Friday December 4, 2009



Regatta on Indian River on the way to Hobe Sound





The Pelicans look like Pterodactyls in flight













If you can see the birds legs the water is probably pretty shallow!!











This is the ultimate-- having your cat tied up outside your house on the ICW











These fallen trees look like dominoes fallen.

Friday December 4, 2009

Here we still sit on a mooring ball in Vero Beach. Tuesday and Wednesday we rented a car and got most of out long range errands done. Tuesday we drove to Miami (Key Biscayne actually) and set up our mail forwarding. Our snail mail address is

260 Crandon blvd. suite 32
box 224
Key Biscayne, Florida 33149

We also went to Sam’s club to finish provisioning on paper products and such. Legacy has enough toilet paper and paper towels to make it through to our return. (In Georgetown toilet paper (when you can get it) is $5.00 a roll. We also stocked up on canned goods and coffee and other staples.

Our plan to be to leave in the morning for the next leg but the wind is roaring right now and the rain is falling in buckets so it looks like we might be here till Sunday or Monday.

I got the outboard motor’s oil changed yesterday and wanted to change the oil filter. On our Mercury 4 stroke the filter is situated so that you cannot get your hands around it and it is too small for even a small oil filter wrench to tighten. I went on line and discovered you need a tool from mercury that looks like a giant socket that fits on the end of the filter to take it off. I ordered one and found out it is not in stock and won’t be available for at least seven days. I went ahead and changed the oil but the filter will have to wait.

I have looked at the next legs and the plan is to move from here to Hobe sound ( 40 statute miles) , Then to Lake Worth, and out The Lake Worth inlet to Key Biscayne where we will wait for a weather window to cross to Bimini.

It is important that when we cross the Gulf Stream between Key Biscayne and Bimini that the wind have NO north component. Any wind with a northern component will cause very rough, steep and lumpy seas of 6 to 8 feet high. So we will wait for a front to pass and give the seas 24 hours to calm down before we cross.

Dec. 6

Today we left Vero (Velcro) Beach. We were up early and stowed the dingy outboard, the dingy, put away the generator and generally got ready to move. We were the center boat of out raft and had to get our starboard and port partners to participate in the untying as they would then need to raft together after we had left. Just as all was prepared two vessels came in to the fuel dock were we were going so it was a case of hurry up and wait. Finally the stars aligned and we were able to get to the fuel dock for fuel (for the generator), water, and a pump out. At 9:40 we were able to cast off and head out.

The weather today was O.K. Mostly cloudy, and 15 to 20 knots of wind out of the east, which would have been great on the outside. We were able to motor sail a portion of the time but had to furl our sails to get through the Fort Pierce bridge. Just as we approached the bridge we had a problem with our jib furler and I had to go forward to give it a hand. (Another catastrophe avoided).

As we were going through Jensen Beach there was a sail race going on and also a few sailboarders (boy can those things move in 15 knots of wind!!!).

We are now anchored in Hobe Sound, just off the ICW, and boy does the new Manson anchor we got work well. It set the first time and set fully – no muss no fuss. Normally in 15 to 20 knots when we try to set the fortress it can be a trial to get a good anchor set. Hopefully the windless will have no problem retrieving it in the morning.

Tomorrow we will either move to Lake Worth and stay the day or continue outside to Miami depending on the weather.