One Month in West Palm Beach, FL

Banyan tree on the walk to the grocery store.

Now that you can follow us via satellite we realize there is one problem - Now you want to know, ‘Why are you still in the same place?’  We understand you like to see Layla moving along and there is some adventure in that.  Sitting in one place is not very exciting and you want us to move.

Yes, we are still at anchor off the waterway in between two bridges, Flagler Memorial and Royal Palm bridge, sandwiched in between West Palm Beach and Palm Beach.

West Palm Beach viewed from our anchorage.

Palm Beach (east) viewed from our anchorage.

This protracted visit started when we realized we needed to renew our boat documentation with the Coast Guard.  Layla is a US documented vessel which is renewed annually. This year it was supposed to be pretty simple.  We simply go online and complete the renewal form. 

We need to carry a hard copy of the documentation on the boat which meant, of course that we needed the paper document sent to us.  But, remember we are not at home!  We are on a boat.  Where do you sent it?  We thought about that and now have a mail forwarding service.  Thousands of cruisers do this.  Just use their address.  Simple.  We did that.

The expected time to receive the certificate of documentation is about two weeks - maybe three weeks if there are holidays or snow days. Nothing arrived. The Coast Guard said, “it is not me”.  The mail forwarding company said, “it is not me”.  We went back online and filled out another form and payed a few more dollars to request a certified copy of the lost document.  This time we decided to have it sent to General Delivery at the US Postal Office in West Palm Beach.

Meanwhile, we decided to get a passport renewed.  With only five months remaining on the old passport, many countries want at least 6 months. We didn’t know how long we would stay here and of course, we did not want to sit here waiting in West Palm Beach for the usual expected six weeks for the passport.  We opted to spend a few dollars more to expedite the application with the hope to receive it in 2-3 weeks.   We got new passport photos and went to the post office to complete the form and request overnight shipping both to and from the Department of State.  

Pretty simple?  We completed the form in BLUE ink. We missed seeing the very small type at the top of the form stating that the form must be filled out in BLACK ink.  We had to fill out another form in BLACK ink.  Actually, the postal expert was very helpful, and made all of this less painful.  We sent it with the hope to pick it up at the post office - General Delivery.

Farmers Market in West Palm Beach was a real treat.  It made waiting for documents less painful.  

Excellent bread at the Farmers Market in West Palm Beach.

Since we were having to sit here anyway, we decided to order a few things for Layla - a new gasket kit and a new saltwater pump for the galley because the old pump is leaking badly.  We ordered it to be shipped via the US Post Office.  We learned that we do NOT want to use United Parcel Service (UPS) because the post office will not accept it.  We also learned that you don’t call the post office to see if your package has arrived.  If they do answer the phone, the answer is as expected - the package is not there.

Oh, and how do we get to the post office?  Remember, we are on a boat at anchor.  Simple.  We just take our dinghy to the dock in downtown West Palm Beach and walk about 7 blocks to the post office.  Well, it should be simple, but a boat show was coming to town and it was a BIG boat show with crews with barges and cranes and floating docks (oh my) to accommodate the 1.2 billion dollars of boats.  The police reminded us with a friendly visit to the boat one afternoon, “Do not even think about going ashore between the two bridges or use the dinghy dock for the next three weeks”.

Chaos in the anchorage as yachts arrived for the boat show.

More boats waiting to dock at the boat show.  A little close for comfort. That is Layla's bow.

West Palm Beach waterfront transformed by the boat show.

The marine patrol and police made it very clear that we were not permitted to go ashore anywhere along the mile of shoreline.  We could not simply drop someone ashore.  We were stranded.  We scouted our options outside the city waterfront and found a small beach near a parking lot.  We could drop only one of us there and then come back for a pick up.  Our simple task of going to the post office, or anywhere in town for that matter, was now more complicated.  Only one of us could go, and now we had an extra mile to walk to the post office. 

Our old dinghy started leaking water badly after a couple rough rides to the drop off point.

One benefit of the West Palm Beach boat show - our new tender.

If the wind was blowing, and it did for about 10 days in a row, we got very wet in the bouncy dinghy ride.  Once there, we had to take our shoes off, wade ashore, put our shoes back on, and hike to the post office.  Of course, you know where this is going - When Bud got to the post office (he had to go since it was in his name and you know "there can be no substitutes") there were no packages or mail. Despite tracking numbers and conversations with shippers that said otherwise - they would say with a smirking smile, “You have nothing today-Maybe tomorrow.”

OK.  Is that tedious?  And if that isn’t fun enough, we decided to do our taxes while we were here. (We had considered getting colonoscopies too, but decided against that.)

How did that go?  The new passport was a surprise.  It came back in 10 days, and the old passport was returned a couple of days later. We might be on a roll here. The boat parts came in about nine days, just three days late.  We picked up the copy of the boat documentation 6 days after it was stamped “received” at the post office, nearly one month after we started the process.  And taxes were complete after heroic efforts by 3 different IRS agents who had to look up the information from last years’ fraudulent filing to get the submission accepted.  (Yes we had been victims of identity theft on last year’s return.)

So you see, it was quite simple.  We had little choice in staying in Palm Beach…for a while.

When we could go ashore we found oysters from Maryland on the half shell.

We have learned that patience is essential to life on a boat. Now we will wait for the weather to cross to the Bahamas.

From Beaufort, SC to Vero Beach, FL

Morning skies overlooking New Smyrna Beach, FL.

In this second report of our southern trek, we report of travel from Beaufort, SC to Florida. When we headed out of Beaufort the weather was still cold, cold, cold.  But we are heading south, to "where the butter melts", and "every decrease in one degree of latitude warms the temperature by five degrees or so".  At least that was our guide.

Now in Florida, we shed the long underwear about a week ago, and wore shorts and short sleeve shirts for the first time here in Vero Beach.  The temperature two days ago was in the mid 80’s.  The scenery with the vegetation and beaches looks tropical. We are moored amidst the mangroves and the water at the beach is clear blue green.

Walking through a live oak canopy (in shorts) on our way to the beach in Vero Beach, FL.

Clear blue green waters at Vero Beach, FL.

The biggest challenge on this stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is the constant shoaling in certain areas.  Sometimes an area will have only 4 feet of water at mean low tide.  Layla is a big girl with 6 ½ feet of draft.  So, we had to be strategic.  We timed our day to travel through the well-known shallow areas at high tide if possible, or at least on a rising tide with at least 7 feet of water predicted in the area.  None of this would have been possible without Active Captain and tide data.  Active Captain is a community-based sailing website, and gives information on hazards to navigation, as well as bridge, marina, and anchorages.  We have the Active Captain database integrated into navigation software on our tablets, which plots the hazards on to the chart, making it very easy to see upcoming hazards while navigating the waterway.  We typically spent about an hour each evening reviewing the upcoming day’s journey.

Doing homework at anchor along the ICW using Active Captain to plan the next leg of our journey.

Our homework paid off, and we successfully navigated the notorious shallows of Georgia and North Florida without going aground.  Among these we transited “Hells Gate” (chart makers love to scare the living daylights out of mariners) with no less than 11 feet under Layla (we anchored about 2 miles from Hells Gate for about 5 hours to get our timing right), Amelia River just south of Fernandina Beach with about 6 inches under our keel, and Matanzas Inlet on a rising tide we touched bottom a couple of times.  There was much drama at this inlet before and after we made it through.  We were contacted by three vessels before entering the inlet, warning us of shoaling in the inlet.  We saw four boats aground as we snaked our way around the buoys and heard of several more boats that later went aground, including an Army Corps of Engineers survey boat!  All of the boats aground had drafts at least 2-3 feet less than ours!  We felt a little smug about that.

Not every cruiser was as fortunate going through Matanzas Inlet.  From left to right, a trawler is aground, SeaTow is pulling off a sailboat, and the Coast Guard is repositioning one of the green nuns.

Our trip down the ICW would not be complete without a boarding request by the Coast Guard for a “free” safety check just north of Brunswick, GA.  There is deep water in this stretch of the ICW (we saw 60 feet!), and there is no way to say “no” to the Coast Guard.  (The Coast Guard probably has this stretch of the ICW dredged so cruisers cannot use the concern of grounding due to shallow depths to refuse a boarding request!)  This is the exact same area we were boarded by the Coast Guard three years ago heading north.  With the experience from three years ago, the safety inspection went smoothly.  We just need to buy some new flares; the flares from our last trip had just expired.     

We waited out a winter storm in early February at Brunswick Landing Marina up the East River about a block from downtown Brunswick, GA.  There were wind gusts over 40 mph, and sustained winds over 30 mph for two days.  We were glad we were protected in a marina about 10 miles upstream from the inlet.  This marina has a lot of nice benefits.  Number one, it provides free beer all day long, every day.  No joke.  Number two, they have a happy hour for the cruisers, providing beer and wine, while the cruisers provide snacks three times a week.  They have loaner bikes available for free to get around town.  And the washers and dryers are free….no quarters needed.  We did a lot of laundry while we were there, and drank a fair amount of beer.

Flags flying stiff in Brunswick, GA during one of the many winter storms we came across on our trip down the ICW.

We participated in one of the happy hours while we were there, and met up with a cruising couple we met in the Vero Beach City Marina three years ago, James and Donna Ostby.  Back then, we were in the galley making some coffee cake, when we heard a knock on the hull.  Tracy popped up into the cockpit, and a man in the dinghy said that he knew one of the previous owners of Layla.  We invited him on board, and listened to some fantastic stories over coffee and cake.  The stories continued at Brunswick Landing at happy hour, and then again for an afternoon and evening aboard their 38 foot Catalina. 

We stopped at several towns for a couple days each.  We visited our cruising buddy, Stein, in Fernandina Beach, FL.  He and Virginia took us to the local farmers market and to a beautiful state park, Fort Clinch.  In St. Augustine, FL, we shopped at the Sailors Exchange, a marine surplus store.  We scored a tether to attach to a jack line (safety line for staying on deck).  Each of these towns has a really nice downtown area with quaint little shops and excellent restaurants.  Layla is too full for any more of the “knick knacks”, and so we avoided those, but we ate well.

Bud and Stein at Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach, FL.  Notice the pants, coats, and hats.  It was in the 50's in Florida in February.

The weekly Farmers Market in Fernandina Beach, FL.

Eating well at the 4th Street Deli and Salads in Fernandina Beach, FL.

Vero Beach is an interesting town.  For cruisers, it is the northern-most jumping off point to the Bahamas.  Almost all cruisers going up or down the ditch stop here to re-provision, and because of many amenities, it has become also known as “Velcro Beach” (i.e. once you are here it becomes hard to leave-you are stuck).  One of the reasons for the popularity is the town has a free bus system.  The bus picks you up at the marina every hour, and takes you to the grocery store, liquor store, library, West Marine, WalMart,  hardware stores, and the mall…..all for free.  All this convenience makes provisioning easy.  The marina has a nice cruisers lounge with decent WiFi, a good selection of books for swapping, two TV’s (one permanently tuned to the Weather Channel), and a jigsaw puzzle table.  With a nice bank of washers and dryers next door, and the bus stop across the road, there is always a group of cruisers in the lounge, and always interesting conversations.  The only challenge with such a great marina is finding a place at the dinghy dock, and then finding your dinghy when you want to head back to the boat.

Where is my dinghy???

This time of year, normally most cruisers are starting to head north again.  The marina here at Vero Beach is full right now, with nearly all of the 57 mooring balls occupied, and about ten mooring balls with two boats rafted together on one ball.  Evidently, this was nothing compared to this past December, where we heard that all of Vero Beach’s 57 mooring balls had three boats tied together while waiting for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas!  This was an unusual winter for cruisers, as the weather window closed before it even opened.  Many cruisers never crossed to the Bahamas.  Some stayed in Vero Beach, and some headed for the Keys.  We heard that the major marina in the Keys, Marathon, FL, which has about 400 balls in their mooring field, had a waiting list of over 50 boats wanting a spot in Boot Key Harbor.  We expect Vero Beach’s City Marina to be really full this spring.

We need to get going…. 

Brown pelican looking for a treat in Fernandina Beach, FL.

Breakfast for the opportunist in New Smyrna Beach City Marina, FL.

As we do our "homework" at the Vero Beach library a mural of a Marine Archeologist soothes
 the stresses of doing taxes and otherwise catching up to responsibilities of the "land-based life".

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From Beaufort, NC to Beaufort, SC

Bundled up for the day down the waterway.

We report on the first leg of our journey from Beaufort, NC (pronounced BO-fort) to Beaufort, SC (pronounced BU-fort).  We left our anchorage in Morehead City, NC on 20 January, with high temperatures in the 40’s.  Sunny, but cold, cold, cold.  We made it to Mile Hammock Bay near Jacksonville, NC just in time to wait out the winter storm Jonas, trying to keep warm with long underwear, several layers, hats, blankets, the propane heater and oven, and hot water bottles.  Did we tell you our journey started off COLD???

Hanging out in the cockpit with long underwear, jeans, sweatpants, turtleneck, sweatshirt, two coats, two blankets, and a hat.

Popping up after turning on the oven to warm up the cabin.

Some mornings you just want to stay in bed.  Cold days on the waterway, especially.  Some mornings you are rewarded for your efforts to get up.  The sun rises and sets everyday – we tend to forget that. Living “outside” helps remind you.

Sunset at our first anchorage of the journey in Swansboro, NC.

Sunset at anchor in Mile Hammock Bay, NC.

Sunset on a mooring in Carolina Beach, NC.

We are adjusting to our life back on the boat.  Some of it is easy and fun.  Some of it, well, tries our patience.  We need to work on that.

One easy and fun thing is laying in the berth listening to the quiet of the water lapping the hull and the gentle rock of the boat in a calm evening.  Among the things that always challenges the patience are the things that break, and break again, and demand that you fix them now.

We made it to Charleston, SC on 30 January, just in time to enjoy a warm spell with temperatures reaching into the 70’s.  Last time we headed south to Charleston, we were welcomed with a warm spell in the 80’s.  Charleston has been good to us.  Today we are moored in Beaufort, SC with temperatures in the 50’s, waiting for a rain front to pass through.  Winter in the Southeast, just like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.

Sunset anchored in Charleston Harbor, SC.

Sunrise at anchor in Charleston Harbor, SC.

Much has been said and written about going down the “ditch” traveling the Intracoastal Waterway.  Some say the first time is not to be missed.  The second is tedious and the third time is horrid and something to be missed.  On any one day we may have all of those sentiments.  It can be complicated on the waterway. 

Yesterday was one of those days.  The day started as we delayed our departure to time our passing through difficult cuts (man-made passages through the marshes) with a rising tide.  Nevertheless, in some areas we had no more than six inches of water to spare under our keel!  Following the shoaling challenges, we entered the broad exposed water of St Helena Sound with the full force of 30 – 40 mph winds.  After the rough sound crossing, we snaked towards Lady’s Island Bridge in Beaufort, SC to request the last bridge opening before car traffic rush hour would close the bridge for two hours.  The last challenge was to discover that things had changed in the anchorage since we were here last.  The area was now a mooring area with a very tight field, which meant we had to wiggle in beside other boats while maneuvering in gusty winds and contrary currents.  The day ended with a rum drink in the cockpit while watching a sandpiper munch on critters on our mooring line.   

I heard it said that a wise man understands that most of us actually do get everything we want – we just don’t get it all at the same time.  You should be happy with that.  We are.

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