Lauderdale by the Sea

We spent most of last night awake trying to figure out why our boat was going around almost full circle, then was stern into the wind, and whether our anchor was going to hold if and when we straightened out.  We finally decided that there was a very weird current down one side of the lake in which we had anchored and it was opposing the wind most of the time.  Another cat anchored on the other side of the lake was swinging nicely into the wind as expected and stayed that way.  We did finally straighten out when the wind blew hard enough, and the anchor held, allowing us to return to bed for a few hours.

So late morning we headed down to Ft. Lauderdale (through four more bridges) for fuel and a pump out.  We pulled into a big marina with multiple megayachts parked there.  The boat at the fuel dock in front of us took on 4000 gallons @ $4.64/gal.  Do the math.  It's mind boggling.  We, on the other hand, filled both our tanks with just 26 gallons and thought the price of that was awful.  The pump out at the marina was broken and a private boat doing the service wanted $40.  Please!  We opted to look elsewhere.  They did let us tie up on a back T dock for free and walk down to town for lunch.  So that was maybe worth the high price of the fuel.

Back we came to Pompano Beach to another marina (back through the four bridges plus one more north) and got our pump out for $5.  Much more reasonable.

Now Kentris has a new temporary home at a private dock in Lauderdale by the Sea.
It's on a canal, less than a block from the ICW.  Very nice folks live here and will look after her while we are gone.

Betty

We think she will be happy here but maybe not quite as happy as at OML. But they have a little dog that Charlie would like named Betty.  Maybe they can meet some day.
We're flying home in two days so will be prepping the boat to leave her for a month tomorrow, doing laundry, etc.

ICW in background of this picture

Lettuce Lake, Pompano Beach, Fl

One of the prettier bridges along the way

We had another bridge day today.  Eleven bridges in 22 miles.  It went rather well, however, since we had the tide with us most of the time and the bridges were timed in such a manner that we were able to make the distance between them in just the right amount of time, without having to wait longer than about 8 minutes.  There were interesting houses to look at along the way, some old, some new, some small and some HUGE.

The bridgetenders are not all equally skilled at their job we have found.  There are some that open the bridge way too early for you and others that tell you to "bring it on up, captain", then make you wait for the opening.  Occasionally we found one that opened exactly right and we never had to alter our speed to cruise right through.  We liked those the best.

Yesterday we made it to Lantana and anchored just south of the bridge and beside a restaurant that was hopping at happy hour on a Friday afternoon.  We took the dingy in and were met by a dock boy who directed us where to park and helped us tie up.  Never had that happen at a restaurant before.  There was live music and half priced margaritas.  They even let us leave the dinghy there while we walked a few miles to buy oil for the engine oil change.

Lantana anchorage

 

 

 

 

Today we made it close to the place we are hoping to leave our boat while we come home for Christmas.  There is a small cove just off the ICW where we have dropped the hook.  Tomorrow we go meet the woman who has what sounds like the perfect place for us at a private dock at her house.  Meanwhile we are anchored in Lettuce Lake.  Lots of houses around but we can't be too choosy here. Availability is limited.

Lettuce Lake

There has been a lot of wind the last few days.  Gusty, especially at night.  Two nights ago Tom saw 26 knots at 4:00 am when he was up checking things out.  Last night I was up much of the night listening to the wind howl.  Didn't even want to look at the gauge but I'm sure gusts were in the upper 20's.  It's becoming annoying.  I would just like to sleep peacefully for our last few nights.

Please note the Michigan glass in his hand

After we anchored today, Tom set up his new navigation monitor AKA television in the cockpit so he could watch the Michigan/Ohio State game.  The outcome was much to his liking  Go Blue!  Eat your heart out, Steve.

Peck Lake, south of St. Lucie Inlet

We did move the boat yesterday afternoon to a much more secure setting – a smallish cove, surrounded by modest homes. There was one other boat anchored there, S/V Diana. We made friends with her owners, a young couple from Ottawa, and had sundowners with them. We left somewhat regrettably this morning to head on down the line. They had been there several days but were staying one more because they liked it so much. It really was a pretty little anchorage.

Today we had a beautiful beam reach sail down the waterway making good time with the 12-18 knot wind and favorable current. Tom was happy. Well, so was I but he gets upset if we can't at least pull out the jib. We didn't have far to go (about 4 hours) and soon pulled into Peck Lake just off the ICW. There were several boats here ahead of us, many of which were locals who had come to enjoy the beach just a short walk through the mangroves. After setting the hook securely, we too strolled over to the beach and walked in the surf for a while, then sat drowsily in the sun after that. We came back and took showers on the boat and now we're thinking about what to have for our Thanksgiving dinner. Pretty sure it won't be turkey, but we do have stuffing and cranberries

Peck Lake Anchorage

Hope everyone reading this has a nice Thanksgiving. By the way, is anyone reading this? There have been no comments at all. Wish you guys would say something.

We found this "boat" near where we anchored.  Tom calls it the Peck Lake Sailors Exchange

Ft. Pierce

While we were getting fuel yesterday, we discovered manatees under the boat.  The dock worker was spraying water beside the dock and the manatees came for a drink.  Then we noticed them drinking our refrigeration water under the boat.  Pretty funny big guys.  This isn't a great picture but you rarely get a good shot of an entire manatee.  Look at that cute little mouth!

So we motorsailed down south of Melbourne Tuesday.  Nothing very exciting happened except we did make pretty good time with our jib out and stayed ahead of a monohull that kept trying to catch us.  We anchored behind a small island, somewhat out of the wind.  After setting the hook, we went ashore in the dinghy and explored a bit before sunset.

It was a pretty cool place.  It looked as if people camped there from time to time as there were several fire pits and trails through the woods.

The boat we were "racing" with pulled in after us but we were the only two boats around.  Quiet night with light wind.

Today we had a relatively short trip to Ft. Pierce.  Winds were good and we were able to sail again.  There is a scarcity of anchorages here we have discovered, contrary to what Claiborne Young has to say in his guidebook.  We have the anchor down now in about 6 feet of water off the ICW but the current and wind are opposing each other and it is swinging us around in circles.  We may decide to move.

This is Tom's new arrangement of the cockpit.  He took out the table to see what that was like.  We both are finding it very comfy and spacious.

Rainbow at the fuel dock in Titusville

Titusville

After finally getting the dinghy fiasco resolved (we hope), we left NSB around 12:15. We were able to pull the jib out almost immediately to crank our speed up a notch and get some miles behind us. There were some mighty pretty parts of Florida we traveled through on the Indian River. Lots of birds and dolphins again. No other boats and only one bridge to contend with along the way.

Once we hit Mosquito Bay, we noticed an ominous looking cloud off to the east over the ocean. Sure looked like it was raining over there. Mosquito Bay is pretty similar to Albemarle Sound, except there are fewer crab pots. It has a nice straight channel through it with 1-3 foot depths off to either side. There are some little islands along the way which look as if they would be fun to explore in a kayak. We noticed a few people camping on a couple of them.

But, anyway, the rain finally caught up with us (you knew that was coming, didn't you?) but it wasn't too bad as the wind stayed steady and the rain was pretty light. It managed to obscure our vision somewhat though because there are no wipers on our windscreen. Plus it was blowing in a bit from behind, so the helmsman (or woman in this case) got wet.

We got to Titusville just before dark and picked up a mooring ball. It seemed like a sensible thing to do since we were not familiar with the few area anchorages, daylight was fading rapidly, and it was raining. Who wants to drive around trying to decide where to anchor in the rain? In the morning we'll pull in to get fuel and a pump out, then head to Melbourne.

New Smyrna Beach Marina, Day 2

Weather: sunny, 80 degrees, east wind at 6 knots

Still in New Smyrna Beach, wishing we were moving further south.

We have been trying to figure out what the real requirements are for using our dinghy in Florida. One would think this might not be too difficult to determine. Someone ought to know, right? We have heard so many different versions from so many different people that today we decided to try and find out for sure, rather than have some unexpected detainment by some unwelcomed local official at some inconvenient moment in the future.

Here is a partial list of the people from whom we have attempted to understand the official requirements: the dockmaster, local liveaboards with Coast Guard documented boats (such as ours), local vehicle registration office, Fish and Wildlife Commission, Coast Guard, Florida Dept of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles,  transients with CG documentation, and the internet.  It has been a nightmare of contradictory opinions. We have been told that unless your dinghy is registered somewhere, the local militia can prevent you from moving your main vessel until you get registered in Florida (or somewhere else, presumably). We have also been told this is wrong and only an intimidation technique by local officials. We have been shuffled around from one office to the next (fortunately by phone), everyone passing the buck so to speak, and no one willing to say definitively what needs to be done.

We think we have determined that only the dinghy is of issue, but we're not sure. The difficulty expanded since we never had a title or bill of sale for the dinghy when we bought Kentris. We assumed it was not needed. But, apparently, it is for registering it in FL. So Tom has spent several hours trying to decide what to do about that. Suffice it to say, he has obtained a bill of sale and has finally completed registration procedures for the dinghy.  All we have to do now is buy numbers for it and hope that takes care of things.  At least we have tried (hard) to be compliant. 

A side note: as we were coming into NSB, a sheriff boat approached us and asked where we were headed.  When told we were preparing to dock at a marina, he asked "If I was to put dye in your head, where would it go?"  Tom replied, "Into my holding tanks."  Sheriff then said, "And how are those heads secured?"  Reply: "With a chain and lock."  We were then allowed to move on.  He never boarded us, just asked his questions.  I wondered if we had been preparing to anchor instead of spending money at the marina if his benevolence would have been the same.

New Smyrna Beach

We finally left St. Augustine this morning at 6:30, as soon as we could see well enough to thread our way through all the boats moored here.  We were out in front of a pack of boats leaving, most of which caught up with us eventually sometime during the day.  We were back in the "Snowbird Parade," going through bridges together and talking on the radio to those we knew and some we didn't know but had seen several times along the way.  And we saw "islands" of pelicans along the way.

Solid pelicans

 We were supposed to have wind from the NE and we anticipated at least pulling out the jib for some long stretches when we would be headed SE.  All of the weather sites we used predicted the same winds so we were pretty sure that was what we would see.  But no, somehow the weather gods collaborated and determined Tom and Pat should not be allowed to sail as they had hoped.  It was almost east enough to sail but not quite.

To add insult to injury, the tide was always against us.  Now you would expect that if you passed two large inlets to the sea, and were on the water all day you would see the tide come in at some point and go out at some point, and at one point at least (even briefly) it would be going in the same direction as you were headed.  But you would be wrong if you expected that today.  For ten hours we had an opposing current.  Right at the end of our day, right when we were coming to the last bridge at which we had about one minute to spare before it opened, right when we had pushed the engines as far as we thought prudent, and were about half a mile from our final destination - there might have been the slightest little bit of current going in our direction which helped scoot us along in time to make that bridge.  But we're not sure.  Because, in addition to squeezing every little bit of power out of the engines, we had also pulled the jib out and had a tiny bit of wind in the sail, and a power boat had come by and we were surfing down his wake when we saw that we were making 7 knots instead of the daily average of maybe 5.9.

The truth is though that it was still a nice day and we were on the water, moving again.  Even though Tom cursed the tides and the wind and said he was going to take our mast off and just make Kentris into a weird looking power cat, we still had a great day and got to New Smyrna Beach before dark.  And we were invited to a potluck at the dock with some fun people.  And later, when we walked down the little main street of town to get some much needed exercise, we found it decorated for Christmas, Florida-style.

A palm tree Christmas

Who can beat that?

Still here

Great architecture all around town

A street in the old town

We are still in St. Augustine waiting out a patch of unsettled weather.  Last night we had wind most of the night in the 25-30 knot range.  A little choppy out there.  This is our fourth day here and we're ready to head on down the way.  Tom has completed several small boat projects.  We have walked around town a bit and he has ridden his bike to several marine stores picking up odds and ends of things we needed.  We've had lunch out, met several new friends, and seen more Lagoons here than anywhere else in our travels.  It's been nice being on a sturdy mooring ball and not having to worry about the anchor with all this wind blowing.

We're heading to New Smyrna Beach tomorrow.  Tom's still working on a place to leave the boat in Ft. Lauderdale while we fly home for December.  If anybody has any great suggestions, let us know.

St. Augustine

Fernandina anchorage - don't know the story behind this mast

We started back down the waterway Tuesday, motoring as usual.  This time we had some nice breeze but straight out of the south, aka on our nose.  It was warm and foggy again but the sun quickly burned off the fog.  I was standing behind the helm seat enjoying being on the water, when I heard a small clinking sound.  I thought it might have been my imagination or at most some small object we had run over, so I didn't mention it.  A few minutes later the port engine alarm started screaming at us and all three lights came on.  Pretty surprising since we thought the alarm was not working.  Of course Tom quickly shut that engine down and went to investigate.  It turned out the alternator belt had shredded into several ratty pieces.  He was able to get a new one on in no time at all (my hero!) and we were good to go again.  Lucky for me we have two engines because we were approaching a bridge during the repair operation.  It might have been a little alarming (no pun intended) with NO engine.

We encountered an amazing number of birds and dolphins along the way.  It seemed everywhere we looked there were huge flocks of brown pelicans and their white Florida cousins, and various other interesting birds, not just the usual cormorants and gulls.  And dolphins playing and feeding in big groups.

We were trying to get to the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine in time for the 4:30 opening.  If we didn't we would have to wait an hour.  It was touch and go for a while, but in the end we had a few minutes to spare.  This lovely ship came through the bridge heading north.  We picked up a mooring ball on the south side of the bridge for the night.  There are not many places left here to anchor.  They've put in four mooring fields around the area, including the place we used to happily anchor.  May be here a few days.  Bad weather predicted.

Florida at last

After leaving Big Tom Creek, we went out St. Catherine sound into the ocean again. The wind was light and variable and the most we saw was about 8 knots, and that was a gust! Mostly it was 5 or less. Another motoring day. But at least we missed some of the endlessly winding and shoaling Georgia creeks that comprise the ICW. We had hoped to make it to Fernandina but instead came in St. Simon Sound (what's up with all these sounds with saint names?), cruised behind Jekyll Island at very, very low tide (only running aground twice in the channel), and anchored in Umbrella Creek just before sundown. We had no company except the marsh birds. A really beautiful setting.

This morning (Monday) the creek was really socked in with fog so we got a late for us start. We pulled up the anchor around 8:00 and headed through St. Andrews Sound and the Cumberland River to Fernandina. After getting fuel we anchored off the town dock and went into town for lunch. It's a pretty and historic town with lots of very cool shops, but we restrained ourselves and came back to the boat empty handed. Tom has since gone back with his fold-up-bike to see if he can find beer and diet Coke. Poor thing had a terrible headache last night which I think is caffeine withdrawal. He drinks gallons of diet coke at home and has not had nearly that much on the boat.

Its hard to see but this is a submarine we passed along the Cumberland River having some sort of work done to it

So we have finally made it to Florida and it is much warmer here right now.  We'll head further south tomorrow but don't know where exactly.  Maybe St. Augustine.

Big Tom Creek

Fog in Savannah Harbor

Saturday morning we left Savannah after purchasing some pralines and walking around a bit. It is now one of our least favorite places to dock. Commercial traffic was heavy during the night, sounding fog horns and creating sizable wakes. It was hard to sleep after about 4:30. There was a great deal of debris in the water, including a good sized log caught in the prop (not when it was running fortunately). And there are no amenities for the hefty price. I don't know what we were doing docking two nights in a row anyway. We are not marina cruisers after all. Savannah was luring us though and there were no apparent anchorage possibilities. The old town is beautiful, in spite of its less than great town docks. So many stately live oaks, cobblestone streets, park-like squares, and history. Too many tourists though.

Stately house along the ICW

So we motored on down the river and into the ICW with light winds, taking up with another catamaran along the way. Tom discussed all manner of cat stuff with them as we meandered through Georgia waters on a falling tide. They were off shore during the front that came through mid week and had 40 knot winds and 12 foot seas. I'm so, so glad we were heading in the Savannah River that night. They anchored with us here in Big Tom Creek. Great name, huh? We exchanged tours of each others boats. It was only fitting.

It should be another calm night tonight except for the tide shift. The tides are about 8-9 feet here. Maybe tomorrow we will head to Fernadina Beach in the ocean. Looks like a motoring event though. Light south winds predicted on the nose. Stay tuned.

Savannah, GA

We walked into town at Thunderbolt this morning, stopped for breakfast at a local place, then went to Piggly Wiggly, Home Depot, Radio Shack, and an auto parts store. We found several of the things on our lists of things we needed. The bad thing is that we had to lug the stuff we purchased at all those places back to the boat. On our way back, we came across a woman pushing a shopping cart with all of her purchases in it, and wished that we had one. Amazingly, she said she always brought one home with her from the grocery store and didn't feel bad about it because they sent a truck around the neighborhood to pick them up. And sure enough, we saw the truck with several carts loaded on it later as we continued walking, still wishing we had one.

So we took on some fuel and water and left the dock around noon, heading to Savannah, 12 miles up the river. No sooner had we turned into the river off the ICW then we had a call from an inbound river pilot saying he was heading in our direction and planning to meet an outbound ship coming down the river in about 10 minutes. So we were plodding along against the river current and fearing an encounter of an uncommon kind. You might say we were on high alert for 30 minutes or so. It turned out there was plenty of room in the river for all of us and all we had to worry about was the crazy wakes the two ships created when they met and passed us. But they sure were big and the river wasn't nearly as wide as you'd think.

River Street, Savannah

So now we are tied up to the city dock between a 65 foot yacht and a 105 foot yacht, feeling a bit small. It's a beautiful old town with incredible live oaks growing right along the river front but the accommodations leave a little to be desired. No showers or even a bathroom, and the internet sucks. And every boat that goes by (and there are many of them) rocks our boat. One huge container ship blasted his horn a number of times right next to us. Hopefully this will calm down by bed time. 

We have not been impressed with the Savannah River either. Not nearly what I expected. So tomorrow we're heading back off shore to Jekyll Island, I think.  It looks like the wind will be turning south after that so maybe the ICW will be back in our plans sooner than we thought.

Savannah, GA

Today we traveled through St. Helena Sound out to the ocean.  The forecast was for 5-10 k winds out of the NW, building to 20-25 in the afternoon with scattered showers possible.  It sounded like the perfect day for a SW sail down to the Savannah River. We thought we could be in the river by the time the winds got narly.  Well, part of that was correct.  It was 5-7 k most of the day but out of the west.  About the time we thought we might pull the jib out, either the wind dropped to nothing or it was too close to sail.  So we motored and enjoyed the sun and the dolphins frequenting our path.  About 5 miles after we got into the river, the wind built, but on our nose, the clouds rolled in, and eventually the rain started.  Tom saw a 31 k gust.  We decided to forego the full trip to Savannah (15 miles from the mouth of the river) and instead ducked into the ICW and docked at Thunderbolt, just missing a gigantic container ship coming up behind us.  It had stopped raining and blowing by that time so we didn't have to get wet tying up at the dock.  Showers, laundry, and internet are such nice amenities.

Which leads me to a discussion of some of the new amenities on the boat that we are really loving since our last trip.  First off, our windscreen.  How sweet it is not to have wind and rain blowing in your eyes and ears and everywhere else while you are trying to negotiate an unfamiliar channel.  It has been very helpful on these chilly morning in keeping us from freezing to death with the wind chill too.

Next up:  the solar panels.  They have kept our batteries in fine shape while we've been away from the boat this summer and now are adding to our available power while anchored off the shore power.  Great addition and we want more.

And last but not least: the monitor Tom added at the helm seat.  It is connected to our laptop inside at the nav station so we can view and adjust our chart plotter right from the helm rather than to go inside to check the route, etc.  We love it.  He still needs to run the wires into a protected box so it will be more permanent but, for now, we just make do with a few inconvenient wires.

After an exciting night trying to go out to dinner in Charleston ( I won't go into details except to say that we had trouble finding a place to dock our dinghy and wound up parking it next to somebody's wave runner ramp, and we had the most unusual bartender ever who gave us several "extras" for no reason whatsoever), we hauled up the anchor at 8:05 thinking we were getting a late start only to forget that we had a bridge to wait on that didn't open until 9:00.  So we sat in front of the bridge for 45 minutes.

After negotiating the bridge finally, we passed through a narrow cut with a raging tide against us and made a rousing 3.5 knots.  Later that day, we saw 9.2 on the speed scale as the tide switched directions.  Except for the tidal situation (they have BIG tides in SC and GA), we had a beautiful warm day motoring again through lots of marshland.  Shorts and T-shirt weather.

We anchored around 3:45 in Rock Creek with one other boat, a beautiful 37' Nordic Tug.  While we were listening to the weather, they hollered at us to come visit and so we packed up some cocktail hour goodies and headed over.  They were incredibly nice people and had a sweet boat and service dog named Mercy.  Gave us a tour of their boat (I've always loved the way these boats look and now I want one!!).   Later we dinghied them back to check out our boat.  John is a trimaran sailor.  Linda is a retired supply captain.  Anyway, we had a delightful evening with them, watched a gorgeous sunset and moonrise, and slept well in a very calm setting.

Charleston, SC!

 We haven't had internet for some time, thus the delayed postings.

Eagles that are hard to see

We're anchored in Ashley River on the west side of Charleston. It's a bit rocky and there's a little group of six small sailboats racing around between and around the boats anchored here. They are apparently student sailors as they have two power boats with them directing traffic. We stayed in the ICW again today due to the forecast of 8 foot seas offshore. It was a pleasant day inside on the water, motor sailing through miles of marshland. Saw eagles and dolphins.

Bridge to Mt Pleasant

Charleston waterfront

As we were not very busy, I was thinking about all the different personalities of sailors we have run across. There is quite a variety out here. While waiting on bridges or listening to the radio chatter, you begin to see a pattern develop. For example, there is always one guy who likes to lead the pack and radio friendly directions to others following in his wake. He has a great speaking voice which we imagine he has practiced a bit at home. He personally welcomes boats from other countries and never fails to issue courteous warnings regarding shoaling in areas that we might (but probably won't) come across. It's reassuring to know he is out there looking out for us. Kind of like a benevolent father figure.

Then there is the one who wants to get to the bridge ahead of everybody Not quite the same as the first personality type, you might say he is a bit pushy. This is usually a power vessel and you can somewhat excuse his behavior since you know he will move faster than you. But not always. Sometimes this is just a rude sailor and you have to just let him go and hope he gets his “comeuppence” sometime in the future.

We've also seen the exceedingly polite boat captain. He waits for you to go first, to the point of being a bother. “You go ahead.” “Oh no, after you.” “But you were here first.” Etc. etc. It can really cause delays in moving forward. The is the type that really bothers my captain a lot.

Finally, there are the boats traveling together in a pod. They talk among themselves en route, anchor together, party together, and are a little like the “in crowd” in middle school. You wonder if they are talking about you. You would like to be their friend but it's obvious they are not interested. This is the type that bothers me the most. I'm not going into the psychology of this.

There probably are lots of others but these are the ones that have come to mind today. Kind of like life at home I guess.

Georgetown, SC

We awoke this morning to the sound of water swooshing under the boat – the tide on its way out. Tom told me it was 6:00 and since I knew I couldn't go back to sleep, I got up, made coffee, and waited for dawn. I walked out on the deck listening to owls call in the woods near the boat. And waited. I watched a couple of fishing boats go out the channel with their spotlights on. And waited. I thought for sure the sun should be coming up by now. Finally the stars began to grow fainter and I saw light in the sky to the east. Boats near us were pulling up anchor. Tom came up on deck with the alarm clock in his hand. It is an atomic clock and supposed to change times automatically, but it didn't correct for the time change. So I had gotten up at 5:00, instead of 6. Oh well. I wouldn't have heard the owls otherwise.

So we left the anchorage with 4 other boats and motored into South Carolina – finally. It seemed we would be stuck in NC forever. Went through the bridges together same as yesterday. We picked up another catamaran part way through the day, making 6 of us in line. Took off layers of clothing as it got warmer and warmer. And entertained ourselves pronouncing the name of one of the French Canadian sailboats over and over, trying to replicate the way their French speaking friends pronounced it. The boat's name is Maga Jo, but it sounded so much better with a French accent.

The Waccamaw River which we traveled on today is wildly scenic. The trees have subtle Fall colors now. Turtles were lined up sunning themselves on all the fallen logs. We drifted around multiple bends in the river where the other boats disappeared and there was no sign of civilization anywhere. And there were islands of water hyacinths floating by periodically. One of my favorite spots on the ICW. We did get to sail briefly late in the day when the wind picked up on our beam in a wide, straight part of the river. With the current and sail we were making over 8 knots. Tom needed his sailing “fix” badly and the other catamaran was moving up on us from behind, so we added a little extra push to stay ahead.

Georgetown waterfront

And now we are anchored in another of our favorite places on the waterway – Georgetown. There are no alligators here this time around. I guess they are hunkered down somewhere. Our friends who were behind us on the dock at Carolina Beach during the “wind event” are anchored next door. It's a calm night so far.

Tomorrow we might head offshore to Charleston if conditions are favorable. And it's getting warmer every day.

A good day on the water

Today we left Joyner Marina and headed across the Cape Fear River on a falling tide. The water was calm and the wind was moderate. It was a fast trip down the river without any barge or other large craft encounters in the shipping lanes. It was quite cool, however, until after lunch when the sun came out from behind the clouds. There were several boats ahead of us because we were delayed leaving the dock. We wanted to wait until the boat behind us left to make it easier to get off the dock.

The wind was very flukey once we got back in the ICW, varying from 5 – 15 knots but mostly from the north. Had the jib out part of the time for a little assist when we had the current against us. All in all it was a pleasant day on the water but not very exciting. After the howling wind we have been experiencing, this was very welcome.

Pulled into Calabash Creek to anchor around 3:45. There were already 7 boats here taking up most of the good anchoring spots so we motored on up to the town to see if there was a better place. Nope. Back we went and dropped the hook behind the last boat in line in 11 feet of water. I think the tides here are around 4 feet so we should be good. It is a little close to the channel but it will have to do. Another boat came in after us and anchored partially in the channel. Hope no large fishing boats run into them early in the morning.

Two small cruise boats, looking very large on the ICW, pulled in from Little River Inlet and headed south. It appears they are casino ships that live nearby and (maybe) take a trip out in the ocean for an evening of gambling and come back to their sheltered spots for the night. The Myrtle Beach crowd I presume.

Really don't like going back to standard time. It is getting dark so early now.

Carolina Beach

Although the wind continued to blow at a ridiculous level most of the day, we did survive.  None of the boats here at the marina ventured out and we only saw one sailboat and 2 trawlers pass by on the ICW today.  No long lines of snowbirds as has been the case these past few days.

We walked into town this morning for breakfast.  There was a small farmers market happening where we purchased a little fresh produce.  Then we walked out to survey the beach.  Wave action was heavy with supposedly 7 - 10 foot surf.  I guess that might be accurate.

Here's the sun setting tonight in Snow's Cut

This afternoon I did some sewing on a few Project Linus quilts (donated to preemies at the hospital).  Tom rode his new fold-up bike back into town for a few supplies.  A quiet day if you disregard the rocking and rolling of the boat.  The wind has now calmed down a bit but is still about 15-20k.  Tomorrow we head to South Carolina, probably Calabash inside the New River Inlet.  That is, we are heading there IF we can get off the dock.  Right now we are pretty tightly fitted between 2 other boats, the dock, and the wind and waves.  Surely it will be better in the morning.

We left our pleasant little spot in Beaufort and headed on down the ICW early Thursday morning.  It was sunny and warm.  We followed several other boats for miles and miles of pretty marshes and small communities.  Got to the Onslow Beach Bridge and went through it with 8 other boats. All but one headed into Mile Hammock a little distance later, our planned stopping point.  There was one other boat there when we anchored.  By the time the sun set, there were 31 boats anchored.  It was amusing to sit on our deck and watch the action as new boats (grouped because of the bridge openings) joined the "armada".  We have anchored here on several occasions in the past and have never had more than one or two neighbors.  It was truly amazing.

This is actually part of Camp Lejeune and military  helicopters were flying maneuvers over the bay all evening, only taking a break for supper.  Tom took the kayak out for a spin around the region. It was a beautiful, warm evening.  The water was flat.

Mile Hammock Sunset

Eventually everyone got situated, night fell, and we went to bed confident in our anchor and only slightly concerned about our neighbors.  Sometime in the hours before dawn, rain began to fall. Shortly thereafter the wind also joined the party.  I only looked at the wind gauge once and it was blowing 24.8k.  A few boats had lights on.  One had their deck lights on and was already pulling up their anchor.  It seemed prudent that Tom come join me in the salon just in case we needed to hightail it out of there.

About the time he got dressed and reasonably awake, I noticed a small sailboat had collided with our closest neighbor (the one we had had the most concern about when we watched them anchor).  They were struggling to disentangle their bows when I decided a few fenders might be in order on our boat in case they came our way.  Meanwhile, the boat behind them seemed a bit worried because they were both slowly moving in his direction.  Keep in mind here that boats were anchored really close together.  Closer than one would normally consider safe.  But it had been a calm and velvetty night when they anchored.  Who knew?

So before long it occurred to us that we would be leaving sooner rather than later.  We had planned on an 8:30 departure in order to wait a while to see what the weather would do, but instead, because it became evident that we would most likely have an unwillingly encounter with the 2 boats beside us, we left at 7:30, along with 10 other boats.  It was still raining but it was surprisingly warm and the wind had dropped, so not such a bad departure.

And so we continued in our smaller "armada" on down the ICW.  There was much discussion on the radio about getting to bridges on time and one jerk kept suggesting that we (and others) might want to slow down and not "pile up at the bridge with this strong current".  We politely ignored him, although Tom wanted to call him back and let him know we had this new fangled thing called GPS that let us know exactly when we would get to a bridge, (and other things that I won't print) but at any rate we made the bridges perfectly with no pileups.  One bridge tender even radioed a call after all 11 boats had cleared to thank us for "an orderly passage."

And then we were past Wrightsville and thinking about crossing Cape Fear River before stopping.  Dark clouds that had been threatening all afternoon decided it was their time to shine.  Oh, and did they ever put on a show.  Wind, rain, thunder and lightening.  Plus a current that was ripping down the channel.  We were cruising along at 9.2 k with no sail up.  (That's pretty fast for those non-sailors reading this)   Being always the conservative one, I voted for stopping at Carolina Beach rather than crossing the Cape Fear.  We had already heard offshore predictions that this front was going to produce extreme conditions and thought the river would most likely be a lot worse then here. We called several marinas and found one that had a space in a slip.  Tom joked that he'd rather sail across the Cape Fear than try to dock this boat in a slip with 28 k winds.  Since we were approaching the marina rapidly, we actually tried to turn the boat around and go back the way we had come in order to wait for the storm to pass but we could not turn into the wind.  The boat just couldn't deal with it.  The marina called and said they could put us on the fuel dock (much easier than a slip).  Most of the boats we had been traveling with all day had also decided to duck in at Joyner Marina so they were a bit overwhelmed at the time helping boats tie up.  And so we kept going and got into Snow's Cut to wait where there was some little protection from the elements.  This is a man made channel with relatively high banks which blocked the wind a little.  After what seemed like forever, we were able to dock with the help of people on another boat, in addition to the marina staff.  It took four of them to get us pulled into the dock.  Whew!  Where's the clothes drier and hot showers?  We and the boat are wet, wet, wet.

As I write this we are having sustained winds in the 30s, with higher than that predicted for later.  We are thinking about chafing gear for our dock lines and I'm wondering if it's possible to be seasick while tied to a dock.  I am sure that I am happier here than anchoring somewhere but it may not be as non-stressful as I had hoped.  We'll keep you posted.

Second day in Beaufort

I've been told that I've been a little hard on Tom in my documentation of this trip so far. He says it's OK because I didn't have anything better to write about and, besides, he's strong enough to handle the abuse.

But today I have good things to say about him.

First of all, after we went into town to get wifi and do a little shopping, we came back to the boat and Tom replaced our refrigerator water intake filter/screen with a much larger unit. This was a fairly big job in cramped quarters. He even managed it with minimal cursing which to me means it went together fairly much as he planned. And now we won't be having to clean out the filter nearly as often, and when we do, the location of the new apparatus is more easily accessible.

Later as we were relaxing a bit topside, we noticed another boat aground in the very place we had tried unsuccessfully to anchor when we first came into Town Creek. So, into the dinghy went that tired fellow and off he drove to try to rescue the boat. Unfortunately the tide was really low and getting lower and the boat was dug in pretty well. Tom and one other good Samaritan in a dinghy managed to get the bow pointed into deeper water but that was it. They would have to wait until the tide came in around midnight to move further. Several small power boats which could have helped passed right by without offering assistance. What's wrong with that picture? Luckily the grounded boat had a fin keel so they could remain upright rather than on their side while waiting for higher water.

And that was our day today. Tomorrow we head to Mile Hammock down the ICW. We hear it gets very crowded this time of year and so plan to leave early to get a good spot in the anchorage.

Beaufort, NC

Monday night we went to bed early as both of us were really tired. About two hours later I was rudely awakened by a significant change in the wind and wave action and got up to check on the situation. Tom continued to sleep. The wind was howling, waves were slapping, and the boat was sailing around the anchor a bit. I didn't think we were dragging anchor but couldn't go back to sleep without watching for a while. So, wrapped in a blanket, I sat in the salon and watched the lights around us move back and forth - and listened to Tom's snores below. Another boat anchored near us was awake as well with lights on in the cabin. After 30-40 minutes, the rain started and the wind died. Things became much calmer so I was able to crawl back into bed and fall pleasantly asleep with the rain tapping on the deck above me. Tom later said he was awake briefly but thought a barge had passed in the channel!

Tuesday morning was sunny but chilly so we waited til mid-morning to leave. The trip down Adams Creek was uneventful with a light north wind and favorable current. Near Beaufort the wind picked up but too late to sail. We decided to check out the anchorage in Town Creek, with Taylor Creek as Plan B. It was pretty crowded with mostly “permanent” boats and partially submerged vessels apparently left over from Irene. We tried twice unsuccessfully to anchor in one site and then moved further into the creek and tried the only other available site. Here we were happy to get the anchor dug in securely. The tide is larger than we had counted on so it was a good thing we hadn't stayed in the original site unless we had wanted to jump out and scrub the bottom at low tide.

So after lunch, we went into town, ate some ice cream, and bought a quart of oil for the dinghy motor. About an hour after returning to the boat, Tom realized he did not have his wallet. As he had been battling with the dinghy motor for some time (some of you know this as a fairly common activity with our motor), he thought it might have fallen out during this activity. We went back to shore to search at the dinghy dock. I suggested he check at the store first before digging around in the water. Sure enough, they had the wallet and all was well.

We watched a beautiful sunset from the helm seat while enjoying a refreshing beverage, pleased at being in a protected, quiet anchorage with the weather warming a little each day.  We have decided not to go offshore to Charleston as gale force winds and high seas are predicted and one of us doesn't want to tempt the weather gods.  (Can you guess which one?)

halloween

Anchored in Cedar Creek, just off Adams Creek this evening. It was a long, tiresome first day back on the water. After Tom dove on the props to clean off accumulated barnacles (thanks to Bill for loaning his wonderful wet suit), we left Jordan Creek at 10:25, a bit later than we had planned but were able to sail down the Pungo River and across the Pamlico with a steady 15-20 k wind on our beam. Upon entering the Bay River, however, things got a bit more active. The wind was too close to sail and had picked up to a constant 24-25k. Waves were breaking over the bow, crashing up between the hulls and landing in the dinghy (It was up on the davits, not being towed!). Not fun at all. I've never been a fan of the the Bay River. It seems always to be rough and rowdy.

And it was cold. In spite of being bundled up in all our warm clothes, the constant wind eventually got to us and we had to take turns between the helm and warming up inside with hot drinks. The new wind screen sure did help though and we were glad to have it. There were a good number of other boats heading south, most of them without any wind protection. That was us 2 years ago and we were happy not to repeat it.

Once we turned into the Neuse, things settled down some since the wind was now more behind us and the ride was more comfortable. Anchor down at 4:45 with first beer of the day. Cloudy, but no rain all day. It's calm and quiet and we are happy to be settled here with several other boats.

Happy Halloween!