Heading Home

We left Fort Pierce on Monday morning and despite windy conditions and a fairly strong current we were able to get off the dock and underway around 8:30am. Our destination was the Titusville Marina mooring field over 75 miles away. After passing Vero Beach there was a surprising amount of boat traffic, including boats under sail taking advantage of the wind. 

It was a long day up the Indian River with a few manatee and dolphin sightings along the way. At one point we had dolphin swimming in our wake. That was something new, but we weren't able to get any photos before they quit swimming along with us. The Indian River is quite wide in places and with the wind coming from the east we had some moderate chop to deal with. It turned out to be a very nice day and I'm glad we decided to leave Fort Pierce and brave the conditions.

We arrived in Titusville around 4:15 and checked the mooring field for a free ball, but there weren't any. We stopped at the fuel dock to fill up and figured we would have to anchor out nearby. When we inquired with the dock hand about a slip availability, we found that they had a no-show and could accommodate us. So after fueling up we moved to a good slip on their floating docks. The marina is a fairly low-cost one, and with the Boat US discounts it was worth it for a good night's sleep. The bonus was that we would have a good view of the SpaceX launch scheduled that evening. We could see the bright fireball for a moment, but then it disappeared into the clouds. The loud sound of the blast off was heard quite a bit after seeing the rocket.

The plan for Tuesday was to get to St. Augustine. We knew it was going to be a long day and we would have to cover 86 nautical miles. We got out of Titusville at 8:30am and immediately ran into a lot of boat traffic, a sign of a slow day. Again, many boats were under sail taking advantage of the wind, but making the passing situation more difficult and especially in the tight confines of the ICW in this area.

A train of boats passed through the Haulover Canal just north of NASA and enjoyed seeing a number of manatee. They like to hang out in this canal. It was pretty slow going all the way through New Smyrna Beach and into Daytona. It is spring break and that added to the traffic on what should have been a quiet weekday.

After getting through New Smyrna there was an opportunity to speed up and make some time. I pushed up the speed and all of sudden got a warning message on the engine instrumentation.It looked like it was an electrical problem. ​I made contact with our Volvo folks back in Maryland to get some advice and after 30 minutes of texting we determined that one of the fuel filters may need changing. A little while later I saw that the starboard pod oil was showing low. We still had 40 miles to go, but it looked like we could make it ok. 

We carried on through Daytona, Flagler Beach and Palm Coast. The notorious Matanzas Inlet area had been recently dredged and temporary markers were in place. The route took us very close to the shoreline, but we had good depth the whole way through. Next stop St. Augustine.

We got to the marina about 6:30pm and had to deal with some nasty current and wind to get to the fuel dock. We took on over a 100 gallons of fuel, registered for a mooring ball (Martha had made a reservation that morning) and then left the dock. We had to request an opening from the Bridge of Lions, which took a few minutes, and then headed to the mooring ball. After getting tied up in a nice spot in front of the town, we had dinner and enjoyed the scenery. It was a pretty exhausting day so bedtime came a little early.

We slept a little later than normal on Wednesday morning, but woke up to dolphin swimming around us. After breakfast I changed the racor filter on the starboard fuel tank and added gear oil to the starboard pod. We had made arrangements for the pump out boat and he arrived around 9:30. Our plan for the day was to make an ocean run from St. Augustine to the St. Mary's Inlet and anchor at Cumberland Island. It was pretty lumpy getting out of St. Augustine. Once out in the ocean the swells were large but not crashing. The skies were overcast and threatening, but no rain. We had a pretty good ride all the way, however we were the only pleasure boat out there. We saw a couple of cargo ships near the St. Johns River Inlet, a shrimp boat and a tug, but nothing else.

The inlet was a little rough on entering, but things calmed down once we got past the breakwater. We made our way to the anchorage and were all set by 2:15pm. It was a 60 nautical mile day and no problems from the engines. We plan to stay here for two nights and tour the National Park on the island.

We were in this same spot in November with a clear view of the submarine base across the water. I think a submarine may have gone out overnight, but it was too dark to see anything.

Our next destination will be determined by the weather conditions, hopefully Hilton Head.