(Return to The Sailing Adventures of La Boatique)
Dockwise Yacht Transfer
Our year would begin with us moving back aboard La Boatique for only one month.
The year 2003 began early for us. At 4 a.m. on January 1 we closed up Haven and then in our rented car drove south for six hours along interstate 95 from St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale. The morning hours of January 1st have got to be about the least traveled hours of the year. The roads were empty and nearly everything was closed.
Port Everglades was easy to find from the interstate. I figured once we got to the port we would easily see the huge ship that was carrying a load of yachts. Wrong! The port is immense. Eventually, after enduring some hassles from a guard we were aloud to board Dockwise 12, the ship that carried La Boatique from New Zealand to Florida.
Dockwise 12 looks like the typical ocean going freighter. The only indication of the cargo aboard was the telltale masts of sailboats sticking up along the side of the ship. The boats were all secure and had been hidden inside the ship for the past month. Only after we climbed up a steep gangplank were we able to see La Boatique in the center of all the yachts. La Boatique looked as if she were in a boat yard rather than aboard a ship. Pete commented that this was the most expensive haul out ever for La Boatique.
I thought that we would have a lot of cleaning to do before we could begin our bottom paint job. However, the crew aboard D12 cleaned La Boatique twice a week. Instead of hard dirty work cleaning La Boatique, we had a large meal with the captain and crew in the galley of D12. Our afternoon was spent painting the bottom of La Boatique. Before we could finish the job, we were invited to another meal with the captain and crew. We spent the night in the aft cabin of La Boatique in the belly of D12. In the morning we showered and ate aboard the freighter. We got a little taste of what life might be like for the crew of a cargo ship.
Later in the morning the cargo holding area of D12 began to fill with water first from the stern. The whole ship began to drop down into the water. Soon, La Boatique was floating. Divers swam around the boats and released the straps holding them to their stands. Then the stands were dropped away. Pete started La Boatique's engine and we backed out of the ship. As we drove La Boatique beside D12 we entered the ICW. The last time La Boatique had been in the ICW was in 1998 in Beaufort, North Carolina. What took us over four years of cruising was reversed in one month by Dockwise Yacht Services.
The beautiful homes and high rise condos along the South Florida ICW were awesome. We were amazed at the number of mansions we saw, one after another for miles and miles. Our first night in the ICW was spent anchored in Lake Boca Raton surrounded by pink high rise condos and fancy homes. For the next few days we glided along the ICW anchoring at night. We were told that the delays caused by the bridges would be very annoying, but we made an effort to time our arrivals and had no trouble at all.
We spent a few days at the north end of Lake Worth and then motored on to Vero Beach. There we met up with Eric and Susan aboard Elysia, Don and Gloria aboard Zaftra, along with John and Pam aboard Daisy Bell. They were all friends we had met at Brands Marina in Port Clinton, Ohio. We had a great time reminiscing about the old days and looking toward the future.
Haven began and ended February in St. Augustine Florida. But most of the month was spent touring the state's waterways.
At the beginning of February we moved back aboard Haven from La Boatique. Then we cleaned up La Boatique and prepared her for her new owners. The rest of the month was a good time for us to be away from La Boatique.
On February 7th my Mom and Dad arrived in St. Augustine. They joined us for our waterway adventure beginning February 8th. We had our dinghy strapped to the back of the boat, but we never used it during the trip. Not far from St. Augustine we stopped for fuel in Hammock Dunes. This has got to be the best fuel value in Florida. Diesel fuel was only $1.19 a gallon. Everywhere else it was about $1.70 a gallon. We spent our first night in the friendly town of New Smyrna Beach on the free city dock. We tried going for a walk, but a cold wind cut through to our skin.
We hoped as we headed south the weather would improve, which it did. Our second day took us south to the St. Lucie inlet where we turned inland toward Lake Okeechobee. We anchored for the night alone in a quiet bay before the lake. It seemed we were in a picture perfect spot until the night brought with it mosquitoes and an immense amount of tiny bugs. We had to close up all the windows since the bugs could get through the screens. Lake Okeechobee is the second largest inland lake in the U.S. but it is surprisingly shallow. Lake Okeechobee reminded me a lot of Lake St. Clair (between Lake Erie and Lake Huron). Both lakes are nearly round and shallow and are used to get from one large body of water to another. However, at this time of year Lake St. Clair is frozen while the weather at Lake Okeechobee was pleasantly warm.
The next night after we crossed Lake Okeechobee was spent at another free dock at the small sleepy town of La Belle. The item of highest action in this town was the nearly nonstop semi truck loads full of oranges and grapefruits. From what I saw, there seemed to be enough fruit to feed the world. Next to the La Belle dock is the library where we could get on the internet and check our email. Our cousin Bob Koester drove over from North Fort Myers for a visit. So we stayed in La Belle for a few days.
On Friday February 14th we arrived at our destination for the trip, Pine Island. We tied off to the dock in Larry and Denise Schmid's backyard. We had met Larry and Denise during our cruise through the Erie Canal in September. We had a wonderful visit with Larry and Denise. They were superb hosts. While at Pine Island we also had time for visiting with Joe and Marge Scowcroft from the boat Dream Weaver. We also visited with my cousins Bob Koester and Cheryl Hanson before beginning our return trip.
Larry and Denise had described to me an alternate channel through Lake Okeechobee. I had been tempted to use this alternate course, but our charts had listed the channel as being abandoned and no longer maintained. I carefully charted a course through the lake since the channel is unmarked. We would never have attempted a shallow abandoned channel in La Boatique. But Haven draws about 3 feet less than La Boatique. So when Pete spotted the turn off for this alternate channel, we took it. Behind us were 2 men in a large red sport fishing boat.
I doubted the big red boat would follow us into this tiny cannel, but it did. We noticed small bass fishing boats making use of the narrow channel. Aligators lurked along the shoreline marshes. The big red boat was use to going fast and soon passed us up. Pete said that this would be easier than we thought since we could follow the big red boat. A man in a bass fishing boat gave us a surprised look and asked if someone was directing the big boats into this alternate channel. He had never seen big boats use the cannel and now here were two of them. I told him that we decided to use the channel for something different. When the cannel opened up into Lake Okeechobee the big red boat stopped. I am sure the two men aboard were confused. After all, there were no familiar channel markers in the lake. Soon the big red boat turned around and headed back into the narrow cannel toward us. As the red boat headed toward the main channel miles behind us, we entered Lake Okeechobee. The lake was so shallow in this area that there were many patches of sea grass. We slowly and carefully followed our charted course on the GPS. About the time we joined the main channel in the center of the lake; the big red boat sped by and soon was out of sight.
Since we enjoyed the scenery on the alternate Okeechobee route, we decided to use an alternate to the ICW during our trip north. We took the Banana River from its exit into the ICW to nearly its head at Cape Canaveral. We were the only boat to take this course. Dolphins, who seldom see boats is this river, relished traveling along beside us. They would look up at us and wave their fins. One rambunctious dolphin tried to see how much water he could splash onto the boat! The entire rear part of Haven was drenched in salt water. Since we were up on the top deck, we were spared from the drenchings. We were surprised at how wide the Banana River was. But, like the Okeechobee, the river was very shallow. We nearly touched bottom a number of times. During our exit from the Banana River through the Canaveral Barge Canal we spied a mother manatee with a calf slowly swimming along beside us.
We had some danger and excitement as we passed under a bridge a few hours later. We noticed at the base of the bridge a man having trouble with his outboard motor. The motor began to smoke. Seconds later fire was shooting up from the top of the gasoline engine. The man quickly grabbed his fire extinguisher. However, the fire extinguisher fizzled and sputtered but did not put out the fire. Pete took the helm from me to position our boat close to the boat in distress while I grabbed one of our fire extinguishers. The man yelled at me to throw him the extinguisher.
The gasoline tank was seconds from exploding in the ever growing fire. I hesitated a second. If I missed my toss, the boat would probably blow up.
The man yelled, "Come on. Throw it now."
I gave the extinguisher an underhand toss right into his hands. Immediately he had the extinguisher spraying frothy foam over the fire. A moment later the fire was out. The boat was saved. Pete asked the man if he needed a tow and the man answered that he had friends in other small boats near the bridge that would help him out. So, we were again on our way north.
We spent our last night on the waterway in a wide expansive tidal marsh outside of St. Augustine. We were the only boat in the area. The night was quiet.
The next morning, February 24th, we were back in our slip at Hidden Harbor in St. Augustine.
La Boatique and Haven spent the month of March together in St. Augustine at Hidden Harbor Marina. During the month La Boatique's name was changed to Magus by the new owners.
Both Pete and I were aboard our old sailboat one last time to help the new owners prepare to leave the slip. We returned to the dock and cast off the lines. We waved goodbye to our old sailboat. The sailing adventures of La Boatique had truly ended for us.
At the end of the month Magus headed south to Marathon Island in the Florida Keys while we prepared Haven and ourselves for the trip north to Ohio. We wanted to depart on March 31st, but a cold raw wind howled from the northwest. So our departure was delayed until April fools day.
Watch for updates to our adventures as we head north.
On April 1st we started cruising north. We anchored out or stayed at free docks except for the Albany Yacht Club for $33 and Castleton Boat Club for $5. The spring temperatures were somewhat cooler than normal. We were glad we had heat on board.
During the middle of May we were in the middle of the Erie Canal. Before June we were back in Ohio with our base being Vermilion Power Boats.
Here were our stops:
| Date | Origination and Destination for the day |
Miles |
| April 1 | St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach, Florida | 75 |
| April 2 | April 2 Fernandina Beach to Fort Frederica, Georgia | 57 |
| April 3 | April 3 Fort Frederica, Georgia to Redbird Creek | 84 |
| April 4 | April 4 Redbird Creek to Beaufort, South Carolina | 13 |
| April 5 | April 5 Beaufort to B&B Seafood | 27 |
| April 5 | April 5 B&B Seafood to Seven Reaches Creek | 63 |
| April 6 | April 6 Seven Reaches Creek to Georgetown South Carolina | 64 |
| April 7 | April 7 Georgetown to Barefoot Landing South Carolina | 60 |
| April 11 | April 11 Barefoot Landing to Carolina Beach | 71 |
| April 12 | April 12 Carolina Beach to Mile Hammock (Camp Lejunne) North Carolina | 61 |
| April 13 | April 13 Mile Hammock to Oriental North Carolina | 70 |
| April 15 | April 15 Oriental North Carolina to Alligator River Marina | 118 |
| April 15 | April 15 Alligator River Marina to Little Alligator River | 2 |
| April 16 | April 16 Little Alligator River to Elizabeth City Dock | 37 |
| April 17 | April 17 Elizabeth City to Welcome Center North Carolina | 24 |
| April 19 | April 19 Welcome Center to Norfolk Hospital Point Virginia | 34 |
| April 19 | April 19 Norfolk Hospital Point to Mill Creek Virginia | 13 |
| April 20 | April 20 Mill Creek into Chesapeake Bay then back to Hampton Roads Virginia | 7 |
| April 21 | April 21 Hampton Roads to Salomns Island Virginia | 108 |
| April 22 | April 22 Salomns Island to Cambridge Maryland | 47 |
| April 25 | Cambridge Maryland to Chesapeake City Maryland | 96 |
| April 27 | Chesapeake City to Sunset Lake (Cape May) New Jersey | 79 |
| April 28 | Sunset Lake (Cape May) to Surf City New Jersey | 80 |
| April 29 | Surf City to Atlantic Highlands New Jersey | 73 |
| April 30 | Atlantic Highlands to Behind the Statue of Liberty, New Jersey | 23 |
| May 1 | Statue of Liberty to Kingston New York | 98 |
| May 2 | Kingston to Stockport Middle Ground New York | 38 |
| May 3 | Stockport Middle Ground to Castleton Boat Club New York | 18 |
| May 6 | Castleton Boat Club to Albany Yacht Club New York | 7 |
| May 6 | Albany Yacht Club to Watertown New York | 10 |
| Total Miles | 1557 |