Dead calm this morning. We easily depart the face dock at Fernandina marina and head for St. Mary’s inlet; two miles away. This inlet is an easy one relatively; deep, well marked, wide, etc. I’m sure the Navy’s submarine base at Kings Bay has something to do with it. Weather looks good; little chance of …
We enjoyed the day at Fernandina. Lunch at a local restaurant, a walk about town to snap a few photos, hors d’oeuvre and a glass of wine at the Salty Pelican and back to the boat. A group of tourists were on the dock behind Tivoli taking …
The trip north on the ICW has been, thankfully, uneventful. Miles pass as the ICW changes character from narrow ditch to open bay to inlet. Depth is always a concern but we’ve “played the tides” and have not had any issues. The charts are remarkably precise for the bulk of the distance yet fail abysmally …
Nordhavn guru James Knight (Yacht Tech) personally drove up to Cocoa Village Marina from North Palm Beach with spare parts, identified the bow thruster problem, and fixed it. The magnalloy coupling on the gear box had slipped down its shaft so that the plastic sacrificial coupling insert between it and the upper coupling was not …
We haul our anchor up and head out into the ICW to continue north to Cocoa Beach, an easy 60 mile run. We hail the first bridge’s tender and quickly pass through; it will be our only opening bridge for the day; all the rest are 65 feet and present no issues. All systems are …
Dawn is breaking as we cast off our dock lines and leave “home”. Winds are calm, little current to speak of, and a lovely 80 degrees. I carefully maneuver Tivoli out of her slip, around the corner, and out the fairway to the marina entrance using the autopilot joystick control or “follow up lever”. I’ve …
After spending another 10-11 days at Old Port Cove in North Palm Beach we are ready to move on. Good thing because our insurance company wants us north of St. Mary’s, GA by June 1 and time is racing by. They want us to leave a safe haven in Florida for the hurricane-prone northeast! Our …
The cruising life is dependent on weather. You sit tight when its bad and go when its good. Sometimes, the good is all too brief. That was the case as we sat at Harbor View Marina; one cold front after the other passing through hampered our plans and lengthened our stay. In addition, the bow …