Skipper Bob

26-28 November - The anchorage possibilities in St Augustine were poor, so we decided to keep moving. The wind was up, and the main anchorage was pretty rolly. This is where Skipper Bob comes in. In addition to our electronic charts, paper charts and glossy guidebooks, we have a little spiralbound book called "Anchorages Along the Intracoastal Waterway" by Skipper Bob Publications. This great little book has details about good places to drop the hook. It may sound simple, but finding a good anchorage has been, at times, challenging. One thing you don't want to do... find yourself without safe harbor when it gets dark. We tested a few places en route, but found no depth out of the channel. There weren't a lot of places in the guides to anchor as we approached Flagler Beach, but Skipper Bob listed a couple of little undeveloped canals at ICW mile 812.9. Skipper Bob says go in the south one, but curiously, there were two boats in the north canal and nobody in the south one. They scoot back about a quarter of a mile, but are only about 100' wide. We eased in the mouth, which had a shoal cutting off about 1/3 of the entrance. If it hadn't been in the guide, we'd never have gone in there. Lora read out the depth as I gingerly motored in. 7'.... 6'..... 5.5'.....5. Then we were in. The depth crept back up to 8 and 9 feet. The next challenge was how to anchor. We usually drop the spade anchor, conveniently attached to chain and easily lowered with the windlass at the press of a foot-controlled switch. But we would swing into the bank and trees with only about 30' of water on each side of the boat. So we took out our secondary anchor, a Fortress, and attached it to the stern. Lora lowered it off the stern and we motored forward, setting it and then paying out much of the rode. Then we dropped the spade with about 50' of chain and backed up, taking slack out of the stern anchor as we backed so as not to get tangled in the rode. It worked like a champ. The boat didn't budge all night. We were tucked in so well that it was still despite the windy night. The next morning the depth gauge crept up to 4.5' at the mouth of the canal, but we didn't hit bottom.

We spent the next couple of days making tracks, and anchored in Daytona and Titusville. Approaching Titusville, we could see the famous NASA Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) from miles away. I remember going there for the Apollo 14 launch with my dad the NASA rocket scientist. Despite the incredible advances in technology since that time, I still stand most amazed at the Apollo program. And, as a NASA brat having grown up with it all around me, I now have a perspective on how incredible it is.

It was tempting to stay and see the shuttle launch, scheduled for Dec 6, but we decided to press on. On Wed we were able to sail from Titusville to Cocoa and decided to stop for some errands. The watermaker had since quit, and we were bummed about that. I needed a new phone, since mine died a slow death in a soapy bucket, and we needed some hardware for minor repairs such as the dinghy seat, which cracked on a rude wave in Titusville. The town dock made it an easy stop, and nearby Travis hardware is in itself worth a stop. The anti-Home Depot, they have everything, even in single quantities, and folks who know how to help you. Nothing against The Home Depot, but this place makes you miss old fashioned hardware stores. We also picked up an irresistible boat gadget, a RIDGID See Snake, an LED illuminated video system with the optics and lights on a gooseneck type stalk. It lets you look down pipes, around nooks, etc. We've already used it fishing cables through the boat. With a shiny new Verizon Voyager phone and hardware, we were ready to keep moving.