June 11-15, 2023 Road trip from GA to SD via Lake of the Ozarks

 6-11-23. We left by car for South Dakota.  While driving, we had a water leak from under the dash on the passenger side.  There was brownish water that soaked the floor mat and would spray on the feet of the passenger.  It was especially bad when turning.  Dave thought maybe there was a gasket leaking.  We decided to take it to a mechanic in the morning.  We stayed at the  Fultondale, AL Holiday Inn Express, where we have stayed before.  That night, Dave researched what the problem could be.  A video came up right away when he googled it.  He watched a video that described it as “RAV 4 squirts water onto passenger floor when turning left”.  There is possibly a clogged drain hose from the air conditioner.  
6-12 We went out to the car in the morning.  Dave pulled back the carpet and found a hose under the dash that ran to a floor drain.  The hose didn’t seem clogged and he could see water in the AC reservoir.  He pulled the hose off of the reservoir.  Next he poked a pen into the hose nipple of the reservoir, and water ran right out onto the floor, and out the hole in the floor.  He replaced the hose and it appeared to be fixed.  We went to a car wash nearby and vacuumed the flore and floor mat.  Good work Dave!!

We traveled west towards Arkansas and had lunch in Tupelo, Mississippi at Clay’s House of Pig.  They had great ribs and brisket.  They had a map of the US with pins from customers.  We put one in for Rapid City.  It was the only pin in the state of South Dakota.
We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Morrilton, AR, west of Little Rock.

 

great smoked meats

 6-13 We talked to our niece, Sherri Zeller Hanson, because we were near their second home at the Lake of the Ozark's in Missouri.  They weren’t going to be there, but she offered us her place to stay if we wanted to.  So we headed north.  We stopped for a picnic lunch on the Buffalo River north of Marshall, AR.  There were lots of canoes and kayaks.  It was a beautiful rest stop for us.

 

 

We stopped in Camdenton, MO for pizza.  It was less that 30 minutes to there lake home.  We relaxed and stared at the lake for the evening.  We had been messaging with our friend in Perth, Australia about visiting her later this year.  We set up time to talk to each other, about 12 hours difference.  We talked for about an hour making tentative plans.  

 

 

6-14 We decided to stay an second night.  It was so comfortable and relaxing.  I spent the day making plans for visiting Australia and New Zealand in September and October.  We weren’t going to be back in GA until late July, and by then it may be too late.   This vacation has been in the planning stage for a couple months.  I booked our flights to Australia and New Zealand after lots of planning.  I made some additional reservations for flights within the country and tourist destinations.  We’re really going to do this!!  

Friends of Sherri and Bobby’s, Mike and Jennifer, picked us up on there triton (tri-hulled pontoon).  We went to Nautifish for dinner.  It was beautiful night on the water.  

6-15 Thursday It was hard to leave Sherri’s home.  It was so relaxing to just sit and stare at the water.  We finally left at 11:00.  I captured the sunrise that morning.

We had great BBQ on the east side of Kansas City at the Branding Iron.  We continued on to Sioux Falls, SD and stayed at a Super 8 on 41st street, which wasn’t too bad.  We found out that our friend, Rod Schneller had meningitis and is in the hospital in Brainard, MN.  It’s probably from a tick, but still being assessed.  His wife, Lori, was supposed to join me and friends for the weekend, but now won’t be able to make it.  Could be serious!

May 23-June 1 ICW Fort Pierce, FL to Brunswick, GA/June 2-10 Marina

5-23, Tuesday-Motored to Malabar, FL. Anchored near Serenity Island, a spoils island built from dredging the ICW.  We went to the island by dinghy and walked the sandbar.  There were a lot of nesting birds in the trees.  On our way back to the boat, one of my siblings accidentally started a FaceTime call.  It just happened to work that all of us were available.  My brother, Don, found out yesterday that he had cancer cells spread his liver.  He started 3 rounds of chemo today.  Bummer!

picnic table and grill on the island

 

 

 

    

5-24, Wednesday-we ran into rain showers/squalls.  Decided to anchor early at the Space Center Causeway south.

5-25, Thursday-Looking at the weather, we decided to stay put until Saturday.  The next stretch is exposed with few anchorages, so could be rough going.  We decided life is too short, so I started researching a trip to Australia and New Zealand that has been on our bucket list.

5-26, Friday-We are close enough to Cape Canaveral to see rocket launches.  I had been watching their schedule for the past few days.  They had been postponing launches because of weather.  I checked one site that didn't show a launch for tonight and went to bed.  About 11:00pm, I heard a roar and sprang out of bed.  Dave was up and headed to the cockpit.  THERE WAS A LAUNCH!!  He saw it, but it was out of site by the time I got outside.  What a disappointment!

our boat is the blue dot

the rocket is in the center on shore

5-27, Saturday-We had nice weather, so we decide to keep moving north, against our better judgement.  This is Memorial Day weekend.  Lots of power boaters will have their boats out for the first time this summer.  Most of them have no clue what damage they can do by passing us with a big wake and rocking our boat side to side.  By the time we reached New Smyrna, the traffic was getting much heavier.   We decided to anchor for the night north of the inlet.  There were lots of party boats anchored in the area or on a beach.  We saw a Hot Dog Boat going from boat to boat, so we called them over.   They had great hot dogs, pulled pork and sides.  They gave us their card and said to call when we come through again.  They will come find us.  Sounded great.  We could hear noise from a bar and boats until about 11:00pm.

 

 

 

 

 

beautiful reflection from the sunset on these boats

 

power boats along the beach near our anchorage

5-28, Sunday.  Decided to head to St Augustine.  As we headed north, we met LOTS of power boats heading from Daytona to New Smyrna.  That's their closest inlet to the ocean.  It was crazy, as we expected.  We were just ready to keep moving and get back to Brunswick.  But we may rethink that in the future.  At the municipal marina in St Augustine, we stopped at their fuel dock to get rid of our garbage, pump out our 2 heads and get fuel.  We bought 32 gallons of diesel.  A big boat bought 1140 gallons!  That must have been a big bill.  We caught the 4:00 opening of the Bridge of Lions and picked up a mooring ball. 

5-29, Monday-We decided to stay 2 nights to avoid the holiday traffic on the water.  We took our dinghy to the Vilano Beach public dock (free).  We walked about 4 blocks to the Publix grocery store.  There was a guy working in the produce department that looked a lot like our son, Pete.  We finally had to tell him why we were staring and laughing.  He let us take a picture of him.  Of course Dave had to tell him he was a good looking guy.  We back packed some basic groceries back to the dinghy and headed back to the boat.  We usually go out to eat in St Augustine, but didn't even go to shore.

 

5-30, Tuesday-When we left St Augustine, we went off shore to head north.  We were tired of the ICW.  And we had good weather.  North of Jacksonville, we passed under a strange bank of clouds.  The wind picked up and the temperature dropped, but it didn't rain.  Strange.  We anchored at Cumberland Island and grilled ribeye steaks.  We don't get much beef in the Bahamas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5-31, Tuesday-we decided to spend one more peaceful night at anchor before returning to the marina.  There is a sandbar that shows up at low tide.  We took the dingy over and hiked around.  Not as impressive as it is from a distance.  

 

interesting to see the tracks of the starfish

oyster bed that is covered at high tide

I'm at the shore of the sandbar.  Dave is at our dinghy.  It was so shallow, we had to walk that far in water to get to the sandbar.  Our boat is behind Dave

 6-1, Wednesday-On the home stretch.  The ICW past Jekyll Island is very shallow, so we prefer to pass it at high tide.  When we reached the ICW bridge just south of the Jekyll Island marina, we anchored to wait for high tide.  For future reference, the lowest we saw at anchor was 3 feet under our keel.  We headed north 2 hours after low tide.  The shallowest we saw was 8 feet, we have a 5 foot draft.  That was 2.5 feet higher than low tide.  There is an 8 foot tide in this area.  

We made it to Brunswick Landing Marina about 5:00pm.  Several friends met us to help us dock and tie up.  We gathered at the top of the dock to visit.  Pete came by after work.  Great to see him.  

June 2- 10.  We did the usual marina chores.  We both had Dr appointments.  Pete was renting a room in a house on a month to month basis.  They decided they wanted his room for their brother.  He has to be out by the end of June.  We are all going to South Dakota late June for a family reunion.  So we told him to just move onto the sailboat with us.  Then he can have some time to find the right place.  

May 21-22, 2023 Crossing from the Abacos to Ft Pierce

 5-21 Sunday  We figured it would be close to 24 hours to reach Ft Pierce, FL  We did’t have to leave early in the morning, because if we took less time, we would be entering the inlet and anchoring in the dark.  We slept in a bit because we woke during the night with bites from no-see-um”s.  I did my PT, as always.  That has really helped my back this year in the Bahamas.  We brought our bed mattress and sheets out into the salon to make a bed on the dining table.  It’s much smoother sleeping here than in the v berth at the bow while you are under way.  Dave had to store the dock lines and fenders and put away my snorkel gear.  I made breakfast and cleared the galley and stabilized everything on the counters so they wouldn’t end up on the floor if we heeled.  
We left at 11:30am on a beautiful calm day.  The waters are such a beautiful blue green color.  I always miss that and can’t wait to get back.  It took us 4 hours to get to Sale Cay.  That is usually where we stop when we come over from the States. 

 

 At about 5:30, we set sails, along with the motor, and took them down about 8:00pm.  The direction of the wind wasn’t favorable for sailing.  We had a nice pasta dinner (that I had prepared yesterday) about 7:00.  

 

Then I cleaned up the galley, showered and went to bed about 8:00pm.  I didn’t really sleep until I put in ear plugs about 9:30.  The engine is pretty loud inside the boat.  I set an alarm of 1:00 to take over for Dave, but didn’t hear it and woke up on my own at 1:30.

5-22 Monday.  I took over  watch at 2:00.  We were already in the middle of the Gulf Stream.  So only about 40 miles to go at 7mph.  There was a cruise ship passing in front of us.  Dave said there had been about 6 of them tonight.  I guess they all leave port on Sundays in Florida.  There were a few sailboats heading back to the US, like us, and a tow boat pulling a barge.  So I had no trouble staying awake.  I was constantly checking positions of the other ships.  I didn’t have to change course because of them, so all was good.  

 

You could see the glow of lights on the horizon from the city lights of Florida all along the coast.  About 25 miles out, I could see the flashing red lights of the inlet for Ft Pierce.  I always enjoy the sunrise, which was at about 6:30am.  

I woke Dave when we were about 5 miles out, so he would have time to wake up and clear his head before anchoring.  The inlet was the smoothest we had ever seen it.  Actually the whole trip was very nice.  We anchored just off the inlet at 7:30 am, a 20 hour passage.  Good timing.  Dave used the Customs and Border Patrol app, ROAM, to check in to the US online.  We had a quick response of “welcome to the United States, enjoy you stay.”  The rest of the day was spent taking turns napping.  We both felt out of sorts.  Can’t pull those “all nighters” like I used to,  TeeHee.