Dragging the bottom

It’s the day after Christmas and we are heading down to Fort Pierce for a haul out. I know, that’s a bit unusual for us but we had a bit of underwater issues. The centerboard on the Goose unwound its cable and the cable pulled loose and is laying on the bottom. This now gives us a 10 foot draft! Well, the ICW does not tolerate a boat with a 10 foot draft so, I went diving to pass a rope thru the board and then crank it up using the winches. I should be able to replace the cable with a new one and be back on the water again in a couple of hours (if everything goes correctly). Wish me luck!

How come the "Captain" always has to go diving?

The blue rope is holding the centerboard up.

Well, the board is tied up to the boat again now, it's a 10 mile trip to the haul out.

Installing the new cable.

Florida again

Here's a chart view of Cap Canaveral and the shoals

Coming in off the ocean at the Ponce Deleon inlet keeps us from having to go around the Kennedy space center (which sticks out into the ocean) and its shoals that extends another 5 miles further off shore. If you round the cape on the outside you are just about into the north flowing Gulf Stream… not where you want to be with a north wind behind you. So, we tuck into the Indian River. It’s a wide estuary behind the coast that extends about 100 miles north to south and provides a save enjoyable way south in this part of Fl. There are also some nice places to visit along the Indian River; Titusville, Coco Beach, the Kennedy Space Center, Vero Beach, and many, many nice anchorages to boot!

Nice sunset

 

We stopped into Titusville on Friday for a “cloths washing day” only to find out that the marina was having their annual Christmas day dinner on Sunday so, we satyed a few extra days, made a dish to pass and joined in on the fun. It was a great time, lots of food, friends and even Christmas karaoke! The palm trees and warm balmy breezes didn’t seem like Christmas to us Michiganders but the friendly spirits that we found sure spoke of the Christmas Spirit to us.




The dessert table after 50 cruisers had their way with it!

 The hurricane also was strong even down here in central Fl and the effects of it could be seen all around us.

 Oh, and if you don't know, Anna has changed the website over to wordpress and the URL to it is http://svsnowgoose.com/wordpress/

 

 

 

Merry Christmas to all!

 

 



On the waterway again

For once Anna is posting more than I am so, that leaves me with little to talk about plus, I have been really busy keeping the Goose working (maintenance), driving the boat (playing Captain), and all of the other stuff that goes into moving the Goose 1000 miles south.

Sun rise on the ocean

We have had a good trip down this time by breaking it up into 3 passages. Two Ocean passages and one good size chunk of the ICW. The Interesting thing that I found this year on the ICW was the amount of damage that the latest hurricane did to the property along the way and the number of boats that are sitting on the shore along the way. I’ve seen more that 30 boats that have been tossed up on shore during this trip. Here’s just a few more that Anna hasn’t shown you already.
 

 

We are now down in Fl and have slowed down a bit so, I hope to bring this blog up to date.

Everyone up north… stay warm!

I want to steal this old bus... it's so cute!