Vero Beach City Marina- ICW 952

We arrved yesterday around four. Got fuel. etc.
There were a group of cruisers having a gathering. We learned there is a free city bus that will take you on any of 13 routes through out the area. Just get on the right corner at the right time.
West Marine, Publix grocery, an auto supply store made our list today. There is a mall which we did not get to. Every brand and company is SOMEWHERE in Vero Beach.
Tomorrow we take off again. We are two days ( our speed) from Ft Lauderdale. We have to get there by the 11th so we are doing great.

Lou Anna Guirdy

Typical Florida views down ICW

Full view Lou Anna Guirdy as we passed.

tow barges together.

Her bumper is pushing from the rear. Amazing how she can even get under those bridges and manuever with two barges as these currents can be dicey.. give way!

Nov 1- Inlet Harbor Marina- ICW 843

We tried to find a marina close to the Ponce de Leon Inlet but local knowledge was definitely required and we had been motor sailing a long day, it was getting on 5:30 pm so we gave in at the nice looking dock and restaurant at the Inlet Harbor Marina.

We tied our selves on practically. I am getting good a the big loop to catch a cleat. A dock mate got the stern line and I snagged the bow. We had dinner at the restaurant which seemed like it would be hopping on the weekends. It was pretty quite that night though with four couples in the dinning room. Lovely colorful hand paintings all over of dolphins and manatee.

Other dinner guests came by the boat to watch the dolphins. We are seeing them everywhere which is lovely. We also see signs for manatee but have yet to see one. The signs indicate November to April restrictions so maybe they will turn up soon.

On the way out our newly arrived dockmaster ( 8 am) told us that it was best to get back on ICW rather than risk the sand bars all over.

So getting back on the ICW, we stopped to let a 300 foot double tug barge come past. He slowed everyone to 5.5 knots ( we were going about 6.5 kts). He was pretty beamy..

As soon as we got to our outside marks we turned for the outside. yea right. 8 foot seas and wind predicted on NE 15-20 , but they were coming from east. drat!

Ponce De Leon Light Coast Guard tower

When we got to the inlet we actually went outside to the Green one and red two and was it rough. I expected some bouncing, no biggie. But the wind was right on our nose for our point of sail so Charles and I decided to get back in the "ditch" and work our way south.
Along the jetty as your left.. crashing waves.

a set of bones from an unfortunate incident.... lets go back!

Just the Lou Anna Guirdy tug


In a short time we got to meet up AGAIN with our tug friend...Lou Anna Guirdy. Eventually we were able to pass her but it was tight. That was after a bridge opened for her but left us behind. She takes alone time to run curves trying to control three parts to her the two yellow barges and herself.

We had to pass her on the straight away as she turns very slowly. Her captain was very nice. We thought we were clear of her and on our merry way. Then we ran into a bridge ( Addison Pt Bridge) which is closed from 3:30 pm till 5 pm. BUT with Lou Anna Guirdy coming through we were permitted to follow her through at the same time. The birdge would give her a courtesy opening no matter the time.

It turned out to be 4:45 pm. We thought that was great but then realized all the work to pass her was for naught. We would have to tag along at 5.5 knots again till passing was again possible. Needless to say Charles was frustrated so we took an earlier anchorage than we planned. It was nice and quiet and we were the only boat there.

Anchorage Nov 2- ICW 885- Addison Pt Bridge area

We anchored here at the Addison Point Bridge and worked our way down to VERO BEACH City Marina at ICW 952.

St Augustine Municipal Marina ICW 777.7

We had a visitor. Every once in a while a bird decides to "rest" on Ariel. Maybe you can figure out what kind of bird it is?

As we left St Augustine MM we were in a hurry. Charles just found out at 8:15 am that the tide was about to change so we dashed out of there. I had started breakfast and had cracked open eggs, and dishes everywhere but they got the "safe keeping" treatment so we could throw off our dock lines and leave. The current helped us out quite a bit. We were doing 7.5 knots some of the time. We landed at the Inlet Harbor Marina which is a restaurant complex at ICW 843. We covered a lot of ground today.

We will be going outside tomorrow. Wish us luck. Rocky or not .. here we come.

The bridge in Dayton Beach area has wonderful mosaics of manatee and dolphins. We see many dolphins in our travels.

Morning Star Marina-Mayport ICW 740

This was a fuel dock tie up. Right next to the local ferry. The area is designated as a no wake zone but the currents and wakes are unbelieveable. Every time the ferry left the dock next to us we got a little jolt. It reminded me of New York on the Hudson river. Choppy.
The marina was very nice and lent us a car to get our laundry done, and a few grocery items.

There was a huge barge that came through with about a hundred container truck loads. There was a tug in front with a huge briddle , a tug at port and one pushing from aft. There was probably another on starboard but we could not see it. The top row consisted of ten containers in that row and it was piled 4- 6 layers deep with more rows than that. Very impressive.

Catching up pics

Pat & Dave's neighborhood dock. Nice.

The difference between here and the Chesapeake is the currents are pretty strong.
One moment they went one way ( say north to south) at three knots , then slacks a few hours later to almost stand still, later the tide reversed it self at the same three knots. Boat handling is an art to compute how wind over tide will make your boat so out of control. I have taken to putting a mid spring line of 30 feet tied and ready to hand off as a forward bow or stern spring to stop the boat as needed. Charles is great at predicting what we will need and how to handle the lines.

We have gotten boosts from the current as we travel down the ICW.


When we left Beaufort SC we did two days offshore and it was delightful. The winds were light and even though we were three miles off shore (great place to legally empty tanks) the depth was only 15- 17 feet with many shrimpers out. The second day had the three mile mark at depts closer to 20 feet. We have crab pots everywhere at those depths, but they have shrimp boats harvesting their catch.
Walburg Creek ICW 536

Shrimp boat in 15 feet of water. Lots of birds looking for a meal.

After these two lovely days it got nasty outside in a hurry. Who wants to be outside in 8 foot seas with no wind. It could be very choppy.