We finally arrived at Green Cove Springs Marina last Wednesday May 22. This will be the last stop for Wild Horses for several months. We will have the boat hauled out on June 1, prepare her for a hot Florida summer and then leave her be as we drive back to Canada for a much-needed visit with family.

I know what you are thinking – Wild Horses arrived at Green Cove Springs almost a week ago and I am only posting about it now? Yes, yes, yes. It has been a very busy few weeks for us.

Since arriving, we have:

• secured a rental car for getting around the area (nothing is in walking distance of our marina)
• booked an offsite climate-controlled storage unit for all of our boat stuff (getting our mattresses, sheets, cushions and off-season clothes into storage will guarantee they remain mildew-free)
• half-emptied our boat into the storage locker.  Keep in mind, we are doing this by dinghy!
• found a boat canvas guy to fix our front windshield (which cracked during a recent storm)
• booked a mechanic to do a thorough once-over of the seals and hoses for our Westerbeke boat engine
• reserved another rental car for our trip back to Canada in a few weeks
• did several much-needed loads of laundry
• managed to stay cool for most of the day in the windless 35-degree Celsius Florida heat (thank you to all the air conditioned stores, lounges and restaurants that welcomed Ocean)

But, let’s back up a bit. I am skipping over the last half of our trip to Green Cove Springs and some of the best parts of the ICW!
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Just over a week ago, we left Titusville and continued our way north. On this part of the ICW (Titusville to St. Augustine), there are very few bridges and even fewer that need to open for us. Not having to call bridge after bridge means that we have more time to look around and soak up the beautiful landscapes that border the ICW. It is a twisty snake-like route that takes us through quiet mangroves (along the Indian River) and in the heart of busy cities (Daytona). And the dolphins. They appear everywhere and all the time, and thankfully so. They offer a wonderful distraction from the constant motoring.  

​One of our last stops on the ICW before we headed west to Jacksonville was the lovely town-like city of St. Augustine. This is easily our favourite stop on the ICW. Why? It mixes old world charm and a fun downtown vibe. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States and it does a great job creating a historic downtown area that embraces tourists. Cobblestone streets, boutiques, distilleries, cafes and tours. There is something for everyone and the best part is that all of it is just a stone’s throw from our boat.

Oh, wait, did I mention dog-friendly? Ocean was welcomed everywhere in St. Augustine. The three of us shopped together, walked everywhere together, did a rum tasting together (um, well, Ocean was there but not actually doing the rum tasting. She is underage!). And, of course, we dined together. The best was the Barley Republic Restaurant where we could actually order a meal for her off the menu. Plus, she was offered the best seat in the house, right beside the Hostess Table so that everyone could greet her as they arrived at the restaurant. So much fun!
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We stayed four glorious days at St. Augustine and, truly, it was tough to leave. Our only solace was knowing that we would be able to visit again next fall on our way south to the Bahamas. Now, however, we had to keep moving.

Our last night on the ICW was spent at Sisters Creek, which is just a little northeast of Jacksonville. In the morning, we started down the St. Johns River. This is a busy waterway for cargo ships and we did see a few as we made our way, first, to Jacksonville, and then onward to Green Cove Springs. The weather was lovely, making the trip an easy one for us. Until we got to Green Cove Springs. Yeesh. The wind picked up just as we tried to grab one of the mooring balls in front of the marina. Big wind coupled with a mooring ball attachment that just wouldn’t budge, well, we lost a boat hook, one of our headphones that we use for anchoring and I have a lovely collection of bruises on my arm. 100% yeesh.

Anchoring Wild Horses went much, much better 😊.
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So, there we are. Anchored and preparing Wild Horses for our haul out. It is a super busy time for us, made even more challenging with the high heat and having to use the dinghy to shuttle our gear off the boat. After we haul the boat out on June 1, we will have another week of cleaning up the boat and having it ready for a long summer of Florida heat. We have several busy, hot, and challenging days ahead but we are buoyed by the reward of seeing all our family and friends back in Canada in just a few weeks. Bliss 😊!

Want to know where we are anchored today? Click the button below.

I will admit that when we decided to make the return trip to the US, I said “whew”. In terms of travel, all I could think about was how we would get some great sailing in the Bahamas and then we would plan a comfortable Gulf Stream Crossing, followed by a few weeks of easy motoring in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW). I felt we had earned a bit of an easy run, motoring along and enjoying the inner coastal sights, including the bottlenose dolphins that frequent the ICW in Florida. 

Great sailing in the Bahamas? Check. A comfortable Gulf Stream Crossing? Check. Easy motoring in the ICW? Yes but…

Then we went aground.

Ugh.

No, we didn’t exactly go aground in the ICW but turning off the ICW (and the “Bob423” navigation tracks we follow religiously). We went aground trying out a new anchorage in Jensen Beach, which was the first anchorage for us after leaving Lake Worth. Reviews of the anchorage in Navionics were split between “This is a lovely anchorage” and “Don’t anchor here. Charts are wrong!”. So why try an anchorage with this kind of review? It was a good staging anchorage for us and had easy shore access for Ocean. We rationalized that we would approach the anchorage slowly, while carefully watching our depths and we would bail out if anything looked to “skinny” for our 1.7 metre draft. Well, it didn’t quite work out like that. The depths went from 2.5 metres to 1 metre in mere seconds. And the charts were extremely wrong. We went aground right on a sounding showing that the depth should be 2.4 metres. For those new to charts, “soundings” are actual depth measurements taken at low tide. Soundings are generally pretty accurate except for two reasons: The first is at low-low tide (when the tide might go lower than normal due to a full moon or a new moon). The second? Shoaling. Ah, we have a winner. Jensen Beach is adjacent to the St. Lucie inlet which moves the sandy bottom around with each tidal change coming and going from the Atlantic Ocean. Shoaling. Oops.

Okay, now we are aground. Out come the tactics. We first try to rev the engine (64 horsepower Westerbeke) in order to maneuver our way out. Nope. Next, knowing that we have a strong westerly wind, out come both sails. The hope is to have Wild Horses leaned enough to one side to release her keel and float off. Nope. Okay, could we perhaps wait for high tide and let the flooding waters lift her keel? Well, that would be several more hours.
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The only answer was to call for a tow. Thankfully, we bought insurance for this. We have a membership to Tow Boat US. We went aground at 3:45pm, tried our own tactics until 4:15pm, then I made the call to Tow Boat US. The Tow Boat operator was at our boat in 20 minutes and had us unstuck 10 minutes after that. But that’s not all! He then escorted us through the shallow waters to a nearby mooring field. He only left the scene once we were attached to the mooring ball. By 5:15pm, we were enjoying cocktails in our cockpit. So how much did all of this cost us? The annual insurance to Tow Boat US is $250 CAD. That’s it. No additional cost for the on-site towing or escort to the mooring ball. There are no exclusions, excessive questions or delays. Just awesome service from an awesome company. Best money we ever spent on insurance. For me, I would never do the ICW without Tow Boat US. Ever.

The next morning, we moved along to Vero Beach and spent 6 wonderful days at anchor, enjoying great food, shopping, the nearby dog park, and chatting with our fellow cruisers. It was a great stop to rest and relax.

By last Monday (May 13), we were on the move again. First to Eau Gallie for a night and then to Titusville. But what is the fun of motoring along in good weather? No, about half an hour from our planned anchorage in Titusville (beside the Max Brewer bridge), the weather alerts sounded off on our phones. A squall was making its way across central Florida and we were right in its track.
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Within 15 minutes, the sky darkened to a menacing grey and the winds started to amp up. Mike immediately made the call that Wild Horses needed to turn around and go south. We were minutes from our anchorage but also minutes from the bridge. If the wind increased any more, we could be in danger of hitting the bridge. Turning around was the right call. We motored back on our tracks, into a part of the ICW where there was no traffic, no bridges and enough space to allow us to maneuver without going aground.

The wind hit 45 knots. We were leaned over hard, with salty waves slamming our starboard side. Heavy rain meant that we had to rely entirely on our instruments. Wild Horses and Mike are a well-oiled machine and they handled the conditions beautifully. Our only concern was the lightning. One wayward bolt hitting Wild Horses would not just mean that our electronics would be disabled but our engine as well. I believe a few prayers may have been uttered during the ordeal.

A half hour later, it was all over. The lightning tracked east, away from us. The rain stopped and the wind died. We motored to our anchorage with calm seas. The only sign of our harrowing time fighting the squall were our frayed nerves and shaky legs. That was just a few hours ago.

Tonight, we will have a nice dinner, sleep well and then be up, bright and early, ready to move along to Daytona Beach. Hmmmm, I wonder what adventure the ICW will hand to us tomorrow….? 😉.

Enjoying the blog? Want to know where we are right now? Click here!

For the last few weeks, we have been carefully eyeing the weather for a possible window to make our run to the tiny island of Bimini on the outer edge of the western Bahamas and then across the Gulf Stream to Florida. Bimini is the first Bahamian island that we visited on our trip south and it holds a special place in our hearts. This time around it would be our last Bahamian island, at least for the next six months.

After waiting out some strong winds over the weekend, we could finally see the weather window we were hoping for. Starting Tuesday April 30th, we had a forecast that called for good wind for a sail to Chub Cay in the Berry Islands, then calm seas for an overnight stop on the Mackie Shoal and, finally, by Thursday we would be in Bimini. Even better, Friday May 3rd was looking ideal for a fast sail from Bimini to West Palm Beach, Florida. Our cruising permit for the Bahamas was set to expire on May 14 so the timing was perfect.
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Our departure from New Providence was wonderful. The wind was in our favour and several of our dock mates came out to say goodbye and to wish us safe travels. This is one of the things we love most about this sailing gig. Everyone we meet becomes new friends. It is a strangely small community, geographically spread across the world but, as soon as you meet someone, the sharing begins. Cruisers just love to help each other out and to pass along whatever tip or tricks they have learned along the way. We all seem to know that cruising guides, navigation apps and Facebook only tell part of the story and each one of us has to piece together our own understanding of a passage or anchorage or gear or whatever. First hand knowledge from another cruiser is gold.

In fact, the most recent example of this sharing happened in New Providence. We were rafted up with “Cookie Monster” a beautiful monohull owned by a guy from New Jersey. For fifteen years, he has been storing his boat at Green Cove Springs (where we will be storing our boat for the first time this year) and he gladly shared great tips for summarizing the boat. We are used to winterizing a boat but this “summerizing” thing is its own beast! Interestingly enough, we had first heard of “Cookie Monster” through a cruiser named Rooster that we had met in the Raggeds. Yup, “Cookie Monster” and Rooster. These are our peeps 😊.

​The trip to Chub Cay in the Berry Islands was a fun motor sail made even more fun when we caught our first ever Mahi Mahi. Barry from Caretta had given us some great info about fishing gear over the past week and it really paid off. Even more fun was that we caught the Mahi using an old lure of my dad’s. Sometimes it really does take a village 😉.

We only spent one quick night at Chub Cay and were very happy to move on the next morning. Chub Cay offers a wide-open anchorage with good holding but it was very rolly the night we stayed there. We had a strong southeastern wind forcing the sea around the island’s southwestern tip and it caused the ocean swell to slam at us broadside. Thankfully a fellow cruiser stopped by (more of that cruiser sharing that we love) and suggested we set up a swell bridle to reduce the roll. It worked perfectly and gave us a chance to sleep well. 

We were up fairly early on Wednesday morning for a long trip to the middle of nowhere. Well, not exactly. We were headed for the Mackie Shoal. This is a known sandbar along the Bahama Bank where, in settled conditions, cruisers can drop anchor for the night to break up the 82 nautical mile trip from Chub Cay to Bimini.  It is a wonderous treat. There is no visible land as far as you can see. Just stars, our boat buddy Caretta and that beautiful blue Bahamian water. 

Thursday morning, we weighed anchor just before dawn and were underway to Bimini. Last time we were in Bimini we stayed at the Bimini Blue Marina (highly recommended!). This time, we opted to anchor off the western shore. The next day was to be our Gulf Stream crossing day so we wanted to easily weigh anchor at first light rather than try to read the shallow water at Bimini’s narrow inlet.
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We were excited to be headed to Florida but sad that this would be our farewell to our fabulous friends on Caretta. We will be pointing our bow north to make our way to Green Cove Springs, Florida while Caretta is going south to the Florida Keys and then on to their home port in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We have sailed together for about 15 months now so the whole crew of Wild Horses (Ocean included) is feeling a bit melancholy about moving along alone. All is not lost though! We have plans to meet up again in the Fall and to spend next winter in the Bahamas together. Yay!

​On Friday morning (May 3rd), we waited for the sun to make its appearance and then quickly took Ocean into shore for her morning business trip. Next was to weigh anchor and get the sails out. The seas were calm and the wind light, making for a very comfortable journey. And we were fast! The Gulf Stream gave us an extra 3 to 4 knots most of the day, allowing us to arrive at the Lake Worth Inlet a few hours earlier than planned. We were finally back in North American waters after leaving Grenada on October 28th.  We are now looking forward to an easy and slow trip up the ICW to Green Cove Springs for our planned haul out of Wild Horses. We are targeting our arrival there for the 3rd week of May.

We have a Garmin InReach that keeps our tracks up to the minute (Recreation Plan). Check out where we are right now by clicking on the button below.