Fernandina to Vero Beach

We stayed in Fernandina Beach for two nights. We dinghies into the marina and walked the main street. There are lots of shops to stroll around in. We also had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, the food was very good.

We departed our mooring and motored down the ICW to Jacksonville Beach where we stopped at Beach Marine. We wanted to go into a marina so we could wash all the salt off the boat. We had quite a bit of sea spray during the first eight hours of our passage south and needed to get it off before the corrosion started. We also discovered that they had a really nice laundry room so Sandy did six loads of laundry.

We left the next morning and continued down the ICW to St. Augustine. It is always a treat to visit St. Augustine. There is so much to see and do there and they have some very nice restaurants. We met some friends that also left from New Bern and did a restaurant hopping adventure. I think it was mostly for the happy hours. We stayed for three nights and then continued on.

We continued down the ICW and anchored at Rockhouse Creek for the night. Our anchor windlass still wasn't working so I used the secondary anchor which only has 30 feet of chain. I have to haul it all up by hand and it can get darn heavy. The chain weighs 40 pounds and the anchor weighs 44 pounds. The following day we traveled 63 miles and anchored in Eau Gallie. We were the only boat at this anchorage. We had gone further than other boats on the previous day. Most of them had stopped 15 miles before us at Daytona Beach. On the third day out of St. Augustine we only had a run of 35 miles to get to Vero Beach where we planned on doing some last minute provisioning to replenish what we used on the way south and to get the darn windlass fixed.

We rafted with a Canadian boat named Moxie. We met Grant and Donna and got to know them, very nice couple.

The next day I took the windlass off the deck and tore into it. I ordered some parts from Defender not knowing for sure what I might need. If I didn't need them they would become spares. After stripping the gears all apart and taking the motor off I discovered that the motor runs fine. As I would put each gear back into the gearbox I would test it. It would go both forward and backward until the final gear went in. I think I had guys from 5 different boats coming by and giving advice. I was really stumped. By this time Margareta had come in and rafted to us. We know Bill and Margaret from the marina at New Bern. It was also Thansgiving so I put the windlass aside and Sandy and I celebrated with dinner on Margareta with Bill, Margaret and Hutch and Linda from Sandcastle. We know Hutch and Linda from the marina in New Bern also. We all brought part of the dinner and it was wonderful.

I needed to call a shop that works on windlass' for some advice but everyone was closed for the holiday until Monday. I finally got ahold of Florida rigging and Hydraulics in The Palm Beach area. I explained to the technician my problem and he respond with 'Oh, that would be the compound gear'. He knew immediately why the problem was. Later that morning we rented a car and drove the 75 miles to their shop. The technician, Buck, met us at the counter and immediately grabbed the gear and confirmed the problem. The compound gear is supposed to turn a quarter of a turn in order to reverse the direction. He had a new compound gear in it by early afternoon. Sandy and I went over to the Garden Mall and had a nice lunch while it was being worked on. Well, the windlass is installed back on the boat and we are now waiting for a weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. We may have one coming up this Thursday night. In the mean time we are strolling over to the beach and just hanging with friends. We know the couples from about 12 boats that are here also waiting to cross over to the Bahamas.

Next post will hopefully be from the Bahama Islands.