We spent two days at anchor in Fort Pierce waiting out the weather. It gave us a chance to catch up on our sleep, starighten out the stowage on the boat, and pick up some supplies. Although we had left our dinghy back in Ft. Lauderdale, I caught a ride ashore with the captain of a tugboat anchored nearby. We made BBQ soy chicken on deck in the rain.
Eugene and I were awake at 0700 on Monday morning and had soup with rice cooked on the broken stove using a blow torch for our breakfast before preparing for departure.
We raised anchor and headed out the channel with the outgoing tide at 1000. Another sailboat was coming down the ICW as I had to turn to starboard after raising the anchor and he fell in behind us as we turned out for the channel, following us out to sea. I was raising our sails as he turned south and we turned north, but Eugene reported to me that it had been Nigel Calder on the 'Nada' that I had cut off on the ICW.
We tacked back and forth all day trying to make progress against a gulf stream back current with a light wind from the north. There was a yankee cut jib we had purchased from Atlantic sail traders that we still hadn't raised and we finaly pulled it out, but frayed the light line we used for sheets on it after just a few hours. Aquarius only made 15 miles all day, barely making up for our tow in to Fort Pierce.
Aquarius was about 10 miles off shore from Vero Beach at 0100 when I was hailed on the radio by the tugboat 'Champion' asking about our intentions. I let him know we were tacking off shore, had seen him, and would clear his path with no problem. The tug had so many deck lights on that it was hard to make out their navigation lights.
An hour later the coast guard broadcast a request for help locating a fire on board a boat off of Vero Beach. All we could see out there was us and the tug boat. I answered the call and told the coasties that someone may have mistaken the lit up tug boat for a fire. They hailed 'Champion' and had them flash their lights for the officers on shore that had reported the fire. It was the tug that had been mistakenly reported as burning. The coast guard hailed us with a thank you for the assist.
We put up the yankee cut jib again in the morning, this time with heavier sheet lines on it. I took down the large staysail we'd been using to free up the winches for use with the jib, and rigged a smaller storm staysail with a single sheet line in it's place.
We were getting close to Cape Canaveral at 0230 when I woke Eugene to come up and relieve me at the wheel. The winds were picking up to 20nm, I stayed up with him for a while before going below to get some sleep before we had to clear the cape. I heard a lot of leaking into the bilge as I went in to captain's quarters aft. I found water coming from around the rudder post, and it looked like water was leaking in from around the stern tube, too. Eugene said he thought we might have hit something. The aft bilge pump was keeping up with the leaks with no problem. I decided to have Eugene turn in for Port Canaveral, as I did not want to sail on for another day or more to Jacksonville in this condition.
I tried calling Tow Boat US to meet us at the harbor entrance, as I did not want to try and motor in to a marina with possible damage to the stern tube. I got no answer from Tow Boat US at 0330, and my cel phone wasn't getting any signal to call them, so I hailed the Coast Guard to make the call for us. When we told the Coasties what the nature of our problem was they got very concerned, and told us that they had not only raised Tow Boat US for us, but were sending out a small cutter to meet us as well !
The Coast Guard met us as we neared the Port Canaveral sea bouy, and Tow Boat US came along soon after and threw us a tow line. I had already taken down the jib, and started to take down the rest of our sail as they towed us in, with the Coast Guard holding position off of our starboard beam. We past by the space center as dawn broke.
I had wanted to go in to Cape Cove Marina, but they didn't want to have anything to do with a leaking ferro cement boat. The Coast Guard went on ahead to check Newport Marina for us. Newport said they'd take us, but it's hard to say no when the Coast Guard comes to knock on your door first thing in the morning.
A set of customs officers met us at the dock, asking what foriegn port we had come from, and how many were aboard. We told them we had left from Ft.Pierce, and that the two of us were all on board. Although they were surprised to hear we were alone, they were satisfied with our answers and left. We thanked the Coast Guard profusely as they departed too.
Newport marina sent a mechanic aboard with me to check out the leaks below. Sitting in the calm waters of the harbor had already improved things significantly. The rudder shaft had stopped leaking altogether, and daylight showed a little leak from the drive shaft packing. We couldn't find any damage at all.
We repacked the drive shaft and regreased and tightened the rudder shaft packing while at Newport Marina...
(c)Copyright 2003 by Eugene Kashpureff