And...We're off!!!

Beautiful day heading south on the ICW

So we finally made it off the dock!! Yay!! We had planned on leaving Friday....then Saturday....then Sunday. Things always pop up right before you're ready to go. Thursday night we realized we just had too many little things to do to leave Friday. Saturday morning our refrigerator started acting up & Scott ended up working on that for half the day. He had to replace the pump. Sunday morning the toilet wasn't working properly. Grrrrr!!! Scott worked on that before we went to church & we decided we're going no matter what. And we did. Since we stayed till Sunday we decided to go to Mass one more time at the beautiful Basilica, which also allowed us one last stroll through beautiful St. Augustine.

 

We got home from church & started the engine. Time. To. Go!!! First stop...fuel dock. And our first encounter of the season with a mega yacht.

 

Leave a light on for us St Augustine...I'm sure we'll be back sometime

We just took a short trip (3 hours) to Ft. Matanzas. We started this tradition of going a short distance on our first day out last year & really enjoyed it. It gets pretty stressful the last few days before you untie the lines so keeping the first sail short & sweet works of us. Just felt great to finally be on the move. Distance was not a goal yesterday.

First night on anchor at Ft. Matanzas

Today we had a lovely day strolling along the ICW. The weather was nice, we made good time. We went about 50 miles in 7 hours. Lots of boats heading south...as usual we were passed by many power boats. (All very polite today! :)

Besides just being on the move...the other excitement of the day was that we were BOARDED by the Sheriff's department in Daytona. They zoomed up beside us & were on our boat within 30 seconds. They wanted to do a "MSD" inspection. (Marine Sanitation Device).

In other words, they wanted to inspect our toilet. I've explained before that our toilet is connected to a holding tank. When we're at least 3 miles out to sea we can dump our tanks directly into the water. When we're inland it is federal law that it all goes in the tank. We even have to have a lock on the valve that opens to the outside. That's what the police are looking for....That you have that valve locked with a padlock or a zip tie. No cheating! And if you do, it's a pretty hefty fine. We were locked of course & the police were on & off our boat in like 3 minutes. It was still a little weird when they appeared. We were like "whoa! Where did you come from?" " whoa! You just hopped on my boat! " Jib growled at them when they pulled up next to us. He never growls so that was strange to hear. The poo cops gotta do their job too & they were very nice.

Jib seems to be enjoying moving on the boat again. However...we are struggling getting him to go to the bathroom on deck. He wouldn't go last night or this morning. Once we got anchored this afternoon we all went out on deck. It was a "potty" stand off. We weren't going to stop till he went. Over the course of 2+ hours we must have said "good boy Jib..go potty" a thousand times. We're trying to train him to go on the side deck instead of on the top deck. He really didn't want to do either after spending the summer ashore. After 29 hours total....We surrendered and he went on the top deck.

Malaika's crew

So 2 days in things are going ok. Looking forward to trekking south. We're expecting crappy weather the next 2 days. :( Big winds & a cold front. Never a dull moment!

Congrats to Marci & Jim on s/v Island Jim who reached the Bahamas today! Have fun guys!! Glad you had a safe passage.

Love & Miss everybody

Michelle, Scott, & Jib

 

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