Adventures on Apropos

  I had 1.5 lay days in Stuart. We were held up by the malfunctioning Ortona Lock on the west side of the Okeechobee waterway. We were supposed to depart from Stuart on Tuesday am for the 2 day journey to the west coast. With the lock closed and limited places to stay within the waterway, it was prudent to wait in Stuart.  I stayed an extra day at the Safe Harbor Marina but then moved to a town mooring to save $. The only info on the lock was that they were awaiting divers to assess/repair. There was a possibility they would be functional wed or thurs or in 2 weeks! I didn’t end up saving much money after all…the moorings were $30/night (compared to $133 at marina) so I reserved 2 nights. Of course, on the water one loses track of days, so I reserved for the wrong nights (lost $30 there). Then, by late afternoon Wednesday there was still no news from the lock so I extended another night (thurs, the night I thought I had reserved to start with).  I spent the evening at Fra...

  Pretty chilly day yesterday and lots o’ wind!  Fortunately wind was from the north so not too bad until we turned to head up the St Lucie River. My clean boat is no longer so clean…if it warms up today I’ll wash it down again.  Had a really nice time at dinner last night with Frank & Maryellen and For Rachel friends, Gerry and Amy - whom I haven’t seen in at least 20 years (how can it have been so long?!). We were at Sailor’s Return restaurant, at Sunset Bay Marina.  The boat is currently at Safe Harbor Harborage Yacht Club in Stuart - a short drive from Frank and Maryellen’s home. The plan was to be here one night then head in to the okeechobee waterway, landing at Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston on Tuesday night.  One just never knows on the water…you have to be flexible!  It turns out that the ortona lock, on the west side of the okeechobee waterway broke on or near Thanksgiving. Because of the holiday it’s been slow getting fivers there to asses...

  Meet Frank Sharples - a brave man to crew with me!   This morning we left Ponce Inlet about 7:00 without incident. Temps were about 10 degrees above yesterday morning but still quite chilly (53*). I still wore several layers!   The view on this leg doesn’t change a lot but we did go through one narrow, woody section where we spotted several of these birds that I thought at first were bald eagles but apparently not - maybe some kind of hawk…anyone know? Wind started picking up again about noon and there was a fair amount of chop so not as smooth a ride as usual, but not terrible.  We are at Melbourne Harbor Marina, which looked like it should be fairly well protected from wind but really not!  Had to back in to slip with dinghy tied off to bow…I was a bit concerned about that situation but it went fine, no yelling, crying or crashing.  Very first thing I did (before paying) was confirm that they had functioning heads and showers! We went to Ichabod’s (on s...

A day late, but delicious, none the less!  Open face turkey sandwich with stuffing and gravy - made me very happy! New crew, Frank, was dropped off in St Augustine yesterday by Maryellen, whom we will pick up in Stuart on Monday. Sorry, no pics - will have to get some for next blog. After lunch Maryellen drove back to Stuart and Frank and I wandered around town looking for a pub. We kinda failed!  I know there are several there but somehow they eluded us. We couldn’t get a Guinness but got a stout in a place claiming to be a pub. It had dartboards on the wall so I guess it counts as a pub! Temps this morning were in the low 40’s with wind from the north. Fortunately I think it got up to 60 by the time we arrived in Ponce Inlet (it’s between Daytona and New Smyrna Beach). It was a mostly uneventful day…but we did have to get 2 bridges to open for us - the bridge tenders were very pleasant.   We are at the Inlet Harbor Marina, where after I paid, I was disappointed to learn...

    There's no story here, just an awesome show put on by the dolphins in St Augustine!  

    Well, you probably think we sailed off the edge...but no, we did not.  Just a bit of a respite here in St. Augustine. We survived the anxious night (well, I'm anxious when anchored...Kathy assumes I know what I'm doing and all will be fine - she usually sleeps through my midnight escapades) at Sisters Creek - not sure I'd use that anchorage again! Between Sisters Creek and St. Augustine we finally were seeing true Florida ICW habitat, marshlands of previous days were gone.  Right before the St Augustine Municipal Marina one encounters the Bridge of Lions - even my little boat requires an opening of the bridge.  I got in line and notified the bridge tender that I wanted to pass through next opening then, fortunately, I had the foresight to hail the marina for mooring assignment.  Turns out we were to be in the north mooring field, right near the Fort, so notified the bridge tender that we did not need to pass through the bridge.  As the bridge only ...

    Perhaps our bumpiest day on record...and definitely our coldest!  At this inlet, the Cumberland River, we had to actually go out to the Atlantic then turn around and head back in to the ICW (if you cut straight across there is water only 1 foot deep). Layers, layers and more layers!  I had on a turtleneck, a sweatshirt, a fleece and my foul weather jacket! After getting through this we thought we would be good for a 2 pm landing in sisters creek...but noooooo!  The navy had other plans!  We were held up for an hour at Cumberland Sound waiting for a submarine to depart with its entourage. The wind didn't quit all day.  We checked the free dock at sisters creek, hoping for space but the boats were not well positioned so we didn't even try getting in there.  Had to try anchoring twice, first time I ended up in water too shallow (6' and getting too close to 4' and shore).  We moved up and dropped anchor at 14' but by the time the anchor was s...