Riveira Beach to Fort Pierce, Gemma, Duncan, Lily, and the bump gets a name.

26:46.4N 80:03.1W

10th April 2015

7600 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

            After a very pleasant evening at anchor by the Lantana Bridge we motored up to the Riviera Beach marina area near to the Fort Worth inlet as this was the agreed meet up point with Gemma and Family. Our plan was to save some money and anchor off for the first night before going into the marina the next morning and be settled in by the time Gemma arrived all fresh from a relaxing day at Disney land with Lily. One of the suggested anchorages in Captain Bobs ICW guide was just to the North West of Peanut Island which being the closest anchorage to the marina became our first choice. As we pulled out of the main ICW channel the depth below the keel went from 3 meters to 1 in half a boat length and 20 ft later we were aground, bugger. Luckily Norma had shouted no depth from the front and so having slammed Spectra into reverse we were only doing about 0.2 knots when we ran up the bank. Lots of reversing and twisting later we popped back out into the channel and decided to go for the anchorage on the other side of Peanut Island which turned out to be a gem so all’s well that ends well. As an aside we have seen another two Vagabonds on the way up, one at anchor which was absolutely pristine and looked brand new, the other one which was painted very similar to us was coming the other way and so we grabbed some pictures as we went by.

Spectra look alike motors by….but not quite so nice me thinks

Another Spectra look alike we found outside the Miami boat show, this one looked brand new and had rather sexy black masts.

The following morning we moored up in the Riviera Beach municipal marina and waited for the family to turn up. The marina was a bit of a disappointment to tell you the truth as it has just started a major rebuild leaving all of the facilities rather patchy to say the least but we were committed to stay and so we did. Gemma, Duncan, Lily and the bump all turned up later that afternoon and after the usual kisses and cuddles we discovered that the bump now has a name. The newest addition to the Macdonald family and therefore to the Russell clan by default as well will be little Martha who will grace the world with a first appearance some time in July. The other thing Gemma brought with her from the UK was the last stages of a cold but more of that later. Over the next couple of days we visited Peanut Island, snorkelled, brought a new generator and Duncan took Lily paddle boarding. That didn’t go too well, Duncan was just getting the hang of it and had moved about 30 meters away from Lily when she drifted very gently into the side of a moored boat. Lily deciding that this was far more dangerous than it actually was let out an incredibly high pitched scream followed by, “DUNCAN, I  THINK  I’MMM  GO-ING  TOOOO  DIE, YI, I” at the very top of her voice which is approaching the audio pain level and caused much concern to a passing group of American fisherman. As they tried, and failed miserably to reassure a panicked Lily, Duncan in a shower of spray valiantly paddled across to the rescue under the disapproving scrutiny of half of the residents of Florida. As soon as he got there Lily jumped onto the pontoon and came back to Spectra with her bottom lip all of a quiver for a cuddle from Mum leaving Duncan (who for some reason was being blamed for the whole incident) to bring both boards back to the hire station, a paddle of shame which was no mean feat in itself.  We all had a day trip over to Peanut island a state nature reserve which involved negotiating 100 meters of river with a very pregnant Gemma in our little dinghy. Gemma was fine, Lilly was fine, Duncan and myself were a picture of serene calmness itself. Norma however flapped around like a hyperventilating budgie until Gemma was safely back ashore.

All aboard the dinghy for a ride to Peanut Island

            A trip to Home Depot followed in order to solve our generator problem. Unfortunately America just does not cater for 240 Volts and so I had a cunning plan. With the 50 amp shore power plug fix that I had wired up in Puerto Rico in mind I purchased a generator that had a 30 amp 120/230 Volt output. This is an odd outlet as it uses 4 pins and a 5 core cable, as the casing is also wired up, and what it actually provides is two separate 120 Volt phases, confused yet, trust me it doesn’t get any better? All I had to do was work out how to get the electricity from 5 wires (2 separate 120 Volt Phases) into three wires single 230 Volt Phase without making something go bang. After a very prolonged wiring session I had a cable made up, I put it all together, started the generator and switched the power on.…. Yes, no bang all good so far. Now the big one, Water heater on…. Generator working a bit harder but Yes we have heat. Next, battery charger on, eyes shut flick switch, wait  …….Yes, 25 Amps flowing into the batteries, happy days again. I did at this point do a little jig in the cabin and the family came out from under cover. This is by no means a permanent solution and it doesn’t produce as much power as the older generator but it is a damn fine back up and will get us back to the UK with our electric tooth brushes still buzzing away. All I have to do now is work out the fuel consumption and then estimate how much petrol I will have to bring on board to keep the batteries charged on the trip. One thing I have learnt on this trip is that I need, wind, solar and/or prop shaft power generation for the next one, relying on one system has been the biggest black mark on the whole expedition and caused me endless grief. Not to mention the fact that I have been one grumpy bugger at times when the generator has been playing up. Next job is to position the generator in-between the aft deck seats which will be its new home for the journey back. I can’t put it below due to the exhaust which will require a bit of an internal rebuild, aren’t boats fun eh?

Lily plays in the street fountains at an open air concert in Palm Beach.

Again at the Palm Beach concert.. It’s Ice cream time for the girls.

            As I have mentioned the Marina was not up to grade and rather expensive isn’t it odd but marinas remove facilities but the berthing prices stay the same, perhaps we should remove a couple of days from the working week but still get paid the same, sounds like a plan to me anyway. After a great night out in Palm beach which included street food and an open air concert we elected to move the boat up 50 miles to Fort Pierce which seemed to be a much better proposition. Another thing we decided was to keep the hire car for the duration of Gemmas’ stay as everything in America is only a short car drive away (end quote). After a bit of a family conflab it was decided that Duncan, Gemma and Lily would drive down to Miami and the Florida keys for a visit and stay overnight while Norma and myself took Spectra out of the Fort Worth Inlet and travelled up to the Fort Pierce inlet in one day. The trip up was a baking hot windless motor, dodging fast trawling fishing boats all the way as it was Easter Bank Holiday and the American pleasure boat fishermen were out in force. We did do a man over board drill to recover what we thought was a funny fishing lure, Norma didn’t want to bother but we decided Steve would probably like it and so around we went. Norma snatched it out of the water with the boat hook and then said “I’m not sure this is a lure it looks alive” sure enough we had a Portuguese Man-O-War on the end of the pole. Fascinating though it was it had to go back in and quickly.

Very pretty but with a sting in its tail

We arrived in Fort Pierce as planned at low tide and passed under the fixed bridge, by my calculations we should have had 66 ft clearance at low water and our mast measures 61.5ft from the water line so it should have been fine. I kept repeating that to myself like a mantra as we went under and wouldn’t look up, honestly what’s the point if your goner hit your goner hit and guess what, we didn’t, so the calculations were correct, smiles all round. The final approach to the marina was pretty tricky 0.5 meters below the keel in a narrow channel with a 3 knot cross current what fun this is I said as we crabbed in at a 45 degree angle to our course staring at the depth sounder like myopic owls. The marina wanted me to drive into the berth but I don’t like doing that if I can avoid it, my theory being if I can reverse in I know I can drive out. The dock master seemed a bit perturbed when I backed away and said I was going to come in backwards but I three point turned her and slotted in amongst the power boats first time. I am not sure what standard of parking he was used to but he was embarrassingly full of praise even to the point of high fiving me for crying out loud, and when Norma went around to the office to pay they all commented on “what a fine piece of ship handling that was”, I am not one to brag as you know so I will only mention it here, in Yachting monthly, Sailing Today, to every one I meet for the next week or two and of course I am having it tattooed on my fore head for future reference.

Approaching the fixed bridge on the Fort Pierce inlet

I did mention that Gemma brought the remnants of a bug with her to the New World. Well it jumped ship and infected me big style, I have spent four days starting with the trip up to Fort Pierce feeling like a deep boiled cabbage, once or twice I have surfaced to perform my family duties but I have been more or less sleeping non stop and so I will write of our Fort Pierce experiences which are all amazingly good the next time.

Next exciting edition: Air boat rides, alligator encounters, Racoons, bald Eagles Manatees and the Kennedy Space centre.