Saturday (4/19/14) we wake
up to rain. Linda read and I worked on some projects. We all planned
to go to Bluff House Marina for a late lunch. Tried to time the
lunch, between the rain stopping in the afternoon, and when they stop
serving lunch. We head in around 2:00PM, still a slight drizzle, but
weather radar on the iPhone show it will be ending soon. I don't
bother with a foul weather jacket, too warm for me, I just a soon get
wet from rain than from sweat. I have enough saltwater to deal with.
Before we order lunch the sun starts to break through and we have a
nice sunny afternoon. Also discovered they have WIFI fast enough for
Skype. I call my mother, with video, since I can see she is on her
computer back in Connecticut. Also call our son, Dana, in Oregon.
After we went for a walk on
the beach, we came back to Bluff House for dess3ert and then back to
the boat for the evening. Around 8:30 someone announces on channel 16
on the VHF to look north for the laser light show. We looked in that
direction and got to see clouds 25 miles north of us lighting up from
the distant thunderstorm. Too far away for us to hear anything. The
show went on for a long time.
Sunday walked to the beaches
on the Atlantic side with Linda and Dawn. First beach we walk onto I
find my second “Sea Bean”. These are seeds from a tree in Africa
that have saltwater proof shells and can float for years in the
ocean. There are apparently lots of them in the Bahamas. Another
boat we have been traveling with, in the same direction, says they
average about one per hour of beach walking. I don't think I have
fared as well.
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| Flotsam, buoys, floats and fishnets |
When we got back to the anchorage, we found Sanderling
had arrived. We had an early evening dinghy raft up party, one
anchor, five dinghies. Passed around appetizers.
Sunday, We left for Manjack
Cay only about 6 miles north. Was hoping to get one last day of
snorkeling, before we start the trek back to Florida. Everyone else
stayed one more day at Green Turtle. It turned out to be too rough
to snorkel on the Atlantic side of Manjack, even at anchor on the
“protected” side was a little bouncy, compared to our recent very
protected anchorages. We walked some of the Atlantic side beaches and
then headed back to Crab Cay, next to Manjack. On the lee side of
Crab Cay, we discovered a calm beach that was littered with Sea
Biscuits, kind of like fat over sized sand dollars. We finally had
to stop picking them up. We placed them along the high tide line as
we walked down the beach. As we walked back to the dinghy we selected
the best ones and returned the others. Also picked up a lot of dead
small conch shells in near perfect condition, aside from them dying
young.
Monday we start the trip
back to the States and head to Allans-Pensacola Cay. I got lazy and
decided to tow the dinghy, but as the waves picked up I decided to
stop and put the motor and dinghy up, to a chorus of “I told you
so's”. We arrived around 4:00 PM and went for a hike to the north
side of the island. The island is currently deserted. There had been
a NASA tracking station back in the 60's and 70's, but it has been
removed. The road to it, is now just a narrow foot path which leads
to the north side and the “Signing Tree”. Past cruisers have
taken debris that had washed up on shore, like fenders, buoys, etc
and sign their boat name and date and then hang them in a tree.
Unfortunately there is enough flotsam, that one tree after another
down the beach, is covered with these decorations. We hike over with
another couple on “Rosanti”, Mark and Linda, who we have just
met, but heard on the VHF in the past month or so.
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| The Signing Tree |
Tuesday morning we leave
early to head to Great Sale Cay. This is another very remote cay
that is uninhabited and is used as a staging point for cruisers
coming and going from the Bahamas. It is our rendezvous point with
Sanderling, Gertie and Hot Chocolate. The next couple days has a
very good forecast weather window for transiting the Gulf Stream.
There are about 45 boats in the cove by sunset looking to take the
same opportunity. Strange, to see so many boats in such a remote
location. The only boats that go ashore are the ones with dogs and
us. We walked over to another NASA tracking sight. All that remains
is a slab of concrete that is slowly getting undermined and busted
up.
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| Roger and Chrisy delivery brownies for midnight snack |
Chrisy on “Sanderling” comes by with some brownies and Oreo's
for a midnight snack when we reach the Gulf Stream. Since they have a
dog that will explode before it will pee in the boat, they try to
keep passages under 17 hours, so they plan to leave about 2:00 PM in
the afternoon tomorrow. The rest of us will leave in the morning and
drop anchor late afternoon on the edge of the Great Bahama banks in
about 25 feet of water. Rest, have dinner, snooze and continue on
around 10PM.
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| Great Sale Cay, Rendezvous, West Harbor, jumping off point the the USA. Morning calm. |
Wednesday we leave at sun
up, 7:00 AM. Other boats are starting to trickle out, in different
directions, for different land fall points in Florida. Some of the
more ambitious are going to try to ride the Gulf Stream further north
to Charleston, SC or Fernandina, FL.
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| Welcoming committee |
We are heading to the Cape
Canaveral Yacht Club. We are the last to arrive at
selected way point on the Matanilla Shoal. Sandy on Hot Chocolate
radios back to us about all the dolphins around them. Yeh, right by
the time we get there we assume they will be gone, as always seems to
happen. Well, as each of the three boats arrive a pod of dolphins
moves to greet the next boat. They are swimming back and forth around
our bow. Very, very cool. What a welcoming committee.
We have dinner. Can't get
any sleep, so we just relax. We are hoping to see the “Green Flash”
at sunset. The sky is totally clear, but just as the sun was getting
ready to set a small cloud partially obscured the view. Around 7:30 I was checking
our running lights. Bill asked on the radio are we getting ready to
leave? I told him I'm just checking the lights, but since no one is
sleeping we decide to leave at 8:00PM.
A totally clear night, no
moon, but lots of stars. As we approach the Gulf Stream we start
seeing a series of cruise ships, most heading south. They start as a
faint light in the distance and within half an hour they are a couple
miles in front of us lit up like a Christmas tree rapidly going by.
Half an hour later they are a faint light disappearing in the
opposite direction. Tracking them on radar helps to see how far away
they really are and if we are on a potential collision track while
they are still many miles away. By the time we are in the Gulf Stream
there are few big ships around. By now Bill is about two miles ahead
of us and Gertie. Dawn asks him to cover his stern light off and on
so we can be certain we are following the right boat. Bill flashes
us. The Gulf Stream is somewhat rough but we have good winds. By
early morning the wind direction changes and we are getting most of
our propulsion from motoring.
By noontime we arrive at the Cape
Canaveral Yacht Club. “Sanderling” beats us all by a couple
hours with their 75 HP engine in their Island Packet. That night we
have dinner at the Yacht club. They are open for dinner 2 nights a
week and we are here for one of them. The food was very good. Nice
little club, with very friendly members. We stay for two nights and
work on cleaning our boats, now that we have unlimited free fresh
water. In the Bahamas water is generally 25 cents a gallon so we did
not squander it on washing the boat. We are in hog heaven, back in
the USA.
We spend the next couple
days, day sailing up the Florida coast and not in the ICW. Overnight
stops at Ponce Inlet, St. Augustine and Fernandina. Sanderling and
Hot Chocolate keep heading north into Georgia and South Carolina.
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| St. Augustine Seawall |
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| Bridge of Lions, St. Augustine. A replica Spanish Gallon and replica of Magellan's ship, both from Spain. |
Our day between St. Augustine and Fernandina we spent most the day in
fog. Even though we were with Hot Chocolate and Gertie, we were out
of sight of each other most the day. We have the radar on most of the
day to avoid the many Shrimp boats and ships going into Jacksonville.
We stop with Gertie for a
couple days in Fernandina for the Shrimp Festival. Linda and I
visited with both my cousins Bill (his wife Deb) and Jan who live in
Fernandina.
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| Deb & Bill, Jan (in fancy Pirate Hat) and Linda |
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| ARG ! Pirates attacking Fernandina (Not to be confused with the Alcohol Research Group) |
Sunday we motored about an
hour to Cumberland Island with Gertie. Packed our lunches and went
for a long hike. Lots more people than there was in December, we only
saw a couple rangers at a distance then. This time there were a lot
of day trippers who came over on the passenger ferry and a few
campers staying overnight on the island campgrounds.
Monday we sailed off shore
to St. Simons to set up for the next leg, overnight to Charleston,
SC. Within a few hours we were inundated with swarms of Love Bugs.
They don't bite but the annoying things land on you and the boat.
When you step on them or swat them they leave a yellow mark. They
seem to die in a couple hours. What a mess.
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| Love Bugs attack ! |
After all the rain we
had at Fernandina, the boat had been very clean. I got out our small
dust buster to suck up the ones in the back of the boat, but could
not quite keep up with the new ones landing, just too many of them.
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| Shrimp Boat |
Tuesday morning Gertie and
Manana leave for Charleston for about a 26 hour motor/sail. On the
way we pick up the Love Bugs again off St. Simons. Try to sail
further off shore, but they are out there too, not as bad as the day
before. Still a full time job sucking up the little buggers as they
land. Finally the wind shifts to the southeast and starts to blow
them back towards shore and away from us.
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| Mr. Bug Sucker |
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| Mr. Finch is tired |
We picked up another more
pleasant passenger around sunset. About 8 miles off shore we had one
very tired finch land on the boat. Poor guy the first time he tried
to land Linda yelled and scared him off, but he came back. Sat on our
life lines and moved around the boat looking for a good place to
park. He tried to land on our davits, but the 1-1/4 diameter
stainless steel tubes were a little too big for his little feet to
grip and he slowly rotated like the minute hand on a clock until he
fell into the dinghy under the davits. He gave up and went to sleep
in the dinghy, dead tired.
 |
| Sunrise Snooze |
Passed the Savannah River
and had to turn on the radar to track all the shipping traffic. Many
of the ships were anchored waiting to enter Savannah, but at a
distance in the dark it is hard too tell what direction they are
moving in or not at all. We anchor in Charleston around 10 AM and all
get a couple hours of sleep. We all head out to dinner at the Hominy
Grill, a restaurant I walked pass back in November and thought looked
interesting. I can confirm it is. We are all very happy with our
dinners.
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| Fort Sumter (Originally twice as high, reduced to rubble in the Civil War) |
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| Charleston, SC, City of Churches |
The next day Manana heads
north in the ICW, Gertie spends another day in Charleston. This first
time traveling on the ICW since we got back to the USA. Once we get
past the notorious shoals behind the Isle of Palms in the ICW, east
of Charleston we really get moving. Coming south last fall about an
hour after low tide we bounced off the bottom, here, with a 4.8'
depth reading. This time going north about an hour off low tide
again, we saw no less than 5.3”, without a bounce. I seem to have
the bad timing of hitting all the problem areas on the ICW at low
tide. I send out a cocky email to some sailing friends in the area,
stating “high tide is for sissies!” Linda says “your just
lucky as hell”. A short while later, I'm complaining to her about
these crab pots in the middle of the channel when I looked up from my
iPad after sending out a couple emails. Then it dawns on me that
neither the crab pots or Manana is in the middle of the channel. We
are now going rather slow plowing through mud, with a depth reading
of 4.4 feet at half speed. I guess I need to look up more often and
I guess my wife is right.
Between the current in our
favor with the rising tide and the southeast wind with our head sail
out, we are cruising around 7 knots. The motor is on but at low RPM,
fuel saver mode. It is not legal to strictly sail in the ICW. Linda
is enjoying this area of the ICW. It's kind of like HGTV on the
water. “Hey, look at that porch we could do that.” “Hey look
at those windows, I like those”.
By afternoon we are into
South Carolina rice country, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge and
Francis Marion (The Swamp Fox) National Forest. We anchor for the
night at Minims Creek adjacent to a dike which has rice fields behind
it. There are a couple backhoes on the other side busily clearing
drainage ditches. We have the creek to ourselves and fortunately the
wind is still blowing hard keeping the bugs at bay. By evening we
have two more boats anchored with us.
The next day the tide is
against us for most the morning and wind dies late morning and we
furl the head sail, slowing our pace. We reach Osprey Marina late in
the afternoon for a two day visit with Linda's sister and to get some
chores done.
As we dock the boat Linda notices a Green Tree Frog
hiding behind one of the cushions. How the heck did it get there?
We have been at anchor since we left Cape Canaveral. We have not
been under or near any shore line trees. Did a bird drop him? Maybe
with all the Love Bugs on the boat, he leaped from the shore thinking
we were a BBB (Buoyant Bug Buffet) ? Anyways once we get tied up I
decide to release him in the woods. When I move the cushion I find
we have two stowaway tree frogs. Boy can they leap, it was hard
corralling them in a bucket and keeping them from leaping out.
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| Entering Osprey Marina. We hear they have "acquired" a pet alligator. |
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| Stowaways |
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| Batman |
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| and Robin |
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