CruisingKatmandu

  We awoke to see where we really are having tied up in the dark. This is really a beautiful Lake surrounded by gorgeous homes and packed with boats. Even though Fort Lauderdale is such a big seaport and such a big recreational boating area there is a tremendous shortage a marina slips available and we are not going to be able to get into a Marina at all. Fortunately this is a great place to be. It's a beautiful Lake and by taking the dinghy under a few low bridges and up a few canals we were able to access a waterfront restaurant called the Southport Raw Bar. They provide free dinghy dockage if you eat at the restaurant and so of course we ate there and had a delicious seafood meal for lunch. We were then able to walk to a grocery store, a hardware store, a department store, a barber shop-just about any and every thing we needed. It's just such a convenience to be able to do that using just the dinghy and not having to use Ubers. We also have been very fortunate to have met a ...

 The choice between going through 13 drawbridges and going offshore 2 miles for 40 miles was an easy one. Plus, the Lake Worth inlet was close to the anchorage, too. Katmandu handled the 3-5 with occasional quartering seas well. The sea azure was beautiful. The boat, sky and sea were shades of blue and white. Schools of flying fish, as many as 20 or 30 at a time, taking flight so not only do they swim together but they fly together, too.  We tacked several time to arrive at Port Everglades inlet before twilight. This is the big ship entrance to Fort Lauderdale and we certainly saw our share of them. We sat for 30 minutes on the wrong side of the 17th Street drawbridge as darkness approached and became increasingly concerned we would not make our Anchorage before dark. As it turned out our Anchorage became more complicated than we initially expected because of several low bridges over the canals that led to the lake. We were very fortunate that a commercial catamaran loaded wit...

 We got an early start from Fort Pierce the next day and again some more beautiful waterway. On the way there was a regatta with 100s of dinghy sailboats. Once we got to St Lucie Inlet we discovered that everybody in Florida has a boat and that everybody who has a boat doesn't understand the rules of the road or anything resembling courtesy but it comes to their wakes. We couldn't believe the 30 and 40 ft boats passing us within 50 ft at full speed. Not just one but several and on both sides of the boat. This went on for several hours. We had taken the waterway and hopes of avoiding rough water offshore and needless to say would probably have been better off in the ocean. So after a very stressful day we did find a very nice Anchorage in the north lobe of Lake Worth and a little cove called Old Port Cove.  We had a peaceful night on the anchor. We are looking forward to an ocean trip tomorrow which will take us to Fort Lauderdale which is actually Port Everglades Inlet.

We were anchored in the Indian River at Cape Canaveral last night. The ISS Crew Mission 5 will return today, splash down is expected at 9:00 PM somewhere off the Florida coast.. TV coverage of the splashdown begins at 8:00.  https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/coverage-set-as-nasa-s-spacex-crew-5-prepares-to-splashdown For some reason, last night there was a big light shining into the sky all night from the direction of the Space Force Station like a stationary searchlight.  Perhaps it's a guilding light for the astronauts to measure distance.  The cruise down the Indian River was new to us. There were islands along the way for folks to gather to picnic or camp. Since  it was a Saturday there were quite a few recreational boaters "going fast" and producing wakes.. But the dare devil of this day was the single prop plane buzzing the islands, the boats and the bridge. Yikes! The anchorage for the night was South of the North Fort Pierce bridge. Katmandu has such good ac...

 Day 9  Dawned blustery with winds as high as 25 to 30 knots creating a somewhat bouncy Anchorage. We had purchased a fold up wagon yesterday to help with our grocery shopping and it really came in handy. I'm sure we'll get much use out of it in the course of this trip. We finally went ashore in the dinghy to purchase the mandatory souvenirs of St Augustine. We were also able to pick up our Amazon shipment of LED light bulbs for the boat and also the new wind vane. We had hoped to install the wind vane while at St Augustine however it was too windy to consider going up the mast.  Day 10 We got up fairly early to get off of our mooring ball and motored from St Augustine to New Smyrna via ICW. We were lucky enough to find a nice quiet Anchorage in Rock House Creek to spend the night. It was a quiet night on the hook with a beautiful moonrise and lots of stars. And during the course of our trip from St Augustine to New Smyrna we were followed for a Time by a kayaker who even...

 Up before Dawn we wolfed down some coffee and set the sails for a day for coastal sailing. We went out the St Simons Inlet.  About 2 years ago there was a huge automobile transport, RORO, in the inlet that had capsized with hundreds of cars onboard. It took more than a year to clear the inlet. So we're offshore expecting strong winds when they were not. We had reefed the sail. One thing is certain the weather will change but getting a good weather report has been difficult for our type of sailing which is within 6 miles of shore. We motor sailed into Mayport, the industrial and military Port of Jacksonville. We tied up to a marina within a mile of the inlet. Right away we knew that we were going to be bounced by the ship traffic wakes. One such ship, The Zim from Thailand was 333 m (over1,000 ft) and it's heading to Charleston now. Actually, besides all the astonishing maritime activities, we were disappointed the ferry across the river to Singletons Seafood Shack was down. I...

 Another peaceful night on the hook was a great reward for choosing Cow Pen Creek.. St Catherine's Island is a National Historic Landmark. About 1566 the Spanish named it before the war with Britain. Most recently Edward John Noble owned it and raised cattle which are now feral on the island before donating it to the state of Georgia.  I listened for mooing in the distance but only hear red winged grackels, marsh hens, and seagulls. The island is home to where lemurs can run free. It's an experiment to see if this endangered species can increase. The island is closed to the public but we anchored within 100' of the tree lined bank. There was no access to the island though. We raised the anchor at 7:15. We had a nice calm crossing of Sapelo Inlet. We looked across to see where we anchored on a calm night two years ago. It was a nice moment of reflection. Ben guided the boat down the ICW all day even though there were shallow areas that have not been dredged since 2011. We di...