have a mechanic look at the engine.

Bill called Anchor Marine while we were motoring through Miami. He talked to the Service Manager who asked if the engine started easily (yes), was it making funny noises (no), or emitting embarrassing clouds of smoke (no). His advice was to buy some oil and go to the Bahamas. No matter what might be wrong, the fix would be the same: overhaul or replace the engine. Since that would take a couple of weeks and $$$$, we decided to follow the guy’s advice. Also, Anchor Marine is a working boatyard in a pretty poor neighborhood on the Miami River and not the sort of place where you go on long quiet solitary walks. I could envision several weeks confined to my bunk staying out of the mechanic’s way while he worked making a greasy mess of my home. We bought 10 gallons of oil.

We did a little celebration jig and continued toward the Venetian Causeway anchoring where we did last year. The wind changed direction during the night making the spot rough, so we moved to the other side of the causeway to discover lots of anchored boats. We picked a spot and dropped our hook. The Venetian Causeway connects Miami and Miami Beach. From where we anchored it was just a short dinghy ride into the city of Miami Beach.

Miami Beach has two nearby Publix grocery stores. One is an old, ethnic one and the other a newer, larger one with lots of variety. In the old one lots of stuff was kosher. They also had several brands of guava paste. I am not at all sure what you do with guava paste, but it did look interesting. I shopped in the newer store. It was more like home. Bill bought oil at Advance Auto.

Near where we anchored, was a small manmade island with a 110 ft high white monument to Henry Flagler, the original Florida land developer, thus the island’s name - Monument Island. Since we were there on Saturday, we got to see the big weekend party on Monument Island. There were Miami Vice type boats, jet skis, loud music, booze, and girls with skimpy bikinis. Bill watched through binoculars wishing someone would invite him over. That evening the City of Miami had a wonderful fireworks display. From where we were anchored we could see the whole Miami skyline silhouetted against the lit up sky; a perfect view. But, we don’t know what was being celebrated.

On Sunday we decided to walk down Lincoln Road, which is a pedestrian mall, to the beach. It was warm and the beach was full. Lincoln Road has lots of shops, mostly shoes and sunglasses, with a restaurant every few feet. We stopped at an outdoor pizza place for a pizza and a beer or two. The people-watching was the most fun. People of every shape, size, color, and manner of dress were out strolling. Having a leashed dog with you seemed to be a near universal requirement for admission. We had fun watching.

With all the anchored boats at Miami Beach, some of the ladies who had wintered there started a cruisers’ radio net. They announced every morning what social events were planned for the day. We went to a pot luck supper in the local park and a cocktail party on Monument Island. Our Monument Island party was during the week, and our group had the place all to ourselves. It was fun to make new friends and hear what other boaters are doing. Several of the ones in Miami Beach had been there all winter. The weather had been cold and windy. Some, like us were waiting for good weather to cross the Gulf Stream to the Bahamas. Others had given up on crossing and are just going to stay in Miami before heading back north. Some boats have insurance that requires the boat to be north of Savannah or some other point by June 1 to avoid hurricanes. We are lucky that we don’t have to worry about that.

Friday, March 19, we moved (along with about 17 other boats) from Miami Beach to Key Biscayne. The weather forecast for Saturday was good for the run to the Bahamas. After we got to Key Biscayne, Bill made one last dinghy trip to shore mailing a form to the IRS requesting an extension to file our 2009 income tax after we get back.

We had a beautiful sunset; Bill and several others blew their conch shell horns, and we went to bed early. We decided to get up at 3am to leave. Bill set the alarm on his radio for 3, only he also mistakenly set the timer to go off every 180 minutes. It did not make for a restful night. We were anchor up and underway by 3:45 in complete blackness. I didn’t like moving the boat in shallow water close to shore in the dark, and I really didn’t like motoring among the other anchored boats. I could see all kinds of things that weren’t there in the dark. The landing lights of an airplane at 10,000 feet ten miles away became the imagined anchor light of a boat 50 feet away, and I turned to avoid it. Ships miles away looked like they were nearby. We motored all the way to Bimini with the wind straight on our nose and with 4 ft swells rolling the boat. Every few yards we saw a Portuguese Man of War. The first one I saw I thought was some sort of balloon. Good thing we didn’t want to swim! Once across the Gulf Stream the swell and rolling went away. We arrived in Bimini at about 2pm, docked at Weech’s Bimini Dock, and cleared customs and immigration. I slept well that night. Even the live band at the bar did not keep me awake.

We are spending a couple of days here enjoying the stationary first hot showers since Myrtle Beach and waiting for a cold front to pass us by before we continue on to Nassau and the Exumas.

Hope Spring arrives soon for you all.

March 5, 2010

The new Ben Sawyer Bridge

High tide

Low tide

White pelicans


Florida at last!!! We crossed the St. Mary’s River and passed into the Sunshine State at noon Thursday.

For a while I had begun to doubt that we would make it. So much has happened – all unexpected. Bill’s brother, Worth, who was hospitalized when we left Kingsport died leaving behind a wife and young son. We rented a car to return to Salisbury for the funeral leaving the boat tied up in the marina at Little River. We spent a week in Salisbury visiting with family including Julia, Ann, their husbands, and our three grandchildren. As always it was a good time. I enjoyed being called Mommy’s Mommy.

When Bill ordered the winch parts, he had them shipped UPS to the marina not realizing that the marina had no sign, no staffed office, and no address on the door. On the appointed morning we took turns sitting in a chair on the marina sidewalk waiting on UPS. Bill flagged down the brown truck as he drove by, showed an ID, and got our parts. Unfortunately, the gearbox did not have the right flange to bolt to our windlass, but after several phone calls, e-mails, and an exchange of photographs on the internet another part was sent. This time we had it sent to Elaine’s house, and when it came it fit.

On our way back to Little River from Salisbury, we learned of the death of Bill’s uncle Frank. He was a retired Major General and, a D-Day Battalion Commander, and the last surviving WWII Regimental Commander. His funeral service will be June 4 in Arlington.

While we were in Little River, JP and Elaine treated us like royalty… we ate like kings at their house, and for a Valentine’s Day treat we went to a very nice restaurant in Myrtle Beach. They took us on hunts for the bits and pieces needed to repair the boat and on trips to restock the food and supplies we had used or forgotten.

It was February 23 when Bill attached the last wire to the windlass, we took a shower, Bill filled the water tanks, and we left Little River. Going south through Myrtle Beach was a boring crawl through a dug canal filled with rock before entering the beautiful Wacamaw River. We anchored north of Georgetown behind Butler Island watching a huge dredge with 300 feet of pipes, tugs, barges, and boats all attached pass quietly by on the other side of the island.

Our next stop was Deweese Island north of Charleston. It was a nice anchorage, and we stayed there all the next day waiting on the wind to die down following a cold front. The Ben Sawyer swing bridge connects Sullivan’s Island to the mainland. It was in poor condition, and for over a week the ICW was closed to boat traffic for replacement while we were in Little River. Rather than a modern high rise bridge, the new bridge is almost exactly like the old even down to using round headed bolts to simulate the old bridge’s rivets. It is almost cartoon-like. Having an exact replica of the old bridge must mean something to somebody. Boats on the ICW still have to wait for the bridge to open and vehicles on the road still have to wait for the bridge to close. Oh well… progress.

In the Charleston Harbor we were shadowed by a Charleston Metropolitan Sheriffs boat. Later in the day in the Wadmalaw River, they finally turned on their blue lights and stopped us. They wanted to board, search, and inspect us. Bill offered the February 3 boarding report from our US Coast Guard boarding in Morehead City. The deputies spent 15 minutes copying the information from the USCG form to their form before letting us go. These guys were very nice and their departing comment was that with so little traffic on the waterway “pickings were slim.” I am still in amazement that we must allow all official people to get on Irish Eyes without any real reason. I won’t argue on the spot, but it does seem a bit unfair. We don’t think we look like outlaws!!

There is a spot in the South Edisto River near Finwick Island that I don’t like, but where we seem to anchor every time we go by. Bill did it again this year. It is just off the waterway - sort of like pulling over on the side of the highway and parking for the night. I don’t like the thought of nighttime boat traffic so nearby, but this year with temperatures in the 30s we were the only fools out on the water.

We stopped at Hilton Head Island and anchored between Seabrook Lodge and the Skull Creek Marina. The full moon was impressive. The radio said the moon was at its closest to the earth which not only made it big, it also made the high tide extra high and the low tide extra low. At high tide most of the marsh grass was underwater making it hard to figure out where the edges of the channel were located. Adding to the confusion there were big mats of reeds lifted out of the marsh and floating around looking just like islands where there were no islands at all. At low tide there was just no water. The next day in Georgia we were worried about low tide at the shallow Hell Gate, so we turned off into the Vernon River to anchor for the night. Bill was steering and confirmed that our boat draws 5 feet. I say the bottom of the river came up and grabbed the boat. It took us a few minutes to get off, but we managed.

The next day we got through Hell Gate at high tide with no problem, but worrying again about shallow water we anchored in the Back River north of the shallow and aptly named Little Mud River to wait ‘till the next day’s high tide. During the night we watched Blazing Saddles on our 12v TV/DVD player while it rained and blew outside as another front came through on its way north to dump snow on New York. Around noon the rain had stopped, and we continued south. We had two short days stopping first in Brunswick anchored behind Lanier Island and again at Jekyll Island waiting for rain, a thunderstorm, and high winds to go away.

We arrived in Florida this year 17 days later than last year and stopped at Kingsley Plantation north of Jacksonville. Tonight we are south of St Augustine in the Matanzas River. It may be Florida, but it is still cold with freeze warnings inland and morning lows in the lower 30s here on the coast.