And..........

Turned out our bottom painter didn't get us painted until Saturday.  No problem.  We just couldn't launch the boat on the weekend!  No lift operator!  Oh well, having fun here sightseeing.  Got to see some local space things.

and, Monday:

SPLASH!!

Boat is filthy.  Moved it back to the Marina and will spend a few days cleaning and unwinding from the boatyard blues.  And a shower (longer than two minutes and with warm water) would be nice.

May have found an RV that will work for us:

More adventures posted here as they become available.

Stay tuned......

picture in your mind......

the alien from Men In Black........

o

okay, hold that thought, more on him later.....

Found our bottom paint in Daytona and now we're waiting for a painter.....

what's it like living in a boatyard?   Imagine your beautiful 3 bedroom 2 bath home.  And your beautiful, lush green yard.  Now, picture it on blocks 15 feet in the air.  Your yard has turned to sand and the wind is blowing forty miles per hour.  But, you can still use it, you just have to climb a 12 foot stepladder to get inside.  And, you can still use your refrigerator, just one third of it.  Which is all there is on a boat to begin with.  And, you can use a fan.  (but if you use them together you have to climb down the ladder two or three times a day to switch the breaker back on when you blow the power.  You can't use your hot water heater.  But no reason to because you can't run water or use the shower.  They are just a short walk away.  Down your ladder and across the sand dunes.......It's kind of like that.  

Anyway, there was a great movie once -it's probably still there.  Harry In Your Pocket.  James Coburn.  Anyway, Harry was a pickpocket.  Harry had one rule - "Harry doesn't hold."  Meaning, once he picked your pocket, he immediately passed your wallet off to someone else.  The cops grabbed him several times, but he didn't have the goods.  He passed them off.  Because, Harry doesn't hold.  Anyway, living in a boat yard is a lot like camping.  And "Ed Doesn't Camp."  Look for it in theaters soon.....

So, we're stranded on the space coast, may as well go watch NASA launch the rockets.  So we go to the space walk to watch the 646 (1846) launch and at 620 (1820) this guy in a green shirt with patches sewn on his shirt of every CPR class he's ever attended and, looking disturbingly like the guy above from Men in Black suddenly stands up and yells (YELLS) SCRUBBBBBBBBED!!!!!!!  He looked official, but I checked with Mr Google anyway.  Took Mr Google ten minutes to tell me the launch had been rescheduled for tomorrow night.  I guess Mr Greenshirt knew something.  Or he was an alien who has fooled us all.     

Good news.....

Relatively good news from the bottom guy - he can get us touched up later in the week.  Bad news - he doesn't have matching paint!  So we're off to find some!  Shouldn't be too hard - but - after calling around, it's only 60 miles to the nearest West Marine that has our color!  Road trip!!

sooooooo.........

So we hauled out and it all turned out to be okay....some bottom paint missing but no significant damage....very grateful the running gear is okay - gonna get the paint touched up so we're waiting to hear from a bottom guy.  Anyway, we're back in the yard!  Whoopee!!  It has been almost a month since we've been in one so we're pretty used to it.

Stay tuned for updates!!

okay, so here's what happened.....

Friday,  sb on the icw....just south of new smyrna beach....ed decided he could break a cardinal rule.....heavy boat traffic and a dumb ass fisherman who thought he could fish in the channel made for a major conundrum......move just outside the channel or hold ground and make others move.....it's just a second,.... no problem.....  sadly, it was two seconds....which was one second too long....out of the channel the depth sounder went to 3.5 feet......nothing wrong with that, unless you need 4.5 feet of water to stay afloat.....so....we ran aground.....back off....nope.....power thru.....nope.....now we're really stuck........bad words don't help......call for tow....unfortunately, we were five miles into a ten mile no wake zone....so we waited for the tow....as he idled thru the no wake zone....tow boat us....just buy the insurance.....unlimited....glad we did.....didn't take much to pull us 0ff.....and we were on our way.... just two and a half hours later.....which, considering where we were I thought was pretty good.              

scared of my own shadow now....i was very careful.....the icw is not forgiving if you leave the channel...we entered the mosquito lagoon....no problem...wide open water...looks to be the size of lake Michigan...with a very narrow channel through it....supposedly a minimum of eight feet of water.... in the channel.....we only draw four and one half....no problem....unless the wind kicks up...two foot waves....if you have eight feet of water and two foot waves;;;;;; you have ten feet of water!!!  on the waves....you only have 6 feet of water with no waves.....if you draw four and one half feet you are majorly puckering when the depth gauge says 2.....of course, this assumes the channel has been dredged this century and really does have an eight foot channel.....did we hit bottom?  not sure....don't know enuf about boating....if we did we powered through it.....but having been stuck already today it was a very nerve wracking afternoon.....

we got in behind a big sailboat which i was sure drew more than 4.5....he said he drew six.....i told him not to get nervous....we were not pirates....but we were going to follow him.....closely....which we did until titusville.....very nice guy... he called us on the radio every time he saw bottom or saw shoaling.......but if he can do it so can we.....still......not a good feeling......

so he (Indigo - if anyone sees him buy him some booze and send us the bill!)  continued south and we pulled into a marina for the night...  we were going to take a ball but took a slip instead.....(ed) got off and kissed the deck.....goose poop doesn't taste that bad....but I was happy to have not sunk my home.......yet.....

since there is a boatyard here we have decided to be cautious and haul out to check for any damage..and I cannot wait to see what my brand new bottom paint looks like!!  of course, the yard isn't open on weekends, so hopefully we can get hauled on Monday.....and, double hopefully we'll find no significant damage.....

maybe it's time for an rv......or a pup tent in snake infested gator country.....

Safe in Cape Canaveral......

1.  but just barely.....
.  
2.  decided to spend the day at the beach......

3.  But .  that was because the boat was on the beach and we had to wait for a tow.....

4.  always buy tow insurance.......

5.  unlimited......

6.  #neverboatinflorida......

7.  five feet of water is generous.....

8.  anyone who says angels don't watch over us is full of crap......

9.. God answers prayers....

10.  if you can't kiss the ground, kissing a wooden boat dock is okay too....

11. Boat is for sale.  First person who will take five dollars to take it wins....

12.  maybe not....get back to us tomorrow....

13. Indigo was angel number two....

14.  owe indigo crew beers....

15.  gone fishing.....

16.   more later............

Day two....to Daytona....or so we thought.....

The following story may or may not have occurred.... unless it did.....the events depicted may be fictional....or they may not.....the names may or may not have been changed to protect the innocent....or maybe not.....


A rather uneventful day...  woke to a beautiful sunrise in St Augustine....I usually hate these.....

but, I was awake, so why not enjoy it.  But, it was cold, so had to turn on the diesel powered solar generator to get the boat warm.....  definitely time to head south....

The trick in boating the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is to stay in the water......

I can't tell you how disappointed I was to find ourselves aground!  But, as I looked around, I noticed we were still in the water.  Perplexing.  Obviously something wrong with our chartplotter.  Being the cautious boater that I am, I believe in redundancy.  So I checked the back up chartplotter.....

and found we were in the water, but had just passed over the ground.....fortunately, Karen was watching dolphins and didn't noticed we had just boated over a quarter mile on dry land..... I guess that is why all the books say to follow the channel markers and not the charts.  Odd, but, in this case anyway, beneficial..... especially since, later in the day, we decided to follow a sailboat into Daytona... there are two low bridges in Daytona....though we had only been through here once before, the charts say we cannot clear them.  Last time we cleared one but not the other....depends on the tides....today we were going in at high tide so I knew we would have to have the bridges opened...a sailboat was ahead of us...let's just follow him and let him open the bridges.  As luck would have it, the sailboat ahead decided to exit the channel....  the problem with that is that you may run aground...which he did.....wow, he stopped fast, said Karen.  Yes, he did, said I... no one was hurt and that's what towing insurance is for, always buy the towing insurance (WESTMARINE.COM) so we had to open our own bridges.

just past the bridge was our stop for the night, Daytona Marina.  We called the harbormaster.  "when you come in, just go past the 164 footer and turn right to dock six."  164 footer?  I was hoping I wasn't going to scratch his anchor!  (Caddyshack.)  Funny thing was, the reason we wanted to stay at Daytona Marina (again) was because there was a Charthouse Restaurant in the marina.  When we called, they said they had no space for us.  Race week.  Daytona 500.  Daytona 500?  What's that?  Oh, you don't know.  Well, come on in.  We'll find a place for you they said.  Didn't say anything about 164 footers though.......

Anyway, huge boats, oddly enough named "Wheels", with tender "Training Wheels", "Pole Position," with tender "Outside Pole," and the M&M's boat, I guess.... who knew race car drivers/teams would have big boats?  Weird.

Anyway, we did have dinner at the Charthouse.  Usually we like early bird specials (for old people) and happy hour prices (for poor people) but, oddly enough, the Charthouse doesn't have happy hour or early birds when rich race car drivers are in town.

so we ordered enough food for 6 meals so we could at least have leftovers.....

On a side note, I used to have a job.  Worked with a great bunch of people.  Well, except that one guy... anyway, even though they were all heros, some of them were kinda strange.  They liked Nascar, for some reason.  Nascar?  Really?  Drive really fast and make Left turns?   Anyway, I sometimes made fun of them and their sport.  As I get older, I realize that was mean of me.  I may have hurt their self esteem.  That was wrong, and I apologize.  I will never do it again.   And, whist we were eating at the Charthouse in Daytona on Daytona 500 weekend we did not see Danica Patrick and a bunch of other apparently race car drivers.  Although Mr. The King was there.  Or maybe not.  I would tell you who else was there, but I'm not really sure.  If they took swim suit pictures like Danica Patrick I might know who they were.  Too bad you weren't there.  If this really happened.  But it probably didn't.  As far as you know.

Anyway, Daytona 500 this weekend.  You can probably see the drivers on tv.....

Tomorrow, back to boating......

Day one.....to St. Augustine.....

When your water tanks are full, it's time to leave.  You people with real homes have no idea......

And don't even get me started on poop tanks.....

Said goodbye to good friends over the last few days.  Boaters are good people.......

Off we  go!!  Leaving the Ortega Landing Marina.  Great place.  Highly recommended!!  Plus, whenever you ask for the bridge to be opened, they're okay with that.  Talk about power!!

"Driving" "The Ditch."  The trick is not to hit bottom.  That's really the key to boating in Florida....

Entering St. Augustine.  

Behind the pirate ship, of course.....

On the ball (like anyone has said that about me before!) St Augustine Municipal Harbor.  Nice view.

Sunset.  Snacks a la Kristen and Hans (smoked trout - awesome!!)  Sun dried tomato pesto a la publix.  Sunset a la God.  Good day..

Lyons Bridge, St Augustine.  Good day had by all!  

Tomorrow off to Daytona Beach.  Home of the Mega Yachts and Race Week (Daytona 500.)  I hope my boat doesn't scratch their anchors!!

One night in Bangkok......

One night in Bangkok.....doesn't even really belong here.  But, if you hum the tune whilst using the phrase "six months in Jacksonville" it will be nice background music while you read.

If you're new to the story, here's a little background.  After sailing around Hawaii for four years, Ed and Karen sold their sail boat and went to the dark side.  The dreaded stinkpot.  A Grand Banks 36 was located in Punta Gorda, Florida, and in July of 2015 Ed and Karen had a new home.  After only one week, the boat was moved to Jacksonville, Florida.  Over 500 miles and 12 days, the boat performed flawlessly, arriving in Jacksonville in late July.

We planned on staying in Jacksonville for two months, before boating off to see the world!  Okay, the state.  Well, maybe just downtown Jacksonville.  As boats will be boats, two months turned to six.  A few minor repairs became a few hundred minor repairs and several major ones.  In the process of doing routine maintenance to familiarize myself with the boat, I discovered that the previous maintenance I was told had been done (and receipts proved it) had not been done.  Bummer.  Let the buyer beware, as they say.  So, here we are six months later.  The generator serviced and repaired, twin engines preventatively maintained and old impeller parts remove from the cooling system, new batteries, inverter, hot water heater, radio, chart plotter, canvas, thru hulls, bottom paint.......on infinitum.....

Though we had planned on leaving Jacksonville in October, nay November, nay January.....etc..... February seems to be the magic month.  Tomorrow, February 17, 2016, Cosmic Mariner begins it's voyage.  South, I think.  Next stop:  Key West.  Well, not literally the next stop. But the current destination anyway.

Unless we hit an iceberg.  But I think that's self explanatory.  Read along as you see fit.