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The ICW - Single Handed - Well, Almost!

24K views 182 replies 37 participants last post by  Minnewaska 
#1 ·
After leaving the Chesapeake's upper reaches on October 2, just two days after my 50th Anniversary, I've finally arrived in sunny Florida. Yep, it took that long. 12 days lost to weather, days when I've been tied to a dock freezing my butt off, days when the winds howled at 50 or more, 12-hour days of battling waves to 7 feet, 4 knot tides, 5-foot wakes from idiot power boaters, and naturally, two groundings.

Fortunately, I've also been blessed. I beautiful, young lady, who is an avid sailor, has been with me for the past 5 days and nights. She can sail a boat better than 99 percent of the sailors I've come across during the past 7 years, she can cook, but I would rather cook for her instad, she loves my Green Coconut Margarettas, and best of all she has helped restore my sanity. This wonderful lady I'm talking about is our own Mel (Melissa), who graciously accepted my plea for help in traveling to south Florida in my trusty, old 33 Morgan Out Island. Yep, she likes the boat too.

I'm not really sure if I could have made it this far without Mel's help. Her knowledge of boating, and lots of other subjects if unsurpassed. She and I seem to have a lot in common, and in many respects we've almost led paralell lives, but under totally different circumstances. Yes, I'm in love with Mel. ;)

During these many weeks on the water I've also met a lot of other wonderful folks, Mario and I keep in touch almost daily and I hole to meet up with him sometime tomorrow. Roger and Sandy, a wonderful couple I met 500 miles to the north, traveled here from Detroit and have been on the water for three months. We get together for dinner once in a while, toss a couple margarettas, and they got to hear me perform at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. The lady at the YC wanted me to stay a few weeks, but I declined.

The trip thus far has been mostly alone. The ICW has been nearly deserted, some days I saw up to a dozen boats, but most days I traveled 10 to 12 hours in the wilderness, completely alone.

More to come,

Gary :cool:
 
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#28 ·
Lost another 10 hours to repairs, 5 yesterday and 5 today. The stuffing box was dripping pretty hard, which really has me worried. Two boat yards later, $40 shelled out, and it's still leaking, but not quite as fast. Hopefully, when I get to Stuart I'll be able to find someone that knows what they're doing.

I left the second boat yard this afternoon at 1 p.m., crossed Ponce de Leon Inlet, thought about heading offshore, but after looking at the charts I quickly discovered there was no place to come back in for more than 100 miles. Didn're relish the thought of heaving too 20 or 30 miles offshore and grabbing some shut eye. OH how I miss Melissa.

Consequently, I stayed inside, ran the ditch with the jib sail out and averaged about 7 MPH, which isn't bad for motorsailing with the engine at about 1800 RPM. I figured I would make Titusville, Florida by 5:30 p.m.. WRONG! Darkness set in at 5:30, no moon, no stars, and 4 blinding lights on the shore that destroyed any hope of night vision. Therefore navigating in these tight quarters was GPS/Plotter ONLY.

When the night turned pitch black, I got my spotlight out of the locker and quickly discovered the damned lithium batteries were dead as a doornail, so I dug out my trusty maglight. Turned on the light at the first day-marker, the bulb flashed and it went dead. The only light remaining was a tiny LED flashlight with 7 bulbs that was intended for home use. It lit up the markers from a distance of about 40 feet.

I was able to sloooooly pick my way into Titusville Municipal Marina in inky darkness, and with the help of the dock master I'm tied up. It was a very looooong day, I just finshed dinner at 8 p.m., then fired up the PC.

Mel, you ARE the ONLY ONE! Honest. I promise not to stray.

Gary :cool:
 
#29 ·
LOL Mel you got a friend for life :)

Glad you got in Gary one can never have to much light!
I hear you about fixing , That is the reason I got into mech'in & fixing professionally got tired of paying (& good I might add) for something to be done and it still wasn't correct!
Nothing to do but "If you want it done right you got to do it yourself" forever for me...

Very glad to see you are useing prudence and wisdom for your adventures:) stay safe keep warm and have fun!
 
#31 ·
Lol...you sure have some luck Gary.

I'm surprised your lithium sun-gun was dead. Usually lithium batteries don't self-discharge, ni-cad and Ni-Mh batteries do that.

When in transit, better make it policy to plug it into the 12v outlet at least once per day.
 
#32 ·
Today was GREAT. Only motored for an hour, then sailed down the ICW for the next 35 miles - Oh Yeah! While much of the time the ICW is too narrow and winding to sail at all, this particular stretch was wide open, the channel was bordered by depths of 8 to 15 feet and the wind, 15 knots steady, was blowing from due east. Most of the time that old Morgan was cruising along at 6 to 7 MPH, with occasional bursts to 8. Not only was I able to save fuel, but also wear and tear on my aging engine.

Tonight, the winds are kicking up at about 20 from the east, the temperature began dropping like a stone shortly after 4 p.m., so I opted to spend the night in Melbourne Harbor Marina. It's a nice place, good restaurant on-site, but if you're from Maryland DO NOT order the crab cake dinner. Big mistake on my part.

Gasoline prices at the marinas in east/central Florida will blow your mind - averaging about $5.25 a gallon. This was the first place I actually saw diesel cheaper than gas, but only by about .10 cents per gallon.

The other intelligent thing I did today was to end it a couple hours earlier - before it got too dark to see. Yes, I wanted to sail another couple hours, but after checking the charts I realized there was no sheltered anchorage for at least another 30 miles. Plus, it's quite cold again tonight, and that heat pump on the boat really makes life a lot more comfortable.

I hope to be in Stuart in two days, which is where I hope to play some music at the local VFW while the boat's water pump and stuffing box/packing gland are taken care of at a local marine repair center.

Hopefully, I'll soon encounter weather where the temperature is at least equal to my age (72). Anything lower than 72 seems like the dead of winter. ;)

Cheers,

Gary :cool:
 
#38 ·
@Jon, yes, Atlantic is some nice people. Last spring they charged us a crushing $200/MONTH. Love it.

@Gary, yay you! You're basically home free - there in the land of warmth and sunshine. Enjoy!
 
#39 ·
Pfft. Don't listen to Jaye! Last week it got down to 59 degrees one night. It was TERRIBLE! I actually had to close some hatches and pull my sweats on over my flip-flops. Even worse, it is only going to get to 79 today. Time to sail south, I guess. This freezing weather is killing me!!!

Snicker!!

Brian
 
#40 ·
Cruisingdad,

Does your grill act any differently in cooler weather for you/ You may have to buy the special adaptor I use here in the north for the fall :laugher:laugher:laugher

I lok forward to the time I will be going south for the winter on the boat, but I will not give up Sept/Oct/ and November on the Chesapeake for warm ewather year round. I love seeing the leaves turn color, the crispness of the cool air, the birds migrating. Almost over now:(:(

Dave
 
#41 ·
Cruisingdad,

Does your grill act any differently in cooler weather for you/ You may have to buy the special adaptor I use here in the north for the fall :laugher:laugher:laugher
It does act differently. Everything gets dried out. I am sure it has nothing to do with the fact I crank i as high as possible to minimize my time in the freezing 60's!!!

BTW, as I have shared with you and Jaye, I really look forward to coming up to the Chessy and visiting that area. Not sure I will stay through November though!!

Brian
 
#42 ·
Today is my second in Stuart at the upper end of Manatee Pocket at A&J Marine, where a very nice young man repacked my packing gland. He accomplished the task in less than an hour - HE knew what he was doing.

Tomorrow, a new water pump will be installed by the same person, which solves most of my problems. The only remaining problem is the cutlass bearing, which Mario graciously dove under the boat and checked out for me yesterday. He has a wet suit and could tolerate the chilly water temperatures much better than this old man.

Tonight, I'll be performing music with an old friend at a private party, which should be lots of fun, then first thing tomorrow I'll try to line up someone to take care of the cutlass bearing.

Today's temperature was 81 - Ahhhhh, much better. I'm back to wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts. I love it.

By the end of the week, hopefully, I'll be headed for Miami, and with any kind of luck should get there in 4 to 5 days. Then it's just another 100 miles to Marathon.

Oh Yeah! :)

Gary :cool:
 
#50 ·
Today is my second in Stuart at the upper end of Manatee Pocket at A&J Marine, where a very nice young man repacked my packing gland. He accomplished the task in less than an hour - HE knew what he was doing.
A couple of more cocktails & I could really do something with this being the twisted soul that I am.

Glad everything's working out & you basking in the warmth!
You planning on spending xmas in the Keys?
 
#46 ·
Ooh, I'm in! My pressure cooker vs your grill - the great boat cooking technique challenge!

Dave, we HAVE to do those Chesapeake Lions burgees if CD is actually going to be here next summer!

Hey CD, we're southbound autumn 2013. Traveling in loose association with 3 other boats, partying our way down to FL. I mention this to you because, we leave the Ches. early (late Sept) so we are way south before any of that cold weather stuff happens. Like, after a leisurely trip we tied up in St Augustine 1 year ago today. So, maybe we'll see you down the waterway.
 
#47 ·
Hmmm...the challenege should be a marketbasket where we are all given the same ingredients, a mystery to us beforehand to make it fair. No recipies....just creativeity
 
#48 ·
Hmm, let's see - an IT guy, an engineer, a lawyer, and a professional chef competing in a cookoff. And how, exactly, is this playing field even?

(Note how I cleverly invited my friend Phil the lawyer to join the fun?)
 
#53 ·
If everything works out the way I hope, I will be meeting up with Melissa at the end of the month, then heading to Marathon. Should be there by the first week in December, and with luck, I may be headed to the Tortugas and be there about the same time you are. And, yes, I'll be spending Christmas in the Keys. I thought about flying home for Christmas, but I would enjoy Christmas much more if my loving spouse of a half-century flew down to the keys instead.

Cheers,

Gary :cool:
 
#54 ·
Back from Dallas and dial a disaster in the sims. Passed with flying colors. Now back on the boat getting ready for Gary and the girls. Cannot wait. Have a 2 page to do list. So we are having a cook off and sailing down in the keys with more meet-up of wonderful SNer's. Gone for a few days and missed lots of chatter here.
 
#57 ·
Yeah, looks like a serious SN party/cookoff/gathering in the Chesapeake is in the works for next summer.

And its starting to look like a SN flotilla southbound next autumn as well. :D
 
#62 ·
Maybe we could incorporate the cookoff at the annual Rondevous the second weekend of June at MYC. We have slips ( Cheap), anchorage area, good transportation from land, covered pavillion with picnic table and seating for 150 and 6 grills already on site.

Wing...You are right....I wont participate as that might be a tad unfair...of course I would get judged more critically than others because of what I used to do. Tell you what...I would be willing to organize the cookoff and get the marketbaskets together.

Dave
 
#67 ·
I want in on the cook off Dave... count us in for that for sure.

Gary - been following your thread with interest and awe, excellent stuff! You're living the dream with all the good, great and not so great. Keep up the great work, we look forward to seeing you when you return :)
 
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