January 29, 2008

Motored and sailed from Daytona for about 15 miles, went to an idle for a bridge opening and the oil pressure dropped so we went into a Marina at New Smyrna Beach to check it out. No loss of oil, no leaks, pressure is fine at speed and when the engine is cold. Seems okay, but put a call to my friends at our boat yard in Maine and they’ll think about the symptoms and get back to me.

Yesterday, we sailed and sailed and sailed due south, wing on wing, down the Indian River through Mosquito Lagoon, went east-west for a bit through Haulover Canal, back into the Indian River, and just made the bascule bridges in Cocoa Beach before it goes on what the bridge tenders call “curfew” at 3:30 to allow the thousands of rocket scientists to leave Cape Canaveral. For hours NASA’s giant shuttle assembly building loomed on the horizon. For the day the engine ran less than three of nine-and-a-half hours. A crystal clear, but still cold, high 50’s to low 60’s with the wind at 12 knots. We anchored and we crashed, something to do with fatigue – that’s a lot of downwind sailing – isolation, boat worry, pushing to get south, the constant cold north wind, still early darkness, tedium that is the other side of beauty of the waterway, the dicey economy that we’re not doing anything about, trying to coordinate a mailing to a general delivery post office from our daughter M. who is receiving and sorting the bushels of mail, and continuing our self- study of all the ins and outs of sailing to the Bahamas.

January 29, 2008

Last night, set the anchor alarm and went to bed early to sleep like logs. How puny the worries and irks of the night before are in the glory of still morning light graced by seabirds following in our wake to gobble creatures that we and Journey stir up.

The wind has shifted 180o, just off the nose, so we motor-sailed from Cocoa Beach to Vero Beach on the vast expanse of the Indian River, sticking to a ditch dredged in its bottom, our roadway for so many of the last 950 miles through these shallow inner- coastal waters. We don’t even think twice about three or four feet under the keel. Even though the wind is blowing hard, there is warmth and moisture in the air that makes it softer. Ran into again a boat being single handed by a fellow from Phoenix who radioed the first time he saw us a couple of days ago to ask about the whisker pole we were using. We asked him where he was heading, and he said he wasn’t sure because his chart blew away and his next one doesn’t start until mile 868. His boat was aptly named, Undaunted. He seemed in his same, exuberant fine form, although his engine was acting up so he’d slowed down a bit.

January 30, 2008

We’re stuck in Vero Beach which some cruisers call “Velcro Beach” because it’s a good place to stay and make repairs. Our refrigerator didn’t work this morning, again! We’ve asked around, found a fellow who can come on Friday. We’d like to get it fixed. If it can’t, to hell with it, and it will become an icebox like the one we cruised with for years on our first boat, Blue Teal.

The weather has turned, sunny and in the 70’s, short sleeve shirts in contrast to three layers of fleece for me (one for M.) and foul weather jackets. So plans are for a walk to the beach, a bus ride to a supermarket to stock up, inflate and clean the dinghy, touch up some varnish, change the oil, enjoy the warmth and again perhaps tonight enjoy a half dozen oysters at the local eatery. We’ll see how much we really get done.