May 14 Capital Yacht Club DC to Anchorage North of Bluff Point Colonial Beach VA 56 6 Miles

Two observations: 1. From the last bridge in the ICW in South Norfolk, to Maine -- no bridges that we have to worry about!  2. The Washington Channel is the flying lane for helicopters in the DC area, which has lots of them, apparently to keep them out of the way of the runways of Dulles Intl Airport that are parallel to the Chanel. If you stay at the Capital YC -- get used to their noise!

It was cold the past two nights and yesterday and today. So I was warmly bundled for todays 7:00 to 3:45 passage  -- a retracing of our path, back down the Potomac. The early start was dictated by the desire to capture a few hours of good tide.  We went further than Fairview Beach because we had the time and want to go further tomorrow too. Here is Fairview from the channel, above the gate in the lifelines. It shows that this river is w i d e!

Tide was favorable at the start, giving us, with engine, small jib and wind at our back, about 7.5 knots, gradually diminishing to 4.9 and then building back up to 5.9. Going downstream is faster than going upstream.
With the wind behind us the small jib self-jibes at will while the other two sails, though they would have given us more speed, would have been a bear to handle through all the jibes of the twisty river. In fact the Potomac is a pretty easy river to navigate, especially once you have been there. Our electronic chart plotter displays the water more than 20 feet deep, the channel, in light blue, with dark blue for the shallower water at the sides. Red and green buoys are shown and we generally respect them, but if you stay in the light blue, you cant go wrong.
Tonight the wind is predicted from the south at 5 to 10 knots so while we elected to stop in the Potomac, rather than in a harbor, we are on the north side of a bluff which should make the 5 to 10 knots of wind from the south easy to take tonight. We have 60 feet of snubbed chain in 11 feet of water and no other boats in sight. For those with Google Earth who want to know, we are at 38 degrees, 16.6 minutes North; 076 degrees, 59.4 minutes West. Here:

I have tried to show pictures of things you have not seen before, or new views of the old.  Like this style of buoy. Ive never seen such before. They are common on this river. This one has a guest, or squatter, who is hawking "Danger" as we got too close for his comfort. Check the current running past it-- the "bow wave"

Floridian gargantuan houses on the upper Potomac.

A better view, on a non-foggy day, of the huge power transmission towers with strobe lights.

The rivers banks are lined with such cliffs, as if the Potomac is trying to become the Grand Canyon. It still has a way to go.

Maryland Point Light, with rapids flowing past and many birds watching from the man made islands on both sides.

Tomorrows destination: St. Marys, Maryland.

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February 18 20 Hurricane Harbor to Belle Island Anchorage South and Two Lay Days There 8 6 Miles

Anchor and other problems.
Hurricane Harbor in Key Biscayne is well protected except from the Northwest, and that is where the wind was coming from in the morning of our departure. I went forward to remove the snubber in anticipation of hauling the anchor, and woah! we were dragging, beam to the wind, and fast -- toward the closed end of the harbor. We got out by prompt deft use of forward and reverse to swing our head around. Breakfast was deferred until after the two hour passage.

The 8.6 miles were easy, toward and past the City of Miami in an ugly cold grey wind with several periods of rain. A big sportfisher boat almost pushed us out of his way, overtaking us, as we headed for a 65 foot bridge; we slowed down to avoid him.

We anchored in the tidal "river" that was running south past the west side of Miami Beach. When we left her, ILENEs bow was thus pointed north, upstream, and was about 200 feet behind the stern of the boat anchored north of us.We actually picked up and re-dropped the anchor to find the perfect spot before taking a garbage/water/laundry run into town. I got a haircut during the wash cycle and we picked up some supplies on the way back. The tide was then flowing the other way, so our bow pointed south but our stern was only 15 feet from the bow of the boat behind us. How could this be?  He had used two anchors, one upstream and one down, to hold him stationary against the tides. Our single anchor let us move about 180 feet total, from south of the anchor to north of it. We were too close. So we picked up and tried to find another good spot. But with strong wind from the Northwest and tidal flow from the south, the boats were pointed in every direction. We thought that when we dropped back 90 feet from our anchor we would be fine but our neighbors swung too close to us --or we to them -- same difference. After several attempts, we went much further away from the more congested area and grabbed a spot off the outskirts shortly before sundown.
Our nearest neighbor to starboard was a young, Montrealer, live-aboard on a Bavaria, s/v "Paradigme 2.0".

 Nick complained vociferously about a catamaran on his starboard side which we could see was anchored, its crew absent, surging wildly back and forth almost hitting his boat. We invited him aboard for a beer but he brought his own; I guess that is the custom. He had his two Husky

rescue dogs in his dink and he told them to stay there, in French, of course. But they jumped from there to our dink and from there to our cockpit and gave our kittys a scare when they looked down into the cabin. Their tails got big and their backs arched. But no harm done. Here they are at a more placid time, on the porch; because I

have actually had a reader ask for more kitty pictures. Thanks, Kay.
The night was very windy. The wind would catch one side of the boat, heeling us as much as 20 degrees to leeward while the boat charged ahead as far as the anchor chain would permit, before turning her other side to the wind for the return trip leaning the other way. It seemed the howling wind was trying to rip out our slender tether to the earth. I checked our position frequently, instead of sleeping, but we were blessed   -- we did not drag. A wild night. In the morning, I looked out and saw a BIG problem: the dinghy was gone. Vanished. No where in sight. We called all boats and the Coast Guard responded and took a report. We called Nick who drove me in his dink through turbulent waters, over four miles, all the way to the seaward end of the breakwaters of Government Cut and back. We thought we might find the dink snagged at a waterside location, but I fear it was washed out to sea on the outgoing tide -- or stolen. Nick refused a financial recompense and offered to drive us to town but we stayed aboard the rest of the day and night to report the loss to the insurance company and the police and to shop by phone for a replacement. Like I said, days of problems. A bright side: once again we had the opportunity to experience the generosity that permeates the community of sailors.
Our guests were to arrive very late that night and Nick would have picked them up for us, but unaware of the dinghy loss they had elected to stay at a hotel the first two nights of their week here. On our second lay day here we worked in the aft cabin, transforming it from a storage locker to a guest chamber, largely by moving and arranging lots of stuff to the big lazarette in the cockpit. Then cleaning with Clorox, waxing with pledge and making the bed. Hey we run a four star joint, doncha know.
In the afternoon, we got a ride to shore with Nick and his two hounds and took him to lunch at Rosa Mexicana. Retired from the Canadian Air Force, he has a job offer selling boats in San Diego if he and his girl friend, who is currently in Canada because of a family death, can get their boat and car there. He is a very intelligent and personable young man who should do well with his extensive experience of sailing. Then we watched "Still Alice" at the Regal multiplex and did a shop at Publix before Nick, along with his friend David who is living on his own boat while trying to get work as a model,

drove us, our groceries and the two dogs home. We invited them for breakfast tomorrow after which Nick will pick up Christine and Heather at noon before we head for Coconut Grove with them.
We made arrangements to dock at the Coral Reef YC there for the next few days which gives time for the dink to be found. Jeff, of Lifeline Inflatables, is willing to defer our order and delivery until Monday, and to deliver in Coconut Grove.  So all told, except for the last lay day, these have not been the cheeriest or happiest days of this adventure but no one was physically hurt. Strong winds continued the next two nights, though not as strong as the first night. Ilenes anchor having held in higher winds, it held in the lesser and better sleep was enjoyed.

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January 10 From South Belle Isle Anchorage to Anchorage off Dinner Key 9 4 miles

Not many miles today and not much wind at first. Only about half of the distance was in open water after the bridges and before the Dinner Key Channel entrance. In short, while we could have put up a sail, I did not.

We passed five behemoth cruise ships viewed from the Miami end of its Main Channel and some racing boats. Well to be accurate, the latter passed us -- at screaming high speeds. There were two regattas in Biscayne Bay. It is not deep but deep enough -- for a large part of its wide open area.

We went all the way in through the channel to the marina area, protected by a barrier island, south inside that island and then back part way out in John Brennan Channel, which is too shallow at its entrance for us, but wide enough beyond the marked sides of the channel to serve as the anchoring area. But most of that area is now filled with moorings. We looked for an anchoring spot. Our first two drops were south of this channel. The first of them put us too close to another boat; its master came on deck and looked worried. So up anchor and then down again, thirty yards away, no problem. But lets check the tides. We had 7.5 feet of water but oops, its high tide now and we will have only 5.5 feet six hours from now at low -- not enough. So the windlass got another workout and we went over to the north side and further out from shore and found a good spot in 8.5 feet and the anchor got set hard and firm with 50 feet of snubbed chain. By now it was afternoon and the wind was stronger. We had a date to meet another of Lenes
grade school chums, Janet, and her husband, Ed, who live in western Miami.

The dink ride was a longh one, .93 miles, and a rough one, with the waves -- and rougher on the way back in the dark. I got a bit wet from spray on the way in and Lene got even more of this on the way back.

By the way, here is our 10.5 feet long rented SUP lashed to the lifeline stanchions; too rough to try it today. And Lene does not have the official uniform for female SUPers yet: a bikini.
Ed and Janet drove us to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. This is a large well run place, temporarily enhanced by many large Chihuly blown glass sculptures which take special significance from comparison to the shapes of the fauna in which they are placed. Thus spiky glass amid cacti, a technicolor eucalyptus tree with a mammoth arrangement of many blown glass tubular shapes mounted on a spiky frame and glass lillies with the real thing:

We took a free 45 minute trolley ride narrated by our docent, a very knowledgeable retired botanist.

And then dinner at the Peacock Inn by Cocowalk.  A lovely day, but a roughly windblown night on anchor. After one more night out here we will be at the Coral Reef Yacht Club, which required an email from the Harlem YC Secretary to admit us. Thanks again Ellen,

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December 16 18 Two More Lay Days in Titusville and Passage to Dragon Point Anchorage 30 9 Miles

Titusville is a good place to leave ones boat for the Christmas holidays as our friends on Autumn Borne and Seeker are doing. But it is also a sightseeing launch pad. Our first lay day was devoted to JFK Space center on Cape Canaveral, on Merritt Island, which forms the eastern shore of the Indian River (think of boxes of fruit from Florida) and was the subject of my prior post.
Our second lay day was mostly errands: Post office, bank, pet food store, laundry, and supermarket. But we also visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. It has a one lane unpaved loop road about three feet above sea level in a very circuitous path  about 7.5 miles long with about fifteen stops for viewing wildlife, mostly birds. But there are alligators there too and the book says there are small mammals as well and their droppings attest to it. It is a birders paradise and made me wish I was a birder, because there are so many species.

t flies but its not a bird.

Out in the middle of nowhere, there is an additional 5 mile hiking loop further than the road goes. I walked about half a mile and back while Lene waited. The wet lands and marshes have a few high spots, about three feet high, and the road simply connected them. The place is not completely natural but rather carefully managed to let seawater in,or out, to preserve ideal depths for different species. I took a lot of pictures but few came out well. Another paved road takes you to Playalinda (pretty beach in Spanish) Beach but we ran out of time.

And our last lay day was for the Universal theme parks in Orlando. Lene wanted this and I think she has gotten roller coasters out of her system. It was mostly monster rides but also a lot of inside rides that are intended to be scary.  For the giant ones a person must check all things that could fly away with the violent shaking of ones body: bags, hats, glasses, phones, cameras, wallets, change etc. They have rooms with walls of lockers that use your fingerprint to lock and unlock them. These areas need to be enlarged a bit. They have attendants to keep things moving when the system fails. The locker areas are the only thing in the park that needs to be expanded. I did not take pictures except these of Lene in chartreuse top with colossal structures.

We were lucky it was not Christmas week when the crowds would be three times as large. Several rides said that the line was 45 minutes, but in fact the times were shorter than that. And they keep you moving and entertained while waiting.  There are two separate parks with different rides in each, though both had Harry Potter rides and villages (One London and the other the suburban school). We were not close followers of the HP phenomenon but enjoyed it anyway. One mistake was drinking a "butter beer:" it looks like a beer with a head, but it is all cream and butterscotch and sweeter than is good for anyones health. All told, we went on about a dozen rides or shows during the 8.5 hours we were in the park. Most rides and shows are based on Universals action thriller or cartoon characters. They have done a very good job with some of the shows. The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad was in a huge amphitheater with acrobats, diving, and explosives. A Neptune show was all large excellent computer animation and pyrotechnics. These two had a watery theme as did two rides that we skipped because the fun is getting drenched. Both of the HP rides and several others put you in cars which move along a track, swivel on center and tilt and shake in myriad ways while 3D computer animations confront you. Very clever use of burning hot big flames -- you could feel the heat. Similarly, when an aquatic villain loomed out there was a spray of real water -- Aldous Huxleys "The Feelies" have arrived. An old fashioned looking railroad takes you from the HP area of one park to the other, with attendants in each area appropriately costumed. But the view out the window of the train would be of the back sides of  the various rides so instead of they put us, six in a small cabin, on one side of the train and amused us two ways during the short ride. For one thing, silhouettes of HP characters were made to appear in cloudy silhouette in the trains corridor, nattering about aspects of the plot. On the other side, a computer animated view of the English scene was shown moving past as if you were traveling by train in England. Clever. And the park is very expensive: $135 per person plus $17 to park the car. And merchandising everywhere. (for an additional $50 per person you can get an express pass which gives you the right to get on a separate shorter line to wait for the rides and shows. Not needed the day we visited.) We had dinner back in Titusville at Chops -- good food at a reasonable price.
On passage day, breakfasting out (third day in a row), returning the rental car, showering, raising the dink and fueling led to a 10:45 departure for Dragon Point (There was a big statue of a dragon here but it has disintegrated). It is the southern pointy tip of Merritt Island. No wind to speak of so; motoring all the way. At the Point we hooked a left into the Banana River, on the eastern side of that island, and dropped the hook a couple of hundred yards up that river in 17 feet of water at high tide with 100 feet of snubbed chain, for a quiet evening aboard. We had thought to stop and anchor half way in Cocoa FL,but skipped it this time. I have stopped reporting dolphins because they are with us every day.

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March 4 Belle Island Anchorage Miami Beach to Cooleys Landing Marina Ft Lauderdale 35 6 Miles

An interesting passage. We pulled up the anchor at 9:45. The tide was helping us on the way out of Miami. The main ship channel was free of  cruise liners (on Wednesday) so we were able to use that channel without the police directing us to turn back, and requiring the more circuitous industrial route We had only one tow and barge to avoid.

But the wind was in our face and once we got to Government Cut proper, big rollers from the sea were coming directly in. Built up by ten to twenty knots of wind from the east or south east, over a long time and distance, those waves confronted the tide flowing out and produced waves up to ten feet high which tossed ILENE about. Our bow dove under some waves with salt water bathing the deck. Good thing the hatches were not just closed but dogged down very tight. we closed the companionway hatch cover just in case, but no salt water came that far back to enter the cabin. And when our bow was lifted high up by other waves, a few gallons of seawater entered the cockpit through the stern swim platform but drained quickly back out. The sails, our strong engine, could not be deployed to get us through this bad patch faster because the wind was in our faces. We do not give the kitties big breakfasts on such days and their crying was not from nausea but caused by fear and discomfort.
Once clear of the Cut and its extending sea walls we turned north, and put out the small jib and things stabilized a bit. But we were still close to the wind and only making 4.5 knots; not enough to get to our destination in time. So we changed to the genoa and with the wind now on or near our beam we made seven knots, on a rolly ride with five foot waves pushing on our starboard quarter. But at seven knots we were now going too fast -- we would get there too early. We had to arrive at our destination, a few miles up the New River, at 4 pm, when it would be slack tide. If we were earlier or later, the strong tidal flows in that river would make it difficult to get into the slips which lie perpendicular to the tidal flow. So about an hour before the waypoint marking our turn west into the Port Everglades Cut to Fort Lauderdale, we switched back to the small jib and slowed  back down to four knots.  We were also happy to have the self tacking small jib out because the turn to the west would involve a jibe. We had planned for the 3:30 opening of the 17th Street Bridge across the ICW in Ft. Laud, but sailing with just the small jib until a few hundred yards from the bridge, we still got there too early, and made the 3;00 opening. Better too early, which can be solved by slowing down, that too late, because there is a limit on how fast we can speed up.

This is someone elses idea of beauty and is big and probably fast and unusual in design and color and parked near Steven Spielbergs mega yacht that is pictured in the post from our early spring 2012 visit to this city.

So we had to slow down and solved this by drifting north in the ICW in neutral and maintained steerage  with the wind and tide until we turned left into the New River. We had a scare when we heard on the radio from a friendly power boat of New Yorkers that the railroad bridge, one of the four we passed under, was down for maintenance; it is normally up and out of the way except when a train comes. That would completely screw up our timing issue. But it went up again, just in time, and we had an easy landing and were all tied up by 4:15, talked with our new neighbors, took showers, a delicious steak dinner aboard and tried, without success, to watch Downton Abbey via WiFi.

Cooleys Landing and Marathon are both municipal marinas in Florida but they have diametrically opposite pricing policies to influence the length of ones stay. At Marathon they give a bargain price to those who stay long term. One night on a mooring at the monthly rate is only ten dollars, which is less than the price of dinghy docking and restroom use on a daily rate for those on anchor. Here in Fort Lauderdale we pay only $1 per foot per day for dockage with the BoatUS discount, but only for ten calendar days per calendar year, after which 20% higher rates apply. Here they incent short term stays unlike Marathon which favors those who stay for the long haul. We are peripatetic nomads and have never stayed on our boat anywhere for a month.

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January 2 Cooleys Landing Marina Ft Laud to Anchorage NE of Belle Isle Miami Beach 35 6 Miles

Backing out of the slip was complicated by my failure to untie the steering wheel or the line securing ILENE to the port aft piling. But these got done at 6:45 a.m. at slack water and we were off in dawns early light, down the New,

under the 17th Street bridge without a substantial wait and into the Atlantic for the run down the coast. We were near close hauled on port tack in ESE winds and I had put a reef in the main and used the small jib at first until we switched to the genoa for speed. We were 2/3 of a mile off the coast in water that was 20 to 30 feet deep. And it was a rough ride for the 25 outside miles. The kitties lost their breakfast and had to wait till we got in to be fed. I had thought to be able to sail in through Government Cut, the deep wide channel through the beach into Miami, but the seas were very turbulent with wind-built waves opposing out flowing current and the main could not be kept from jibing so we pulled the sails down and motored the rest of the way. Here is a view out to sea after we were in, with friend Rhonda and Marcs apartment among those on the left side. (See more below.)

The Main Channel through Miami Harbor to the city of Miami is a straight shot continuation of the Government Cut and had five cruise ships lined up on our port side. We got about one third of the way through this wide deep straight two mile long channel when a loud speaker from a power boat with blue flashing lights (law enforcement) got our attention : "TURN AROUND! THE MAIN CHANNEL IS CLOSED EXCEPT TO AUTHORIZED VESSELS!" So we did, and went counterclockwise around the other, south side of Purdy Island, which is loaded with commercial vessels including this large dredge (water is cleaning its teeth),

and west to the City of Miami and the ICW, on which we went north for about a mile under two open low bridges and one high bridge before having to wait ten minutes at the low Venetian Causeway bridge (all bridges to the right).

During the wait, a Towboat US boat came by and hailed us: "Arent you from City Island and the Huguenot YC?" "Yes", I said. It was Billy, formerly in charge of hauling boats at the Huegenot, now working here in Miami. Then it was two miles west to this nice little free anchorage NE of Belle Island, the easternmost of the islands strung together like beads by the Venetian Causeway, where we anchored in ten feet of water with 50 feet of snubbed chain. We are just SW of the huge Sunset Harbor Marina.

Dockage there is $4.00 per foot (and these guys run a whole lot of feet); we pay nothing. At about two pm as we were anchoring, inherently a very busy time, we were hailed by a large white trimaran that was leaving: "Hello Ilene!" We said hello and the lady aboard said "I know you from your blog!" Well lady, if you respond, I will be very pleased to edit this post to include information about you and your boat, where you are going, your home port, etc. Here are some of the other anchored boats, there were a lot more here when we arrived.  You can see a bit of the Venetian Causeway, the low horizontal white line, behind them.

Once settled we were hailed for the third time in an hour by our friend Jerry who with his wife Louise, sailed with us for a week in the British and US Virgin Islands early in 2012. After launching the dink I went to the dock, which Dean had told us about, and brought Jerry aboard for a cup of coffee. On rfeturn i saw a sign on the dinghy dock said that you cant tie up for longer than 20 minutes. Jerry suggested that I ask the police. I did so politely, told him that we were visiting for a few days with friends who live here and wanted to go to dinners, the beach, sightseeing, shopping, etc. He said that the sign is to inhibit live aboards who stay here all year and those who leave their boats at the dock for a week while they fly north for the holidays: "Dont worry, you wont be towed." "Thank you very much officer."

The twin engine police boat is at the dock, the police station to the right and a ramp to the left is used by stand up paddleboarders.

That evening we were picked up by Rhonda and Mark and taken to their condo overlooking the Atlantic,

Government Cut, Fishers island, Biscayne Bay, Coconut Grove (our next stop) and the city of Miami. 
Wow what a view! And the apartment is the height of luxury.They let us take showers, lubricated us and we had dinner with them at Ciba, an Italian restaurant that opened less than a month ago. It has lovely decor, great service and, in our opinion, food that is just not remarkable. Rhonda is a friend of Lene from grammar school; they go back a ways. The girls had a good time together and we guys kept each other amused.

They were flying back to New York for a week the next day and gave us their last night in town, our first, at the end of a full day.

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