Tortuga Tour Day 46-49: North to St. Augustine

June 4-7, 2021

Destinations for the remainder of the trip starting in West Palm Beach:

• Fort Pierce – one night
• Titusville – one night
• Daytona Beach – one night
• St. Augustine – two nights (lots to see and do)
• Cumberland Island – two nights anchored with a dinghy ride to the island.
• Buckhead Creek
• Port Royal

It is June 8 as I sit down to write this.  We are currently in St. Augustine, the oldest continuous European city in the United States and home to Flagler College and Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.  Another landmark structure is the Bridge of Lions.  We will send a separate travel log for St. Augustine and Cumberland Island.  Otherwise, I will only cover some highlights and send pictures.  Intermittent Wi-Fi and wanting to interact with our granddaughters are making it more difficult to keep up.  We will not have Wi-Fi again until Port Royal, so I won’t send the logs until then.

Highlights:

• Between Ft. Pierce and Daytona, we saw a billboard on a boat anchored out of the channel.  Thank goodness it is the only billboard I have ever seen on the waterway, and I hope I never see another one.
• We met about one hundred jet skis heading south in a group.  Our guess is they were an organized group and appeared to be traveling to some place – maybe some kind of rally.
• Sunday is a busy day on the water.  We passed by so many folks taking advantage of every sandbar and good fishing spot along the ICW. 
• Every once and a while the girls would spot dolphins.  They get just as excited as I do.
• We have played lots of Skip-Bo both at night and while underway.
• We had planned to anchor in Ft. Pierce, but there was no good place that was sheltered from the wind and chop, so we stayed in the marina.  We requested their floating docks this time which are so much easier to tie up to and get on and off.  We have been instructing the new crew and they are very helpful.
• In Titusville, Miriam and Phoebe instantly fell in love with Mr. Wiener, a dachshund we met at the marina.  They are very attracted to dogs especially small ones.  They miss their Moxie.
• Two of the days on the ICW were so hot and sticky, the Captain decided we needed to run the generator so we could have AC.  Thank you, Captain!!

Captain’s Comments

On 6/4/21, we crossed our tracks at St. Lucie, closing the loop on the Florida Little Loop.  I’ve read about travelers/circumnavigators noting when they cross their tracks, but this time it felt real, even though it was only a little loop.  We’re officially on our way home.

By the time we were approaching our planned anchorage near Ft. Pierce, the wind had shifted more south, making the anchorage choppy.  In addition, the crew wanted air conditioning and showers, so we called up the Ft. Pierce Marina and they had room. 

Approaching our assigned spot, there was a strong current from the stern at our dock location, so we had our crew stationed at the bow and spring lines, with the Admiral in the cockpit ready to tie the stern off first.  Just as we were in position for Sue to step off the stern, a dockhand arrived and asked for the bow line which he tied off.  I couldn’t see the stern, and assumed it was tied off, so I went to neutral.  The stern wasn’t tied off—as soon as the bow was secured, the current pushed the stern back out into the channel and Sue couldn’t reach the dock.  In the few seconds it took for me to realize what was going on, a potential catastrophe was developing!  Back in gear, I pulled in the stern, and all was well.  We had a good plan, but we allowed it to change on the fly due to the misguided directions from the dock, and we didn’t fully communicate the changing conditions.  Two good lessons.

Ft. Pierce turned out to be a good stop, though.  It was the Friday night street festival with vendor booths and live music (some of it quite good).  See the butterfly.

Our next stop was also a marina since we had already made the reservation at Titusville.  This small municipal marina is well run, with a fair number of liveaboards, clean showers and laundry, and a mix of fixed and floating docks.  There is a city park around the basin.  We needed some fuel, milk, and cereal, so while the girls were still sleeping, Sue used Siri to find the Save-a-lot while I added fuel.  The Save-a-lot was a 5-minute walk, but after 25 minutes, the Admiral called on the phone asking for help, cursing at Siri.  The two of them just don’t get along.  This was our second fuel purchase on the trip, and it should be enough to get us home, but we didn’t top off, since better prices are ahead in Georgia.

Our next night was anchored out in the same Daytona anchorage we stopped at on the way south.  Easy in/out, with another beautiful early start in the morning.

Florida seems to be on the front lines of climate change denial, so it is interesting to see what is happening to waterfront real estate.  The frenzy to build along the water is unabated, and each new house under construction seems grander than the last.  But (essentially) all the new construction is built on fill about 5 feet higher than the older construction.

Peace  fks