Diary 23rd December - USA

23rd December 2011

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Posn: 26deg06'.30N  80deg07'.62W

Our cruising for 2011 is now over and we are back in UK for Christmas and New Year to see family and friends.  It is lovely to be with them again and enjoy the festive season.

However, we now complete the Diary on our trip from Charleston.

We met some very nice people in Charleston: Emmett (OCC Port Officer) and his wife Mecca, Brian (an Englishman turned American) who hosted us at dinner and the Charleston YC AGM, and innumerable other Charleston YC members who were most welcoming.

The distance from Charleston to Thunderbolt (best place to visit Savannah) is just over 100nm, and we wanted to take the tide with on entering the Wilmington River, so we left at 1815 on 18th November, and arrived at 1130 on 19th.  This was not one of our most fun trips as we had delayed the departure by a day to let a cold front go through and there was a lumpy sea with 17kts behind us.  We didn't want to thrash about in the dark with the spinnaker pole on the fore-deck for our normal sail set-up (goosewinging) so tried with just the genoa unfurled and not blanketed by the mainsail.  It was OK-ish - the biggish waves meant that the Autopilot had to work very hard and we yawed about quite a bit.  We entered the Wilmington River around some scary shoals - the buoys get moved as the shoals move - and motored on to Thunderbolt, having a close encounter with a fishing boat - all working on the aft deck and no-one at the wheel - and seeing  'Mariella V' again at the Thunderbolt shipyard.  We stayed at the Hinckley yard on a floating pontoon (32deg02'.08N  81deg02'.78W) and it was a short walk into town.  Our first Live Oaks with Spanish Moss were here - so utterly evocative of the South. They are called Live Oaks as they are evergreen.

We were met by Tony Perry, the OCC Port Officer, who kindly took us in to Savannah, where we had a glorious day walking to all 22 squares.  It is a wonderful city with magnificent and varied architecture, lovely squares with more Live Oaks and Spanish Moss.  We had read the book by John Berendt 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil', so visiting all the places mentioned in the book was very rewarding.  We also stopped by the benches where Forrest Gump sat with his case.  A superb lunch in "SOHO South Café" made it a great trip.

We left Thunderbolt at 1155 on 22nd November (we wanted the ebb tide and near the top of the tide at the shoals) for Fernandina, Florida.  There was little wind and we motored until 2300, when we had a broad reach but the wind eased again so it was the thump of the engine at 0340 all the way until we anchored at 0925 in the Amelia River (30deg40'.42N  81deg28'.06W).  The wind then got up and along with the 3kts of tidal current meant we just stayed onboard all day.  That night we dragged a little way and next morning despite re-anchoring and using both anchors we were not happy - in fact apart from one  large schooner 'Pilgrim' all the boats at anchor headed for the marina, so we did the same.  We had been pretty close to 'Pilgrim' but the lovely people on board invited us for lunch - it was Thanksgiving.  

We had a quick walk around Fernandina (basically one main street and the Atlantic side beach) and it is quite nice - we especially liked the Palace Saloon, although the fact they do not serve food means that people can smoke in the bar.  It was quite a throwback.  We dinghied out to 'Pilgrim' and had a great party with Fritz, Krista, Anneliese, Fritz Thomas and Katherina.  They even fired the sunset gun for us.  The only downside about Fernandina is  the paper mills - a bit smelly and dominating the shore.  Oh well.

On 25th November we headed for Port Canaveral, leaving at 0645 along with the shrimping fleet.  We were sailing by 0820, and we were generally doing 5.5kts until 0800 the next day (Saturday 26th), when it all came to a very quick and unexpected halt.

We were called up by the Coastguard at Cape Canaveral and then by a military helicopter to be told to stop where were, turn back north or head east - it was the launch of the Mars Rover and we were entering the zone where if anything goes wrong white hot metal will fall on your head.  What a terrific view we had, and what a treat.  The launch went off at 1002 (we hove-to … well tacked and let the genoa back … still went along at 2kts, so must experiment some more) and the Coastguard did the countdown over the VHF and then thanked us for our co-operation.

We stayed on a pile berth at Port Canaveral YC (28deg24'.49N  80deg37'.75W) and relaxed for a couple of days, doing a bit of boat TLC.  The port is the second busiest for cruise ships in the USA so there was plenty to watch and Sunday afternoon had the bars on the inlet bouncing with bands and people enjoying the winter warmth.

With a favourable forecast for 29th November, we headed for Fort Lauderdale, leaving at 0745, sailing on a reach until midnight when the wind eased and backed so we were then downwind.  With Mr Volvo joining in we arrived at Las Olas Marina and picked up the only free mooring at 0900 on 30th November.
We like Fort Lauderdale, despite being a tourist city, enough value in boats to pay off the Eurozone debts, homicidal car drivers, and every transaction involving US$ is potentially fraudulent. Are we accusing Floridians as being only concerned with separating you from your money?  That would be stereotyping, wouldn't it?  One travels to get past the stereotypes, doesn't one?  Well, sometimes …

Oh yes, and it's our third "World No. 1 Centre of Yachting" - the others being Newport, RI and Annapolis, Maryland.

Our time in Fort Lauderdale has been spent servicing, cleaning and preparing 'Minnie B' for her short lay-up, and acquiring kit for next year.  So we have new anchor chain (80 metres), a new hard bottom dinghy, engine systems serviced, windlass serviced, winches taken apart, cleaned and greased, watermaker cleaned, new fly screens/shades fitted to the hatches in the saloon, our cabin and our head, and lots of other bits and pieces.  There is an excellent West Marine store and we have gone from slagging them off to being full of praise.  Bluewater Books has cruising guides and charts for everywhere.

However, as always it is the people and we met up with Sally who was skippering a Beneteau Sense 50 for a friend (Alex on 'French Kiss'), taking it from Annapolis to Key West, her friend David who single-hands on 'Blue Yonder', some great people: Ken and Joni on 'Dancing Walrus' , and Christine and David on 'Felix the Cat'.  There was a two-hour long Winterfest boat parade on the evening of Sunday 11th December, with boats of all sizes lit up like … er … Christmas trees.  So Christine and David hosted a party as the parade went right by the moorings at Las Olas bridge, and we had a great time, rounding it off with Christine getting out her keyboard and us all singing Christmas Carols - the signature tune being the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Then on 15th December we moved 'Minnie B' to a pile berth at the house of a neighbour of the OCC Port Officer, and there she sits while we do Christmas and New Year in the UK.

We will be back mid-January and then haul out to anti-foul, followed by the start of The Really Big and A Mite Scary Adventure in 2012.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.