May 29, 2009
We finished loading clothes, food, and cats (as well as ourselves) aboard Sanderling. We spent the night aboard at the marina so we could get a fairly early start the next morning. We didn’t actually get aboard for the evening until almost 2200, had time to put a few things away, and then went to bed.

May 30, 2009
Underway about 0745 after filling the water tanks and getting a last minute supply of ice for the ice chest where we decided to keep our cold drinks rather than opening the refrigerator every time we wanted something.

Weather was beautiful. Two other boats that were heading for the St. Johns River departed a short time ahead of us, but we were more or less together heading up the Banana River and across the Canaveral Barge Canal, until they stopped at Harbortown Marina for fuel. We arrived at the planned anchorage on Mosquito River Lagoon about two hours ahead of them – they were delayed at the marina waiting for a pump-out to be fixed (it never was). Unfortunately the wind died down after sunset and the lagoon lived up to its name – mosquitoes swarmed aboard before we had a chance to put up our screens, so we spend the rest of the evening trying to kill them with our electric zapper and finally retreating under a sheet. The night was short!

Day: 53.3sm – 7H45M underway

May 31, 2009
Anchored on the north side of the Sea Breeze Bridge in Daytona, Florida, after an uneventful day underway.

Day: 33.1sm – 4H45M
Trip: 86.4sm – 12H30M underway

June 1, 2009

About 1500 we passed under the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida, which is undergoing repairs. During the repairs, a second, temporary, bridge was built on the north side of the original bridge so as not to disrupt auto traffic. This picture shows the construction in progress.

We had hoped to spend the night in a small anchorage on the ocean side of St. Augustine (Salt River) but after checking it out and seeing that there was no space available among the moorings, we proceeded another hour and a half to Pine Island where we anchored for the night.

Day: 68.4sm – 9H35M
Trip: 154.8sm – 22H05M underway

June 2, 2009

At 1215 we crossed the St. Johns River and passed under Sisters Creek Bridge on our way to Fernandina Beach for the night. Shortly before arriving at Fernandina Beach we met this tug and barge in the Crane Island Range.

We took a mooring at the Fernandina Harbor Marina and dinghied ashore for dinner and a walk around the quaint downtown area.

Day: 48.7sm – 6H40M
Trip: 203.5sm – 28H45M underway

June 3, 2009

Judy needed to do some online work so we stayed at the mooring for a second day. Judy worked while Bob played (and did a few things to improve Sanderling).

We again dinghied ashore for dinner.

June 4, 2009

Before heading north today we tied up at the marina’s dock for water and ice, and were underway by 0740 after taking on only 40 gallons of water. We crossed both the St. Andrews and St. Simons Sounds on the way to the Frederica River in southern Georgia. We had hoped to tour the National Park Service’s Ft. Frederica (originally built by the Spanish) but after calling the office we were told that we couldn’t land by dinghy because the dinghy dock had sunk and the ladder up to the walkway was in disrepair. It was still a beautiful spot; we’ll try on the way south – hopefully the dock will be repaired by then.

Day: 47.9sm – 5H35M
Trip: 251.4sm – 36H00M underway

June 5, 2009 – Frederica River

We cruised thru the beautiful salt-grass “plains” of southern Georgia today; very remote areas with only a few houses to be seen from time to time. The high tides (around 8 feet) make for an interesting change in the scenery as the water rises to cover the grass, then falls six hours later to expose large expanses of mud flats topped with dark green salt grass.

Anchored in the Wahoo River several miles off of the ICW. The only other time we were here was on our trip south in 2002 when we first brought our boat from Maryland to Florida. As we set anchor we noticed large numbers of dolphins plying the water in pairs and sometimes threes – breeding season!

Day: 42.7sm – 5H35M
Trip: 294.1 sm – 41H35M underway

June 6, 2009 – Wahoo River

We were underway at 0840, rejoined the ICW at mile marker 630 at 0915, passed through Hell Gate (always a very shallow spot in the past, but now it has been dredged and the depths were 13 feet at low tide) at 1325, and had our anchor down in the north Vernon River at 1425. The depth of the water on the shallow where we anchored is 10 feet at low tide, with a total tidal range of 8 feet (typical of Georgia), so we have deployed 150 feet of chain to hold us in the current which will reverse twice while we’re here.

Tomorrow we’re only traveling about eight miles to the Isle of Hope Marina where we’ll spend two nights while Judy helps her daughter, Lori, and family move into their new home in the Savannah area while Lori attends pharmacy school.

Day: 35.0 sm – 5H45M
Trip: 332.1sm – 47H20M underway

June 7, 2009 – north Vernon River

Had a very peaceful and quiet night at the anchorage on the Vernon River. Several other larger boats arrived in late afternoon and anchored up river from us. They had both left by the time we got underway this morning.

We’re now in Isle of Hope, Georgia, at the Isle of Hope Marina – a very well run marina where we’ve stayed before. We’re going to use their courtesy car for a couple of hours to do some shopping and drop Judy at her daughter’s new house so she can help them unpack.

The cats are doing fine!

Day: 8.1sm – 1H20M
Trip: 340.2sm – 48H40M

Judy and I had last weekend free, so on Friday afternoon we loaded a few days’ worth of food, Julie, and Khepera onboard, and cruised for about 16 miles north of our home marina to an area in the Banana River just north of the Barge Canal and west of Port Canaveral. We like this spot because there is some boating activity in the locks from the river into Port Canaveral, and we can watch the cruise ships come and go, particularly over the weekend.

This weekend was no exception. There was a big party on the first spoil island north of the locks (locally called Ski Island) on Saturday sponsored by BoatBrevard.com with live music, food and what appeared to be a generally good time for all! We were anchored a short distance north, and could watch the water activities and even took the dingy for a short spin around Ski Island where the party was being held. There must have been 200 small boats, and a couple of larger ones anchored on and around the island.

We played with the new windlass a bit, and got a good feel for how it worked. It is actually a pleasure to anchor and de-anchor now, where before it was always a PITA to raise anchor. Now, with the press of a button, the anchor goes down, the anchor comes up, and the chain stops about where we want it! We have the chain marked at 25 feet, 50 feet, 75 feet, 100 feet and then every 50 feet after 100 feet so we can tell how much chain is out.

We were given an unexpected opportunity to test the windlass when after dinner on Friday night as we were enjoying an espresso on the top deck after the sun had set and the moon was rising. A Coast Guard patrol boat approached us and turned on it’s flashing lights – indicating the crew had something to say to us. They politely informed us that we had anchored in a security zone, and that anchoring at night wasn’t permitted while the shuttle was fueled and preparing for launch (which occurred on Monday). We were only several hundred yards from the southern boundary of the security zone, but it was dark and we had gotten settled in, so it was inconvenient to move, but move we did. Judy took the helm, I raised the anchor. Judy then conned Sanderling out into the channel, around the high-tension wire poles and guy-wires, and into an area between two other spoil islands. We used moonlight to light our path to avoid crab pots in the area, dropped the anchor, made sure it was set, and settled down for the rest of the evening. With the old windlass this maneuver would have been extremely inconvenient; with the new windlass it was mildly inconvenient – just a matter of having to break the reverie of a quiet evening.

The remainder of the weekend was spent checking out the dingy (and cleaning it up), finding things and moving them into their proper storage areas on the boat, and re-learning how to use some of the systems. We returned to our home marina on Sunday afternoon, only to have the bow thruster fail to work when we tested it prior to entering the slip. We made it into the slip, however, without any difficulty.

With our return home from our long cruise last summer (2008 cruise to Bay of Fundy), there was work to be accomplished to continue with the improvements we wanted and needed to make to Sanderling before setting out on our next summer adventure.

We had a long list of both major and minor items that needed our attention. We started by replacing the topside controller for the Vetus bow thruster, rewiring some of the NMEA circuits in order to feed NMEA data from the GPS to the radar, VHF radio, and auto pilot, and by March had removed both port-side saloon windows to replace broken glass and worn-out window channels, and replaced the circuit breaker that was causing problems whenever we needed to blow the electric horns for more than a couple of seconds.

In January Sanderling went to a boat yard where some routine maintenance was performed: new bottom paint, wax the hull, replaced a broken thru-hull, replaced the exhaust manifold riser and two 90 degree elbows in the exhaust system, and replaced corroded zincs, attempted to fix the jamming chain fall. While in the yard we sanded and varnished the bright-work around the upper deck.

Mid-February was the time to start a major project: replacing the Maxwell vertical windlass with a new horizontal Lofrans Tigres windlass. The project started with a major effort removing the old windlass and the heavy platform (90 pounds) that supports the windlass and forms the bow platform for the anchor rollers. That was followed by cutting away the indented area where the old foot switch was located and repairing the cut out section to close the hole left in the small bulkhead. Then we cut into the same area, after all the work repairing one rectangular hole, in order to install a six inch inspection plate which would provide better access into the underside of the anchor platform.In the process we removed all of the teak deck strips on either side of the windlass platform and vacuum-bagged them with epoxy to 1.5mm marine plywood to form two larger deck areas that will be fastened to the platform with 3M 4200 caulk rather than having multiple screws in each piece of teak which caused problems on some teak deck boats.

In the picture above, the new teak decks are shown along with the reworked windlass platform, the new Lofrans Tigres windlass and the rebuilt underlying cabinet with the new inspection port.

We removed the old 140 feet of 3/8″ chain and replaced it with 260 feet of 5/16″ chain which is more appropriate in size for Sanderling, and will give us plenty of length if we find ourselves anchoring in 40+ feet of water again. We’re also adding a hand-held tethered remote control by the windlass which will raise and lower the anchor chain, as well as a new control toggle at the topside steering station which will do the same.

Major projects remaining: fasten the windlass platform to the boat and the windlass to the platform, complete the electrical wiring for the new anchor windlass, and check and tune the injectors on the engine. Following that work, we need to clean up the boat (inside and out) and stock up on supplies for the cruise.