Last updated

23 Sep 2007

The Voyage of the "Good Grief"

Ship's Log  2001

MARCH

22 - After over a year of marina dwelling in Harbortown on Merritt Island, Florida, we finally wind up the seemingly endless projects and errands which unfailingly precede our departures. Since we are planning to cruise down the coast of Florida to Key West and then cross the 90 miles to Cuba for a visit before continuing on to the Bahamas we are looking at almost three months of provisions and supplies deprivation!! The FM has tried to imagine 90 breakfasts, lunches and dinners for two as well as the extra required for stay aboard guests as well as the assorted "entertainings" that invariably pop up. TC has tried to plan for all the routine maintenance needs for all our power, water, waste and comfort systems as well as any emergency contingencies that might possibly arise. It is at this stage of the game that we begin to question our sanity in continuing such a peculiar life style. Nevertheless the unknown still lures us and once the hard work is done a sense of anticipation sets in to offset the exhaustion. 

Because we must transit both a lock and a drawbridge to get to the sea we depart at 5:30 AM to try to get through before the bridge shuts for the morning commuters to Kennedy Space Center.  We do get drowsily  away on time but a big oil barge comes by ahead of schedule and ties up the lock delaying us until the 8:00AM reopening of the bridge. Now we are late and will have to make a landfall in the dark which we always try to avoid. It is very much harder to navigate at night and coming into an anchorage or marina is fraught with peril. If any of the charted navigation lights happen to be unlit for some reason or another  it is doubly difficult to find the way. 

Luckily the day is a nice one and we gaily sail along until the wind drops along with the sun, as it usually does, causing us to finish up motor-sailing.  Experience prompts us to skip the intended landfall at Ft. Pierce and to go on to an anchorage with which we are more familiar. After a marathon 18 hour passage we wearily drop anchor at midnight in Palm Beach.  It is a wide, calm anchorage but has a tidal switch to contend with so we must carefully position ourselves so as to clear the nearby boats when we make the 180 degrees swing with the tide change. TC is particularly adept at this calculation so we drop the hook and then drop into a deep sleep free of any tension. 

23 - After only five hours of sleep we hop up and weigh anchor for Ocean Reef because it is a 90 mile run to and has a shoal at the entrance which is so shallow that we can only enter on the high tide.  TC calculates the running speed and time we need to get us there at the right time, enters all the waypoints in the Nobeltec navigation chart, activates the interlinking navigation setting on the Robertson Autopilot and away we go. With our system fine tuned all we really need to do is watch the computer screen where the little boat glides along the pre-set course line and keep an eye on the compass heading as a second reference. Of course if we are motoring there are the engine instruments to monitor and record in the log book every so often. It is a long but pleasant day of motor-sailing and we hold to our speed perfectly, clearing the shoal and happily snugging up in a nice calm berth in the very beautiful, five star Ocean Reef Club Marina just before a dazzling sunset. 

The berth is owned by our friends Al and Scarlet who have a lovely home within the Club grounds. They have very kindly hosted our stay otherwise the cost would run about $300. per night. We are too exhausted to socialize but we make contact with our friends and agree to meet the next evening. 

24 -  We enjoy a wonderful dinner at the Golf Clubhouse and with Al's urging even indulge in a fantastic dessert of Key Lime Pie. He really knows how to host a dinner party!! We are so energized we drop in at the jazz club and dance until midnight!! They are always great fun and we have an unusually good time with them where ever in the world we manage to get together. 

25 - After a scrumptious al fresco lunch at the poolside we jump in our friends jazzy little golf cart and spend the afternoon touring the Ocean Reef Club's facilities and residential areas.  An accurate description would take up pages and pages so I if you will just envision the most beautiful and luxurious golf and boating country club imaginable, that would about cover it.  Ours may not have been the smallest boat in the marina but those smaller than us were probably the tenders for the mega yachts around us! None of THEM had sailed around the world however...  

We spend the next few days puttering around the boat and socializing with Al, Scarlet and her son Juan Carlos as well as some of our marina neighbors.. they entertain us.. we entertain them.. all great fun! On Sunday we give our friends a fascinating water tour of the many canals upon which the homes are built, a view  the they had not had.  

27 - Al very kindly loans us his Lincoln Navigator to pick up friend Clem from the airport in Miami.

Clem has been a several time Good Grief visitor and it was he and his wife Virginia for whom TC performed a wedding ceremony in Erdek, Turkey in 1993.. and they are still together and that is a real testimonial for TC's marriages! They really stick even if they aren't quite legal.