2/25/24 Titusville (MM 778) to 3/2/24 St. Augustine (MM 878)
Three main parts to this week's blog post:
Cruising Observations
This week Utopia covered lot of miles (and engine hours) as we slogged our way from Titusville to St. Augustine. The ICW mile markers indicate that we covered an even 100 miles. The pace is faster than either of us like, but we plan to take things slower next autumn.
As we wind down our trip from St. Petersburg to Brunswick, we have noticed a few things about our cruising.
This winter season was colder than I had imagined. I understood that there would be some cold and cloudy days, but I certainly have stayed bundled up a lot more than I thought I would be. The water temperatures have been rather cold too, keeping us out of the water. My usual attire onboard has consisted of sweatshirts and hiking boots, which contrasts with what people may imagine when they think of boating. We laughed a few times at the contrast between my attire and the passing ICW boats filled with people in bathing suits. Let’s hope that El Nino decides to take a nap after this busy winter as we are also hoping for a warmer winter next year.
We are adjusting nicely to cruising with several tasks becoming routine to us, thus less difficult. Over time we developed and fine-tuned checklists for our departures, which now we practically do without looking, but have the good habit of double checking the list before leaving a location. I really think these checklists will be extremely helpful after a six-to-seven-month break from cruising.
Over time our constant search for Ace Hardware and West Marine stores faded away. From when we left St. Petersburg in mid-October, until Key Largo in mid-January, Jimmy and I spent a lot of time searching for stores to make improvements or repairs to Utopia. It was not until we reached Cocoa & Titusville where we had friends offering to help us run errands by car, that I realized that the frequency of needing an Ace or West Marine had significantly diminished after our stay in Key Largo.
We selected the ICW route this year for a couple of reasons, one primarily was to simply experience “the ditch,” to see the sights, and to visit some towns along the way. It has been neat to see the change from the very urban scenery of south Florida to the very natural coastal areas as you head north. I have enjoyed each area’s uniqueness. Now my favorite, other than the very natural coastal areas, are the houses that have so many trees and palms that seeing the structure requires a longer look. I much prefer these houses over the wide expanse of the very manicured lawns of the extra fancy houses, which are still fun to gawk at.
Some highlights from this week
While in Titusville we got to see another rocket launch. This time we got to watch it while at anchor. It was pretty spectacular to watch.
Going northbound, the ICW leaves the Indian River and enters the Mosquito Lagoon at the Haulover Canal. Just before entering the canal, we saw several pink flamingos snacking in the shallow waters adjacent to the ICW channel. Then when entering the canal we saw a bunch of dolphin & manatees as we slowly coasted towards the bascule bridge. Seeing so much wildlife in such a short period of time was pretty magical.
For many, many years I attended an annual conference at The Shores Resort in Daytona Shores. Our events took place on the top floor, about 11 or 12 stories up, where we had a 360-degree view of the area. I had looked down from The Shores many times dreaming of cruising the ICW one day. So, when we passed The Shores on Wednesday, it was a very exciting moment for me to look up at The Shores instead of the other way around.
Since there are limited anchoring spots available in the Palm Coast area, we ducked into a marina Friday night. After so many successful docking events recently, we were due to have an exciting one again. At least this time it happened in slow motion, and no damage was done. The Hammock Resort has narrow fairways and after two attempts into the assigned slip, the dockhands redirected me to a slip on the other side of the fairway. My turn into the new slip was going well, the issue was that we only had lines ready for a port tie and this slip was a starboard tie. As I slowed down my entry into the slip so Jimmy could move the stopping line from one side of the boat to the other, the wind caught Utopia’s stern, pivoting her around the end of the slip’s finger pier, getting close to the boat on the adjacent boat. The dockhands had a long way run to the new slip, but eventually arrived to help haul the big heavy girl straight into the slip. I am happy to say that our departure from the slip and catching the mooring ball at St. Augustine yesterday were both executed flawlessly. Of course, as usual, there are no witnesses when things go right.
Both Jimmy and I have visited St. Augustine by car a few times over the years and we have been looking forward to arriving by boat. I did not expect it to be such an exciting moment. The morning cruise was spent dodging a lot of shoaling and dredging operations in the ICW, followed by looking for our assigned mooring ball. Once Jimmy had the first line attached to the mooring ball pendent, the excitement of our location soaked in. We had an unobstructed view of the Bridge of Lions! Taking our dinghy to shore felt like such a novel experience. I am fairly sure I walked around with a silly grin on my face, soaking in our arrival to this town by boat.
Here are links to photos that cover the last couple of days in Titusville up through our arrival in St. Augustine. Warning, there are a lot of Baxter photos.
Hiking Preparation
I plan to sprinkle in a little bit here and there information about preparing for our long hike. Jimmy and I did some backpacking in 2019 & 2020, so we have a lot of the needed gear already, but are upgrading a few items. We have been sorting through what we have and trying to select items to leave behind because we need our packs to be as light as possible. Items we think we are taking are getting weighed and entered into a spreadsheet. At the moment, I think our base weight (without food, water, fuel, or worn clothing) is around 20 pounds each. I suspect that this might creep up as may remember a few things left off the list.
We have made a final selection on what clothes we will wear and have sent them off to Insect Shield to be treated with permethrin which is a chemical that should repel ticks. I only had two pairs of non-exercise pants and one nice long sleeve shirt on board. Since I have sent one pair of pants and the shirt off for treatment, my clothing options are seriously limited now. My attire at the upcoming Florida Water Resources Conference may be interesting.
This coming week will mostly be in St. Augustine and possibly Jacksonville. After that, our upcoming stops may include Amelia Island and Jekyll Island before arriving in Brunswick before March 20.
24-9
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