Sunday 22 January 2012

Ocean Passage to Fort Lauderdale

Well you'll be pleased to hear that this was a much happier sail than our previous ocean leg from Charleston to Fernandina Beach. We listened carefully to the weather report, which wasn't perfect (northerlies and 4-5 ft waves) but we wanted to be further south and felt we could manage OK. Once we made our way out of Lake Worth, conditions proved much better than expected. The wind was north westerly, making for comfortable sailing, and we didn't see any waves more than about 3ft - and they were assisting us. It was coolish, but not freezing - all in all, a very pleasant day's sailing/ motor-sailing at around 7 knots on an uncomplicated southerly route.

Things became a little more exciting as we neared Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale's inlet to the sea. Massive container ships, yachts, powerboats, tiny fishing skiffs, luxury liners - and a line of tiny toy yachts sailed by six to ten year olds being herded like ducklings across the main channel by minders in rubber dinghies - all negotiating their way through the maze of channels, canals and bridges. Slowly and carefully we made our way up the New River, calling up each of the four bascule bridges which opened obligingly on demand. The New River is narrow, but extremely deep as it runs through an earthquake faultline that opened up only a few thousand years ago. Cooley's Landing is an ideal (and very reasonably priced) small marina right in the middle of the downtown area. The slips are right on the river so there is a serious current running at times. We did not judge this well and faced a bit of a challenge getting Common Sense safely docked. Fortunately the local live-aboards are very familiar with the problem and come out in force to assist whenever a newby arrives while the tide is running.


Once recovered from a long day's sailing and a hair-raising conclusion to the passage, we were able to enjoy a hot shower, a good meal and a comfortable night's sleep, things for which I have a new and growing appreciation. I'll post a full Fort Lauderdale blog soon, but as a taster here is a picture of Steven Spielberg's 200 million dollar yacht Seven Seas.

Monday 16 January 2012

Whimsical and Ridiculously Oversimplified Comparisons

Things That are Better in America:

  • Newspapers. The important ones, at least, like the New York Times and the Washington Post, are always a good read, even when you don't agree with the views presented. The writers can write. At the risk of sounding a bit morbid, I really like the obituaries. Everyone's story is told and honoured, their contribution acknowledged - it's not just a litany of relatives' names and bad poems.
  • Restaurants - an incredible range from fabulous and expensive to very very cheap (ie $1 specials at Maccas). You really can get anything you want, service is almost always friendly, courteous and well-informed - I guess because the wait-staff rely on tips to make a liveable wage. A good main course, which they inexplicably call an entree, averages about $15 - way better value than in Australia. There is a definite pattern to the restaurant industry - a guy starts a successful small restaurant, then opens another one, then it goes to franchise, then there are 342 of them across the country, all pretty much the same.
  • Toilets. Seriously, they flush like the Maelstrom and public toilets are clean, functional and everywhere.
  • Philanthropy. Anyone who achieves anything in their life expects to give back to their community. As a result, endowments support universities, art galleries, theatre companies, public artworks, sports facilities, gardens, scholarships, museums, community building, all types of research, environmental projects, concerts, events, you name it. The result of this is a very visible enhancement of the quality of life, and individuals are admired and remembered for what they have done.
  • Waterfronts. There are some great ones. Marinas and waterfront living make places more interesting, energetic and prosperous. Bunbury should learn from this.
  • Live music. Almost everywhere - some great, some not so much, but it's really good to see musicians getting a chance to be heard.
Things That Aren't so Great:
  • While everyone is very courteous and friendly, the actual service, in terms of getting things processed, delivered, authorised etc is often hopeless. This seems to be particularly the case with postal services and phone companies - Telstra and Australia Post look efficient and professional from here.
  • Sugar. Everything is sweeter - bread, crackers, soup, biscuits, drinks; marinades fror meat are all sweet - baked beans (yuck!) - I think there's some kind of conspiracy to support the corn and beet growing industries. The sugar OD is clearly reflected in the national waistline.
  • More is better. This belief applies to all sorts of things - four different toppings on a baked potato; five kinds of cheese on your pizza; supersize it, add fries, add three kinds of sauce; put flavoured syrup in your coffee and serve it in a gallon bucket... There is also a surfeit of cheap junk designed to make you consume throughout the calendar, especially on fake festivals like Hallowe'en and Valentine's Day.
  • Television. Loud and frequent advertising, evangelical channels, lamer sitcoms than the ones that make it to Australia. Drugs, medical procedures and legal services are all advertised, which is interesting initially but wears thin very quickly.


Friday 13 January 2012

Peck Lake and Lake Worth


Peck Lake, through which the Intra Coastal Waterway passes, was one of our favourite anchorages so far. Though we spent the first three hours there lodged firmly in a sticky mudbank until the tide rose, things improved significantly from then on with another wonderful sunset, families of manatee moseying along the channel and great schools of fish chopping up the water in a frenzy of silver fins and tails. A short dinghy ride across to a long thin strip of sand named Jupiter Island puts you right on an apparently endless white Atlantic Beach. Better yet, it was actually warm enough to go for a swim! It was all so pleasant we decided to spend another day there, using the dinghy to explore the various canals and mangrove-lined streams that feed into the lake. This proved to be a real surprise: what looked from the water like a wilderness in fact hid marinas, private clubs, a park with a busy boat ramp and many of the other trappings of civilisation. At the ramp we met the chap pictured below. He was launching this pedal-powered craft, with a sail, which he said was especially designed for those getting on in years but still wanting to keep active and enjoy the water. I don’t know how old he was, but he looked amazingly fit – and what’s more, he had pedalled the boat to Florida from the Bahamas!

On the next leg of the journey we started to experience the ‘bridge problem’ that the southern section of the ICW is infamous for. One bascule bridge after another, some of them opening ‘on demand’, but others on a schedule which often meant trying to stay put waiting in a busy channel with a strong headwind and a current taking us right where we didn’t want to go. The bridge tenders, however, were unfailingly friendly and helpful, contrary to some of the stories we had heard. It was a relief to pass through the last bridge and make our way into the north-eastern corner of Lake Worth – the bit that is outside North Palm Beach boundaries and therefore does not incur an anchoring charge.  Not surprisingly, there were twenty or so yachts anchored here and none across the border! There is probably more to Lake Worth, but the bit we saw just seemed to be a lot of condos and malls with all the usual franchise restaurants and stores. We stocked up on groceries and had a pleasant evening with our neighbours Bob and Andrea aboard their lovely Island Packet. Next up, a thirty-five mile ocean passage to Fort Lauderdale, thus avoiding twenty-one bridges!

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Fort Pierce - an unexpected gem


The marina in Fort Pierce was meant to be just another stop along the way, where we intended to do some laundry, pick up some supplies and fix up our shower drain pump, air conditioner and do various things to make the dinghy safer. The first surprise was the marina, which is good value for a full service marina and is located right at the downtown waterfront, where everything happens. We just missed the Christmas light show, but did get to an evening fair and the famous farmers' market where we bought top quality fruit and veges (you should see the strawberries and avocados here!)  and ate totally delicious Jamaican pastie things for breakfast.



The town itself is attractive and interesting, with some good shops and the famous Sunshine Theatre where upcoming acts included Roberta Flack, Gordon Lightfoot, Diana Ross, The Platters, Bill Cosby … sadly, our few days didn’t coincide with any of these shows, but it was good to see that this lovingly-restored old place could pull the big names into a small town.

Fort Pierce is suffering the effects of the downturn that we’re seeing everywhere, but whoever is in charge is trying very hard to bring in the visitors with a pleasant waterfront that includes a couple of tiki bars with live entertainment, the Manatee Centre (mysteriously visited nearly every day by families of manatee – I think they must have warm fresh water running somewhere), a riverwalk, a museum dedicated to A E Backus, Florida’s most famous landscape artist and the ‘highwaymen’ school that he founded, and lots of excellent public artworks. We didn’t get to the Navy Seals Museum over on the ocean side, but it’s supposed to be very good.


Terry continued his practice of catching up with his long-term on-line cruising mates. We met up with Skip and Lydia who are living on their boat Flying Pig on the hard while she undergoes major repairs and refit. Once again we were regaled with stories both inspiring and scary as they recounted their cruising adventures over a shared pizza lunch, and again as we ate tacos aboard Common Sense. Skip is clearly one of those people with a passion for machines and fixing things – he had to have a look at what was producing the funny sounds in our air-conditioning – but of course it wouldn’t produce the sound while he was there!

We used the marina time to replace and repair the shower drain pump, and to make some improvements to our dinghy arrangements. By the way, the Honda outboard is now working famously – all the problems were due to bad fuel: algal growth in the gasoline as a result of the addition of ethanol to all the fuel here. We learnt our lesson the hard way with both this and the diesel motor, and now add biocide religiously whenever we refuel.

While strolling along the sailboat dock we spotted another Australian flagged yacht, and sure enough it wasn’t too many hours later that we were hailed by a familiar Aussie cricketing chant. Peter and Gail on board Salty Susie were actually heading north to Brunswick (Georgia), where they were planning to leave to boat and head home to NSW for the births of two grandchildren. We enjoyed boat drinks with them a couple of times, once on each of our boats – it was lots of fun and wonderfully relaxing to be able to speak our own language again for a while! Honestly, you don’t realise that you’re always having to edit, rephrase and explain things to Americans until you have a little holiday from it.

Well, Fort Pierce was a very worthwhile stop, but it was time to be movin’ on, as they say in all the country & western songs that dominate the airwaves in these parts. Enough of marinas, we were heading for Peck Lake where Common Sense could anchor out under a full orange moon with the sound of waves crashing on the Atlantic shore to lull us to sleep.

Saturday 7 January 2012

Sarasota

Our three day stay with Jane in her lovely condo in Sarasota was a little interlude of unaccustomed comfort and luxury. With her background in art and design, and her extensive travels, Jane's home is a kind of shrine to the beautiful, the exotic and the quirky. Every time you look around there is another lovely piece of glass, a picture or just an interesting arrangement of things that you hadn't noticed before. Amongst Jane's many other talents is her gift for event management, so the itinerary for our short stay was packed with fun and adventure! Here are a few highlights:
  • Watching a training session of the Lippizaner stallions, descendants of the horses that General Patton rescued in Austria at the end of the Second World War. In addition to dressage, these beautiful grey horses still learn battlefield manoeuvres, rearing up (so commanders could view the field) and striking out with their rear hooves.

  • Myakka State Park, where we took a cruise on an air-boat to see a marsh teeming with wildlife, including alligators.

  • The extraordinary home and estate of John Ringling, of Ringling Brothers Circus, now the Ringling Museum. Here we strolled through Mabel Ringling's rose garden which was in full bloom, and checked out the art collection which is famous for its Rubens pictures in particular. I really enjoyed the special exhibition of old circus posters. With their luridly exaggerated depictions of wild animals, freaks and exotic foreigners ('savage Blackamoors and Chinamen') they provide a fascinating insight into the social perspectives of the time.
  • A great dinner with Jane's friends, including Stephanie and Julius who shared their stories of ocean cruising that were both inspiring and a little terrifying.
  • Our first experience of a polo match - fast, exciting, skilful, and a very enjoyable social event as well.
We hope that some day we have the chance to repay the kindness and hospitality of the great people we've met here.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Daytona to Vero Beach and a side-trip to paradise

I Dock in the Daytona municipal marina was a fortunate location as we met such a great group of boaters, in particular our near-neighbours,  Jim and Fran, and Dan and Debbie. We enjoyed drinks on our boat and dinner at a very nice Thai restaurant in their company. They were also generous with trips to stores (including the World Market where Terry was able to replenish his Vegemite supply) and advice about sailing in Florida and the Bahamas. Wes, another I-Docker, helped us with some work on the boat  and some good ideas for our planned visit to Key West.
Christmas was very low key. We called the Hogan family Christmas party on Skype at about 2 in the morning, and it was great to chat to everyone, though in some ways they seemed further away than ever. Later we biked through town in search of somewhere to eat lunch and found a bar open where we celebrated with a bucket of crawfish and a couple of cold beers. The beach seemed to be the place to be on Christmas day, with thousands of people picnicking, swimming and of course driving on the rock hard white sand.



With our oil changed and various other jobs done, we made the most of the good conditions to cover nearly fifty miles to Titusville, where we anchored out amongst a variety of vessels - including some that seemed to be abandoned - near the municipal marina. The next day was similar, as we made our way through the chain of tiny green islands that line this part of the Waterway, and anchored in the lee of one of them for the night.


Venison burgers on the grill, another spectacular sunset and the gentle rocking of the boat in the perfect silence of the night - broken only by the sound of handgun fire from two guys camping on the island. We never did find out if they both survived the night. From Titusville we had a short passage to a slip in a private marina south of Vero Beach, where we would leave Common Sense for a few days while we headed to Sarasota to spend a few days with our friend Jane from our original marina at Kent Narrows.



The drive from Vero Beach to Sarasota took us right across Florida, and much of it could have been the south west of Western Australia, only substituting palms for gum trees. Flattish green pastures, cattle, citrus orchards - we could easily have been in Harvey!

Whenever we asked Jane about her home in Sarasota, her answer was always simply, "It's paradise!" and as we approached the coast it started to look as though she was speaking the truth. The Sarasota story will be the subject of the next blog - appearing soon!

A happy new year to all our lovely friends, whom we miss every day.