12/14/12 – Ray the mechanic worked on our boat for 7 hours today. Replaced hoses, replaced transmission to engine seal that had bolts sheared off, replaced broken engine mount changed out the impella and also replaced the transmission neutral sending unit that was broken and was leaking transmission fluid. Brian and I stayed off the boat and worked on trying to figure out our new blog site – very frustrating. I’m not computer literate, so Brian slaved through it. Finally gave up after several hours.

We found out the part Brian had ordered to fix our navigation lights did not arrive by UPS even though we had paid West Marine for overnight shipping. Needless to say, Brian was not very happy. Brian called WM and went up the ladder until he got someone who would listen to him and not say “Oh well”. The part will be in on Monday unfortunately, BUT the supervisor waived the overnight shipping charge and credited our account in the amount of $300 – Not Bad!! So, looks like we will be on our way Tuesday morning. Weather was miserable all day, but for dinner we bundled up and walked to the Olde Downtown Daytona business section and found a pizza joint – very good.

Some of books we have read thus far:

The Snowman - Jo Nesbo
Cry to Heaven - Anne Rice
Zero Day – David Baldacci
Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew – Lin Pardey
Sensible Cruising – Don Casey & Lew Hackler
City of Thieves – David Benioff (also watching his series Game of Thrones)
Dirty Blonde – Janet Evanovich
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver
And at the moment - Prince of Tides – Pat Conroy

12/15/12 – Much nicer today – walked to the farmer’s market and bought some vegetables and fruit (I do not like my pic taken – can you tell?). Brought back our purchases and decided to take the hike to Daytona Beach. The tide was in so most of the beach was covered, very windy and surf was a bit rough. Just a handful of souls walking the beach. Walked part of the boardwalk and stopped for lunch at Sloppy Joes – service was wonderful, but the food was mediocre at best. Our total walk for the day including the trip to the farmer’s market was close to 8 miles.

Dinner: sausage and pepper sandwiches with fresh strawberries and Prosseco on the veranda aka cockpit watching the sunset.

12/16/12 – Started off sunny but clouds rolled in and stayed for the majority of the day, but the clouds made it comfortable to be out walking around. Brian checked the bilge pump this morning and seems to be ok, finally. Then he replaced the kitchen faucet with a more functional unit. We took a walk after lunch to the Olde Downtown for the exercise and stopped in a Chocolate shop and Brian got his piece of fudge and I got my turtle with pecans and dark chocolate – yum! From there, we headed back to Daytona Beach except this time we walked across one of the fixed bridges and at the highest point watched a sailboat motor under – didn’t have my camera ready for this pic but did get a few nice pictures for the blog. We walked back to town via another bridge. Not quite as long of walk as yesterday. Saw our first manatee in the marina.

Dinner: mishmash from the fridge and for dessert split a role of oreo cookies – usually that serves as a serving size for me – lol.

12/17/12 – Beautiful day!! Brian worked on banking and then we walked to the Post Office, stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant- it was just ok – and then stopped at West Marine (of all places) to buy line for the Main Sail so that we can reef down when the winds get a bit much. Our part came in for the NAV lights and Brian started working on that and I bet you can guess where he had to go again – yep, West Marine – so back out of his grubs and into something a bit more presentable and off for the walk. When you think you have every screw, nut, bolt, gasket, hose, extra part, etc. that you could possibly need or use, there is always something new that is needed. Stayed behind and did some reading – The Prince of Tides. That night Brian worked on the nav lights – we could not get it to change: It should register as navigation lights, anchoring lights and a white strobe – he spent over an hour on it doing every combo of wire connection and I stood outside on the dock yelling to him if anything came on: He would yell “ANYTHING?” And then I would yell back with either of the following which were not the correct responses: “NAV LIGHTS”, or “BLINKING NAV LIGHTS”, OR “NOTHING,” “NOTHING”, “NOTHING” - it’s was mostly yelling “nothing” – got a crick in my neck from standing there staring up at the top of the mast and I hope no one in the marina was listening to us – geesh! So when we anchor, we turn on our arch light and spreader lights - can’t miss the boat with those on.

Dinner: Chicken schnitzel with sautéed, garlicky kale and sticky rice with mango (thanks, Donna and Dang)


12/18/12 – Left the diesel dock in Daytona at 8:15 – about 4 hours later, motor started making not-so-funny noises – pulled over and anchored out of channel – loose hose – leaking transmission fluid again. Filled, but engine wouldn’t start – Brian jumped it with a screwdriver then turned off engine and restarted engine proper way – it worked. Part of our trip was through a short stretch of mangrove and we had a dolphin escort us through. I had my nose in Skipper Bob’s book reading about bridges and anchorages and the snort from the dolphin startled me (it was so close, I could have touched it) and off came my reading glasses and overboard they went – good thing we stocked up on the reading glasses. Continued on til we anchored in a protective cove with two other boats just before sundown. Quick dinner and in bed reading til 9. Woke an hour later with a M-I-G-R-A-I-N-E. So, sick – up all night.

Dinner – leftover stuffed peppers with cheese melted on top.

12/19/12 – Decided to try and get a long day in today – again, engine would not start and discovered, yet again, that we were just about out of transmission fluid. Brian filled that up again, started the engine with a screwdriver and we motored til we found a marina that had a West Marine within walking distance. Brian took off in the dinghy to buy the transmission fluid (Postman told Brian of an Auto Parts and bought his supplies there) and I stayed behind to catch up on the blog (Charley – we love that ladder you attached to the arch). The engine runs great, just need to find that leak – when Brian gets back we will diaper all the hoses in the bilge if any of the required fluids are down. And who says living on a boat wasn’t fun! BTW: Brian came back with two glazed donuts (how did he know I’ve been thinking about Donna’s Donuts in Tewksbury). Wonder if we can get La Carretta in Nashua to overnight their Nachos Santa Fe. Found a nice quiet anchorage and took our first skinny dip (please do not try and picture that – lol). After the engine cooled down, we check all fluids and found to our wonderful surprise that we did not lose any today. Of course, that’s because Brian stopped to buy the transmission fluid. Better safe than sorry. During part of our trip there was a boat that was sailing north and I do believe the skipper chastised us because we were not “sailing”. She said we should get ourselves a motor trawler. Wondered if she said that to all sailboats she passed as 99% of the sail boats motor the ICW. One: we couldn’t sail as the wind was just about on our nose – they were traveling in the opposite direction and took advantage of the light wind; two: there really aren’t too many areas that you can actually “sail” on the ICW since you have to be vigilant about staying within the markers or you will definitely go aground. And we are still neophytes at sailing. Brian says she was just trying to make conversation; I think she just wasn’t playing nice. So for the heck of it, we did raise our Genoa and found that it actually slowed us down. I know we are not on a schedule, but we did at least want to try and make it to Marathon to spend Christmas with Brian’s brother and our niece and with all the engine problems we’ve been having, we are making slow progress.

Dinner: Spinach filled raviolis with semi-home made marinara meat sauce and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Won’t be making my three-day sauce while living aboard.


12/20/20 A bit of a current and light winds last night made the boat gently shimmy, shimmy, shake, shake, shake (think that’s from a song – but that’s what it felt like), but boat didn’t budge from our anchor spot and we both slept great. Again, Brian had to start the motor with a screwdriver – it just won’t cold start. All fluids looked fine. Several hours into our motoring I noticed the boat suddenly slowed and we heard that funny sound again coming from the engine – put it into to neutral while Brian opened up the bilge and check fluids – the transmission fluid was down. Continued on and found an anchorage at the St. Lucy Inlet next to a bridge that is beautifully lit at night. We are the only boat anchored in this area. The day started off with not much for winds, but they picked up to 26 knots and there was a bit of chop to the water – felt like I was wrestling with the wheel. Mixed up dough for white bread while dinner was cooking. Winds stayed strong through the night and the anchorage dropped lower than Skipper Bob’s book said, so when I woke about 10:30 and discovered the boat was healed over way too much for my comfort, I freaked out a bit. I refused to go back to bed and tried to sit in the salon but was in a ¾ stand. Didn’t bother Brian at all – “the tide will change and the boat will come back upright .” Didn’t appease me at all. I sat (sort of) for almost 2 hours watching the boat heave even more. All I could think of was when Nana would visit her sister in Florida and if there was a tornado threatening, they would get dressed and sit at the kitchen table with their pocketbooks ready to go – even if it meant sitting there all night. Anyway, went back to bed about 1pm and had to hold onto the side of the bed so that I wasn’t laying on top of Brian (I’m sure he wouldn’t have minded). Woke about 3:30 and discovered we were back upright (just like Brian said, guess I should listen to him more often) (Brian added that last part), so I got up and punched down the bread and readied it for baking – back to bed.

Dinner: One pan: Roast chicken thighs, roasted herbed potatoes and roasted asparagus

12/21/20 Rained for a bit about 6am and the winds were still whipping. Small craft advisory out for a couple of days and a cold front going through. Weren’t sure if we should hold up in a marina as I wasn’t about to spend another night in this anchorage. We decided to just go for it. It was cold and the winds didn’t let up all day. Thankfully the sun was out. Going was a bit slow as we had to go through many bascule bridges and some of them are on strict schedules and others you have to request permission (we request permission on all of them anyways), so we have to time our progress to coincide with the openings. One bridge description was incorrect so we had to hold our position for 45 minutes along with another boat. I was at the wheel and it wasn’t easy between the winds and the currents to try and stay in a restricted area. Brian ended up doing the same thing at another bridge. We also had our first major grounding and had requested Sea Tow’s help – embarrassing, especially since we were trailing two other boats from a distance and notice that they cut across the bay instead of staying with the buoys, but Brian didn’t want to take that chance as our draft is about 6’2” with the boat loaded, so we went buoy to buoy and still got stuck – the other two boats made it through. While we were waiting for assistance, we saw a manta ray and the biggest starfish we’ve ever seen. The Sea Tow guy was wonderful, but made me nervous when he used our halyard to pull us off the sandbar while Brian gave the boat some power and the boat healed over to port (left side) enough that it made me panic. But, it was over and done within seconds. A draining day. On the upside, we got to view homes and boats that were rather impressive. Vero Beach area was wonderful to look at the houses, but when we got to the Palm Beach area, we got to see how the one-percenters live – some of their boats were bigger than all of the houses we’ve ever lived in and their houses were just massive – the only people we ever saw out that these places were the pool boys and the lawn maintenance crews. I was giving myself whiplash checking out all of the properties on both sides of the canal.

Dinner: BLT’s with home made bread and the produce from the farmer’s market

12/22/20 Woke up to a light frost on our bedroom hatch – brrrr! The winds are still whipping. The anchorage is good so we decided to stay put for the day. Skipper Bob’s states that the police stop by this anchorage and request a permit fee of $30 if you spend more than 18 hours here and they did stop by, but just checked to make sure we were ok. Brian let them know we would be leaving first thing in the morning – was not asked to pay for a permit. Brian is going to chart our way and try to figure out where we should head outside to do an overnight sail to Marathon. The winds and cold are suppose to be gone by tomorrow morning and the seas will be down for a more comfortable sail on Monday – I hope. Good day for making marinara sauce, also put together a bake mac and cheese and cooked several hard boiled eggs. Finishing the Prince of Tides and maybe I’ll even bake something. Every place we’ve anchored, or moored or docked, there has been the sound of trains – I love it – Johnny Cash’s song “Folsom City Blues (I believe – that starts off “I Hear a Train a Coming”) always pops into my head. Guess we have to thank Henry Flagler for the trains.

Dinner: Seared Pork Chops, smashed potatoes with butter and black pepper and the last of the asparagus – did not bake anything

12/23/12 Left Lantana and motored down the ICW through numerous bridges – only two were on request, rest were scheduled openings. Unless we can gage our speed to each one, we would have to sit at each bridge crabbing back and forth in usually a limited area with other boats waiting for the bridge to open – can be very stressful. Makes for a long day. Saw some massive homes and yachts. Pulled into Lake Sylvia and anchored for the night – actually it’s a small salty pond surrounded by nice houses – busy pond but plenty of space to anchor. Our original plan was to take mooring ball two bridges back and had called ahead several times to make sure one was available. Only one was and it was on a first come first serve basis – we called three times and the last time was just at the bridge where they were located – the mooring ball was still available and was ours, so I readied to pull in, Brian got the boat hook ready and the sailboat who was tagging along swooped in and took the mooring ball – really! How exasperating – apparently they were monitoring the calls. We were concerned that we would have a difficult place to anchor as places were very limited in the area where we would end up for the day and our draft is about 6’2”. We continued on to Lake Sylvia – tight getting in, but we did it and was glad to end the traveling for the day (can you tell from the pic of me in the cockpit with my face covered? I was exhausted). We ended up having a nice quiet evening. On the way, we passed another boat that was docket with the same name. The owner saw us go by and called us up to chat after we anchored. We had heard each other two days prior when we were both negotiating the bridges – I think the bridge tenders were getting a bit confused when one Que Sera Sera went through and then again another boat with the same name shortly after – the bridge tenders log the boats passing through.

Dinner: Leftover hot sausage, pepper and onions chopped, stir fried and added to freshly made marinara and served with egg noodles with freshly grated parm

Pasta always seems to hit the spot after a long day.


12/24/12 Left Lake Sylvia for Marathon at 7:30am. Negotiated one last bridge and then out to the ocean. Winds and waves were a bit more than the weather report indicated. We motored sailed for quite a ways as the wind was on our nose, of course. As we made our turns towards Marathon, we able to cut the engine and sail for quite a while – so quiet and a nice sail. Nervous about the overnight as our first one brings up lousy memories, but all went well. The sunset was spectacular (see pic) – Brian and I sat in the cockpit watching the sunset, holding hands and wished each other a “Merry Christmas”. (Actually, Brian was holding my hand, I was clenching the blanket on my lap with the other hand and sneaking peaks at our navigational equipment – what’s the wind speed?, how much depth do we have?, where’s the next buoy?, are we staying in the channel? ((it’s very shallow off the Keys)) – ugh!! Oh, and the smell of diesel fumes when we had to motor – so romantic! We arrived and were on our mooring ball Christmas morning at 8:30am. It was so good to stop. Wanted to shower in the cockpit, but we are surrounded by many boats, so cleanup was in the bathroom – felt good to clean off the salt spray. Made a bacon and egg and toast breakfast as our food consumption during the night was limited – I did not trust myself to cook a meal while underway even though I took Dramamine. We ate cold leftovers and had plenty of snacks. Difficult to actually sleep – I was just too nervous, but we managed to each get about 3 hours each. Saw a wonderful cloud shaped just like a lobster – it was remarkable (maybe I was sleep deprived and/or famished). After breakfast, Brian hit the bed and was comatose before his head hit the pillow. I was tired but wired, so cleaned the dishes, put stuff away, contacted Wayne to let him know we safely arrived – will meet up with him and his daughter, Corey this evening. Listened to the local marina news channel – pot luck at 1pm – come one, come all. I think I’ll just the baked mac n cheese that was prepped and put aside the other night. Called family to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Dinner – cook’s night off – yeah!!! Merry Christmas to me!

12/26/12 Never went to the pot luck – just too tired and we were meeting Wayne and Corey for dinner that evening. Corey did stop by to visit while waiting for Wayne to get off work. Went to a buffet at a restaurant on the water that was very good, sat and had a drink and people watched before dinner. Wayne gave us a box of goodies that my mother-in-law had mailed to us. She made “worry dolls” and attached a note to the dolls that said: When you think you want to climb the walls and stand right up and shout, here’s a little dammit doll you cannot do without. Just grasp it firmly by the legs and fina a place to slam it, and as you wack its stuffing out YELL DAMMIT --- DAMMIT--- DAMMIT!!!! What a riot! (Thank you, Polly) Wish I had that doll when we did our first overnight sail – it certainly would have alleviated a bit of stress. Woke up the next morning with what seems like a bad cold – stuffy head, sunny nose, can’t stop coughing – Wayne thinks it may be allergies – with me, that’s probably true. Took a walk with Brian to West Marine and took it easy for rest of day – mostly reading.

12/27/12 Laundry day and catching up on the blog. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!