Further Adventures Of SV Nutmeg

 3/31- Daytona to Fort Matanza    We managed to float all night as we only had several inches of water under the keel. Thankfully there was virtually no wind. It took a while getting the anchor up as the chain was loaded with mud. I got a work out lifting many buckets of water to clean the chain.      We left early in the hopes of missing some of the traffic on the water. It must have been because it was Easter Sunday that there was very little traffic until early afternoon. It also helped that we were going through a narrower channel and this was a more residential area. It did pick up later but nowhere near like yesterday.     A lot of the boats we have been seeing are fishing and we see many people fishing from shore or dock all along the way. With all of the fish hooks that were in the water these last couple of days you have to wonder how the fish can miss them. Well it appears they seem to miss them just fine. We routinely ask people wh...

 3/30- Titusville to Daytona    It was finally a quiet morning. For the past two nights I feel like I have been riding a bucking bronco. First it was a southeast blow that wasn’t that strong but the anchorage was totally exposed to the south so it got a bit rough. Then it switched around and blew really hard out of the north. The boat bounced around all night so I was glad when last night turned out to be fairly mellow.      We normally don’t like to move on weekends but we were getting a break with the winds so we thought we should take advantage. Well now we know why we don’t travel on the weekends. I think every boat in Florida was out today. We saw all different kinds of floating contraptions. I normally don’t like to make a big deal about wakes but by the end of today I was just plain tired of being bounced around. Can you say torpedo!!??      We anchored in the Halifax River just down from downtown. I expected a couple of boats in here ...

 3/28- Titusville     We decided to stay here today or rather it was decided for us. The wind howled most of last night and by this morning it let up a bit. It was then I spotted an open mooring which we jumped on. We no sooner tied up to the ball when the front came through with a vengeance. There was very little rain but the wind heeled the boat on its side and kept it there for a couple of minutes. That lasted about a half hour or so and then things calmed down to a dull roar. We managed to get the dinghy into shore but the ride back was a little wet. The wind then switched to the north and cranked right up. The boat is bouncing around so much now that it’s hard to type this.  There must be 3 to 4 waves churning through the mooring field along with the 20-25 mph winds. It’s supposed to calm down by midnight or so. If this keeps up it could throw me out of my bunk.     With the wind screaming out of the north there was no point in trying to trav...

 3/27- Melbourne to Titusville     We got up early this morning but not before the rest of the fleet had taken off. We were the last boat to leave the anchorage this morning. It was an easier run today the only issue being the barge at the NASA causeway bridge. It wasn’t really an issue but a couple of people had called the bridge looking for an opening and the lift bridge has been torn down. They are working on the new bridge and there were a couple of barges that could have been trouble. We would have just cruised right through except some guy fishing thought he would park right in the middle of the channel and cast some lines. When he looked up and saw us bearing down on him he wised up and got out of the way.     There were no moorings available in Titusville so we anchored out north of the mooring field in 6 (yikes!) feet of water. There is a big front coming through that may have some rain but it will have some big wind. It should be a good ancho...

 3/26- Vero Beach to Melbourne Florida, Dragon Point    We ripped off the Velcro and we headed out this morning. It was tough to leave but I think we probably used up that town so it was time to go. It was quite the exodus this morning as 4 or 5 boats left before us. Once we got out onto the ICW there were boats lined up in either direction, most headed north. We are now part of the great migration northward.      Today is an easy run as there was not many tricky spots but there was a fairly stiff breeze. It was behind us though and it was interesting to watch all the boats popping out their head sails all in a row. We motor sailed most of the day so we could shake out some of the cobwebs out of both the sails and ourselves.      We ended up anchoring behind a bridge in Melbourne at a place called Dragon Point. This is the long pointy end of Merritt Island. At one time there was a sculpture of a dragon at the very end of the point. It had bee...

 3/25- Vero Beach     Well we hope to be leaving here tomorrow and so we spent the day saying goodbye to all of the friends we have made. It is really bittersweet in that it is time to move on but we have really enjoyed some of the people we have met here. Of course there’s every chance we will meet up again further up the road. I wonder if it’s easier to make friends here because we know that we will be leaving and going our separate ways. It seems to make relationships easier knowing they will end in a short while. That is also too bad because there are people we have met that would be great to have a longer relationship with. This is one of the things that make this cruising life so interesting.      I just wanted to say how much we enjoyed the company of Guy and Barbara and Roger and Shirley. They made our time here very pleasant indeed and are part of the reason this is called Velcro Beach. A shout out to Mike and Carla as well as Bob and Samar. T...

 3/23- Vero Beach     We have had many people come up to us and say “You’re boaters right”. I’m trying to figure out how we stand out as boaters. Even the cashier at the dollar store had me pegged as a boater. Some folks tonight introduced themselves and said you must be boaters. They even went so far as to say sailboaters. I mean everyone around here looks like they could be from a boat. I guess in Florida 1 out every 3 people own a boat so your odds are good asking that question. I mean I shower every couple of days or so so it shouldn’t be the smell. Maybe it’s the scruffiness of our clothes and hair. I have yet to figure out what gives us away.       I got my exhaust elbow yesterday from the fabricator and installed it. I always get bummed when I can reduce to a mere sentence an act that took me almost 7 hours to complete. It’s always tough entering it into the maintenance log as installed new mixing elbow when it took a couple of days and a t...