Crackers and Canadians

January 13, 2016

See last post for location

Today we are off of to Titusville, FL

Crackers and Canadians

I learned this week that crackers are not just for eating, but they are white people and that Canadians don’t believe in God.

Rob and I wandered into the “hood” section of Daytona. I was warned by the woman at the boat yard to be careful of this neighborhood and we thought that we had taken a street that was safe, wrong.  A very unhappy man started following us, calling us crackers. Darned if I knew, but Rob explained the meaning. I didn’t even know he was yelling at us. 

I found out that the Canadians don’t believe in God and until our own country puts God back in our lives nothing is going to change,“this country isn’t what it was when I was growing up in the 50’s”. Upon a discussion about the location of Maine and time zones, we joked about Maine becoming a part of Canada if we switched to Atlantic Time. That was when we were told that Canadians do not believe in God. All of this from the greeter at a chocolate store we visited. I don’t know what this world is coming to when you can’t just buy chocolate.

We were taken to see how the chocolates are made and some interesting products.

 We decided we wanted curtains for the after cabin so off we went for a 5+ mile walk to a fabric store. Homebound with Uber and the things we needed to do the job, included in that purchase was a cloth shower curtain, an iron, beads and countless other items.  

Iron Rob bought for project, it actually did the job

Sewing outside in the sunshine

More work than we thought had to be done in the engine room.

I have been there and done that.

Several hundred dollars later we are on the way.


Mimi visits

What do you get when you cross a crazy cat lady and a stray cat? Four puncture wounds, an infection, an ER visit and antibiotics.  Maybe Gracie and Ginger are telling us a cat on a boat is not a good idea.

I walked over 9 miles before I decided to take Uber to the emergency room. After a bad experience with Uber almost colliding with a UPS truck, we asked one of our new friends on a boat here to pick me up at the ER and bring me back to Linda Jean.

We have met some very friendly people on this stay in the marina and have seen some amazing boats, again.

Tricia

Clank

Today is January 9, 2016

Coordinates 2912067N, 8100408W

Daytona Beach, FL

Mile 831

We are in Daytona after a delightful time in St. Augustine with friends. We waited out a storm that caused treacherous conditions, including wind that made very high waves and uncomfortable traveling.  As you already know, two sailboats escaped their moorings and ran into the bridge causing snapped masts and costly repairs.  One boat did not have anyone on it and was owned by a local person, the other had two people onboard from Pennsylvania that are okay.

Two sailboats against the bridge. They are sitting in front of a 200' yacht
I believe someone wanted to see a picture of the two boats together

Gracie and Ginger once again pulled at our heartstrings to get another animal, we even briefly considered a Chihuahua, Rob’s suggestion!  We quickly abandoned that idea after reading about their personality and needs.  

It all started with a walk for the sake of exercise and to look for used DVDs.  We walked into a used book store even though it was unlikely that we would find any DVDs.  We did find movies but they were $5.99 and the most we had ever spent on one was $2.99. A stylishly dressed, bubbly, older watcher over the book kingdom,at least in this store, told us that we could find more movies in a thrift store where she also volunteered.  You can see where this is going at this point but, I have a need to tell you anyway. The proceeds from the thrift store go to a “no-kill animal rescue” and they have 3 kittens in the store. 

Am I reading too much into this, I don’t care.  The kittens were actually 8 months so I don’t know if that is still a kitten. They are siblings, one tiger and two black, so beautiful, there is also a kitten with the name Princess Buttercup in foster care.

We were introduced to a handsome dog. He came up to me immediately and raised his paw for me to shake.  He was calm and so engaging. Someone had dropped the dog off at the shelter. Fran, who works at the shelter, thought that the people probably captured the dog knowing that he was being abused.  When something like this happens Fran looks for any notice that a dog is lost and the owners are in search of their pet. Now that I think about it I don’t know what she was going to do with the information.

We left St. Augustine without a cat or dog.  Now we are in Daytona at a marina and there is a "tiger" cat named Marina that has a special place in the hearts of all who work here. I am just going to get a darn cat and be done with it.

I had lots more to tell you but it seems to have taken second place. Last night we were looking for an anchorage when we hit pay dirt.  We hit dirt and now we are going to pay. After we churned our way out of 0.7 on the depth finder we heard a terrible clanging chain like noise coming from a propeller or engine.  Rob still wanted to anchor and I wanted to go to a nearby boat yard or marina.  We headed for Daytona Marina and Boat Works where the boat was pulled with the Travel Lift. Again a couple of great guys immediately went to work diagnosing the problem and how to solve it.  Before we knew it we were on a great face dock at their marina.  A face dock is a long dock/wharf that boats are tied to unlike a finger slips, we are very close to all the services.  Here we sit while they do the work but, I don't mind at all.

Linda Jean waiting for the Travel Lift

We thought we were going to have to spend the weekend in a boat barn on water (see the buildings behind Kevin), but Kevin motored us to the marina with his barge. Once a beautiful party boat.

Funny story.  One of the guys is from Vermont which is neither here nor there, well maybe it is.  He pointed out to me that the bathroom and showers were behind the bush. Maybe you can fill in what I thought that he meant, the nice facilities truly are behind the bush. 

The problem turned out to be the spurs (cutters) that are mounted on the propeller shaft. Their purpose is to cut lines from lobster traps if you accidentally snag one.  Our cutters were broken, the propellers were slightly bent and are sent out for straightening. Another drop in the financial bucket. We were warned that there is always something to fix on a boat.

Prop removal

The work will be done probably by Tuesday and we will be back on the ICW.

Today we walked the 7.0 miles to Jo-Ann's Fabric to buy supplies to make curtains for the aft cabin. We walk as much as we can to make up for days on the water that we can't.

Made bread last night and here is what happens if you leave out the paddle.

I appreciate my blog friends so much, especially at times like these just knowing that I can tell you the story makes the story laughable.


Tricia

News Flash: St. Augustine

CBS, Fox and I guess other stations are televising the accident that happened this morning on the water way.  Word is that the winds were 30 knots, when about 4:15 this morning a sailboat on the north side of the bridge let loose from the mooring and came up against the bridge.  The two people aboard were not injured, but when SeaTow came to remove the boat from the bridge the mast was broken.  I walked to the end of the dock with a gentleman who was walking his dog to get a picture.  I didn't want to be alone on the end of the dock and have the news interview me. The TV crew interviewed him instead.  He saw the boat up against the bridge when it happened.

We intended to leave yesterday but couldn't leave today or yesterday due to high winds. Here are a few of the pictures that I took.  The pictures don't do justice to the effects of the storm.

Sailboat with its' master snapped off after hitting the bridge

Add caption

Flags out straight

North of the bridge seas

Some pretty pictures even in the storm.

Before and After New Years Eve

Today is January 4, 2016

December 27, 28, 29, 2015

Coordinates 30 67073N, 81 46622

Fernandina Beach, FL

Mile 717

December 29, 2015

Coordinates 30 44045N, 81.43512W

Fort George, FL 

Mile735

December 30, 2015

Coordinates 29.8885N, 81.30738W

St. Augustine, FL

Mile 777

January 4, 2016

Still in St. Augustine

We arrived in St. Augustine late in the afternoon on the 30th and picked up a mooring but before I tell you about loosing another boat hook, I want to tell you about our anchorage in Fort George, FL. 

I think that I have told you before about Active Captain, but I am not sure, so I will give a brief reminder.  First let me tell you that as far as I can see, if you are a boater and have not heard of Active Captain you should drive to Florida, not boat.  Active Captain is like a nautical tour guide down the ICW and the coastal waters.  There is an AC website and info on the GPS with updates regularly about shoaling (sneaky sand bars), good anchorages and why, and anything to watch for under the deep blue waters.  You know what “by the people for the people” means, well that is the case with the AC I disagree that this was a nice place to anchor.

A  national park, Kingsley Plantation, is on Fort George Island where slaves were brought by ship and processed for selling, a very sobering experience. The Plantation is still there and a national monument stands to honor the people.  Rob asked the park ranger how long it would take to walk around the island, “oh about 3 hours”.  Rob pointed out to the ranger that the sign on the dinghy dock limits dockage to 59 minutes. We left on our dinghy.

We anchored as well as our friends in this “lovely spot”, we thought we found a good anchorage.  Making this a very short and painless story I will tell you that our dinghy stopped short on a sandbar twice and once I had to get out and walk the dinghy off the bar. The other time we used our motor as an auger digging our own little ICW. We took our dinghy to a beach, you will see a cute picture we found there.

I do have to tell you the place we landed was small. The four of us got out to walk the island, both Rob and I had shoes and the other couple were barefoot.  All of us came across tiny prickly plants that stuck to feet, shoes and ankles.  I turned around to see 5 young barefoot kids, the leader being about 7, heading down the same path we had taken.  I looked at him and nonchalantly told him to watch out for the pricklies.  With his hands in the air and a screech in his voice he turned and yelled pricklies, pricklies and all the children stood there terrified, then turned and ran.  I still wonder what that word meant to him.

On our return to the boat after this little excursion we found our friend’s sail boat aground.  We joined dinghies and pulled it off.

The no-see-ums, or in the south calls them gnats, were just awful.

After Fort George we had a nice trip to St. Augustine.

On the 31st Ed took us to do many errands and Rob to the VA.  I just loved seeing Ed again. I had forgotten just how much I had known about his family, including his grandparents, it was incredible to get caught up.  We thought that we were asking a lot of him, so maybe we should rent a car, I am very glad that we didn’t.

Two of the other boats carrying some very neat friends were here, so we dinghied (new word) to see them and found out about fireworks on the beach on Anastasia Island. They were all headed to a party, which we did not attend.  Fortunately, we sat outside on our boat at 9:00 at night in shorts and T-shirts to watch about 20 minutes of beautiful fireworks.

When our friends were on the way to the party they were stopped by the “water police”. Our friend Hannah tells a really funny store about the incident but it is her story to tell.  Everything was fine the police were stopping a lot of boats.

Back to the boat hook.  We have not moored for a long time so I was out of practice, actually I have always been bad at it.  Long story short. I caught the hook in the mooring ball and couldn’t hold on or free it against the current.  We are looking into a boat hook that allows you to thread the rope through the mooring with the boat hook. We heard about it from a friend who told me she knew an elderly couple that needed that hook.  I don’t know where I stand in that. Elderly? 

We just came back from dinner with our friends from home.  It has been a long time since we have been with Ed, David, Lenny and Barbara. We also met new friends.

In a couple of days the weather has turned from in the 80’s to in the 50’s so the heat comes back on and warm blankets are on the bed.

We have met a really wonderful couple on our trip and today I learned that she will be published in Good Old Boat magazine, a respected boat magazine.  We are very proud to have met such a bright delightful couple.  This young woman can doodle, I guess you would call it or drawings, the most intricate designs. We may not see them again because they left for the Bahamas but we keep in touch by texting and email.

Today is the 4th and we are finally going to be able to take our friends out in the boat.  It has been nasty weather up until today, a predicted sunny day.

How does Rob have his hair cut?  You will see.

Tricia

Hair cut day

Captain Rob changes the oil, takes a good part of the morning

Not so Frosty

Glass mosaic mannequins

One day's sunrise

Picture Perfect

December 23, 2015
Coordinates 30 67073N, 81 46622

Fernandina Beach, FL

Mile 717

We stayed at Fernandina Beach until December 26, 2015 and then moved on.  We headed to Cumberland Island for an anchorage so the mile marker will show that we backtracked.

December 26, 2015

Coordinates 30 76749N, 81.47144W

Cumberland Island, GA

Mile 710

December 27, 2015

Coordinates 30 67073N, 81 46622

Fernandina Beach, FL

Mile 717

December 28, 2015

Coordinates 30 67073N, 81 46622

Fernandina Beach, FL
Mile 717

Don’t judge a city by its entrance.

Here I am again talking about paper mills. It is amazing that the entrance to an adorable little city could be so industrial.  I don’t know why that amazes me.  

We spent Christmas in Fernandina and glad we did, however our dinner was mediocre at best.  But tonight we had a wonderful meal at Joe’s Bistro, so we will now refer to this as our Christmas dinner. I would say the best part of the day was talking to friends and family.

I promised myself that this blog would be short and filled with pictures but I want to tell you about our visit to Cumberland Island, a National Seashore Park.  Someone said that there are wild horses that run on the beaches.  In my head I created a story that we were going to see a herd of horses galloping on the shore.  I chuckled when I thought about this.  If there are wild horses why would they wander along the beach with people.    The closest we came to the horses was seeing several piles of dung.  I thought about tourists who come to Maine to see whales on “whale watches”.  What do they get to see, a fin or some tidbit that the tour guide determines is a whale.  I wonder why we are so smitten with trying to see into the wondrous world of the wild. I know I pretend to be friends with all the creatures we see.  Remember how the dolphin led our boat into Swansboro?  There pelicans here that I know can read my mind so pose for me to take their picture.  I saw a sea turtle today, but I didn’t hit it off with him like I did with the dolphin, although he really was amazing.

Back to Cumberland Island.  The island has raccoon, great horned owl, Fiddler crab, Clapper rail (some sort of bird), Peregrine falcon, Least tern (another bird), and the Ghost crab.  

Speaking of terns.  I heard a joke in the early 70’s about terns and marijuana.  I think it is clever but I haven’t found anyone else that thinks it is as funny as I do.  The story starts with a marijuana raid of a large crop of pot.  Once the bust was made the drug enforcement agents didn’t know what to do with the crop.  Finally it was decided that the crop would be burned on the coastline of northern California, as you can expect there was controversy over this decision.  One point that was made is that burning the marijuana on the coastline would leave-----no tern unstoned.

We are thrilled to be seeing our friends in St. Augustine in a few days.  We met up with some of our other boating friends today in Fernandina Beach and it was really great to see them again.

The pictures will tell the rest of the story.

I wanted to be friends with her but...

She had other ideas

Christmas Eve Service at the United Methodist Church, a beautiful church a wonderful sermon


The Pi's have it 

            

Ken and Will this one is for you.

Fernandina Beach on Christmas Eve

 

...as Rob would say, "this one is the husband"

Another try at making friends

                                      

      

Another rejection

I am sure you can tell that I am fascinated with the Pelican, a huge beautiful bird

I love this picture of my hubby

Tricia