Day 311, Tuesday April 29th

Day 311, Tuesday April 29^th

Safe at dock

We wake up after a very restful night and run through our options for shelter during the next storm front.  We try the marinas again to find out if reservations have changed and we are lucky to find out there is a spot for us for 3 days at the marina we wanted.  Best price and location.  We up anchor and move to the spot before they give it away.  It is at the end of the t-dock so nice and easy to get into and out of.  Yeah, no stress.

Dumping the sand from a nearby dredging operation at the beach

By 11:00 we are heading out for an explore of the beach and community.  The beach is about a 2 kms. walk which is a lovely distance to get some exercise.  We walk along the beach and are pleased at all the beautiful shell pieces to look at.  There are no jelly fish or other animals at all, just shells, most of which are quite broken and ground down.  After our walk on the beach we look for a commercial district, but there are just a few surf shops and restaurants so we partake in Mexican food for lunch.  Of course we ate too much as we always do when eating Mexican, but it was very good.

Hurricane warning sign, this area can only handle a category 1 and there are 5 listed on the sign

Mystery culprit

We head back towards the boat in search of a marine shop and groceries.  We are hosting Mike and Ralph for dinner tonight (Erie canal friends sans Annette).  Mike and Ralph captained 2 boats that we were trapped with on the Erie Canal so we became good friends many months ago.  Annette unfortunately is back in Canada for a couple of months so we don’t get to reunite with her, perhaps in Canada.

We have great success in locating a good grocery store nearby and get all the goodies we will need for dinner, including a chocolate cookie cake for dessert.

It is 4:00 by the time we reach the boat and when we get to the boat there is water on the floor.  We are perplexed where it came from as all the windows are shut properly, the water taps are all tightened properly, yet there is water on the counter and sprayed on the floor of the guest cabin.  We scratch our heads and look around.  Then Julie picks up a can of club soda laying on its side and the mystery is solved.  It is not water, it is club soda that has sprayed all over.  We don't know why it exploded, but it did.  We do a bit of prep work for dinner, clean up the club soda spill, play a game of dominos and our friends have arrived.  We have a lovely evening regaling memories and updating each other on our adventures over the winter.  Mike is just in the process of buying a new boat, so Dawson suggests that perhaps he could join Mike tomorrow when the survey and sea trial are being done on his new Tayana 42.

Reunion dinner, Dawson, Ralph, Mike and Julie

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 310, Monday, April 28th, on the “road” again, (so to speak)!

Day 310, Monday, April 28^th, on the “road” again, (so to speak)!  and yes it is Willie Nelson's voice we hear when we say this.

Picturesque start to the day

Up and at em, we head out by 7:00 to time the tides across the skinny waters.  As we work our way from Myrtle Beach to North Mrytle Beach we pass under a gondola carrying golfers across the river to finish their game on the other side.  Normally we see skiers with skis hanging off the gondola, not golf clubs.  We hold our breath as we pass under the wires.  Of course as murphy would have it we pass directly under the wire as a gondola is passing across.  Wonder if we will ever get used to going under stuff in our sailboat.  A couple miles into the trip and with Julie at the helm we bump something in the water, luckily no damage. We were in the proper spot in the channel, just some debris that had relocated itself.

Golf clubs hanging from gondola

Beach out to the ocean with vehicles on it

We get to Southport and struggle with the decision of whether to push on.  It is low tide and we attempt to pull into the basin, but we can see there are a few boats sitting in the mud and we don’t trust we won’t ground out.  Our alternate marina looks pretty crowded and no one is answering the VHF.  We look at tomorrows weather and it does not look so good so we decide to push on.  One reason we were going to sit tight was there is up to a 3 knot current up the Cape Fear river and our timing may not be so great.  As we head out we are slowed down to half speed which we anticipated, however as we move north for about 15 minutes we are able to pick up a couple of knots of speed so it is not too bad.  Before long we are doing a satisfactory 6 knots which will enable us to reach Wrightsville beach in daylight.  There is a cut up ahead that may add more current issues, but we decide to push on anyways as there are not any great spots here that we want to be trapped for 3 days. We are thrilled that the current is not causing us grief.  It may be part luck but so far the current has been our excellent friend (touch wood).

We reach snow cut and again are pleasantly pleased that the current is not too strong at all.  We have heard some nasty stories about the currents in this area.  We have now been moving for 10 hours and are getting tired and sore from standing a lot as we hand steer most of the ICW whereas when we are in the ocean we use the autohelm.  We continue on another hour and reach Wrightsville Beach to find out there are no docks available.  Normally this would not matter too much, however there is a storm system coming through so we wanted to be on a dock.  We anchor close by and settle in for the night. We see a drone in the sky with a camera on it.  Big Brother is watching.....

Drone in the sky taking pictures

The currents are fairly strong where we anchor and the boats are facing every which way, making it difficult to determine the amount of swing space needed.  We come up on deck after the tide has changed to find ourselves way to close to the neighbour so we shorten our scope.  Luckily there is little to no wind so we are fine with less scope out for the night.

We review the charts, eat dinner, play a game of Kings Cribbage and are off to bed for the night.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 309, Sunday, April 27th, Julie’s birthday today!

Day 309, Sunday, April 27^th, Julie’s birthday today!

Morning mist as we take off early in the morning

Alarm went at 5:30 and we were heading off by 6:02a.m. after spending a very quiet night at anchor.  We are getting an early start in order to time getting through the “skinny” parts of the canal during high tide and daylight.  As we motor along we realize our timing is great as high tide is later as we move north so the whole day is spent with high tide.  Also the current seems to be helping us all day which is bonus.  We are averaging over 7 knots so will make it 65 miles today and still get in by late afternoon.  We did not think we would get as far as we got today so are quite pleased.  Perhaps Wrightsville beach is only 3 days away and not 4 or 5.....

Birds nest on one of the port markers.  Every marker seems to have a nest.

Large bird and nest in the trees.  Dawson takes lots of bird pics.

Turtles crowding onto a rock.

We pass under lots of 65 foot bridges.  We are 56 foot tall, but it still makes us duck and hold our breath every time we pass underneath.  By 3:00 we are starting to think about finding home for the evening.  We are going to treat ourselves to a marina so we can dine out for Julie’s birthday. We are only about an hour from Myrtle Beach so set our sights on that community as our final destination.  As we approach there are golf courses everywhere and lots of homes.  A plane flying a bunch of golfers into the town of Myrtle Beach flies low overhead.

We phone a couple places and decide on The marina at Grand Dunes.  It is a bit of a resort.  Once we arrive it is no problem to park in our spot as it is a fairly easy spot to get into.  The weather has been hot all day and we still have about 4 hours of daylight so we can enjoy part of the day.

Plane full of golfers

Once checked in, Dawson gets a lift over to a store to buy a part for our water system repair.  After an hour he has returned successfully and the replacement part is installed in about 15 minutes. 

Dawson getting bored after many hours along the canal

We get cleaned up and head into Ruth Chris’s restaurant for dinner.  We have eaten at Ruth Chris in Toronto a few times and it is a red meat treat.  Dinner is good, but not great.  It is cold inside as the air conditioning is too high and our food is too rich.  The steak is just bathed in butter and salt.  Too much for us.  It was still a lovely night out.

On our way back to the boat the neighbours invite us up for a drink and hello, we pop into their power boat for an hour before heading off to bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 308, Saturday, April 26th , on to the ICW

Day 308, Saturday, April 26th , on to the ICW

Again we are both up early as we want to get some things done before we head out.  We plan on leaving the dock at 12:30 which is when slack water occurs; this will make our leaving the dock easier.  Dawson is heading out for a run and Julie wants to head over to the farmers market for 8.  We both leave the boat together, Julie over to the shuttle pickup point and Dawson off for his run.

Dawson heads down to the Battery for a run along the seawall.  About half way through the run he decides to alter his finishing point at the farmers market instead of the marina.  It turns out to be an excellent 40 min run through downtown Charleston.  Meanwhile Julie has made it over to the market and has already spotted some items for purchase.  The Farmers market is a combination of fresh produce, art and crafts vendors and food vendors making for an interesting tour.  Julie picks out a lovely bracelet which features a hand-blown glass bead with precious metal flakes in it for her birthday.  Dawson who did not bring his wallet contributes $5 dollars which is all he has in running shorts, not a good thing.

From the farmers market we get the shuttle over to the local seafood market as we want to pick up some shrimp.  Unfortunately when we get there the only shrimp for sale are from Ecuador as the local shrimp season is set to start in May.  From here we head back to the boat to get ready for our departure.  We give the boat a good wash down, Julie does some taxes and then it is time to go.  We are off the dock at 12:30 with slack tide, an excellent departure.  We both quite enjoyed our stop in Charleston even though we had planned on not stopping.  The marina was excellent, a little expensive at $2.10/ft but the shuttle was an excellent feature that we made use of.

Now we are on a way to our first real run on the Intercostal Water Way (ICW).  The ICW is a canal system that runs from Norfolk Virgina to Somewhere Florida and was constructed in the 1920s to provide an alternative to going out in the ocean when traveling.  It is commonly referred to as the ditch, we are doing this portion of the ICW to get a feel for it as we have been told it is beautiful.  Time will tell, we did have someone compare it to driving the I95 at 5 mph.  Total distance from Charleston to Wrightville Beach where we plan to visit Ralph and Mike (friends from the Erie Barge days) is ~ 220 miles so about 4 to 5 days time.

House close to shore, and this is low tide!

So what has the ICW been like so far?  Busy as our first day was on a Saturday, so lots of fishing/pleasure boats out for a ride (16 to 24 footers).  Skinny, the first section we transited, just north of Charleston had shallow spots with Julie seeing a 4.7’ reading on the depth gauge.  It must have been mud we ploughed through our just stirred up mud giving a bad reading.  Very easy navigation but you have to hand steer and always watch were you are going as it shallows very quickly along the sides.  Based on this limited experience outside is way better.  Transiting the ICW takes more planning than going outside.  Outside is all about weather, the ICW is all about tides and currents, you want high tide when transiting the shallow parts and if possible you want help from the currents.  A must for transiting the ICW is the Active Captain feature on Garmin’s Bluecharts (it is a must).  Before starting on the day’s trip we review the Active Captain notes.
The land around us is all tidal marsh so there is no protection from wind.  We don’t need any today as there is very little wind.  At night all the anchorages are exposed to wind, protected from waves, but suffer from moderate to high currents.  Not ideal.

Lots of traffic along the way

Heading into the ICW about 2 hours after low tide, first we had to pass through a swing bridge then about 4 miles of “skinny” water where we saw a 4.7 on depth sounder (which has a bit of an offset built in but we could not have had more than an inch below the keel).  Julie loves helming in tight situations (sarcasm).  Once through the 1st section the rest was easy as we are riding the high tide in.  We even got the Genny out and got the boat speed up to 9 mphs for a short bit. We are now using statute miles (SM) as the ICW is all in SM.   It will be good to be back outside.


There are lots of dolphins and birdlife along the way to take pictures of.

After about 6 hours we make it to the turnoff of Town Creek near McClellandville where we anchor in Five Fathom Creek, mileage 430.  We started at mileage 470 so got the first 40 miles under our belt.

Once we shut the engine off we heard the water pump going and sadly we had a leak near the accumulator.  It is an easy repair as it was a cracked connector, but all the water from one of our tanks has emptied out.  At least it was free water.  Had it been the Bahamas it would have been $30 worth of water.  We are glad the boat has 2 water tanks that are independent.  We really do love the Caliber sailboats.  Imagine if the 2 tanks were connected, or there had only been one tank and we had gone on a long passage like we did heading south.  It would have been a real inconvenience if that had been the case.

Once Dawson deals with the water issue, we sit down to a fabulous shrimp dinner.  It is almost 9:00 by the time dinner is done so we are off to bed so we can get an early start tomorrow.

Cheers
Dawson and Julie

Day 307, Friday April 25th - Charleston still

Day 307, Friday April 25^th

We are both up early after a very quiet night at the dock.  Julie starts out the morning blogging, our dockage includes WiFi access, and Dawson runs through an inspection of the boat after our last passage and does some planning for tomorrow’s trip on the ICW .

Dawson at Battery Park waterfront Charleston

Once Julie finishes the posting our recent days, we start to plan our day in Charleston.  We had a fair bit of info on things to do after our trip in the night before, based on this information we decide on a walking tour of the city and a trip on the free trolley, with extra actives as we spot them.  We get the marina shuttle to drop us off at the South Battery and begin our day walking the Charleston Seawall. 

About 40% of Charleston is reclaimed land with a large portion being below sea level.  Global warming is a bad thing for Charleston.

Selfie with neat Charleston houses in background

Historical house tour

Around noon we determine it is time for lunch and stop at a restaurant brew pub.  Here we get the bad news our walking tour has been cancelled as the minimum number of people had not signed up, so we adjust our plans and sign up for a horse drawn carriage tours.  Our carriage tour is at 3 so we take the free trolley ride and find out it is really the city bus but dressed up like a trolley.  Julie chats to one of the passengers and she recommends that we do one of the city house tours which is just along the bus route.  Charleston has 6 old home open to the public dating from the mid 1700 to the late 18^th century.  The one we end up at is the Manigaul  House which was constructed in the 1780 by the family of the richest man in North America.  It is a beautiful home with many period pieces on display.  The volunteer who gives the tour does an excellent job of giving the history of the Manigault’s along with the history of the house.  If you are in Charleston checking out some of the homes is worthwhile. 

Carriage ride

Rooftop patio in Charleston

After the tour we have 15 mins to make it over the 1 mile to the “big red barn” where we board our carriage ride.  We have been seeing these carriages go by throughout the day so are quite looking forward to the ride.  The tour is worthwhile with the guide giving an excellent over view of the city’s history along with the historical buildings.  From the carriage tour we do some walking around and end up at a roof top bar with what looks like a bunch of lawyers.  One thing we had noticed about Charleston is there appeared to be a large number of lawyer’s offices.  Over our beer we decide a play would be a good way to spend the evening but we have left it too late and they are booked for the evening.  

Honking huge sailboat in harbour

We head back to the marina via the shuttle and take a walk along the docks.  The night previously we had been in the shuttle with some crew members off of a sailing yacht which up until two years ago claimed to have the highest mast in the world so we want to go take a look.  The vessel is call Tamsen and is beautiful with its dark blue topsides. 

After our dock walk we head back to Jazzebelle for dinner, an evening coffee and bed.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 306, Thursday April 24th an unexpected visit to Charleston

Day 306, Thursday April 24^th

Sarah G bashing through the waves near us

Well Julie is on shift first thing in the morning and figures she went right through a dolphin aerobic class.  Sitting from the stern of the boat the dolphins were taking turns jumping right out of the water for about 30 minutes.  Possibly even longer but she could no longer see them.  The dolphins also came to visit a couple of times during the morning shift, swimming alongside the boat.  The winds were now on the nose, but fairly light until about 10 in the morning but they started to pick up and we were slowing down.  We had not anticipated high winds at all but they continued to build.  We veered our course inland about 15 degrees to try to weather the waves that were building and have a bit better speed.  We had anticipated only another 20 hours of sailing to get to Wrightsville beach, but our expected arrival was now going to be 40 hours as our speed dropped to less than 4 miles an hour.

Wave beside the boat

The group of us started to chat about heading into Charleston for some sleep and take off again the next morning.  We were undecided but veered our course more inland in case the winds did not shift as we anticipated.  After about an hour the winds had now built to 20 knots and the seas were really starting to rock and roll.  The waves were steep and not very comfortable.  We veered more and headed for Charleston.  Sadly we were still about 15 miles away so another 3 hours of these uncomfortable sailing conditions.  We were very glad we bought a good ocean going boat.  Strangely enough at one point there was about a 25 foot open fishing boat zipping along beside us.  They were being bashed around but seemed unconcerned.  None of them even had life jackets on.  We past them within a 100 yards as they had stopped for some reason.  We thought they might need a rescue, but guess not, as no one radioed or waved their arms at us, so we kept going.

Finally we saw the channel markers which start about 5 miles off the coast.  We would be inside the jetty in another 30 minutes and sheltered from the waves.  The current once we reached the jetty was helping us along and we reached speeds of 9 knots.  Lucky the tide was going in as an ebb tide would have made getting into the channel difficult and slow.  The harbour was large and windy, but not too wavy.  We made our way up the Ashley river and decided to take a marina slip for a couple of nights so we could enjoy the city.  We had been told not to miss Charleston so having the weather turn nasty was not such a bad thing.

Selfie in front of the customs house Charleston

Once docked, we headed for the showers and into town to have a look around.  The historic district was cool and we had a fabulous dining experience at Pearlz.  This is an oyster bar and we caught happy hour and ordered some shrimp and mahi tacos, along with a few cold beers.  It was all delicious.  Some locals came in and did a shooter with an oyster in it and we decided we should follow their lead so joined in.  After all it was an oyster bar.  The shooter itself was like a Ceasar drink with an oyster in it.

We headed back to the boat by 8:00 still exhausted from our overnight passage and looking forward to a good night sleep at dock.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 305, Wednesday April 23rd - on the road again... so to speak

Day 305, Wednesday April 23^rd

Well we wake up to listen to Chris Parker weather and are gearing up for a Thursday departure, but Ham suggests we leave today and we decide to.  The weather is low winds, so we will have to operate the motors but at least we will be moving.  By 9:00 we are planning our departure from the dock.  We are on the inside and facing the wrong direction for leaving.  In addition to that the current and the wind are on the stern, which makes turning around almost impossible.  We start bantering around departure ideas, and both Bruce and Ham think we should do a controlled 180 degree rotation at the dock and then take off facing the correct direction.  We are on board with the idea.

Julie takes the helm and is advised to put the boat in forward with the wheel hard over to the starboard (right), while a few of the guys manhandle the bow sprit around once the current grabs the stern and swings it out.  At first it does not seem to be working, but at first Julie did a bit of reverse as it seemed weird to be in forward.  With a bit of advice from our friends, the stern starts getting out into the current and starts swinging around.  Ham is on the bow line with a leverage wrap on the horn cleat, and Bruce, Peter and neighbour Tony swing the bow around from the dock.  Once we are perpendicular to the dock, Julie puts it in neutral, Ham tightens up the bow line and Dawson throws the mid ship and we have turned 180 degrees so we are now facing the correct direction for departure.  The currents can be up to 4 knots so are a huge influence on maneuverability.  Julie is thrilled that the controlled turn was effective and we are now ready to take off.  With a shove from shore, Julie guns the engine and we are off.  We still have to be careful however as the boat next to us is still close.  Julie turns the wheel to the right and just as we are at the neighbour swings the wheel to port to shift the stern over to the right.  When steering the boat it is just the stern that is effected by the rudder to change directions so it is important not to turn too soon if dodging boats and debris.  It was a thrilling departure as we had 100% success in a somewhat challenging departure and we learned some new strategies for marina parking and disembarking.  Thanks Bruce, Peter, Ham and Tony.

Calm Atlantic and Sarah G.

What is also funny about our departure is we just left!  Normally for an overnight sail there is lots of anxiety, food preparation etc.  Not that we are getting irresponsible, but we are getting more confident which is lovely.  We have lots of food on board, just not as grab ready as we like to have for passages, but the weather is going to be light winds, so we are able to cook etc. while underway.  It isn’t until evening that it occurs to me that we did not take any anti seasickness medication.  We have never been seasick however any long passages we have taken a preventative tablets, so far so good though.

The day passes with a lovely view of a huge turtle, probably a couple hundred pounds and only about 10 feet off from our boat.  We don’t even know what it is until we are passing by it.  We saw it and we’re guessing at various debris options.  It was caramel in colour and had white barnacle growth on its back and it was paddling its flippers but not really getting very far.  Julie thought it was a dirty piece of Styrofoam.

Dolphins also came to say hello at various times of the day.

Visiting dolphins

We mainly motorsailed as the winds were too light to keep the required speed up.  At nightfall we left full sails up as the winds stayed light.

Sunset

This is an excerpt of Julie’s experience on her nightwatch.

I am writing this as I do my night shift.  Unlike the last big crossing we have no moonlight tonight.  My shift started at 11:00 p.m. and I will wake Dawson at 3:00 a.m.  There is lots of boating activity around us.  I am constantly checking first forward then the sides then the stern with binoculars, then the electrical tools (AIS, and radar).  When checking I stick my head out of the top of the canvas, and I also remember to look up.  The temperature is warm and there is a blaze of stars in the sky.  I declare that it is a glorious night.  It is really cool to be moving through the Atlantic when there is minimal wave action as it is so peaceful.

As I look through the binoculars I can’t tell sky from sea and can easily mistake a low star for a ships light.  I step down from the seat and wack myself in teh temple with the binoculars.  Ouch!

I must get myself a coffee.  The fresh brew is in the thermos and sliding along the cockpit floor from right to left with the motion of the boat as the swell is hitting the boat from the side.  Just as I am watching it slide the thermos hits the rug and tips.  I think it is okay as the lid is on, but I feel burning coffee on my barefoot.  Drats!  Best pour myself a cup.  The first swig is an elixir as the coffee is excellent and will help keep me awake for the next 4 hours.

Time to do another watch circuit.  No new ships, but as I look forward I am wondering if our bow navigation lights are working, then I hear some squeaking and notice the dinghy has come loose from one of its davits that it clips into for security.  A couple of tugs and it is back in place.  It is now 11:45 so 15 more minutes until the “official” circuit where we log our location, distance travelled, check the engine, bilge and radar.  (Note there is no steering as we have an autohelm that takes care of the wheel, we just reprogram Jim the autohelm as needed).  There is also very little navigation as there is not much to hit out here and we just do a straight line to get where we want to go.

I fill the next 15 minutes with a couple games of solitaire on the IPAD.  The “official” circuit checks out okay.  We are now out of the critical right whale habitat so hoping there are no sleeping whales in the way.  Another round of looking with the binoculars I see our buddy boat Sarah G ahead and Bruce from Mamba in behind.  In addition to keeping our eyes out for ships, there are some abandoned navy tower/platforms out here that have been reported as unlit.  I do see a flashing light bearing about 30 degrees magnetic and suspect that is the tower, as Dawson has marked its location on our chart and 30 degrees lines up to his point on the chart.  The rest of my shift is a repeat of the first hour.  I do chat to our buddy boats a few times to compare some notes on boats we see etc.  I am off to bed at 3:00 when Dawson takes over.  Next thing you know though it is 6:30 a.m. and I am back on watch staring at the big pink ball rising out of the ocean on the east.  Dawson attempts to listen to the weather update on teh single sideband but the “propagation is bad so heads to bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 304, Tuesday April 22nd Still in St. Mary's

Day 304, Tuesday April 22^nd

We are still in St. Mary’s.  There have been a few calm days now, but we are hoping to be able to sail so we are delaying.  It is a work day today as the boat needs a good spray down and we have use of fresh water.  Dawson clears out the cockpit so we can hose it down, then he starts on the deck.  Julie hoses down the hull and as always works away at polishing the stainless.  We have plans of waxing too, but we run out of day.  (we will get to it underway in a couple of days).

Cleaning everything of salt

The hosing down continues as we also tackle cleaning the dodger, bimini and enclosure.  Once everything dries Julie then has to polish all the windows as there is lots of calcium in the water and there are water spots everywhere.  Better than salt, but still does not look spit clean.

Bruce's birthday

Today is neighbour Bruce’s birthday so Julie bakes a cake and invites Ham and Peter from Sarah G as well as Bruce from Mamba for dinner.  Our guest arrive at 5, which Julie is thankful for as she has declared she will keep cleaning until our guests arrive so glad when they appeared.  We have an excellent barbeque with chicken.  The rest of the meal is green which is good, green salad, broccoli salad, and fresh green beans.  Helps offset all the restaurants we have been visiting.  More evening stories during coffee as these sailors have a wealth of experience.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 303, Monday April 21st Cumberland island tour

Day 303, Monday April 21^st

Fashion statement socks with sandals (still cool out)

Today we wake up to a cloudless morning finally.  It has been a week of rain and dreary and wind, then no wind.  No happy medium on the wind.  Either too much or none!  We have decided to take the ferry over to Cumberland island national park since we have not been successful in exploring this National Park except for a brief stop when we had anchored there in some high winds.

House hunting???

We pack a picnic lunch as we are going to join in on a tour which drives us up to the north end of the park and lasts all day.  The ferry departs at 9, getting to the island at 9:45 and the tour is off by 10:00,   (seems weird to take the ferry when we live on a boat but oh well).  We pile into the van for the tour.  We end up at the back of the 15 passenger van, luckily there are only 11 of us as otherwise it would have been very crowded.  Dawson’s choice would be to hike around the south part of the island, but Julie wants to do the north as we had explored some of the south already.  Also with the weather having been so bad, being in a vehicle sounded like a good idea.

Moss hanging from "live oaks" as they call them

We get a first hand tour of the history of the island and get to see a few of the mansions built in days gone by.  We get an inside tour of one of the mansions which is pretty cool.  We also go to an African settlement church which John F. Kennedy Jr. got married in to avoid the paparazzi.  There is a history of different country ownership and slavery on the island.  Currently it is 90% owned by the park.  There are wild horses and we also see an armadillo, but no alligators are sighted.  The forests are cool with lots of hanging moss and ferns growing on the live oaks as they call them.  These oaks are wider than they are tall and not at all like our Canadian oak trees.

Church JFK jr. got married at (African settlement church)

Julie on Atlantic side of  Cumberland Island

The tour ends at 3:30 so we have time to hike over to the Atlantic beach.  We walk on a boardwalk through the dunes to a hardpacked beach that would be good for driving on.  There are lots of unique shells and sea creatures.  Particularly there are lots of horseshoe crab shells on the beach.  Dawson picks one up and it is still alive so we place it back in the water, but we don’t think it is very healthy.  We have just 1 hour to hike and explore and then catch the ferry back to St. Mary’s where our boat is. 

We are only back about 15 minutes and decide to join the guys for dinner, so are off to a restaurant for dinner.  We have food that should be eaten, but the social aspect of dinner is too much to resist.  After dinner, we have a game of King’s cribbage as usual and then are off to bed.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Dawson putting a live horsehoe crab into ocean

Day 302 on a boat, Sunday April 20th

Day 302 on a boat, Sunday April 20^th

Well it is Easter Sunday.  The decorating is done, which consisted of putting some bunnies acquired at a local yard sale put on our boat and a few for the all guy’s boats we have been chumming with.  We had earlier suggested we all get together for a pot luck Easter dinner so a bit of cooking is on our agenda.  We aren’t sure the location yet as the park next to us is pretty wet looking, and the Seagle restaurant that hosts the Thanksgiving had said we could use their patio, however Colleen said she talked to the owner and he knew nothing about it.  Hmmmmm.  Oh well it will come together.

We talk to Kevin and Ross during the day.  Holidays are always a little difficult not being with our family from back home.  Next sailing trip Julie has vowed to fly home for all holidays.  Ross has headed to gramma’s in Sarnia to visit and feast with the Fay clan, but Kevin is alone in Newfoundland so holidays can be a bit challenging. 

We had bought a ham a couple days ago so Julie makes a glaze for it but it does not need to be heated for awhile as it is going in the pressure cooker.  We decide to head out for a walk in the drizzle and end up at the local coffee shop where we can also post a few blogs.  The coffee is “endless” and good on a dreary day.  We get back to the boat by 3:00 and find out that Rick has offered up his boat which is a 38 foot island packet.  The choice of boats is great as the layout of his cockpit can manage the 10 of us (from 6 boats) quite cozily.

Easter potluck dinner

We carve and heat up the ham, put together a relish tray, grab a bottle of wine and head down the dock 4 boats over and the potluck begins.  Others have brought coleslaw, buns, beans in mushroom sauce, Johnny cake, salad, jello salad, scalloped potatoes, and our ham, rounding out a wonderful dinner.  Fellow boater “Ham(ilton)”, not to be confused with the main course has brought fudge for desert which is a perfect finish to the meal.  As the evening continues Ham regales us with a few more sailing stories.  It sometimes takes a little encouragement to get the stories rolling.  Ham is writing a book so we will have to keep our eyes out for its publication as the stories he has told us over the last week are just the tip of the iceberg we imagine.

The evening ends around 10 and we all head back to our boats, with everyone only having their own dishes to wash.  That is one of the great things about boating, you are self sufficient.  We all took our own dishes and cutlery to the party and it all goes home dirty so the host does not have the mess.  Works out great.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 301, Saturday April 19th, Wow over 300 days on the boat

Day 301, Saturday April 19^th, Wow over 300 days on the boat

Well spent another restful night at the dock, but did have to turn the heater on, we should have come back in May not April.  All future cruisers please learn from our mistakes. 

The plan for the day is taxes for Julie and laundry for Dawson.  Dawson does fit a run in 1^st thing in the morning before Julie even wakes up.....sleepy head catching up from all the anchor watches. 

Calm before the storm

Julie gets on to the taxes around 10 and Dawson heads up to do the laundry.  The laundry is in a candy store about ½ a km from the marina and consists of only 1 washer and 1 dryer making for a long day.  Julie continues with the taxes and Dawson wanders the streets in between loads.  By 3 the laundry is done and Julie is at a place where she can take a break from the taxes so we play some games and watch a storm roll across the marshlands to the south of us.  There is a warning of severe thunder storms with hail so we keep our fingers crossed it does hit us.  By 6 o’clock we are sure we are clear and head out for a walk prior to our evening coffee.

Julie's Easter decorations

St Mary’s is a quaint little town with a number of parks and public spaces along the water front.  An interesting plaque states that St Mary’s was the site of one of the last battles of the War of 1812.  There are also plaques describing the bird and animals of the region and we spot a Woodstork flying by as we read them, and chat to a fisherman who has caught a bunch of catfish and crab.  We also read that there are manatees around here so we will have to keep our eyes out for a sighting. 

We get back to the boat just before dark, enjoy a quick game of Kings Cribbage, watch some Seinfield on the computer that George and Jackie lent us and we are in bed by 10.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 300 Friday April 18th, a day at the marina

Day 300 Friday April 18^th, a day at the marina

Ham posing on the bow of Sarah G

We wake up to a dark overcast morning, no more beautiful sun.  We are starting to think we should have spent another 2 weeks in the Bahamas and crossed over in May.  We have a breakfast date with Ham and Peter from Sarah G at 9:30 and then a trip in to Walmart.  A very exciting day planned.

On the quest for grits

We have a skype call with Doug and Ruth our friends in Sudbury to get the latest news and then head out with Ham and Peter for breakfast.  Peter has been looking forward to a breakfast with grits so he organized this trip as his treat.  There are a number of restaurants on the main street in St Mary’s but all are closed so we make our way up to the local coffee shop, the Blue Goose.  We have a seat, look at the menu but no grits are to be found.  We inform the staff that we are in a quest for grits and they direct us up the road to a diner.  The diner is the perfect choice featuring not only grits but hush puppies as well (deep fried dough). 

We enjoy a good breakfast and then head back to the boats for the next adventure, a trip to Walmart. 

We hire a cab for the trip and find that Walmart is a long way away.  We all pick up some groceries and Peter and Julie mange to squeeze in a haircut and then back to the marina.  By the time we are back it is 3:30 pm, it always amazes us how the day goes.  

Cindy queen of the bar

At the Seagle Hotel 

At 5:00 we head up to the Seagle Hotel where Bruce from Mamba has reported there is an obnoxious bar maid.  True to Bruce’s word we find ourselves in the Seagle Hotel Bar which is the domain of Cindy Chubbs.  Cindy quickly sets us all up with a beer insulting us, which is her thing, while we all chat.  She is an excellent server and keeps us entertained and is on top of all our needs.  There are about 8 of us in the group from 5 different boats.  We check out the menu, which looks good and we settle on the “basket of gator”.  Having a taste of gator has been on Julie’s bucket list since we first saw it advertised.  The gator is alright, nothing really special but it is good to get it checked off the list.

On a side note every American Thanksgiving Seagles hosts a boaters Thanksgiving dinner, and is something we had been told about by other boaters.  George and Jackie had attended in 2012 and spoke very highly of it.

We all head back to the boats around 8, quick game of kings cribbage a coffee and we are off to bed.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 299, Thursday April 17th, another blustery day for sure

Day 299, Thursday April 17^th, another blustery day 

We spent another interesting night at anchor.  Wind was less here off of Cumberland Island then in the Bell Creek marsh but the combination of wind and current made for an uneasy night up on a number of occasions to check our position.  We are both up at dawn to look around and listen to the Chris Parker show.   Chris’s weather forecast is not too good with the weather window of Monday and Tuesday looking like it might close and the 1 in 10 chance that a low off of Bermuda may develop enough that it gets a name.  A named storm in April is unheard off.

Anchor wander the effect of wind and current
a picture from the chart plotter

Around 8:00 we notice that Windward is raising their anchor.   At first we think just to reposition but it quickly becomes apparent that they are out of here.  We call then on the radio and get a very tired sounding Ian on the radio.  He explains that they had spent another sleepless night with Windward sailing about her anchor and have had enough.  They are off to Jacksonville in search of a dock to tie up to.  They plan on putting Windward on the hard in the Jacksonville area so will check out the some marines and boat yards, put her to bed for the season and move on to the land portion of their retirement.  We very much enjoyed meeting and cruising with Lynn and Ian and look forward to the next time our paths cross.

After Lynn and Ian’s departure we start planning our day, which consist of do we move or stay and if we stay can we leave the boat.  Our original plan was to spend the day exploring Cumberland Island with Jazzebelle swinging on the hook.  With the current winds and no expectations of the wind to decrease we do not feel we can leave the boat, the question now becomes if we move where do we go.  While we are having these discussions Sarah G ups anchors and heads out.  Ham calls on the radio to report that he has made the decision to head into St Mary’s to take a slip at the local marina, Langs Marina, until this weather passes.  This is the closest marina but would require a move backwards of about 5 miles, something we are not prepared to do yet.

We now consider moving north along the ICW, we will be fighting the wind but if we ride the tides we decide it might be doable.  We start looking at the route we would be taking, via charts and a software on Garmin Bluechart called Active Captain.  Active Captain, we have been told, is a must for people traveling the ICW.  It is a site where people add warnings and comments about the route, areas of shoaling, services available, anchorages etc..  Looking at the active captain we have one sound (open to the Atlantic) to cross which has comments about being very bad in high north winds.  This coupled with a radio report from a boat that just crossed it, 5’ confused waved and broken jelly jars makes us drop the idea of moving north.  We speak with Aftica, a boat at anchor with us who we had meet last summer in the north channel and then south at Conception Island.  They have been sitting here for a couple of days already and will not be moving today.

Another 2 hours swinging on the hook followed by a call from Sarah G that the marina has room and how nice it is to be tied to a dock and we make the decision to head into St Mary’s.  We up anchor around 11, have a quick motor trip over to St Mary’s and our tied up at the dock by 1:30 pm.  Sarah G is beside us along with Momba.  We had said good bye to Momba on Wednesday morning with the thought we might not see Bruce again, Bruce’s response to our goodbye was that we would see him down the trail again and here we are 2 days later tied up beside him.

George and Dawson on the dock

Just after we dock a boat from Sarnia pulls in, Heritage, they are making their way back north as well after 2 seasons in the Bahamas.  Julie quickly plays the do you know game and figures out who they know in common and where they did their high school.   The boat is owned by George and Jackie.  Around 5 o’clock Ham and Peter stop by to ask us to join them for supper at the Marina restaurant, they head up and we join them in about 30 mins, as Julie has started doing our taxes so has to get to a point where she can stop.  We meet Ham and Peter and both of us order the all you can eat shrimp, lots of shrimp that just kept coming.  We eat an awful lot of shrimp and head back to the boat around 8:30 very full.

Quick game of Kings Cribbage a coffee and we are off to bed for what we hope will be a very peaceful night tied to the dock.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 298, Wednesday April 16th -Off to Georgia

Day 298, Wednesday April 16^th

Well we got through last night.  By 2:00 a.m. the winds had dropped a bit and the currents were fighting the wind versus teaming up with the wind to raise our anchor.  Julie was on anchor watch till 2 am to make sure our swing was clear of the mud flats.  She finally came to bed once the gusting subsided a bit. 

We slept until 6:30 to listen to the Chris Parker show which was grim for the short term.  Julie went back to sleep though to try to catch up on her beauty rest.  Chris indicated that the weather was not favourable for sailing until next Monday so we have about 5 days to keep ourselves entertained.  Even to motor up the ditch the winds will be on our nose so not a pleasant trip. 

On our way to Cumberland Island Georgia

The winds in the morning are not too high so we decide we will dinghy into town at slack tide around 11:00 to try to get laundry done, buy a few things we need (fresh shrimp straight off the boats), and post some blogs.  Unfortunately the winds picked up to the point we were concerned about leaving the boat unattended so our field trip was cancelled.  Even taking the dinghy to town we would be soaked as we are about 2 nautical miles away. 

Julie in the neat forest

Ranger station

After some more discussion and thinking we decide we don’t want to stay here.  If we can’t visit Fernandina Beach we might as well be on our way.  We want to visit Cumberland Island, Georgia that is just 7 miles away so we up anchor and head north.  Cumberland Island is a state park which we have been told is a must see.  Its biggest draw is a herd of wild horses.  At first we make good speed but about 3 miles into the trip we have wind and current on the nose and our speed ranges from 2-4 knots an hour.  Even Julie can run that fast!  (Ross our son used to comment he could run faster than the sailboat, which of course he could even when we were going our max speed).

Peter and Julie

Finally we make it to Cumberland Island, so we say our good-byes to Florida.  It is only about 12 degrees and cloudy so we are chilled to the bone once we have dropped our anchor.  It took us a bit over 2 hours to go 7 miles.  We stay with the ship for an hour, to let the boat settle in and the current to change so it is lined up with the wind and then head to shore on a quick look see.  This is a much better anchorage as the land to the east has protection from land and trees as opposed to the marsh we had been parked in.

Cumberland Island is a national park with a rich history.  On shore there are wild horses, alligators and various other normal animals.  Peter from Sarah G, has joined us and he is an archeologist so it is fun to explore the shore with him as he recognizes lots of stuff we would normally overlook.  We found pottery from the natives that inhabited the area from 2000 BC to 950 BC, so kind of neat.  We only spend a couple hours on shore as we will do a more thorough visit tomorrow. 

Dawson, Lynn, Ian, Julie and host Hamilton

We head back to the boats for “current change”, so that we are aboard when the water shifts from an ebb to a flood tide.  The tides are about 7 feet here and it effects the way we sit at anchor.  We need to be careful not to bash into the neighbouring boats.  All seems good, so we buzz over and pick up Lynn and Ian from Windward as we have been invited over to the Sarah G.  Sarah G is an 80 some foot schooner owned by Hamilton Carter of Dingwall, Nova Scotia.  We were supposed to visit with him and Peter last night but the high winds had prevented it so tonight he is hosting “sundowners”.

Sarah G

We have a great visit, with Peter and Ham, along with Windward, but we don’t overextend our visit as the winds are staying high and we need to get back to our boats to monitor the anchors.  This anchor watch stuff is becoming annoying, along with the cold.  We should have stayed in the Bahamas another 2 weeks at least.  Oh well!

Cheers

Julie and Dawson