Stuck in Lake Sylvia.....again!

 26 06.249'N:80 06.72' W

2024-12-14

Stuck in Lake Sylvia.....again!

We departed Vero Beach on Dec 10 and had another banner day of making miles in the ICW.  We anchored at dusk in West Palm Beach just north of the Flagler bridge (some local place called Mar a Largo near by).  We had noticed a strange little hitch-hiker on board shortly before anchoring.  A little crab must have climbed up one of our fenders we were using when we were rafted-up in Vero Beach.  He had spent the day using our life lines as a tight rope walk!  

We caught the 07:15 opening of the Flagler bridge the next morning then dropped the hook again for a pitstop to change the engine fuel filter.  Dagny was in the anchorage so we had a quick visit with Allan and a wave to Bev and we were off again!  It was a crazy day of opening bridges, 20 bridges total, but by 16:30 we had arrived in Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale.   Lake Sylvia can be a nutty place to anchor so it took us a couple of attempts to get the perfect spot fairly close to our friends Corbett and Robyn (Cookie Monster).

Ok, time to make a call to Customs and Border protection.  The office was closed so we called again the next morning.  This time there was no talking, negotiating or pleading we were instructed to go to the office in person to file our entry, period.  It was about a 45-minute walk through a couple of sketchy streets, port security then the actual port with tons of loaded transport trucks barrelling at us from all directions.  We found the building, then the immigration office with four pretty unhelpful officers directed us two suites down to the marine office.  The very nice officer there took our information but before she could complete the entry form, she said we had to go back to the immigration office to talk to the officers there.  Great.  Back we went and as Paul described it, it could very well have been a Saturday Night Live comedy skit.  We had no idea why we were going to see them and they had no idea why they needed to see us.  After a couple of tense conversations one of the officers finally figured out that they really didn't need to see us at all and sent us back to the marine office.   (These officers are candidates for Fargo) After another 45 minutes or so the officer handed us some pretty official paperwork and told us our entry was completed but we would need to return to the office again when we were ready to clear out.  We will need to file the clearance paperwork with them and then once they stamp their approval, we have 48 hours to depart.  One other note, the officer brought to our attention, if we file the paperwork on a Thursday we will get an extra 48 hours as the office is not open on the weekend.  Jeez....

It is very windy and looks like we will be stuck here for awhile but at least we know what we have to do for our clearance and can plan for it.  

In meantime hanging out with Cookie Monster, more boat maintenance, provisioning and checking out the mansions and MegaYachts....

 29 53.501' N:81 18.42' W

2024-12-09

St. Augustine and Vero Beach Brrrrrrrr!

We had to pull out all our warm layers again for a very chilly but pleasant sail to St. Augustine.  We caught the 11:00 opening of the Bridge of Lions and snagged our mooring ball on the south side of the bridge.   We were a little deeper in the mooring field than we would have liked but St. Augustine is a very busy place and we were lucky to get a mooring.  As it was we could only get one for three days.  

Time to giddy up and layer up for a very chilly dinghy ride to shore.   After a walk around town and a coffee with Greg & Glenda we set out to track down Dewey Via for an evening of music.  We found him at Meehan's pub in the backyard.  A couple of very nice locals invited us to join them at their front and center fire table!   It was a great seat and thank goodness for that fire table because it was cold!   Dewey is our absolute favorite St. Augustine musician and probably the biggest reason we stop here every trip south. https://www.deweyvia.com

The weather continued to be very chilly especially first thing in the morning!   Lucky for us we have heat and the boat warms up quickly when it is on.   On Sunday we enjoyed at late lunch at Harry's courtyard with Greg, Glenda and "the boys" (2 Yorkies).  We set out for a big walk then of course we caught Dewey's early evening set at the Dog Rose Brewery. https://www.dogrosebrewing.com/

The Boys...Cooper and Jackson....

Monday morning was spent doing chores and prepping for our departure on Tuesday.   In the afternoon we walked a good distance to the Sailor's Exchange's new location.   On the way back we stopped for a visit with Greg and Glenda (Paradigm Shift) as they were remaining in St. Augustine for a couple more days before heading for points further south.  We probably won't see them again until after the new year in the Bahamas.

We departed St. Augustine on Dec 3, in bright sunshine but cold temperatures.  With an all-day push from the tide we were able to make it all the way to New Smyrna south of the last fixed bridge.    We made a beef stew in the pressure cooker which was the perfect meal for such a chilly day!  We had another day and a half of sunny, chilly, motoring but were able to make very good distances with help from the tide.  We arrived at Vero Beach City Marina on Dec 5 shortly after noon.  By 2pm we had fueled up, pumped out, filled the water tanks, picked up our new solar panels and rafted-up to another boat on a mooring ball.   At this mooring field if you don't want to raft you best find another place to stay!   They will put up to three boats on one mooring ball!

Finally, it is warmer!   I put away some of our winter layers which I hopefully won't need to pull out again!

Vero Beach has free public transit!  The bus stops right at the marina and it is very easy to get around making it a good place to finish up our provisioning.  By the time we leave Vero our freezer is full to the brim! The fridge is full to the brim! And Paul is always concerned that the snack cupboard is not full enough!

 30 43.1045' N 081 33.0 W

2024-11-28

Happy US Thanksgiving from St. Mary’s, GA

On Friday Nov 22 we hauled up the anchor to head for St. Mary’s.  It was still very windy and chilly.  As we entered the channel by the submarine-base we were stopped again due to another approaching submarine.   It was so miserable we turned around and went back to our nicely protected anchorage.    We could wait another day and it was so much nicer up the creek!

The next morning, Saturday, we finally made it past the base and made the short run up the St. Mary’s River.  We found Charisma in the anchorage and dropped the hook near by.   It was time to check-in with our hopefully friendly customs and border protection officer!   We prepped our paperwork and started making phone calls.  After six phone calls and talking to two officers we had our instructions.  Wait until Monday and call for further instructions.  Jeez…  I note here our anchorage in St Marys Georgia was in sight of Fernandina Florida!

Monday came and Paul made the call shortly after the Brunswick office opened at 8AM.   Things were looking a bit dicey but Paul’s negotiation skills were superb and he managed to convince the officer to allow us to complete our check-in virtually as we had been doing all the way down the coast.  And the icing on the cake?   The officer gave us our clearance for all the way to Fort Lauderdale.  Awesome!  This means we won’t have to talk to an officer for a couple of weeks!   With that business out of the way we could relax and look forward to enjoying the week’s festivities.

The St. Mary’s Yacht Club members do a fantastic job of welcoming cruising boats to the harbour.  We were given a schedule of events for each day and encouraged to join in the fun!   A yacht club member drove us to the laundromat, grocery store, post office and hardware store.   All these places were not within walking distance so the rides were very much appreciated!  We were told this service was not just for Thanksgiving.   Keep the phone numbers and anytime we find ourselves in the area give the yacht club a call and they would send a member out to take us anywhere we needed to go.    So nice!  

Greg & Glenda (Paradigm Shift) joined us in the anchorage and together with Bruce & Terry (Charisma new name Fortuna) we joined in the daily meet ups at the Southern Riverwalk Bar & Grill for sun-downers.  It was great to see old friends and meet some new ones!    The general store had a fantastic ice cream shop attached to it and I can say we may or may not have made it past the ice cream on those evenings.

Meet Poppet, the Bagel.....Beagle Basset hound mix and commander of SV Charisma/Fortuna 

The premier event for the week was Thanksgiving potluck dinner.  The yacht club members prepared Turkeys and Hams while the boaters provided side dishes and desserts.  It was a feast!   Then we were sent home with a container of left over meat!   We were pretty happy about that because everyone knows the best part of turkey dinner is the turkey sandwiches the next day!

We had ordered new solar panels that were to be delivered to St. Mary’s but the shipment got delayed too many times and we ended up re-ordering for delivery to Vero Beach.   With that taken care of we got underway on Friday Nov 29 to make our way to our next stop …… St. Augustine!