January 11 15 Five More Lay Days in Coconut Grove 1 5 Miles

We spent four nights at a dock of the Coral Reef YC, after one more rough night on anchor in the John Brennan Channel way off from the Dinner Key Marina. We did not even go ashore the day after the botanical garden trip, because it was so rough. This Google Earth picture shows both locations and the route between them, which is not charted, in the northern half of its brief 1.5 miles. (The dinghy dock is clearly visible in the extreme lower left and the well marked Dinner Key Channel -- through which we entered and will leave -- runs in from below the yellow humanoid figure in the upper right, slightly downward to the left, between two islands. The chart does not indicate and I am not sure which of the islands shown is actually Dinner Key.)

 The white dots, right side lower central are moored boats. They are rather orderly, like grave stones, because mooring fields are generally laid out in an orderly manner. We were anchored to the right of them, off the picture, in the anchorage area, where such orderliness does not exist. Our first anchoring attempt (not enough water) was among the white dots at the extreme lower right corner. The dark blue between these two fields of dots is the John Brennan Channel. To got to the Coral Reef YC we motored (1) to the  left through that well marked channel, (2) south of the lower end of the berm that runs sort of vertically past the end of the seven docks of the Dinner Key YC, (3) turned left to pass between the ends of those docks and the island running to the upper right, and (4) hugging the ends of the smaller docks, toward the upper left where we (5)entered and tied on, facing the shore, between the two shoreward docks extending downward from the "E" shaped dock in the extreme upper left.
 After bringing ILENE to the dock we went to the movies seeing Big Eyes (about an female artist who painted children with emotive big eyes and her emotionally abusive husband) and Inherent Vice (which provided a vehicle for actors to act as trashy people doing trashy things which signified nothing and was a waste of time). And we stopped at Fresh Market for take out food to eat at home, i.e., aboard.
We learned the local mass transit system and used it to visit local cultural attractions. This included the rather new, large and very elegant Perez Art Museum of Miami (PAMM).
The 249 bus took us from two blocks from the YC, about a mile, to the Coconut Grove light rail elevated system station which in turn took us to the People Mover, a free elevated loop in the central downtown area, which left us a block from the museum, of which the Miamians are quite proud, having spent $200 million on its construction in prime real estate next to the new concert hall and the new science museum under construction.

Lene hooked up with the same Rhonda who we had dined with on our first night in Miami Beach and three other women. She viewed the art and had lunch with them. I explored the art myself. It rained a lot early in the day but we had our foulies and did not get very wet. Most of the artists were not known to me and most had some Miami or south Florida connection by birth, education, work, residence or death.They had a large collection of pop art, by name brand artists: Warhol, Lichtenstein, etc. which Lene liked. This seemed old to me. These two works, one inside and one out, are based on geodesic domes.

My favorite was this painting, approximately 5 by 8 feet by my guess, by an African artist. Three zig zag lines, two starting in the upper right and one from the top toward the left define the spaces that are painted in. And the bottom represents more, little triangles that I saw as water in this landscape, though the plackard said it could be a TV static pattern. I spent quite a few minutes intrigued by this one.

Another day we visited Viscaya, the seaside mansion of John Deering of John Deere fame, another Breakers-like home of the rich. This one was built during the portion of WWI before the US went "over there" to end it. Deering was a bachelor and imported fountains and whole rooms of walls and furniture from Europe. Quite lovely actually. The big change here in the last century was the erection of a glass roof to cover and hence seal off the central courtyard onto which all rooms of all three floors open -- to keep out the salt air and rain. This, of course, also necessitated air conditioning. And the gardens are not what they once were. I love these marble floors of theseaside and land entryways:

The gardens are nothing to sneeze at either, and here is one of the fountains with "merboys"  --mermaids with boys instead of girls.

A large stone Venetian barge (a place for guests to recline at ease) was built on a sandbank to protect Vizcayas sea entrance, with me at the extreme left and the towers over Government Cut barely visible on the horizon in the between. A bird walked by unconcerned with his proximity to humans.

One evening some young men strolled past our boat and started up a conversation because they recognized ILENE. Russ and Tom had sailed with my late son-in-law, Julien, and sung his praises and those of my daughter who they asked me to convey their good wishes. Small world.
We spent a pleasant afternoon lounging at the YCs underutilized swimming pool and, after some wine aboard, had a nice dinner at the Yacht Club with Jerry and Louise, who came over from Miami Beach and took us to Publix afterwards so Lene could get some products that the very nearby Fresh Foods does not stock, e.g. frozen blueberries and sugarless peanut butter. We lucked out that this was an all you can eat pasta plus night for only $17.00.  I have yet to learn how to avoid over stuffing myself at such affairs, though. The eighteen percent service charge is added to the bill automatically. This club has lots of helpful friendly staff to serve its 800 members, most of who do not keep boats here. It has fixed concrete piers against which we put up the fender board. The docks are busy by day with contractors and many people in suits apparently use the club day and night as a venue to do business. The only drawback is that on sunny days numerous black birds sit in the rigging and emit the remains of their fruit based diet, staining the deck. I washed it off over and over and will use bleach on the remaining stubborn though by now faint stains.
Another evening we were visited by Janet (who had taken us to the Chihuly exhibit) and another member of Lenes grade school posse, also named Rhonda. Rhonda was in town from New York to visit her Mom. After wine and cheese and a tour of the boat, I had, among other things, a single stone crab leg, my first, a delicacy here, and not as good as other seafood to my taste. This was at the well known but not excessively expensive (except for stone crab legs) Montes, on the water, less than a quarter mile away. Photo to be added. Janet and ?Ed may drive down to Marathon to visit us there, and perhaps to fish, though access to the boat on anchor or mooring will be more difficult for Janet than dockside. Also, yesterdays news about Cuba has started us thinking about getting the charts and cruising guides we will need for such a visit, though our insurer, Pantaenius, has not yet come around on this issue. They have several weeks to do so. Life is very very good.

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HYC Cruise Days 11 and 12 August 4 and 5 Westbrook CT to Milford CT and Lay Day There 19 Miles

 I had a bit of trouble backing ILENEs stern to starboard in order to get off the Westbrook dock; bit more wind than I had thought, but no harm done. ILENE motor sailed south, past the east side of Duck Island before tacking to the west. I had hoped to clear east of Fishers Island and its shoals on their south side, but there was too much west in the SW, and we had to clear that obstacle on its north side before tacking south again. This time Lene intelligently pointed out that the wind was too light to make the sailing part of motor sailing worth the game and so after a bit more, we headed west, just on the edge of being able to sail. So it was a motoring day until the last fifteen minutes, when the wind came more southerly and we close reached with the engine at idle speed.

North Star had passed us early, much closer to shore, and we were assigned a slip very near her. But a failure of communications and Lene commenced the turn to port into the slip too late. We missed the assigned slip and were floating sideways, north, to the shallow end of the Milford Landing Marina. Not a problem. North Star and ILENE were the only boats in the marina (two more came in the next day) so we just pulled in to number 13 instead of number 7. Perils of Pauline!
Underway from 9:45 to 2:45.

Next up was a party with North Star and Stu and Barbara, who came by car from Westport. We had a big round table with six chairs in a shady public spot, lots of food and wine, and the enjoyment of renewing old friendships. It was one of the high points of this cruise, in my opinion. Bruce and Stu are Past Commodores and senior to me in the Club and I joined in 1990. Everyone present except Lene and Barbara knew Stus late wife, Deena. And everyone except possibly Barbara knew my ex, Dorothy. So we all go back a ways but never fail to enjoy retelling old stories of funny and exciting moments from past cruises. This is not to say that newbie cruisers would be unwelcome. Indeed, they would be most welcome.

 
Another quiet night, but from a side port, when I went to the head at midnight, I saw the visuals of a big thunderstorm over Long Island. Too far to be heard, but quite the light show.

During the lay day, we had more visitors by car. Joan and Jerry drove up and had lobster rolls for lunch at the Milford YC with Bruce and Diane. Lene got a haircut in the AM, and we had lunch with a classmate of hers from Lincoln HS at a local eatery before I gave ILENEs top sides a thorough scrubbing. Dinner aboard.

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February 11 14 Key West to Marathon and Three Lay Days There 42 4 Miles

We took in our dock lines at 7:30 and were anchored in Marathon at 3:30, sailing all but the first five and last fifteen minutes of outing and ining. The winds were forecast from the north at ten knots which meant no big waves, because they have to build up from south of the Keys. The wind did come from there eventually, and nicely, with a steady fifteen knots; we were making near eight knots at the end.
We had full sails up throughout, but the early part of the passage was troubling. The wind had too much of an easterly component so we were close hauled on port tack and I was envisioning the point where we would have to tack to avoid the shoals at the south side of Hawk Channel. And relative wind varied frequently by 25 degrees and between eight and fifteen knots requiring very frequent trimming of sails and course changes to get what speed we could make out of the wind and avoid the tack if possible. But no tack was needed in the end.
We were passed by s/v Liberty, which had been docked near us in the Key West Bight Marina. I hailed her to thank her for passing us on the gentlemanly leeward side. We avoided motoring, though it meant some 2.5 knot stretches. I find that once I switch on the "iron genoa" to assist us, it stays on far too long, its noise degrading the pleasure.
We communicated with s/v Autumn Born and they were arriving in Marathon too, but from the east. We saw them anchored outside the harbor to the west of the island, where it was rolly, and AB weighs twice ILENE. AB is in the safest possible place: with lots of room around her to let out 100 feet of chain in ten feet of water, as compared to the small crowded but more protected anchorage area inside. We dropped three times before we found the right spot, and have 60 feet of snubbed chain out in 12 feet of water. Good holding, tested by winds over 20 knots the third night.
In the channel we passed s/v Liberty again, somewhat stuck in the sand south of the channel. I said I would come out by dink to help once we were anchored but she broke herself free less than a minute later and followed us in. We were hailed by the crew of s/v Saint Somewhere, who we had tried to help up in Titusville, and later by Dean and Susan of Autumn Born, who were dinking in to register and get on the waiting list for a mooring. The winds have been so constantly from the north that people waiting for a window to hop over to the Bahamas are still waiting and not leaving.
Dean and Susan stopped by for wine and cheese on their way back to their boat. I love talking with Dean and save up my questions for him because he is so knowledgeable. I was pleased to able to give back a bit by showing him our experiences in the Marquesas Keys and Boca Grande Key. They will be going to Key West soon to meet family, and plan to take a mooring up in rolly Garrison Bight.We did not go to shore to register until the next day because that first night we had no need for anything the shore had to offer, and we also saved one nights dinghy docking fee, almost $18. The waiting list for a mooring is now longer than when we were here last month so there was no need to go ashore to get ourselves on the list because we will be leaving before anything becomes available. We had the last of our paella, watched Downton Abbey and called it a night.
We had a dinner with Dean and Susan and two other couples at Burdines, a very casual restaurant above the fuel dock the next night. Ilene invited herself and me and they had a table for eight.
Next morning I cleared all the "stuff" from the aft cabin to our bed in the forward one to provide space for work. I topped up the seven batteries with distilled water and prepared for the arrival of Alex

The line above Alexs head is how we keep the door of our aft head, the cats head, open and stable, so it does not flail and break itself from its hinges as the boat moves.

who installed and tested the "combiner" which will charge the starting battery automatically, whenever we are making electricity, but disconnect it from the house bank whenever we are not.
During the 9:00 am net on Channel 68 we announced our arrival and so did Tex and Maria of m/v "Heaven Sent", their 46 foot Grand Banks trawler on which they live. They belong to the Harlem and the Huguenot YCs, Tex is a Past Commodore of the Harlem. I later asked if anyone could lend me a set of feeler gauges to check the alignment of the flexible coupling that I had to install and Justin, of s/v "Selkey", from Cork, Ireland, responded and brought the tool over later and explained to me how to use it. Lene went ashore and did some shopping in the supermarket, while I set to work on the flexible coupling.

It is an ingenious device, attached by four forward facing bolts to the flange at the aft end of the transmission, and attached by four more bolts facing aft to the flange at the forward end of the propeller shaft.

It has two metal bars, one visible in the photo, that will hold it together if it shatters, so the shaft wont slide out of the hole in the boat through which the shaft rotates if the coupling shatters. But its purpose is to shatter if you hit something hard. By shattering it is supposed to prevent your transmission from shattering.
The first thing I noticed was that the new bolts installed in the old coupling by Deatons Yard in North Carolina were smaller in diameter than those that came with the new sealed unit from the factory. This is not good.
Well at least the spacing of the holes from each other through the flanges matched the spacing of those holes in the new unit. Hooray! And the new larger diameter bolts fit through the holes in the flanges. Hooray!  But this means that since North Carolina, we have been motoring with smaller diameter bolts in larger diameter holes, which is never a good thing and may have been the cause of the vibration, or contributed to it. But the new bolts were fractionally longer than the old ones so that when I got them installed they rubbed against the transmission housing. This was very bad; its just not going to work. What to do? Washers on the bolt head aft end of those bolts would place them far enough away I thought, so I took the whole thing apart again. But the washers were larger in diameter than the nuts, preventing my wrench from gripping the nuts to tighten them. What to do? Alex was doing his thing for us and suggested that I could bring my 17mm wrench in to his shop next morning and grind down the sides of the wrench, and narrow them so it would fit. But during the night I thought of two alternative solutions: (1) use smaller diameter washers, or (2) grind down the ends of the four bolts. Time for another consultation with Dean. Grinding the bolts was selected and Alexs electric grindstone made quick work of it. I put it all together again for the third time (it does not permit the removal of parts without complete dis-assembly, because there is just not enough room to get the bolts out). Having tested with the feeler gauge, it looked right and we turned on the engine and put it in gear, briefly. Im hoping the problem is solved. Time will tell when we use the engine to propel us for real.

One evening, we dinked over to Heaven Sent, (sorry for the fuzzy piture of this beautiful roomy boat). It was

 a long 1.5 mile dinghy ride, to the far eastern end of the harbor where Heaven Sent is tied up to the seawall.


The adjacent boat was s/v Liberty, which, we learned, is being single handed by a lady from St. Augustine.

I have known Tex and Maria since 1990 when I joined the Harlem. We had some wine before walking to a local restaurant, Dockside Tropical Cafe, one of several here that has live music. But every table was filled except one picnic table outside -- close enough to hear but not see the music. We ordered but later cancelled the order because the wait would have been at least an hour and it was cold out. Back at Heaven Sent, Maria cooked up a very fine dinner and we did not get back to ILENE until after ten pm, late for us.
Next day was a Family Fun Fest at the adjacent City Park. Lene had volunteered us to help the kids make projects with materials and tools donated by Home Depot, but when we got there they had too many volunteers and we were released. A wide variety of things for kids to do.

Our final dinner was at Lazy Days, just past Burdines, the nicest restaurant we visited in Marathon. Valentines Day, hence a rose for every lady. We had the pleasure of introducing Tex and Maria from our Club to Dean and Susan and Earl and Cathy, of s/v Seeker, who we had been introduced to by Dean and Susan in St. Augustine. Maybe Dean and Susan were starting to think that we had no friends other than those they introduced us to.

Susan, Kathy, Earl, Lene, Me, Maria and Tex (Photo credit to Dean)

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July 11 24 To The Departure on the Harlem YC Summer Cruise

Two days of shopping, cooking and enjoying a dinner at our house. Not a sailing activity except that Bennett and Harriet was one of the three invited couples.  Menu included a cold stewed stone fruit soup, salade nicoise and a linser torte ala mode. And all was delicious; if I do say so myself.

We spent a four day weekend up in the Berkshires during which the only remotely watery related item was during the second half of the Alonso King Lines Ballet Companys performance at Jacobs Pillow Dance Theater. The work was called Biophony and the "music" consisted of the recorded sounds of wild creatures from around the world. The third of the eight sections was called Mare Nostrum (Our Sea, I think) and was danced to the sound of "Ocean waves, humpback whales, fish and killer whales."  A stretch to relate this to sailing but its all I have.

A day of work: featuring the plastic cockpit enclosure panels, which were fitted together with snaps by Junior of Doyle Sails. I have left the aft three panels attached and rolled up at the top of the bimini, out of the way and ready to roll down. The two forward panels, which hang from the connector between the bimini and the dodger, together with that connector, are rolled up and stored in the aft cabin. I also topped off the seven batteries which drank about a quart of distilled water and made arrangements to get the lettering for the "licence plates" for the dink. And some cleaning -- four hours total.

Lene and I sailed one lovely Sunday afternoon for about three hours with Christine and Heather, the young women who were with us in Miami last winter, followed by dinner with them at the Club where I came to appreciate how talented our caterer is. I hope we Harlemites can eat there with guests often enough this summer so Anne can make a living. We actually only sailed back, having motored to off Sands Point where the girls went for a dip in the sea. I did not lower the dink but loosened the band cinching it securely against the ILENEs stern so they were able to climb the ladder and slither up into the boat from the sea from under the dink. This worked fine in moderately calm waters though I do not think it could be done safely in big seas.

I went to the Club for the Old Salts event both Wednesdays, but the first of them we were confronted with the strong threat of rain and no wind. So while I enjoyed the food and the camaraderie, there was no sailing.

 But the other Wednesday was a peak sailing day, clear skies, little traffic and good winds in the teens from the NW. I sailed with Richie, his brother, and three of their friends, while Mark sailed four of the regulars on "Deuce of Hearts." And everyone came over to IWe went out into the Sound to the far end of hart island. And everyone came over to ILENE for the after-sail libation. This was our largest outing of the summer so far -- eleven participants. I will miss the next two Wednesdays, being on  the Club Cruise.

The last day before that Cruise I sailed with Anne and her friend, Janet. I tried a new experiment in dragooning crew or lets call them sailing companions: I put up a poster in the gym in our apartment house (300 apartments) offering a sign up sheet for free sailboat rides. I was taken aback at the underwhelming response and next time will do a better job of advertising. But we had a great afternoon in much the same wind as the Old Salts enjoyed, but a little less of it. My new friends were content to not experience the effect of the genoa so we moved slowly and they had a good time. I would say that we "beat" up Hart Island Sound except that beating somehow suggests stronger winds; so lets just say we "patted" up the Sound, and around. Some wine and then dinner at the Lobster Box because their hearts were set on lobster, which was not on our clubs menu that night.

The Friday before the start of the Cruise was devoted to packing and transporting and loading the stuff for sixteen days away-- including the kitties and their stuff.
Well needless to say, we forgot a few things, including the Wifi device needed to right these blog posts. And the Club wants one per day for the Cruise if possible.

But we were there in the early evening and I was pleased to sail with Mike and Sandy (Old Salt regulars) and their niece, Alissa, aboard "Pas de Deux". We did no worse than and of the other ten boats that circled slowly near the starting line. This is because after a delay to wait for some wind to come up, the race had to be cancelled. But no one seems too upset by that development:

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December 11 13 Daytona Beach to New Smyrna and Two Lay Days There Only 16 Miles

It took only three hours with a fifteen minute delay at a bridge near our destination that opens only every twenty minutes. Cold but clear with more wind than yesterday so we used only the small jib. We passed the Ponce de Leon Inlet with its distinctive lighthouse by the sea.

There were alternate buoyed routes at two points in this short passage and we took the one officially marked as the "ICW route" which was inland from the light. The last time I was here was crewing on a northbound 74 foot motor yacht, m/v "Sea Leaf," in 2012. Then we stopped at a marina by the light before jumping out into the Atlantic for a romp up to Beaufort NC.
Today we could have gone another 32 miles to Titusville, but we broke the trip there from Daytona into two parts by stopping here because Lene heard or read that New Smyrna is a nice town.  This has emerged as our plan for the winter: We are going south in Florida slowly. We are already in Florida but have several hundred miles to get to the Dry Tortugas, which is as far as one can go in the U.S.  This involves a lot of the ICW because many of the ports are not easily accessible from the sea. The two hops from Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale and from there to Miami Beach, will be out in the Atlantic, during good weather, because of bridges. There are so many bridges that you have to wait for in the first such hop and a fixed 56 foot bridge in the second that we just can not ever get under. And the trip in the Keys is planned as a mix of inside and outside jumps. Having stopped almost everywhere in Florida on our way south, we plan to skip a lot of these same stops on the way north by going outside. A plan that has sort of come to us and like all plans is waiting to be changed.
Anyway New Smyrna is a very nice cozy well run, friendly municipal marina with good showers but mediocre wifi.

We are at the furthest out slip, which, given how small this place is, was not a disadvantage. In fact it was an advantage because we had a clear unobstructed view of the Christmas Parade of lighted boats on Saturday night from our cockpit. About 20 boats, both power and sail, decked out in vastly colorful lights came up the ICW right past our cockpit. The photos do not do the spectacle justice.
They have a decent history museum here run by the historical society with interesting local artifacts such as the equipment used to cut "cats faces" (shallow "V" shaped slashes) on pine trees to collect the sap to make turpentine. The town got its name from the home town of the founders wife in Greece. The Marina is in the background, two blocks from the museum and between them is a 20 foot high plateau

on which is the ruins of the foundation of either the home that was shelled and burned in a naval bombardment from two US gunboats during the Civil War or a fort. The signage was more directed against vandalism than providing information. The museum has a copy (or original of an affidavit signed by a survivor, after the war, in support of a claim for reparations, asserting that no member of the family lifted arms in support of the Confederacy. I was interested in how the legal form of the affidavit has been relatively unchanged from then to today.
One thing I forgot to report from the museums in St. Augustine is that during the civil war, excluding the native Americans, the total population of Florida was less than 10,000, more than half of them slaves. But you cant believe all you learn in museums: In Fernandina I was told that the original native Americans here were a peaceable and matriarchal society; in St Augustine the story was about the chiefs and the wars between them. Because we can not talk to them directly anymore, each historian draws his or her own conclusions.
The main drag on this half of town, west of the ICW, is called Canal Street,

about six blocks long. We had dinner one night at Yellow Dog Eats on that street, which specializes in variations on pulled pawk. Saturday the street was closed for an antique and classic car show. My friend Jim would have loved the car show. Meticulously maintained and highly shined cars from the 30s through the 70s simply parked on the street, with their owners in lawn chairs nearby to answer questions. Some pride themselves on all original components while others have replaced the interior mechanicals with more powerful and efficient engines.
We took the shuttle bus that picked us up at the far end of Canal Street at Dixie Highway and took us to the beach.

The fare is $0.75 one way for a senior. After a stroll on the beach, we walked the two plus miles back through the main drag of the beach side of town, Flagler Street, and across the bridge that detained us on our passage into town.

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April 9 11 St Augustine to Cumberland Island Lay Day There and then to Fernandina 58 7 Miles and 5 3 Miles

We dropped the mooring at 7:15 to make the 7:30 opening of the Bridge of Lions. We made our way to the inlet using the charted buoys. But from there out to deep water, the buoys are not marked on the chart because they are frequently moved as the waves push the sand around. The marina provided us with a very helpful aerial photograph with the buoys shown. It would have been more helpful for readers had I been able to get this rotated. You can see the white beaches through which we exited and then its simple: Just stay between the reds on your left and greens on your right until "STA" for St.Augustine, the red and white buoy at the open end. Except the buoys are a lot smaller than the dots in the photo and appeared as black dots in the rising sun. We never saw less than 17 feet of water.

And the seas were flat calm, making it easier. Even though when we got in the ocean we put up full sails, we had to motor. Flat seas made a turtle near us visible, however, as well as numerous dolphins.

We lost half an hour when the engine stopped. After tinkering with the filters and switching to the other fuel tank and hand pumping fuel with the hidden lever, she started right up again. During this time the sails were doing little good, 1.8 knots over the ground. A few miles later I noticed that the interlocking Allen head bolts that hold the eye splice at the bitter end of the main sheet in place in a block were missing. Luckily I found the two parts on the deck and locking the boom in place with a different line, I reinserted them onto each other through the splice and used blue Locktite so they will hopefully not fall apart by themselves again.
Around noon the wind came up on our starboard quarter, strongly enough to move the boat at a bit more than five knots. It was such a pleasure to sail, without the noise, that we shut down the engine even though we were making only five knots, a lot less than the 6.5 we had planned for.  These big guys were anchored in our path, about three miles off the mouth of the St. Johns River leading to Jacksonville.

At about 4:30 we gybed for the left turn into the St. Marys River and felt the effect of three knots of adverse current, making only 2.8 over the bottom until we augmented with the engine again. Another gybe and we were headed north up Cumberland Sound where we anchored in 15 feet of water with 60 feet of snubbed chain at 6:30; a long day. We were near s/v Seeker

and Earl and Kathy invited us over for a delicious fun dinner as soon as I got the snubber on and the dink lowered. He is a psychologist who taught groups of corporate executives. They are newly retired and planned to haul Seeker until the fall at nearby St. Marys, where s/v Pandora was earlier this year, They have interesting summer plans including a motorcycle ride from NC to Alaska and back.
Next day I put cat proof screening in the four starboard side opening ports using proper fitting spline that we had obtained in Cocoa. The tops of ILENEs interior cabinetry give our felines access to these screens which they had clawed.
In the afternoon we went ashore and toured the ice house museum and the ruins of Dungeness, the largest (37,000 square feet) of the Carnegie family mansions on Cumberland island. Lene at front; Roger at rear entrance.

We also visited the beach.

The island is 13 miles long and its very clean wide lovely beach is almost unused by humans. Behind Lene is the view to the south and behind me, the north.











In November we saw a few of the horses, but at a distance. Today we saw many and they came close.

Three in the meadow

Three on the trail from the beach, walking past us.

One of the three passing us.

Three more on the beach, one of whom is interested in making more horses.

There is a no-touching rule honored by the humans and the equines. I

keep thinking how much my youngest daughter would love this place though she would not like the law prohibiting the Park Service from feeding, sheltering, grooming or providing veterinary services to the horses. They fend for themselves and are rather small compared to the hunters and jumpers she works with..
Back on ILENE, we prepared for the predicted thunderstorm by letting out twenty more feet of scope. There was no one within several hundred yards of us. We saw the thunderstorm both on radar pictures and in reality, and heard it, moving north, just west of us. No rain and no wind for us.
Our next stop was supposed to be -- and will be -- Jekyll Island, but they had no room for us the first night so we backtracked, south, back into Florida, and took a mooring off Fernandina. Lene wanted to go to the farmers market, where this impromptu group was jamming.

I took this photo just after the two fiddling ladies had left. I walked about a mile further and got two oil filters, one to install at Jekyll and a spare. I also picked up To Kill A Mockingbird, my book groups selection for the May meeting, and a delicious Pecan roll to enjoy with the dinner at the end of Passover.

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March 11 16 Six More Lay Days in Fort Laud Zero Miles

Well, we got the 9 dinghy changed to the 9 6" model and Lene is much happier. An amazing number of small tasks were required for this but it is all done, except paying the taxes, getting a registration number and putting it on the boat.

The Doel-fin stabilizer fins are screwed onto the small horizontal fins of the outboard, under the water, extending their area several times. Without them, when we try to go fast, the stern of the dinghy just digs in lower and the bow higher, which uses a lot of fuel, inefficiently, for a slow ride. But the ones that we got first were a bit too big and would not safely fit onto the outboard. So when we had a rented car for a day we got the right ones and during Lenes HS reunion, Janets husband, Ed, helped me install them. And I needed his help because my initial plan to stand the outboard up against a square garbage bin, with the engines vertical downward fin between the boards of the boardwalk and a line holding the outboard to the receptacle failed. The holes that needed to be drilled through the aluminum fins could not be drilled from the top down because the other parts of the outboard interfered with a vertical hole from the drill and the "vise" I had created was too low to the ground to drill the holes from the bottom up. So plan B was to find a taller receptacle to hang the outboard from -- and it worked. They said it was a fifteen minute job; more like 75. And this was definitely a two man job, if only to lift the engine from the dink to the land. Thanks Ed, for your help and for lunch at the Riverside Market Cafe, after. What a jumping place that is! I was not only the oldest person in the joint, but probably at least twice the age of every other person except Ed. They have an interesting way of selling beer: huge cooler cases line a wall with racks of bottles of beer of very many brands. Take what you want, open your bottle with an opener that hangs from the ceiling on a string nearby, and bring your empties to the cash register with your food check to be charged for both.

I treated the dinks hypalon exterior surface with a rubbing with Aerospace Protectant 303, to keep it clean and supple. And we had a spare tiller extender (so one can control the throttle and steering from a position more forward in the dink) which only needed  me to remove the rubber liner so it was large enough to fit properly over the end of the tiller and hack off about a foot to shorten the extender.
I also rebedded the side opening port above my head in the Pullman berth. When it rained I was rewarded by a slow drip on my head (or pillow) of fresh rainwater that seeped in (until I put a pot under the drip to catch it; but living with pots in ones bed is no way to live). All I had to do was remove the six screws that fastened the stainless collar around the outside of the exterior of the port, scrape away all of the old bedding material (rubbery stuff) from the back of the collar and from the surface to which it attaches, squeeze out a bead of new caulking all the way around, place the collar back on, screw the six screws in tight, and then wipe away all the excess I could and, after waiting for it to set, scrape away the remainder of the excess.

We enjoyed a visit to the Art Museum with Lenes HS classmate, Elissa, who is a member. It featured a lecture by a PhD art historian on photography followed by a viewing of the Museums three exhibits: photography, Frieda Kahlo + Diego Rivera, and William Glackens, who was a painter in his own right but is more famous for buying most of the art that is now in The Barnes Collection in Philadelphia for Mr. Barnes. Then Lene and Elissa had dinner with some Lincoln HS grads and I spent a quiet night at home.

Interesting things have been happening at our Marina. 1). A week before we got here an auto was pulled from the bottom of the river, having rolled down the boat ramp next to us. The person whose body was found inside was a crime victim, an accident victim or a suicide. 2) A burglar, running from the police, jumped aboard a sailboat two boats away from ours, and when the husband was awakened by his heavy breathing, jumped into the river and was arrested by the police, waiting on the other shore. Glad it was not our boat. And this is a very cute little strange watercraft, taken out at the boat ramp near us.

Wildlife too: 1). I was afraid, returning to ILENE one night, that one of the kitties was thrashing in the water with one of the big black Moscovy ducks that live in the marina and fear no man -- or cat.

But it was two ducks mating, a very violent squawking while thrashing, it seemed to me. 2). Lene screamed! She does this when insects appear. It is very unsettling. This time it was a gecko crawling on our galley stove. It took a few attempts before I grabbed him and he was happy to be placed back on the dock. The next one was brought to the boat by one of the cats and I put him back ashore but without a good part of his tail. I dont know if he can live without it.  

We were taken to the Wakodahatchee wetlands preserve by our friends, Dick and Elle where we saw a turtle,

lots of birds

and this somewhat larger waterborne gecko, tail first and then head.

 It is part of a water treatment plant and a two mile boardwalk has been erected above the water to give visitors access to the animals. Im thinking it is misnamed because it is not part of a river and "hatchee" is the Native American word for River, as in Caloosahatchee. Dick and Elle showed us their lovely home in the gated 800 single family home community of Valencia Isles. A beautiful home with room for Dicks woodworking tools. They were in the community production of Fiddler On The Roof, Elle operating a camera to project the play onto large screens at each side of the stage in the auditorium or ballroom of the clubhouse and Dick was a stage hand and had used his woodworking skills to fashion a very realistic looking fiddle out of a block of wood. They had invited us for the performance.We had pizza with them before the show and played in the billiard room of their clubhouse while they got ready for the play. It was very well done with retirees playing all the roles including Tevyas five young daughters. An amateur production but not at all amateurish, with professional equipment and a director.

We had a good dinner with Cousin Naomi

and her sons, Alan and Jeff, at Foxy Browns restaurant. It was within walking distance but had a free parking lot so we drove. Naomi still uses a walker after recovery from her broken bone. Rather interesting food and not too expensive.

Lene had a rather full scale course of beauty treatments in anticipation of the full reunion with her class of 67 schoolmates. Not since October, so she deserved it.

We rented a car for a day from Gold Coast Autos, a very efficient operation which picked us up and dropped us of in a timely fashion. Family run for several decades, exclusively from one Fort Lauderdale office. The only bad part relates to the easy pass system they have installed in the cars. If you take a toll road (and who knew it was a toll road) the device automatically pays your toll and you are billed $6.75 if you tell them, or $20 when they find out if you dont tell them.

While we had the car, on a Saturday, I tried to visit my fathers grave. Many Jewish cemeteries are closed on Saturdays so I called the day before and was told that while the office was closed, visitors were allowed until 3 pm. But when we arrived, the gates were locked so all I could do was say my prayers and think my thoughts from inside the car outside the gates. A disappointment.

Having not filled the propane tank since the day of our first arrival in Marathon, we took it for refill at UHaul the day we had the car. The can was almost bone dry. The valve at the top would not open so UHaul could not put in propane. At Westmarine the salesman told us that they do not sell nor install such valves but Boyes Propane does, and they did, and refilled the tank. They also inspected the tank (looked for pitted surfaces indicating corrosion of the exterior surface) and certified the can for another five years. Luckily this happened when we had the car, though our boat, UHaul, Westmarine and Boyes were all within a couple of miles of each other.

Elissa and Len introduced us to their sailing friends, Ned and Carolyn,

who have a 42 foot Jeanneau in Maine and a 36 foot sailboat at Dinner Key down here. Ned is the brother of Gene, who is a member of the Harlem! It is a small world indeed. After some wine aboard the six of us went to dinner at Nicos where I had the largest stuffed artichoke I have ever seen. It may have been partly because of all the sea stories but I blame the fact that I was still eating artichoke after all the others had finished on the size of that choke.  A fun evening and we thank Elissa and Len, who are not sailors,  for enduring all of our sea stories. And we are invited to Ned and Carolyns house in Rockport, Maine on our next trip up there in 2016.

My final afternoon in Fort Lauderdale was a visit to the Science Museum here on Riverwalk. Lenes business has picked up a bit so she was working. I regret to say that the place was somewhat lackluster.

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