The Autumn Ritual Begins

Well, according to the meterologists among us, summer is over and fall has begun. We have returned to Virginia and have also begun the annual ritual of bottom painting and waxing of the hull. Additionally, we need to replace the upper bearing for the rudder stock, but that will be covered in another blog.

We enjoyed a great summer visiting Sam, Jeremy and the three grandsons. We also saw Sandra's sister Paula and brother Scott and family while up in NE. We were pretty busy with the grandsons, but did get out for a couple of hikes in the White Mountains. In August we rented a cabin for a week on a lake in central Maine. This trip from New Hampshire required us to stop in Freeport for a visit to L.L. Bean. We always look forward to this stop whether we get to Maine by boat or by car.

Looking down through  Crawford Notch

View from our cabin on Ebden Pond

After the week on a lake, we headed to the coast for a week of camping at Acadia National Park. We hadn't been back there in twenty years. A few things had changed, but the beauty and dramatic coastline remains unchanged.  While we've never taken the boat up there, we did a bit of investigation to determine good  harbors to sail in to.  For those who haven't been to Acadia recently, there is now a free bus service that covers most of the Park.  We could pick it up from several harbors and have great access to much of the Park.

The entrance to Somes Sound.

We could watch scenes like this for hours.

Classic Maine coast scene

But all that is behind us now as we change focus back to the preparations for our fall pilgrimage south. As I write this, we are staying with Jenn and Greg while we get the boat ready for relaunching in a few days. We'll manage to keep busy restocking the boat and preparing for the travel during the next few weeks. Since our boat insurance doesn't allow us south of Cape Hattaras prior to November 1^st, we won't leave until late in October. Aside from the fact that we intend to get to the Keys by early December, the rest of our plans are still tentative. We have a number of options for stopovers, but we'll address those as we get closer to the time. We like to keep plans fluid to take advantage of opportunities that may arise.

Certainly more to come, but that's all for now.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob  

The Finale - To the Severn River

The Great Bridge lock

Avoiding the barge before the two bridges - busy area

What a dramatic contrast we saw as we left the relatively quiet, natural settings of NE North Carolina for Norfolk and the southern Chesapeake Bay. As reported in the last addition to this blog, we spent a night on the ICW in Great Bridge where Jenn and her puppy Kayah came aboard. Upon leaving the marina the next morning, we immediately had to coordinate with a bridge lift and then enter the Great Bridge lock. This lock is in place to eliminate the tidal change for some distance south of there on the ICW. Therefore the up and down travel is generally not more than 3 feet. Once out of the lock, we had to get to the next bridge opening in 30 minutes. We were with a group of three other sailboats, and the bridge lift went on schedule with no issues. The next bridge was a railroad bridge that is usually open. Immediately beyond this one was another highway bridge. We were set to be there on time for the opening. However upon getting within view, we noticed that it was open. It had opened early for a barge being pushed by a tug. We stayed out of their way and waited for the correct opening time. Then it was up to downtown Norfolk, the shipping port and finally the Navy's Atlantic Fleet. All of this busy stretch went smoothly, although we were careful to stay out of the way of a large container ship arriving at the port.

A bit of the new with the old

We stayed cldear of this big boy.

Part of the Atlantic Fleet was in port.

We sailed over to the Eastern Shore and Kiptopeke State Park for the night. The anchorage was behind a line of old liberty ships that had been sunk there to provide a breakwater back before the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was built and travel to the Eastern Shore depended on the ferries. A beach walk provided the puppies the chance to play and swim a bit. They had a ball! It's also great for us to get off the boat after a day's travel, something that's not always possible. This is a good place to report that the two dogs on the boat worked out very well. They had fun together, and we enjoyed having them. It's always great to have Jenn on the boat as well. Over the years she has shared a number of our boating experiences for which we are grateful.

Maddy welcomes new crew members.

The decaying liberty ships provide a helpful breakwater.

Our final run of this trip the next morning was only about five hours and brought us back to our home port at the Severn River Marina. So we are now securely attached in a slip where we'll stay for a month before hauling the boat out of the water to dry the hull – the first time in fourteen years -and traveling by car up to NE to visit family and friends. Of course this trip will include lots of time with Sam, Jeremy and our grandchildren along with Sandra's sister Paula and brother Scott and his family. Additionally we've rented a cabin on a Maine lake for a week and plan to tent camp in Acadia National Park for a week. For all who live up that way who read this, we're looking forward to visiting with you at some point this summer as well.

This, our fourth trip south to the Keys and back for the winter, has been full of great experiences. But there are times when we wish we lived in a house and had room for all we'd like to have with us. It would be nice to take normal shower without the dinghy ride to the marina to make it possible. The same it true for doing laundry. However, that said, if we were in that more normal situation, we'd never have experienced all that's been included in this blog over the past months. Our life is full of great people, constantly changing surroundings and views of Mother Nature's beauty. It's also been nice to avoid winter.

So after a break for the summer, we'll be back on the boat for another trip south. Every year has been a bit different, and we are confident that the next trip will have new twists and turns in it – some expected and others that will surprise us. We'll look forward to sharing all of these experiences with you.

Till then, carpe diem

Captain Bob

On to North Carlina

In spite of our best efforts, we are now being pulled by the homing beacon. This fact is enhanced because we suggested that our daughter Jenn meet us and do a bit of the trip with us. It turns out that she'll share our last two nights of the trip, so we're off to meet her, now on a schedule of our own design.

Prior to this point, we did have a few interesting stops in North Carolina. We spent three nights at Carolina Beach and met up with a couple, Dave and Jill on JilliQ we've known for several years now, but we hadn't seen them for two years. We last saw them in the Abacos of the Bahamas during our visit there. We enjoyed time with them and enjoyed their vehicle which got us to the grocery store and a bit of a tour of Carolina Beach. We also met another couple on the trawler Able Slave, Mark and Christi and enjoyed some of their pizza and an evening to get to know them.

Of course, not mentioned yet was the reason for our staying in Carolina Beach three nights. It was the second tropical storm of the season before the season even had officially begun. What gives here? It certainly appears that the weather gods are out to scare us with their fury. However, like the earlier storm, we missed the worst of this one – in part because we chose not to risk travel as it approached. The weather turned out not to be too bad, though – just a bunch of rain and a little wind.

Then it was two days travel to Beaufort where we met up with one of Sandra's friends from many years ago. Priscilla, who now lives in eastern North Carolina, had read our blogs and knew about where we were. She offered to come to meet us in Beaufort. What a great visit we had. And she is also hoping to visit us next winter in the Keys. Great! We also bumped into another couple on Tramarai – George and Carol – whom we'd met a year ago in Vero Beach and then spent the winter near them in Marathon. They just happened to come there to anchor for the night from their home near New Bern, NC. What good luck!

Looking at our route back to Norfolk where we'll meet Jenn and her new puppy Kaya, we determined that we needed to put in a couple of longer days so we could be in position to get through the several bridges in the Norfolk area before they shut down for rush hour traffic. That meant anchoring in a couple of new spots, always bringing opportunities for added stress. So far, so good. As I began writing this, we were anchored in the Little Alligator River just south of Albemarle Sound in North Carolina. It wasn't too bad till the wind changed direction, and then we banged around a bit before things settled for the night.

We enjoyed one interesting meeting during the day before yesterday. We were traveling one of the several canals which are part of the ICW in North Carolina. Sandra was at the helm and noticed something in the water ahead of the boat. She quickly determined that it couldn't be dolphin. It looked more like a manatee, but we'd not heard of any up here. Then, as it came closer, she realized that it was a black bear crossing the canal. With us approaching, it was in a panic to get to the other bank and disappear into the woods. It did that well, so we weren't able to get a photo. This was a first for us.

We anchored in Bellhaven, NC, a quiet town by any measure. We had stopped here once before on a Sunday also. They don't roll up the sidewalks, but nothing much is open. The neighborhood along the water is pleasant, but the main street has little that would be open on a weekday. It clearly is a great place to get away from it all.

As mentioned earlier, we anchored in the Little Alligator River last night and dropped the anchor in Currituck Sound tonight. We're hoping for only a bit of breeze, so we can enjoy a quiet evening. Then we thought it would be off to Norfolk with it's several bridges and one lock to pass through before we meet up with Jenn. Then with two puppies on the boat for a night or two, life should be exciting – a fitting end to our spring travels. But we must be prepared for adjustments to our plans. As we traveled north, we began to hear about OpSail 2012 in Norfolk. It turns out that it begins officially tomorrow. Our plan to anchor at Hospital Point on the Elizabeth River across from the Norfolk downtown went out the window. A parade of naval sailing ships is planned to end there tomorrow afternoon. A gazillion boaters will be there through the weekend. We were lucky to find a marina with space back a dozen miles on the ICW for tomorrow. Jenn will meet us there. Then Thursday we will go through the last of the bridges and the lock, pass by the gazillion boats including some tall ships on our way out into the Bay. The offical Tall Ships parade is scheduled for Friday. Not sure whether we'll be around for that one yet. Only time will tell. Either way, we should have some interesting photos in the next blog entry.

Tomorrow we leave North Carolina and enter Virginia. We'll be at our home marina on the Severn River by the weekend. This will thus end our 1200 mile trek north.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob

Traveling South Carolina

More than a week has passed since the last entry into this blog. In that time we've moved out of Georgia and well into South Carolina, although we still have two more days of travel ahead before we can report that we've reached North Carolina. We're anchored in quiet Bull Creek about 20 miles southwest of Myrtle Beach. Although the Beach will be crowded this Memorial Day weekend, we are totally alone at the moment in a peaceful cypress swamp. Song birds chirp in the trees, and and lily pads are ready to bloom along the shoreline. We're enjoying a quiet afternoon without travel, because there are no good anchorages for another 40 miles. The ditch ahead (That's what many call the ICW.) is known as the Rockpile, since for a stretch of many miles the shallow sides of the canal are lined with rocks, often just under the surface. We'll pay close attention and remain in the channel as we travel that stretch.

At the park in Beaufort

Since I last wrote, we've enjoyed a brief respite in Beaufort, SC and another in Charleston. Beaufort, SC is pronounced “Beufort” unlike the town of the same name we'll travel through in NC which is pronounced “Bofort”. It gets a bit confusing to cruisers who travel this route. One must pronounce the town's name correctly in order to let people know which town you're talking about. That said, Beaufort is a pretty, old southern town with a gorgeous park along the riverfront. The town itself has quiet streets with classic southern homes surrounded by live oak trees dripping with Spanish moss. We always enjoy our stops which necessarily include a pizza at Panini's. Their pizza is quite unusual but always delicious. After a trip to the grocery and doing some laundry, we decided to push on.

Jasmine is everywhere this time of year.

We traveled to the outskirts of Charleston, but were not planning to stop. The anchorage there is usually full and the tidal current unpleasant. As we passed by the anchorage, however, we noted that it was pretty empty, so we made a quick change and dropped the hook for the day. As we'd hoped, the jasmine was still in bloom. We walked downtown to the old market, now full of venders offering to sell all sorts of trinkets, baskets, clothes, dishes and more. It's a popular spot for tourists now, but 150 years ago these same buildings were popular for another reason – it was the slave market. On one of our trips we'll have to take advantage of the horse drawn carriage tours to learn more of the history of the classic, southern town. We've sailed by Fort Sumter, but have yet to stop there for a visit. On another trip perhaps we'll do that too. We wandered around a bit and came by an old fire station complete with the equipment of an earlier time. We located this while seeking a local restaurant to sample. We'd had such good luck in the past from Islamorada, to South Beach to St. Augustine and Beaufort. We were looking for an authentic spot that would be worth adding to the list...and we hit a great spot – Jestine's Kitchen just across from the fire station. We enjoyed fried green tomatoes, oysters and a dessert to die for – blueberry-peach cobbler. The menu included a number of other traditional choices. We'll be sure to stop here again the next time we come to town.

A peaceful anchorage on Bull Creek in a South Carolina cypress swamp.

We left the next morning, the timing once again determined by our route. This time we got off to a later start, since a bridge would not open for us till 9AM. Had to get through the rush hour traffic without any interruptions. Then we had to time our travel to avoid low tide in a couple of areas. It all worked out well. Today our timing was dictated by the height of tide and also the tidal current. Again, it worked out well, and we arrived at this anchorage by 2PM. As mentioned earlier, there was little point to moving further, since there were no anchorages we were willing to try. Tomorrow will be another short day, but we will wait till 10AM or later to begin our travels to avoid low water in the Rockpile. At some point during the day, we'll get this blog entry added and let everyone know. In our current peaceful location, we have no access to Internet service. We do have phone service, but it's not strong. Ah well, we'll survive.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob

Life in the Slow Lane

A very quiet beach.

Our day at Cumberland Island was a special one as each of our previous visits have been. This barrier Island is nearly 20 miles long, and the ocean side is all beach. We walked some of the beach with Maddie. At times we could not see another soul. We had it to ourselves. That isn't to say that we were alone. The local resident wild horses always manage to show up a few times, and this time wild turkeys were keeping an eye on us as well. The live oak trees on Cumberland and other places are strange to us northerners. We're used to trees growing up, generally pretty straight with branches coming out from the trunk in a regular pattern. These trees follow a whole different plan as the photos indicate.

Sandra got these from our boat.

These gobblers don't need to worry about November.

The weather continues to provide us with some sun but also lots of dark clouds with occasional storms. Since we were in Georgia with several stretches of shallow water in the ICW in addition to the storms, we decided to make our first day a short trip to Jekyll Island and stop at the marina there for a day of catching up. We took advantage of the courtesy car to get a few grocery items and to refill one of our propane tanks. The sun came out for a bit in the afternoon, so we tried out the pool while we did some laundry and then battened down the hatches for another thunderstorm. ( We actually have hatches to batten down!)

The next few days of travel offer some pretty but desolate stretches of the ICW. Again, we'll travel based on the weather and tide times. On this our first day beyond Jekyll Island, we could only make progress in the morning before we reached our first challenge, the Little Mud River. This stretch reportedly has only 3-4 feet of water in places at low tide. We anchored just short of the river and will attack it in the morning near high tide. We've got two other shallow spots that will impact our schedule. One called Hell Gate. Unlike the one in NYC, this one is just another shallow stretch with a rather ominous name. Later we cross the Savannah River just east of the city by that name to arrive in South Carolina. A short cut there called Snow's Cut is another stretch to be avoided at low tide. We'll be heading for Beaufort, but that will be four days from now. Because of the low tides coming near the middle of the day, it's taking us an extra day to cross Georgia this spring. For non-boaters, keep in mind that if all goes well, we can travel on the ICW in a day about what one could cover in an hour by car. Georgia is slower because of the tides and because the route winds back and forth constantly making our mileage covered quite a bit greater than by car on I95. This coastline offered one of two surprises for us on our first trip south. One earlier mentioned is the extensive wealth indicated by the huge number of multi-million dollar homes visible along the ICW. The second is that parts of the east coast are totally free of any signs of modern civilization. There are times when we can't even make a cell phone call. ( An important, new indicator of civilization). It's OK though, since we don't have any pressing engagements. And we get to see parts of the state that most people will never see and not even realize exist.

Another advantage for me is that traveling on the ICW, the water is generally calm, and Sandra can be doing things when she's not steering. She's often working on a pine needle basket (look below for examples) or other creative endeavor. Today she baked some banana nut bread and then I got to enjoy a tasty roast chicken for our main meal. Now she's making chicken soup with leftovers.

So in spite of low tides and adverse tidal currents, life is still good.

Carpe Diem

Captain Bob

Last Days in Florida

Since the last entry, we traveled a bit of the Florida ICW and finally made it to Georgia today although all didn't quite go according to plan. After leaving Vero Beach, we stopped for the night in Coco before moving on to Daytona Beach. There we met up with friends Dan and Deb on About Time. We haven't seen them since Marathon two years ago and were happy to meet up with them again.

One Henry Flagler's creations in St. Augustine

We then made it to St. Augustine for a weekend visit. We never tire of this oldest city. We took the chocolate factory tour this time – really worthwhile. We also had a Mother's Day meal at a great restaurant – The Floridian – thanks to our daughter Jenn who arranged a gift certificate for her mother. Of course we also took time to do laundry, fill up on fuel and water and to get some groceries before pushing on.

The travel from St. Augustine appeared to be a bit tricky due to weather and tides. Between St. Augustine and Cumberland Island, GA are some of the shallow stretches of ICW we really don't want to travel through at low tide. Additionally there are some strong tidal currents to contend with that further impact our travel timing. The weather forecast called for likely thunderstorms each day, so we wanted to avoid those while traveling if we could. Hence we devised a plan that called for a 13 mile day yesterday to an anchorage we'd often thought would be attractive – Pine Island. It turned out to be a very pretty and desolate spot. Today we left later than normal to hit the tides and currents at the right time. We still thought we'd arrive at our planned anchorage by 5 PM.

Of course we can't plan for all circumstances that we'd face. And here's where we find an example of the uncertainty of boat travel beyond dealing with weather issues. We learned after pulling up the anchor and heading out this morning that a railroad bridge that would have to be open for us near Fernandina Beach was closed most of the day due to some maintenance issues. It wouldn't open till 5:30 PM. Think of it like learning of some major road construction on a highway you are traveling. You'll be held up for some time, and there's no chance to get onto another road. You're just stuck with that situation. For us it meant we wouldn't be arriving at our planned destination till well after 7 PM. We could handle this, but it just made for a long day of travel.

Thank goodness for our air card and computer. We were able to check out the weather radar picture and adjust our speed to avoid the worst of one thunderstorm. After hearing weather warnings of large hail and wind gusts up to 60 mph, we were relieved to get only some rain.

We're happy to have made it to Cumberland Island, GA. It's a stop we always look forward to. Perhaps I'll have some stories to share about this year's stop in the next entry. Till then...

Carpe Diem!

Captain Bob

Spring Comes Even When There is No Winter

It's that jasmine time of year.

Spring is certainly here. Even though we'd managed to skip by winter while staying in the Keys, we aren't missing spring. We are comfortably moored in Vero Beach near some mangroves that attract plenty of birds who manage to entertain us with their chirping. Yesterday we walked the mile or so to the beach and were somewhat intoxicated by the oleander and jasmine in bloom along with the many other flowers creating colorful scenes. This small harbor is full of fish, so we've been visited by numerous dolphin as well. This is really a special time to traveling the southern ICW. Our recollection from previous trips is that this spring bloom will follow us most of the way to Virginia. It provides quite a contrast to the gray vistas that surround us on the trip south in November. Additionally, the travel this time of year is less populated by cruisers, so this marina and others we choose to visit will be uncrowded. That means getting to the fuel dock and getting laundry done when we want to rather than trying to fit in to what appears to be a continuous lineup during the fall travel.

We're moored near the mangroves with their musical birds.

Vero Beach is a cut above many of the stops for us. Some cruisers arrive and have great difficulty leaving, hence the nick name of Velcro Beach. We enjoy free bus service to the best shopping areas. The beach is within walking distance and the marina facilities are of high quality.

We traveled up here without issue on Friday. Although we had to deal with nine or ten bridges, we managed to reach them at the appropriate time to avoid long delays before opening. It was a long day of travel – just over ten hours to travel about 70 miles. ( I mention this just as a reminder for those who's mindset is only from the perspective of the automobile travel speeds.)

We were originally thinking of leaving yesterday, but the weather forecast for the first half of the week includes a likelihood of showers and thunderstorms. We managed to get lots of lightning in the afternoon along with a drenching downpour. We did that leaving Miami and don't wish to repeat such a trip again so soon. We'll enjoy our time here and avoid the lousy weather and then leave once it seems to have passed by. Our next stop is St. Augustine, the oldest city in the country with lots of attractions for us. We never wish to skip by without spending some time there. We aren't on a tight schedule at this point, so we can wait out the weather and still be in a position to enjoy our next stop without rushing. Also, unlike our fall travel, we're not rushing south to get out of the cold. Spring is here, and the weather is pleasant...most of the time at least.

Carpe diem,

Captain Bob