November 18, 2011
We woke up this morning to a rip roaring NE wind blowing 20-25 kts. I anticipated this last night and put out 120' of chain in 10 ft of water: 12:1 scope. That is the wonderful part of anchoring in 10' depths, one can let out a lot of scope and sleep soundly. Phyllis had to motor up to the anchor while I cranked in the windlass and manned the wash down hose. Worked out quite well.
It was very windy all day and continues from the NE-E this evening. Most of the day was spent "crabbing" down the channels with such strong wind. This is a new technique for Phyllis so I did most of the helming today. Even on the ICW, where there are long open areas between the beach and the mainland, conditions are rough with lots of spray. Although we carried no sail today, the vessel was still heeled over due to the wind. We could have carried sail without any problem and made much better speed but I was concerned that if we had a grounding the sail would increase the problem by driving us further onto the shoal area.
We arrived at Vero Beach Marina and Mooring Field at 1530 and rafted up to another vessel called "Gypsy Song". It is 44 ft 1979 Bob Perry design built by Choy Lee. These vessels were built in Hong Kong from the 1950's until the mid 1980's. They are very beautiful to behold but have too much varnish work to keep up. I had considered buying one during my research for a "blue water' boat.
A mooring field is a place where the marina puts out mooring buoys and rents them at very reasonable rates. They are much cheaper that taking a slip at the marina. These mooring buoys cost $13.90 per day. When Wx conditions are bad, the marina will put two or three boats to a mooring rather that turning someone away. That is our situation tonight.
Tomorrow we head towards Jupiter Inlet that is about 50 miles distant. The following day will find us at Mile 1047 at the Delray Harbor Club Marina. This is where the new SSB will be installed by Dave Lamplighter. He comes highly recommended by Annapolis Harbor Boatyard.
It's 2100 hrs and it's still blowing hard out there. Hopefully, the winds will diminish somewhat tomorrow.
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