May 4-10, 2009 - Fort Pierce to Jekyll Island

Cruising is boat repair in exotic locations!

We were so happy to be back in the USA after a delightful crossing from the Bahamas on May 2nd (boats that crossed May 3rd had a rough passage!) and we were looking forward to week #6 of this cruise.

After Mass on Sunday May 3rd, we returned to the boat to find that the inverter had failed! A boat is like a car with plenty of 12 volt power to run the boat electronics and refrigerator. But if a boat has an inverter it creates regular house current from the batteries to run lights, stereos, TVs, water heater, ice maker, air conditioner, etc. While we have a generator to recharge the batteries and provide house current, the inverter is nice because we don't have the "hum" of the diesel engine of the generator. Unfortunately, the failed inverter meant we would have to run the main engine to charge our batteries and the generator to give house current.

The great news was that I called Mastervolt, the manufacturer of the inverter, and they had a really good mechanic, Louis Graham, at the boat Monday morning. It turned out that the boat had been wired wrong for the inverter... Louis knew exactly what was wrong (great to have a real professional working on the problem!) and corrected the wiring and Mastervolt covered the cost of the new inverter ($2,600) under warranty-- if you need an inverter for your boat you should get a Mastervolt-- they're good people!

We were lucky that the Fort Pierce Marina had a nice restaurant (with a great happy hour and excellent fish dinners) and a grocery store just a short walk away. We replenished our drinking water and cold cuts, worked out on the treadmill, and enjoyed sitting still for a few days! We liked walking past the sign for the "Smokin' Em" fishing boat (Marianne's childhood nickname was Em)!

So, after a delay of two days waiting for the replacement inverter, we restarted our cruise north on Wednesday May 6th and decided to do some long days to get through Florida and Georgia as fast as possible so we could spend more time in places like Charleston and the Chesapeake. The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is measured in miles from Mile Zero at Norfolk VA, so it is easy to track your progress. Fort Pierce is at mile marker 965 and we made it to a pleasant anchorage near the Melbourne bridge at mile marker 918 on the first day-- we had stayed at the same anchorage on November 23, 2007 on our way to Sarasota!

After working out the next morning it was especially fun to hear our friend Andy Allen from SeaDee calling us on the marine radio as we passed his house on Merritt Island. At the northern tip of Merritt Island we were within 5 miles of the Kennedy Space Center and we could see the shuttle waiting to launch on May 11th-- too bad we were a week early. We're still hoping to have a great view from Georgia! We could easily see the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building, the largest one story building in the world!

We anchored in Rockhouse Creek at mile marker 842 near the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse-- the tallest lighthouse in Florida. We had a pretty view from our bridge of the lighthouse in the distance.

The next day, May 8th, we stopped after a couple of hours to add diesel fuel. Our tanks hold 300 gallons-- enough for about 50 hours when we run at 8.5 knots burning 6 gallons/hour. We run about 6 hours per day but like to fill up when the tanks are half full so we stop for fuel about every four days. That timing works well because we need to pump out our waste storage tank about every 5-6 days.

On Friday May 8th we cruised to mile marker 792 and anchored off Fort Matzanis National Monument-- one of the oldest forts in the United States dating back to colonial days. The moon rising over the fort was quite something!

While anchored in these salt marshes we had a surprise! On the trip to Florida in 2007 we never had a bug problem-- but we were traveling in November and needed the heat on some nights. This trip, it seems the biting horse flies found our boat and even seemed to find their way through some our screens... we decided to close the windows, turn on the generator, and sleep with the air conditioning running.

The next morning we passed through St. Augustine and saw the huge cross at the La Leche mission and the lovely striped lighthouse...

... and we stopped for the night at the Beach Marina in Jacksonville Beach at mile marker 742 where we could top up our fuel tanks, pump out, and walk 1.4 miles to Mass at St. Paul's. We had dinner at the local Carrabbas Grill just a few blocks from the church-- great meal but we've really been eating well onboard with the meals Marianne planned for our cruise.

We awoke on Mother's Day May 10th and decided to make a long run to Jekyll Island mile marker 673... not the greatest Mother's Day for Marianne but at least the marina delivered the Sunday newspaper before we left at 7am!

We wound through a continuing chain of salt marshes and unfortunately had to swat horse flies the whole way except when we were in the large expanses of the Cumberland River. The cruising guide noted that the passage near the Kings Bay nuclear sub base is closed whenever a nuclear sub is passing through the area. We were able to proceed but got a close view of the USS Florida, a Trident class nuclear submarine that has launched cruise missiles in combat. Note the security boat in the lower right of the photo-- if we had approached any closer they would have immediately told us to shut down our engines and blocked out passage.

As we left Florida and approached the Sea Island St. Simons Jekyll Island area ,we decided to pass up the ritzier spots and stay at a serene Georgia anchorage on the Frederika river. We were anchored by 3:30pm and settled in for a great home cooked meal and watched the finales of Amazing Race and Celebrity Apprentice.

During the coming week we should be able to make it through Georgia and much of South Carolina... we'll keep you posted!