Anchor Alarms

Day #3: With high winds I always worry about dragging anchor. A big fear is being woken up from a deep sleep by the sound of rocks or pilings grinding on the hull. To help prevent this Nellie has several anchor alarms on board. All but one is high tech. It was the low tech method I employed last night after the winds abated. Having an all chain anchor rode means there's lots of noise when the chain rubs against the hull. But this only happens when the winds or currents are strong enough to really move Nellie about. To prevent this noise, and to take the load off the windlass, we normally put a rope bridle on the chain. Not using the bridle is actually like setting a very sensitive anchor alarm--the slightest amount of noise means we might be dragging. So, no noise means there's nothing to worry about. In last night's still conditions the low tech alarm worked like a charm.

As today's picture shows, it was another tortuous day on the ICW. Once in Fort Lauderdale we headed up the New River. This narrow, twisting waterway is chock-a-block with beautiful homes, big boats and passes right through downtown. In the heart of it all we pulled over and tied to the seawall. 16.6nm today and 38.6nm for the trip. DBH

No Sitting Around

Day 2: With no weather window to cross to the Bahamas in the foreseeable future, and a strong desire to go cruising, we slip the dock lines and head south. And south we shall go until Key West is to starboard.

We're having to acclimate to Florida's high temperatures, high humidity and afternoon thunder showers. At 6PM I'm on anchor watch during a downpour with 20kt winds. I hope Captain Ron is right when he said, "They come on you fast and they leave you fast." (Update: right he is. Four hours later the stars are out and winds calm.)

We've had a hard time getting Nellie's factory original, 45 lb, stainless, Danforth anchor to set. Try as we may we continually embarrass ourselves by dragging it all around the anchorage. Clearly the flukes are not digging. But by short-scoping, i.e. putting out enough rode for the anchor to touch bottom plus about 10', before backing down, the flukes will dig in. We've had good luck with this technique several times in a row now. Funny how different anchors require different techniques to set well.

It's been a nice relaxing day. Someone even got to do some cross stitch.

At anchor in Lake Boca Raton. 22nm today and 22nm total for the trip. DBH

Provisioning-- mostly

Day 1: We board Nellie with literally a ton of provisions. Stowing them and our gear (and a three mile walk through town) exhausts us. While there's a great anchorage 300 yards from the slip we elect to stay tied to the dock for this evening. Having shore power and thus air conditioning is a definite bonus.

What looked like a potential weather window for the Bahamas was nothing but a chimera. The winds dropped but the sea state didn't. The seven day forecast shows more of the same. Time to consider some other options.

In Palm Harbor Marina, West Palm Beach, FL. 0 nm today and 0nm for the trip. DBH

I don't think so!

Day #4: Today we moved south timing our arrival at Wiggins Pass for high tide. The winds were up a little from the northeast. The Gulf was calm enough but there was a surge from the west. We didn't think much about it until we arrived at Wiggins and saw kids surfing in the pass--never a good sign. As the picture above shows, Wiggins is very shallow. With good reason, the idea of breaking waves and shallow water wasn't appealing but we didn't bail out until after taking a closeup view with the dink. Comfortable with our decision to bypass Wiggins we headed farther south to the Naples Yacht Club. 35nm today and 77nm total.

The Birds

Day #3: If Hollywood is scouting a location for a remake of Hitchcock's The Birds, I'd recommend Fort Myers Beach. Like clockwork scores of crows descend on the mooring field at dawn. The picture doesn't do justice to their numbers but you get the idea by looking at the standing rigging of the sailboat. Jobs aboard boats are broken into watches: first watch; dog watch; anchor watch; etc. To this list we need to add bird watch. This watch requires one crew member, preferably with a loud voice and an deep understanding of what frightens crows, to stand vigil. Lacking someone with the requisite skills means that the entire crew will stand poo-patrol shortly after dawn. 0nm today and 42nm. DBH

Derelicts

Day #2: It was a dinghy day as we explored the back waters of Ft. Myers Beach. It's amazing how many canals there are. Most of them are bordered by mangroves and you feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. Of course about then a whole neighborhood crops up.

Derelict and vagabond boats give the cruising community a bad name. It's easy to see why here. Look closely in the above picture's lower right corner. Those white dots are a bane to every waterfront community. Many of the boats have sunk or are in some advanced stage of sinking. Once sunk it becomes the community's problem to clean up the mess. Not sure what the solution is but certainly understand the desire (even if it's misguided) to outlaw anchoring in the hopes of keeping derelicts out.

Still on the mooring in Ft Myers Beach, FL. 0 miles today and 42nm total. DBH

We're off ... and off the hard!

Day #1: For the last six weeks Nellie has been on the hard and we've lived aboard doing projects. Lots and lots of projects. What started off as a several day bow thruster install morphed, as only a boat project can, into something much larger: a whole new septic system, paint and polyurethane on every surface in the stateroom, a new stove, etc. Along with the big jobs a million little jobs got done too.

It was with more than a little trepidation that we watched Nellie get splashed this morning. The million-dollar-question: Would the new bow thruster leak? It didn't. Whew. In fact, miracle of miracles, all systems were go. We couldn't have picked a nicer day to get underway--sunny, calm winds and 70's F. About halfway to Fort Myers is Pine Island Sound. The path well traveled is on the west side of Pine Island. But it's the east side of the island, an area that's mostly terra incognita for cruising boats, that interested us. What we found were lots of mangrove islands, huge expanses of water, a chicane of channel markers and innumerable shoals. The latter being particularly worrisome. When the average water depth is five feet you usually don't know you're in trouble until you feel the thump. Well, at least that's how we knew we were in trouble. Dead in the water is not a good feeling. A look over the side confirmed what we already knew; the bottom was too close. In fact, all around us it looked too close. In cases like this we've learned it's best to drop the dinghy and use its depth sounder to find the way out. We did drop the dink and with the knowledge gained managed to extricate ourselves. That was the second 'whew' of the day. Our attention to Nellie's depth sounder could only be described as 'rapt' after the grounding.

Tonight we find ourselves on the moorings in Fort Myers Beach. All in all, a very good first day. 42nm today and 42nm total. DBH