Category: Log

Due to While One’s air draft of 75′, we’re unable to pass most fixed bridges on the ICW. When we first arrived at the St. Lucie Inlet, we wanted to get close to downtown Stuart so that we’d be close enough to get there via a dinghy. We motored all the way up to the fixed bridge, Evan Cray (SR A1A) but, unfortunately, we didn’t see a suitable anchorage. Well, perhaps there were some places we could have anchored but I was uneasy about where we were at and whether or not it would be frowned upon.

Anyways, we turned back to head to Manatee Packet Inlet as we read there were a few anchorages up there. We ended up anchoring just north of the Pirates Cove Resort & Marina. It was a calm anchorage but very tight.

We ended up spending two nights anchored near Port Salerno. First night we had Mahi-Mahi tacos…holy cow. Second night we decided to go into Port Salerno and eat at the Twisted Tuna. The place was packed but overall, it was a pretty decent ambiance and meal.

We would have stayed another night in Stuart but looking at the weather reports, a cold front was forecasted and 30 kt winds and hale for Titusville on Friday, March 11. We need to get going, I don’t want to get caught in that.

On the way to Fort Pierce we were trolling. Sam got a fish on around noon that day. We were sailing so we head into the wind to slow the boat. It was a beautiful fish. We cleaned it on the spot and put the filets in a bag for dinner. We weren’t due into Fort Pierce until the evening and already had plans for dinner.

We anchored about 50 yards from South Causeway Park. It was still light, Shawn and I jumped in and swam to shore to walk the park up towards Museum Point Park.

Upon returning and after a shower, I looked to the North and noticed the sky was looking very dark. Wind was starting to pick up. Another boat had come while were were walking the park about 20 yards North of us…they were too close for me, but I’ve always had anxiety about anchoring. Winds continued to pick up and it it started to get alarming. What was the quality of the bottom for our anchor? We’re close enough to shore we can’t afford to drag so I started both the engines to take some of the force off the anchor. We saw about 42 knots of wind as that front blew through. Definitely the strongest winds I’ve been on a boat in.

We weighed anchor early and started to retrace our tracks out of Marine Stadium. Destination: Palm Beach and Fort Worth.

We got to Fort Worth early evening, ate dinner and everybody started to chill for the evening. Sam & Shawn decided to fish and caught a few cat fish.

After a handful of fish, Sam pulled an unknown fish out. Shawn jumped into action to help Sam take the fish off…and, while Shawn was gripping it, it started to puff-up. Yikes! The fish was ultimately removed and thrown back, but then we began to remember. Aren’t blow/puffer fish poisonous?

Well, after about 30 minutes of surfing the web, we determined that yes, many species are poisonous…in fact, some are significantly more poisonous than arsenic! So, which fish did he touch? Shawn was saying that he could feel where he had touched the blowfish’s spikes but wasn’t in significant pain…what to do.

Fortunately, we were close to an emergency room. Since some websites suggested that even touching the skin of a blowfish could be fatal, I decided to go with Sam and Shawn to the emergency room. Ken took us over and we climbed over a concrete lookout near Lake Worth, only to find a person sleeping on the ground next to his motorcycle. Carefully stepping around him, we walked a few blocks to the Emergency room.

Shawn asked the receptionist whether she felt they should be seen…but had no ideas. “Do you want to see a Doctor?” Since death from this poison can happen 1-4 hours after being stung (so we read) and can result in respiratory paralysis, we decided to hang out for an hour outside the Emergency room before calling Ken to pick us back up. What a night.

My son, Sam, was flying in from Tucson Saturday afternoon. We awoke Saturday morning, weighed anchor…well, we tried to. The anchor was wrapped around a braided line attached to a crab or lobster pot. After some cutter, we were finally free and proceeded to head east through buoy #3 and #4.

The sea state was quite rough, especially heading east through #3 & #4 and ultimately #1 and #2 before heading north. We took at least one wave over the starboard beam of the boat and Shawn, lying on the bench, got completely soaked.

My broker had suggested that both No Name Harbor and Marine Stadium have poor holding. Perhaps they do and the lobster pot line held us. In any case, when I was planning for this trip, I was looking for interesting places to anchor.

We head into the Port of Miami and took the Fisherman’s Channel to port when the channel split. The Port of Miami is quite busy and kept Lummus Island and Dodge Island to starboard and through #16 and #17 before we turned to port to head south. The channel heading south is quite narrow. We turned south west around #67 towards Marine Stadium.

When we arrived, it was close to 1pm in the afternoon and the anchorage was as busy as I’ve seen any anchorage….and loud, with lots of boats and yachts, high-wattage sound systems and folks dancing on the decks.

We ultimately found a place to anchor. Sam was taking an Uber from Miami International airport to Virginia Key. On the other side of Atlantica Seafood Restaurant and Market there’s a parking lot and then a small dinghy beach.

We had dinner at Atlantica and it was meh.

We were going to head out on March 6 up to Palm Beach but looking at the sea state forecasts, we decided to stay another night and head out on the 7th.

Glad we stopped by Marine Stadium but I’d be surprised if I find my way back there. It was glad to see and experience but it was far from calm, especially with all of the people on personal water craft ignoring the no wake signage. Fortunately, the Coast Guard was out patrolling. We saw many people get stopped but never did we see anybody get a ticket as they were just spoken to from a-far.

All three of us worked Thursday and Friday from the boat. I can really get used that this!

Cellular coverage was good enough for my Webex meetings and for even accessing my cloud-located documents. The most difficult thing was dealing with the three hour difference than San Jose. By 5pm Friday, we’re ready for Happy Hour but California is practically just getting back from lunch.

We used a lot of power. While One doesn’t have solar (yet) and that generator was running quite a bit between the computers, electronics, refrigeration and watermaker.

Once Shawn arrived and we were all loaded up, we pushed off around 11 A.M. or so and headed out to Biscayne Bay and over to Matheson Hammock Marina and Fuel Dock.

I’ve always had anxiety entering in a new Marina, not sure on what sorts of things we might encounter. However, this visit to the fuel dock was pretty un-eventful given this was only the second time I’ve docked the boat. Fortunately, there were no other boats waiting nor were there boats at the dock, so we had it all to ourselves.

Unfortunately, we needed to wait around for about 30 minutes or so for the attendant to get back from lunch. I’ve yet to really figure out the simplest way of fueling While One. One person is usually at the nav station watching the take monitor, yelling out percentages and the other is fueling. Of course, there’s quite a bit of latency due to the filtering on the fuel gauge to take out the fluctuations due to boat moving. Always fearful of overfilling, I have a diaper over the fuel vent listening and feeling for any fuel. Despite all of this, I’m still not convinced I’ve got the tank fully filled. When I do the math based on the percentage on how much fuel the tank should take, it seems to be well above the amount when we finally read full. It’s weird.

We picked up some snacks, ice, frozen bait and about $250 worth of fuel.

The trip from Matheson Hammock Fuel Dock over to an anchorage outside of No Name Harbor is about an hour or so. We decided to try to find a spot to anchor inside No Name Harbor but upon motoring around inside, we determined it was too tight for our liking so out we went to find a spot outside.

I had taken Wednesday off from work and Ken and I had plans to run into Key Biscayane to pick up additional groceries. We dropped the dinghy in the water and headed off to No Name Harbor to tie up. Shawn stayed back on the boat and worked.

I had some adhesive to glue my registration numbers on the dinghy shipped to a UPS store that we needed to pick up. I had been told that the Virtual Doorman service cost a small fee but it ended up not costing me anything. Not sure if that was a mistake.

Anyway, the State Park to the UPS store, Wynn Dixie and Wynn Dixie liquor store is about 4 miles, ISTR. Getting there’s a piece of cake. Getting back with all of our groceries is good exercise. We brought our backpacks to help.

That night, all three of us went in to grab dinner at the Boater’s Grill. Suffice it to say, it was rather so-so and doubt I’ll go back. In fact, I’m rather disappointed 9 times out of 10 restaurants I’ve eaten at visiting by boat. It doesn’t matter whether it was the BVI, San Francisco and now Florida, they all seem to be meh.

Anyway, we all ordered a whole, deep fried Snapper to share. Ordering a Dark and Stormy, a guy from the bar came over and asked me what was in it. I told him he should tell me, it was on the menu. I ended up getting a Rum and Coke, that was simple enough. Anyway, we all ordered a whole, deep fried Snapper to share and some appetizers.

We pulled anchor around 10:30am that day to head back to Coral Gables and ultimately back to Lecanto, FL. Sherine took the helm as I pulled anchor and motored us back through Biscayne Channel. Once outside of Coral Gables, I took the wheel.

Once at our finger, I stopped While One and decided to back down the channel to avoid needing to rotate 180º. I wasn’t sure if there was enough space. To my surprise, While One was very easy to control with her two motors.

We unloaded, sprayed down the boat, turned the batteries and refrigerators off and headed out. We were in our car by about 3pm.

Nothing really to report about Thursday. Spent the day playing with our Atoll SUP, swimming and dabbling around the boat.

The anchorage was very calm after about 6 or 7pm. The current and the wind shifted throughout the day and night. More times than not, the bridle were underneath the boat which was a bit concerning. That said, we didn’t drag the anchor one bit.

My only frustration with the anchorage is that of power boaters. For some reason, folks find it necessary to blow through the anchorage at 10 knots or more causing what was really a pretty calm an tranquil anchorage into something rocky early morning…why do they find it necessary to pass between the boats or the boats and the shore, I don’t know. The channel is plenty wide enough and it would have been very considerate just to head out 100 yards or so into the channel. In the words of Forest Gump: “Stupid is as stupid does.”

We woke up early on Wednesday as we wanted to get down to Key Biscayne earlier in the day. We pushed off around 8:15am, enough time to request the 8:30AM bridge opening at Holywood Beach Blvd. Bridge.

This was the first time I’ve taken While One’s helm. Existing the marina was relatively easy as Nico had provided a starboard bow line to help bias the boat as we left. 227 was the last slip next to the fixed end of the dock which were concrete.

Requesting bridge openings we also new for me but watching Nico a few days earlier made it a non-issue.

Once we exited Port Everglades, the seas were quite rough. My mom became seasick. We headed out about 4 nm but ultimately turned back closer to shore to avoid the current which seemed to be about 2 knots. Coming back closer to shallower water once we were further south gave us about another 1 knot in boat speed. We had both engines at about 1800 rpm and were make about 5 knots with the wind and current at our nose. After several hours and turning further east, we were able to put the jib out for a bit to pick up another knot. We arrived at the anchorage outside of No Named Harbor on Key Biscayne about 3pm.

The bridle on While One is very long…I’m not quite sure why. In any case, Sherine and I were familiar enough with using a bridle during anchoring when we bareboat chartered in the BVI a Leopard 40. However, the new windless, chain counter, slipping gypsy, etc. caused us several unsuccessful anchoring attempts.

After a few hours at out current spot. some of the folks had started to leave and so we desired to get in closer to shore. We attempted to bring up the anchor but found it was fouled on what seemed to be a lobster pot and some line. We tried our best to remove it but ultimately Sam had to jump in the water to remove the line from the anchor.

We were in about 11 feet of water. I wanted to have a scope of about 3 or 4 (not being familiar with the bottom conditions, boat or anchor). We ultimately determined, after several attempts of the the devil’s claw slipping off the chain, that we were letting too much chain out before putting the bridle on. Once we figured that out, things were much smoother!