Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 2/26- Vero Beach     We got some sad news today as my brother in law passed away. His name was Steve Phelps and he was an amazing person. Steve was from Australia and spent time in Alaska where he was a big outdoor sportsman. That is until a body surfing accident left him a quadrapedic. Even after his accident he lived a full life refusing to pity himself. He fished often and well and even hunted zooming around in his motorized wheelchair. He was one of the most amazing boat drivers I have ever seen. His zeal for life was so infectious. The average life expectancy of someone with his level of injury is 10 years after the injury. Steve just through force of will made it almost 30 years. We had many good times together and I am sad that I will not get the chance to party with him again. Fish on Steve!!      Other than that it was another full day of doing Vero things. We played pickleball in the morning and then went to see the new Bob Marley movie at t...

 2/26- Vero Beach     This morning started on a high note, a literal high note as I ascended our mast. The tape I had used to cover the clevis pins holding the spreaders on had been peeling off. It had been streaming aft for quite some time and it was time to remediate that. It looked kind of ugly flapping around in the breeze but in some cases I thought it was scaring the birds from sitting on the spreaders. Anyway it was a nice calm morning and I got Mike and Bob to come over and crank me up. The whole thing took ten minutes. I do have a mast ladder that I was thinking of trying but I would need to be in the boson’s chair anyway so I asked the guys for help.       After we successfully concluded that project we headed out on the bus into town. The bus here is great and most importantly it is free. Rumor has it the reason it is free is to try and get some of the octogenarian drivers off the road. You can get a lot of places on the bus system the ...

 2/25- Vero Beach     Well it being Sunday and a nice weekend weather wise the harbor was a zoo today. It felt like we were in a fishbowl with people just cruising by and staring. “Look at the nice people on the sailboat, Martha”. It’s interesting that people will stare at you almost until they will fall out of their boat. I’m also fairly sure they have no idea I can hear all their inane comments as they putter by.  I don’t mean to have this sound like a rant it’s just that I felt like a lab specimen today. We were the entertainment for many people.      I guess that is just cruising life for you. This is an entirely different kind of boating. Many of the people we are meeting no longer have homes and have been doing this for many years. People do tend to gawk at you though when you tell them you live on a boat. There are some issues that make the lifestyle interesting. It’s hard to get mail for one. I tried to change all communication over to pap...

 2/24- Vero Beach      It’s Saturday here and the weekend is upon us. We decided fairly early on that we would try to avoid traveling on the weekends. We had to stay longer at some stops to accommodate this but it has been a good policy. Even here at the mooring it’s a little crazy. The harbor on the weekends is a maelstrom of boats cruising in and out. There is a steady stream of all sizes of boats just cruising in here and tooling around with no particular purpose. Pontoon boats and runabouts and not to mention the ever present dinghies zooming back and forth. It’s kind of like people watching only its boats. The whole thing seems like a waste of fuel as none of these boats are going anywhere in particular. There is some serious horsepower on the backs of some of these boats also. I have seen one with six 400 hp outboards across the stern. Even the small boats have 200 hp motors propelling them. I wonder what you need that much horsepower for.      W...

 2/22- Vero Beach      Yesterday I sent Alayne off the boat and I gave Mr Perkins some love. I have been trying to maintain a schedule for maintenance on the motor and while I was a little early this was a good place for some attention. I have been changing the oil every 100 hours on this trip. Usually back in Maine I would change it every fall before putting the boat away for the winter. That would mean changing it every 40 to 70 hours. So 100 hours seemed like a good interval. The motor was at 80 hours when we got here so I figured what the hell and I can get the supplies much easier here.      Along with that are several other maintenance issues such as the fuel filters. These are pretty critical and so I will change the secondary filter soon. I usually change these every other season so they can go 200-300 hours. I also filter all the fuel before it goes into my tank in the hope of keeping any impurities and water out.      Then ther...

 2/20- Vero Beach     Well the weather has turned again. The sun has shined on us here the last couple of days. It has been cold though with morning temps in the 40’s. It’s hard getting used to this as it is warm and pleasant for 5 or 6 days and then the front drops down out of the north with strong winds and the temperature falls into what we always called “ good sleeping weather “. It will run now in the low 50’s in the morning to the upper 60’s in the afternoon. The wind is chilly so it’s not quite shorts weather.      On Monday we hung around the boat to let the weather get its act together.  We had dragged all the chain and anchor rode out of the locker and laid it on deck. This was so it could get a good fresh water rinse in the rain. We took this chance to shovel the mud out of the anchor locker. It wasn’t too bad as I have been trying to rinse it off as I pull up the anchor but some of the anchorages have been really muddy and the chain co...

 2/18- Vero Beach      Here we are back in Vero again and doing Vero things. We met up with a bunch of people and went over to see the band that was playing. This was after I spent most of the day dropping the car off and then doing some grocery shopping. The trouble with the bus system here is it only comes by once an hour or so. I don’t mean to complain as it is a great system but if you have more than one stop it can be hard to get it all in. They do have a great app that tells you right where the bus is in real time.      So I watched the bus go by as I was walking down the street to the bus stop. With nothing else to do I started walking until I hit the Walmart. This is a neighborhood Walmart which means they only sell groceries. I have had the opportunity on this trip to sample many different grocery stores . There is Publix, Harris Tweeter, Winn Dixie, Food Lion, Aldi’s and Piggly Wiggly. ( who names their store Piggly Wiggly??) I have found Pub...

 2/17- Homestead to Vero Beach     We decided today that in order to avoid the madness of the express ways we would take some back roads to return to Vero. It was a much more pleasant journey. Just outside of Homestead we came across an area filled with potted plants. These were nurseries that would cater to landscapers. Landscaping is big business in this state as many of these mansion owners couldn’t take care of the acres of lawn and gardens that they own. The same with a lot of the condo associations they need someone to care for their properties. Anyway there were miles of these nurseries and most of the signs were in Spanish as many of the landscapers we see are Hispanic. There was not much English spoken around here.      The vistas gradually became more farm oriented with sugar cane being the primary crop. Sugar is Florida’s largest agricultural product and also it is one of the largest worldwide. There were fields of high grass alternating wit...

 2/15- Homestead to Key West to Homestead    We got up early and hit the road only to find that there were plenty of other people with the same idea. We turned down good old Route 1 as it is the only road into the Florida Keys. Almost as soon as we got on the road the traffic dragged to a halt. Again I was simply amazed at the number of cars on the road. We poked along until we passed over the bridge into Key Largo. Route 1 is a very old road and it has always been very commercial and here it was no exception. Swim with the dolphins , $20 please. Hand feed sharks that would be another $20. Boat tours, snorkeling tours, fishing tours it’s all there for you to purchase along this road. It wasn’t until we got about half way out that the crass commercialism slowed down.      We stopped for a bit in Marathon to check out the marina there. The moorings are all full and it was a month wait to get on one. The anchorage looked to be pretty full itself. I was surpris...

 2/14- Vero Beach to Homestead      Yes that’s right Homestead Florida. We are on a road trip as we rented a car and drove down here. This trip probably solidified the decision to turn around on our boat as the traffic was a nightmare. There are just too many people around here for me. We had bumper to bumper traffic at 70 mph for almost 2 hours. My nerves were shot by the time we got here.      We drove straight to the Everglades and that was a relief. We took a hike that was the closest I’ve seen to an actual forest. This walk was in what they called a jungle. There were big mahogany trees which are now rare and these cool trees called Gumbo Limbo. They have a very shiny reddish bark and were used to carve the horses of merry-go-rounds among other things.      The Everglades as a whole though were a little underwhelming. Maybe it was because we have been sailing through marshes and cypress swamps for months. The thing about it though i...

 2/12- Vero Beach     It’s been a couple of days since I wrote here and I apologize as we have been busy doing Vero things. There is just so much to do around here that the days just seem to fly by. I know this month will be over before I know it. One day we went to a farmers market which is really rather large. There were lots of people there though and you had to wait in long lines to buy anything.       Later that day we walked back to the beach where they had closed off the streets and had a band playing. At one point the band played Fortunate Son by CCR. This was a protest song about how rich people were able to avoid the draft. I thought it was ironic that there were probably several hundred millionaires in the audience and many of them had most likely avoided being drafted. Anyway it was a good show and from there we walked back and caught the last set of the band playing across the road from the marina in another free concert. That was a full d...

 2/9- Vero Beach      We did some Vero things today like taking the free bus to do some shopping. In the afternoon Gerry and Anne invited us on their trawler to take a ride on the ICW. They were having trouble getting pumped out here as the pump out boat suffered a catastrophic failure the other day. The pump at the dock was not working properly either so we tooled down the river to Loggerheads Marina which was about 5 miles away. It was interesting watching him maneuver his boat into a place I would have been scared to enter. We went for a little trip down the river as it was a nice day. It was fun seeing how the other half cruised.      A lot of folks took advantage of the narrow window to cross to the Bahamas today. The trouble is with so many people heading over they run out of places to stay once they get there. This becomes dangerous because then people are anchoring in exposed places and when the window closes they are trapped in a bad situation...

 2/8- Jensen Beach to Vero Beach     Well we have returned to Vero Beach again. It was a nice trip back up. The decision to return here was hard and not hard at the same time. We were looking forward to crystal clear water and white sandy beaches but the weather has been so bad that we felt our time would be more fun right here. There are so many boats waiting to make the passage to the Bahamas that they are jamming ev

 2/7- Jensen Beach     Well the wind had let up a little today and we were able to get into town for Happy Hour. We met up with a bunch of folks from boats in the anchorage. Mike and Carla and their passengers Mike and Michelle and Lee and Wendy and also in the mix were Mike and Kris from Galileo. We sure gave the waiter a run for his money. Everyone is heading off in different directions so it may be some time until we see any of these folks again. I guess that is what this life style is all about.      The wind has piped back up again which brings me to an old topic, noise. There is a whole cacophony of noise on the boat. As the boat rocks it flexes and that causes all these creaks and snaps from the cabinetry. The waves are slapping against the hull and the rigging is humming away. And I still haven’t been able to stop that halyard from slapping on the mast. Then there are the squeaks when the mooring lines tighten up and rub against the chafe gear....

 2/6-Jensen Beach     Well the wind howled, roared, screamed, wailed, bellowed, shrieked , and even caterwauled. The wind pretty much did as it pleased today. We had white caps on 2 foot waves only 200 yards from the beach. I really can’t imagine what it must have been like off shore. They were predicting 20 foot waves in the Gulf Stream. So we hung out on the boat as going to shore meant getting soaked. At least it was sunny most of the day. The boat rocked and rolled all day as I kept trying to quiet the halyards that insisted on slamming into the mast. Hopefully by late tomorrow it will have died down to only a roar or two.      I’m reasonably sure that someone is missing a lot of air as there has been an incredible amount of air moving past me on the last couple of days. I keep wondering where it is all going. If you find any keep it.      This anchorage is fairly wide open especially to the south and east. That is why we picked it a...

 2/5- North Palm Beach to Jensen Beach     We headed out under the cover of considerable cloud cover this morning. The forecast called for light rain showers all day and it did not disappoint. It took a while to get the anchor up as the chain was filled with mud. So was I by the time I finally got it secured. In reversing our track we now had to go back through the seven drawbridges. Fortunately we timed them all pretty well. We did have trouble at one though. I had tried numerous times to hail the bridge tender on the radio but I got no response. Turns out the near by bridge operator called him to let him know we were there. Apparently he had turned down his radio to make a call and forgot to turn it back on. He apologized profusely for delaying us.       It was a cloudy day so we did not get to see the brilliant water colors like last time. We did have a pod of dolphins swim with us for quite a while. Again they seem to enjoy playing with our ru...

 2/4- North Palm Beach      We stuck to the boat all day as there was a big storm brewing. We had a fairly stiff breeze blowing out of the south which made it a little rough in the anchorage. There were tornado warnings out also. It rained for a couple of hours before the wind died off and the sun came out. That was Act 1 as there is another big storm coming or maybe it’s the same one just wrapping around. This one promises to have some very big wind. We are hoping to head out in the morning and make it back to Jensen Beach and be on a mooring. There we will have some land in front of us as the wind will be out of the north.     We had a great time here in Lake Worth seeing a bunch of friends and relatives. We got to snorkeling in some of the clearest water I have ever been in. This I think is the longest time I’ve ever been anchored (with my own anchor) in one place. We sure put it to the test this morning and it did just fine. I only hope I can get i...

 2/3- North Palm Beach    I hope everyone had a great Ground Hog Day. Ground Hog Day is one of the lesser holidays meaning it doesn’t mark a big turning point in our trip around the sun. It is though approximately half way between the solstice and the equinox. For you folks in northern climes this means winter is half over.     We just lazed around the boat yesterday not doing much of note so we were excited when Joe and Nancy wanted to take us snorkeling again. We went to the same spot but wow what a difference. This time we were there on a nice Saturday afternoon and the place was a circus. We did have a very nice snorkel and picnic even as we dodged people and boats. Boats were anchored all up and down the beach and it was even more crowded on the far side of the island. Boats of all shapes and sizes were everywhere leaving lots of churned up water and plenty of wakes.       This press of the population has been wearing on me for a wh...

 2/1- North Palm Beach    Happy Groundhog Day!! We hope that the little varmit backs out of his hole so he can’t see anything. We did some shopping yesterday courtesy of Joe and Nancy and once again were treated to delicious meal at their place.      These last several days has seen the weather turn on the Florida shine. It has been sunny with bluebird skies and 70’s during the day and high 50’s at night. The wind has been north and light so there is no drama in the anchorage. I’m afraid that might come to an end this weekend with the passage of another cold front. This one sounds like it will be packing some big wind. The wind though will be west so it might help all those folks looking for a window to cross to the Bahamas. If that happens it will clear out the marinas and anchorages. We plan to sit here at least through the weekend as we don’t like traveling on the weekend and in the rain.     Today we met up with Alayne’s aunt and uncle, Shirle...