It was time to leave Titusville. Andrew filled in the exit papers and emailed them to the CBP office in Canaveral. They emailed the stamped one back to us before the day was out. We were all set to go.
As we were about to release the lines on the mooring ball, we noticed that the first bridge we had to go through, was down. It was a railway bridge that had not been down the whole time we were there! Murphy! We waited a bit and heard on the radio that it would open again at 9am.
We had to motor to the next bridge at it was quite a windy route. We were expecting the bridge to be closed but it was open. It looked like they were working on the bridge. We had passed that road when we were going to Orlando (we did a bit of sightseeing first) and noticed that the road was closed.
When we are motoring for long periods we keep a beady eye on the engine temperature. It seldom is above 80 degrees Celsius. We noticed that it was above 80 and heading towards the high 90s. Andrew wasn't sure what the problem was. There was definitely water running through the engine. I hope we didn’t break something the other day. Luckily we were able to put a sail out once we were through Mosquito channel.
We spent the day watching the engine but it seemed to be ok when the tide changed, although it didn't go below 90.
We got to New Smyrna Beach and dropped anchor just off the channel. There were so many dolphins swimming around our boat, it was lovely.
The following morning we upped anchor and set off. Within minutes the engine was on 120 C! Something was seriously wrong. We turned around and went back to where we had anchored. Andrew set about finding the issue.
He was about to take apart the water pump to check the impeller when the instrument panel started making a squeaking noise. He traced the wires and found that a connector in the engine room was full of water.
After drying and cleaning it, he put it all together again and it seemed to have solved the problem.
We set off again hoping to make the 09h30 opening of the bridge ahead of us, only to find after radioing them that the bridge was not able to be opened. There was no electricity in the town and the generator was broken. Load shedding in the USA.
Something was telling us not to leave that day, so we went back to our anchorage. The bridge was back in operation later in the afternoon. The bridge master radioed us to ask if we still wanted to go through, but we said we would be there in the morning. It was too late to get to where we wanted to anchor for the night.
The day ended up being very productive. Andrew fitted USB/C chargers in the cockpit and I finished a YouTube video.
Our cockpit surround is starting to look very smart indeed.
The next morning we upped anchor and made our way to the bridge. As we got there the bridge master radioed the engineer, asking if the bridge was able to open. Our hearts sank. Bear in mind there is no other way to get out in this area. We would have to backtrack a long way to find another inlet. The engineer confirmed that it was set to open. We were so relieved!
There was no wind so we had to motor all the way to Daytona Beach, keeping an eye on the temperature all the way. It was still too high and we were only doing 3 - 4 knots.
We arrived at the anchorage to find quite a few boats dotted around. There was a shoal just off the ICW and it got very shallow further in. We struggled to find a place to drop the hook without being too close to other boats.
Once we finally found a place to drop anchor, Andrew phoned the marina, to try and find a diver to dive on our prop. We were expecting to pay a King’s ransom, so he also asked about alligators in the water. The guy said that there was zero chance of him being attacked by an alligator. So instead of spending a fortune on a professional diver, Andrew donned his diving gear to clean the prop himself.
He was under the water for at least 10 minutes and when he surfaced he said he had never seen the prop so dirty and encrusted with barnacles stuck on it. We have only been in the States for three weeks!
On Saturday morning we upped anchor and set off north again. It was Memorial Weekend, so we were expecting lots of traffic. I don’t think we have ever seen so many fishing boats and speed boats in our lives! Most were friendly and slowed down, waving as they passed us, but quite a few went past at great speed causing lots of wake.
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| He slowed down when he passed us |
Cleaning the prop definitely helped but there was still something wrong as the temperature went up again. Andrew needed to do a more thorough investigation into where the water was coming from.
We decided to book a mooring ball in St. Augustine for Saturday night. We couldn’t get more nights than that as they said they were full.
As I loved St. Augustine, I am going to put it in another post. I might wax lyrical in a long post.
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