Daytona to Canaveral - June 16, 2008

The trip to Daytona was uneventful.  The trip to Canaveral was not.

The day started out mild but there was an afternoon forecast looming.

South of Daytona is another inlet from the Atlantic Ocean.  I had been told many times that there is a lot of shoaling (shifting sand, mud, etc. that shallows the water) and to pay close attention through the area.  At one point where the ICW and the Ponce Inlet come together, I had a very narrow gap to get through.  On one side were exposed cables and pipes.  On the other, the shoaling.  I managed to sneak through in no more than 6 ft of water.  BTW, my boat is around 4 ft deep so that means I had less than 2 ft under the keel!  But the bottom was sandy and I was going through at idle speed so I wasn't overly concerned should I touch.

The area from Ponce Inlet south to New Smyrna Beach was very pretty.  Huge houses belonging to boats that seemed almost as large.  Beautifully landscaped yards whose bright green lawns stopped only to give way to the bright green water beyond.  If you had to have a land-based residence, I suppose this would be the way to do it.  But for me, for now, I was happy to be looking from the outside as I passed by on my water-based residence.

South of New Smyra Beach the ICW turned into stretches of marsh lands, camp sites and trailor parks.  It reminded me of those remote areas back in Oklahoma that ran between the small towns away from the bigger cities - except with saltwater instead of two-lane highways and dirt roads.  And the boats there!  Many looked as though they had taken a camper and married it to the bottom half of an old pontoon boat.  Very interesting but functional I suppose.  Quite a contrast from the veritable mansions just a couple hours behind me.

Past the marshy areas, the ICW opened up and I had more room to move around so I put the sails up.  But there was still that forecast.  The sails didn't stay up long because there were some strong gusts which made it difficult to keep a tight course and I found that I didn't have as much wriggle room as I had thought.  Add to that the offshore power boats flying past and kicking up massive wakes, rocking the boat more than I really felt comfortable with.  I could see the clouds building in the south and was glad that I got the sails down when I did.  Back to listening to the forecast.

Storms were to build in the afternoon with the areas of greatest activity directly between where I was and where I was going.  Around 3:00 pm it hit.  I already had the hatches and ports closed up and was wearing my foul-weather jacket as well as an offshore life vest.  I had never seen a storm move across the water like that before and had no more than 45 seconds before it was on top of me.  The winds which were previously 5-10 mph had instantly become 30-40 and there had to be some gusts up to 45 if not higher.  The waves which were less than a foot were now 5 foot.  And the rain was coming in sideways; the canvas cover over the cockpit doing very little to hold it back.  Not only was water dripping from my face, but it was salty.  But not salty from sweat - the winds were so strong that they were actually blowing water from the tops of the waves into my face.  Visibility was so poor that I could not see the channel markers until I was about 200 yards away.   At this point I had no option but to put down the throttle and go straight into the storm.  Even if there were a place to anchor I don't think I could have managed to get set.  Besides, this wasn't going to last forever.  Fortunately I didn't pass any other boats but still had every light on the boat lit up (full-deck illumination, as my friend likes to call it) in case someone else was out in this too.

Now, I know all of this sounds bad but once I had settled down from the initial shock of it, the wind and waves and water sort of fell into a nice rhythm; like heavy rock music that you don't want to listen to all the time, but enjoy it occasionally.  And there was a strange calm in that.  And that was it.  About 40 minutes of action then a nice, light rain to wash the decks down.

I had planned to anchor out every night until I got to West Palm because marinas cost money and anchoring in free.  But tonight I called up the local marina and decided I would tie up to the dock for one night since I was exhausted.  Money well spent AND I found a wireless connection so I could write these blogs to catch ya'll up on everything.

Yes, I'm being safe.  No, you shouldn't worry.  Life is good.  It wouldn't be exciting if everyday was a simple stroll from point to point.

St. Augustine to Daytona - June 15, 2008

After 3 nights in St. Augustine I figured that it was time to get back down the road.  The goal is to be in Abaco, Bahamas before July 1 so that I can be there for Race Week, Stranded Naked Party, Bahamas Independence, etc...  I hear that July is THE month to be in the Bahamas, specifically the Abacos.  So, back down the road for me.

The stretch of ICW from St. A. to Daytona is actually not very exciting at all.  I did have to keep an eye out for the rock pile that my friends on Pirates Lady had encountered but that was about the only thing that kept my attention for long at all.  There was a storm that came up around 1:30 in the afternoon but didn't cause much concern and it was over quickly.

I had thought about finding a place to stop somewhere north of Daytona because it was a long, uneventful day but decided I needed to keep going.  Besides, there really wasn't anywhere to stop anyway.

To my surprise, I made it in to Daytona much earlier than thought.  It really only took about 8 1/2 hours from the time I pulled up the anchor until the time I put it back down again.  By 5:30 pm I was settled down into an anchorage just south of the Seabreeze Bridge, across from Caribbean Jacks.  It looked like Caribbean Jacks might be a restaurant/bar and was only a few hundred yards away but I decided to stay on the boat, make a fried oyster sandwich and get ready for the next day into Canaveral.

Orange Park to St. Augustine

Thursday, June 12 2008 marks a new day in my life.  Today I go from live-aboard sailboat owner to cruiser.  The slip I had occupied until this day is no longer mine; in fact, I no longer have any slip to call home.  Home is now wherever I decide to make it for the day or week or month.

At 8:15, I cast off the lines from Fleming Island Marina but this time I took those lines with me.

A long day of travel ahead, I sailed north from Orange Park, FL towards downtown Jacksonville.  Jacksonville had previously been the furthest I had travelled but now it was only the beginning.  Orange Park is located south of downtown on the St. John's River.  In order to get south to St. Augustine I had to first go north, past downtown Jacksonville and out of the St. John's into the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW).  Once in the ICW it is a long, slow ride south to St. Augustine.  There's not much room to maneuver because the channel is so narrow so the entire trip consisted of listening to the diesel engine instead of the sails.  This had not been something that I was very excited about but once I arrived in St. Augustine approximately 10 hours later

I found that it was very much worth it.

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but at one point I looked down to realize that the water that had once resembled the lakes back home in Oklahoma had now turned a sea foam-green color.

I realized then that I had no desire to go

back into the murky St. John's.  I came up to the St. Augustine Inlet around 6 pm and made my approach to my first anchorage out of the River.

The crew of Pirates Lady, Boomer and Christy,

 have become very close friends of mine over the last several months.  In fact,

 we were planning a trip

 to the Bahamas together.  However, they ran into some 

misfortune in the form of a rock pile along the ICW and were sorting things out in St. Augustine when I arrived.  Unfortunately they will not be making the trip to the Bahamas this year and will be spending a few months sorting things out with their boat.  We were able to spend the next 2 days together in St. A. and I sincerely hope to meet up with them again at another time, in a more southerly latitude.

To be completely honest, anchoring in an unknown location is the one thing about sailing that scares me 

probably more than anything else.  

There was plenty of room in the anchorage just north of the Bridge of Lions so I found my spot and made my way in.  Without too much drama, and after a coupl

e of attempts, I finally had the anchor down and was holding well.  After a short chat with Boomer and Ch

risty, and feeling good about my anchor's ability to keep put, I had a fantastic sleep.

The following morning I lowered the dinghy down into the water and made my first attempt at piloting the 8-foot infla

table.  Any doubts I had about the ability of a 5-horse outboard being sufficient power were very quickly erased.  If anything it is entir

ely too much power.  

I found that I could not throttle-up past half way without burying the stern and letting in water.

The city marina has a great facility and

 your $10 buys access to the dinghy dock, restrooms, showers and laundry facilities.  In addition, the marina is just across the street from the heart of activity in St. A.

The city of St. Augustine is possibly the neatest town that I have been to in the US.  It reminded me a lot of New Orleans but with a Spanish influence instead of French

 and, of course without the debaucheries associated with New Orleans.

  

I had only planned on spending the night in St. A. but ended up staying for 3.  If ever you are planning a trip to Florida

, skip Orlando or any of the other high-tourist areas and spend your time in St. Augustine.  

The shops, architecture and ambiance are fantastic!

Too Long Gone

Wow!  So it has been since November that I posted my last blog.  Here's the story...

I was leaving Florida to head back to Tulsa for Thanksgiving, and maybe stick around through Christmas.  Well, I did stay around for Christmas - and New Years - and Valentine's Day, Easter, St Patrick's Day, April Fools, etc...

You see, when I came back from Iraq I was going to buy a franchise.  After re-evaluating what I want out of my life, I decided the franchise was not the way to go.  I had given them a deposit on my territories and that money was refundable.  To make a long story short, I have not received that money back yet.  Hence my reason for being in Oklahoma for so long.

Still no money yet, but I AM back in Florida now.  On the boat.  Adventures to come.  Stay tuned...

BTW, I don't regret the time in Oklahoma.  I did get to spend a lot of time with family and good friends - something that I haven't been able to do in a long time.  So all of you people back in the middle of the country, it's your turn to come see me!

Sailing Downtown Jacksonville

This past weekend, my friend Chuck from Texas came down to visit and sail around with me. Since my last post, I had been tied up in the marina just getting to know the boat. So I was really glad to have someone visit and help me sail. Chuck is a great sailor and we both learned some new things about the boat. Hopefully our little weekend adventure was enough to inspire him to get his boat out of the lake and into the ocean! Come on Chuck, we'll sail over to the Bahamas together.

On Saturday, we left around 11:00am and headed north up the St. Johns River. The wind was pretty nice, blowing probably 8-10. The trip from my marina to downtown Jacksonville is about 20 to 25 miles and we made it in 4 hours, putting us there right at 3:00pm. Plenty of time to eat a late lunch and take a siesta before going out for the night.
The area downtown is called the Jacksonville Landing. Not a bad little place hang out for a night. There's plenty of room to tie up to the docks and you can stay for up to 72 hours for free. So we found our spot and secured the boat. The area is sort of a horseshoe-shape with a stage in the middle and surrounded by restaurants, bars and shops. A couple of bands played that night and we pretty much just people-watched and listened to the music - at least that's all I'm willing to share.
The next morning we got up and headed back up the river (yes, up the river is actually south in this case). Quite a bit more wind this time, probably 12-15 knots and coming across the beam (that's directly sideways to the boat for you landlubbers). I didn't think she would do it, but we actually sailed around 6.5 knots and even hit 7.3 a few times. That may not sound too fast, but I was surprised that a full keel boat with a 24.5 foot waterline would get up like that.
We found a little river to sail up into for the afternoon. Fueled up at a marina there and walked about a mile up to a shopping center for lunch and browsed around a boat store. After that, just headed back to the marina for the night.

Monday morning, we got up pretty early and decided to take her out one more time before he left that afternoon. The wind was light and I have a spinnaker that the previous owner had never used, so we decided to try to figure it out. A spinnaker is that big, colorful, ballon-looking sail that you sometimes see on a sailboat - used in light air to get a lot of extra power. Chuck had no problem figuring out how to hoist it and we had a great time with it. The wind picked up a little while later so we decided to drop it so we didn't get overpowered. We probably could have kept it going but didn't want to chance it. Here are a couple of pics of the spinnaker in action.

So we went back into the slip and Chuck went to the airport. I'll probably be going back to Texas in a few days to pack up the house and move everything on up to Oklahoma for storage. If anyone needs anything for their house, just ask because I'm probably selling it!

Brandon
s/v Sirius
__/)_
~~~~~

Done Deal-E-O

I finally broke down and bought one of those wireless cards from AT&T so I have internet on the boat now.

Well, the survey turned out really well and I went ahead and bought her! Closed the deal last Thursday and spent all of Friday motoring and sailing up the St. John's River in Jacksonville, FL to setup shop at a marina that I liked better than where she was at. Here's a little breakdown of Friday's adventure:

I was planning to head out at 9 am, but I like to sleep. So I ended up leaving around 10:30, making my way north up the ICW into downtown Jacksonville. The day started out cold and windy with a solid 20kn breeze right on the nose. I donned my foul weather jacket and settled into the cockpit as the spray from the waves crashed up and around the dodger, keeping me dry. Withing 15 minutes of leaving that morning, I had bottlenose dolphin breaching on the sides of the boat. I had no idea that there were dolphin this far up the river. I wished that I had my camera with me in the cockpit, but it was below and there was a lot of traffic, so no dolphin pics this time. A few hours later, the wind and waves had died down so I opened up the dodger and took off the foulies - it turned out the be a beautiful day! Sailing downtown was great! You go right past all of the downtown buildings and the stadium where the Jaguars play.
I had a little adventure with a bridge controller downtown though; I tried to hail him on the VHF but got no response. I used the airhorn with one long and one short blast, signaling I needed a opening - again no response. So I just circled back and forth around the bridge until he came out waving his arms like he didn't know what I wanted. I tried again on the VHF and he finally answered and raised the bridge.
After motorboatin all morning, I was bored and decided it was time to put up some canvas. I was a little nervous since I was alone and had never single-handed this boat before. I started out by just letting out the jib and backing down the RPM's on the diesel. By this time, I think the tide had started running with me and I was moving along at about 5kn. Still, the engine was churning and I wanted it off. I pulled the cover off the main and hoisted her up. Shut off the engine and finally relaxed. The boat is setup fairly well for one person and most of the controls are in the cockpit. It was very exciting to find out that I could handle this boat alone, at least in mild conditions.
I moved along mostly at about 4 to 5 knots, but occasionally saw 6 according to the GPS. I pulled in the marina around 5pm that evening and had a few hands waiting to help me dock. All tied up and snug, I would say the day was a great success.
I did have one small event though. In the process of raising the main, I was going forward to unfoul one of the reefing lines. Well, my ports are stainless steel and stick out a little bit. I managed to catch my pinkie toe right on the damn thing. I thought I had broken it but was still maneuverable until I got back to the cockpit and sat down. My little toe was turning black and was swelling fast. I didn't have any ice onboard so I just held a cold sandwich against it and kept it elevated when I could. Fortunately, there is a Coast Guard medic that lives on his boat in the same marina. Once I got tied up, he came over and wrapped it up, also confirming that it probably was broken.

Since then, I have been tied up in my slip. I'm just learning my way around the boat and finguring out what I want to change/add. The list keeps getting longer everytime I look at it. From what others are telling me, that will never change. BTW, I have some great neighbors. There's a couple right next to me that are outfitting to head to the USVI in a few months.

Life is great. I couldn't be happier with the boat or the decision to go forward with this thing. There's going to be some bumps and learning curves, but if everyone is as great as the people I have met so far then I will have plenty of support along the way.

Brandon
__/)_
~~~~~

Gettin Started

Howdy. Welcome to my new blog. This will be the space to keep track of me and my adventures aboard s/v Sirius, my 1988 Island Packet 27. I have no specific plans, destinations or itiniraries so who knows where I'll be or what will happen. I'm just going to set out and see where the wind takes me. Follow along to find out...

Last week I flew from Dallas (where I currently live) out to Miami to do a little boat shopping. After 15 or so boats and a leisurely drive up the coast, I found Sirius in Jacksonville Beach. I spent at least 5 minutes aboard before I decided that she was for me and I made my offer. A few days and negotiations later, we agreed on a price. Right now the survey is scheduled for Nov 2 and, if all checks out like it should, she will be mine that day.
I guess the plan for now is to keep the boat in NE Florida for a few months while I get aquainted and outfit for extended cruising. It looks like I'm going to head back to Baghdad for 3 months beginning in mid-December to stash some more cash. After that, I will probably head down through the Bahamas and island hop my way from Puerto Rico down through the island chain. Or maybe I'll head east to Bermuda. Don't really know just yet.

I've tried the blog thing once before but didn't make it much past the first post or so. I need all ya'll to keep on me and make sure I don't slack off this time. I'm going to have some exciting stories and nice pics to share I'm sure so let me know when I start to get wrapped up in the excitement of it all and forget to post!

Brandon
s/v Sirius
__/)_
~~~~~

P.S. - This was a post I made on a different blog site but didn't like the way it worked. This post was originally made on Oct 23, 2007.