The Easter Bunny found his way to Titusville and left a basket of chocolate goodies (and Peeps! of course) for Jassa. (Scroll through photos to see another Easter delivery to two pretty girls!) Very windy this morning. And gray. Cliff and I are happy not to be departing in the wind as we will be VERY short-handed as we leave the dock tomorrow. With Ann’s bad shoulder, we are down to 3 good “hands.” Jessica and Jassa left mid-day and Cliff and Ann went to work: get dinghy drained and re-attached to stanchions, straighten up inside of boat, scrub down outside of boat, dry chrome (who knew it would rain in about 10 minutes), fill the 136 gallon water tank, change linens in guest bath & berth, wash never ending supply of dirty glasses and dishes (note to self: send a thank-you note to Roger and Will for all the dishes they did while on board!), do some re-provisioning for the next several days, find a West Marine store and spend more with them, return Avis car, do laundry and then navigate the jigsaw puzzle of storage to put away the clean clothes. Oh, and dash around madly when it started raining (hard!) to close open doors and zip up driving station…then drape the items that got rained on around the cabin so they could dry. Whew! Watched the UConn-Maryland women’s basketball game and crashed.
Easter bunny tracked Jassa down at Dot.Calm in Titusville. More sugar is just what he needs.Is it possible that Jassa is turning into a teenager right before our eyes? Or are all 10 year olds attached to electronics 24/7?We’re counting on this formal documentation to prove that we returned our car on time. Avis office located inside Sears store. Store was closed, but door to Avis open and provided complete access into the store. Weird.Stormy sky and 17-20 mph winds made us glad to be in port. Should have kept our eye on the storm a bit closer!The West Coast Knowles girls Charlotte and Addison enjoying some Easter fun at Grandma Stephanie and Grandpa Bob’s house in Oceanside. (Sneaking in non-cruise photos of grandchildren is a grandmother’s prerogative.)
Kennedy Space Center is an amazing place. Visiting with a 10-year old is almost as amazing. Grandma is tired. You will have to visit to get the full experience. Here are some pictures.
Looks can be deceiving thanks to a camera angle that makes Jassa look as though he can touch the nose of a HUGE rocket displayed outside the NASA assembly building.Here is Jessica’s version of the picture entitled “What NASA is really working on.”These are the thrusters of the Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 8, the most powerful rocket ever. The new SLS will eclipse that record but not until 2018. SLS is one of a zillion acronyms that NASA uses. Totally confusing!The “landing” slide was so much fun that Jassa did it 10 times (or so it seemed). Cliff got a video of it, if you are interested.The “Rocket Garden” provides a visual history of America’s space quest.Jassa takes a seat in a model space capsule. Somehow with him inside, it doesn’t look so tiny.This is a panoramic shot of the Atlantis rocket. Amazingly large, until you visit the Saturn exhibit.The Atlantic Ocean is a beautiful backdrop at one of the KSC “behind the scenes” bus tour stops.Another stop on the bus tour is the NASA assembly building. Its size is hard to comprehend. It is tall enough for the rockets to stand upright inside. The world’s largest one-story building.Captured this shop of an osprey heralding his catch as he stopped atop a nearby mast. The osprey’s nest is about 50 yards away and we heard the pair calling to each other frequently.
Said a fond farewell to Roger and Will this morning. What a terrific 15 days together — perhaps remarkable given the close quarters aboard Dot.Calm. We learned that we are a pretty compatible group and have had a lot of laughs over the small spaces available to us for making beds, changing clothes or stashing supplies. They’ve returned to the civilization of The Oaks and, I am sure, they are delighted to be back to roomy beds and lots of space. About the same time Roger and Will were departing, Jessica and Jassa left Orlando for Titusville to visit with us on Dot.Calm. A super treat for us. Jassa was excited for his first visit aboard. He said he “thought he died and went to heaven….or maybe I was just hallucinating.” (See his comments below.) Hard to beat that kind of endorsement, don’t you think? Cliff spent the morning getting Dot.Calm’s dinghy to work. The four-stroke engine purred and a little WD-40 loosened up the throttle. (I was to find out how loose later on.) We took Jassa on an exploratory cruise to a small island about 2 1/2 miles out from the harbor entrance. We nearly had it to ourselves. Wading ashore, we all marveled at how warm the water was and how soft the sand. Jassa spotted horseshoe crabs, sea snails, manatees and leaping fish trying to avoid being dolphin dinner. Jassa found an odd spiral-shaped seaweed that I’d never seen before and returned with the remains of a nearly complete horseshoe crab. With Jassa and I in the front of the dinghy for the return trip, Cliff was able to open it up — 30 mph — eliciting more than a few slow down requests especially as we headed into the wakes of other boats. Splash! It’s been fun to get reports from friends who are reading the blog. Even our tax accountant confessed to following along vicariously. Alas, it did not keep him from sending us the news about tax payments that are due. Hi: This is Jassa. The reason I thought I was hallucinating was because I took a nap. But, yeah, the things Grandma said were true… or Ann or what ever you call her… but remember i call her Grandma, okay. I mean it! Do not mess with a ten year old!
This compact car will be the last tight space for Roger and Will for a while I’m thinking. What a terrific time we had.Our boat neighbor told us the manatees love boat cleaning days, gathering around the scuppers for fresh water. We saw a half dozen of them in the immediate vicinity of our slip.Got the dinghy running just in time for Jassa’s visit. The throttle seems a bit sticky.Here’s our destination! A nearly deserted island about 2 1/2 miles from where we are moored.A nearly private island is a perfect place for a 10 year old to explore. And for Grandma and Grandpa to wade in warm waters.Exploring a “deserted” island is an adventure for 10-year olds and his grandparents. What fun to feel as though you are “all alone” on an island!You can tell by Jassa’s expression that he is nearly as creeped out by this spiral seaweed as his Grandmother.Jassa and Grandpa comparing sea snail specimens.Sandy trails cross-crossed the palm filled island, suggesting a lot of earlier explorers.An eco-friendly reminder of our exploration: “J was here.”
An easy, smooth departure this morning. Cliff up early enough to catch some of the pink sunrise. Others of us not up quite so early, but happy to admire his photo. We learned today that there are housing opportunities along the ICW for every budget! We were startled by the number of dreary trailer parks and RV parking areas where the RVs look as though it has been many, many months since any of them rolled anywhere. To be fair, there are some trailer parks that have a community feel complete with marinas/docks and other public areas that look quite nice. Gentrification is happening all along the ICW in Central Florida and was apparent as we saw elaborate and large homes vying for every possible view of the water right dab next to modest and extremely small houses, seemingly designed as if they didn’t even know the ICW was out their backdoor. The ICW itself offered other contrasts today. In one section it crossed wide open expanses of water with only a narrow trench of navigable water. In another, a sharp right-hand turn cut through an island via a narrow, Australian pine-lined canal with a bascule bridge right in the middle of it. The dock help at our destination marina — the Titusville Municipal Marina — was wonderfully competent, a nice change from having no help at all at the Smyrna Yacht Club (none was expected) and a person who couldn’t seem to tie a weather hitch (or do much else right) at Daytona’s Halifax Harbor Marina. A bit confusing was the dockhand’s use of the proper words for nautical things. Who knew that the large docking post at the end of a mooring slip was called a “dolphin”? Now we do. Will and Roger have rented a car for their journey home to Osprey tomorrow, so we will dine in town tonight after toasting to our fabulous journey so far with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot that Will purchased especially for this occasion. Jessica and Jassa arrive tomorrow. Can hardly wait!
A glimpse of sunrise from the back cabin of Dot.Calm. “Red sky at morning” sailor’s caution turned out not to be the case.Roger and Will give a two thumbs up to their ICW cruise. Alas, today is their last day aboard. Ann is distraught as she will have to start doing some work.Managed to get a smile from Captain Cliff as we started our journey.He’s actually happier here — navigating his way to our next destination.Another low bridge to contend with. Happily, this one had an extra three feet in the middle of the span so we did not have to ask the bridge tender for a lift.The ICW is a fairly narrow trench through this wide-open looking body of water. Water is considerably more shallow just a few feet outside the channel. We were pinched into it a couple of times when bigger boats took their half of the waterway down the middle.The canal across an island with a bridge in the middle is shown through the windshield to give you an idea of how narrow it is.Currents and tides are a relatively new element for Cliff to deal with in terms of mooring and navigating. In Chicago, we don’t have either and in Marathon, current is negligible and tides a foot or less. Not the case at this point on the ICW. Here you see a sailboat that has 8 anchor lines out to keep it in place no matter what the current or tide does!You also have to be on the look-out for dangers to navigation. We all thought this was a submerged sailboat. Not so. It’s a power line that somehow ended up in the ICW.These are all doublewides. The trailer and RV parks range from pretty nice spots to just plain scary. Some had mini-marinas and fishing boat docks. Others had park areas and water boardwalks with plenty of benches. It was a shame that we only saw a handful of people watching the parade of boats go down the ICW.That teensy building you see in the middle of the picture is a house trapped between two hug-the-property-line mega homes.This homeowner has a problem. An osprey has built a nest at the top of the lighthouse pillar. He or she (the osprey, not the homeowner) was in residence as we passed.Veuve Clicquot makes a perfect toast to a perfect holiday with Roger and Will.
Jessica visited us at Daytona this morning. Her office is a short distance from the Halifax Harbor Marina where we were docked. We had coffee on the top deck which was lovely — the kind of morning temperatures we’ve been waiting for. After she departed, we took a cab to breakfast at a spot a dock worker told Will about. Ambiance 0, food, 8. Though, we will tease him about this selection forever, he is fortunate that last night’s dinner at The Blue Grotto right next to where we were moored was so bad (the first bad meal of the trip — to which all of our waistlines can attest). Our ride to New Smyrna was pleasantly slow with more boat traffic, more bridges, more condos and more houses. Definitely into civilization now. Lots of manatee zone signs and Cliff spotted the telltale bubbles of a submerging manatee off a seawall close to the ICW deep channel. Our destination is the Smyrna Yacht Club, a venerable organization with a Spanish hacienda style clubhouse just off the ICW. A friendly welcome and nice facility. Roger, Will and Ann hiked to and from the downtown area. The houses along the waterfront display a wide variety of architectural styles — arts & crafts with deep, shady porches, 1960’s modern featuring an eyebrow roof line and big single-paned windows, Key West style tin-roofs zig-zagging over multiple gables. Several had been converted into B&Bs. Our walk back down an interior street revealed lots of renovation opportunities — same style homes, but most badly in need of fixing up. One of our first stops downtown was a building called The Hub, an artists co-op that is in the midst of a fund-raising campaign. For “only” $500,000 you can have the building named for you! There were some outstanding artists represented, several of whom Roger had taken classes from. Further down the street was a recently opened olive oil and vinegar shop which was delightful, from the sampling opportunities to the knowledgeable owner. We helped ourselves to dribs of this and that and tried them with chunks of bread to determine which combos we liked best. I am sure our purchases “made her day.” I facetiously suggested we stay on board for a salad dinner using some of the purchases, knowing that the idea would be quickly shot down by my hungry cruise companions….which it was. Instead we dined (the appropriate word here) deliciously at the Smyrna Yacht Club and had a friendly server named Trinket (really). An early evening for us — Ann has caught a miserable cold and fortunately Roger brought along his anti-cold medicine chest.
Jessica paid us a visit at Halifax Harbor Marina. Her first time on Dot.Calm.The Ultimate Omelet House. We all LOVED our breakfast choices.Even the wildlife experiences more crowding in Florida — one of several “pelican islands” we passed on our way to New Smyrna.Lots of manatee zone warnings along the way.Smyrna Yacht Club docks — fixed, not floating which means more tending of lines as tides rise and ebb.Relaxing before dinner on the top deck.Enjoying dinner at Smyrna Yacht Club. Lovely. Note that Will is not in the picture. He edited himself out. We have had on-going “discussions” about the person on the end of group photos looking a bit wider than actual.
A five hour cruising day from St. Augustine to Daytona found us in busier waters and making our way under lots of different bridges. So far, we’ve only had two bridges that needed to open for us — and in both cases we lucked out with timing. The bridges were opening almost exactly as we arrived. Today, our bridge travels were more interesting. We passed under several fixed bridges — which means they do not open. You are either under the height limit or you take the nearest cut into the ocean to avoid it. The ones we passed under were 62-65 feet high — no problem for Dot.Calm. The bascule bridges presented some challenges. “Bascule” comes from the French word “teeter-totter” based on how these bridges open, using a small motor to move a counterweight that lifts the bridge. The really low ones we encountered — less than 12 feet clearance — were no problem at all. A call to the bridge tender, and up she goes. But two of the bascule bridges had clearances close to the height of our boat. We estimated the height of Dot.Calm including all of the electronics on top to be around 22 feet, but to be on the safe side, we radioed the bridge tenders that we were 24 feet. In one case, the bridge tender obliged with a speedy lift of the bridge. In the other, the bridge tender told us that a bigger boat had gone under “her bridge” an hour or so before with no problem and that we should just forge ahead. All well and good, except the tides in Florida can change pretty dramatically in “an hour or so.” We moved up to and under the bridge cautiously and made it without a scrape, but with a good deal of trepidation. The ICW shows the many sides of Florida from multi-million dollar heaps to stretches of wilderness that looks as though no one has ever set foot on it. In between are condo developments of every stripe, some that look like Italian villas and others like public housing plus more modest single family homes and one double-wide mobile home park.
Lots of sailboats arrived in St. Augustine while we were there — many in the mooring field just behind Dot.Calm. Race Week starts there in about a week.Living up to our motto: “You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.” Will pours a tote of champagne for each of us before 8 bells (whatever the heck that means)No argument from the bridge tender about raising the bridge for us here. She did so within about 2 minutes.Bridge tender here was happy to raise the bridge for us even though we probably could have made it through.The bridge tender was unwilling to open the bridge for us here….so we took it very cautiously and made it under with room to spare, but with a few heart palpitations all the same.The fixed height bridge leading into the Halifax Harbour Marina is adorned with fanciful sea life mosaics. A pretty view for boaters.We saw lots of wide open spaces after leaving St. Augustine. Amazingly, we’ve seen just one piece of litter (a coffee cup that we generously decided had inadvertently blown off a boat) in the unpeopled parts of the ICW.Some of the scenery along the ICW is so picturesque that we wondered if the palms had been planted long ago for a movie shoot.But lots and lots of the ICW is lined with house after house and boat dock after boat dock.And legions of condo developments march along the ICW shores as well.This sweet house is one of the most unusual homes we’ve seen along the ICW where Spanish-style mega-haciendas and mansions with huge screened lanais are dominant.
Sun! Warm! Nice! A perfectly lovely day for enjoying the top deck without having to huddle at the driving station to avoid cold breezes. Roger and Will headed into St. Augustine’s old town to capture photographs of potential painting scenes. Roger declared that the morning’s light was “painterly” and they took dozens of shots that may be turned into watercolors for Roger’s ICW series. Ann and Cliff couldn’t resist lazing on the top deck, luxuriating in the warmth and enjoying the views. They spent a little time cleaning, too. Salt air = salt grime and only a good scrubbing can wash it away. Dot.Calm looks pretty spiffy in its slip at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina. We are all happy with a slip rather than a mooring on the headwall (which is what we’ve had most of the time until now). In the slip we are protected from the slap of waves on the hull and the motion set off by the wakes of passing boats. Very comfortable. Playing Mexican Train at the big round table on the top deck is a treat — and our trains don’t get too squished either. St. Augustine has a robust tourist trade with parades of trolley tours nearly nose-to-nose on the road in front of the marina. The marina also has a fair number of tour boats in the form of pirate ships (those groups looked and sounded like they were having a blast!), galleons, three-masted schooners and just plain two-decker tour platforms The small back streets are filled with shops of every description along with local restaurants. We noticed how many of the restaurants had live music which drifted pleasantly into the streets. Had an late lunch/early dinner at Harry’s (New Orleans inspired cuisine) and then hiked (nearly a mile!) to the ABC Liquor Store. Good exercise following a chocolate bread pudding with ice cream indulgence.
Cliff is very relaxed, don’t you think?Roger remains upright, but still relaxed on Dot.Calm’s top deck.Two of the tour boats competing for tourist dollars at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina.View from Dot.Calm’s top deck with yet another tour boat — this one a pirate ship — at the pier waiting for its guests.St. Augustine is America’s oldest city and the narrow streets attest to its age. The structures are in amazingly good condition — lots of renovation I suppose.Flagler College is a wonder of Spanish architecture, originally the hotel built by Henry Flagler to attract passengers to his pan-Florida railroad. This shot is a bit of cheat….it’s from a postcard because the college was shrouded in scaffolding while we were here.Alas, the magnificent chocolate bread pudding with ice cream proved too much of a temptation for a pre-eating photo-op. Only this tiny bit was left. We all agreed that there didn’t seems to be much bread involved, but lots of chocolate, ice cream and creme anglaise.
We are officially in the “real” Florida….mega-houses, mega-yachts, inattentive (and sometimes just plain rude) boaters, stretches and stretches of houses and boat docks along the ICW. Quite a change from the mostly remote and rural passages we’ve made so far. We all enjoyed the warm sun and clear skies — but it was still coolish. Fernandina Beach, although in Florida, is wonderfully quaint compared to the crowded surroundings you encounter near Jacksonville and on to St. Petersburg. Pictures tell the tale of today’s journey.
The mud banks we’ve become used to at low tide become sandy dunes along the Florida ICW.The vegetation along the ICW takes on a tropical look with palm trees along the shore.Still chilly — but that way the champagne doesn’t get warm 🙂 Cliff and Ann enjoying their morning “toast.”But we started the day with a healthy breakfast of yogurt, granola and fresh berries that Roger and Will picked up at the Fernandina farmer’s market.I’m thinking this house in Palm Harbor outside of Jacksonville started out as a La Quinta Inn project!And, some of the houses are about the same size as a Hampton Inn! But nicer 🙂There are more boat manufacturers in Florida than in any other state. Here is a mega-yacht boat yard with two HUGE private ships readying for launch.Unlike most the ICW waters, Florida’s are lined with houses and boat houses.And, some of the houses are about the same size as a Hampton Inn! But nicer 🙂Dot.Calm leaves a huge wake even at 9 or 10 mph. So we really had to poke along when we came to those stretches of homes on our way to St. Augustine.Capped off our day with dinner at Columbia — one of 7 restaurants the original family runs throughout Florida. Reliably delicious, huge servings of Cuban and Spanish dishes. Yum.
A bright, beautiful, blue-sky morning greeted us this morning accompanied by a brisk wind off the water. We started our morning with a healthy serving of carbohydrates from a Fernandina bakery — cinnamon rolls, berry muffins, chocolate muffins and zucchini muffins (I told you it was healthy!) Cleaning was the first order of the day. The boat needed a wash to get rid of a salty rime and the spotted windows and Roger and Will took care of straightening and vacuuming the inside. Spent more time on Fernandina Beach’s main shopping streets and also wandered down many side streets to look at historic homes. Nearly 50 blocks of the downtown are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The variety of homes is astounding ranging from cute cottages to magnificent mansions and everything in between. Queen Anne gems sit side by side with compact Craftsman homes with Italianate-styled mansions tucked in here and there. And, of course, there are a handful that are in dire need of attention. We were invited in to an open house by a real estate agent even after we told him we were definitely NOT in the market. It was listed for $365,000 and probably needed another $500,000 worth of updating. We could tell the renovation rules here are not as strict as Charleston — the kitchen in this home featured an awkward diagonal cooking island and the closets looks as though they had been carved out of other rooms. Tonight we are dining at David’s, supposedly the nicest place within walking distance. Last night’s dinner is worth a mention: Ciao for Italian. Food and service was spectacular. They should just warn you that every serving feeds a family of four! We brought leftovers back to the boat and will dine in style aboard on another night.
Roger poses in front of a cozy cottage in Fernandina’s historic district. Love the lime green and pink paint!One of many historic homes in Fernandina that have been converted into elegant Bed and Breakfasts.Definitely not a cozy cottage, this Queen Anne style home remains a single family dwelling.Example of Italianate style which was also used for Fernandina’s court building built in the late 1800s. It is still in use today.Great porch!Alas, not all of the homes in the historic district are nice. The owners of this one obviously require a lot of privacy or maybe they are hiding from the neighbors.Dinner was at a surprisingly upscale restaurant in the historic district called David’s. Quite posh and very busy.
P.S. ADDED SOME PHOTOS TO YESTERDAY’S BLOG AS WELL.
Caught some luck with wind and wind direction for our departure to Fernandina Beach crossing St. Andrew’s Sound. Wind at 13 knots and from the SSW which created some low chop, but nothing scary. Forecast for tomorrow includes peppier winds and a northern persuasion, something definitely to be avoided. The dock hand at Golden Isles Marina remarked that the sound can get “pretty snotty” in any north wind. Glad to miss that experience. Next leg of our trip was about four hours and we encountered some pretty skinny water at low tides. I tried to get a couple of photos to demonstrate, but they do not quite capture the stomach clenching feeling of watching the depth sounder show shallower and shallower water. We were also treated to some new wildlife displays — wood storks (which I did not manage to capture on film), white pelicans (which the books say are quite rare) and wild horses (on a island nature sanctuary). We also saw many other sea birds and the pleasant sight of dolphins slipping easily through the choppy water. Fernandina Harbour Marina is nestled between two gigantic paper mills and is much nicer than that sounds. Wind is up, so no smell. The town itself is charming and compact — something like we expected in St. Simon’s! Lots of independent stores and restaurants, friendly people and relaxed attitudes. Roger got caught in a downpour while strolling downtown and was invited up to take shelter on a beautiful front porch by one of the Fernandina residents. Stopped in to a bar (shock!) called The Palace which dates from the late 1800’s. The bar itself was designed by Adolph Busch and features carvings of semi-clad maidens and a huge mirror. A tin ceiling and intricate mosaic floor are all original and it really is a bar….no food, no snacks and a distinct hint of spilled beer and cigarettes wafting about. Also, much nicer than it sounds. We’ll spend two nights here which will give us time to stretch our legs, spend some $$ at West Marine and relax aboard without any crewing tasks. Dinner at a local Italian bistro called Ciao tonight, a nice change of pace from our usual seafood spots. And I’m sure we’ll get in a few games of Mexican Train.
Golden Isle Marina is heavily populated with sailboats along with a smattering of good size power boats.A flock of royal terns followed Dot.Calm out of port. They’ve learned that wakes push small fish (breakfast!) closer to the surface.The book says white pelicans are very rare. In all our time in Florida. we’ve never seen them before now. They are migratory birds and feed on the water like ducks rather than diving like their cousins the brown pelicans. They prefer shallow water to catch small fish and crustaceans and often forage in larger groups than shown here.Some of the wild horses on Jekyll Island, a nature preserve that was once the home of Rockefellers, Roosevelts and other wealthy easterners.Lots of brown pelicans all along the way. Ogden Nash’s poem about pelican’s beaks holding “more than its belli-can” is true, holding up to 3 gallons. But the water is sieved away before the birds crane their necks upward and swallow the fish they’ve caught.We are in just about 4 feet of water here. Dot.Calm draws 3 feet, but any chop or a wake from another boat can create grounding problems.Yikes! Sailors would call this very skinny water!Oops. Hard aground ship is a monumental reminder of the danger of shoaling in the Fernandina area.One of the pulp mills that flank the Fernandina Harbour Marina. The smell is pretty terrible if the wind blows the wrong way.Here we are at the Palace Bar, a landmark on Fernandina Beach’s Center Street and very close to the docks.Cruising isn’t all fun and games. There’s work to be done. Here, Roger takes his frequent turn at KP.
