Day 14, St. Augustine to Port Canaveral

-

Two weeks ago today, we left our dock in Annapolis as snowbirds. It seems like ages ago. And, our marriage survived another test - cooped up in a boat for 14 days and still getting along!

Last evening, as we left our marina to go to dinner, we saw this guy on a dock line. Why not? 

We knew today was our longest travel day of the entire trip, so we were up bright and early and caught the 6:30 a.m. bridge opening at the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine and headed to sea. 
The forecast called for 2-3 foot waves on our beam, but that was wrong. It was more like 5 foot seas on our front quarter. So it was rougher than what we were prepared for, but at least it was only for about 11 hours. We were treated to a spectacular sunrise, as usual on the ocean.
We passed the first few hours watching the Ravens vs. Bengals game from last night at the helm. When you're in the open ocean, and there is nobody around, it's okay to just look up every few minutes. Check the surroundings, look at the radar, and then when you see that nobody is around, it's safe to look back at the game. It's not like driving a car on a road. For most of the day, there was not another boat around for miles, and for a large part of the day, we could not even see any other boats. 

We arrived in Port Canaveral just as it was getting dark. On the way in, we shared the channel with a few cruise ships that were going by. It's a bit scary but also really cool to see these floating monstrosities so close.
As we pulled into the marina, the dockhand was waiving us in. So, I had to turn the boat around in the channel and make my way over. Just as we were about to toss him the lines, he asked a few questions, and we realized that we were in the wrong marina. He was expecting a different boat, and so he waived us in. We knew someone would be waiting for us on the dock, so we blindly followed. We then proceeded to the marina next door where the confused dock hands got a kick out of our explanation that we were waved in at the wrong marina. Anyway, I guess that's what passes for excitement after 11 hours of cruising in big waves on the ocean.

Tomorrow is our last leg of the journey. I plan to leave very early, before sun up, and to get to Stuart in the late afternoon. It's about 90 miles, which should be about 2 hours shorter than today's trip. 

I have to say, we are quite excited to get there and begin our lives in Stuart. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Norfolk to Solomons

-
Image
On October 26, 2023, Ann and I left our dock in Annapolis with our new boat Empty Nest to escape the cold Winter. We stayed 3.5 months in Key West, visited the Bahamas, Dry Tortugas, and many towns along the East Coast.  Now, 2,500 nautical miles and 6 months later, we will return to our dock tomorrow. Our first year as snowbirds is almost over, and we already cannot wait for the next one.  Last night the weather was damp with sporadic rain in Norfolk. I found an indoor pickleball facility at Old Dominion University. Since we were not familiar with the area, Ann and I arrived early by Uber to a 3 hour open play session, and the location did not disappoint. In fact, I'd rate the competition as 3.8 to 4.5 level players. Ann and I lost as many games as we won, perhaps even more, which is ideal. Playing better players is the most fun. It was a blast, and the players were super friendly. I think it's the best pickleball we had on the entire trip, not counting our visits home to Ann...
Read more

Day 3: Norfolk, VA to North River, NC

-
Image
Ann and I were up early this morning to get a head start on a unique day of travel. The run South of Norfolk includes several bridges that have to open for us to pass and a lock that takes us to lower water. At the height of snowbird season, we knew we would be in a long caravan of boats, and that there would be a lot of waiting around before the bridges and the locks. It's tricky because the river is narrow, the current is strong, and the wind can blow opposite the current making it difficult to judge how to maneuver. We were ready to go before dawn, but our marina completely filled up last night, and even with my new Dockmate remote, I was not comfortable navigating through all the boats, and I wasn't even sure there was enough room. Here was the view from the helm of Empty Nest that we woke up to. We waited an hour and a half, and talked to the other boat owners and captains, but nobody was leaving. The owner of the small sailboat in front of us was very friendly and agreed ...
Read more