ep. 44 Goin’ to the End of The Line
15 November 2024 | Indian River Shores
Bill Bernaerts | Warm but windy.

Pretty wide open expanses of water on today's route with winds gusting to 20+ knots. We are very close to the actual ocean with only a small spit of land separating us so not a lot of wind break, but at least the waves are small. We motor sailed for a good part of the day with a partially reefed jib, both because the wind was strong and when it's reefed, or rolled in, the bottom edge of the jib is raised a couple of feet so it's easier to see what's on that side of the bow.
Made an easy 54 nm, the jib gave us an extra knot of speed and Yan got a bit of a break. Our intended anchorage was going to be out in the open of a wide, shallow (it's all shallow around here) expanse of water and with the wind blowing the way it was, it would have made for a bumpy, noisy night. But, seeing as all the stars and planets aligned , or at least the moon, we managed to wring a few more nm out of the journey and arrived at a very nice anchorage just off the ICW surrounded by islands at Indian River Shores. The wind was still howling above the trees, which actually sounds a lot worse than it is as it blows through the rigging. But with no fetch opportunity, the waves were minimal.
There are a wide array of sounds on a boat from engine, drivetrain, rigging, wind, anchor chain, etc. When you moored at night they seem to get amplified, especially when you are trying to sleep. A new or different sound can mean something is wrong. As an example, a few days back we were Anchored in Ponce Inlet, which has a 4' tidal range. We hit the v berth to go to sleep and started to hear clunking noises from the bow. Just minor at first but building as time went on. I went on deck to see what was going on and it was the changing of the tide meaning the boat was swinging around and the anchor chain was being pulled sideways as this happened. Good to be able to pin it down but makes it hard to sleep while it's happening.
Last night we go to bed and can hear this noise, again from the bow, that sounds like crinkling paper. It was very hard to pin down where it was coming from and I had heard it a few weeks ago coming from the galley area. Again, not being able to pin down exactly where it was coming from, My immediate thought was electrical arcing but I couldn't find anything getting hot or smell anything burning. The galley occurrence went away so didn't give it a second thought...until now.
There is no wiring in the bow of the boat aside from nav lights, which were off, so now I am wondering if we have a mouse on board as it sounds like chewing. But there is no food in the bow and we haven't seen any other rodent signs anywhere. And then, it stopped. I googled it the next day and it turns out this is quite common in Florida and it's aquatic wildlife nibbling your hull likely cleaning off anything sticking to your bottom. That would explain the start/stop at different locations on the boat so we're gonna go with that va. the mouse.
The weather forecast continues to improve with Sara now not even much of indication on some of the wind maps. So, we are going to carry on my wayward son. So the plan now is we’re going to the end of the line, being Lake Worth, for Monday morning, do some provisioning, fuel and water fill ups and prep for a crossing on Tuesday.
https://youtu.be/UMVjToYOjbM?si=ZpdLJGroh2ENgrPj
A shot of Amaruq givin 'er on the ICW taken from Lynn and Larry's trawler as they pass us like we're standing still. Couldn't sail this day cuz there's no wind so Yan pushes along at 6.5 knots at an economical 2.3 litres/hour fuel burn rate.