Finally, a pretty smooth Day

I realize this is late, but we had a big day today. We left Daytona Beach at 8:30AM and reached Ft. Pierce, FL around 4:10PM. It was a really good day on the water except for a couple of small mishaps on the boat. The water was slightly choppy, but overall there were no waves and pretty smooth. I ran the boat mostly around 3400RPM, which seemed to be much easier on the motors. We still traveled around 27-28MPH.
We met some great folks at this marina, and believe it or not, there was someone there with a smaller boat than ours. They were in a 20 footer. And I complain about not having a separate shower. At least we are not using a "shower bag". It is the small things in life.

The Marina
Ft. Pierce City Marina
There were mostly sport fishers here, but they have a great Tiki bar down at the end of our dock. We had a little problem getting in as the Garmin did not have the updated channel, but the waterway Guide had a picture of the new channel and the old fuel dock. So after a second docking we fueled up. Of course the first docking was better than the second, since no one was there to see the first one.
The convenient store was pretty bare, so I am not sure why they say they have one. If you need a t-shirt, that's the place for you.

Searay Rant
I lost one of the gas caps because the little "pop chain" broke as I pulled the pump out of the hole. I used the water cap for the gas and a rag for the water until we find a boat store.
The seat has a screw that is not accessible backing out and restricting the operation of the booster seat. Not sure what the problem is here.

Daily Stats

Hours of travel: 7.6 hours
Avg. moving speed: 17.9MPH
Overall Avg. speed: 15.1MPH
Total Distance: 137.8 Miles
Fuel Consumption: 158Gals
Lat/Long: 27.27.037/080.19.317

It's Freezing - and Hey, It's not MY Dinghy

When I thought nothing could make that last marina worse, I woke up to 33deg. weather. That was the icing on the cake. It was so cold that fog was rolling off the water as we left at 8:00AM. The reason, as it happens, that the marina did not answer up on the VHF radio, was the fact that my radio died.
Today was a fairly good travel day. I only took the wrong turn once, had the dinghy almost fall off once, and dropped my isinglass cleaner in the water as we were moving. We were really moving today since the water was really nice. Not quite glass-like conditions, but a minimal chop. I was turning around 3600RPMs for most of the day and we were going about 31MPH on average at that RPM. We were on plane almost all day, except for the numerous no wake zones through all the nice houses in the middle of Georgia and the confusing manatee zones in Florida. I am still confused because Florida likes to print the entire chapter of the laws down here on a 3'X5' sign in the water. Sometimes there is no wake, and then others there is minimal wake, when it comes to manatees, it is just slow, or maybe just slow within 300 feet of shore and other times, you can go 30MPH, but most of the time it is 25MPH. I am just trying to figure out the magic combination that allows warp speed. It may be the left elbow behind the head with the right knee at 90 degrees, I am not sure. BJ is upset that we have to slow down in these areas and she hasn't seen any manatees!
We totally tested the gas gauges on the boat today, as the starboard gauge said empty for that the 40 miles. for those of you wondering, there is no gas stop from the Palm Coast to Daytona, FL. We did retrieve a dinghy today and alas, it was not ours! A sail boat just ahead of us, as we were on empty, lost his dinghy right in front of us, so I sent BJ to the swim platform to retrieve it and then we cruised along side for the hand off.
Speaking of cruisers, I was waked twice today. Both times in a 40 something Silverton. I am starting to not like silvertons, as they seem to not be able to plane, just plow through and make my trip miserable.
Sorry for the all-text post today. We did not take any pictures, and I am too tired to download today's tracks. I had to go to West Marine today, where they kept the store open for me, since I needed a new VHF radio as well as some other supplies. I spent about an hour mounting and interfacing the new unit into the old hole today. I did not do a great job in the installation; just made it work and did not weatherize my electrical connections. Nor did Searay for the original radio. We are trying to prepare for the rest of the journey and I am behind in my plotting. The weather looks a little uncertain, as well as the distance still required, so our New Year plans in the Bahamas may be in Florida (with Mac). We will keep you posted.

The Marina
Caribbean Jack Marina
This marina is great. The dock hands were wonderful as well as the rest of the accommodations. There are personal bathrooms, a hot tub, pool, a pretty cool bar with great live entertainment. The best feature, however is the food. We have been to Daytona many times, and have yet to find good food (even after bike week). We have found it. Apparently quite of few other bikers (locals) have found it as well, since they ample "bike only" parking right up front.

Searay Rant
The driver's chair is too tall,
or the windshield rail is too low. My back is killing me.
The Raymarine VHF radio is mounted in the worst possible position in the helm, which contributed to its failure. I replaced it with a West Marine (Uniden) model with a better location for the mic.

Garmin Rant
The refresh rate is too slow on my Garmin 2006C. Hopefully, the newer models are better.

Daily Stats
Hours of travel: 8.6 hours
Avg. moving speed: 21.5MPH
Overall Avg. speed: 19.6MPH
Total Distance: 168.3 Miles
Fuel Consumption: 196Gals
Lat/Long: 29.13.622/081.01.289

Day 3 Gale Force Winds and Honey, Where is the Dinghy

I got up at 7:30AM this morning to go find breakfast. The marina opened at 8:00 and the gas dock opened at 8:30. We were first in line, since that is where I parked a couple of nights before. There was a small craft advisory as the winds were steady at 25MPH with gusts up to 45MPH. "I have a good feeling about today", said one braided, blond haired woman that happened to be riding on the boat. That, I think, angered the gods of the sea as our ride was extremely rough!! So rough, in fact, that before we even got to the Port Royall Sound, we heard a thump, which caused a chain reaction to look back at the source of the sound. What we saw was definitely a sign that the gods were angry as the beautiful dinghy that caused such hard work and delays, before setting of on this journey, was quite visible, it just was not attached to Sweet Caroline.
Hind sight, tells me that there were a couple of flaws in the engineering that went behind securing the Davit system and dinghy; I tied the transom of the inflatable into the cute little Searay emblems that are built into the swim platform. Hopefully there will be one in stock at some Searay dealer along the way, as I seem to be missing one now. The other strap is no where to be found either. Getting the dinghy back was also a challenge since we were in about 2 foot swells with a very rough surface.
Well, now that the dinghy has been loaded and secured, we moved on. Into the Port Royall Sound that is. We were looking at 4 foot waves with an extreme chop on the surface. We were going about 7 knots all the way across, which warranted a half of Dramamine for BJ.
BJ made her first repair underway as one of zippers from the canvas camper side came apart. She found the only unused bungees to secure it to the cooler, which keeps it from flapping in the wind. She is also making great strides in boating terminology and dock handling. She should be an expert by the time we get back.
The day did not get much better as far as the water went. I had to reprogram the routes on the fly several times due to Garmin issues (see below) and we did not make it to our planned destination of Jekyll Island, but we made the best of it and made it to St. Simon Island.

The Marina
Hampton River Club Marina
BJ called ahead to ensure they would have a dock hand, fuel, and a slip available for the night. The woman said they were open until 6:00PM and even if we did not get here by then, they would have a night dock hand that will fuel us up and even open the ship's store, if needed.
The verdict: This place sucks!! They did not answer the radio as we were trying to pull in, so we decided to dock ourselves. At this point, some guy came by and said the ferry that was coming down the creek had "priority". It was around 30 feet, and the dock is at least 100 feet, so even with priority, there should not be a problem. We watched 6-8 people mill around, load and unload the ferry, as well as various other mundane duties. I decided to dock up wind to the fuel dock, so we could dock ourselves, since it was obvious that no one was going to help. The service here is pitiful, and the ship's store only had a stock of Gatorade in the same cooler with some sort of half eaten turkey carcass. The ambiance is even greater. It is a redneck haven with "rustic" charm. The docks are falling apart. The electrical would scare anyone, and the amenities are non existent. I guess that is why the add stated "Nature watching is the main activity on this pristine island", because there is nothing to see here.

Garmin Rant
As a new feature with this blog, I have included a Garmin rant, which could either be the lessons learned from the GPS Chartplotter, or stupid things that make me mad I spent money on this brand of electronics.
Today's lessons are:

1. You cannot have too many waypoints in any route. If you do, is just truncates the routes with they are full. No rhyme nor reason on what routes it accepts or rejects. I had to eliminate all routes except for one in order to have the entire route load today. The route was from Thunderbolt Marina to Jekyll Island. You would think that the Mapsource program would provide warnings.
2. When updating the Mapsource software from 8.0 to 8.5, there is no easy way to update the unlock codes for the maps that have already been purchased. I still have to use the 8.0 maps until I figure this out.
3. Every time you write to the memory card, you have to disconnect and reconnect the card reader before the Mapsource program will write to it. It claims that the driver cannot be loaded otherwise.

Yesterday's Lessons:

1. It only accepts 13 characters for a route name. If your routes have the same first 13 characters, then the second route (in alphabetical order) will over write the first one. You would think that the Mapsource software would provide warnings.

Searay Rants

I love this Searay boat, but there are still things that should be fixed. Here they are.

• The driver's seat should be centered directly behind the steering wheel. What gives?

Daily Stats

• Hours of travel: 7.2 hours
• Avg. moving speed: 18.2MPH
• Overall Avg. speed: 18.0MPH
• Total Distance: 129.6 Miles
• Fuel Consumption: 162.4Gals
• Lat/Long: 31.17.735/081.20.553

Day 2 Stranded in Beaufort

We spent all day in Beaufort, SC since the marina is closed and we are out of gas. It was terrible weather. We had a tornado watch until 3:00PM and the water was very rough.

This was the weather map in the morning.

We had bad weather all day. For a real picture of what we saw, here you go:

Well, we were stuck in Beaufort, but we still had fun, Here we are toasting the good fortune of being together on a day like today:

The sun finally came out around 4:00P.M. We went for a walk and stumbled into the only open establishment in Beaufort, SC on Christmas Day: Hemingway's. After a short period of time we had a few more best friends. One in particular, Sarah, or Ema, or Emma, or Emerald invited us to her mother's house for dinner. We accepted the invitation, and after an interesting drive in the 80's Caddy we arrived to a wonderful accepting house and family that welcomed us as their own. The menu included crab stuffed pork tenderloin, macaroni and cheese, peas, some great bread and of course; crab clusters. The hospitality was the best. We cannot believe that a delay in Beaufort would end up in such a wonderful experience from people that do not even know us. Thank you very much.

As a side note, I realized that the Garmin Chartplotter would only accept route names up to 13 characters. Therefore, I now place the ICW or OUT portion of the route at the beginning of the route name. You would think that the software would have notified me of the fact it only recognizes the first 13 characters. So the one day delay was good for something.

Day 1 Christmas Eve Day

Well, the departure scheduled for "first thing" in the morning, ended up to be around 12:30PM. We traveled back and forth from the house to the boat a countless amount of times. It is a good thing we only have a 34 footer, as it would probably take twice as long for a 40 footer. It is difficult to decide what gear we need and anticipate. As of this time, I forgot to bring any sweatshirts, with nothing but the islands in my mind.

The new props are great. I got a top speed of 40.7MPH SOG (Speed over Ground), which I had never been able to achieve before. The water was as smooth as glass most of the way. We passed around 4 boats total (2 trawlers and 2 sailboats). There were a few small fishing boats, but not many.

The plan was to get to at least Hilton Head Island for a top off and early AM departure. Great plan, but here is how it really happened:

The Charleston Maritime Center was closed, so I figured I could make it to Beaufort, SC with no problems. That part was right, but on the way the marina at Hilton Head would not answer. BJ said it was closed due to Christmas, but I insisted that there are transient boater on everyday of the year, so marinas operated like hotels. I won't say who's right, but I will say he isn't bald. Then I looked down and saw that my starboard gas tank was about empty. We would have to fuel up in Beaufort and probably stay the night. I was a little disappointed as I wanted to get further along before we stopped. So I started calling the marinas in Beaufort to see where I could get a slip. They are all closed for Christmas Eve Day. So now we have no gas and we are stuck in Beaufort, SC until the day after Christmas. I parked in front of the gas dock, so if anyone tells me to move, I will get gas and leave.

So here we are at Beaufort (BTW this is the last place I broke down with BJ on board) for a couple of days. I will use it to figure out all of my electronics and such. BJ is using it for boating familiarity.

We will keep you posted.

Daily Stats:
Hours of travel: 3.5 hours
Avg. moving speed: 23MPH
Overall Avg. speed: 13.2MPH
Total Distance: 74.4 Miles
Fuel Consuption: UNK
Lat/Long: 32.25.776/080.40.461