Atlantic	Palm Beach	Sue along Palm Beach's ICW trail	Yuccas along the trail
Banyan tree		Scenes along the ICW trail	Palm Harbor Marina

Our changing cruise plans - We, like everyone on the Florida coast, are monitoring the southern progress of the gulf oil spill towards the Florida Keys.  Some cruisers are already getting their boats out of the Keys before the oil arrives.  How bad will it get?  Nobody knows, but if it gets bad, boats could be trapped in marinas that are sealed off by oil containment booms. The problem with the oil is that all of these boats use seawater to cool their engines and transmissions, as well as to run the air conditioners.  If thick oil or tar balls get sucked into these seawater systems, we can have real problems.  It is recommended that you shut off seawater valves to these systems, which means that once you are in the oil, you are stuck where you are because you can’t run your engines to move without risk of fouling your cooling systems.

How much oil will enter the Florida Keys and what affect it will have is anybody’s guess, but besides the affect it will have on the environment and tourism, it can also damage a boat’s bottom paint, which is a copper based paint that protects the boat from barnacles and other marine growth.  If the oil coats the bottom paint it is no longer effective and can’t be painted over.  These boats have to be pulled out of the water, their bottom paint has to be chemically stripped, then the bottom cleaned with solvents, and then bottom paint can be reapplied.  This is expensive.

Our plan is to enjoy Florida’s east coast and wait to see what develops.  If there is no major affect, we may still make the Keys, but if it starts to get bad, we will head north and try to stay ahead of the oil.

On  19 May we moved south to Hollywood Florida, which is between Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach.  Hollywood has a great beach and is a throwback to the early days of Florida tourism.  It has a small but friendly marina and a great restaurant / bakery across the ICW.  We plan on going to the beach and Sue plans on doing some kayaking. 

Plan-B is in effect - We are docked at one of our favorite locations on Florida’s east coast, Hollywood, Florida.  We were reconsidering our cruise plans and our planed destination of Marathon in the Florida Keys.  Between the oil spill, the weather patterns, and the hurricane predictions, we felt we needed to reevaluate.  We weighed the Pros & Cons of spending time in Hollywood versus Marathon.

Marathon                                             Hollywood

Small beach                                       Beaches, beaches, beaches

Snorkeling the reef (great)                  Snorkeling in the ocean (poor substitute)

Swimming in Florida Bay                   Swimming in the surf

Biking around the island                     Biking to the island and on the broadwalk

Essentials within biking distance          Essentials within biking distance

Kayaking in the mangroves                 Kayaking in a large kayaking reserve

Working on the boat                          Working on the boat

Some good restaurants & bars           Many great restaurants & bars

Small layback town                            Small layback town

Small friendly marina                          Small friendly marina

Our assessment was to stay in Hollywood and explore and enjoy this area.  In our last email we talked about Hollywood, Florida, which has a great beach and is a throwback to Florida fifty years ago, before thirty story condos and resorts started lining the beaches as far as you could see.  Hollywood still has many of the one and two story hotels that were built on and near the beach in the 50s and 60s.  Hollywood is not an old run down stretch of beach, the city has rebuilt its over two miles of beach and broadwalk.  The broadwalk which is like a boardwalk but built from concrete and cobble stone.  The beach now ranks among the best beaches and broadwalks on the Florida coast.  The broadwalk contains an 8’ wide by 2 mile long biking and skating path, a 20’ walking path, a jogging path and beach showers at every block.  The beach is wide, clean and well maintained.  The boardwalk is lined with small shops, restaurants, and park areas.  Check out Hollywood’s beach & broadwalk:   http://www.visithollywoodfl.org/beach-cam.aspx

Hollywood Beach broadwalk	Hollywood Beach	Park along the broadwalk	Sue on the beach
Colorful beach hotel	Sand, sea, and palms	Bob's early morning ride	Early morning on the broadwalk
Favorite beach bar	A catamaran heading south	Sunset over Hollywood Beach

 

Hollywood has a small but friendly municipal marina along the ICW, and a great restaurant / bakery across the ICW.  We have been going to the beach almost every day, biking to the broadwalk most evenings for the exercise, a beer, and some people watching.  Sue has been kayaking in an area of mangroves and water trails; which are reserved for kayaking and are only about 400 yards north of the marina.

We have been doing a lot of biking on our folding bikes, some days over 20 miles.  We took the bikes to the Everglades and did a 15 mile loop ride through the Everglades’ River-of-Grass.  The River-of-Grass is a flat shallow sea of grass punctuated by small islands covered by trees and covers thousands of square miles.  The islands are called hammocks.  The River-of-Grass is teaming with wildlife, we saw four alligators, and numerous birds, turtles, and fish. 

The Sea of Grass	The bike path from the viewing tower		Sue on a hammock trail
Crane in a reflecting pool	Large turtle	Alligator

 

Déjà vu - On the trip back from the River-of-Grass bike trip we recognized the first Cuban restaurant that we had ever eaten at.  On our first cruise, in 2000, we sailed with two other sailing couples and made a Mother's Day trip to the River-of-Grass.  One of the husbands was Cuban and on our return he pulled into this restaurant where the waiter only spoke Spanish.  He ordered for us and we all enjoyed the meal.  This started our love affair with Cuban food.  We found the same restaurant 10 years later and it is still great.

The return - After three weeks in Hollywood and with some really bad weather headed for south Florida, we made a hasty exit and started a rapid move north to take advantage of the current weather window.  Our cruise north took eight days and included six straight days on the move followed by a lay day, and then the final move to St Augustine:

    8 June we moved back to Palm Harbor Marina in west Palm Beach. 

    9 June we moved to Fort Pierce City Marina

    10 June we moved to Melbourne Harbor Marina

    11 June we moved to Titusville Municipal Marina

    12 June we moved to New Smyrna Beach City Marina

The trip from Titusville to New Smyrna Beach was short and we arrived at 11:00am.  After five days on the move and at a new destination that we wanted to explore, we jumped on the bikes and headed for the beach. after an afternoon on the beach, we explored the town which was hosting an antique and custom car rally.  We finished the day off with a great seafood meal on the Intra-Coastal Waterway (ICW).

On 13 June we headed to another new destination, The Marina at Ginn Hammock Beach.  The Marina at Ginn Hammock Beach is part of the Hammock Beach Resort, located across the ICW from Palm Coast Florida.  We spent two days at the resort, enjoying the beach, multiple pools, and the water park; which are all part of the marina fees.

On 15 June we made the final short trip from The Marina at Ginn Hammock Beach to our boat's home in Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor.

Another year and another great cruise.  We didn't make it to the Keys, but we did spend day after day on beaches all over Florida's east coast.  Life as a beach bum was definitely enjoyable.  The sun, water and ocean breezes recharged our batteries.  We will put the boat to bed for hurricane season and the winter, and return to Texas and our jobs.

Boring Boat Stuff – For those of you who are considering cruising boats sometime in the future, consider the time required maintaining teak.  Older, thus less expensive boats, often have a lot of exterior teak.  One of our considerations in boat selection was to find boats with as little exterior teak as possible.  Sometimes the right boat has some teak, but less is better.  Boat selection is always a compromise and thus Our Independence has some exterior teak.  We had refinished the teak last year, but we found that the teak was in bad shape when we visited the boat in December and thus were prepared to remove the old finish and this time seal the teak with three coats of epoxy, then finish it with four coats of varnish for UV protection before the cruise.  A lot of research and work goes into exterior teak, and there are no guarantees except that it will take annual attention if the boat is kept in the southern US where UV rays are very strong.

Cheers,

Sue and Bob

M/V Our Independence