After leaving Titusville, we spent several days visiting friends who now live in Indialantic, near Melbourne, FL. We'd had the Spade anchor we ordered from Tunisia sent there -- I'm sure they were happy to get it out of their garage! They also fed us well and gave us several dozen tangelos and a heap of key limes to take with us. This is one boat whose crew won't get scurvy!
The next day took us past the Fort Pierce inlet. At the west end of the inlet is a place called "Port Petroleum", which (unsurprisingly!) is listed in the guidebook as a cheap place to buy diesel. We hadn't fueled up since Annapolis, so we pulled up to the industrial-looking dock. A lot of big fuel docks scorn sailboats, which usually carry only piddly amounts of fuel, so we quickly told the attendant that we figured we needed more than a hundred gallons.
He laughed and pointed to the fleet of fishing boats on a nearby dock. "They usually fill up with ten thousand gallons! But it's all right for you to fuel up here. I just won't turn on the pump pressure -- we'll just let it gravity feed." With that he dragged over a massive hose and nozzle. It was a good thing he didn't turn on the pump, because even just dripping into our tanks we filled up fairly quickly with 164 gallons. (The pump wasn't even calibrated in tenths -- just in gallons.)
While we filled, we watched another enormous hose operating. This one was attached to a mega-ice-maker. In a few minutes, a sportfishing boat behind us had its cooler compartments filled with ice cubes.
From there, we headed for Stuart. Our cruising friends on Kindly Light had family flying in to meet them there, and they had planned a big Christmas potluck to which we were invited. Of course, my contribution was key lime pie, and we distributed tangelos as presents to everyone there. We all ate and drank and made very merry.
It took us two days to go from Indialantic to Stuart. We'd stopped just past Fort Pierce, anchoring just past the inlet, using our secondary anchor so that we could swap out the CQR on our primary anchor rode for the new Spade. The Spade is quite a bit larger than the CQR, but because it's aluminum, it weighs nearly 10 pounds less. Our plan was to put the CQR onto the secondary rode after anchoring on the Spade in Stuart, and use our previous secondary anchor, a Danforth, as a stern anchor.
We arrived in Stuart, the skies threatening rain and the forecast for winds out of the northwest, took one look at the crowded and exposed anchorage, and immediately decided to anchor on the opposite side of the St. Lucie River. We motored over to a likely spot, Britt dropped the Spade, and I backed down...and kept on backing. The anchor didn't set at all, so we reeled it in -- by this time it had started raining -- and moved to another spot. Again the Spade refused to bite. After the third failure, we dropped the Danforth, still on the secondary rode, but when it also didn't set, we decided the holding just wasn't any good over there, and headed for the main anchorage.
Our luck there was no better. After half a dozen failures in two separate places (made scarier by having to avoid the other anchored boats during our attempts) we were about ready to toss the Spade overboard without the chain attached. After a bit of dithering, we motored over to the North Fork, a more distant but uncrowded anchorage, to give it a few more tries without all the obstacles. Again, the darn thing wouldn't stick, so after two or three attempts we dropped the Danforth -- and it set on the first try.
Of course we're tremendously disappointed, especially since we'd sprung very large bucks for the new anchor. For now, we've switched back to the CQR and have stowed the Spade in the anchor locker. But when we get some time, with no threatening weather or nearby boats, we're going to pull it out and work on it some more. Maybe it's just a matter of technique; setting the CQR is trivially easy, but perhaps the Spade requires a different setting method. We've gotten some suggestions on things to try, so we'll hold off on the angry letter to Practical Sailor (which recommended the Spade as their #1 Gear of the Year)...for now.
After Christmas in Stuart, we continued south to Boca Raton to visit Vern and Kathy, who we'd met in Hampton during Hurricane Dennis. This stretch of the waterway was less than pleasant for two reasons. Up until Stuart, most of the other traffic on the ICW consisted of other cruising boats, both sail and power; the few recreational fishing boats were generally considerate of other boaters. Suddenly, we were surrounded by local powerboaters who were for the most part marginally competent and excessively rude. We were constantly rocked by huge wakes and shoved to the edge of the channel.
The second annoyance was the bridges. Lots and lots of drawbridges, many of them with weird opening schedules that guaranteed a lot of mad dashes, alternating with a lot of idling around. For example, one bridge opened only on the hour and half hour. The next bridge, less than a mile to the south, opened only at quarter of and quarter past. We went through this with a good 1.5 knot current, so we had to slow to under 2.5 knots (from our normal 6.8!) to avoid having to jockey back and forth in front of the bridge for way too long.
All the bridges in Florida use VHF channel 9, and there were lots of boaters calling lots of bridges, so channel 9 was continually in use. At any given time, there were usually four or more different bridges within VHF range. This is where the marginally competent boaters got really annoying. For example, the man on the powerboat Sandcastle had no idea where he was -- or rather, he thought he knew exactly where he was, except he was dead wrong. He called the Indiantown bridge on the radio and requested an opening. The Indiantown bridge bridgetender replied, "I don't see you, Captain, I'll open when you get closer." Sandcastle came back with, "But I'm right here!"
Meanwhile, the Jupiter bridge bridgetender was repeatedly calling on channel 9, "Motor vessel in front of Jupiter bridge, please answer," and getting no reply, because Sandcastle was convinced he was in front of Indiantown bridge rather than Jupiter bridge. Finally, another boat arrived at Jupiter and requested an opening, and Sandcastle passed through with it and motored to Indiantown bridge, which he duly hailed...as the Donald Ross bridge.
We inadvertently caused a bit of confusion ourselves. I hailed a bridge and requested to pass at their next scheduled opening (even when a bridge is on a schedule, each boat is expected to contact the bridge). A few minutes later, a sailboat named "Windemere" called another bridge. Our bridgetender thought it was us, and replied with a bit of annoyance that he'd open on schedule, in four minutes; the bridgetender at the other bridge heard that and figured that Windemere must have named the other bridge by mistake, so didn't respond. Windemere called again, thinking he was being ignored, and our bridgetender started to get truly pissed off, so I quickly got back on the radio and explained, "We're Windom. I think Windemere is at a different bridge." After a little confused conversation between the bridgetenders, they straightened everything out, and both Windom and Windemere passed through our respective drawbridges.
While in Stuart, Britt finally started installing the wind generator which we'd gotten way back in Annapolis. He finished it at Vern and Kathy's dock, just in time to get the first of our "Christmas presents" which we had ordered and had sent to their house -- a Spectra watermaker. The autopilot we also ordered hasn't arrived yet, but we're still knee-deep in the watermaker installation, so we aren't too antsy.
As is usual when we add a a major system to our boat, the place is a total mess. All the cushions are off the settees, and the things that are normally stored in the places we need to get into are piled haphazardly here and there. Bits and pieces of watermaker hardware are everywhere. Fortunately, we took care of one important part of the work when we put in the thru-hull for the refrigerator; since we knew we'd probably want a watermaker eventually, we put in a manifold so that we could just tap into it, rather than have to install another thru-hull.
The hardest part of installing the watermaker has been siting the components. Like the refrigerator, the watermaker consists of a lot of components which all need to be installed in particular orientations, plumbed together with hose runs which we want to be as short as possible. The membrane, a four-foot-long cylinder, has to have a particular end higher than the other; the pumps and filter have to be vertical, and they all need to be arranged in a certain order. It was almost like solving a jigsaw puzzle, with only one solution which we gradually figured out. But everything's almost ready to go; after we get a few necessary bits of hardware, we should be done -- just in time to install the autopilot.
When that's done, it will be time to head for the Bahamas. We finally bought all the charts and guidebooks we need and have started planning. Of course, everyone who's been there has given us their opinion as to the best place to leave from, the best place to check in to, and the best place to spend time, and half the time it conflicts with the opinion the previous person has given. So we're only slightly less confused than we were when we started.
We do know that we'd like to leave from fairly far south, so as not to fight the Gulf Stream too much, and we'd like to head more toward the Exumas than the Abacos (with the idea of catching the Abacos on the return trip). Several of our friends are planning to go directly to Nassau to check in, and we might do the same, although it means a longer passage. On the other hand, it would mean crossing the Gulf Stream during the day rather than at night -- for which there are pros and cons. We're still trying to figure it all out.
We have figured out a few things, though. We discovered we need a decal from US Customs; we had to get the application faxed to us, and then we sent it in with our payment and in 4-6 weeks, we should get the decal. Fortunately we need this to get back into the country, rather than to leave it, so it's not going to stop us from going to the Bahamas. We'll just have it sent to us while we're there. We also found out that AT&T no longer has a presence in the Bahamas, which means that we can't use our cell phone (and our cell modem!) while we're there. Supposedly there are still Internet connects available -- for a fee -- here and there, but I have a feeling we're not going to be able to get email and update our web pages as frequently as we would like. Well, we'll do our best.
Our computer didn't crash and burn on 1/1/00 after all, nor did our GPS, our VHF, our SSB, our refrigerator, or any other piece of electronic equipment. The only breakdown I suffered on New Year's Day was due not to any electronic malfunction, but rather due to a good old-fashioned hangover. Cheers to all readers of our logs, and best wishes for a very happy 2000.