Today was a boat service day planned in advance. In order to change the oil in the pods, the boat has to be hauled out of the water and the oil drained. We took the boat next door to Isle of Palms Marine Service where they used the travel lift to haul the boat. Fordham Marine came to take care of the pod service.

The haul out went well and the bottom of the boat looked good. The starboard props (each pod has two props) didn't look so great. Port side props were fine. One blade had a serious nick/tear in it and the other prop had some bent blades. Fortunately, we had purchased a spare set of props and the technician from Fordham took off the damaged props and replaced them with the spares. The damaged props will be sent out for repair while we are back in NJ and become our spare set. The damage was not entirely unexpected. We believe the damage happened as we were leaving Loggerhead Marina in Vero Beach. I plan to let them know that there is an underwater obstruction which has been documented in comments by some other boaters.

The technician took care of the gear oil change in the pods and we were back in the water after lunch. An alarm went off indicating low gear oil, but after contacting Fordham we think the engine just needed to be restarted. We will take the boat out for a short sea trial before we leave to make sure.

Martha went around the boat and cleaned up some of the water line stains that are difficult for us to get to and I replaced the sacrificial anodes on the trim tabs. Encore is looking pretty good now and ready for the next cruise in March.

Fortunately, all the work was completed before the rain storms came through the area. I may try to give her a good wash tomorrow. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 50s, but the sun is supposed to be out. We'll see how things go.

We had a quick trip to Jacksonville from St. Augustine. There was no excitement after pulling out of the slip and going under the Bridge of Lions. St. Augustine does have a beautiful skyline.

We made pretty good time up the Tolamato River and passed mile after mile of grasslands, until we got to the Palm Valley and Sawgrass area. There were many nice homes along the way and a few that we would consider old Florida originals. It was a little odd to see a line of mega mansions and then a home and yard that would make Fred Sanford proud.

We arrived at Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville around 12:30pm and took care in the channel as it was approaching low tide. The channel can be shallow in spots. We churned up quite a bit of mud while docking.

Tomorrow is service day. The boat will be hauled out of the water at 9:00am for a few hours. It will be good to get a look at the bottom of the boat and check the condition of the props.

Out blog for today will catch you up on the last two days of travel. The wifi in Daytona as well as the hotspots on our phones was very weak and kept us from posting last night. We are in St. Augustine now and the wifi is working very well. They use OnSpot Wifi here, the same as our home marina. Every time we go to a marina with this wifi system, we have no problems and all our devices connect immediately.

Titusville to Daytona:
It was an easy departure from Titusville Marina. We made good time up to the Haulover Canal that took us from the Indian River to Mosquito Lagoon. It was a cloudy and rainy morning. As we travelled through the canal, the SpaceX launch took place. We could just make out the flame from the rocket before it disappeared into the clouds. We got into Mosquito Lagoon and picked up some speed. As we neared the north end of the lagoon, we experienced another surprise. The chartplotter, the electronic device with the GPS and mapping system, suddenly went completely blank. It wasn't an immediate disaster as we could easily stay in the channel by following the markers and we had the iPad as a backup. It has all of the same charting software. The big loss was the depth sounder. It is pretty critical when you get to shallow areas. I tried turning the electronics off and on a couple times, and everything eventually came back to life. I have no idea what may have caused the temporarily failure, but we all know that every once in a while, shutting down and restarting will get our devices working again.

Later that morning, the rain stopped and the sun came out. The temperature warmed up nicely and it turned into a pretty nice day. We made it to Daytona without any other surprises.

Dealing with boat speed and the creation of wakes is a constant concern. After passing the Ponce De Leon Inlet at New Smyrna Beach, a sport fishing boat joined the ICW from an adjoining channel. He was going very fast and severely "waked" a smaller fishing boat that was anchored near the shore. There were kids on the boat and you could see everyone being tossed around. I am very sensitive to this, so I slowed down when passing them. I always worry about someone getting hurt, especially children and older adults. It is inconvenient, but I have chosen to err on the side of caution and slow down when passing other boats, whether they are underway or anchored. I also reduce speed when close to private docks. My wake could do some serious damage to someone's water toys. 

We enjoy watching the wildlife all around the water. We see a lot of different birds on shore as well as on the water. Dolphin spotting is a major activity as we travel on the water. We have seen many dolphin, including young ones swimming with their mothers.

We stayed at the Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona. It is a very large city owned marina. It is pretty well run, despite the wifi issue. We had time to walk around the marina, but did not venture into town.

Daytona to St. Augustine:

It was fairly easy run from Daytona to St. Augustine. No surprises today. The only challenge was at the Matanzas Inlet, and even that was not so bad. This is an area known for shoaling, but since it was dredged, the depths are pretty good. We went through exactly at low tide, so I wasn't completely confident that all would go well.

I wasn't the only one a little concerned. Shortly after we passed through the inlet, a large sport fisher boat passed us. The captain radioed me to inquire about the depths at the inlet. I let him know that the shallowest water we had seen was 7 to 8 feet in the channel and that seemed to reassure him.

Before getting to Matanzas Inlet, we passed a bunch of beautiful homes at Flagler Beach and Palm Coast. There was more boat traffic than expected for a Monday. It was a warm day and the rains had stopped. I'm sure that encouraged people to get out. The fishermen were out as usual.

​We arrived in St. Augustine early afternoon, got situated and headed into town.  I have to say that mask compliance is the lowest here of all places we have been so far. The stores required masks to be worn and all the workers were wearing them.

St. Augustine is a fun city to visit and it is beautiful at night. We were able to walk around a little bit in the afternoon and get some exercise. Glad we got to see the lights.

The Florida East Coast Railroad Line has been a consistent through this trip. The line goes by the marina in Stuart and the train has been audible in most of the marinas, including St. Augustine. It is a very busy line with numerous freight trains each day.
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Tomorrow will be the last day of this cruise. We will get back to Jacksonville and the boat will be hauled out of the water for some service. It will be a good time to see the hull and inspect the running gear. We will also spend some time preparing the boat for our return at the end of February to head further south before returning to the Chesapeake Bay.

No go on the SpaceX launch today. There was rain in the area all day. Too bad, we were in a great location to watch it. Maybe tomorrow. 

The Disney cruise ship that was across the channel last night disappeared by the time we woke up. It was very pretty all lit up.

We did a short run to Titusville today. Passed through the Canaveral Lock, only our second lock, and then did a very slow passage through the Cape Canaveral Barge Canal. Our timing was perfect as we got to the lock just as it was opening. Martha enjoyed the ducks and pelicans hanging out at the lock. We passed a variety of work vessels, marinas and abandoned boats. Once we hit the ICW, the water was flat and there was little wind. We opened her up and made a quick trip up to the Titusville Marina. The wind picked up as we entered the marina. We stopped for fuel and a pumpout before tying up at the slip. They gave us a T-head spot and the wind helped push us up against the dock.

After checking in, we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with some friends from our college days at the University of Florida. It was fun to catch up and share information about friends and family. 

​We didn't get any pictures of the marina before it got dark, so we will take some tomorrow before we leave here to continue our trip north to Daytona Beach. It is supposed to be another cloudy day. Hope the sun and warm temps come back.

We had a nice "no travel day" in Stuart. Took a walk to Publix for a few groceries, walked around the river walk again and basically took some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather. The train passes through a few times a day and is very long. Stuart is worth visiting and the Sunset Bay Marina is great, but it is a long way off the ICW. It's a perfect stop if you are going to head across Lake Okeechobee and  go to the west coast of Florida. The adjacent restaurant had live music playing all day and seemed to be very popular. Marinas are different at night when the boats turn on their lights and things quiet down.

We have marina reservations for the next four nights and today was to be the longest run. We got out of Sunset Bay in time to make the 9:00am bridge opening and headed toward the St. Lucie Inlet. It seemed to be a race for all of the center console boats as they headed out for a day of fishing. It is quite a long trip to get back to the ICW and you have to watch the very confusing markers to make sure you stay in the channel. Our plan was to head up the ICW to Fort Pierce and then go outside to Port Canaveral. The wind was a little stronger than anticipated, but everything worked out. We had a successful passage to the ocean in Fort Pierce and made it up to Port Canaveral a couple of hours later. It was a little bumpy for the first hour or so, but settled down nicely and made for a smooth ride into Port Canaveral. We passed a few boats along the way and a number of fishermen. There were two Disney cruise ships anchored outside the entrance, obviously waiting for the COVID restrictions to lift so that they can get back to normal operation.

Port Canaveral is a mix of industrial shipping, cruise ships, NASA property and marinas. We arrived at the  Port Canaveral Yacht Club around 3:00pm. Mike assisted us with docking and tying up. It was a pretty tight slip and the steel docks were a little different for us. We made it in, rinsed off the boat and took time to enjoy the 75+ degree temperatures. It is a relatively small property, but a lot of club members were on site. Another Disney Cruise Liner was docked across the channel.

Tomorrow we head to Titusville and plan to meet up with some college friends. It will be a pretty quick trip through the Cape Canaveral Barge Canal and the Cape Canaveral Lock. Before we leave, we will be able to see another SpaceX Falcon launch. This is about as close as you can get to the launch and the dockmaster says we will be able to hear it as well.

Today started with watching the SpaceX launch.............finally. I could see the rocket flame and vapor trail for a minute or so. Unfortunately, we were too far away to hear anything. It was a beautiful morning as was the rest of the day, but there were a couple of adventurous moments. We had a bit of a scare as we left the marina. Some crew team boats were out practicing and their path went across the very narrow and shallow channel heading out of the marina. I had to slow down and then the wind started to push us out of the channel. I had read that there was an underwater obstruction on the south side of the channel and was trying to be very careful, but we ended up experiencing a couple of thumps. Once we got past the rowers and back in the ICW, I picked up speed testing for the any vibrations which would indicate some prop damage. Fortunately, the boat seemed to be running fine and there were no vibrations. We won't know for sure until the boat gets hauled out at the end of the month.

The ICW was wide on most of the trip today and we were able to maintain a faster speed. A few times we had to slow down in manatee zones and frequently for smaller boats. We haven't seen a manatee yet, but we are observing the posted rules. I don't really want to hit one. You really have to pay attention to the signs indicating if the manatee zones include the ICW channel or not.

The most excitement came as we approached the entrance to the St. Lucie Estuary which leads to Stuart. It was a very narrow channel with extremely significant shoaling on both sides. In addition, there were half a dozen boats speeding in from the ocean on our left. We were able to break into the stream of boats, but not after experiencing a lot of wake and water coming over the bow and roof of the boat. The entrance was extremely confusing, but I just followed a sport fishing boat figuring that he knew the way in. We knew that we had one bridge opening to get through and it only opens on the hour and half-hour. We slowed down to try and time it correctly, and were basically successful. We only had to wait a few minutes at the bridge for it to open.

Our marina was just on the other side of the bridge and we had an uneventful docking. We are again surrounded by some huge boats, but Sunset Bay is a very nice marina and has a resort vibe. It is a very large marina, but ironically, as we were walking down the dock to the office we saw a boat that we recognized from Osprey Point, our home marina. I knocked on the hull to get our friends attention and let them know that we were here. We didn't realize this was the marina they came to every winter. Another "small boat world" experience.

It was easy to see how the marina got the name.

This is a very nice area with a wooden walkway along the river and up to the town center. There town includes many nice shops and restaurants. We are staying here for two days and plan to relax and enjoy tomorrow.

We will head back north on Friday morning. Not sure about our first stop yet. I'll work on getting a reservation tomorrow.

The day started with disappointment when I found out that the rocket launch that had been rescheduled for today from Monday, was postponed again until Wednesday at 8:03am. Hopefully it will happen tomorrow. Supposedly, we will still be able to see it from here in Vero Beach.

We had a beautiful sunrise and a great weather for the entire day. Our departure from Cocoa Village Marina was uneventful. We had to pass a few slower moving sailboats along the way, but we made excellent time heading down the Indian River. It was wide open most of the way and allowed us to push the throttle up to 23 knots. Since we were way ahead of schedule, we reduced speed for the last hour and a half of the trip and ran at about 8 knots and followed a trawler down the ICW.

Martha enjoyed checking out the Osprey.

Once we neared Vero Beach, the procession of beautiful and stately homes began. This has  been a very consistent theme along the ICW.

After taking on fuel, we tied up in our slip at Loggerhead Marina Vero Beach. It is a very nice location right off the ICW and part of an upscale gated golf course community. We chatted with our slip neighbors that travelled on their boat down from Kingston, NY. We traded stories about our similar adventures and the challenges of boat life. Their challenge is a little different, as they sold their home and now live on their boat. I don't think we are ready for that. We used the marina bicycles for a trip to Publix to add to the boat provisions. The store is about a mile away and it felt good to get a little exercise.

The day started with a beautiful sunrise at the marina in New Smyrna Beach. After pumping out the holding tank, pulled out of the slip and headed south on the ICW, which was only a hundred yards or so from the dock. We passed a number of beautiful waterside homes and met little boat traffic. A few fishermen, but not many cruisers. The weather was a little cold for the locals, but it was warm enough for me to don my shorts and put the jeans away. We heard on the TV that the SpaceX launch scheduled for this morning was delayed until tomorrow. What luck for us as our next marina in Cocoa is right across from Cape Canaveral. We will definitely be looking skyward at 8:13am. As we neared Mosquito Lagoon, we passed many RV campgrounds. Martha particularly like the one that looks like a trolley. Mosquito Lagoon was a long open body of water that allowed us to open up and make some good time. I'm sure the diesel engines enjoyed the workout after all the no wake zone speed. We had to make a sharp right hand turn into the Haulover Canal that took us to the Indian River. 
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Once we got across the river it was a straight shot down the ICW with NASA and Cape Canaveral in the East. The Vehicle Assembly Building was a prominent landmark the whole way down. 

We arrived at the Cocoa Village Marina around 2:15pm and the dockhands helped us tie up. They really did a great job getting us set up. It is a very nice marina, despite having fixed docks. We much prefer floating docks, but they don't have tide fluctuations here, so the fixed docks aren't so bad.

There is a very nice shopping village about two blocks from the marina. We spent the afternoon in the shops and returned to the boat for dinner. The Travis Hardware Store is in the village of shops. It is a classic old-time hardware store, founded in 1885, that has everything of a hardware nature and more. Martha particularly like the huge open ended and adjustable wrenches hanging on the wall. She had to take a selfie with them. I'm sure the store carries the nuts and bolts that fit the wrenches. You may have to climb the old wooden ladders on rails to get to the bins, but they are probably there.

Other than our departure this morning, today was  a pretty quick and easy transit from Marineland Marina to New Smyrna Beach City Marina. We left an hour and half after low tide and I think at least one of the pods may have been dragging in the mud as the boat did not respond as it normally does. It was more difficult than usual to get the boat off the bulkhead. I don't think we will return to this marina unless they have a floating dock available for us. We didn't seem to have any problems the rest of the day. There was very little traffic on the ICW and far fewer fishermen than expected........especially for the Sunday of a three day weekend. The weather may be partially to blame as it was about 34 degrees this morning and that is downright arctic conditions for Floridians. It warmed up as the day progressed and turned very comfortable for us. 

We passed many nice homes in the Palm Coast and Flagler Beach areas, and many typical Florida homes reminiscent of the 1950s and 60s. The Daytona Beach area had a lot of variety, but definitely had the nicest bridges. Martha particularly like the one with tile mosaics on the pilings. All but one bridge had enough clearance for us to pass without requesting an opening. We asked for an opening of the Knox Memorial Bridge south of Flagler Beach. The bridge tender warned us that the bridge would only open on the east side. Fortunately there was plenty of room to get through, but it was another new experience.

It was again sad to see a number of derelict boats, as well as some that had sunk. Always makes you wonder the circumstances. We saw a lot of dolphin again, and one is swimming behind the boat as I am writing this. It is hard to get decent pictures of them, but this one is cooperating and hanging out in the same spot. He or she must be looking for attention. The pelicans are oblivious.

The marina is very nice and convenient to the downtown area. New Smyrna Beach Most of the shops were closed since it is Sunday. We would like to have spent some time in them and will definitely plan to stop here again on a weekday. We had dinner at a nice restaurant with a lot of outside seating. They had outside heaters and blankets if you needed them. It was a garden setting with typical Florida trees and foliage. Martha enjoyed the surroundings.

Tomorrow we head to Cocoa near Cape Canaveral. SpaceX has a launch scheduled at 8:40am. Unfortunately, we will not be there by then, but maybe we will be able to see something from here.

We passed many anchored boats along the way that looked a bit questionable. There didn't appear to be anyone on them and I'm not sure they are not being cared for as they should. I know that this is a persistent problem in Florida. I wonder how they survive through some of these strong wind storms. 

​There were very few boats out on the water, but as luck would have it, the most challenging part of the day came near the end. We entered the winding Matanzas Inlet area, recently dredged but known for shoaling, and came upon a couple of fisherman in there boat right in the middle of the narrow channel with a trawler coming from the other direction. We got through ok, but it's a little frustrating dodging determined fishermen. My boat is about ten times larger than his. I don't want to run over him or swamp him, and I don't want to get his fishing line tangled in my props. All part of the adventure.
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We arrived at the Marineland Marina around 2:45pm and the dockmaster assisted us with tying up on a bulkhead dock. Fortunately, we are tied up well, as a cold front came through during the night with heavy winds and rain. This is a nice little marina right off the ICW and directly across the street from Marineland, one of Florida's original tourist attractions that opened in the 1930s. The weather forecast called for strong winds today, so it was good that we decided to stay in the marina an extra day.

I remember visiting Marineland as a kid and in the early nineties with our boys. We spent some time there today and enjoyed the shark feeding and dolphin shows. Marineland is engaged in a lot of research these days, but the historic nature of the place is intriguing to me. It was originally built for filming underwater movie and television scenes. The show Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges was filmed there. ​The day was windy and chilly, not quite what we are looking for on this trip south.
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Tomorrow we are heading further south past Daytona to New Smyrna Beach. Thankfully the winds are dying down as the sun sets in the west, and I think we will start to see some warmer temperatures.