Northbound Interrupted

While we were in Ft. Lauderdale the captain suffered a hernia.  A visit to the hospital revealed that surgery was not immediately necessary if I wore a truss and behaved myself, which is easier said than done.  Anyway, we backed out of the dock at Cooley's Landing on Friday, April 1 at 9:00 a. m.  Because of Lucy's motion awareness problems, we decided to motor up the ICW, which meant that we would need to pass through 23 opening bridges, most of which operate on a restricted schedule. 

This bridge was the most interesting design.  The bridges are supposedly timed so that one can make each of them for their next scheduled opening, but this is tough when wind and current are working against you.  Also, parts of the ICW above Ft. Lauderdale have vertical walls which reflect boat wakes back and forth.  This turmoil made Lucy sick.  So much for not sailing outside!

We didn't arrive in the North Lake Worth anchorage until 7:30, anchoring shortly before dark.  We called John and Brenda on "Some Dream" and discovered they were in the same anchorage.  They stopped by late in the evening and filled us in on the trip to the Exumas.  Sounds like they had a fabulous time. 

The next mornng we raised anchor and motored 25.2 nautical miles to Manatee Pocket.  Saturday was a tough day to travel because of the weekend powerboat traffic.  Wakes were especially bad around the St. Lucie River.  We were relieved to get off of the waterway, even if the day's progress was limited.  On the 3rd of April we traveled to Vero Beach Municipal Marina.  We spent three days here, mostly waiting for Tuesday's bad weather to blow through.  We were moored next to George and Marianne on the Gemini Catamaran " Wet Wings". 

They cruise from January until sometime in April, spending this year in the Exumas.  They can't come down earlier because they own a Christmas Tree farm and are busy with their seasonal business.  We shared a happy hour with them aboard "Passage" and had a very nice time.

While we were in Vero, I decided that my hernia was too uncomfortable while operating "Passage" to continue our cruise to Ohio.  We made the decision to find a temporary dock and go home to Ohio to have the injury repaired.  Since they had no dock space available in Vero Beach, we arranged for dockage in Titusville.

On Wednesday the 6th of April, we traveled up the Indian River section of the ICW to Titusville, a voyage of 68.2 nautical miles. There was a long line of boats leaving Vero to begin their migration north.  We passed the Kennedy Space Center, and could see a building used to prep and protect the space shuttles.

We did sail a little on this trip after the wind shifted.  It was very nice not to listen to the diesel.  We arrived in Titusville a little after six p.m. and were greeted by a group of liveaboards from E dock.  Among them were Pat and Sandy John from "Inion Na Gaot".

Pat and Sandy were from our marina in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, and have been living aboard their vessel since they sailed out the St. Lawrence River into the North Atlantic many years ago.  It was great seeing them and meeting the newest member of their crew, Little Bit.

Thursday we washed two months of dirt and salt from "Passage".  The local manatees supervised the entire operation in hopes of scoring a little fresh water.

We worked all day prepping the boat for her long visit at the Titusville Municipal Marina.  It was difficult for us to leave her here unattended for the expected six to eight weeks we will be gone.

On Friday the 8th we loaded the Budget rental car and drove to Wytheville, Va.  On Saturday we arrived in Painesville, Ohio.  We are spending the weekend with my daughter Kim and son-in-law Jeff.  The county is scheduled to turn the water back on at our home tomorrow morning.  I will also pick up my medical referral which will  lead  to fixing my problem so that we can return to "Passage" and complete her delivery to Lake Erie.