Hunkered down!

Chris Parker the weather guru has been talking about this strong cold front coming across tonight for a week now. Should be the strongest since the one that followed us into GTC 2 weeks ago and that one turned out to be "not bad".

We don't care much since we are still tied to a dock here at the Green turtle club Marina. Although many cruisers are taking heed and coming into this fine anchorage. The marina in fact filled up today. We will see.

The dinghy ran pretty poorly going to town for a few fresh provisions. Won't be going back till at least Saturday with this forecast.

I changed the plugs today and that seems to have revived it. I know it is running on borrowed time since it is 24 years old. That is a great age for a young person (notice I didn't say young woman to appease the PC police). It is an over the hill age for an outboard motor though. I'd rather not have to replace it this trip but I am prepared if need be.

Bobbie and Francie on Barefootin arrived today. They crossed from Fort Pierce yesterday and ran all night. Will visit later once they have rested up.

Last night the Gully Roosters - a local band billed as the Best in the Nation played here. They didn't start till 9pm or cruisers midnight so we only stayed an hour. It was a lot of fun. It is an environment that oldsters like ourselves can make absolute spectacles of ourselves dancing like fools and no one cares. A great venue for the "over the hill" crowd. Note no 24 year old's showed up!

The only thing else that is different is that the "no Seeum" varmints have been coming out in droves the last couple of evenings and afternoons for that matter. The OFF spray helps but I hate using it. They must be anticipating the strong winds coming so they are getting in a last munch before the winds arrive.

I hope they all BLOW AWAY!

The Ugly Americans have arrived

We have been here in GTC for more than 2 weeks now. Until yesterday it has been quite quiet and subdued. I was feeling sorry for the locals because we were not spending much money here. Just a breakfeast and lunch ordered in a restaurant and then just fresh veggies and eggs and OJ from the grocery. Well maybe a case of Kalik Gold and a couple of Conch Salads.

Yesterday the tourists started to arrive in DROVES.. Obviously mostly rich bastards because it is not cheap to travel here or stay here unless of course you are on a sailboat.

They have sucked up all the rental golf carts and rental boats and they are parading around like they really belong here. Mostly in "tender" bare feet, skimpy swimsuits and no shirts are the order of the day. They won't look you in the eye because they treat everyone as beneath them and only here to serve them. No wonder the locals are standoffish. We made it a point to learn everyone's first name here at the marina and greet them everyday. They seem to enjoy that. Treat them like the equals to us as they are.

Oh well these tourists will only be around for a week or two and then we will be back to a normal laid back Bahamas but in the meantime we need to endure this offense. Why can't American tourist learn for the European tourist and be more accommodating and merging with this different culture here?

Oh well we have adapted and are on Island time. We went this morning on a long dinghy ride to Crab Cay/Fiddle Cay and were disappointed in not finding a path at either for a trip to the ocean side. All has been overgrown and no one has cut a new path across. I didn't bring my machete or I would have -- I know lame excuse but I do have a bona fide machete. I'm a little timid in its use though.

Made a trip to the grocery this afternoon for a few fresh items. The grocery stores are all that's open since yesterday and today are still holidays here in the Bahamas.

Plans for tomorrow? a swim at the beach -- that's it.. Welcome to Island Time.

Merry Christmas

Beautiful Christmas morning in the Bahamas. Warm and breezy and not bad humidity. Hot in direct sun but very comfortable in the shade.

We had some facetime calls via WiFi with the kids and grand kids. They all are having a nice Christmas too.

We are just having a lazy day here. I put my bike away because I'm not riding it much here -- the road is too rough and I'm worried about breaking some spokes. I filled one of our water tanks for the first time since arriving. We came over with 170 gallons and I was down to about 30. Don't wait till last minute here because things happen like the Island losing power for several hours -- it happened twice today.

You have to pay for water in the Bahamas. It's pricey here at .35 cents a gallon. Fortunately the facility shower is available and we can use all the water we want there. Ohhh but laundry is expensive at $4.50 a load to wash and then again to dry.

The cruiser's had a potluck and social over at the Sundowner's bar this afternoon that began at 2pm. It was well attended, good food, and good visits. The winds were up but the dinghy ride over stayed dry. We met several couples that have trawlers and they all keep their boats at the Black Sound boat yard over the summer. Each had a story of a terrible Gulf Stream crossing to get here so now they keep the boat here and fly home for the off season -- chickens!

Hmmm I am contemplating doing something so I don't have to do the ICW again. I found that worse than the Gulf Stream. Just a thought right now.

Time to get back to enjoying the Bahamas.

A complaint

It is the Bahamas and different from the US. You expect high prices and marginal services but that is par for the course. However, today I reached a tipping point. I guess it is because I had high expectations and they were not met at any level.

Even though we are staying at the Green Turtle club resort we have only eaten one meal out -- a breakfast. Today being Christmas Eve we thought let's splurge and go out for lunch. We went over to the Bluff House Marina and down to their Beach Bar restaurant. The main facility is not open for the season yet.

There were maybe a dozen folks there. We sat down and the bar maid/waitress/server presented us menus. Karen ordered a big ol cheeseburger and sweet potatoes fries and I ordered the Christmas Eve lunch special -- sweet and sour chicken rice, cole slaw. I also had the house specialty rum punch drink -- a Tranquil Turtle.

Well the food didn't show up for an hour -- maybe longer. My chicken dish had three chicken wings and a partial drum stick all with the skin on. Maybe a cup of rice and 2 tablespoonfuls of cole slaw -- that was 3 fork full's. Karen's Cheeseburger ordered as well done was served medium rare. All this for $43. That includes the mandatory 15% gratuity and 7.5% VAT tax.

Karen observed that there was a local guy who came from the back with a plateful of food and sat down and had is lunch at the bar chatting with other locals and the bar maid. She noted that while he was there no food came out of the back. She thinks he was the cook and it was time for him to have his lunch -- ahhh the Bahamas.

To add insult to injury I tried to pay with a credit card but it kept failing -- incomplete entry. The bar maid apologized and said it was these credit card kids who write so small on the cards that it was difficult to read and she was NOT going to wear glasses. After 3 attempts I told her to give me back the card and I paid cash. I'm worried now that she may have compromised my card and it is shut down. Not a big problem in the states but a real hassle over here.

Ohh well I vented and now I'm going to enjoy watching a Christmas Story tonight and dream of sugar plums.

Merry Christmas All.

Swimming with the pigs

Today we joined the crew of YOLO and took a long dinghy ride to No Name Cay near Green Turtle Cay. The water was pretty flat so it was a nice ride.

We saw the fabled swimming pigs there. They are on the beach nearest GTC. Volunteers have set up a watering station and signs requesting visitors bring food and water. Naturally there is little to sustain the pigs there but the generous handouts from strangers is just sustaining them fine. I saw no skinny pigs. A large number of very cute piglets.

GTC has been very quiet for the holiday season. Only today does it look like there is an influx of visitors. Good thing -- the locals really need the commerce. Unless something happens there will probably be no Cruisers Xmas party this year -- no one is attempting to organize one and then there have been only a few boats in the anchorage and only 5 boats here at the Green Turtle Club and 3 over at the Bluff House. All the moorings are full in Black Sound and 99% are flying Canadian flags.

Yesterday I cooked a local lobster -- ohhh boy was it good. I'll do more soon. They are cheaper than steak.

The day before we visited town and the library. The book exchange at the library was pretty poor. The village is overall run down from our last visit -- really sad but if you want to buy a new home here you are looking at close to a million dollars -- just crazy.

We stopped at the Sundowner's club about Sundown with the crew of Endless -- Mike and Nina. We had the signature drink there called a Sundowner (rum punch) and free appetizers -- it was a soda cracker with a meat product sliced and a piece of cheddar cheese. Check Karen's Facebook page for the picture -- ahhh very quaint, but it's the Bahamas Mon! The high point there was a large stingray in the water just below the floor there. Really Cool.

There is a book exchange here at the marina but the other night when I was looking for it an obviously local lady came in the with a canvas bag and just filled it with books leaving few to choose from -- Oh well I guess she is just being enterprising and books are the resource.

Today for the first time I heard the drums beating in town at 5am. It is a custom to bang drums through the streets from about 5am till dawn to "welcome the Christmas Spirit". It's quaint but I like listening.

The rest of the time is spent with long walks to different beaches and swimming in either the ocean or Sea of Abaco depending on conditions.

Oh and on this first day of winter -- we had a high of 78 and a low of 72. Tomorrow will be colder with a high of 77 and a low of 70. Got to love it.

We are on an Island in the Bahamas -- Out Island

Any land mass in the Bahamas outside of Nassau is called an out Island. This came very clear the other night and yesterday when the entire Island lost power. The power is generated in Marsh Harbour on Abaco Island and then sent via subterranean cable to the various Islands. We lost power for 7 hours on Tuesday and 5 hours yesterday. When it is gone -- it is gone.

It has been hot and windless the last 2 days so we have run the Air conditioning at night when we had power. Today the wind is back and a cold front on the way -- that means the highs will drop from 82 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Eat your hearts out mid westerners.

We have been doing chores. Yesterday is was laundry and I had to do some sewing on my Genoa Sail. Some of the sacrificial strip had come loose and had to be stitched back -- probably that rough Gulf Stream crossing. No sail loft here so I had to sew it in the deck. Not easy... In the afternoon I went to the ocean which was very calm and swam for about a half hour -- oh it felt good in that pristine salt water.

Today we went to town and sorted out the phone business. We had to buy a new SIM card for the Iphone and we have a Bahamas phone number but more importantly we have a data plan so we can do internet anywhere but at a price -- no such thing as unlimited, family size, 20% more in the Bahamas.

This afternoon we repaired one of the couch cushions where the shaped foam in the cushion had delaminate. I had a big can of spray adhesive so we took the cushion apart and on a picnic table we repaired the foam. After an unintended nap I went over to the Bluff House Marina and explored. It is just across the way here in White Sound. It was sad. The main restaurant and bar are under renovation I think. No work being done but lots of boxes in the building. The beach bar was open but man that is a rugged walk up and down the steep hill here.

Back on the boat now for a simple dinner and simple entertainment tonight. It would be easy to get carried away eating out and drinking in the bar since they want me to charge everything to the slip.. be careful or it will pile up.

Greetings from Green Turtle Cay (GTC) Again and Again

We were going to leave the marina today but there is a strong 80% chance of thunderstorms today and the winds are stronger than forecast. We still don't have a useable I-phone on the BTC network (thus no internet once we leave) and we need to wait till Thursday for the BTC office to open one day a week for 3 hours or go around the Whale Cay passage to Treasure Cay and get it sorted out there. Since we haven't used the phone in a long time we have to start over with a new SIM card and account. Can't do that online so we wait.

The WiFi here at GT Club is GREAT. So I figured if I got a good monthly rate we could just stay here and save the $100 that we would have spent on a 6GB plan with BTC for a month. Well they came up with a good rate (each is decided individually by the owner) so we are here for the next 30 days. Now we can come and go as we please but we have a slip here for 30 days now. Good thing because after a few great weather days it all comes to an end Thursday night through Sunday with strong winds and rain. I have never seen so much rain here before than again we are here earlier than in the past.

We wanted to stay in the area through New Years so this works out well for us.
Unfortunately day to day not much will be happening. Just eating, drinking, and being merry with nearly daily long walks and swims in the ocean.

I'll post when something interesting occurs.

Today was just coming to the decision to stay, then launching the dinghy for town, and picking up some fresh Conch Salad (they made it in front of me) and a case of Kalik Gold to wash it all down with. Hmmm that is eating, drinking, and being merry.

Yee Haa -- we are in the Bahamas

We finally made it although we are both a little washed-out today. We crossed the gulf Stream on Wednesday on what should have been a "flat motor boat crossing". It was not...

We left the marina at 8am and motored down to the Lake Worth Inlet and directly out. It was flat and wind under 10kts just as predicted. We hit the Gulf Stream at about 6 miles out and still just a slight ocean ride. Then the wind started to pickup out of the NW -- not predicted. Pretty soon it was up to 16kts for about an hour and the seas grew to 2 - 3 feet and we were rolling a bit -- this is uncomfortable. Then the wind picked up to 17 - 21 for a few hours. At this point Karen was uncomfortable and wanted to go back but now we were some 20 miles out and motor sailing. If we turned then the wind and waves would be against us and we could not sail and thus a VERY ROUGH ride, worse actually back in. So we went on. This kept up till about 3pm then moderated but seas still uncomfortable. We hit the banks and Memory Rock at 5:30pm and now it was very calm. We continued on in the dark to Mangrove Cay. We were both tired so we didn't continue but anchored off Mangrove cay at 10pm (that was 14 hours). There were 3 boats already there but plenty of room.

The forecast was for deteriorating conditions tomorrow afternoon with a BIG BLOW until Monday. That means we could make Great Sale Cay (which is in the middle of NOWHERE) for 4 days or push on. We left first light and headed for Green Turtle Cay knowing we would arrive after dark. It was a smooth crossing but some 80 miles a very long 12 hour day. Ohhh we saw a very peculiar phenomenon on the way. Thee was like this fog only thinner that slowly dissipated and then we were under a dark cloud. Soon the "fog" reappeared and the dark cloud dissipated. This cycle continued 2 more times. It was like a fog as seen on outer limits where something comes out only didn't. Maybe it was just a cloud rising into the sky and then descending again . Very weird but no rain. We arrived off New Plymouth at Green Turtle Cay around 7pm. There were several boats already anchored there but with the settlements lights in the background we easily dropped the hook. Oh it felt good.

This morning after a rain squall and increasing winds we headed into White Sound and hailed the Green Turtle Club marina for a slip. It was an easy in and we have arrived but are both very tired.

Around 10am Customs came to the boat and we officially entered the Bahamas and have our cruising permit. Ahhh feels good.

HOWEVER --- I was a bad boy and abused my dinghy again! After we pulled in I was taking the crossing web straps off the dinghy and I saw a spot under the forward davit where it had chafed completely through the color fabric of the dinghy and was rubbing against the air bladder but had not yet punched a hole in it. I was sick. Now another patch albeit and easy one but my poor dinghy is now a "raggedy Annie". I know better and on previous crossing I always put a chaffing rag under that spot but failed to do this time. Karen had even reminded me to do it but with such a forecast mild crossing -- why bother?? Me BAD. The shortcuts will hurt you!

Now it's time to enjoy Green Turtle Cay. With the forecast high winds predicted tonight I suspect we will see RAGE conditions on the ocean tomorrow. I'll get some pictures and maybe even go for a shallow water swim.

Uberfied

Yes we are now uberfied. The courtesy car would not run Saturday, does not on Sunday and who knows what it would do Monday so Sunday we decided to try the Uber service for a ride to and from the grocery store -- Publix.

That was interesting. Karen set it up on her phone and we walked past the Security checkpoint and made the request. It said a driver would be there in 7 minutes in a Hyunda Sonata. Well 5 minutes later a Toyota pulls in and stops at the security gate. The guard said this was our car. So we got in and I told the driver we were expecting a Sonata and he said this is Toyota all the way. Just as we are leaving a woman runs up and bangs on the car. She said it was her ride so we got out. A few minutes later the proper Uber for us shows up and we had a nice ride to the grocery. After buying the groceries we made another Uber request and again in 7 minutes we had the ride. Not bad -- both trips only cost about $5 each and no tipping expected!!

Spent the afternoon polishing more stainless and just generally doing nothing on a lazy afternoon.

Late afternoon we had the crew of YOLO (Steve and Molly) join us for drinks and snacks and had a great visit.

Today was laundry day for Karen and I went over all my GPS's to be sure they all the proper crossing waypoints in them, routed a new HDMI cable so I could use the TV in the cockpit with Coastal Explorer if necessary. This afternoon being the gluttons for punishment that we are we tried the courtesy van again -- went to voice mail. We went to the office to schedule a pumpout for tomorrow and asked if the Courtesy car was running today. Oh yes and the driver Diane was sitting there shooting the breeze with them. Hmmm I wonder why the call went to Voice mail? She took us to West marine and knew we wanted a ride back after I purchased the new cockpit chair. There is a great Italian market next door so we went there first. ohhh man nothing but fresh food and bakery and very fair prices. We bought some pastrami to make reubens out of and I bought some shrimp for an appetizer. Shrimp are prohibitive expensive in the Bahamas so I won't have any till we return. Picked up the new chair at West Marine then called the courtesy van -- yep you guessed it -- went to Voice mail. We waited 5 minutes then started to walk back carrying our STUFF. No return call was ever received. o pitiful because this is such a nice place but the courtesy car is in complete disarray. I even wrote a complaint to the VP of this operation yesterday but he obviously operates like the courtesy Car Voice mail --- NO REPLY. Aaaack..

Well bigger fish to fry. A crossing opportunity is coming up this Wednesday - Thursday. It is short but sweet looking at this point so all us cruisers here at the dock are abuzz with plans. Unfortunately none are going to the same place in the same time frame.

Ohh well -- we be cruising though and I definitely leave this place Wednesday morning.

Fallacy of Treating symptoms vs root cause

An embarrassing troubleshooting lesson learned today -- actually I know this but took the easy rode to almost bigger problems.

There has been an off odor on the boat since we have been at the marina and running the AC -- yes temps are a high of mid 80s here. Karen had cleaned the main bathroom shortly after we got here and I thought she used some in appropriate cleaner but she claimed she didn't. This morning I traced the odor to the air coming from the AC duct. I checked the filters on the AC unit and it wasn't bad but I noticed the condensation pan was full -- had not been draining. It drains into the bilge. Normal troubleshooting would have you looking at both ends of the drain hose. The end in the bilge is very difficult to reach so I worked from the AC unit. With some difficulty I removed that hose and blew into the end. I met some resistance then it blew free -- Ahhh problem solved. I put it all back together.

After cleaning some dust from the AC unit cavity and the battery charge compartment and cleaning the cooling fins o n the refrigerator compressor I started to wonder what happened to the "stuff" I blew out of that condensation hose.

Hmmm I checked the bilge and was aghast to find it full and overflowing. Well that addresses another question in the bank of my mind in that on the long run from Vero Beach to here the bilge pump had never run. Usually it runs once or twice a day when underway do to the cooling from the packing gland on the propeller shaft. I thought the zero count was a good thing. No it was actually an indicator of this problem that I overlooked.

Now it made sense.

I now troubleshot the bilge pump and checked the Auto mode switch first --- AAAAACK it was in the off position. I turned it to AUTO and it quickly drained the bilge. This is the root cause of all this unnecessary work I did today but more importantly prevents a bigger problem of the bilge overflowing and spreading that water all over the low lying electrical cables. This was narrowly adverted.

Whew -- embarrassed but happy the issue is resolved.

Note that the bilge switch is located just above the old inverter switch and I must have hit it accidentally when removing the old inverter and installing the new inverter in Vero BEach like 3 weeks ago.

The only problem here at the Old Port Cove Marina has been the courtesy van. We called twice yesterday and left voice mail that was never returned. I finally reached a driver at 4pm or the end of the shift and they said it would run at 8:30am today. We were there but no driver. I called and left 2 voice messages and no reply. I went to the office and they said the driver was sick and it wouldn't run today and it doesn't run on Sundays. Hey no apology and that's just the way it is. I was surprised. At a minimum a return call should have been sent or at least change the VM announcement that it would not run and not to leave a message that would never be replied to. Then again this change to our plans gave me the time to troubleshoot that odor that lead to a LARGER Problem.

I guess we try UBER tomorrow.

Living Large in North Palm Beach

Well the crossing never happened for us this morning. We didn't even try. The wind was supposed to be 5kts or less all night and it was between 10 - 15 instead. The seas need time to settle after all the strong wind we have had for the past two days. There were some showers in the area with more predicted. I decided this window was a "no go" for us but several "salty sailors" left. That left us and one other cruiser here in the anchorage with a dozen derelict boats.

Well to offset that disappointment we decided to splurge and head into the 5 star marina here called Old Port Cove in North Palm Beach -- Tiger Woods used to keep his yacht here. Many golf stars still do. On one dock alone here there is probably a billion dollars worth of Sport Fishing Yachts all impeccably maintained.

We came in around 10am and fueled up before heading into a slip -- it is tight here but the docks are fabulous floating construction.

We checked in and received a free bottle of wine -- your choice Red or White. Well it is free.

After relaxing and a nap in the Air Conditioning -- oh it is 85 degrees here today I cleaned the cockpit cushions and the front of the deck around the anchor. More cleaning tomorrow but with a FREE shuttle to the Publix -- time for some goodies because we are still fully provisioned.

Oh shower facilities are fantastic. Super clean and very cool temps. I think I'll take 2 showers tonight!

We plan to stay just a couple of days then back on the anchor to wait for the next weather window which is looking like Wednesday right now -- but that is a long way off.

Karen will post some pictures of this place on her Facebook page.

Windy Windy

Man no let up in the wind last night. It actually started blowing harder after midnight. This morning it was gusting up to 25kts. I ran the wind generator awhile and it overheated because of too much wind! Crap!

There were several Sport fish style boats running through Hobe sound this morning and they just rocked our world with wake. There is no reason to raise such a wake near anchored boats. WE finally got fed up and left around 10am. Those boats are built to run in the ocean but their timid owners can't take it -- chicken I guess.

There was a lot of wind and an adverse current as usual. We needed to go less than 20 miles to North Lake Worth anchorage but we had to go through 6 bridge openings. Only 2 were on request the rest on a half hour schedules. Wasn't too bad and we were in a little after 1pm. A fair number of boats here but not as crowded as I have seen it in the past. It is still blowing 15+ with gusts to 20.

With all this wind not sure about a crossing tomorrow. We will have to wait and see in the morning. At any rate we need to let the seas calm down so it will be the afternoon if we do leave.

A really long day

Decisions decisions. This weather window for Thursday is a short window yet quite inviting with very benign conditions across the Gulf Stream. I would like a longer window to give more options but it is what it is.

We would have left at 7am this morning but because of my vacillations we left at 8:30am for the 41+ miles to Hobe Sound for the night. It was TORTURE from the beginning. We had 13 to 17 kts on the nose and an adverse current from the start. We were only doing 5.4kts over ground. Should get better! Well it didn't. We reached Fort Pierce inlet near high tide and expected to see the current behind us but it actually got worse -- 4.9 kts. Then half way to St Lucie inlet we went to 5.6kts -- mainly because of 17+ kts of wind on he nose and worked our way across the inlet. More torture. Most of the ICW here was between 8 - 10 feet and we were 2 hours away from low tide. We just plugged along. Once across the inlet I had 6+ kts for 15 minutes then back down to 5.4 all the way to Hobe Sound. We had the anchor down at 4:15 pm which was a Very long day for about 41 miles.

Tomorrow it is only 13 miles to North Lake Worth but 6 bridges that we have to wait on. Three sort of on demand and 3 on the schedule of every 1/2 hour.

We have some buddy boats now. Chanceaux from New Bern and EXFLI from some place in TN -- friends of Chanceaux. We are anchored here in Hobe Sound which is next to Jupiter Island, FL -- the home of a Mega Millionaires! We will meet up in Lake Worth tomorrow and head for the Bahamas on Thursday morning assuming no changes to the forecast.

Lots to do tomorrow to Lake Worth. Have to stop for fuel, water, gas, and a pump out before anchoring in Lake Worth tomorrow night. That's in West Palm Beach Florida.

Relief!!

What can I say? I dumped the dinghy back in the water today and inflated the repaired tube. No discernible leak. That means relief. When my two previous attempts failed then I was unsure of this outcome. I'm sure it will never be perfect but it has held air all day today. Such a stupid accident to begin with.

In the future if I should ever face a tear in the fabric again I'll do an internal patch followed by the external patch. I had a lot of trouble working through the slit so in the future I'll make an actual hole that I can work and see through something on the order of 1" square. It will be covered by the external patch. Hopefully I'll not have to do this again -- at least not to my dinghy.

The crossing forecast is looking good for a smooth crossing of the Gulf Stream on Thursday. We started final preparations here today and if the forecast is still good in the morning we will "peel" ourselves from Velcro Beach and head down the coast for Lake Worth. Probably go to Hobe Sound tomorrow to anchor -- a distance of 49 miles then Wednesday head to lake Worth to anchor but stop first at a marina to fill the water tanks and the fill up on diesel and gas for the dinghy.

Staring to get that normal crossing anxiety. We don't have a dedicated buddy boat. Several boats are looking to cross Thursday too but all have a slightly different approach. I want to just run non stop to Green Turtle Cay which means running the bulk of the trip over the banks in the dark and relying on instruments. I've done it twice already but always had at least one buddy boat running with us. If we get too tired we can always anchor off Great Sale Cay on Mangrove Cay for the night and continue in the morning.

Plans are in a constant state of flux right now. There is the adventure!

lazy days

Not much happening. Just some chores yesterday and today. Clean clean clean.

Yesterday we pulled the dinghy on deck and repaired the hole in the bow tube. I got the idea to use the 1.5" split to work a patch inside and first patch the hole from the inside. What a great idea I thought. Well the execution was tough. I thought that if some this glue gets beyond a patch then the tubes might stick together. So I thought I would put a piece of wax paper in first to rest the patch on. That didn't work -- the wax paper disappeared into the nether regions. I then marked the patch so I could center it once inside -- it too disappeared into the nether regions. I then made a new patch and put some double stick tape on its back and fixed it to the other tube inside. That seemed to work but the positioning might be a bit questionable. I then put a big patch on the outside using this HIGH Dollar Hypolan glue from West Marine -- $50 for 4 oz! The directions say it needs 48 hours to cure so the boat is still on the deck until tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the test to see if I was successful or not.

Today just cleaning bathrooms and then John on Chanceaux came over and said his battery charger failed. He went and bought a new one at West Marine and I helped him install it this afternoon. The installation went well and his batteries are charging again.

Not much planned for tomorrow -- depends on whether the dinghy will hold air or not. Grrrr -- it will be a week tomorrow since the accident.

There appears to be a crossing opportunity coming up on Thursday Friday this week so we will stay here till at least Wednesday and head to Lake Worth then if the opportunity still looks good. Otherwise Velcro Beach is a GREAT place to wait for that window to open.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a pretty easy day today. We were down to 15 gallons of water in my 80 gallon tank so I took the dinghy to the dock and filled the 6 gallon Jerry cans up and brought it back. I have 3 jugs so 3 trips made it 54 gallons.

This afternoon was the BIG Thanksgiving feast/potluck at the park pavilion here. Cruisers bring something to share and the CLODs bring the Turkeys and ham. CLODs are Cruisers living On Dirt now. It is all volunteer and they really make the feast happen.

It was a great turnout, met some new people and I'm still stuffed. The only things missing were no mashed potatoes or Pecan Pie!! I've got to have a Pecan pie so I'm heading to the Publix tomorrow to get one. A man has got to have goals, then my feast will be complete.

Hey that is all I have on the agenda for tomorrow. Love this Velcro Beach.

Bored -- not any more!

Well the boredom ended last night after dinner. We went to the Riverside Cafe just on the other side of the bridge here for dinner last night. A nice easy dinghy ride. Dinner was fine for that kind of Sports bar Atmosphere but oh the ride home. Now I did not have any alcohol so we can't blame that but as we left an accident occurred. We were at the dinghy dock but had to run through a fairway of medium power boats to get out. Now it is dark with limited lighting. I had to spin the dinghy around to get out and just as I straightened there is a power boat with his transom up and the prop just out of the water. It was too close and I caught the prop and punched a 1.5" hole in the bow tube. Now this is why you want a RIB (Rigid bottom inflatable). The tube deflated almost immediately but because of the fiberglass hull we were floating just fine and motored back to our boat. It was scary in the dark but no problem. We pulled he motor off the dinghy and raised it in the davits to be sure it wouldn't sink overnight.

This morning I pulled the dinghy up on deck to repair and the damage and it did not look too bad. The cut was only 1.5" long but between a D-ring and a tube seam. My patch kit which I have 2 of was no good. The adhesive in the one kit was gummy and the other kit all the solvent had left the adhesive and it was hard. I tried to locate sone Toluol which is the solvent in the adhesive and could only find a 5 gallon barrel at Sherwin Williams -- need maybe 2 ounces. I found that Xylene will also work as a solvent but the drying time is longer.

Vic on Salty Turtle going to Lowes so he picked up a quart for me.

It was not ideal but a test patch looked okay so I tried it. Tomorrow will be the test when I inflate it.

Grrr this dinghy has been so air tight since I've had it I hope it still is.

Needles to say with no dinghy today we entertained ourselves otherwise -- like signed up Karen for Obama Care in 2017. Current plan won't be offered and what is which is only one plan through Blue Cross and Blue Shield is outrageous -- we will treat it as catastrophic coverage because as a normal health plan "it is criminal".

Boring Boring

Well the "Velcro Beach" has taken control so the days are going to be boring a while -- thus I probably won't post every day for a while.

Yesterday was just shopping for groceries, Getting my scuba tank filled, and a little West marine action. A great big thanks go out to John and Madeline on Chanceaux for giving us the transportation in their rental car for those activities.

We visited on the vessel YoLo yesterday afternoon - evening with Steve and Molly. YoLo stands for "You Only Live Once". They are big friends with "Cookie Monster".

Today was a work day. Karen went off with some women she met last night with a girls day out -- Walmart, Walgreens, lunch, etc.

I changed the main engine's fuel filter and oil, and oil filter, and was going to change the Seawater impeller but ended up just inspecting it -- no cracks -- and replaced the o-ring seal. Doesn't sound like much but it was a lot of work and I didn't have any difficulties other than no matter what preparations you make it is ALWAYS a messy job.

We had to untangle our lines from the mooring ball which proved difficult and I have a couple of cuts from the barnacles under the ball, and Cookie Monster had a friends Catamaran raft up to them and helped handle the dock lines. We are now three vessels on the one ball. Vic called and a friend of theirs was coming in to an unattended boat and they asked that I help with the lines since they were still out at the grocery. No problem.

We expect just a relaxing evening and no visiting tonight. We are whipped and bored.

Ahhh Success!

This morning with a little trepidation I tested my new inverter. Yippeeee -- worked fine out of the box. A big plus is that my GFI outlets work fine with this inverter. I've heard horror stories where the downstream GFI outlets trip the inverter's GFI circuit. Mine is working fine.

The morning went okay with a trip to the Publix via the bus. The bus is always an adventure. We arrived at the dinghy dock and had just tied up the dinghy. We hustled up to the bus stop and as it approached I waved and it just went right on by!! We had to run down to the next stop to catch it. A running 66 year old man is not a pretty thing. I climbed on and I asked the driver if she still stopped at the first stop. She said yes and then said I thought you were just waving a greeting!!

The visit to Publix went well as well as a short visit to West marine. They had screwed up an order that I was supposed to pickup in Charleston and I had them send it to this store in Vero. When I stopped in on Thursday they had the inverter but no knowledge of the other order. Today as I was checking out a couple of small items when they ran my member number the guy says "Oh I have something for you but didn't know how to get a hold of you". It was that other order so now everything is copacetic. Just some more stuff to install or replace.

What with the mess from the other day's pump out fiasco Our main tank was down to only 10 gallons of water. Still had 80 in the backup tank but I wanted to fill the main tank so I made 5 trips to the "water dock" in the dinghy and filled my 18 gallons in 3 jugs and brought back to the boat and pumped into the tank. I used to haul the jerry jugs up by hand and pour them in but the last time we were here I pulled a muscle in my back and hurt seriously for a week. I've built a small portable pump and I pump it from the dinghy into the tank without having to lift a heavy tank.

Follow the old adage. As you get older work smarter not harder.

Vic and Gigi arrived today and we are gather on the vessel Cookie Monster tonight for a little social. This is what it is all about when cruising.

Just a choir day.

Today was just a choir day. I got my bike out for the first time on this trip and it looked okay. Tires needed air and the plastic chain guard is holding on by one of three studs -- a job for gorilla glue tomorrow.

I biked to the hardware store to get some drill bits, a 15 amp flat plug extension cord, and a 1 1/2" hole saw. Back on the boat I took Karen in to do three loads of laundry -- it has been awhile. Back on the boat started the install of the new inverter by relocating an existing radio and mounting the inverter. I could use the 2-0 battery cables as is but had to attach the extension cord to existing wires to plug the 110V into the inverter. We will see how this works out. The new inverter has a GFI circuit built in and I have a few GFI outlets on the board. Sometimes they are not compatible.

It took nearly 4 hours to install but it is in. If you now my penchant for not using anything new on a Friday -- a superstition my mom gave me -- I'll wait till tomorrow to turn it on and check it out.

Our other cockpit chair failed and the fix that worked so well on the first chair has failed miserably here. I'm tired I'll investigate tomorrow.

Lots of work coming up over the next several days -- change main engine oil and filter, change primary diesel filter, install a new impeller on main engine seawater pump and probably a few other things.

That's what this extended stop is all about and we want to celebrate Thanksgiving here with our new and old friends.

Ohh we rafted up yesterday with a staple on the Cruizheimers Net -- Cookie Monster -- with Robin and Corbett aboard.

Snake in Paradise

Ahhh to be in Vero Beach.. I like it!! However a little less tonight.

I had signed up yesterday to have the holding tanks pumped out by their pump out boat. Now last time we were here we were at the most extreme -distant- mooring ball from the dock. Well that pump out boat always started from the south and worked north and we were the last boat done. Now we are in the South field and very near the beginning. You know it -- we were the second to last boat to be pumped out today. This is aggravating because they won't pump if no one is aboard so you spend the entire afternoon waiting. It wasn't too bad today because I started the install of the new Inverter and had to remove the old one which took about 4 hours. See Believe it or not I don't have the flexibility of a 14 year old gymnast anymore -- actually never did. It takes time to twist into the tight area under the navigation desk and then back out.

Well the old is out and new won't fit the old foot print so Have to relocate it and adjust all the wiring accordingly. Not a huge task but time consuming.

Ohhh the "snakes in paradise"? When he handed me the pump out nozzle he didn't caution me to open the valve slow. The first time I operated it a little bit leaked out. When I asked if it was done he said to stop it and open the valve again. When I did that it sprayed pump out stuff all over me and in my face. YUCK! That is way this post is so late today.. Had to take an EMERGENCY shower and then clean up the boat from a bucket -- remember we are on a mooring -- no hose connection.

The other snake is they changed the bus schedule then changed it again today so no one knew when they were coming and going. You just had to wait. We still made it to Publix and back with way too many goodies. Remember you have to carry and walk everything!

Oh well we will adapt.

Finally arrived in Vero Beach

It was a little bumpy behind the Melbourne Causeway. I'm sure Dragon Point would have been smoother.

We had a nice ride to Vero. The wind piped up to 20+ knots in the Indian River but it was directly behind us and since we had to zig zag through there we gave up on motor sailing and just motored. We caught a favorable current and were doing 7+ kts with no sail up so no joy lost.

It is a beautiful sunny day here although blustery. I was sweating having to raft to an unknown boat in this wind but when we called the marina they put us on the last free ball. Thus we are all to ourselves for awhile. There are several boats alone on balls, a few doubles and no triples yet. We will enjoy this solitude for awhile.

Apparently the bus schedule has changed and the different drivers have different understandings. We will just have to persevere tomorrow on our run to West Marine and the Publix.

We met John and Madeline from Chanceaux at the lounge. Got caught up on doings and will see more of them later.

Tomorrow we will do any necessary provisioning, pick up my new inverter and then just retire back here to the boat.

Ohhh our other cockpit chair latching mechanism failed this morning. I tried to fix it this afternoon but my drill bit broke. Got to run to the hardware to get another to finally fix it. There is a hardware store about 3/4 mile away and I'll be breaking my bike out for the first use on this trip.

Just a travel day

Not much to write about this evening.

We left the mooring field a little after 7am and just "locked" into the channel and carried on. The tide in these parts is less than a foot so there was no appreciable assist or restraint from a tidal current. We just plugged along at are usual 6.4 - 6.6 motor cruising speed. Not enough wind to motor sail so just motored along. The Indian River is quite wide here so there was little to look at. Two sailboats passed us in the opposite direction and 2 trawlers passed us. That's it! As of 4:30pm this afternoon we are the only boat in this little anchorage.

The weather conditions were very mild and expected to continue overnight so instead of stopping at Dragon Point and anchoring we continued on another 5 miles to the Melbourne Causeway and anchored behind it. There is some bouncing here but not bad. We were in around 1:30pm so just a 6.5 hour run today.

Only 32 miles to Vero Beach tomorrow. Looking forward to getting in and tieing up for several days.

Super Moon has bee super to us

Wow this Super Moon phase has been outstanding. In the areas were there is little tide like Daytona and South the water is lapping the docks or over them. The flood tide is more than 2 feet higher than usual and the ebb tide is virtually non existent. This boils down to current flooding most of the time and just so happens to be flooding the way we are going.

Today was another day of favorable current. We left Rockhouse creek about 7am and arrived in Titusville marina for fuel at 11:45am.. That is great.

The marina is pretty full and only about 10 boats on moorings. We fueled up with 42 gallons of diesel and 70 gallons of water then went out for a mooring. Karen is doing great at holding the boat at the mooring while I thread the line. We stopped here because we ran out of 1/2 and 1/2 and heavy cream. We went to the "Sav a Lot" and picked up just 2 bags of groceries to tide us over till we hit the Great Publix in Vero Beach.

The trip was fast but still full of woe. Dock after dock was destroyed or badly damaged. It just hurt me to see so much destruction left by Hurricane Matthew.

Ohh and for you folks with tall masts read the height boards at the bridges. With this super moon affect several were at 62 or 63' at LOW TIDE! I need 61'.

The weather is overcast with occasional sprinkles from the heavens. No wind to speak of and mild conditions expected overnight. Highs in low 70s and lows in the high 50s.

Tomorrow will be another short run of 36 miles to Dragon point to anchor for the night. Vero is another 39 miles and too much for one day.

E-gads best run ever!

Boy the super moon phase was with us today. We left St Augustine at 7am expecting our longest day of the trip -- 64 miles to Rockhouse Creek in New Smyrna just south of Daytona.

When we left we were on the rising tide and almost immediately hit 8+kts. Very unusual. We enjoyed high 7s till about 11am then around Flagler Beach dropped to 5.8 - 6.0 for about 30 minutes then right back up to high 6s and 7s. We expected to take 10 hours -- we did it in 8!! We were in just before 3pm. My eyes were still quite tired but it was a GREAT RUN.

The only problem area was around the Mantanzas inlet. The buoys are confusing. After Green 81 there are 4 can buoys called 81 A B C and D, then immediately followed by Red 82. The chart and magenta line were all on the wrong side of these buoys so we ignored the chart and followed the buoys which were scary since there was little room between the green cans and the shore. We made it through near high tide and saw nothing below 9'.

The rest of the day was just staying in the channel.

I had to anchor at the north end of Rockhouse Creek because there were already 3 sailboats here. It gets shallow very fast there but we were just off low tide and rising and we had 6.4 feet or better under the boat.

We look out over the Ponce Inlet from here so if the sky is clear we will have a GREAT view of the super moon tonight provided the bugs let us. At 4pm the no see ums are so bad I had to go below.

They had thick fog here this morning so we might be delayed in are run to Titusville tomorrow but if no fog we can be there around noon and go get some 1/2 and 1/2. I've got just enough for breakfast tomorrow.

The Menagerie

Today was supposed to be really really windy and the reason we decided to stay here another day. The day actually turned out very nice with light wind until about 4pm where it has picked up to nearly 20kts. Fortunately the wind driven waves are not an issue and hopefully won't be.

We went into town this morning late because Karen just had to have some the famous giant onion rings served at MoJo's Old City Barbecue near the old fort. Wow I had forgotten what a tourist magnet this town is. The streets were crowded with a real menagerie of people. There were Harley Davidson groups here, Miami Steel Gym folks with very imposing muscles, and just everything else you could imagine. Lots of beautiful people and a fair number of not so beautiful people.

We made the barbecue place after a long walk and had a fine lunch there. They heap the plates so high that we also have dinner tonight.

We wandered around a little bit but then beat a path back to the boat for the rest of the afternoon. Man I couldn't believe how crowded the streets were with the tourists. They have everything to offer here. Carriage rides, train rides, ghost rides, pirate ship rides, boat rides, the fort, museums, Ripley's Believe it or not, and more specialty shops than you can shake a stick at.

This morning I did have to do a little engineering. One of our super comfortable folding Captains chairs went flat - literally. It would no longer lock in "any position" just flat. These are expensive at $150 each but so comfortable. I decided I had nothing to lose so I removed the upholstery from the chair (fortunately zippered on) And tore some foam to expose the joint that locks. A visual inspection showed that each joint is composed of two geared plates and a spring that locks. In this chair the gear teeth have rounded or sheared off. Nothing to be done. Hmmm I really want to use my chair and tried to figure out a way to repair or make do. Well there was no repair so I positioned the chair mechanism in the most comfortable position and drilled a hole through the locking mechanism and then inserted a machine screw with locking nut to both sides. Voila -- chair usable again!! What a good boy I am and I saved $150 and probably twice that when the other chair fails. They won't fold anymore but they will be comfortable.

I might have to do a YOUTUBE video on how to repair these chairs because they all will fail eventually. The steel used in the locking mechanism is quite soft and that is why I could easily drill them.

Surprise Surprise

Today was just a surprise for traveling. We left Fort George anchorage at 7am. I expected a very slow passage towards Pine Island today because the current would be against us most of the way. Wow with just an hour and half past high tide I still had one spot with only 6.2'. Once in the channel we had a favorable current to the St Johns River. AS we crossed it the current changed and was against us and we were only doing 4.4 kts. The entry back into the ICW has changed completely from 2 years ago. Nothing like I remembered so I just followed the marks and we were in -- easy peezy. However -- we were only doing about 4 knots against the strong ebb tide.

When we got to the Pablo Creek Bridge the current went up to nearly 4kts against us. A sport fisher came in from the side at the last minute and went through the bridge first. That terrific current and his wake raised a 3 - 4 standing wave directly under the bridge. I was losing fine steering control so I spun around and waited for the wave to die down to 2' then tried again. I crawled through at 2.7kts. This current was bad for another 10 miles to the McCormick bridge and then it went above 5kts. A little later we were doing 7.7 - 8.0kts!! We were flying now. We reached Pine Island anchorage right at noon. The current was still favorable so we decided to push on to St Augustine for a mooring ball. Expected arrival around 3 - 4pm.

Wow that current was with us until about the last bridge before the inlet and then we slowed down to 5.7kts. Once across the inlet we went back up to 7+kts and made the 1:30pm opening of the bridge of lions!! Unbelievable.

We got our mooring assignment and Karen handled the boat like a pro to allow an easy pickup of the mooring. All done and it was only 1:45pm.

We went 43 miles in 6.5 hours which gave us an average speed of an incredible (for Temptation)f 6.7kts. All that 4kts stuff was soon forgotten.

The mooring field is almost fully occupied which surprises us. We will stay for the high winds expected tomorrow then push on to Daytona Sunday. If it is not too rough tomorrow we will go to town for lunch.

Finally!! No more having to work the tides

It was not a great visit to Cumberland Island. The park is closed because of storm damage. They still have rangers there to shoo you away if you try to land. The anchorage was fine till about 1am when unforecast 15 - 20 kts winds from the NW sprang up. They created 1 - 2' waves which were not too bad till the current swung us broadside and then we rolled. The rolling motion is the WORSE. My water tanks start to slosh then and it is noisy.

This morning we had to wait till 10:30am to leave to use the tide to get around the top of the Amelia River. There are 5' and less spots three at low tide. We hit it around 1 hour after low tide and threaded the needle between G1 and R2 with no issue but then we couldn't find the deep water. It appeared to be mostly on the red side near shore. I found one spot with 5.7' and it scared me but then went back to 9'.

With such a late start and having to fight the ebb tide we made slow progress towards Pine Island. We hit Fort George River around 2pm and needed at least 5 hours to make Pine Island so we stopped here. We were first boat in and had the pick of the place. Since then 3 trawlers have come in and are crowding us.

Poor Fernandina Municipal Marina got hit hard by the hurricane. Lots of damaged docks and big signs say closed do not land and do not use the mooring field, do not land dinghys. Other docks along that side were also severely damaged or just GONE.

We will leave early to use the tide to get out of here -- the Fort George River - because at low tide you can't get in or out. After this area we will no longer have to time the tides. The water from here south is pretty good provided you stay in the channel.

Strong winds are forecast for Saturday so we will probably stay put at Pine ISland. There we have some shelter from N, NW, NE winds, little fetch, and great holding.

We were going to take a mooring at St Augustine tomorrow but after last nights experience at Cumberland with only 20kts we decided not too. Too much wind fetch there.

A couple of slices of humble pie

Well my election prognostication yesterday was way off. What can I say -- I'm no worse than all the pundits that were FLOORED by the results. Enough said.

Today we had to work the tide to get through Jekyll Creek. Low was at 10 am so we wanted to hit it around 11am on the rising tide. Thus we tried to leave at 10am since it would take about 1.5 hours to reach it. When we were ready to go I called the marina to get a hand to leave the slip. Everything hit at that time and we had to wait nearly 30 minutes before a dock hand came and they were harried. I had already taken off a couple of lines and ask that they just hold my bow line till I left the slip so I wouldn't swing into the boat next to me. We started out and suddenly my aft swung to port and the bow went towards the boat next to me. They cleated the line to stop the swing and I came forward to straighten out. We tried again and it was WORSE!! Then they noticed I still had the bow line on the starboard side. Me bad - they bad. They took that off and it was an easy exit but I was mortified for not seeing that issue before it became an issue. I still feel bad.

We hit Jekyll Creek about an hour and half past low tide and it was rising. I had mostly 9 and 10 feet of water except near G19 when it dropped to 5.3 feet! I draw 5.2'.

Got through and continued to fight the current all the way to Red 34 out in the ocean and made the turn to Cumberland Island. Just as I passed the red mark the water dropped to 11' then up to 50'. Ahhh no more shallow water till Fernandina now and we finally had a favorable current to push us along on our 40 mile trek today. We held 7+kts for almost 2 hours.

Arrived at the Cumberland Island anchorage only to see yellow do not cross tape on the docks and a PARK CLOSED sign. Hurricane damage had shut it down. Grrrrrrr.

We will spend a nice evening here along with a dozen sailboats and 6 trawlers. Then it's on to Pine Island Anchorage tomorrow and have to pass more shallow water in the Amelia River. Low tide is 9:30am so we will leave here around 9am to enter the Amelia River around 10:30am. Then a long slog to Pine Island.

We enter Florida tomorrow. Right now we are just 3 miles from the Florida boarder. Ya Hoo!

where did the farmers go?

The high point today was supposed to be the Farmers Market at the park next to the Marina. It was a disappointment. Only 2 vendors there and they had the same thing -- tomatoes, cucumbers, pecans, giant persimmons, and one had corn syrup in bottles.

We stayed today mainly because the forecast was for a 60% chance of rain it turned into a very nice day with no rain. Arrrgh weatherman is costing me money!

I took my free Marina bike to Autozone to get some spray adhesive to repair one of our couch foam inserts. On the way back my front tire went FLAT. Fortunately I only had to walk it about a half mile back.

Karen did a couple of loads of laundry at the free laundry and that worked out okay. Big commercial machines.

Later in the day I went to "my Yacht Club" and poured a couple of free draft beers -- it was working today.

As I was leaving I ran into Margaret from Margarita. We met her and Bill in the Bahamas in 2008 and found them to be neighbors at Northwest Creek Marina. I went back to their boat and we chatted awhile. They ask me to say HEY to Vic and Gigi and want their 2016/17 boat card from them. They said they will see you in the Bahamas this winter.

Not much else. Plan to work the tide in the morning to get through Jekyll Creek then on to Cumberland Island for a full day's visit there. It is just Beautiful there especially when an Armadillo crosses your path.

No free beer!

Not much happening today. But today was supposed to be a "lay" day and it was. Just some light cleaning, a repair to a step tread and a little exploration of the town -- looked for Adams Grocery. It's a small grocery. Nothing fancy but you won't starve.

I found one of the community bikes (this means that it is available to anyone here, thus you might ride it to the shower, use the facility, and when you come out the bike is gone). this morning and rode it around exploring the Yacht Club Facilities and the entire lay of the Marina here. This marina has 14 different docks that have space for about 20 boats at each dock and each dock has a T-head for a couple of boats. This place is BIG.

The facilities are very clean and well maintained. They offer free draft beer in the Yacht Club and a wine party on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

This afternoon around 3:30pm I went to the "club" for a free draft beer and to shoot the breeze with the some of the cruisers. I found 2 cruisers in the club both engrossed with Facebook, tried the draft beer tap and just as my usual experience, found only foam come out and there was little of that. Oh well not as earth shattering like what happens tomorrow -- will be the worst Presidential election in US history!

I predict that in spite of all the media hoopla that this is a close race, Hillary will win with a landslide (not necessarily an endorsement from me). Just an example of how the media is playing all of us. What can you believe anymore.

The outcome should be that the Republican party dissolves itself since it is so ineffective and cannot read the will of the people. I'm just disgusted.

Tonight is one of the free wine parties so we will check it out. Probably a good thing that I write this before or I will really stand on my soapbox later.

Not to worry if we voted or not. We did with absentee ballots. There is more at stake than just Donald and Hillary.

Ohhh the high point today. While riding the community bike I explored the farmers Market next door which will be active tomorrow and when I left I had to stop for a train to go by -- well just a diesel locomotive but it doesn't take much to give me train joy. There is a set of tracks that runs between the marina parking lot and the highway. It is not real busy but you do get to enjoy the melodious whistle from the engine.

Made a new friend - just like in the ad for Brunswick Landing Marina

Change of plans this morning. The forecasts had Small Craft advisory up, Rain in Fernandina, and lots of NE wind for a few days. NE wind makes the crossing of St Andrew sound treacherous especially since you have to motor out into the ocean to round the furthest buoy. Even active captain warns of potentially dangerous waves here in 20+ NE winds.

So we decided to go the Marina near here called Brunswick Landing. I've heard great things and we thought we would check it out and explore the historical city of Brunswick, GA.

Had to work around a dredge to get here, Fueled up, pumped out then into an easy slip.

After lunch we went to town to look for a little grocery store for fresh veggies. While standing on a corner scratching our heads and looking at the map a woman stops up and asks if she can help us. She looked like a cruiser. We told her our issue with the map and she says "would you like to go to Publix instead"? We said OKAY.

She and her husband are cruisers and keep their boat here until time to go South. They are from near Winnipeg, Canada.

Wow what a gracious thing to offer. We had only been here less than 3 hours.

As they say in their ad here: "free WiFi, Free Laundry, Free Beer, Free wine, free water, and free friends."

Sounds, Sounds, and more Sounds

I'm not talking about acoustical sounds but the Marine Sounds. We passed through 5 of them today. That is a BUNCH!

We left Killkenney Creek at 7:30am and had a good run with a favorable tide to transit all the troubles spots at near high tide namely, Little mud River, Altamaha Sound approach, and Buttermilk Sound. This involved transiting St Catherine Sound, Sapello, Dolboy, Altamaha, and Buttermilk Sounds. Destination was Frederica River Anchorage just above St Simones Island Sound.

We did it!! It was tough but no problem with low water because we timed the tide just right. The problem was the much more than expected wind speeds while crossing the Sounds. The worst was the Sapello. When we entered I saw the wind speed jump to 24 then 30 then 33 and then 35. Forecast was for 10 - 20. Eeeeck my crew is not going to like this.. Fortunately the wind direction was mostly on our stern and the current was with it. It was no cake ride but only a few items took a dive down in the cabin from the moderately rough rocking. We just plugged along and made 60 miles in 8.5 hours.. That is GOOD>>> We still don't have a buddy boat but we did have one sailboat follow us for a while -- FLOW. I talked to them a bit but they wouldn't strike up a conversation. They kept trying to motor sail with the Jenny but with this strong wind they kept getting overpowered and made erratic moves. I eventually stopped and let them pass me so I wouldn't have to worry about them. Several trawler types passed us today but that was all.

The wind should lay down tonight and we should be able to cross the notorious St Andrew sound tomorrow with some difficulty but if we don't then it will be Wednesday before we can try again.

I'm knocking on Florida's door and want to put this Georgia behind us. Georgia has a beautiful waterway but they don't keep it up and it is a ROYAL PAIN to cross since you must use the tide to do it.

I'm bushed -- going to sleep well tonight.

The devil in the details

Today we were going to transit Hells Gate - a little cut between the Vernon River and the Ogeechee River. It is reported that at low tide there are spots that are only 2 - 3 feet deep. That's a no go for my 5.2' draft. Just after that is the Florida Passage which is also quite shallow.

We timed our arrival to be about 1 hour before high tide. By that time there would be 7' of tide water over whatever was there. We hit it as planned and fortunately the strong cold front that was supposed to be here this morning had not arrived yet so we got through with some trepidation but no shallow water. Shallowest we saw was 10.2' which would be 3.2' at low tide. The Florida Passage was easy with that 7' tide.

It was a relatively short day of only 30 miles. We anchored in Killkenney Creek around 12:30pm. Tomorrow we have two troublesome areas to transit -- Buttermilk Sound and Little mud River. From here we should reach them about an hour after high tide, then on to Frederica River for a run of 58 miles -- long day.

The cold front has been coming all afternoon with higher wind speeds. Fortunately my wind generator is turning it into useable power. The batteries were pretty low this morning after a short travel day and long time on the anchor back at Herb River.

It started raining here about 4:15pm with some high wind gusts but now 30 minutes later the wind is down, rain has stopped and its just cloudy.

Hopefully all will clear by morning.

Oh it got up to 83 degrees here today but is now down to 70 and dropping. Should be good sleeping tonight.

And once again we traveled alone all day and we are the only vessel anchored here tonight.

In the blink of an eye

Ahh today started normally enough. We were getting ready to get underway by turning on the electronics, stowing the paper chart for access, and mounting the IPAD. I was kneeling on a cockpit cushion when suddenly it shifted off the seat taking me with it. Before I hit the floor my chest plowed into the steering wheel. WOW - took my breath away and it hurt. I just rolled over to take stock. breathing didn't hurt, swallowing didn't hurt, but boy using any chest muscles did. Ouch I'm going to be sore awhile.

Trying to break my fall I grabbed the mount for the Ipad and snapped the top off. Well nothing Gorilla glue can't fix. Fortunately the IPAD was not in it yet.

After a few minutes we continued to depart. We were timing to hit the trouble areas of RAMSHORN Creek, Fields Cut, and Elba Cut near high tide. It worked!! We passed through all those areas and saw none of the shoal areas that there were warnings for. Hell with an 8.8' tide I have enough water get over any spot that is DRY at low tide. It's worth the wait.

We made Herb River just about noon and a distance of 20 miles for the day. To go another 15 miles to Hells gate would put us on the following tide and after mid tide so we wait here till tomorrow morning to hit Hells Gate and the Florida Passage at near high tide. A strong cold front is forecast for early tomorrow so this is a great sheltered anchorage if the winds should really pipe up.

Since I had time on my hands I troubleshot my inverter. I tried a power on clear with no affect. I then pulled some panels to look at the unit but could find no external fuses so I gave it a gentle engineers rap to hopefully jar loose any stuck relays. Still no affect. Looks like it will have to be replaced. I don't have the resources here to bench troubleshoot it and no schematic.

The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing my hurting chest and treating the pain with judicious amounts of Yeunling Ale.

I'm going to fix a big ol ribeye steak tonight to aid the healing process and to celebrate not seriously injuring myself today.

Oh it got up to 84 degrees here today. Eat your heart out northerners.

Trouble Strikes

We were ready to go this morning. Looks like another fine day.

We turned all the systems on, disconnected the shore power, and turned on the inverter to power the PC and charge some devices. Uh Oh, the inverter started flashing an error "AC Overload". Checking the breakers there was nothing on. I cycled the inverter a few times but still the error persisted. Oh well redundancy is the name of the game so I found a DC charger for the notebook and tried it and all was fine but this means no watching DVDs or TV when on anchor.

We tried to leave early but I couldn't get the dockmaster to come to assist so I got another boater to give us a hand getting away. Leaving was problematic since we had a strong current coming from the rear. We managed and got away just in time to see the swing bridge open! What? it is only supposed to open on the hour and here at 9:30 it opened. Well my Skipper Bob instructions were from 2 years ago and the Active Captain notes said it opens on the hour and 1/2 hour -- darn could have left even earlier.

We went through the bridge and stopped at the Beaufort Downtown Marina for fuel. We took on 53 gallons -- 44 for the main tank and 12 for jerry jugs on the deck. We did a pump out to of both holding tanks.

Then we were on our way -- just 30 miles today to Bull Creek to await high tide in the morning so we can transit Hells Gate and Fields cut in relative ease. On arrival I found the PC had shut down. The DC power supply was off. Apparently the outlet had blown a 5 amp fuse. I traced the outlet to the fuse and it was blown. I replaced it with a 10amp fuse but the outlet would not hold the plug tightly. This is probably why the fuse blew. Fortunately I had a spare 12v Outlet so I replaced it and I'm now using it to power that computer.

Another problem was that the forward head would not pump into the holding tank. I worked the pump harder and overextended the pump arm a couple of times then that started working.

So 2 of 3 problems overcome and just the most expensive one -- the inverter is left for further troubleshooting and probably replacement. It is a big unit at 2000 watts continuous so I hope I can find a solution rather that just buy a new unit.

I'll investigate later.

An Easy Peazy day

Today was finally an easy day. Just puttered around on a few easy tasks like a new lanyard on the lock on one of the snubber line hooks, fill the water tanks and a trip to the Publix Grocery store here. Lou -- Kourtney's mother in-law lives here and she graciously took us to the store and back to the marina and took us to lunch in downtown Beaufort at Panini. A great little restaurant on the waterfront.

Back on the boat to do a little cleaning and organizing and get ready to leave in the morning for parts south. Actually -- need to stage for going through "Hells Gate". That is its real name on the charts. It is the junction between two rivers and notorious for shoaling. Yep got to work the tide.

Wish us luck.

Better Believe it!

We made the Lady's Island Marina with our usual hassles that always seem to follow us. First they lost our reservation, then still accommodated us and put us in a temporary slip that had no power. Ohh well we adapted and strung our power cords together to reach a different pedestal and just switched between AC and power for the boat.

It was only going to be one night and then they would move us to a face dock.

We checked in this morning and asked about the courtesy car -- ohh it got wrecked last week, someone can take you to the store sometime later today. Just minor annoyances but still accommodating.

After moving to the face dock one of my power cords wouldn't work. On inspection one of the blades on the male plug had been castrated. I had to install a new plug which fortunately I carried a spare.

We switched our schedule of work from tomorrow to today and will do grocery tomorrow. Today I cleaned the topsides of all the anchoring smutz, defrosted the refrigerator, and worked out the bugs in my main sail which prevented our outside passage the other day. So much for relaxing -- I'm whipped tonight. Karen dusted and cleaned floors and did the laundry. Ohhh should I mention -- The washers and dryers are FREE here and they are big commercial jobs.

While I was in the cockpit cleaning the inside of the Bimini of mildew/mold I heard on the VHF 4 sailboats trying to get through the Coosaw Cut at near low tide. You CAN'T DO IT!. They each ran aground and fussed about then decided to sit tight till the tide came up. You can get through but you have to work with the tide. Hell one of Hillary's Political fund raisers would pay to have that dredged! Maybe I'll e-mail her..

The ICW is in sad shape. You can get through but you need to work the tides and that means some short days, however most anchorages are very beautiful. But how much nature can you take?

Joys and tribulations of the Tides

Today was going to be our longest travel day at 48 miles assuming we could get through the Coosaw Cutoff. It is notorious for very low water and is impassable by 5' draft boats at low tide.

We left at a good time from Church Creek on the rising tide -- 1 hour till high. It is really nice traveling at high tide because all the warnings mean nothing when the high tide is 8' above normal. The only worry we had was FOG. We could see fog building between the trees -- ohh man I did not want to delay for fog. We left and the fog stayed over the ground and did not diminish visibility much in the ICW. We had PLENTY water. Although we had 28 miles to go till we hit the really troublesome water and that was projected to be 2 hours before low tide.

We had a very nice run with some adverse current and some advantageous current and hit the decision point for taking the normal course or the alternate course which I had never used about 11:30am. Well we were near mid tide so I took the normal course and then hit really adverse current. When we hit the Coosaw Cutoff sure enough the water was low -- mainly 8 - 10 feet with the lowest at 7.2' and this was mid tide. It was nerve wracking but we made it to the Coosaw River and thought "what a good boy I am" when I noticed my speed was now 3.7kts. I had no idea the current was that swift in the Coosaw on Ebb Tide. If you can time it better it would be best to hit the cutoff on a rising tide after mid tide and then have the favorable current up the Coosaw.

We did okay and reached the Lady's Island Bridge about 3:30pm. I called the marina and they hemmed and hawkd and found they lost me reservation!!!Aaaack. Well Steve was being as accommodating as possible and finally found a place to use -- rafted to his boat. We got the lines ready for a starboard tie and then he changed it to a port tie. Karen did not like having to shift the lines. Then he wanted us into slip and back to a starboard tie.. Karen was miffed to put it lightly.

Well we got in and tied up and then found the power pedestal did not work so I had to string my two power cords together and go to different pedestal but now we couldn't use both battery charger and AC at the same time. It was 83 so we opted for AC especially since this place is notorious for lots of bugs in the evening.

We are now cool and calm ready for a couple of nice days of not moving at the crack of dawn.

Fogged In!

We had a nice night in Deweese creek. No one else joined us. We are apparently out of sync with the rest of the cruisers. Big group in front of us and a big group behind us with a mob of trawler types consuming all the marina facilities.

We left early like just as it was enough light to discern the banks and pulled anchor and left. The wet enclosure made visibility poor. We hit the ICW before 7:30am and ran it towards the Ben Sawyer Swing bridge. We hopped to make the 9am opening. On Weekends it only opens on the hour from 9am - 6pm. Well surprisingly I had a lot of current with me. It was nearly high tide and we "flew" towards the bridge and saw no skinny water. I arrived at 8:20am and they opened for me. Great we are way ahead of schedule!!

Now as we approached the bridge we had seen whiffs of fog but didn't think much of it. Then 1/2 a mile from the bridge and just before entering Charleston Harbor -- WHAM BANG -- pea soup thick fog enveloped us. GREAT!! I was at a wide spot in the ICW so we just circled till the fog cleared. It took a good 45 minutes. I did this because I didn't want to cross the ships channel with no visibility. Given the electronic charts I could have but if suddenly a huge container ship looms out of the fog -- who's fault is it??

Well we finally arrived at the Charleston City Marina and checked on wait listed reservation -- still no opening. I asked to dock for fuel and still no room -- I would have to wait. Well I was tired of circling and waiting so we anchored to await the ebb tide to slacken through Elliots cut. I've got more than enough fuel to make Beaufort SC so we waited the 2.5 hours and then left.

It wasn't quite slack tide when we hit Elliots cut but I got through there doing about 3 knots.

We had the current against us so we made slow like 4.7 - 5.5 kts to Church creek 18 miles distant. About 7 miles out we were running along at near low tide for this area. Now the tidal range here i 7.6'! The shore looked scary with dry mud everywhere and just a ribbon of water to follow. However that ribbon made it easy in that if you stayed centered you had 15' of water but stray 50 feet and you were aground. Ohh and now as we approached the shallow water the current changed and we were running at near 8kts. Run aground and we were really going to STICK.

We arrived about 4:00pm and dropped the hook. This is a nice anchorage and no one here at 6pm. All to ourselves again.

Tomorrow is a L O N G Day -- 48 miles from here to Beaufort, SC. On the plus side we have reservations there at the Lady ISland marina for 3 nights. Now we can provision, eat out, laundry, and fuss, and clean the boat. We have been traveling a week and we are ready to stay put for a few days and Beaufort, SC is a great place to visit.

Lots of skinny water today

We left the anchorage in South Santee river at first light -- 7:15am We headed to McClellenvile about 10 miles further. We arrived at 9AM and started our passage through the worst shoaling water on the ICW. We were just 1.5 hours past high tide and found for the most part water at 9' or better however just before R38 I hit a patch of 6.2' That was deep enough but still you clinch up. You need to know that along this stretch of the ICW the tide is nearly 6' thus at low tide you would see around 4' through here and I draw 5.2'!

We had to pass several other areas that had shoaling but made it through uneventful.

We decided to anchor in Deweese Creek in Jim Thompson's favorite spot and made that with out too much difficulty seeing how at that time we were just about low tide for this area.

We need to wait till tomorrow morning high tide to traverse another horribly shoaled area just before you enter Charleston harbor.

We tried to make reservations in Charleston for the weekend but they are full already. We will just stop for fuel and water and then move on to Beaufort, SC. We have reservation for the Lady Island marina for a few days. We have been travelling everyday since Sunday and are ready for some provisioning and laundry and REST.

We be Mud Crawlers -- again

We had a real nice evening on anchor out behind the Georgetown Light house. Got an early start at 7:15am and still the last boat to leave. It was 5 miles to the Sea Buoy but with a favorable tide it went well. We got out in the ocean and just light breeze and a 2 foot ocean swell from the East. Well after 20 minutes of rolling in the swell we decided it wasn't worth it and turned around. Back in was a S L O W process since that "favorable" current was now against us.

We approached the infamous R2 marking the entrance to the Estherville Minim Creek Canal and reading the cautions about entry tried to split the distance between R2 and shore. Ahhh this must be accurate when you are at low tide because at 2 hours off high tide we went aground in 4.8' of water. I need 5.2'.
Well the bottom is soft mud so I plowed towards R2 and about 100' off I found 9.5'. Yippee floating again.

The trip to South Santee River was filled with shallow water spots but nothing below 7.5' and the tide was falling. We made it to anchorage by noon and felt as if we had spent a whole day traveling. The anchorage is fine and at 4pm only one trawler shares it with us. Maybe more coming tonight. Plenty of room though.

We stopped here because 10 miles down the stream and at low tide we would have passed through McClellanville which has the shallowest water for a couple miles. Reports are that a low tide it is only 4 feet deep. By stopping here we will hit that area about 1.5 hours after high tide.

Gosh I wished could have made that offshore leg to Charleston today but then again we are PLEASURE boaters and if it ain't a pleasure we don't do it.

New Adventure -- Georgetown Lighthouse

We had a very nice evening in Georgetown. Nick showed up for a few hours and we had a fine dinner at the River Room. He took off and we relaxed on the boat until it was Farkle Time.. Gosh we play almost every night and it is vicious but we enjoy it. I might add that lately I'm winning most of the games.

Karen got to sleep in this morning and make one of her complicated breakfasts. Glad she enjoyed it because no such luxury tomorrow. Leaving at first light.

The forecast has changed and it looks to be very mild weather tomorrow so we decided to try an out front trip from Winyah Bay here to Charleston. Buoy to Buoy it is 43 miles. Long inlets though so to shorten the trip we came out Winyah Bay today and anchored behind the Georgetown Lighthouse at the entrance to Winyah Bay. We only have to go 5 miles in the morning to the Sea Buoy then on to Charleston. If we don't like conditions we can come back in and continue with our slog down the ICW and make Charleston in 3 days rather than 8 hours if we can go out front in the ocean. Wish us luck.

This little anchorage behind Georgetown Light is very nice. AS we approached the entrance we had an ocean swell come in but once we turned into the anchorage it was gone -- just lots of current.

This is a great place to wait to go out or if you are making a hop from Cape Fear or Little River it would be a nice place to overnight.

We were first here around 1pm -- had a favorable current all the way here. Now at 4:30pm we have been joined by a large pleasure trawler and a sailboat, and we see 2 more sailboats and a trawler coming. They will most likely anchor here too so it will be a nice crowd leaving in the morning. A cold front comes in Friday morning so I expect we will all be going in to Charleston.

We are really in the midst of the mass migration south so competition for marina resources is fierce. We tried to make reservations for the weekend in Charleston but they are full. We will have to move on.

Wish us luck and hopeful the next post will be from Charleston -- on anchor since no room at marina.

The new face of Georgetown

Well we got off with a scary start to the day. I was in the cockpit waiting on Karen to fix and eat her breakfast before we left and I see this very large and jagged tree stump coming towards us. First it looks like it will pass close then directly on us. I yelled to Karen we had to go NOW!.. I started to pull the anchor and then it shifted just enough to miss the boat. I wasn't so worried about it hitting us but I was concerned that the jagged roots might get caught on a propeller or keel or rudder.

We finally did leave after breakfast and had a very nice run into Georgetown's harbor. The marks are confusing but we found the channel. The harbor looked almost deserted compared to years past. I guess the hurricane two weeks ago cleared out most the derelict boats that were here. Hopefully they are not just sunk. We found a nice spot behind the clock tower/rice museum and surprisingly the Rocna held on the first attempt. The anchoring here is notorious because of all the soft mud but if you let the anchor work its way down it will find hard sand.

Nick came by today for a little visit and brought our Absentee Ballots that arrived too late for us to use at home. Looks like we do get to vote in this HORRIBLE election of 2016.

Only one other sailboat and a trawler came to anchor this afternoon but then it is still only 4:30pm.

We will stay tomorrow too for the low tide cycle to get further down the road so we can navigate the shoal waters around McClellanville on Thursday hopefully not running aground. More ICW misery.

Georgetown is just such a picturesque town. Lots of small businesses. I bought fresh shrimp from the shrimp dock here which is independently owned and thew shrimp don't get any fresher.

Socastee area -- so sad-- and pins and needles trip

We left Barefoot Landing at 8:30am hoping to hit the Socastee Bridge around 11:30am or low tide. The ride was slow with the current against us -- SOG was about 4.4kts, but we were on schedule to hit the bridge at low tide. About 10 miles from the bridge we came across a flashing blue light Wildlife boat just poking in the same direction. Well it is decreed that from Barefoot Landing to the Bucksport Marina was a no wake zone. Well what is no wake -- kind of subjective. If a boat moves through the water it makes a disturbance. The bigger the disturbance the bigger the wave coming off. At hull speed most sail boats generate a wave no greater than 3 inches.

We slowed down and eventually passed the enforcement boat and they gave us a friendly wave. We got to the Socastee bridge and passed through and a Sheriff Boat held up a thumb and finger showing we had cleared by mere inches, then we met a Coast Guard boat and they ordered us to slow down -- we were now doing 3.2 kts or less than turtle speed. We maintained this slow pace to Bucksport where when we passed the current finally changed with us and we set s speed record on Temptation. There where times we did 9.3kts. It was great. Our expected ETA at the anchorege behind Butler Island was 5pm but with the speed increase we made it at 3:30pm for a much deserved rest.

Around the Socastee Bridge there are numerous homes just 50 75 yds back from the water edge. Many had a water line up to 3 feet on their walls. Some houses were still standing in water. Most docks were damaged. It was really sad. I got to the point where I just stopped looking at the houses. Just so sad.

Oh the Socastee bridge only had about 6 feet of clearance under it and this was low tide. It is supposed to have a minimum of 11 feet at high tide.

The high rise just passed it showed just less than 61 feet clearance. It was apparenty correct because I need 57 feet for my mast and 3 feet for the VHR whip antenna. That antenna just tickled the bottom of the bridge when we passed through.

We are just out of sync with the tides for a few days and offshore doesn't look comfortable so we will stay in Georgetown, SC for a few days beginning tomorrow. Ummmmm -- going to get some fresh shrimp!

Navigating in the fourth dimension

Yep that is what we did today. Not only do we have to worry about the 2 dimensional track on a chart but we have to consider both the depth of the water and the clearance under the bridges. Normal the high rise bridges guarantee at least 65' clearance no mater the tide condition but couple in the flood waters here and that clearance is less. So as we approach bridges we have to read the clearance boards and decide to pass or not. All of these conditions are dependent on the tide which follows the time of day -- thus the fourth dimension.

We did well today and passed several very troublesome areas -- the worst being Lockwood Folly Inlet and Shalotte inlet and even Little river inlet was cause for concern. We timed our trip to pass each of these on rising mid time or later, and in the case of the infamous Rock Pile through Myrtle Beach we transited at high tide.

No magic to the procedure. Just time passage to mid tide or later and follow the set navigation marks that you see and not the magenta line on the chart. Now the toll -- I'm whipped tonight after this 45 mile trip today.

Tomorrow we head to Georgetown, SC. Probably anchor behind Butlers Island then decide what to do. The tide timing will be TERRIBLE for the next few days. Low is 11:30am tomorrow and 12:30am the n ext day - etc -- moves about an hour a day. For the next areas after Georgetown we need the high/rising tide to traverse several areas. With the low in mid day that cancels movement for 2 hours either side or just real short travel days.

It's only 43 miles between entrance to Georgetown's Winyah bay and Charleston so we could do that in daylight hours Wednesday if out front conditions will be mild -- will see otherwise we will have to do something else which might mean to just stay put for a few days.

We are tied up to the Barefoot Marina at BArefoot landing. It is nice but very large. We are on an outside dock which is a quarter mile to the bathroom showers and the internet does not work out here. Bummer...

They had plenty of room here tonight because a huge group of boats left today once the Socastee Bridge opened yesterday. They said they had been completely full for 5 days until today.

It's off to Georgetown for us tomorrow. The tide will not be an issue on this leg as long as we get past the Socastee bridge at less than mid tide. The high rise bridge after it had 56' clearance yesterday and 59 today. I need 57.

Boy I'm going to sleep good tonight.

YEAH -- ICW Reopened today

The Socastee Swing bridge started operation today. Yeah -- we can continue on, however the bridge operator -- Howard very helpful -- said the clearance on the bridge just past him was only 56 feet instead of the usual 65 feet. We need to be careful of the bridges -- we are 57 feet off the water.

Boy the cruiser flood gates will be open tomorrow with most boats on the move again.

Today was just a chore day. We got a shuttle ride to the grocery store -- round trip only $15. We went to a Lowes which was nice but prices were higher than we have at home. Then back on the boat to do a couple of loads of laundry and fill the water tanks.

Tonight I went to a free symposium here at the marina on problem areas along the ICW South of here and weather for offshore passages. It was presented by Hank Pomeranz, retired US Navy Meteorologist and owner of CYC - Carolina Yacht Care, also the driver of our shuttle this morning.

The presentation was excellent -- better than anything I've seen before. He gave us a handout of all the slides he presented which were all in color and detailed snippets of charts and the best route through the trouble areas. I highly recommend attending one of these briefs when stopping at the Southport marina. They are free and absolutely GREAT.

We hope to leave early tomorrow and run down to Barefoot Landing and stop at a marina for the night -- no good anchorages on this hop.

Almost ate with the fishes at Fishy Fishy Cafe

Another beautiful mild day here in Southport, however, it was supposed to be terrible -- reason why we came in here.

The weather is still great here at 4:15pm. There was supposed to be a monster cold front coming across today at noon but it is a no show so far.

We walked about town a bit this morning and stopped at the famous Fishy Fishy cafe for lunch. Karen had the fish taco with grouper and I had the Fishy Fishy basket with shrimp -- both were great. However after awhile folks started complaining that the couldn't leave!! The high tide had come in and coupled with the flooding Cape Fear River the establishment was surrounded by water and it was rising! Fortunately they laid out some scaffolding planks between the entrance and the dry side of the road so we could leave. Probably that dry side was going under soon.

We wandered into a couple the tourist shops near there but they were having to contend with the rising waters too. Apparently the flood waters from Hurricane Matthew were just cresting down here now -- nearly 2 weeks later.

A big problem we are facing is that this late flooding has closed the Socaste Bridge over the ICW -- just passed Myrtle Beach and no boats are getting thru. We need to wait a little longer here or maybe in Myrtle Beach before we can go on or possibly go offshore from Cape Fear to Wynyah Bay near Georgetown, SC. Decisions Decisions, it is all part of the game.

Tense moments on ICW and Cape Fear was a pussy cat today

We had a nice quiet night in Wrightsville Beach last night. One poor cruiser - a Canadian - on MYLADY had double trouble yesterday. They ran aground just south of Figure Eight Island bridge and called for a Boat US tow and then about an hour and half later they called Boat US for another tow -- they were hard aground at G25 - entry to Motts channel. Boat US was good natured about it and told them they didn't need to pass their member info again.. Big Whup.

We left the anchorage at 7:30am and hit the Carolina Beach trouble area around 10am and about 2 hours before high tide. There were 5 can buoys there marking the channel which did not match the chart (Garman Blue Chart) but I found a lot of water -- minimum 11 feet. The only problem there was a very strong current coming across which moved to the red side and I had to take a sharp turn to offset. There is shoaling in Snows Cut but well marked. Follow the buoys and not the chart through here.

Cape Fear River was nearly a mill pond. Never have we found it so docile. We did have to fight the current most of the way but not too bad. Lots of small debris in the water which caused us to be ever vigilant and not use the auto pilot.

We made Southport Marina around noon and went in for fuel and a slip for a few days. Strong cold front coming across tomorrow so we elected to stop here till probably Sunday. This will give us a chance to explore this picturesque town.

The marina is fine but the dock hands are not fully up to the game. Not good line handlers. they didn't do us any favors. After fueling at the fuel dock I had to turn around and cross back across another dock and work may slowly around a corner to the slip. The slip is okay but a starboard tie is inconvenient since we have to walk around the power cord. The dock we were warned is quite "tender" in that it rocks vigorously as you walk across it -- these are floating docks.

The docks themselves are very nice and easy on the feet.

Well we are going to be dirt dwellers for a few days. The ground felt funny since we have not been off the boat since last Saturday.

Aaaack! ICW sucks today

We had a long run to Wrightsville beach from Mile Hammock today. It was another picture perfect day except for the trouble spots on the ICW. The NEw River inlet was not an issue -- just watch the marks. There were a few "catch your breath moments as we approached the Figure 8 Island bridge but the worst was just passed the bridge and in Wrightsville -- specifically Motts Channel.

Around marker G123 you need to hug right up next to the docks to get through. Close to G123 and you will be aground. Two sailboats behind us found that out. Then at G25 when you enter Motts channel you need to hug the Green side until pass the third pier on the red side. After that watch the marks and not the chart plotter. My Garmin Blue Chart would have had us going behind marks.

The Wrightsville anchorage was not too crowded but the bottom humbled my Rocna Anchor. We found a nice spot near the dinghy docks but the Rocna would not grab, that and 20 feet of water!. We anchored in the "back row" with 14 feet. A little close to some other boats but holding is good.

NOW Soap Box time. What do all these 30 - 40 year olds do for a living down here? I couldn't believe how many able body adults are out playing on the waterway at 11am... All I can think of is "Social Security Disability"!! Man I was in the office all day at that age on a weekday. The Federal government has made it too easy to not work and collect benefits. This especially riles me since there is NO MONEY to do upkeep on the ICW!! Man Priorities!!

Sorry..

We are just spending the night here then on to Southport in the morning. That will be the last fine day for awhile. A "monster" cold front is forecast to come across Friday afternoon/evening so we want to be in and tied up. Good time to get fuel, laundry, and maybe a dinner out.