Voyage 2005-2006: Chapter 3

01 Jan 2006, A Safe Harbor at Fernandina Beach, 30 40.330 N/ 081 27.940 W

Ann forgave Bob. Bob promised not go to windward anymore. Gentlemen don't go to windward. Ann will probably forget Bob's promise (in time). We celebrated the New Year by thanking Neptune for the calming seas. Now we could walk from berth to cockpit with minimal bruising. By 0800 on the third day, the wind and seas were abating and Fernandina was looking good. Ann noticed that the visibility was decreasing as we approached the inlet. By the time we got to the sea buoy, we could not see the sea buoy. Visibility was down to less than an eighth of a mile. Is this going to be trip from hell? Maybe we should not have pushed the Friday curse. Anyways, we entered St. Mary's inlet with fog and a foul current ( greater than 3 knots). Plus it started to rain. Are we having fun yet? Adventure or ordeal? The jury is still out.

After nearly two hours of hunting for buoys on the radar, the fog began to lift. The course was now easy to follow. The folks at the municipal marina found a slip for us (they were full due to the fog). Life is getting good. We met up with SV Maggie Rose (from NC Welcome Center) and enjoyed our chat. SY Moony is headed for Fort Pierce to try to get their engine fixed (head gasket?). There is a good weather window(so says NOAA) for Wednesday/Thursday to head to Fort Pierce on the outside. We'll see. Hope so! For now, we are going to enjoy Fernandina.

06 Jan 2006, Fernandina to Cocoa FL, 28 21.440 N/ 080 43.440 W

We had a great couple of days in Fernandina Beach except that our refrigeration died. Not bad after 9 years of service. We took quite a bit of sea water into the refrigeration compartment, that it finally quit. We had a great time with the crew of Maggie Rose (Jack and Jo) checking out the town. But finally, we had to say farewell as they took the inside route south and we left for Canaveral on the outside (weather discouraged a trip to Fort Pierce). Our trip was uneventful as the weather was kind and the journey was less than 24 hours. We stopped at Cape Marina (Voyage 2000) and fueled up. We went through the barge bridge and lock. We looked like Laurel and Hardy going though the lock (hey locks are not our thing).

We arrived at Whitley Marina at 1430 yesterday. We had a bit of a delay getting here because of bridge work on the FL state 528 highway. They closed the channel under the bridge due to construction. However, the tug boat captain cleared the way and we were soon heading south towards the marina. Later that day, Bob and Barbara (former crew of SV Barbobasea) came by to spend the night on Jule III. They with their first mate, Rudder, had fun on Jule III and checking out the sights here at Cocoa. They were kind enough to drive us to some of our needed provisioning points.

Rudder was the hit of the Jule III crew. He provided us our needed 'doggy fix' as it has been well over a week since we saw our 'kids'. We discovered a diesel leak on the engine which caused a little panic. However, we soon found the cause ( a leak in the injector return hose) and quickly fixed it. Bob and Barb took us engine part shopping and we treated them to our favorite Cuban restaurant, Roberto's of Cocoa Beach. After a great lunch, we parted company until they visit us in the Bahamas.

We heard from Adam (an old employee and friend) who recently moved to Melbourne. We invited him to the boat for drinks and a visit to historical Cocoa. It was great seeing him and chatting about old times. Adam was an old crew member on Jule III while he was interning with the Advanced Research Corporation. Small world! Hope to see him on the trip back!

We decided to be lazy and stay one more day in Cocoa and relax before heading for Fort Pierce. We headed for the old hardware store, and bought a new space heater (contrary to Florida propaganda, it gets cold here), and a new hose for our wash down pump. Nice place. We'll come again to visit. But now we must get ready for our trip to Fort Pierce.