May 2009
Back-Back in the U.S.S.A.
Florida and the ICW
What a wonderful welcome home. Les and Rose were down visiting Bob and Cheryl on Kasekuchen. As we came under the Las Olas Bridge, Rose and Cheryl were there hanging over it and shouting their greetings, the boys were back at the club ready for our lines. It was a great American homecoming.
Checking back into the USA in Ft. Lauderdale was easy. Bob and Cheryl loaned us their lovely car to drive to customs on the base, everyone there was quite friendly and it didn’t take long at all. I get my knickers in a twist sometimes when going through government processes, concerned that they will want to come down and take away all my hard won provisions and personal collection of Caribbean rums.
The Coral Ridge Yacht Club is lovely and brilliantly located and soon I am back in the “real” world of Macy’s shopping centers, chain restaurants, etc. We have a great time with the Dobbe’s and Klein’s - Iron Chef Bob cooked up a storm. Gorgeous niece Gigi was in town visiting friends, so we had family time as well.
We have done this stretch of the ICW before, back in 2001 on Wandering Star I, with then 13 year old Kei and our little Corgi, Scooter aboard. The Intracoastal Waterway is unlike anything on the west coast. It runs for 1240 miles from Key West, Florida to the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Every few miles the scenery changes dramatically. In this part of Florida we encounter many bridges that must be opened, so timing is everything. If you miss an opening it often means you have to circle for a half hour or more, so we are on the ball and paying attention. It is also a no wake zone, so you cannot push it.
One of the reasons, among many, that we chose a 43’ Trawler was for her relatively shallow draft, we draw only 5 feet. Most of the ICW has a mean low water of at least 6 feet, but there is little money for maintaining that depth in the non commercial areas and shoaling is becoming more common. We watch the tides to make sure to avoid those areas during low tide, something else to add to the navigational mix. The dredged channel is also very narrow and during the spring and summer months, the traffic is heavy. We find ourselves “waked” by… Those Power Boaters! We Trawler folk think like sailors when passed by a Go-Fast boat that pays no attention to the huge wake they throw out and rock us mercilessly. Suffice to say, gone are the days where you can set your autopilot and throttle and flip through a magazine from the helm chair while on watch. After two years of ocean cruising, I’m a tad bit stressed out with all of this…this…busyness. I will be happy to get beyond the south Florida ICW traffic.
Each little berg has its own personality; some are imposing with grand mansions and gardens right to the water’s edge and unlike driving through posh neighborhoods where all you see are the ornate vine covered walls and gates, on the waterway you are IN their incredible “backyard” with luxurious pools and porticos. The next town you go through may have only modest little houses, closer together with children playing along the banks, people fishing from rickety docks or off the side of a wall. Unfortunately, there are also more and more huge condominium complexes with private marina’s, that have little or no personality from our vantage point… that’s when the ICW earns its nickname, “The Ditch”.
There are, however, still long stretches of undeveloped land with wild overgrown shrubs and lush springtime green trees. It’s quiet along these meandering waterways usually we only encounter fishermen in small skiffs…unless it’s a weekend, and then add lots of family boats and jet skis, everyone out sharing the water. It’s quite festive.
At Vero Beach we rented a car and collected my oldest friend Lorelei and her husband Conrad to ride along for a few days and experience the cruising lifestyle. We stop at every little harbor and they show us around their Space Coast towns, including Melbourne Harbor, Eau Gallie, Cocoa and Titusville. This is a lovely stretch of the ICW, where you really are on the Indian River, and there are many options. It’s also easy to go outside and make the run on the Atlantic, or if you are a shallow draft vessel you can take the canal to the Banana River on the east side of Merritt Island. It’s all Cape Canaveral area and well worth a visit to the Space Center.
The Titusville Municipal Marina is in a wonderful spot to watch a space launch and we lucked out again and were there for one of last the Atlantis launches. We had a front row seat at the end of the T Dock. Best yet, we were stern to stern with Kasekuchen, and Les and Rose drove down again to play. Dot and Ken had just arrived from the Abaco’s, and dropped anchor outside the marina, and Tim and Jan who we’d last seen in Nassau also came into the marina. We had such a great time together watching the fiery blast off. It had clouded up a bit, but what we couldn’t see, we ran inside and watched on NASA TV, and we could feel the energy across the water.
We hotfooted it north ahead of some rather nasty weather, but were able to stop for a few nights in one of our favorite places, St. Augustine and garnered a spot at the municipal marina which is right in town. Wandering Star I was built at the Mainship factory up the river, so we’d visited a few times in the past. This time it was pure pleasure being tourists, just strolling the streets of old town, peeking into interesting shops and finding wonderful places to eat. Loved a new little wine and tapas bistro, The Tasting Room on Cuna St., and of course La Pentola is a fantastic restaurant, and wonderful for lunch too.
We were flying home for son Kei’s college graduation in a few days, so we had to get a move on. Insurance regulations require that the boat be north of Florida by June 1st. Jacksonville has a great airport and it is right at the Georgia border, so that was our next destination. Jacksonville is always a bit of a drama for us with the wide and sometimes very shallow St. John River. We’d shopped around for a marina that was closer to the waterway and the airport and booked at one we thought would be perfect for the weeks we’d be gone. It was not a good choice. We tied up and realized that this little marina’s dock system was not set up for a 25 ton vessel and would not hold us if the weather got dodgy…and dodgy was the forecast for the foreseeable future. We had to find another marina and fast. A de pulled out of the slip, the skies were darkening and I started working the phones. Our only choice at this point was to go further up the river…argg, The electronic/paper charts are not much help this far up the river as the shoals shift like crazy on these rivers and this one is not well marked except for commercial traffic. I was madly trying to negotiate a monthly rate and mindful of the fact that we had to get one right now, and fly out the next day.
We were watching the depth sounder and praying for some markers that would indicate a deeper water route through the shallows. Thank goodness, a faster trawler zoomed by us, so we hailed them on Channel 16 and they graciously agreed to show us the way. We still had a very low bridge that we had to get opened, and now the wind is gusting in that manic way it does ahead of a squall and we could hear …shudder…thunder and see lightning close at hand - eek, a boater’s nightmare! “Hurry, open open open”, I prayed to the bridge, and as it did, so did the sky…it just poured. We hailed the marina, and the wonderful husband of the gal in the office at Ortega Landing came running down the dock to show us our spot and grab a line. Phew. Cheated death again. Once the storm passed we jumped off, got our bearings and slowly realized that Ortega Landing was built on the same sight as the funky marina we stayed in nine years ago. We are such homing pigeons, drawn again and again to the same places.
We got home in time to watch our handsome son graduate cum laude from Chapman University. Yippee. He did it in four years, but like all his classmates in the current job market environment – he has no idea what is next. But he is clever and will keep the college job and take on a few independent projects to try on careers. Our advice, “Keep the overhead low and explore young man, explore”.
A little personal confession here. Sometimes the constant moving and lack of personal space just gets to me. I think I may be a “love the one I’m with” kind of girl…well actually; it’s more like, love the place I’m in. We are living a gypsy lifestyle, but I am really a nester at heart. I am never really ready to leave a place, no matter how exciting the upcoming destination. When I am in a lovely port and start to find my way, I don’t want to move to the next. When I am on the boat, I am not ready to go home and when I am home, I don’t want to leave. I mention it because I’ve met a lot of gals who feel like I do. We’re not malcontents, it’s just that sometimes, we women might need to linger just a little longer than our partners do.
I felt that way after another whirlwind trip home, so I finagled an extra week at our little casita in Las Vegas while Ade flew back ahead of me. I just puttered and attended to much needed tasks – and took some serious alone time… it’s good for my head, and I think for relationships. He met me at the airport with flowers. Ahhhh, what a guy, still romantic after 39 years!
