Sailing Last Mango

2-18-16    We knew we had to leave Dinner Key mooring field today because neither Karen or I wanted to spend another day unable to leave Mango due to high seas and high winds. I think I stated earlier that the mooring field is very open and any constant wind will create quite a rough condition. We spoke with people from the mooring field that had waves coming over their bows during the conditions last Monday. We never had the waves breaking over the bow but the action in Mango’s front bed was definitely exciting, unfortunately not in a fun way.  We left today because the winds are forecasted to be out of the ENE for the next two days at 18 to 23 knots. We initially decided to sail 5 miles South to “No Name Harbor” but once on our way we changed coarse for “Boca Chita Harbor” which is a Florida State Park. The decision was a great one for a couple of reasons. 1) We were able to fly the spinnaker and move along at up to 7.2 knots, passing a catamaran. 2) Boca...

2-13-16   It doesn’t take too long for me to remember that cruisers (especially sailors) in general are a hardy group of people. This is true and probably always has been. Karen and I somewhat reluctantly left West Palm Beach for Miami Saturday morning. I say reluctantly because we met some great people in West Palm, specifically the Aussie’s Geoff, Jenny and their grandson Ronan, Bob and Maureen from the garden state. We had Mango all prepped for the 75 miles run down the coast and we said our goodbyes. The weather we’d been waiting for appears to be here and at 3 AM we should have a broad reach to a run down the coast. 3 in the morning came fast and we pulled up anchor and sped out of Lake Worth channel with the help of a lowering tide. We raised the sails and set them for the expected brand reach and were making 4.5 to 5.5 knots. The wind at this point was a bit lighter than predicted, I was thinking spinnaker but Karen asked that we not fly it until the sun came up and g...

2-10-16   Today Karen and I decided to take a trek to Home Depot (3 miles each way) to look for a rubber gasket that I need to replace on the manual water pump. I guess the rubber that Fynspray used to make the gasket only had an 25 year life span. Luckily enough we were able to find 10 replacements that seems to work great for less than $2. That’s not too bad, probably the least I’ve ever spent at the Depot. Even funnier was during our trip we were finding pennies, nickels and quarters on our walk, we almost came out money ahead. Another funny moment came as we were returning to Mango through downtown West Palm, Karen and I were still finding money when a homeless guy heard a woman say she was looking for a Subway restaurant. At that moment he looked over at me and said “I just need another dollar and I can buy a sub” while at the same time Karen was bent over next to me picking up change that was scattered about the walkway. The evening came upon us fast, as before Ka...

2-4-16 We set the alarm hoping to get an early start on the day and so it was. The winds had calmed from yesterday and we had dolphins escort us out of the Peck Lake anchorage and down the ICW a bit. South winds did pickup thought the day and slow our progress but we also picked up favorable current from tides. Entering Lake Worth from the ICW our progress was slowed to 3 knots at time due to the high wind and waves, 25 knots straight out of the south at times. We made it to the Clematis anchorage in West Palm Beach and just south of the city dock and found it to be very crowded. Soul Serenade was there snuggly anchored in the NW corner of the anchorage. We motored Mango between boats trying to find an area large enough for Mango to lay down her anchor and some chain because the forecast is calling for these south winds of 20 to 25 to turn north and howl at 20 with gusts to 40 starting at midnight tonight. I found an area, planted the anchor and payed out what I thought was suff...

2-2-16 Hey we’re finally on Mango and moving south. We had dockage at Fort Pierce thru the 2-15 but felt is was time to get our butts heading south. We left Harbortown Marina at 10:00 and started motoring down the ICW with the tide for the first mile or two, after that the currents were going both ways depending on our location. The one thing that was against us the whole way was the wind. The wind blew straight out of the south for the most part between 10 and 15 knots all day. The motoring lasted until about 3 pm as we set Mango’s anchor down in Peck Lake right off the ICW in 9 feet of water.  Once we were sure the anchor was secure I dropped the dinghy and Karen and I set off for the beach. The beach is just over a spit of land that separates the calm ICW from the rolling Atlantic Ocean. From our anchorage we can hear the waves crashing onshore from the SSE winds. Once we land the dinghy it’s about a 50 yard walk to the beach through the sand dunes and mix of Mangrove and...

1-27-16 The past week has flown by as Karen and I have prepped Mango for the voyages south of Fort Pierce. Granted we not going long distances and mostly be within cell service of land but after any boat sits unused for 7 months things just seem to go wrong. So far we’ve been lucky and have only had a fan corrode away on the head and I found a leaking fuel hose. We had a spare fan and I have ordered another hose which has arrived. Otherwise we’ve got everything “ship shape” and ready to shove off as soon as the weather cooperates. So far it’s been everything from cold to rain and more rain. According to tonights weather we have received far more rain in the last two days than Florida normally receives all month. Supposedly the rain should will be stopping Friday and we should be in for warmer and drier weather. Let’s hope so since its been so cool that I haven’t even had a taste for beer. I’m a warm weather beer drinker. Just sitting back watching the rain fall. My Br...