Northern Phoenix blog

December 10
West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale

We made our first trip out into the ocean today.  We left with the sun rise at 6:30 from West Palm Beach and headed out into the ocean.  We were trying to avoid going through 15 bridges on the ICW that we would have had to wait for and have open for us, and we were tempted by the great big water.  We traveled 40 nautical miles in the ocean to Fort Lauderdale.  We had to fight the Gulf stream at times as it was very close to shore.  It was pushing us back about 2 knots.  Which is not very much, except we only go 7.  And we were going into the wind and waves, so we were only going about 3-4 knots for a while.  We moved in closer to shore and got into little eddies and our speed would sometimes get up to 8.5 knots, still going into the waves.  Little back eddies of the Gulf stream.

It was a little rough at the beginning, left over waves from the night before.  Add waves, wind, and a gulf stream and you have no idea what the waves will do.   We would hit areas with big waves....then little waves.  Can't figure out what caused the variation.
  

We saw 2 sea turtles lounging in the water!!  We were to slow to get a picture.  But this pictures gives you an idea.

We past mile 1,000 today on our trip down to West Palm Beach.  We are now at anchor in the harbor at about mile 1020.

Melborne Beach Day 2
December 6th
We went back to the beach for some more fun in the surf.
Forgot the water proof camera, but have lots of videos and pictures
 

 
 

December 5th and 6th

Yesterday we got up, got some breakfast which I do not remember(bacon and egg sandwiches), did some stuff that I also cannot remember, and got packed up to go to the beach. It was very calm, not a breath of wind, and sunny. And I will also mention hot; very very hot. Then again its Florida, home of oranges and surfers and lizards, so it’s to be expected.  Dad rowed us in- yah for dad!!- and we walked the 7 minute walk straight across the island, past the skeleton driver

 and creepy Miss. Clause outside a designer store, to the beach. Like I said, it was a very calm day for the ocean, no wind or current, yet appearances can be deceiving. Like the waves that looked 2 feet tall were actually 5 feet, and the beach did a sudden drop off right off the waterline. And in the water, the sand was a map of mountains and valleys, meaning that you could be waist deep and take one step backwards and suddenly it’s much deeper. I can’t really think of many ways to describe this next part, so I will let you look at some amazing pictures instead.
 

 

 

 
 

After this, we headed to get some lunch at the Mexican pizza restaurant where you could order a 5lb burrito, and if you managed to eat it all you got your picture on the wall and a new shirt, because the old one will not fit after eating a 5lb burrito. Then we headed back to the beach to frolic around in the water that was actually much warmer than any water we have been in so far since leaving the Chesapeake.

Finally we started heading back around 5 o’clock, after a stop for ice-cream and groceries-just the necessaries, such as wine and apples and I just squished a bug on the keyboard. Whoops..

And I can’t remember anything else from this day so I will just say that we went to bed.
 

December 4th.
Melborne Beach Florida

We left early today, at sunrise and traveled all day.  We had a current going with us for the first 2 hours, almost 2 knots, so we pushed how far we could get before the sun set.  Our anchor dropped as the sun dropped past the horizon.
70 regular miles in one day!  7:00am to 5:25pm,  3 bridges to open for us (this always slows you down a bit).
Almost 10 miles per hour average! (That is hair flying speeds for us!) 
So we are posting some writing that Devon and Sahara have done for school work.


By Devon:

Falcon9 Rocket Launch

On Tuesday Dec. 3, one of SpaceX’s rockets (Falcon 9) launched into space to deliver a 3.2 ton satellite into orbit. SpaceX is a space transfer company that is located in Hawthorne Carolina, it was founded in 2002 by Elon musk. The rocket launched off at exactly 5:41 p.m. Though the rocket launched on Tuesday, it was supposed to launch a couple days ago due to some few technical problems. The satellite was to enter a geostationary or a geosynchronous orbit. This orbit is special because it will stay above the same spot above the earth until it crashes or is taken down, though, the satellite has to go up 35,786 km above the earth and at the right speed for this to happen, it also has to be above the equator.

 Since 2002 (since it was made) SpaceX has developed 3 space shuttles so far, their names are Falcon1 Falcon9 and the Dragon spacecraft. The Falcon9, is right now transferring cargo and just carried the SES-8 communications satellite into space, but will later it will be transferring people.

This event is relevant to us because on that night after dinner we went outside and watched it launch. Evan though it was 40 miles away, it looked 3 times as bright as a star.

 

Picture by Sahara

Morbillivirus is the virus that has been killing all the dolphins this summer and fall. It affects only dolphins, porpoises, and whales, and cannot be transmitted to humans. The first outbreak of morbillivirus, in 1987-1988, killed at least 800 dolphins, and we have already surpassed that number, even though the cycle of the disease isn’t even half way over yet. It affects the lung and brain the most, with symptoms such as:

*appearing thin
*repertory difficulties (breathing)
*abnormal behavior
*pneumonia (lung infections)
*brain infections

  Morbillivirus is usually spread through inhalation, direct contact, or through other openings such as eyes and mouth. Experts think that the outbreak is due to a dip in “herd immunity”. All the dolphins that survived the last outbreak and would have helped to protect the herd against the virus have either died or left. Bottlenose dolphins appear to be hit the hardest; tests on other dolphins in the same area such as spotted or common dolphin have come back negative. The virus is also reported to have killed 5 whales, though experts still haven’t concluded that it was actually the virus.

As hard as it is to admit, this is also nature’s way of taking down the amount of a species. There has been a huge increase in dolphin numbers, with records of 6000-7000 in South Carolina and Georgia alone, and estimates of at least 10 000 in the south-east.  With the virus, their numbers have decreased. 

Dinner bread sticks....with a twist!  By Devon , Sahara, and Dad

Sunset, as the anchor went down.

Ponce De Leon Inlet
December 3

Today we went and exlored a "Spoil Island".  These are created when they dredge.  But this island has been left for many years based on the trees on it.  There was a strange mailbox on the island, but signs of any humans.
 

Then we headed over to the beach...New Smyrna Dune Beach.  The kids kayaked over and we took the dingy....with the motor power!  There was a strong out going current that pushed us most of the way to the beach.  We towed the last bit across the channel.


There was quite a strong current that was fun to play in.  This park is a peninsula with the ocean on one side and the ICW on the other side.  Probably a 4-5 knot current.  You can see the current against our legs, the rock wall in the background is the break wall protecting the inlet to the ICW.

 

 
Devon dug a big hole as we were watching the dolphin Frolick in the water.  He actually caught a dog in his hole!!!  Some ugly little thing came by to smell him and fell in the hole.  It was quite a laugh.

 

We then walked over to the ocean side and went swimming.  The only difference between us and all the other people in the water was the surf boards.........and wet suits.  It was pretty cold.  Between 58-64 degrees based on the water report.  But we live in Canada....that is like the local pool in August!! (no, not really).  But the surf was up and it was fun to eat lunch on the beach and watch them.  Especially the Thor Surfer Dude.

On the way back to the boat we followed a few dolphin who were also Frolicking in the water.  We have a lot of fin and splash pictures, but few good pictures.  They are too fast and keep coming different places.  The day before we saw full flips from them!!!
 

Then, at the big sandbar, Devon and I built a big dam and broke it as Tara and Sahara annoyed more birds.  They also hosted some Olive Snail races.  I am not sure what was more fun to watch.  The water fill up behind Devons dam or the snails.