“Christmas in the Caribbean…

..…got everything but snow.”

AND US!

Snow or no snow, Plan A was to head south from VA in September, have work done on the boat in Green Cove Springs (near Jax, FL) in October, and be in Boot Key/Marathon, FL by Thanksgiving to enjoy winter in the Keys! Obviously, that didn’t happen, as we are still in GCS, and Plans B through W met with a similar fate…leaving us now with Plan X: sit high and dry in the boatyard until the work is completed and then decide how far south to go and for how long! That is, unless the railroad bridge, currently closed for repairs, is unable to open again (allowing us access to the ICW and the Atlantic) or the work takes until spring to complete, in which case Plan Y or Z will see us heading north after a long winter in the St. Johns River!

Meanwhile, we are getting our daily exercise climbing up and down the ladder to the boat and hiking the ¼ mile to the bathrooms and showers. But, it’s sunny and warm most days and it is a much easier drive from here to VA to be with the family for Christmas!

Christmas with family is about as good as it gets!

                       

So, Merry Christmas to you wherever you are!

                             May you and yours have a season filled with peace and joy!

HAPPY SAILS!

A few long days, some skinny water and a new anchorage...

I think we left you at River Dunes...not a bad spot to linger. But, we did move on.

Camp Lejeune live fire in ICW

Several days and a couple of nights, one at Town Creek in Beaufort, NC, and one at Mile Hammock Bay (both anchorages we've enjoyed before), and we found ourselves once again at Wrightsville Beach. Mile Hammock is good, but it is just south of the live fire range for Camp Lejeune. Glad the lights weren't flashing, it can hold you up for several hours!





We generally stay 2 nights at Wrightsville Beach and this trip was no exception. It's a great place to stretch our legs and do a little provisioning. There is a Publix and a West Marine a couple of miles from the anchorage, so the walk was refreshing and we were able to pick up everything we needed.

WB also offers a nice little beach town right there at the anchorage. We wandered down to the beach to watch the waves crashing ashore. Both days the lifeguards had the red flag flying. Needless to say the weather was not quite ready for us to venture outside. We've been out there in worse, but it's just not fun!

Wonders never cease! We actually caught the tide for our ride down the Cape Fear River! What a hoot...scooting along at 8.5kts. Of course, as soon as we turned into Southport, we made a dramatic drop to 4kts. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.

We tried a new, for us, anchorage and really liked it. Little River is just off the ocean and is a popular local destination. There were a couple of other boats there for the night. We could easily have jumped outside from there, but decided to wait one more day for the weather. Man, were we second guessing that decision all day! All day ended up being 11 hours, fighting current for 6 of those.

Snug tug!

Ugh! It was a pretty stretch of the ICW, but nothing memorable...no elephants or even alligators!  Another close tug and barge, and a bit of this and that. We did experience wildlife at our anchorage that night at Minim Creek. Mosquitoes were in no short supply! Ok, this one is coming off our list...we'll be picking a new spot to set the hook!

Don't go there!

There were some shallow and rocky areas along the ditch...

Cooter's has it all!

...and some funny ads!

I could go on to catch you up with our current location, but I think I'll pick it up again tomorrow, or maybe the day after...






Hope you'll stick with us a bit longer, we're not fast, but we are steady!

By yiminny, 3 tugs in 30 minutes...

...but I'm getting ahead of myself!

It was a beautiful day, a bit overcast with threatening clouds out in front of us. We had a lovely uneventful day Saturday as we headed for our anchorage in the Alligator River. We like to go over to the southeast corner and drop the hook. We are generally alone there because there have been reports of cypress knees and stumps. Those reports are not exaggerated, but we have found if you go slow and keep an eye out it's not too bad.

Fuzzy tree!

It's a great spot with good protection and good holding, and this day was no exception. We had a good laugh tho' when we looked at the paper chart we've been using for several years...Tom had written "anchor near the fuzzy tree." Gotta' tell you, the whole coastline is cypress and pine trees! We also had the spot marked on our chart plotter, and guess what...we think we found the fuzzy tree!

Maggie at Alligator River

Maggie enjoyed this spot as well until the dark clouds caught up with us for a rainy night and rainy Sunday.

Ever wonder about those things that go bump in the night? We both bolted upright when we heard it, thinking maybe we were dragging anchor or something hit the boat. Tom ventured out in the rain, we checked everything inside and out, but found nothing. The only thing we could figure was that a big gust of wind caused the wind generator to brake, making a loud groan.

Back to our opening line...
As we headed back to the ICW, we watched a tug and barge go by, took our time to give him a good lead. As we approached the channel it appeared he turned around and was heading back toward us. We called him on the radio to ask if there was some obstruction in the canal. Turns out he was a different tug and barge heading north and had just passed the first one we saw. Low and behold that first tug did turn around after all and headed back toward us! Thus, 3 tug and barges in 30 minutes, and two of them were the same one! The Alligator/Pungo canal is only 90‘ wide, so we were happy to pass these guys before going into it!

Sunday was dreary and rainy, but not too bad. We were the only boat out there pretty much all day (not counting the tugs) except for one trawler who must have been in a great hurry as he threw a huge wake while blowing by us. Considerate boater? I don't think so!

The wind was a pretty steady 20 - 22 knots as we settled into our anchorage at Slade Creek. This is another favorite spot, and we always seem to be the only ones there.

River Dunes pool overlooking marina

For those of you who enjoy a nice snug marina, our next 2 nights were like nirvana! After a day of gusty winds, choppy following seas and rolling swells, we arrived to floating docks of Brazilian Cherry, swimming pool with cabanas, steam showers, bikes, golf carts, crew car, wifi, great protection, and a killer view! Bet you wish you were with us now!

Community Church

This is a beautiful development that got hit with the real estate crash, and is now starting to grow again. They have their own little community church, guest houses, lovely homes, and eventually shops and other retail.
Take a look at them at www.riverdunes.com.

Fuel dock, Harbor Club and pool in background

Guest cottages

Tomorrow we are on our way again. We should be anchored in Town Creek by early afternoon. Offshore is not looking promising for us this week, but we hope to get a day or two out there before too much longer.

In case you're really into this and noticed that our last 3 postings are out of order, I can't explain it. Obviously my technical genius does not apply to navigating and manipulating this blog...or perhaps it does and that's the problem.

In any case, thanks for bearing with us as we make our way along! 

Okay, okay, I know...I never finished the DC posts. Well, it was a short trip, just a couple of weeks. It was fun and interesting, saw some sights, anchored out through another derecho, thought we ran out of fuel (fortunately we were wrong), fought some strong currents and made it safely back to Regent Point! Yada, yada, yada, right?

So, now that that's done, we can start anew for the trek south.

This is just a 'set up for an easy exodus tomorrow' day. We fueled up and are anchored up in Carter's Creek.

Tom, preparing for the long journey

Tomorrow the long move south begins. We're hoping for a beautiful, boring trip! Sorry, we know that's not much fun to read about, but we'll try to make it colorful.

It's always tough to leave friends, family and our marina family, but we are looking forward to being back out there again. Alas, we'll be back!

Stay with us and enjoy the ride!

Back in Norfolk

Yes, not my favorite because of all the ship traffic and everything, but it really is pretty at night with the lights.

It was a beautiful day on the Chesapeake Bay! It was cool enough to be pleasant and sunny and warm enough to enjoy being on the water. We fought the tide most of the way, and there was not a breath of wind until, we got to Hampton, and then not much.

Wolf Trap Light

For those of you not accustomed to rapid transit via sailboat, our trip today from Carter's Creek to Hospital Point on the Portsmouth side of the river (59 nautical miles or 68 miles) took almost the exact amount of time it takes us to drive from Jacksonville, FL to Richmond, VA (650 miles)!

We sped past Wolf Trap Light at a lightening speed of 5.8 knots...it was tough to get a picture with it flashing by, but I tried. See that spec with the single beam of light hitting it?  Well, that's Wolf Trap. The photo almost looks like I caught it's beam, cool huh!






Let's see, today there were dolphins...always a treat, and a pretty rare sighting for us, a huge sea turtle! There was something off the starboard bow that we couldn't identify until it stretched it's neck, raised it's head and paddled into a dive. We've seen a few sea turtles over the years, but this one was  so big, and right by the boat...very exciting!

Full moon rising over Norfolk

Even though we struggled a little with coming into the channel amid the big ships, tugs and barges, etc., all in all it was a pretty good day, and a beautiful evening.

Sometimes it can just take your breath away!
Thanks for letting us share it with you!

Creature from the black lagoon...

Norfolk has bridges, one after another, so, since we are heading south and there are restrictions on the Gilmerton Bridge, we based our departure on those. Gilmerton is about an hour away and doesn't open until 9:30 in the morning, so we planned on an 8:15 departure. What we didn't plan on was the creature from the black lagoon!

After a leisurely breakfast, we started the engine and Tom proceeded to weigh anchor. Well, something grabbed hold of it and just wouldn't let go! We edged forward and back gaining inches  at a time. Finally he got enough chain up to see that we had snagged a 3" cable, and it was pulling hard on the anchor. He couldn't get it to shake loose and couldn't get a trip line attached to the anchor. After struggling for half an hour, he was able to get a line around the cable, tie it off and shake the anchor down enough to let go. We felt lucky...next step would have involved a swim!

Okay, we can still make it for the 9:30 opening...just rev her up a little. Hah! One of the railroad bridges (almost always open, we've rarely seen them closed) was down, stayed down, the train (3 cars) came and went, we sat, for 30 minutes we sat. Missed the 9:30 Gilmerton opening...next one, 10:30. A bit of good luck...a tug was coming through Gilmerton at 10:00 and they held for us to get through too! Yay! What we weren't thinking was that the bridges are pretty much synchronized, so we didn't have to wait for Gilmerton, but then had to wait 45 minutes for the next one, ugh!

Too close for comfort!

Thru the bridges, thru the lock, now we're on our way! Down the Albermarle and Chesapeake Canal...very pretty...cypress knees, stumps and logs along either side, but room for two boats to pass, almost. When one of those boats is a tug with a huge barge, that canal can be very narrow! We had to turn around because there was not enough room for both of us, then snugged right up to the stumps and hoped for the best! Pictures can't really show how close and how big this guy was. But, he waved when he went by, and we didn't hit anything. We didn't make that bridge opening either, putting us a bit further behind.

But friendly!

Plan was to bypass Coinjock and anchor a little south. Ah well, the best laid plans...  So, a nice peaceful night at Midway Marina in Coinjock and a good meal at Crabby's, not all bad. Maybe next time we'll check out one of those anchorages.

Hey, if we have an easy uneventful day tomorrow, I may not have anything to write about. Let's hope you don't hear from us for a few days!

Thanks for checking in!

On the way to DC...

Tuesday was a beautiful day, sunny and breezy. We followed a tug that was heading for Quantico most of the day. Chatted with Navy Patrol Boat #4 to get our instructions through the live ammo training exercise in progress. Finally when we were just about out of the exercise perimeter, we heard some shots and saw water splashing. With all the precaution, we had hoped for something more exciting!

As we made our way into the Port Tobacco River, we had to navigate through a sea of crab pots. After zigging and zagging, we enjoyed a lovely evening in a great little anchorage. We were even serenaded by church bells every half hour.






Wednesday...on to DC!

Very calm day, 3-5 knot winds on the nose, and an all day ebbing tide. We finally caught up with the turning tide maybe an hour before arriving at the Washington Channel. But along the way...

...we noticed tiny things struggling in the water. There were hundreds of cicadas drowning all around us! A couple of hitchhikers joined us for awhile before making the suicide dive into the Potomac. Poor creatures, seventeen years waiting to be free, then wasting that brief freedom trying (and failing) to learn to swim.

Mount Vernon comes along just around the corner from DC. It's a pretty sight from the river. Huge tour boats go in and out of there all day dropping folks off for the tour. We didn't head that way, but enjoyed it in passing. The osprey did not enjoy our passing!

Ah, arriving at last. This was totally new to us and a wee bit intimidating. You anchor in the middle of the channel with a stone wall on one side and a marina on the other...not to mention a half dozen really large day, evening and dinner cruise boats backing in and out of their slips all hours. So, we provided the early evening entertainment. The first couple of attempts were aborted because we couldn't get the anchor to set. It is a very soft mud bottom and we were not holding. Okay, no problem...we tried a different spot. Well, this time we were feeling a little close to one of the other boats, and, as if it's not bad enough that you're noticing this yourself, it's really special when they come out and verify it for you! One more time, okay two more times. Our next attempt in moving a little further out the channel put us in the path of one of the monster tour boats. Finally, finally, we got a spot, got a good hold and settled in to enjoy our time in DC! There were almost tears during that fiasco!

What a great place to visit. Check back with us and we'll give you the highlights. 

Thanks for visiting!

So, who knew this day would end so nicely?!

Hi, there! Welcome back! Although this is a short (just 2 weeks) adventure, it promises to be interesting. As you know, we've been sitting in place in VA for quite some time, so getting out even for a short time is exciting.

We are on our way to DC to anchor right downtown and walk or ride the metro to see the sights.  We've been planning this for a few months now, and we took off this morning from Locklies Creek, then north on the Chesapeake Bay to the Potomac.

Being the planners that we are, we had decided to take a quick overnight last week to cross the Rappahannock and buy fuel. It was a good plan, but the wind blew out of the west for days so there was no water in the creek. We have to wait for high tide on a good day to get out of the creek, but with the really low lows we were having, we didn't have a ghost of a chance. So, no bother, we just decided we would run over there this morning and fuel up on our way. Tom checked and we last fueled in Coinjock on our way north last year, so we should have been 30 or 40 gallons down.

Well, we called ahead and a nice young man met us early so we could get away quickly. Strangest thing, Tom could not squeeze even 7 gallons in the two tanks. It was a bit embarrassing, but it was quick. Ah, but the tricks the memory does play...Barb's memory finally kicked in and reminded Tom that he topped the tanks from jerry cans so we would have full tanks through the winter. Mystery solved...if a little late.

We played hopscotch with the storms down the Rappahannock and up the Bay, and we were winning! Two thunderstorms missed us completely. Of course, we did have to battle some funky monkey seas in the  Bay and we lost the game with the storms after all once we got into the Potomac. The good thing is that the seas were relatively calm as we got pelted with rain, and that, at least was welcomed. Skipper Bob led us to a pleasant anchorage in Smith Creek. We will head further up the Potomac in the morning, and maybe get the sails up!

We have truly missed being out on the water, even with the embarrassing start, rough seas, strong downpour and biting flies (for a short time after the storm), to sit here gently rocking at anchor in a lovely creek with a beautiful sunset is paradise.

Finally...

For those of you who figured we must have sunk in Norfolk, I apologize for the lengthy delay in posting the final leg of our journey (for now, anyway).

Norfolk, as we said, Tom loves it, Barb, not so much. Tom loves the activity with all the ships, tugs, barges and pleasure boat traffic. That's pretty much what Barb doesn't like about it. When you have to share a channel or squeeze under a bridge with something the size of a city block or two, it can make you feel a little vulnerable!

The anchorage at Hospital Point is pleasant, and there is good holding, so that part we can agree on. But, when one of those freaky storms comes through (like the one that Monday night), that holding thing is really, really important. The storm went through Richmond, and headed straight for Norfolk. Hit us like a ton of bricks. We did have enough warning to set our storm snubber and 150' of chain, expecting crazy winds. We got them, and the waves that came up the Elizabeth River were even crazier. We were getting tossed and pounded by wind, rain, waves, and yes, even hail! The boat was being pushed by so many strong forces, we went around in a complete circle and spent a lot of time heeled over to the gunwales. There was no visibility because the rain was a solid wall. However, at some point, the rain slacked enough to see a bit, and then the boat behind us took a direct lightning hit to the top of her mast. Fortunately, this was a fast moving storm so we could find out quickly that everyone on the boat that was hit was okay. It knocked out their electronics, and Tom said the sparks were wild to see, but we were glad everyone held and there was not greater damage.

After dealing with our own personal little perfect storm, we were more anxious than ever to head to Deltaville Tuesday morning. So, we noted the weather, and even though it was going to be choppy, we started early and headed north. Didn't get too far because choppy was a misnomer. We couldn't get out of the Elizabeth River...the waves were just knocking us all over. So, back we went to Hospital Point and dropped the hook in almost the same spot we'd left an hour earlier. Tuesday was a beautiful day in Norfolk and it was a nice night as well. Wednesday morning we set off again, and, wonder of wonders, we made it up the river, up the Bay, past Thimble Shoal Light, past Wolf Trap Light, past Stingray Light, up the Rappahannock, and into Locklies Creek by around 4:30 that evening. Whew, it felt really good to tie up knowing we'll be staying put for awhile!

Maggie in her favorite cockpit seat

Maggie is happy to be a settled, which is reflected in her milder attitude. She managed well, a little huffy some days, but we're pretty sure she will not miss the rocking and rolling.




Don't know if the weather has been nutty where you are, but several of those violent thunderstorms have hit since we've been here, and we are very glad this creek offers good protection. Of course, the lightening shows have been illuminating, but, for now, we've not seen anyone else take a hit, thank goodness. Between the 100+ degree days and the stormy evenings, it's been quite a welcome back to Virginia.

We'll be taking a break now and trying to get through some of our huge list of maintenance, update and repair items. We are enjoying time with the family, reconnecting with old friends, and recovering from all the travel. It's been a lot of fun, a lot of work, and an experience we'll treasure for years to come. Not sure where we'll head next, but keep an eye on us, because we'll start to get antsy and plan a new journey in a few months!

Thanks for traveling with us!

Stop and Go....

Ah, Alligator River to Coinjock, a great day, and, except for the weird bugs that attack this time of year, uneventful. They are called "fuzzy bills" and they are apparently what we know as blind mosquitoes. They look a lot like mosquitoes, they are aquatic, but they don't bite. They do, however swarm by the thousands and attach themselves to any surface out of the wind and direct sun. All the enclosure and both sail covers were covered with them and they went halfway up the mast. We had to shut ourselves in the cockpit as much as possible to keep them away. They would fly behind our sun glasses and up our noses. PESKY!

We made good use of the water and electricity at Coinjock...hosed down the boat, drowning the majority of the fuzzy bills, and wallowed in the cool air conditioning that night! It was a pricey stop with fuel, dockage, electricity, and a dinner out, but we enjoyed it.

Here's the thing...50 miles from Coinjock, NC to Norfolk, VA. Not a bad day, but we travel between 5 and 6kts every hour, let's just use 5.5kts for ease. At Coinjock (Mile 50) boats are docked end to end with about a foot between them, so our plan to leave by 6:30am had to be pushed to whatever time either the trawler in front of us or the one behind decided to leave. The trawlers have bow thrusters so they can move sideways like a crab. So, we were able to get out about 7:00am when the Grand Banks behind us left. Now comes the puzzle. If you can figure it out so that we don't kill half our day waiting or traveling at ridiculously slow speeds, you WIN!

Mile 20.2 bridge opens on the hour and half hour

Mile 15.3 bridge opens on the hour and half hour

Mile 12.0 bridge opens on the hour only

Mile 11.3 lock locks on the hour and unlocks approximately on the half hour

Mile 8.8 bridge opens on the hour only

Mile 5.8 bridge opens on the half hour only and not at all between 3:30 and 6:30, and one last glitch...there is a railroad bridge immediately before this last bridge that may or may not close for trains and having no predetermined schedule.

So, math whizzes, what 'ya got? What we got was a lot of stop and go!

Well, it did take awhile, but we made it, amd even managed to hit the Gilmerton (Mile 5.8) before it shut down for 3 hours. Tom loves Norfolk...so much to look at and watch. Barb, not so much...the tugs with barges and ships everywhere make her a bit edgy. But you'll have to wait for the next post for our Norfolk experience...we seem to be trying to end our travels with a big finish!

Thanks for traveling along.

Rumbles and flashes!

Funny thing, the last two days we have not been able to get any phone service, but we have been able to pick up 3G for wireless. So, thought it would be a good time to blog a bit.

We just completed two uneventful (that's good news) days on the ICW. Last night we were in a favorite anchorage, Slade Creek. We have never seen another boat anchor there, but it is wide with plenty of water and has always been a pleasant anchorage for us.

Today was a short day to the south end of the Alligator River. It consisted mostly of a 20+ mile stretch of, what must be a man made, canal between the Pungo River (wish I were making up these names, but I'm not) and the Alligator River. The canal is straight, not too wide, not too narrow, devoid of any trace of humanity, doesn't carry a strong current or dramatic tide change, and would be lovely except for the fact that after the first couple of hours, it gets really boring! Takes about 4 or 5 hours to travel it so you have to take shifts like on an overnight to keep from dozing off. Okay, it's not that bad...it is pretty and it's an easy passage.

Besides, you know what happens when you complain? We do!

So we get all anchored and set in to relax and enjoy the evening. Saw a few ominous looking clouds lurking, but afternoon thunderstorms are not unusual, so, not to worry. By yiminny if those few clouds didn't turn into one, no, two, actually, up to three now major thunderstorms. It got dark except for the lightning striking around us, and loud...wow! You just knew after the big streak of lightning there was going to be a huge clap of thunder, so you'd draw up your shoulders and cringe waiting for it. Still, one of those big ones can shake you 'til your teeth rattle. With each squall, the shore, only a few hundred feet away, completely disappeared. Before we decided to disconnect everything because of lightning, we measured 32knt winds. Not devastating, but took us by surprise.

Evidently wifi is not that strong, so maybe this will post tonight, and maybe not. Oh, well, it's worth a shot. Thanks for sticking with us!

So, a day late and a dollar short...it decided not to let us post last night!

Last offshore day this trip!

Last minute this morning we decided to go offshore from Wrightsville Beach to Beaufort NC. It was a good day. It was a long day...about 11 hours.

As the predictions showed, the waves increased as we neared Beaufort so the last few hours were a little rough, but not too bad. The channel, however, was a nightmare. Tom says the worst we've experienced. Barb thought it was on a scale with Charleston the last time we entered there, but Tom was at the helm both times and he said this made Charleston look like a cakewalk! It really didn't help matters that we arrived at the time of day that every sport fisher and head boat was returning from offshore as well!

But, we're safe and snug at Town Creek and saved a day of travel while missing a couple of difficult spots in the ICW. Who could ask for more? Well, we might ask that the Navy warship we were trying to stay clear of might have stopped changing his direction so that he was barreling toward us at 20kts no matter what course adjustments we made! Good thing is we didn't get close enough for him to send out the patrols to shoot us, and he waited until we were finally clear of him to get on the radio and tell everyone to stay out of his way! They were doing helicopter landing exercises so were changing course for wind direction.

Tomorrow, back to the ditch...yay! Not many skinny spots left and we're in the home stretch now!

Thanks for traveling with us!

Progress... it's not all pretty, but it is progress!

Inch by inch we're making our way. Tuesday we had some notable advances...we passed the 200 mile marker (200 miles from Norfolk), we entered North Carolina, we traveled up the Cape Fear River (slowly, as the flow was slow and the ebb was persistent), and we anchored at Wrightsville Beach (a favorite spot) where we stayed an extra night, walked the couple miles to Harris Teeter for a few grocery items, walked down to the beach to see the ocean, since we can't seem to get the boat out there, ate pizza (yet again) and ice cream and just enjoyed stretching our legs.

Let's see, when we chatted last, we were on our way to Charleston...killer day! It was a long tense day with so many shallow challenges, all recommending waiting until half tide on a rising tide to tackle. In case you are not familiar with tides, can't be done and make any headway. So, we hedged our bets and ran most of them at low or near low and saved our rising tide for the big ugly, the Dawho River! We arrived near there just about at the peak of low tide. So, after contacting our ever faithful friends at TowBoatUS for local knowledge, we found a little spot off to the side and anchored for a couple of hours to get a few more feet of water under us before Dawho. TowBoat did tell us they had someone near the entrance to the river just in case that didn't work out for us. By the time we cleared that, both of us were wound pretty tight...Tom's shoulder was cramping up and we were exhausted. Ready to ease on into the Stono River just south of Charleston and set the hook.

But what to our wondering eyes should appear...not a jolly old elf and 8 tiny reindeer, but dozens upon dozens of Saturday river revelers all in one place on the Stono River between us and our anchorage! There were people swimming, standing in the water, zipping up and down and around in small boats of every shape and color...the beer was flowing freely, lots of hooting and giggling, and very little watching out for anyone else. All of this fun was happening next to a bridge we were heading under when (as if someone blew the whistle for "everyone out of the pool!") scores of boats swarmed for the ramp on the other side of the bridge. Only 3 boats can go out at a time, so the rest of them just meandered slowly (or totally stopped) in the channel in front of us or zipped around throwing fair sized wakes in all directions. Well, that frayed Barb's last nerve...just sure someone was going to get pulverized at any moment! Thankfully it was a good anchorage and a good night.

One small corner that was under the net - Tom
smashed a handful before we puled it off

Whew, out of Charleston, and another day of skinny water. It was another tense day, but we made it through and anchored in a favorite spot...only 1 other boat around the bend. Beautiful and peaceful evening until the point when the most mosquitoes we've ever seen in one place descended on us. We had the bug net over the cockpit, but they were vicious. So many got inside we are still killing them 3 days later. Hundreds were trapped in the net when we took it off the next morning.


Our hope from there was to do an overnight offshore, and everything looked good the night before. But the next morning, winds and waves were predicted to increase and it was a new passage for us, so we made the decision to continue inside on the waterway.

Elephant out for a stroll by the boat ramp.

Had a beautiful easy day after the mosquito attack, through a lovely part of the ICW. For some reason, the current was with us all day, and the only thing that slowed us down was an elephant! Seriously, how cool is that! We didn't really mind slowing down for a good look and even radioed the boat behind us to make sure they didn't miss it.

  

Scratching an itch!

Golf and an amusement ride!

If golf is your thing, you may like the course that's split by the ICW. You have to ride across the ditch in a gondola...we caught this one going by with the bags hanging off the side.

Cozy duckling

Stayed overnight in a marina for the first time this trip...more fuel, more water, boat hosed down, pizza delivery and fireworks to top it off. All in all a good day! And, a warm fuzzy moment...a baby duck in an exhaust pipe. Mom was nearby, but distracted with the crackers folks were throwing her way.

We called this goat island

Tuesday was not a bad day, but another long one. It is a veritable zoo along the ditch. This time it was goats! No alligators this trip, but wild horses in GA, an elephant in SC, and goats in NC...what awaits us in VA?





I promised a couple of pics from our good offshore day...the only one that came out was the shrimp boat. Makes me think of the Flying Nun! These guys travel in packs of about a dozen, and at night they're kinda' freaky looking! This was a beautiful day in the ocean...almost looks like a lake!

Graceful from a distance, gangly up close!

Tomorrow...what will that bring? Maybe an offshore day (think we've decided to continue inside), an ICW day with all good things (would be nice), or another skinny water tense day (hope not). In any case, we appreciate your hanging in there with us!

Georgia?

I think we left you in Georgia, well, finally, we actually left Georgia today! Woo-hoo! Let's see, we only spent seven days getting through GA...at this rate, we'll be in VA by, say July? UGH! As usual, the best laid plans....

There is no accounting for weather. After the dreadful day we spent offshore from Jax to Cumberland Island, we were really hoping for a good weather outlook to have a good experience offshore. It just didn't present itself. We actually headed out the St. Mary's channel and had to turn back it was so rough. As for the ICW not being an option in GA, sometimes there's just no other way. So we have been inching our way through the shallows, one low spot after the next. We did manage to go offshore one day, from St. Simons Island to Doboy Sound...altogether about 36 miles, but we avoided Mud River which is a messy little spot to get through. It was a beautiful day and restored our faith a bit in the offshore experience. Have some pics that will follow.

I could list the "CAUTION" spots we've had to traverse, but it wouldn't mean much to most of you following along with us, and it would make this a very, very, very long post. Suffice it to say that we have spent every day checking tide charts, reading updates online, consulting guides, timing distances and holding our breath through one skinny spot after another. Some days start at 5 am or shortly thereafter to try to catch the tide, others (like today...along with the early start) include motoring around in circles for 2+ hours waiting for a bridge to open or anchoring for a couple of hours waiting for the tide to come in to a known problem area.

We are celebrating several things today! In addition to leaving GA, we stopped for fuel and water. This may sound fairly commonplace, and generally would be, but, although we had plenty of fuel, we had not filled the water tanks since leaving Jax. WATER WAS LOW! Hot showers are available again! It was Nirvana! We set foot on land (well, docks anyway) for the first time in 10 days, rinsed the salt off the dodger, unloaded the huge bag of trash accumulating and residing in the dinghy, and chatted with some very helpful marina workers. Of course, being so out of practice, Barb did try to fill one water tank that was not technically a water tank. It started with a "W" so who looked closely enough to know it was the waste tank. Filled up really fast! No real harm done, but we will need to get to a pump out to take care of that soon!

A few missteps along the way just keep it interesting, right? With all the information, updates, charts, guides, and electronic marvels, some things just can't find a category to fit into. How one could miss the ICW entirely and head up some limited channel would be one of those. Tom ran below for a few minutes and left Barb at the helm. While trying to decipher just where the turn came in for the approach to the bridge, she realized that Tom had us headed up a channel that was not part of the ICW. Turns out, the electronic marvel totally neglected to mark that part of the ditch, and, if not for the paper charts and a little curiosity, we would have had a very different outcome to our day! Tom recalls that being an issue 5 years ago in the same spot...only difference is that we didn't have the updated electronic marvel then. Of course, that recollection came after the fact.

Today we managed to hit every single skinny spot at nearly low, or low tide. It was a tense day, but we actually made it through all of them. If Jupiter aligns with Mars tomorrow (and pigs fly), we may make Charleston. We'll be starting very early, but will probably have to wait for the tide to turn at Dawho River, making it pretty nearly impossible for us to make Charleston. So, keep your fingers crossed for us...we need all the help we can get. Meanwhile, we are looking for good offshore days that coincide with our proximity to a useable inlet...talk about pigs flying!

Are we having fun yet? Some days you have to laugh to keep from crying, others are just too crazy for anything but a good laugh. Keep smiling, and thanks for traveling with us (even though you may have gotten the better hand in that deal).

And again we wait...

We can really pick 'em! Weather has decided not to be our friend right now. From Exchange Island we went 12 whole miles to anchor at Blount Island (still in the St. Johns River). We determined it was best since we had 25 knot winds and 3' seas in the river! Met up with another boat there who said the Coast Guard suggested he not go offshore that day, so we didn't feel too wimpy not pushing on. Well, next morning, off they went on a long leg to Charleston, much further offshore than we planned since we were just going as far as Cumberland Island (St. Mary's GA). It should have been an indication of the day to follow when we were pulling up anchor and our depth went to 5'8"...since we draw a full 6', that's not something we like to see. Barb just couldn't seem to get the boat moving but we seemed to be slowly drifting into a bit deeper water. Finally dawned on her she hadn't engaged the transmission. We hope things were better for our fellow traveler further out, since it was probably one of the worst, if not the worst day we've had! The reports called for NE winds 10-15 kts with 2-4' seas. They got the wind direction right. We had steady winds over 25 kts, which was not really a problem. Seas, however were a problem! They were at a minimum, 6-7' with some swells well over that, and they were coming close together at an angle that restricted the direction we could proceed. We needed to go north to north-northeast. With those waves we were fighting rolls gunwale to gunwale and going into or in front of them just set us straight out to sea or right back to land. As we crashed into wave after wave, the water was swamping across the bow and against the enclosure. Our secondary anchor was pushed out of its cradle, and had it not been tied off and the chain clamped would have been swinging loose against the boat. Tom persevered and little by little worked us north. We ran with our running lights because it was dark and squally all day as well. What a miserable day. Barb was ill, and no help with the helm, Maggie was wedged into her carrier, trying to maintain her dignity (she fared better than Barb) and Tom was exhausted, sore and hungry by the time we made Cumberland Island. But, we did make it! Forgot to turn off the running lights until we went to turn on the anchor light. Just as well since we then checked the status of our lights and the starboard (green) was out. Tom replaced the bulb and all is working again. We're not sure what it's like out there today but the reports show a bit more favorable in the next few days. It's a drizzly calm day inside this protected area and we are staying put for now. Did a lot of weather surfing and route crunching last night to add plans C, D, and E to our original plans A and B. Since going inside through GA is not really an option, keep your fingers crossed for calm seas for us! Bet you're glad you're snug at home, but thanks for following along with us!

We're off!

Farewell and fond memories, Jacksonville, until our next visit!

Rained like crazy this morning, but cleared up just before slack tide so we were able to ease out of our slip, tie up at the fuel dock, top off the tanks,and even get all three miles down river to Exchange Island in nice weather! That we weren't expecting! Now that we are all snug at anchor, the weather has again caught up with us and it's raining cats and dogs. It's a good day to sit in the cockpit and read. Looks like we may have a bit more wind than we had hoped for our offshore tomorrow, and a chance of chunkier seas, but we'll see how it goes. If it's too much, we'll come on back into the St. Johns and wait it out. Each day holds a new adventure.

'Til next time, thanks for traveling with us.

Hanging in Jacksonville...

WHEELS!

We've rented a car for a week and we are enjoying the flexibility it offers. Our friends have been very generous with their time and their vehicles, but we hate to wear out our welcome! We're getting everything set for the next leg of our journey. We've gotten the charts we ordered, printed up bookcharts for some areas where we just need reference info, replaced the jib sheets, started our provisioning list, and planned our preferred courses along with alternates. Still to do: enter waypoints into the chart plotter and set routes and alternate routes, restitch the canvas strip on the jib, purchase provisions, say our so longs, and finally, Tom's doctor appointment. Then, we'll wait for slack tide, leave the slip and top off the fuel.

Matthews Bridge from Exchange Island

Hart Bridge from Exchange Island

We'll stay the night at Exchange Island, and the next morning we'll go offshore to Cumberland Island. That is just a day trip, and usually pretty uneventful...we're hoping that's the case this time as well.



From there we plan to go offshore to Charleston, an overnight stretch. Two days in the ICW, then we'd like to go offshore from Winyah Bay to Wrightsville Beach, or if it looks good and feels right, on to Beaufort, NC. We're inside from Beaufort to points north.

South bank St. Johns at Jax

North bank St. Johns at Jax

We're sad to leave friends here, but ready to be on our way, get back to the Bay and see friends and family there!




We'll post along the way as availability allows. Weather and all other contingencies permitting, we'll be ensconced in a slip at Regent Point Marina before the end of the month. While there we have a whole laundry list of projects to complete before embarking on our next adventure. Thanks for following along!

Talk about weather...

Welcome to Jacksonville!

It felt good to get back to our familiar digs, but we didn't really welcome Beryl. Beryl, however, crashed our party uninvited. We are very fortunate that it didn't quite reach hurricane status, 60+ kts is bad enough! Anyway, we pulled down all the enclosure and bimini, removed all the cushions, wrapped the sails, secured all loose items, added extra lines, gathered a few things including Maggie and her necessities and headed for dry ground. The marina here has floating docks, which make a big difference in a storm, but they are in need of repair and some sections are a bit iffy. With the wind, storm surge and rough, choppy, rolling seas, going to land seemed the best course of action.

We spent a couple of nights ashore where we followed the storm and caught up on what comes on TV these days. Gotta' say, we're not missing much having no TV on the boat!

Our friend, Kathy, has ferried us all over the place, which has been huge, and our friend, Russ, has leant us his car for other errands...much appreciated. Being without a car is not too bad in good weather, but it's a bit more of a challenge in heavy weather. Thank goodness for friends! The high winds have calmed to a manageable level and we came back aboard Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning, even with the rain still pelting away, we put the bimini and enclosure back up. We feel whole again! In hindsight, I wish we had taken some pictures, but that didn't really even enter our minds at the time. The river is still swollen, choppy and bouncy, the winds are gusting a bit still, it's raining buckets, and there are all types of debris bumping by (mostly boards) but we're all tucked in, snug and dry.

We hope everyone had a nice Memorial weekend as we remembered those who sacrificed all to guarantee the safety and freedom we cherish.

A short stop before the Bay

Hello, there. We left Vero Beach Sunday, 5/20 and made it to Titusville. Beautiful most of the day, then the wind started kicking up around 24 kts. Before quite so much wind came along, we put the jib out to boost us along. Well, one of our sheets blew so that put an end to that for now. We'll replace the sheets in Jax. Waves were building as well and the Sunday boaters were busting it to get home. We found a good spot just south of the bridge so opted to anchor instead of picking up a ball at the Titusville Marina. The next morning we went into the marina to refuel. That place is just lousy with manatees! One was between us and the fuel dock, but moved on before we were ready to leave. They are not pretty, but very cool!

There are a number of shoaling areas on the way to Daytona, our next stop. We were really happy to hear a boat (with a 6' draft) in front of us calling TowBoatUS to ask for the better option in one area. We followed the advice offered (opposite of what ToeBoatUS told us on the way down) and communicated with Steve and Lynn on "Celebration" through several more areas of concern. At one junction, we almost took a wrong course, but Steve gave us some good direction and we proceeded on fine from there. We anchored in a lesser used spot in Daytona since we ran aground in the main anchorage there on the way down and the charted waters are not accurately charted. Good choice for us, and a nice night.

St. Augustine was our next stop and all went well. We caught up with "Celebration" there and took them a bottle of wine to say thanks for the help! They will be hauling in Deltaville to work on the boat some, so we hope to catch up with them there. This being our second stay on a ball in St. Augustine, we've decided we'll anchor nearby in the future. The current is strong there and if the wind and current are opposing, it's a bit of a battle with the mooring ball. We were keel hauling the ball and all the lines every few minutes for awhile and had concerns about the lines holding up. Fortunately, the wind settled and the tide changed and we were okay for the rest of the night.

We got the early opening of the Bridge of Lions before they closed for morning traffic and had a good day to Exchange Island where we enjoy anchoring before checking into our marina in Jax, as well as on nights before heading out of Jax. The dolphins were all over the place that day, jumping and tail flapping. One did a little backflip...it's belly was pink! Never knew they had pink bellies. We took our time this morning for a leisurely motor the 3 miles to River City Brewing Co. Marina, and managed to arrive at a slack tide. Tom backed us in beautifully and with Lee, our dockmaster's, guidance, all went smoothly. We're here for a busy couple of weeks, then we'll make our way to the Chesapeake Bay for awhile. We have air conditioning again! Woo-hoo! Nice to be back even for a short while.

We'll keep you posted as we head to points north. Thanks for traveling with us!

Back in the USA

You're a grand old flag, you're a high flying flag...

We're back in the USA!

We had made our plans to head north of the Whale and wait for a good window to cross the Gulf Stream. The window opened up sooner than expected, so we made our way quickly over to Great Sale to get into position to execute our strategy. Of course, we were without wifi and had only one source for weather, albeit a good one. Chris Parker broadcasts 6 days a week on single sideband. On Monday, he indicated Wednesday night/Thursday, even Friday should be great. By Wednesday morning, all that had changed, and if you weren't going to get across by Thursday morning (which may be a little iffy as well), your best bet would be to wait 2 or 3 weeks. Even at that, he said there was so much going on it was just a best guess for him what was coming. Well, we had considered a 2-day to Jax or an overnight to Ft. Pierce. So, Ft. Pierce was then the only option, but we had pretty much decided that was all we were up for this time anyway.

Time to execute:
We made a couple of judgement errors in deciding the best way to position ourselves for the crossing. Instead of doing it all at once, we decided to overnight at Mangrove Cay then anchor off Little Bahama Bank to wait for the right departure time Wednesday night.

Hard to tell, but this is the anchor chain
coming from under the boat off the port stern.

First error: there is a very strong current around Mangrove Cay and it was opposed to the wind (causing us to face into the wind with the anchor behind the boat) which at times was pretty stiff along with the thunderstorms. Even though it is more open water, we might have had an easier night on the East side of Mangrove, for the current flow anyway. The worst part of that night was when the lightning struck so close and the crack was so loud, I thought we'd been hit. Tom assured me we were okay, and the electronics were still working. It was pretty spooky though. All in all that was not too bad since we later heard from someone at Great Sale that they got beat up pretty badly with strong storms that lasted much longer than what we experienced.

Second error: don't try to anchor off Little Bahama Bank. Current - crazy, wind - crazy, waves - lifting the bow so high the dinghy slapped the water from up on the davits then slammed us back down so the next wave broke over the bow. Needless to say, our plan to nap so we would be rested for the crossing that night did not go well. And, with the change in the weather report, we knew we were going to have to leave Wednesday evening rather than really early Thursday to get into Ft. Pierce by morning and avoid what Chris predicted to be some ugly stuff coming that afternoon.

Still with me?
Anyway, we started our crossing around 6:30 pm because we couldn't stand it at the Bank any longer. That was earlier than necessary, but we planned to just take our time. The crossing was delightful...auto pilot held a great course, no storms, it was lovely. Until, that is, about 2:00 am when we started running across some massive ships with odd light configurations and we had some difficulty in determining their paths. One actually turned off all of his lights for a minute or two several times. We've not seen anything in rules of the road to explain that, but we took a wide detour around the big stuff. It was around that time, or shortly thereafter the US Coast Guard started issuing warnings every 30 minutes or so for all vessels to seek immediate shelter from the severe thunderstorms with strong winds and possible water spouts in the Ft. Pierce area and offshore. If that wasn't just the icing on the cake! Pitch black, big weird ships, thunderstorms, strong winds, and possible water spouts that we wouldn't have been able to see a foot in front of us! Plus the fact that even at low RPMs the Gulf Stream had pushed us along so that we had to stall so we could enter this unfamiliar channel in daylight. We found ourselves navigating around fish traps, going against the current, even going further north while waiting for dawn, all in that dark rainy night.

Vero Beach mooring field

Vero Beach from the mooring field

Daylight did finally arrive and we safely navigated a very nice wide channel and made our way a few miles up the ICW to Vero Beach. We are staying here a few days to decompress before heading to Jax.


Whew! That was a wordy report, and hopefully we didn't lose you along the way. We'll keep you posted on the trip up to Jax, then to the Chesapeake Bay.

Here are a few of the pics that didn't make the earlier posts...it was beautiful and fun!

Hope Town

We enjoyed Hope Town, and even though one boat broke loose one night, we felt very secure and slept well!

Sailboat off of Treasure Cay Beach

Treasure Cay Beach is so amazing with sand so white and soft it's hard to even describe.

At anchor No Name Cay

No Name Cay was a great anchorage. We were the only boat there and that's where we went ashore and found sand dollars.

Crazy old tractor at Nippers

This crazy thing has been there for many, many years. I'll bet it was fun to decorate!






The flowers are everywhere and the colors are beautiful. What a wonderful trip!

Thanks for traveling with us!