Eau Gallie Yacht Club - at a dock

Eau Gallie Yacht Club, a few of the many buildings on site

About halfway between Titusville and Vero is Eau Gallie Yacht club. We heard about the place from Marty Silverstein yesterday and after traveling south with winds in the steady 20's and gusts to 28 kts, we decided to take a dock for a calm night and remembered what Marty said and gave a call to Eau Gallie YC. You have to be a member of a yacht club to be taken in and they accepted Poughkeepsie YC so we got a dock.

The flag ceremony was at sunset 

The wind was still blowing like stink with gusts in the high 20's but Ann still took the helm and did very well. The docking wasn't as easy as the last few times but experience is everything in docking and Ann's gaining it under more stressful situations. Once tied up we were secure and with the island to the west, we were shielded from the wave action kicked up by the high winds.

Ann is doing much better - great salad bar at the yacht club

The yacht club is something else. Right out of a picture book of what you think high end yacht clubs ought to look like. The docks are all new with artificial wood and pilings with rubber guards so your boat is not marred. They have two restaurants on site and so we made a reservation on the main one. Tonight they had an honor guard ceremony with the taking down of the flags which we attended. We enjoyed happy hour and a great meal. The entire cost for two including two glasses of wine each, soup, a salad bar, main course, two coffees and a dessert came to $68 including an 18% tip! Now that's a bargain in this day and age.

Yep, that's snow at home! (on our webcam)

Meanwhile, we accessed our camera back home in New York and found that it was snowing! Our driveway was covered by snow from the most recent northeaster. Yet another storm for the beleaguered northeast. I'm glad I'm down here and able to complain about the low temperatures in the 60's! Of course it warms up during the day but it starts out cold (relatively speaking for those in Florida - surprising how quickly you get used to the warm weather).

On Thursday we'll finally reach Vero and probably hang out for a week enjoying the Florida sunshine with temps in the 70's before heading to Stuart and points north. You can really get used to this!

Titusville - Alligator?

Ann often takes photos of clouds to use in her pastels. This is the bridge just north of Titusville.

The front came through in the morning, the same front headed north as the northeaster. It was nothing very big, at least not down here, just a few showers and little wind. It did delay our appointment with the diver due to change our zinc. When he finally arrived he asked whether we had seen the alligator?! It turns out that a 9 ft alligator had been spotted in the marina multiple times and hung out just beyond the next row of docks north of us. Now, we had been told in the past not to let Hoolie go in the water when there're alligators around but no one told us of this one until the diver inquired at the main office.

So after about a 45 minute delay (looking for the alligator?) he decided to dive anyway. He said he wasn't concerned about a 6 ft alligator but a 9 ft specimen was another story. I noticed that he made a very big splash when entering the water feet first from the 5 ft high dock and I wondered about the advice we had heard elsewhere about the sound of a big splash being a dinner call to an alligator. At the time they were talking about dogs splashing about but the diver certainly made a bigger splash than any dog every would.  He finished up quickly and with the old zinc in hand, was up on the dock in no time. His charge for replacing the zinc (I had bought the zinc earlier) was $40. We never saw the alligator the rest of the day.

There are lots of Ospreys about - masts make such good perches! 

With that big of excitement out of the way, we did boat chores the rest of the day and mulled over an anchorage on the way south for Wednesday. There are multiple possibilities but they depend on the details of the wind direction and strength so we'll chose an anchorage when we get a new forecast Wednesday morning.

Titusville - at a dock

Along the ICW - one sunk boat and one "movable" house

We only had 30 miles to go to Titusville so we had a leisurely breakfast and were the last boat out of the anchorage. We found out that we are still ahead of the crowd going south. Mostly, that's due to the insurance that many boaters have (but not us!) that require you to not leave south of Norfolk until November 1. So there's huge wave of boaters that start out on 11/1 flooding the Dismal Swamp Canal and the Virginia Cut and points south. We're still ahead of that wave so far.

The coming northeaster?

The weather is still wonderful but on Tuesday we're due to get some rain, a byproduct of the northeaster headed up the coast. However, the rest of the week looks great with no rain and temps in the low 70's. We are seeing more and more dolphins and a few more manatees along the ICW. The dolphins will drive right under the boat and you'd swear you're going to hit them, but you never do.

Ann came into this dock without touching either piling!

Ann is doing much better so she walked over to the dog park to exercise Hoolie but did use crutches to be sure she didn't aggravate her knee further. We're hoping that by the time we get to Vero she'll be able to get around without the crutches. Meanwhile, she had been handling all the helm duties when bring the boat into a dock. It takes some practice to dock a 42 ft sailboat when coming down a fairway and aiming for a narrow dock between two pilings (compensating for wind and current) - and then stopping the boat before running into the dock. She's doing very well at that! I handle the lines which mostly consists of handing them off to the dockhands. She's done three dockings in the last three days, practice is all it takes. She has always been at the helm when backing out of a slip with me taking the lines in. As always, it's important for both crew members to be able to handle the boat in all situations (e.g, what if one of us is injured - the other has to know how to handle the boat).

We'll be here all day Tuesday and in the morning a diver will come by to replace the zinc on the prop. It shouldn't too far gone since I put a new one on when I hauled the boat in August but in warm waters the zinc goes quickly. The diver will also have his annual ballet with the local manatees, very inquisitive creatures that always come to investigate why a big, black form suddenly appears in their waters! On Wednesday we'll move south again, reaching Vero by Thursday, at least that's the plan.

Rockhouse Creek - at anchor

A morning view of Ft Mantanzas

At a convenient 44 nm south of Ft Mantanzas is Rockhouse Creek where there's room for a dozen or so boats to anchor. We arrived and selected our spot for the night, it's perfectly calm with only the current from the inlet to set us. Ann is doing much better but she's taking it easy after the experience with Savannah and the previous anti-inflammatory drug experience. The drug gave her a false sense of well being that she paid for when the drug stopped. We're hoping for better after this treatment.

Just like on the Hudson River - except it's a lot narrower!

We came south today on a Sunday which meant a lot of traffic on the ICW, complete with barges! This section of the ICW is very straight so all progress you make on the ICW is due south, unlike going through Georgia and South Carolina. We also saw our first manatee today! He was just off the ICW, about 20 feet so he was very close. At our next stop in Titusville, they have a colony of manatees, about 20 that inhabit the marina. I'll have my zinc replaced there and the divers have to run water from a faucet about 50 ft away to distract them from finding the divers (in their all black diving suites) attractive.

Wildlife too

On Monday it's off to Titusville for two days before moving on to Vero.

Ft Matanzas - at anchor

We do get up occasionally for sunrises. The fog developed later in the morning. 

This part of the ICW has many good anchorages for those with dogs. In addition to having a full protected anchorage at Ft Matanzas, you can also take your dog ashore, coming in on a sand beach. It's a national monument and there's no entrance fee for touring the fort or for taking the nature trail which is a wooden walkway over the swamp. This time we didn't take advantage of either offering due to Ann's knee problem which, by the way, is slowly getting better. A sign of that is the dinner tonight which consisted of Chicken Kiev served with garlic potatoes and Harvard beets from Jacques Pepin's cookbook.

The fog sets in

We're anchored right opposite the fort and there's as steady stream of tourists taking the fort tour. They even fired a cannon in one of the re-enactments during a tour. Hoolie didn't even flinch. Our previous dog, Lance, would have been under the table and quivering.

We're actually in the middle of the channel - got to apply a mental correction

After dinner I took Hoolie ashore and walked him in the parking lot but was questioned by a park ranger that was just leaving for the day. The park closes at 5:30 pm and he asked what I was doing there (uh-oh).  Well, I said, I came in from a boat. You used my dock! (he said). No, I replied, I just beached my dinghy. He mentioned something about a $125 fine but he left without saying anything more. Unfriendly sort. In the morning I'll use part of the beach further down, away from the ranger station.

And at the end of the day, a sunset. The square form at left is the fort. Fleetwing has a light on top. 

The good weather continues but we were taken aback this morning when we were greeted with fog! It was like being back in Maine, fog in Florida. It's the first time we ran into that in three years of cruising in Florida. It cleared out by 9:30 and the rest of the day was beautiful. On Sunday we're headed to Rockhouse Creek and the anchorage there. There's a beach nearby for Hoolie and it's a short hop to Titusville, our next stop.

Harbortown Marina - Doctor's Day

At the far left is the passage under the bridge - 6.5 kts of current!!  Wow!

We got the rental car too late to get anything done yesterday so we set out this morning to the nearest Urgent Care center. We found one about 1/2 mile down the road that had good reviews, Doctor's Express, and off we went. Our experience with urgent care centers up and down the ICW has been very positive. We've always seen an MD and the entire staff has always aimed to please their patients. Most of them ask for immediate feedback on how they did via a survey on the web or at an interview upon exit. Sound like a good business practice, I wish my own doctor did the same thing.

Enough of the digressions, Ann saw the doctor today and is starting to feel better. I bought crutches to help her walk which takes pressure off her bad knee. After an X-ray and a blood test for an infection (negative)  we held a consultation with the doctor and decided it was okay to continue since Ann will just remain on the boat for the rest of the trip to Stuart, a good place to rest actually with the warm weather and sunshine during the day on the way. I'll do all the trips to shore with Hoolie so it's recuperation time for Ann - R and R!

It really is a beautiful area

The marina personnel here have been great! The Harbormaster is the one that found a cane from another marina member to loan to Ann for her use until she got the crutches. We returned the cane today and now we're looking to leave tomorrow for Ft Matanzas, south of St Augustine. It's an anchorage that's has a National Monument, a fort once used to protect the southern approach to St Augustine. It's a fun place to explore. The anchorage is not much used due to its reputation of being difficult to get into due to shallows - but we know the way in and never had any trouble. It's very protected and fun to explore.

Harbortown - in Jacksonville at a dock

We crossed in front after being sure the ship was stationary

The winds have finally abated and the temps have returned to the 70's! Now it's pleasant Florida weather like we've remembered from past trips down the ICW. we past across the St John's River and saw a huge naval vessel attended to by six tugboats! I can only guess that the naval boat was going into dry dock and the tugs were there to help it along. It dwarfed the tugs assigned to herd it.

New this year, 7 new docks just for transients

We entered the Pablo Creek part of the ICW this afternoon and found that the current can top 6.5 kts! We happened to hit it as near slack tide but, wow, that's some current - more than Hell Gate at home. We run at 7.3. kts ourselves but we would look pretty slow at peak current!

The Harbortown marina is one of our favorites. This fall they installed 7 new docks just for transients. The charge is only $1/ft and that includes electricity and water. The docks are brand new floating, concrete docks, everything is first rate, a real bargain. However, they do not have showers or restrooms or laundry facilities. But other advantages are the lack of current and 360 protection from winds, nice.

A view of the condos surrounding the marina 

I rented a car this afternoon so I can get Ann to an urgent care center on Friday morning. The car rental agency was short of cars due to hurricane Sandy. Many people were stranded and needed to rent a car one way which Enterprise normally doesn't do due but they relented during the hurricane emergency. So there's a shortage of rental cars in Florida until they can get all the cars returned. I finally got my car later this afternoon so we're all set for Friday. Ann can't walk at all so we'll see what the doctors can do. Meanwhile it's very pleasant just sitting on the back of the boat in the marina with normal Florida weather. We may be here a few days, depends on what they find out about Ann's knee.