Life on Lailia

St. Augustine to Oasis Marina, Fernandina Beach, FL (mooring ball)

June 17, 2022

We left St. Augustine a little before 7:00 AM so we could get through the Bridge of Lions when it opened. The tide was in our favor so we had the easiest undocking we have ever had.

North Florida’s ICW is much more wild than in south Florida. The Bridge of Lions was the only bridge that was less than 65 feet, so we had no waiting for openings. There is some dredging along the channels but there aren’t megayachts and folks on speedboats throwing up giant wakes.

Instead of megayachts, there were pods of dolphins. The water is smooth enough that we could see them throughout the day.

There was another SpaceX rocket launch this afternoon. It flew over us at an odd angle so we only saw the contrail (and heard it) after it passed us.

We are on a mooring ball in Fernandina Beach. We have access to marina resources like showers and laundry but are not right at the docks so we have to use our generator to run the air conditioner at night. There’s enough to do in town that we don’t need to be on Lailia much during the day while we are here.

We managed to walk to three of the four breweries in Fernandina Beach this afternoon. Each had its own offerings and ambiance. I like that two of them had ciders.

While we were at the final brewery, someone from Rock Hill recognized John from his McHale’s days. John used to cycle with Macy’s mom, Barbara, too.

There’s some serendipity that we have met up with Rock Hill folks at the last two stops we have had.

We plan to stay here for a couple of days. There is a farmer’s market tomorrow and there is Saturday bus service that I can take to the grocery store. It’s also a really walkable town that we can explore.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina, FL (docked)

June 15 and 16, 2022

While I have been leading a virtual workshop John has been taking care of more boat tasks. He has purchased more oil for our next oil change and looked at some possible pumps for our dinghy (so we don’t have to bail it out every time it rains). John’s also brought home some great pizza for lunch each day.

We have managed to walk to all four of the St. Augustine breweries – including Old Coast Ales which is on the other side of the Bridge of Lions. We met some folks who had stayed for a week on a catamaran in the Bahamas and it was cool to see that we had enjoyed some of the same places.

There’s a lot of attention to early history of St. Augustine with lots of Spanish architecture and motifs in the old town. Today I found some other eras of history that show how St. Augustine has been an important historical place all along.

After work today I walked south along the ICW and found the St. Augustine National Military Cemetery. The oldest grave is from 1828 and there are remains interred there from wars since then. This area is not in the tourist part of town so it’s serene and quiet there.

There are three pyramids there that contain the remains of soldiers who died in the Florida Wars, a part of history that I had never heard.

I also found Maria Sanchez Lake (in the mid-1700s this was Maria Sanchez Creek but was dammed in the late 1800s) with a path around it in what is known as Lincolnville, which was settled by freedmen after the Civil War. There were even a few markers discussing St. Augustine’s role in the Civil Right Movement.

There’s so much cool history here – there are bricks from Graves Brickyard in Birmingham. Those bricks must have been made between 1901 and 1920. The Reynold’s bricks were made in Tennessee between 1888 and 1939. Imagine all of what these bricks have seen in the last 100-plus years.

Tomorrow we get an early start and head to Fernandina Beach with hopes of staying on a mooring ball. We visited there in January and really liked the area but did not explore much. I bet we can even find a few microbreweries within walking distance of the marina.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina, FL (docked)

June 14, 2022

Our windlass is fixed! The Sailors’ Exchange sent us to an electric motor repair shop who sent us to a A & R Automotive which specializes in electrical repairs like alternators and starters. They were able to repair the brush carriage for us; the brushes no longer hang up on the oversize spring.

John has installed it and it works. We now have flexibilty in where we stop for the evening because we can easily haul up our anchor. Marinas are great in so many ways – showers, laundry, being able to walk around – but we don`t always want that.

In the spirit of our Intracoastal Brewery tour, we walked to Dog Rose Brewery this afternoon. We walked through a quieter part of St. Augustine to get there and took the opportunity to just look closely at the artifacts and art that are just part of daily life here. This is in contrast to the very touristy “Old Town” that has been polished and prettied.

This was actually our second visit to Dog Rose – we were here in January, too.

Tomorrow is another day of leading a virtual workshop. I am glad we are here so John isn’t stuck on Lailia while I work.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina, FL (docked)

June 13, 2022

We were in St. Augustine about four and a half months ago and it was so cold that there was ice on the dock – this is no longer the case. It’s really, really hot and humid, which makes me even more thankful that John installed the air conditioner.

We walked just over a mile to the Sailors’ Exchange, a store filled with used boating “stuff” from giant anchors to wires today in hopes we might find the part that we need to get our windlass to work.  It’s not that we (I) don’t love staying at marinas – being able to get off Lailia and walk around without deploying our dinghy is great – but there’s a lot of flexibility with being able to drop an anchor where we want.

We were not able to find the windlass part but the folks who worked at the store let us know about a place that repairs and rebuilds electric motors.  This may be just what the windlass needs.  Tomorrow, while I am working virtually, John will head over to this shop.

 Fortuitously Bog Microbrewery was just about next door to the Sailors’ Exchange.  We needed to hydrate from our walk before heading back to the marina.

Much of Flagler College’s main campus is housed in a mid-1800’s luxury hotel.   It’s full of gorgeous architectural details including fencing that looks like it was made from the heads of medieval weapons.

The marina has provided some natural entertainment.  We’ve seen egrets fishing and a roseate spoonbill foraging in the mud.  It’s kind of cool to see the differences in how they capture their food – egrets are all about stealth with their quick darts while roseates are quickly straining through the mud. 

I was also able to watch a sea turtle swim along the shoreline this morning while thinking about the clear difference in the water here versus the water in the Bahamas.

New Smyrna Beach to St. Augustine Municipal Marina, St. Augustine, FL (docked)

June 12, 2o22

Since we have been back from the Bahamas, we have been traveling maybe 30 miles or so each day. That schedule means that we don’t have to get up early and we are not exhausted when we arrive. It’s a nice, casual pace that’s pretty relaxed.

Today we chose to motor twice as far (about 60 miles) because members of our flotilla family, including one member we hadn’t seen since we were in Manjack Cay, were in St. Augustine. This was a longer day on the water for us but so very worth it to spend some time with “our people.” Minutes after we docked they met us at Lailia. This was such a lovely welcome and a sort of reunion for us.

We are also at the time of year when afternoon storms are a daily occurrence. As we approach the rain cells we have to make decisions about the best time to close up the hatches and portlights – the boat gets really, really hot when everything is closed up and the motor is running but we don’t want rain pouring into Lailia. Once we get through the band I have to open them all up again (until the next band).

Have you ever met someone who seemed really, really familar? We continued our intracoastal brewery tour with our flotilla family at Ancient City Brewery today and the bartender reminded me of someone that I knew, but I wasn’t sure how I knew her or where I had seen her. John had a Charleston hat on and she said that she had lived there at some point – but then she said she grew up in Rock Hill. It turns out that our bartender is one of my former eighth grade students who I taught in 2005! She still has the same beautiful smile.

We spent our evening with our flotilla family walking and talking; we even found a bottle shop that sells Bahamian Kalik Gold. The two other boats are heading north tomorrow on separate journeys and we are staying here for the next few days so I can lead a virtual workshop and John can work on our windlass.

We don’t know when we will see our flotilla family again but we look forward to it and know that we will.

New Smyrna Beach City Marina, New Smyrna Beach, FL (docked)

June 11, 2022

New Smyrna Beach is a great little town that is very friendly for boaters. This morning we had breakfast sandwiches from the farmers market right across the street from the marina. There’s also a great bus system with a depot that is also right across the street from us.

John and I completed a few tasks today. I took the bus to Publix and restocked a bunch of essentials. Because I was a bus rider, I had to make decisions about how much I could carry.

John identified the problem of the air leak in the fuel line in the port tank: the fuel pickup inside the tank had fallen off, so he needed to replace it. He had to ride the bus to Home Depot to get half inch OD copper pipe to replace the piece that had fallen inside the fuel tank. After cutting it to the appropriate length, he then braised it to the fuel connection and reinserted it into the fuel tank. Now we can use both fuel tanks again.

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This marina has interesting wildife. A sea turtle swam through this afternoon; it had barnacles as well as some tumors growing on it. I called the sea turtle rescue folks who said that if the turtle was swimming well to leave it alone; if the turtle was having difficulty and if I could catch it, to let them know. They apparently have a full house at their center and can only take the sickest ones. This one was swimming okay, but it does have some health issues.

Tonight we could see and hear an owl way up on a sailboat mast. They like to hunt for night herons who hunt fish from the docks.

We also had a new experience today – a visit from the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Patrol who checked to make sure our waste tanks were not dumping into the water. One officer added some fluorescent dye to our heads (toilets) and had us flush and pump the heads while another officer made sure no dye came out of the boat. The environmental issues of human waste, fertilizer runoff, and really warm water are taking a huge toll on the wildlife here.

Tomorrow we will go to St. Augustine, which is a city we really like.

Titusville to New Smyrna Beach City Marina, New Smyrna Beach, FL (docked)

June 10, 2022

Merritt Island to Titusville City Marina, Titusville, FL (docked)

June 9, 2022

In the Bahamas we usually anchored near an island. Exiting the anchorage meant that I had to steer a little while John hauled the anchor. Leaving a dock is totally different – there are currents, winds, and objects like boats and docks that are part of the equation. John is really great at thinking through all of the physics of departing (including the order of untying lines). Powerboats don’t really have to think about a lot of this stuff because their engines are powerful and they are more maneuverable. It’s kind of like parallel parking a manual transmission bus on a hill in the snow or something.

We had a tight spot in the marina last night and John absolutely nailed the exit, as usual.

We had an uneventful trip of about 16.5 nautical miles to Titusville today. Uneventful days are the best kinds of days when we are traveling!

We are in a marina in which John stayed when he brought Lailia home from Fort Pierce a few years ago. It’s in a very protected spot…but as has been the tradition, it’s near a train track. I don’t think we’ll be hearing the trains, though.

Because it’s Florida, the clouds built up the afternoon just as we got back from Ubering to Home Depot. It really looked like we were going to have a torrential downpour but we just had drizzle. This gave John time to work on a very special project.

When we left Charleston in January, it was really cold. We even had ice on the deck a few times. The Bahamas were really, really breezy and the temps were rarely above 80 during the day. Florida in the summer is a whole different story!

Adding to the overall heat is that we close all of the hatches and portlights when we leave the boat, in case it rains. Running the motor also adds a lot of heat.

Today we bought an air conditioner and John fashioned a way to mount it on the hatch above our bed. He also built a housing around it to keep the rain out (and to give it a cleaner look from the outside). This is life-changing for me! I am looking forward to not waking up with my hair sweat-glued to my neck.

The marina is in easy walking distance to a microbrewery. John loves craft beer and I love the atmosphere of breweries so we are always happy when we can visit a brewery. Playalinda Brewery is in a converted hardware store and still has some really cool original shelving.

Tomorrow we will continue our northerly journey, hopefully as far as New Smyrna Beach. Although we were hoping to see John’s brother and sister-in-law there, they are out of town.

We will be going through one of my favorite cuts on the ICW, the Haulover Canal, where our friends saw some manatees today. I am definitely hoping we get to see these critters!

Melbourne Harbor Marina to Cape Crossing Marina (we think), Merritt Island, FL (docked)

June 8, 2022

Although we are not doing the sort of short hops of just a few miles that we did in the Abacos, we are taking our time as we head north. This means that we can enjoy breakfast at a French restaurant in Melbourne, for example.

This part of the ICW has very limited tidal change – only a few inches between high and low tides. There’s not a lot of shoaling here, either, so the motoring is easy. Winds were low and the water was calm.

We could see some rain ahead so we slowed down and let it pass – another benefit of not being in a hurry.

We are staying in a marina that has recently changed ownership, so it is listed in some places with one name and in other places with another name. It’s right off the the Canaveral Barge Canal that cuts through Merritt Island.

This area is filled with ospreys and dolphins. On our way into the canal we saw at least 10 dolphins and there seem to be ospreys on every pole near here (as well as flying around).

Later in the evening several ospreys were sitting on sailboat masts in this marina. We are glad that they didn’t land on our mast because we think they could damage some of the instruments that are mounted there.

This marina was a great spot to watch the SpaceX launch this evening. There was a delay of about 5 seconds between what we were hearing online and what we were seeing.

We will leave here tomorrow and head to Titusville where we should have decent access to a Home Depot and grocery shopping. This marina is near a busy highway with no sidewalks or anything, so we’ll be eating on board tomorrow.

Tonight we pickled our watermaker because we probably won’t be using it again any time soon. This is a process in which the membranes are immersed in a preservative solution to keep bacteria from growing. The water here has so much sediment clouding it.

Vero Beach City Marina to Melbourne Harbor, Melbourne, FL (docked)

June 7, 2022

As much as we liked Vero Beach, it was time to head farther north. We were able to fill our water tank with marina water. The water here is dark and opaque, so we don’t want to use our watermaker.

We know we are moving north – although we had some bridges to go under today, none of them were on demand. We made great time (averaging 7 knots) heading to Melbourne today.

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There are schools of fish visible in the water the Melbourne marina; apparently the pelicans know about this because we saw several of them very near our boat.

I feel as if we have crossed some sort of line in nature: in Melbourne we saw one small lizard and a bunch of squirrels. These were the first squirrels we have seen in a very long time as they aren’t native to the Bahamas.

This marina is a bit more urban than the one in Vero Beach, which was in a residential area. We are able to easily walk to the historic part of Melbourne that has some shops, restaurants and a very nice brewery that had tasteful brews, great staff, and very delicious food.

A benefit of staying in a marina is having electricity to run fans to try to combat the heat and humidity. A more important benefit is that John doesn’t have to haul a mud-encrusted chain and anchor when we leave.

Our current plan is to get to Cocoa, if not further than that. There is a Tohatsu dealer there who might have some parts for our outboard (if they will ever answer their phone).