Well, I have been threatening to do it so I did, Last night I moved the
"Vita" to a slip near the St. Johns and ICW intersection. Friday afternoon,
I start south. Destination Daytona. I will spend a night or two with the
spring breakers and head back up to St. Augustine.

--
Capt. Frank

__c
\ _ | \_
__\_| oooo \_____
~~~~|______________/ ~~~~~
www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 17:56:23 GMT, "Capt Frank Hopkins"
wrote:

I will spend a night or two with the
spring breakers and head back up to St. Augustine.
=========================================

Best to wear some eye protection from all of those thongs,
and the "how it got here I haven't a clue" tattoos. :-)

Have a good trip and don't bring anything home to momma.

Nice trip, Capt Frank. I dragged an Endeavour 35 sloop over the
sandbars a couple of years ago from Halifax River Yacht Club in
Daytona to Mayport.

We especially enjoyed seeing the ubiquitous Florida Crackers, sitting
on the docks in front of old cinder block houses with yards full of
old pickup trucks with their beers in their hands in faded lawn chairs
watching their kids jumping into the ICW and having great fun RIGHT
NEXT DOOR to the rich Yankee invaders in their amazingly priced custom
mansions with manicured lawns noone ever walked over, docks noone ever
enjoyed all shut up in their air conditioning. It's refreshing to see
the real Floridians can STILL live on their waterfronts and haven't
been pushed off their land in many places.....(c;

In spite of efforts to mark what's left of the channel at Daytona, I
managed to catch "something" that felt like a tree from the way it
"gave", in the middle of the channel trying to get the sloop from the
Halifax River Yacht Club's basin to the yacht harbor's basin to the
south of it. At Daytona, the ICW is a real mess with crazy turns and
twists around underwater obstructions right there. It was the only
time I ran her aground on that trip north, but we dragged her 5' 6"
keel over sand in a few places to Mayport....before she escaped to sea
on a rhumbline to Charleston out where she belongs....



On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 17:56:23 GMT, "Capt Frank Hopkins"
wrote:

Well, I have been threatening to do it so I did, Last night I moved the
"Vita" to a slip near the St. Johns and ICW intersection. Friday afternoon,
I start south. Destination Daytona. I will spend a night or two with the
spring breakers and head back up to St. Augustine.

--
Capt. Frank

__c
\ _ | \_
__\_| oooo \_____
~~~~|______________/ ~~~~~
www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks





Larry W4CSC
POWER is our friend!

Thanks for the heads up Larry. I'll keep a weather eye for sandbars. The
durn things shift all the time so the coxswain has to read the water all the
way along the "ditch." Navigation is not too bad until you get into south
Flagler, and things tend to get a little "salty."

Last night I loaded lots of food and libation, along with 200 gallons of
gas and some new DVD's. The boat is as ready as I can make it. Now to light
a fire under the first mate's stern. She wanted to go shopping for a new sun
suit and leave in the morning. I put a stop to that! We should pull away
from the dock at 2:00.

--
Capt. Frank

__c
\ _ | \_
__\_| oooo \_____
~~~~|______________/ ~~~~~
www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks
"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
[snip]

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 17:56:23 GMT, "Capt Frank Hopkins"
wrote:

Well, I have been threatening to do it so I did, Last night I moved the
"Vita" to a slip near the St. Johns and ICW intersection.
Cap,
What was the height of the new bridge at Pablo Creek? If I recall
right it was well under 60 ft. when I went through last fall.




Rick Itenson
La Belle Aurore
Toronto

x-no-archive:yes

(Rick Itenson) wrote:

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 17:56:23 GMT, "Capt Frank Hopkins"
wrote:

Well, I have been threatening to do it so I did, Last night I moved the
"Vita" to a slip near the St. Johns and ICW intersection.
Cap,
What was the height of the new bridge at Pablo Creek? If I recall
right it was well under 60 ft. when I went through last fall.

I've been taking pictures of the height boards on the bridges and
there are 2 of them there that were less than 65 feet when we went
through. Not under 60 feet though. Of course our mast is only 58.5
so it wasn't a problem for us.

grandma Rosalie

Hi All,
Just back from Boca Raton! We decided to extend the trip a little. The
weather was gorgeous. A "Chamber of Commerce Weekend." A northeaster blew up
Monday and churned up the Atlantic, so we stayed in the ICW for the most
part. The first night we tied up at the Municipal Pier in St. Augustine, and
had a fine dinner in the Santa Maria Restaurant. Up early the next morning,
The first mate made breakfast (or boatfast) while I attended the boat's
needs, and we were off to the fuel dock. Gas was $2.44 a gallon. (Thank you
Mr. Bush and oil crony pals!) After a leisurely 7 hour putt south we arrived
in Daytona. There was no dock space available anywhere. I felt like Joseph
and Mary must have. I ran across a friend from home, and he and his first
mate invited us to tie up alongside him for the night. (Thanks Dave and
Shelly aboard the "Peli-can".) We called for a taxi and went to dinner at
"The Charlie Horse" in North Daytona. Best steaks and crab legs in the
state. Daytona was madhouse with all the spring breakers and bikers
competing for space in any restaurant or other public place. The four of us
went back to the boats and hid for the rest of the night. Next morning, Amy
made another of her fine "boatfasts," of grilled porkchops, grits and
pancakes. of course inviting our dock-hosts. During breakfast I proposed we
head further south to avoid the spring breakers, and the idea was well
received. Another stop for fuel, (2.63/gal) and it was southbound. We went
outside to the ocean and cruised offshore for 6 hours until we passed
Titusville. We had to swing wide to the east to avoid Kennedy Space Center's
security zone. The Coast Guard was with us until I identified myself as a
coastie-a and invited them aboard for coffee and cake. They politely
declined (Much to the first mate's relief.) and zoomed off to interdict the
"Pelican." Dave and Sherry were just a little too close to their "zone" and
a couple of miles astern of us. I called my blue-shirted buddies and
explained that Dave was a lousy navigator, which is why he was following us.
You see, Dave, thinks GPS stands for "Guess Position Sailor." After that bit
of excitement, we pulled into Boca. Found a spot to tie up and dragged out
the grill. After lounging around in the warm sun for a couple of days, we
decided to head home. Dave and Sherry decided to stay a few more days. The
Northeaster had whipped up the seas, so we took the ICW north. There are a
bunch of new minimum wake zone to protect sea cows, which we did not see
even one of. So it took 2 days to get home at mostly idle speed. Not that
puttin' along is a bad thing, but there were times when we were fighting a
current and our "land speed" was down to 2 miles per hour. Also our boat,
"La Dolce Vita" (Formula 26 PC) tends to "wobble" on the prop at low speed
so its a constant battle to stay on course. The ICW also has a lot of
shifting sand bars, so the coxswain has to stay on his or her toes, and read
the water. Amy did get us into shallow water once, but the 6 foot alarm went
off, and she headed for center channel. She tends to hang onto the right
side of the waterway as though she was driving on an expressway. I have to
gently remind her from time to time, to follow the channel markers. We
stopped for the night in Port Orange. Did not tie up for the night but just
anchored in a sheltered cove. Next day we stopped again at Marineland for a
short shore excursion to watch the dolphins dance for their dinner and
refuel. (2.49/gal) The marina at Marineland is a nice place. We pumped out
the holding tank and took a nice hot shower in their (spotless) bathhouse. I
also took the opportunity to do an oil change. (I change oil about every 50
hours. It keeps the expensive engine around longer.)
We headed north again the next morning and made Mayport by 2:00. I let the
first mate off at the car, fueled up again and ran the last 40 miles down
the St. Johns to our dock. Amy was there to meet me and lend a hand tieing
up and hauling out the food, laundry, ect.
All in all it was a great trip.
--
Capt. Frank

__c
\ _ | \_
__\_| oooo \_____
~~~~|______________/ ~~~~~
www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks
"Capt Frank Hopkins" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Well, I have been threatening to do it so I did, Last night I moved
the
"Vita" to a slip near the St. Johns and ICW intersection. Friday
afternoon,
I start south. Destination Daytona. I will spend a night or two with the
spring breakers and head back up to St. Augustine.

--
Capt. Frank

__c
\ _ | \_
__\_| oooo \_____
~~~~|______________/ ~~~~~
www.home.earthlink.net/~aartworks

x-no-archive:yes

"Capt Frank Hopkins" wrote:

snip interesting trip

Next day we stopped again at Marineland for a
short shore excursion to watch the dolphins dance for their dinner and
refuel. (2.49/gal) The marina at Marineland is a nice place. We pumped out
the holding tank and took a nice hot shower in their (spotless) bathhouse. I
also took the opportunity to do an oil change. (I change oil about every 50
hours. It keeps the expensive engine around longer.)

How long has the Marineland marina been open? There were no signs of
activity there and were signs warning us off in 2000 when we went
through and in December 2003, we did not see any particular signs of
activity although Bob claimed that he saw a dolphin jump in the dome.


grandma Rosalie

x-no-archive:yes

"Capt Frank Hopkins" wrote:


Hi All,
Just back from Boca Raton! We decided to extend the trip a little. The
weather was gorgeous. A "Chamber of Commerce Weekend." A northeaster blew up
Monday and churned up the Atlantic, so we stayed in the ICW for the most
part.

snip.
Next day we stopped again at Marineland for a
short shore excursion to watch the dolphins dance for their dinner and
refuel. (2.49/gal) The marina at Marineland is a nice place. We pumped out
the holding tank and took a nice hot shower in their (spotless) bathhouse. I
also took the opportunity to do an oil change. (I change oil about every 50
hours. It keeps the expensive engine around longer.)

Based on this report I called Marineland to try to get a slip. The
Marineland show itself is open again, but they only do performances on
weekends, although the gift shop is open 7 days a week. The phone
number has changed too. It is now 904-471-1111. The old number is a
private house.

Anyway when I got through the phone menu and actually got to talk to a
person, she said that the marina won't be open until sometime in 2005
- they've finished dredging but haven't built the fuel dock yet, and
she said that if you stayed there recently, you must have evaded the
security guys.


grandma Rosalie

x-no-archive:yes

"Capt Frank Hopkins" wrote:


Hi All,
Just back from Boca Raton! We decided to extend the trip a little. The
weather was gorgeous. A "Chamber of Commerce Weekend." A northeaster blew up
Monday and churned up the Atlantic, so we stayed in the ICW for the most
part.

snip.
Next day we stopped again at Marineland for a
short shore excursion to watch the dolphins dance for their dinner and
refuel. (2.49/gal) The marina at Marineland is a nice place. We pumped out
the holding tank and took a nice hot shower in their (spotless) bathhouse. I
also took the opportunity to do an oil change. (I change oil about every 50
hours. It keeps the expensive engine around longer.)

Based on this report I called Marineland to try to get a slip. The
Marineland show itself is open again, but they only do performances on
weekends, although the gift shop is open 7 days a week. The phone
number has changed too. It is now 904-471-1111. The old number is a
private house.

Anyway when I got through the phone menu and actually got to talk to a
person, she said that the marina won't be open until sometime in 2005
- they've finished dredging but haven't built the fuel dock yet, and
she said that if you stayed there recently, you must have evaded the
security guys.


grandma Rosalie