Next stop Velcro Beach

Also known as Vero Beach.

Apparently many cruisers discover Vero Beach to be a wonderful place to visit and then find it very difficult to leave.

Therefore: Velcro Beach.



But on to the big news.



Yesterday I posted my concerns about leaving Wilbur alone on the boat. Since we're all together pretty much 24/7 he's started having issues with being left alone. So last night when we went out to dinner with some friends we locked him in our berth along with a peanut butter kong and a bowl of water in the head.

Before we left.

"Sure, go ahead and leave me! I'll keep warm somehow."

Poor baby.

Upon our return.

"Geez, what's the big deal?"

I admit to being a little anxious while we were away and fully expected to find that we'd need to replace the door to our berth. You can imagine how relieved I was to come back and find everything was just fine and as far as we know Wilbur was a good boy.

At least we think he was. Hans left his phone behind when we went out and we're hoping we don't get a shocking phone bill full of 900 calls to Lonely Pretty Pitties in the Big Cities.

On to Eau Gallie

Which is right before Melbourne.

We managed to get the dinghy and its motor all put away this morning. Tonight after three nights at anchor we're going to stay at a marina where I intend to put their shower facilities to good use! I can't remember the last time I washed my hair and that's not a good thing or a pretty sight! In the summer I don't need to use a hair dryer but if I tried the same thing in the winter my hair would never dry! I sincerely hope the day is not too far off where this is not a problem!



Wilbur love to do his own 'watches'. He jumps from port to starboard, lies down for a bit, and then start all over again.
He particularly likes to spot dolphins.










What he doesn't like is to be left all alone as seen from the evidence he left behind from the last time we crated him.
That black stuff are the remains of the bottom of his crate.

We are going out to dinner with a friend of Hans' who now lives in this area, and we plan to shut Wilbur in our berth sans crate and see how he fares.


I almost don't want to see what we come back to.

Titusville

Such bizarre weather!

Tuesday was bitter cold and we ended up wearing our foul weather gear all day.

I mean, c'mon, we're in Florida!

Wednesday was beautiful and sunny, and I actually broke out my capris.

Today we wanted to dinghy ashore for some errands but a blow came through early in the morning and we had to hang on for balance while we moved around the boat. The sun never came out, the wind was bitter cold, and you can bet we did not go ashore!



Tuesday.

Horribly cold but the sun was out and even though Wilbur was freezing he likes to be with Hans.
















Greg, from Harvey, arrived the day before us and asked Hans if we wanted to do some sightseeing with him. I opted to stay at anchor with Wilbur since he's been having some separation anxiety issues (like destroying the hard plastic bottom of his crate).


Here's Greg at the Warbird Museum.







Check it out! Greg sent this treat for Wilbur. It's a piece of left over steak.


He got some for dinner last night and he'll get the rest tonight.


That dog eats better than us. We get chile dogs and Hamburger Helper.







This is what I came down here for!!



Even if it was short lived I enjoyed every second of it!!











So what does one do all day long in dreary rainy weather while the boat rolls and bucks in a very unfun way?


Torture the dog that's what.


Wilbur didn't think that taking a picture of him with a pillow on his head and dubbing him Prince Wilbur was very funny.


He's just lucky Hans drew the line at putting a dress and makeup on him!

Daytona Beach

Well, just a bit further from Daytona.

We ended up at Seven Seas Marina in Port Orange yesterday and it's a bargain at 90 cents per foot! It's family owned and has been in business for around 30 years. The docks are fixed as opposed to floating but if you tie up properly there are no problems. It's also a DIY yard and they have a nice ship store.

They have one bathroom each for men and women but it's shared by Pat's Riverfront Diner which is open from 7 AM to 2 PM. We had breakfast there this morning and they appear to have a lot of business and I noticed it was packed until they closed.

However the showers (with fantastic water pressure) are in the bathroom too, so unless you feel comfortable locking the customers out while you get cleaned up, it would be a kindness to them to wait until the diner closes in order to use the facilities. The washer and dryer are located in the entry way to the potties and you can say "Hey" to people as they pass by. The staff is just as friendly as can be and will even take you to Publix, at no charge, so you can stock up.

Today, when Bob dropped me off at the store it was a muggy 80 degrees. A half hour later when I called for him to come and pick me up, the temperature had dropped into the 50's, icy sheets of rain were slashing through the parking lot sideways, and horror of all horrors the lottery machine was down due to high winds! When I got back to the boat Hans told me he'd clocked the winds at 36 knots.
Tornado warnings had been issued and I'm glad we weren't at an anchorage.

Anyway I love a Mom and Pop kind of place so this really worked for me.

Just one of the many bridges here in Florida.

Colorful chairs along the ICW.

Yesterday I was worried about finding a good anchorage between St. Augustine and Daytona but luckily Greg, from Harvey, found a nice little place at a now defunct cement plant and he let us know that he saved a spot for us.

After we got ourselves settled in he rowed on over in his dinghy and we had crackers, wine, and cheese.

Wilbur loves company and after a wild welcome, settled himself down and snored the whole way through happy hour.

I forgot to take a picture!

Greg's dinghy can be folded for easy storage.

Hans had considered one of these at one point but I told him I would never get into anything that resembled a row boat with him!

Been there done that!

This was one of the calmest anchorages we've had since entering the ICW.

Tomorrow we hope to get as far as Titusville.

Wish us luck!

Next stop, Daytona Beach

We had a very quiet night on our mooring last night as compared to Thursday night when the wind howled and waves bashed against the boat all night long.


After about an hour of getting the dinghy motor off the dinghy and back onto our boat and then hoisting the dinghy itself onto our stern (I'm telling you right now there are dinghy davits in our future!) we left St. Augustine at 11 AM, much later than we wanted to.


We're going to have to anchor tonight but unfortunately there are very few choices within our time frame of motoring. We'll either have to anchor early or late and I don't like doing this at night.




Wilbur keeps his ears open at all times. I think he's hoping someone on shore will call out to him and beg him to please come live with them so he can get off this crazy boat.

There's just something about horse drawn buggies that everyone seems to like. Unless of course you're on an episode of Seinfeld and someone has fed the horse a can of beans.

















Here is a foggy view of the Bridge of Lyons last night from inside the Knotty Cat.




Last night we went to Tini's Martini Bar with some fellow sailors. We met Greg (whose boat is named Harvey) back in Jacksonville Beach and caught up with him again in St. Augustine. He invited us and another couple, Connie and Andre, to join him. This is the first time we've actually had a chance to go out and socialize with cruisers we've met via the intracoastal and we had a great time.

I mean really, how can an evening that involves chocolate martinis be bad?

We're hoping yesterdays replacement of the impeller raw water pulley holds up today as we now head to Daytona.

Stuck in St. Augustine

You're not going anywhere buddy!

After Wilbur's great escape we're trying to keep a better eye (and grip) on him.










We arrived in St. Augustine, FL on Monday after an uneventful day in the canal. We had no sooner anchored on the northern side of the Bridge of Lyons that Joey and Christine from Bright Eyes came zipping up to us in their dinghy. They'd been at the beach and were on their way back to their boat when they spotted us.

I'm sorry to say they left early the next morning though and are already in Daytona. We thought we'd be right behind them but that's not happening now.



Here is our Knotty Cat as seen from the bridge. Yesterday we moved to a mooring as it's been very windy and the
currents are pretty strong.

For the first time during this trip we finally put the dinghy in the water and hooked up the motor. We were all happy when the motor fired up nicely.

A view of the A1A restaurant from our boat.










St. Augustine really is quite beautiful and I guess we could be stuck somewhere a lot worse.

Right?

So why are we stuck?

After running around town all day, once with Wilbur and once without, we decided to fire up an engine in order to charge up some equipment. I'm not sure how long white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust before I discovered it when I went up to the cockpit. We now need to get a new pulley for our raw water pump. Hans discovered that the opening where the screw holds it in place is now 'out of round'. He checks the belts etc... every day and he was sure that everything was nice and tight.

I have to say though that this bothers me a lot more than the fact that my nose tells me we have a leaky hose in the holding tank.

Stinky stuff I can handle, engine problems disturb me!

Wilbur goes AWOL

We motored into Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville, FL on Sunday, got cleaned up and headed out to dinner with our departing guests. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera and didn't get any pictures. Craig (who lives in Jacksonville) had already arranged to take Monday off from his job and came back to the marina in order to give Hans a hand with replacing a piece of brass plumbing that burst this winter due to freezing. We had paid to have the boat winterized and were a little concerned when upon getting back aboard we didn't see any 'pink' (anti freeze) in our lines. Long story short, a pipe burst and we were finally able to take time to repair it. Hans emailed the boat yard that performed the winterization, and they agreed to reimburse us for the materials and the extra day we had to spend at the marina in Jacksonville. They (and we!) are lucky that Craig is very handy and was able to help Hans replace things properly.


Wilbur loves to check his Facebook account whenever he can. Although after his shenanigans of this morning I think he's going to find that a lot of his privileges are going to be revoked.

"A little privacy please!"









We decided that in order to catch the right tides for our trek to St. Augustine, we should get out bright and early this morning.



Easier said than done when you wake up to pea soup!
This is the marina as I observed it from our stern.

The boat next to us finally decided to venture out at around 10:30 AM.

Here he is crossing our stern.

And just a little way past us. You can see how foggy it still was.

He was back in about 15 minutes and said that it was like a curtain of white in the ICW. I told him that in the 15 minutes he was gone that he'd missed some huge drama at our dock.

So this is what happened.

Hans and I had started the engines and were trying to remove our cooking grill on the port side of the cockpit. Wilbur thinks he has to help with everything every step of the way so I wasn't surprised to hear the tags jingle on his collar as he came up to join us in the cockpit.

Hans was getting ready to cast off our lines when I wondered where Wilbur was. Like I said, he's normally underfoot. However, a quick check of the salon area and our berth told me that Wilbur was not down below.

Hans insisted he was in our berth as he'd seen him there right before we tried taking the grill down. I went back to our berth again and pounded the covers to make sure he wasn't hiding.

No dog!

Hans ran down below to check it out for himself and I started looking over the sides and into the water. When he came up and confirmed that there was no way Wilbur was on the boat I went into panic mode and we shut off the engines. Off the boat I went screaming out Wilbur's name as I ran around to the stern and bow trying to see if he might be trapped by the dinghy lines or heaven forbid had been caught in the propellers.

By now I was sick with fear and then I heard someone way up at the end of the dock yell, "Up here!" That's all I needed to hear and I have to tell you I don't think an Olympic sprinter could have out ran me as flew up the dock.

And then I saw Wilbur coming out of the parking lot in order to approach the men who'd been beckoning to him. Luckily he didn't run away when he saw me and came right to me. By then I was shaking so bad I could hardly stand up and one man with wildly unkempt hair and ratty clothes stared at me like I might actually be crazier than him.

We now know that when I heard his tags jingle when we were in the cockpit, he actually scooted over the starboard side and jumped down onto the floating dock. It was a very long drop and I can't believe he did it as he's not overly fond of getting on and off the boat.

I think what happened was this; when I walked Wilbur yesterday he found a very delectable smell in the parking lot and nearly sucked the pavement up his big pitty nose he sniffed so hard. I think he still had that smell in mind and just had to get back to it as soon as our backs were turned.

Time out for Wilbur.

I don't think he looks sorry enough for what he did to me.

This has gotten me to wondering though. It would appear that the men in my life will do anything, including going overboard (even in freezing temperatures), in order to get away from me.

Perhaps I should be putting our shower to use more often.